Guerrilla War Rotary Stick Problem

ArcadEd

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I have a guerilla war board and I can't get the rotary sticks to work. I have a total of 4 sticks and 2 harnesses and no combination will work.. I have tried both 1p and 2p as well.

I bought the sticks working so I am pretty sure they work, so my guess is something is wrong with the board, but I just don't know where to start. I look at the dip switches and the manual to make sure there wasn't a non rotary option.

Game plays fine otherwise. I can move and shoot, just can't spin.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
Are they the right sort of rotary for that board, there are two types, optical and non optical.

GW needs non optical, like LS30 sticks. If you have the right sort then reverse the rotary's ribbon cable at then pcb. If that is on the wrong way it won't work, it causes no damage but you get no rotate function. Also check you haven't got the P2 ribbon plugged into the P1 input, otherwise the rotary function for P1 will be on the P2 stick and vv.
 
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I will try flopping the cable around.

The sticks I have came out of Time Soldiers, is that optical or non optical?

Thanks.
 
They are the correct type - non optical!

My bet is you have the cable reversed at the PCB.
 
Well I tried the cable the other way ans still nothing. I have a time soldiers PCB coming in as well so I can test on that to make sure the sticks/harnesses are working ok.
 
Did more testing and it's actually only the 1p side that isn't working. The 2p side is fine.

When the game launches I noticed that 2p starts with his gun pointing to 12 o'clock. 1p starts at 1 o'clock.

I checked for shorted/bad traces and didn't see anything.
 
Are all joysticks SNK LS-30's? I read that the Guerrilla War boards in particular had problems with other rotary sticks like data east's or happ's. I'm assuming you've tried every combo though.

Other than checking for bent pins on either the PCB or joystick connectors, it might well be a PCB problem. I'm also assuming you've swapped 1p & 2p harnesses as well to confirm it's always player one with the issue.
 
Yeah, I have tried every combination between the 4 sticks and 2 harnesses I have. Everything working on player 2, nothing on player 1.

Thanks.
 
That what I figure. Any advice on where to start? I looked really close at all the traces around the joystick connectors. Nothing jumps out.

I can a pic of the board tonight.
 
Any advice on where to start?

I don't think I've ever seen schematics for GW.

The rotary thing is just a 12-way switch. One of the 12 switches is always closed, and which one changes as you rotate.

I suppose I'd start by making sure I've got +5VDC at each of the pins except GND (I think pin 1 is GND and 2-13 are the switches).

If that's good, try to trace the path on the PCB from the header. They probably go through a resistor/capacitor network and then into a buffer IC, perhaps an LS244 or LS245.
 
Ok, voltage looks good on all the pins that harness connects too. Identical to the working 2p pins.

The ICs they go through are MB7134. I have a logic probe if you can guide me as to what should read what. I did probe and compare each pin from the IC for player 1 and 2 and they all matched up.

Thanks

Ed
 
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Sound like PROMs which is bad news. Are there two of them and are they socketed? Do they have stickers/labels on them?

If there are two the same then swap them over and see if P1 now works but P2 doesnt, but only do this if you are sure they are same chip type.
 
You may be in luck... it seems that the prom has been dumped, and is in the MAME romset as "ls.bin":

5654 ROM_REGION( 0x2400, "proms", 0 )
5655 ROM_LOAD( "guprom.3", 0x0000, 0x0400, CRC(090236a3) SHA1(40d066e34291492c6baf8c120657e3d547274b59) ) /* red */
5656 ROM_LOAD( "guprom.2", 0x0400, 0x0400, CRC(9147de69) SHA1(e4b3b546e429c195e82f97322e2a295882e38a58) ) /* green */
5657 ROM_LOAD( "guprom.1", 0x0800, 0x0400, CRC(7f9c839e) SHA1(2fa60fa335f76891d961c9bd0066fa7f82f76779) ) /* blue */
5658 ROM_LOAD( "btj_h.prm", 0x0c00, 0x0400, CRC(c20b197b) SHA1(504cb28d652029fe87a5411d6239e78d93c83e91) ) /* h-decode */
5659 ROM_LOAD( "btj_v.prm", 0x1000, 0x0400, CRC(5d0c617f) SHA1(845e52173c33500227cabe1e21b34919d2856215) ) /* v-decode */
5660 ROM_LOAD( "ls.bin", 0x1400, 0x1000, CRC(73df921d) SHA1(c0f765da3e0e80d104b0baaa7a83bdcc399254b3) ) /* ls-joystick encoder */


Just need to find someone to program the PROM for you....

...or the PROM could be fine, and the problem downstream...
 
Can try the swap first.

I have a programmer so I could program the chip unless it takes a special programmer to do so.

I will do Wombles idea first and move from there. Thanks guys.
 
The MAME source and driver comments aren't very clear on the topic of the qty of the "LS-decoding" PROM; nor does it imply there's more than one. Don't just swap it with any PROM with the same number of legs. There would seem to be at least 5 other different PROMs on the board. I'd make sure it is IDENTICALLY marked (i.e. sticky label) before swapping.

Far from all EPROM programmers will do PROMs. Check you unit's device compatibility list.
 
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