Dig Dug

antiquarius

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Adjusted the brightness and realized the monitor is getting power. I get a white screen with vertical lines slowly moving back and forth. No sound, no video. Ran the self tests but got nothing. Noticed an LED on the board thats not lit up. Any help?
 
That LED on the board is the +5v indicator. First check your voltages. There were 2 types of Dig Dug boards. Light green and dark green PCB's. Either way there should be test points on the boards (although my dark green board doesn't have the +5 test point). If you don't have the test point, you can check for it by the edge connector. Component side, Pins A or Z. Start there.
 
is it safe to assume that the board is likely not getting power? and if so, would this be why its basically not working>? How much would a new power supply be and how would i find out which type to get? it may be easier to just get a whole new one if the price is right. the one in it frankly looks like shit.
 
is it safe to assume that the board is likely not getting power? and if so, would this be why its basically not working>? How much would a new power supply be and how would i find out which type to get? it may be easier to just get a whole new one if the price is right. the one in it frankly looks like shit.

Can you post a pic of the power supply? One would think that with the LED out, there's a chance the board isn't getting power BUT those LEDs go bad also, or, they might be set up to do just an initial flash to show some type of self-check and then go out.

Do you know how to use a digital multi meter? If so, we can have you check a few components on the board to see if it's getting any juice at all. Did someone already ask if you have what's called "neck glow"? At the tube of the monitor, if it's getting power, you would see a little bit of an orange light lit up inside of the base of the tube. That would indicate some components of the game are actually getting power. I know you said you saw some kind of colored flash on the monitor at one point as well.
 
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Alright -
I do have the tube glow on the monitor. The monitor, after having turned up the brightness, is white with verticals lines going back and forth. The coin slots light up as well. I do have a voltmeter, but Im unsure of where to test. I took some pictures of the power supply, I'm going to try to put one up here, but im using a dial-up modem, so it may not happen. I can e-mail them if someone is willing to help...
 
Here are pics of what your machine should look like. *pic 1* First check the fuses. Lift them out the check for a short w/ your Digital MultiMeter (DMM). *pic 2* Dig dug uses A035435-01 Atari ARIIboard . Check for the +5v on the ARII board at points indicated in pic. *pics 3 & 4* Do you have the light green or dark green main board? Either way you can check the +5 on the edge connector. The outer pins are lable A and Z. Check it there. The power supply on these games are relatively easy to fix. I'm not sure if there is a power supply conversion kit.
 

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Alright -
I do have the tube glow on the monitor. The monitor, after having turned up the brightness, is white with verticals lines going back and forth. The coin slots light up as well. I do have a voltmeter, but Im unsure of where to test. I took some pictures of the power supply, I'm going to try to put one up here, but im using a dial-up modem, so it may not happen. I can e-mail them if someone is willing to help...

see if you can locate a capacitor on the main board, they usually look like a very small soda can with a lead on the 'top' and 'bottom. With the game on, set your volt meter for dc volts, and touch the red lead from the meter on one of the capacitor leads, and the black on the other. There will be no spark and you won't get zapped. We're just looking to see numbers appear on the meter so we can see if voltage is passing across the board or not. Let us know how you make out and what the numbers read. Welcome to game pcb troubleshooting!
 
alright, io checked the fuses and they where ok. put a new big blue in, that didnt do a damned thing. check the voltage on the arii, got a fluxation between .2 and .4, definately not .5v. check the a and z on the board and got about 4.2v. now what>? Im about to order a working arii and switch that out, in hopes the problem is in the regulator.
 
alright, io checked the fuses and they where ok. put a new big blue in, that didnt do a damned thing. check the voltage on the arii, got a fluxation between .2 and .4, definately not .5v. check the a and z on the board and got about 4.2v. now what>? Im about to order a working arii and switch that out, in hopes the problem is in the regulator.

I was going to recommend the new ARII if you could swing one. Definitely hang onto your old big blue, it's definitely good practice to swap that part out to help resolve issues, but if it didn't fix anything for you that you can see, it means IMO that the old one isn't ready to be thrown out just yet. You never know when you might need it to save another game!
 
I don't understand why you just don't fix what you have.

There's plenty of tutorials on the site on repairing them.
 
ide bet your unable to understand many things. for myself, electronics isnt my strong point. i have shakey hands due to a medical condition and am not confident enough to try soldering after several botched attempts in the past. one mroe thing im unable to understand - my need to respond to smart ass remarks.
 
I apologize, I made a mistake. +5 on the main pcb should be pins B and Y on the edge connector. But, you say your only getting 4.2 on the ARII board? That sounds too low. There is a small pot on the ARII. That is the voltage adjust. My Dig Dug runs about 4.99v. Check it on the + side of cap C1 (has wide trace from the cap to Q1) to ground and sense + to ground. Adjust the voltage accordingly.
 
Also, remember you can very easily check the voltage at any of the ROM chips on the board - pin 12 is ground and pin 24 is 5v.

-Ian
 
ide bet your unable to understand many things. for myself, electronics isnt my strong point. i have shakey hands due to a medical condition and am not confident enough to try soldering after several botched attempts in the past. one mroe thing im unable to understand - my need to respond to smart ass remarks.

Thanks for clearing that up, I understand now.
 
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