Dragon's Lair: Laserdisc not connecting to board...HELP!

propazoid

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Dragon's Lair: Laserdisc not connecting to board...HELP!

Hello,

I just picked up an original Dragon's Lair machine.
It powers up fine, but it will not take a credit.
It just plays the intro movie & then just keeping showing every level.
The person I bought it from said he had the previous owner set it up so you don't have to put quarters in. The score board reads "2 credits" at start up & that stays on.


I just had arcade repair man take a look with no luck. He checked everything out & said it all seems to be fine, but the disc player will not connect to the mother board. I feel like I am running out of ideas on how to get this fixed. If anyone has any info I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you,
Robb
 
Thanks but unfortunately that forum is not very active.
I did try & got very little help.

Anyone else?

Thanks,
Robb
 
I really wish I could, I just don't know too much about these machines.
What I have been told is something between the LD player and the boards is not communicating. Everything as far as I know is hooked up correct. But the controls do not function in anyway. All I am getting is a looping movie.

I checked the manual, & it tells you about how when the game boots up it will beep, then 15 seconds later you will get a second beep. My machine does that, but after that, nothing...

Thanks again for trying to help,
Robb
 
It sounds like the machine is coming up completely into attract mode. The '2 credits' you are seeing is the free play setting on the machine. You should check the wiring, especially the ground loop for continuity.
 
1) which laserdisc player are you running? make and model number?

2) do you have a controller card hooked up to the main PCB controlling the laserdisc player?
the controller card typically is a hi-tech card or sometimes it is the lasercon. hi-tech is for the sony players, and lasercon is for the pioneer players. make sure that they are both receiving power. hi-tech has gone through numerous generations, some have plugs which receive power from a molex type connection, some are hooked into adapters. i personally would have the power pulled from the rom board.

the lasercon card can receive power from the rom board as well. just solder a couple of wires. easy...

3) make sure that your laserdisc player is reading at 9600 baud
4) make sure that you have the rs232 control cable hooked up to the back of the laserdisc player and going to the control card.
5) make sure the jumpers on the hi-tech card match the dip switch settings on the main PCB regarding the players. for example the hi-tech card can read the ldv-1000 instructions, so it's important to match that to the dip switch settings on the board. i believe it's dip switch B-3.
6) if you are running a hi-tech card make sure your PCB is rev C. this card just does not seem to function correctly with rev A boards. you tell the difference by looking at the side of the PCB. Rev C is marked as such "Rev C". the lasercon will run on either Rev A or Rev C.

if you are running an original player, then the rules are a bit different, and in my opinion a bit easier - cuts out the control card from the equation. although the toss up is the fact that the newer players like sony and pioneer last longer.

basically the problem you are experiencing is the fact that the PCB is not seeing a laserdisc player to issue a "play" command to start the first sequence. this is done through the control interface. so try the above and write back to us. also make sure that the dip switch for engineering mode is turned off. use the DLP site to locate the dip switch settings.

also one more thing - which roms are you running? any idea? multirom perhaps?

good luck! :)
 
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1) which laserdisc player are you running? make and model number?

2) do you have a controller card hooked up to the main PCB controlling the laserdisc player?
the controller card typically is a hi-tech card or sometimes it is the lasercon. hi-tech is for the sony players, and lasercon is for the pioneer players. make sure that they are both receiving power. hi-tech has gone through numerous generations, some have plugs which receive power from a molex type connection, some are hooked into adapters. i personally would have the power pulled from the rom board.

the lasercon card can receive power from the rom board as well. just solder a couple of wires. easy...

3) make sure that your laserdisc player is reading at 9600 baud
4) make sure that you have the rs232 control cable hooked up to the back of the laserdisc player and going to the control card.
5) make sure the jumpers on the hi-tech card match the dip switch settings on the main PCB regarding the players. for example the hi-tech card can read the ldv-1000 instructions, so it's important to match that to the dip switch settings on the board. i believe it's dip switch B-3.
6) if you are running a hi-tech card make sure your PCB is rev C. this card just does not seem to function correctly with rev A boards. you tell the difference by looking at the side of the PCB. Rev C is marked as such "Rev C". the lasercon will run on either Rev A or Rev C.

if you are running an original player, then the rules are a bit different, and in my opinion a bit easier - cuts out the control card from the equation. although the toss up is the fact that the newer players like sony and pioneer last longer.

basically the problem you are experiencing is the fact that the PCB is not seeing a laserdisc player to issue a "play" command to start the first sequence. this is done through the control interface. so try the above and write back to us. also make sure that the dip switch for engineering mode is turned off. use the DLP site to locate the dip switch settings.

also one more thing - which roms are you running? any idea? multirom perhaps?

good luck! :)

Again I am sorry I wish I knew more of the techie side of these machine.
I took these photo, maybe they can help? If there is any particular photo you need let me know I will take it.

Thanks again for all the help!

dlguts.jpg


dlguts1.jpg


dlguts2.jpg


dlguts3.jpg


dlguts4.jpg
 
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Looks like it's got a sony player and a hitech converter card...

Without any known good hardware to test against, it makes debugging pretty tough. Offhand I'd check the baudrate settings on the LDP vs. the hitech first...

Does the LDP play if you unplug the serial cable and use the front control panel?
 
Yes the LD player plays fine, just keeps looping every scene.
That is what happens when you play the Dragon's Lair LD in any LD player.

-Robb
 
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Try this link...
http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/tech/dips/dl.asp
(dont follow the settings in the manual)

Reset the dip switches to accept the quarters again (not free play)...
I would start there.

If you're getting the attract mode and the beep 2x the problem probably isnt as serious as it seems...

double check the player buttons and Control Panel connection.
 
I have been on that site. But again, not knowing much about the inner workings on these machine I am lost. I honestly do not even know what the dip switches look like.
That is why I was hoping someone could walk me through this.

-Robb
 
first of all if you are as new to this stuff as you say you are. in picture 1 you are showing us the backside to the monitor, do not touch anything here, you can seriously shock yourself. also don't mess with the power supply attached to the wall of the cabinet (left side). it's the thing with the large blue capacitors. trust me dude. it hurts! :-(

go to picture 3 which you have posted and notice the two small banks of white colored switches encased in a light blue rectangle? those are the dip switches. just about every video game PCB has them (if not all). they are used to toggle settings. in today's world we generally use software to do such things, but we are talking golden age games here, so the tech is old school.

now here is what you do,

toggle the switches so that they represent the following and keep in mind that the first switch in each bank "A" and "B" start with "0" not with "1". I'm going to assume you are using the "F2" series of roms as they were the most popular prior to DLE.

BE SURE TO TURN OFF ALL POWER TO THE GAME BEFORE TOGGLING THE DIP SWITCHES!

here is what the config should look like per bank:
A0 on
A1 off
A2 on
A3 on
A4 on
A5 on (5 Dirks per credit, why not right?) :)
A6 on
A7 on

B0 on (attract mode always on - this is the best way in my opinion - LOVE the attract mode)
B1 on
B2 on
B3 on
B4 off
B5 on
B6 off
B7 off

these setting should help. once you get the hang of it you can switch them up to make the game play more challenging. Also, it is important that B3 dipswtich setting match what the hi-tech card is set to. The hi-tech card is the card which has the beige serial cable running out of that at the top and connects to the back of your laserdisc player. This is the control cable which issues commands to the laserdisc player. look very closely at the hi-tech card and you will notice 2 small posts which may or may not have a small piece of black plastic in between them. the black plastic is the jumper. now right below the posts the printed circuit board will say if the jumper is on it's set for PR-7820 or off it is set for the LDV-1000 (or vice versa, as I don't have a card in front of me). what this is referring to are the original players this game was designed to use. As in a previous post I mentioned that most guys have switched out the original players with a new player like the SONY 2000 model you have. this insured longevity of the system, but the side effect was that the PCB was not programmed to accept this player. the player is newer than the PCB tech is essentially what happened. so then game Joe Rovito creator of the hi-tech card you have to help you control the player. now that you have a history lesson, go back and take a look at that jumper and make sure it matches what the PCB is looking for which is either the LDV-1000 or the PR-7820 through the "B3" dipswitch. what you can do is if it does not work one way. POWER THE SYSTEM DOWN and toggle the "B3" dipswitch in the opposite direction and try again.

also pay attention to the hi-tech card as you power the system on. there should be three waves of diagnostic led lights which illuminate, and then one will blink twice at the end of the cycle. let us know if that is happening.

let us know the results of the above!
 
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let us know the results of the above!

Wow what a help!!!

First thing, as I was inspecting the hi-tech card I noticed that power connection was broken loose. THAT was the main problem. Now the game plays!!!

I changed the dip switch setting, but now I'm getting a new problem.

In ATTRACT mode, it's not doing what it should. The game just stays frozen on the "INSERT COIN" screen. It then tries to make the opening "harp noise" as if it will play the intro, but it just stops really fast &
The screen starts to change for a split second but then stays on the coin screen.

Also with A5 on (5 dirks) I still only get 3.

Any ideas?

Thanks so much again for taking the time out to help me on this.

-Robb
 
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I don't know enough about the laser disk games for the attract mode problem but the dip switch could be sticking internally. Try cycling it a few times.
 
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