Finally a GO7 success story, and ARII test bench build

local413

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Finally a GO7 success story, and ARII test bench build

Hey! Guess what? I'm not asking any questions, just telling a positive monitor repair story.

All started when a buddy offered me the guts from a centipede cocktail he bought off ebay. He parted it so he could make a multi for his kids, I know that sucks but at least I saved the rest.

13" go7 fbo with burn and it would fire up, then immediately shutdown. Pulled the chassis, nice and clean no work done to it. Wiggled a few caps and found one that had a leg blown off. Capped it and reflowed 90% of all solder pads. Swapped tubes with a tv donor I had ready.. Its brand new! Finally a go7 that didn't take me days to repair..

Also took the gut if the game and built myself a real ARII test rig. I've been using my games for years to test most of the ARs I rebuild. So this will save time and the hassle of pulling the game out each time.

Yay!
 
Hey Pete, if you've got any more of those 13" tubes please let me know. I've got a nice little G07 here that looks great but has considerable Pac burn.
 
Hey! Guess what? I'm not asking any questions, just telling a positive monitor repair story.

All started when a buddy offered me the guts from a centipede cocktail he bought off ebay. He parted it so he could make a multi for his kids, I know that sucks but at least I saved the rest.

13" go7 fbo with burn and it would fire up, then immediately shutdown. Pulled the chassis, nice and clean no work done to it. Wiggled a few caps and found one that had a leg blown off. Capped it and reflowed 90% of all solder pads. Swapped tubes with a tv donor I had ready.. Its brand new! Finally a go7 that didn't take me days to repair..

Also took the gut if the game and built myself a real ARII test rig. I've been using my games for years to test most of the ARs I rebuild. So this will save time and the hassle of pulling the game out each time.

Yay!

Nice but Pics dude Pics...
 
pete, i would like to hear more about the ARII test bench. seems like it would be tough to pull off a usable model with widespread applications due to all the various power brick/AR combos?
 
Yes, there are quite a few different ARs out there.. ARII-rev2 is a good middle ground one to have a test rig to work off.. As its the most popular one that I rebuild, its also the most populated AR (ARII-rev3 has a few extra parts for missile command but most MC work just fine with a rev2). So I can test ARII-rev1, rev2, rev3, rev4 with a decent amount of success.

I've also built an adapter for AR (asteroids and asteroids deluxe). ARII-rev1 can be used an in Asteroids Deluxe as they are identical except for the pcb is larger. Drop it on a band saw and cut off the excess.. Then you have an AR that will fit in an AD.. Also drill a couple mounting holes.

I'll post pics of my test rig soon. Its not totally set up yet, still need to finish mounting and run the harness a little better.. Looks like a big pile of wires at the moment :) This is my first rig, so laying it out as tight as possible is my main objective.. Would like to be able to move and store it without having to break it down each time.. As my workspace isn't massive.. Only have a couple benches to repair monitors, pcbs, whatnot.. Between this rig, my monitor testing rig, solder/desoldering station, and stacks of storage bins I'm really running out of usable space.. Plus my wife still needs to get to the laundry room next to my arcade :)

Trying to keep all of this out of the arcade, as the last thing I want is it to spill out into the fun room!

pete, i would like to hear more about the ARII test bench. seems like it would be tough to pull off a usable model with widespread applications due to all the various power brick/AR combos?
 
I've been thinking about this for some time, I wonder if the monitor gods could put together a list, maybe a sticky thread of listed materials, adaptors, transformers, extension cables.. The grand old list!

I'm actually searching and reading all threads on test stations, benches, all the combinations of search words.

It would be sick to have a workstation for monitor repair!
Plain and simple I'm a worker Bee, I don't have the funds to keep sending things off. While there's nobody around here to teach me, nobody's offered to get me under the wing, so I'm reading and reading and reading, and taking notes for last year or so... It's starting to come together abit. But I gotta get some hands on..

I've got a lot of sanyos to fix 3 of them infact that died, from working like a champ, to nothing. And I'm gathering special tools needed like monitor adjustment tools. Really want a EST meter..

It would be super cool, if there was some master list of the necessary things needed. A list to cross off.
 
I just don't wana shotgun things, the term they use.. I wana know, exactly the reason for failure and not just replace all that shit.. Caps I understand, they have a life expectancy. The Randy Fromm monitor repair videos have helped me a lot with understanding exactly what's going on inside the tube and chassis.
 
local413, I'm really interested to see your AR2 test setup. Is it just a harness that connects to a power brick on your bench, or something more exotic?
 
Yep, I've got a centipede harness that I mounted to a piece of plywood.. Has an Atari (pede) powerbrick, iso, inline fuse, on/off switch, speaker, coin meter, and I think that's it.. Can connect to any monitor I have kicking around.. This is a decent setup as it will test ARII-rev2 which is the bulk of most games.. Next is ARII-rev1 which is just half an Rev-2 or basicly an ARI for a asteroids deluxe.. If I wanna test an rev-3 I've got a Monte Carlo upright to toss it in..


There isn't much skill on building a basic test bench.. Just recreate a classic vid on your bench. Done.. Heh, well its easy if your just doing ARs.. Jamma rigs are the same, minus the power brick..

local413, I'm really interested to see your AR2 test setup. Is it just a harness that connects to a power brick on your bench, or something more exotic?
 
Yep, I've got a centipede harness that I mounted to a piece of plywood.. Has an Atari (pede) powerbrick, iso, inline fuse, on/off switch, speaker, coin meter, and I think that's it.. Can connect to any monitor I have kicking around.. This is a decent setup as it will test ARII-rev2 which is the bulk of most games.. Next is ARII-rev1 which is just half an Rev-2 or basicly an ARI for a asteroids deluxe.. If I wanna test an rev-3 I've got a Monte Carlo upright to toss it in..


There isn't much skill on building a basic test bench.. Just recreate a classic vid on your bench. Done.. Heh, well its easy if your just doing ARs.. Jamma rigs are the same, minus the power brick..

Cool, gotcha. I built a JAMMA rig and was in the process of building B&W and color vector rigs when a PAT 9000 dropped into my lap. So now I'm building adapter plugs instead.

I was asking because there's a PAT 9000 plug just for bench testing AR2s. I haven't made one yet, but my understanding is that it uses the timers in the console (for the trak-ball stuff) to output test tones on the AR2. Was wondering if you needed a game PCB or could hook up the AR2 only and poke at it. I'm always wary of risking a good PCB on an unknown AR2.
 
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