Got my Granny and the Gators working, sort of...

dyno

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Picked up my Granny and the gators today and it wasn't working. The LED's on the mpu and vidiot deluxe would just stay on, the mpu needs a a bit of work so I took the mpu from my baby pac and put the granny roms on and now I get the 6 flashes. The vidiot deluxe only flashed 3 times so I did some reading and swapped some IC's from my spare vidiot board for my baby pac and now I get the 14 flashes on the Vidiot deluxe:) the game is mostly working, it coins up, the playfield works, the sounds work but there is no picture on the screen. It is not the monitor because it works, I am only getting colors on the picture screen but no graphics, I tried to adjust the sync but it does nothing. I can hear the game playing in the back ground.
 
Check your dipswitches. I think there is one that will only activate the playfield (turning off video) for testing purposes.
 
Congrats Dyno, i know you were looking for this game for a long time. Glad you finally found one, let's see some pictures.
 
Thanks Braido:) It has been a while how are you doing? I finally came across one at a decent price so I jumped at it since I wasn't sure if I would come across one again and I just sold my Tron so I am basically swapping one for the other:) The game is in decent shape, needs some TLC but that is okay with me just trying to find replacement artwork for it might be a challenege. I also managed to pick up an extra playfield for $50 from a klov memeber, it is missing some parts but I figured it can't hurt to have an extra playfield handy for parts. I will try to take some pics today then I will post. As for the dip switch settings I can't find anything in the manual regarding one for playfield testing that so if anyone has knows please let me know. Since the Vidiot deluxe is flasing 14 times can I assume that all the IC's are in working order or could it be one of the TMS9928A ic's not sending the proper info to the monitor? I havea few extra from my baby pac so I have tried to swap them but same result, no graphics on the screen but I can hear the game playing.
Could the monitor need to be recapped? I will recap it regardless if that is the problem, I always recap a monitor when I get it.
 
Here are a few pictures of what is coming up on the screen, tired sync adjustment with no luck but I can hear the game playing in the background.
 

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acejedi has this game and I believe he is very knowledgeable at trouble shooting these.

he doesn't post on here any more I don't think.

shoot him a pm
he's a great guy
 
Looks like I figured out the problem, I was adjusting the horizontal on the monitor and was able to get the picture show the only problem is that I can't get the horizontal to lock so the screen keeps rolling on me now.
 
Problem fixed, I connected my Granny to my baby pac monitor and there was no rolling so which elimanted the vidiot deluxe as the problem and pointed to the monitor. I recapped the monitor and changed the horizontal hold pot and bingo I now have a working Granny and the Gators.:) I am using my baby pac mpu in it right now so my next project is to fix the battery acid damage to the mpu board that came with granny. I will try to get some pics up tomorrow Braido:)
 
Problem fixed, I connected my Granny to my baby pac monitor and there was no rolling so which elimanted the vidiot deluxe as the problem and pointed to the monitor. I recapped the monitor and changed the horizontal hold pot and bingo I now have a working Granny and the Gators.:) I am using my baby pac mpu in it right now so my next project is to fix the battery acid damage to the mpu board that came with granny. I will try to get some pics up tomorrow Braido:)

I look forward to seeing it and you baby PAC, I played baby PAC bitd at Scandia, fun game. The gators one looks very cool. Congrats getting it going.
 
Hey Braido here are some pics. The cabinet is in decent shape, it does have a bit of water damage but nothing to bad. If there was side art available for it I would strip the entire cabinet, bondo it and repaint but until there is some repo art work out there I don't want to mess with it. Also the backglass has some lifting but no flaking, you can't tell it has lifting if the game is on when the marquee light is on. The CPO could be replaced but since I don't know of anyone who is doing a repo CPO for granny I am going to leave it, but thisoldgame did say if i had the artfile for the cpo they could make me one. Also one of the paddle buttons is missing the picture inside so I am going to see if I can scan the paddle picture from the other button and then print it out on some green paper material, not sure if that will work though. Overall the cabinet was very very dirty, I think the previous owner just had it sitting in the basment for sometime . I just started cleaning it today, I wiped the CPO down with a wet microfiber cloth and I couldn't believe how clean it came, also the playfield plastics had a film on dirt on them also and as for the playfield very dirty but I haven't had a chance to clean it yet but I will polish it up with novus 2 and I have already ordered new playfield rubbers. I am glad that I was able to get a second playfield for parts, always handy to have especially since parts for this game are hard to come by. If you ever happen to see any parts for it for sale please let me know, I would eventually like to replace the backglass and the CPO for sure. Compared to my baby pac the Babypac is in better condition cabinet wise but I ma not going to complain, I am just happy to have a working Granny since I hear most people have issues with theirs not working.
 

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One more picture and a pic of Baby Pac. I also want to say thanks to Ripweade for sending me a copy of the Theory of operation for the vidiot deluxe, that was a huge help getting Granny up and running:)
 

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Very cool arcade buddy, different, i like it! That Granny looks to be in good shape in the pictures. Put up a video if you can i don't see a joystick how do you play it once on the screen? Congrats again, glad you finally found one. Thanks for sharing
 
Hey Braido, I will try to get a video up if I can figure out how to do it. As for game play once on screen, there are 5 buttons on the control panel that you use for play. The 2 large buttons on the left and right are used to paddle granny down the stream in her boat, you just tap the buttons which make her paddle, then the 2 small green buttons are fire buttons you use when you have ammo to shot the gators in the water or the natives on shore throwing spears at you and finally the middle button is the power paddle button which I haven't used yet which makes you paddle real fast I believe. It takes a bit of practice getting the paddling down, so you don't just go in circles.
 
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