F355 Challenge Deluxe Questions

SinisterMist

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Howdy all, after over a decade out of having a non-pinball arcade I picked up a beast. Right now I have the rear half of the machine torn down to just the deck so I can squeeze it through my 32 inch sliding door.

After a little playing, running through the test menus, and taking it apart there is still some stuff I am unsure of.

The biggest is the 6 speed. The test menu mentions a shifter lockout. I am guessing this is to prevent you from shifting without pressing the clutch? It does nothing in test. When I pulled the shifter assembly out I saw two cut yellow wires, but not what they should connect to. I do see a keyed rod sticking out of the side of the shifter, but there is nothing connected to it either. Am I missing the lockout or does it exist at all?

Two of the monitors are macvision 26 inch lcds and work great. 1 is an original 29 inch crt. I have verified the naomi that drives it works by swapping it onto an lcd. I measured 50 volts at the fuse on the monitor. My buddy is thinking it is a cap issue? Would love to get the monitor running for now and eventually swap to an lcd.

The shifter paddles are loose as all get out. I am thinking the mechanism is worn out. It functions but they knock about when you steer.

Game has a cover over the seat. It looks to have been made for it, but all the ones I have seen the seat is plastic with a pad?

Lastly is there anywhere worth checking for parts? The exterior is in pretty good shape. The only thing that sucks is there is a clear plastic cover over the fluorescent bulb on the top. It flew off on the highway. Can make my own, but prefer to find an original. Also would like to track down the challenge 2 rom board and maybe a vmu reader.
 
Not that anyone seems to care, but for anyone digging in the future.

The lack of shifter lockout is indeed a missing part. 601-10806 BRAKE BXH-08 FRI

It appears to be a common part made still by a company in the us, but they come in three different voltages and I do not know which the game needs.

Right now having fun with board issues. Got the game back together enough to start testing.

First the game stopped at Looking for Master.

I opened up the board stack and reseated the top left naomi, link, and rom boards. This got the game running for about 30 minutes. Turned it off for a bit, came back, and when I rebooted only the left monitor powered on. Right when the game should have started after loading it through a Wrong Cabinet Type! error.

Disassembled the entire board stack and swapped boards around. Back to my original message of Looking for Master. I pulled the board off the top left and left it out. Moved the top right board over. Game booted as a single sit down. Put the missing board into the top right position to complete the stack, still boots as a single sit down. When I switch it to run as a Deluxe it throws an error. My only guess now is that there is something wrong with that board?
 
be certain to check power on all the NAOMI boards. I outline how to do this in the PSU guide in my signature. NAOMI hardware doesn't like the +5 above 5.10V or else it starts to burn out parts, and the +3.3 should be within 3.30-3.35 (if you wish to account for voltage loss; I've done 3.30 flat with no problems over the years).

symptoms you'll encounter when the damage is done are intermittent rom errors in test mode or the game can lock up.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. My buddy had an upright naomi in storage and let me take the system out of that. I pulled the board out of my machine that I cleaned. Works fine and has no issues now. Still need to transfer all the black posts from the old board to the new board.

Still numerous things to fix. The steering refuses to stay center even after setting it in the test menu. It is always a little off. There is a large deadspot for the force feedback in the middle of the steering range. The brake pedal feels soft.The sub is non-existent, if I turn the volume down on the normal speakers I can tell its on, but you cannot feel it in the game.

That is just the current list of needs, let alone the missing screen and various other parts I know I need to buy. Very expensive machine to get right.
 
The steering and force feedback issues are probably related. I would start with replacing the pot and checking that the gearing at the back of the wheel are meshing properly. Also check that the pot is the correct type, and the mount isn't moving.

I believe there's a spring on the brake pedal that might be loose if it feels soft, but that assembly gets all sorts of trash in it from use. Prolly best to disassemble and give it a good cleaning.
 
So Game Bd is running OK again? Usually everything you mentioned has to do with settings issues. Not sure if you called me on this already. I talked to somebody with an F355 Dx in last couple days. Let me know if you need assistance with electronics. I'm no help with cab parts but I can help with electronics. Note new replacement parts for these are pretty much non existent at this late date.
 
Yes irepairsega that was me who emailed you. I did that before my buddy offered up his board. The settings were indeed right but the bad board was causing the stack to cause all sorts of issues. What I learned is that as long as the master board and roms are good and there is communication to at least 1 of the other 3 slave boards the system will boot. It looks like if one of 3 slaves fails to boot then the game defaults to playing as a single sitdown. What is interesting is that the output board was not always the same. I saw display come out of the left and right slave boards by cycling the power.

The pedals were torn apart. I was amazed they worked as they were packed full of dirt, hair, and random debris. I oiled everything up, but think the spring for the break is in need of replacing. For now I am going to set this aside and put it on the to do list. The same will go for the steering, I plan on replacing the pots for the steering and ffb. The immediate need is to acquire an lcd for the missing monitor and a bezel. Then the game will be played as is so I can focus on putting pinball magic back together. I have a few pins I want to shop so I can sell off a few to make space.
 
I know this is an old thread, but I would love to see pics of your LCD installs if you have them.
 
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