Hydro Thunder - No steering or throttle

Shaybe

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I recently purchased a Hydro Thunder cheap, but I am having the exact same problem as the user in this thread.

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=77175

The game was missing the throttle mechanism, so I purchased one from a working machine from eBay. The boat always pulled hard right no matter what. After going into the menu and clearing the data the boat does nothing. In the calibration menu I get no response from the throttle or steering wheel.

Anyone have any ideas on this? I've searched around the internet for over a week and have found similar issues, but never any confirmed solutions
 
I would verify, by grounding the steering wires and seeing if the steering will work when properly grounded
maybe your ground wire is broken and no way for the computer to "see" any movement in the steering
maybe you can detect a broken wire there in the steering harness wires good luck
 
You "could" have a issue with your Diego board. They do fail, and when they do all sorts of random things can happen.

If you had a parts machine or extra parts to swap it would be easier to test.
 
You "could" have a issue with your Diego board. They do fail, and when they do all sorts of random things can happen.

If you had a parts machine or extra parts to swap it would be easier to test.

I am trying hard to find someone around Norfolk, VA who has a Hydro Thunder. I found someone an hour away that said he would let me put my boards into his, then he never responded to me after that 😔

I've tested the pots and the cables going from them to the Diego Board and everything looks good.

Does anyone know what kind of data goes between the ribbon cable from the Diego Board to the wheel driver Board? The manual is really not much help at all!
 
there's a surface mount input chip that dies. U1 I think. it's been 800 years and 400 games since I did that repair.
 
there's a surface mount input chip that dies. U1 I think. it's been 800 years and 400 games since I did that repair.

Thank you for the response, I was looking at this since it is the only socketed chip in either board. I reseated and cleaned it. The problem is having no way to test to see if it's bad, and the manual doesn't tell me what it does. I don't know how much a new chip costs, but I really don't want to spend money on something that doesn't actually need replaced.

**EDIT** I just reread that and realized you said surface mount chip. I wish I had a way to test chips (or the skill), but unfortunately I don't
 
Last edited:
Fixed!

It's been a long time, but I thought I would share in case someone else has the same issue someday. On a suggestion from an arcade Technician I replaces Q2 on the Diego board, but unfortunately it did not fix the issue. Luckily I came across a working diego board on eBay for a very decent price, and finally I have steering and throttle!
Now it looks like I may have to replace the wheel pot, because it's a little jumpy and won't go more than 1/2 way to the right.... but I'll take this issue over no controls!
 
Did you recalibrate after the new board?

I did! Thanks for checking though. I did a factory restore and then calibrated steering and throttle. I'm going to try and open it up and see if I can adjust things. If not then I'll look into a new pot
 
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