feedback needed re: OMEGA RACE

vintagegamer

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As you may or may not have seen here, I picked up my Omega Race just before Xmas- When I got it the boards were missing but everything else was in tact. I powered it up shortly after getting it and noticed the marquee was lit (lower), and there was a red LED lit on the monitor chassis. There is no neck glow however. After talking to some folks here, I learned that my upper marquee wasn't lighting because there was either a fuse out or something wrong with the linear PS.. I swapped out the PS with one I had (the main slow blo fuse on it was blown and replacing it resulted in the same, thus the swap), and upon swapping out the PS the upper marquee would come on, so I'd made progress.. I also noticed that the transformer brick read "Omega Race C.T.", for cocktail, even though this is an UR model. I didn't think much about that at the time..

I recently acquired a main and daughter board for the game, and decided tonight I would hook them up to see what kind of shape they were in. The main board is missing ROMs, but has an LED on it so I thought I'd just check to make sure it was getting power. I sorted out all of the wiring (dusty as hell btw), and powered her on. I was happy to look down in the back and see the LED was lit on the main board. I looked around at some things, and upon looking back down at the board again the LED was out. I powered it down and checked all connections, all looked good. Powered up the game again, no red LED this time.. I started looking around, and after checking the fuse on the linear PS, it was out again. I swapped the fuse, powered up the game again, and the red LED on the main board was on again- I started checking around some more and looked back down and the red LED was starting to fade AGAIN.. I was like WTF and then noticed the fuse on the linear PS was GLOWING!!!! I immediately shut everything down. I sat there trying to figure out what was making the fuse on the linear PS go like that so fast, and deducted it has to be something about the transformer brick.. And then it hit me: the one in there is for a cocktail, but also, there are NO GROUND STRAPS ON IT ANYWHERE!! Could that be my issue? I have extras I can use, I just need to know where to attach them to.

Would like to hear what everyone might have to say on this one. Either way, I made more progress on Omega Race tonight too (along with Asteroids, but that's another story.....)

VG
 
The power supply in my upright (sold) had CT on the label, so I don't think that should matter. What pictures I have available of the game are on my website. If any of the pictures will help you, let me know and I should be able to find the original resolution images and can send them to you.

http://home.comcast.net/~dark.paladin/omega
 
Paladin I think yours and mine were built the same day, as they are virtually identical! Right down to the fact that neither had ground straps in it.

I have a transformer brick from my KICK machine, but it's missing one of the parts (don't know if I still have it in the garage or not). I wonder if swapping that out in place of the current one would help me troubleshoot the linear PS fuse-blowing issue. The odd part is, I have 2 linear PS's for this game, and they are both doing the same thing. That's why I can't help but wonder if it's the power brick in the bottom.

Any other ideas anyone?
 
I wouldn't expect the transformer to cause fuses to blow on the linear power board. IIRC, my upright also has CT on it (though I can't get to it ATM to check). Which fuse is it that's blowing? Have you tried unplugging everything, then plugging one thing at a time to see what causes it?

DogP
 
When I didn't have any boards connected to it, it wasn't blowing. It's the 3/8 amp fuse on the linear PS, the only one on it.
 
I just looked at the schematics... it looks like it's for the +5V to the game board... so if two power boards do the same thing, and it doesn't do that when there's no game PCB attached, I'd say there's a problem with your game PCB.

DogP
 
I just looked at the schematics... it looks like it's for the +5V to the game board... so if two power boards do the same thing, and it doesn't do that when there's no game PCB attached, I'd say there's a problem with your game PCB.

DogP

I guess what's confusing me is, the voltage is flowing out FROM the linear PS TO the PCB, right? So if the juice is going in that direction, what would cause the fuse on the linear PS to heat up? A blockage of allowing the voltage to get to the PCB? Or am I thinking about the whole equation like some naive amateur (which I am)?
 
I'd guess that something on the PCB is drawing too much current, which causes the fuse to blow (the fuse is meant to blow to prevent too much current from being drawn). Just like a house fuse/circuit breaker blows if you draw too much current from an outlet.

I assume you don't have another PCB (even a dead one), and the one you have isn't supposed to be working, right? How's the acid damage? I'd look closely for shorts, and maybe check the resistance between +5V and GND... if it's low, there's probably something shorted (could be a component internally shorted/low resistance though).

DogP
 
I'd guess that something on the PCB is drawing too much current, which causes the fuse to blow (the fuse is meant to blow to prevent too much current from being drawn). Just like a house fuse/circuit breaker blows if you draw too much current from an outlet.

I assume you don't have another PCB (even a dead one), and the one you have isn't supposed to be working, right? How's the acid damage? I'd look closely for shorts, and maybe check the resistance between +5V and GND... if it's low, there's probably something shorted (could be a component internally shorted/low resistance though).

DogP

Yeah it was actually luck that I scored the board that I have for it now. I have no others. This was my first time hooking it up so I'll have to get it checked.

As for the acid damage, the batt was removed, and a jumper is installed on the board. I can get pics for all to see.
 
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