Cinematronics troubleshooting

bjk7382

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I just picked up 2 Solar Quest cabinets. Complete, but non-working. I was pretty confident I could get them going, but these are my first cinematronics games and now I am wondering if I have bitten off more than I can chew. They seem like a very simple setup, but it also seems like any problems on the ccpu board will be tough to track down.

From what I can tell from the manual I have a problem with the ccpu boards. The led light just stays on all the time, and it is supposed to come on, go out and stay out. I cleaned all the pins on the socketed chips, and I get 5.14 on all the chips. Also I have swapped socketed chips between the 2 boardets I have with no change (no sound, no video, no coinup, just the steady red led) Also it doesn't look like anyone carries parts specific to these games, bob has a few individual components, but not anything like a power supply rebuild kit, replacement ribbon cables, ect.

Where do I start on this. There doesn't seem to be much info out there aside from the manual which is very in depth and a little over my head. Is it possible to fix this with just a logic probe and the manual.

On another note is Cinelabs still repairing boards? I sent an email and am awaiting a reply, but the site hasen't been updated in years.
 
Yes, wysiwyg2 is a Cinematronics super-guru. Unfortunately, I don't think he works on Solar Quest boards due to their additional sets of potential problems.

Worth a pm to double-check though. If he does not do Solar Quest, the Cinelabs is your only other known legitimate choice.

Is it possible to fix this with just a logic probe and the manual?

As far I can tell, no. Check out wysiwyg2 's site (biltronix.com) for some parts lists and the CinExor board. I think the Cinematronics boards are about the most difficult to repair in the pre-1990s games. Their documentation is pretty good but they do require some advanced electronics knowledge, tools, and a good deal of time.
 
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Two Solar Quests? Cool!

A steady red light means the watchdog is constantly resetting and the code to reset the watchdog isn't being run. Unless the roms were bad on both boards its probably in need of repair.

I've got a few Cine boards to repair myself and will be looking into the CineExor from biltronix.com. From what I've read, a logic probe will not get you very far.

I'm 99% sure the main board is the same for Armor Attack & Solar Quest (4x 2732s), so you could drop the roms in a Armor Attack board and be good to go. Once I'm up and running I might be looking for bad boards to repair, so save them in any case.

BTW: I'm programming daily on my Cinematronics Test Rom and it's getting very close to being done. It tests the sounds, controls, dip switches and ram for all the Cinematronics / Vectorbeam games...
 
Two Solar Quests? Cool!
.....
BTW: I'm programming daily on my Cinematronics Test Rom and it's getting very close to being done. It tests the sounds, controls, dip switches and ram for all the Cinematronics / Vectorbeam games...

Ooooo....this sounds awesome! Let me know if you need a beta tester...
 
Two Solar Quests? Cool!
Yeah, I was pretty excited to find them for 50 bucks a piece. A little rust and mold, but that cleaned up easier than I thought, and the laminate on most of the wood really helped out.
A steady red light means the watchdog is constantly resetting and the code to reset the watchdog isn't being run. Unless the roms were bad on both boards its probably in need of repair.

I've got a few Cine boards to repair myself and will be looking into the CineExor from biltronix.com. From what I've read, a logic probe will not get you very far.
That is good info on the led. So is there a list of chips that fail most often that I can shotgun repair. The ones the manual states will fail most often (74ls259, 74ls32) don't have too many on the board. If there were certain sections of chips on the board that cause my condition then those could be replaced first. They aren't very expensive per chip, it's just the time to desolder, and add sockets
I'm 99% sure the main board is the same for Armor Attack & Solar Quest (4x 2732s), so you could drop the roms in a Armor Attack board and be good to go. Once I'm up and running I might be looking for bad boards to repair, so save them in any case.
I will keep my eye out for an armor attack board also (SQ is 4x 2732), and of course if you ever start repairing boards that would really help me out. I don't plan on throwing them away or anything like that.
BTW: I'm programming daily on my Cinematronics Test Rom and it's getting very close to being done. It tests the sounds, controls, dip switches and ram for all the Cinematronics / Vectorbeam games...[
Sounds like you are pretty into these games if you are programing test roms for them. I tried learning how to program the atari 2600 before and could barley get a picture up on the screen, let alone a kernel that would do anything.

Oldskool, johnvv, I will give wysiwyg2 a pm and see if he can help me out. His site is quite amazing and even if I did have that cinexor and a signature analyser I wouldn't know what to do with it or what to look for. These things look pretty tough to troubleshoot.
 
I just wanted to say thanks to those who posted nice comments about me and my website. If anyone is interested in getting their own CinExor board, I only have two left and unless I get a flood of requests (hardly likely!), then I probably will not produce any more.
http://www.biltronix.com/cinexor.html

Also, I made a fairly long Cine parts list here, not everything, but a lot...
http://www.biltronix.com/arcade_electcomp_01.html#Star_Castle

I do usually avoid repairing Solar Quest because I don't have the required multi-intensity monitor, but I can swap Armor Attack eproms into the SQ board and also move the video mode jumper. Once repaired and tested as an AA, I could verify the SQ eproms and put them back in and also reset the vid jumper. I expect that would take care of it (99.99%), but of course I can't be 100%.

I am also willing to repair Cine boards such as Armor Attack, Star Castle, Rip Off and the audio boards for those also. If anyone has CCPU that supports 2716 eprom games and wants to change it to a 2732 game (ie: Rip Off or Star Castle to Armor Attack), I can install the modification for you. I can also remove the mod to put a 2732 board back to 2716 if that's what you need. However, I can't provide you a sound board for the game that you are converting to. You'd have to locate one yourself.

Someone asked about Cinelabs, and I can definitely confirm that Mark is still accepting boards to repair. He's just busy all the time so sometimes it takes a while for him to respond to his email. He's certainly still there and happy to get the work.
 
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