Joust Considerations...

hssreddragon

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So, Joust up and quit finally this week on me...a week or so ago it started to experience some lockups after generating some RAM Error 31 (I believe that was the error #). This week it just boots up to a white/gray screen.

My dilemma at this point is how to proceed to fix it. I've been wanting to do a Multi Williams cab with the machine but most of the kits are unavailable or unattainable at this point. Have never owned an ArcadeSD board so I'm not sure how that would suffice or even if it would at all as a replacement.

Could use some advice for anyone that has dealt with this decision before. I wanted to get to the Multi Williams if possible and get away from the onboard batteries the current Joust boardset uses. Am I better trying to troubleshoot the current board(s) and forgetting the Multi-Williams?
 
I have not yet. Still need to pull the cab out of it's row so I can get into the access doors and start really digging in to it. Just wanted to make sure that I knew what I needed to be planning for before I start tearing things apart in the middle of the floor. Williams boards are a bit intimidating for me since I'm still pretty new to scene in terms of repair work. I will start with that though and see what it's reading. Thanks!
 
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pulling out the shotgun and shooting from the hip would be like stated above to make sure the power supply is sold and possibly rebuild if not.
4164 ram conversion is a cheap thing.

if you want to do multi-williams the best route is a JROK. plus you can boot a JROK right into Joust and never see any menus. wldfire (Ken) makes a plug n play harness to fit your existing setup with no alterations needed. seems like the last message I saw from JROK was that he was testing another small run of boards?
 
pulling out the shotgun and shooting from the hip would be like stated above to make sure the power supply is sold and possibly rebuild if not.
4164 ram conversion is a cheap thing.

if you want to do multi-williams the best route is a JROK. plus you can boot a JROK right into Joust and never see any menus. wldfire (Ken) makes a plug n play harness to fit your existing setup with no alterations needed. seems like the last message I saw from JROK was that he was testing another small run of boards?

Yea I was considering a JROK but I wasn't sure if it was going to happen. Hadn't caught the update that you mentioned. I saw something from last year but that's about it. Would love to put one in and especially if there is a harness adapter to fit into the stock cab!

As for the shotgun, I was debating whether it should be pointed at the cab or myself after seeing how many seperate boards these things have! :)
 
Seems like you might be getting ahead of yourself. First thing I would do is check the connections and ribbon cables. Reseat all connections and chips and turn the game on and see if it works.
 
Hence the reason I came here to determine the course of action based off the collected experience in these forums! Thanks Jon! The only one I felt comfortable reseating through the coin door was the IDE-like ribbon cable in the back. I'll touch on the others once I get those doors off. The reseating trick has worked on more than one occasion for my Battlezone.


Seems like you might be getting ahead of yourself. First thing I would do is check the connections and ribbon cables. Reseat all connections and chips and turn the game on and see if it works.
 
yah, i guess jon's statement is a good reminder.
when i first got a grubby joust I had to lightly sand all the connector pins, plus there were a bunch of pins where the solder had pulled away from the pin at the underneath of the boards, so i had to touch them up with soldering iron. that helped a lot.

but voltage instability is a number one issue with williams and all those boards and connectors, so you can never go wrong with a rebuilt power supply. praise DOKERTand Yellowdog.....
--measure for 5 volts directly at the pins on the ram chips.

and if you are going to stick with real boards, you might as well get used to reading the schematics. :)
http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Arcade_Williams/
http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/manualsrobotron.html
 
I highly recommend replacing not only the IDC power related connectors with crimp pins and molex housings, but the male headers on the PCBs that correspond with the better square pin type. On my Stargate, I got intermittent errors until I replaced the ROM ribbon cable. Bob R sells the replacement. If the power supply hasn't been rebuilt, it probably needs it as well. You can't exactly bulletproof them, but there are a lot of steps you can take. The old connectors just aren't reliable after 30yrs.
 
I just went to my cousins house Sunday and looked at his Joust that was giving a 1-3-1 error. No 12v LED on the power supply. Dokert rebuilt the supply for me last night so now I just need to go back, plug it in and hope that's all that was wrong with it.

Long story short, do you have all 3 LED's on your power supply?
 
I just went to my cousins house Sunday and looked at his Joust that was giving a 1-3-1 error. No 12v LED on the power supply. Dokert rebuilt the supply for me last night so now I just need to go back, plug it in and hope that's all that was wrong with it.

Long story short, do you have all 3 LED's on your power supply?

1-3-1 is checking and not finding +5
 
I personally would throw a JROK in there and be done with it....guess it depends on how much you enjoy messing with the finicky connectors and boards.....My robo sat unused and unloved until I finally put a jrok in there to replace the boards...
 
I personally would throw a JROK in there and be done with it....guess it depends on how much you enjoy messing with the finicky connectors and boards.....My robo sat unused and unloved until I finally put a jrok in there to replace the boards...

Ultimately if I can ever find one this would be the final solution. I already have some of the Multi-Williams artwork. For now though the finicky connectors and boards are all I have. I would still like to get them functional before they are shelved in case they are needed again later though. Going through it at least once will be a learning experience for the future too.
 
Jrok

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02-16-2013, 09:42 PM

jrok
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Diego, California
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FYI!! This was just posted a week ago. And take an just did a complete multi kit!!

Hey all,

I've got another smallish batch of boards that are about to start testing and shipping after that.

Just PM me and I'll get back to everyone in order received when I have boards ready to ship.

Thanks
- James
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JrokLand http://www.jrok.com
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Had lots of problems with mine and have not had issues since replacing the male connectors on all boards with the newer square ones, identifying and fixing a ground wire that wasn't making good contact, and putting on a new main ribbon cable.

Prior to the above, had seen 131 errors, reboots, and sometimes it would start up but would experience strange artifacts on the screen while playing.

Have several Williams boardsets and all issues I've seen were related to the above and burned connectors to / from the power supply. Once those are fixed...rock solid. Check the power supply too though.
 
Id start with a ram upgrade kit from bob as well as rebuilding the ps and getting a new connector kit. Bob has all of it. Should run about 60 or so, but it will fix about 90% of the common issues like voltage and ram. Its all rookie grade fixes, should be simple if have done any type of soldering.
 
1-3-1 is checking and not finding +5

No, 1-3-1 is a RAM failure code. It may be caused by several different things.

Id start with a ram upgrade kit from bob as well as rebuilding the ps and getting a new connector kit. Bob has all of it. Should run about 60 or so, but it will fix about 90% of the common issues like voltage and ram. Its all rookie grade fixes, should be simple if have done any type of soldering.

This is the absolute wrong course of action.

Diagnosing the problem is the correct starting point. That being said, test your power supply.
 
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