Make Trax board issue

Waterborn

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It seems like the board on my Make Trax died last night. I turned on the cab and got nothing but a black screen. After messing around inside to check fuses and what not, I noticed that the +5V light on the power supply board was not lit, so I thought it must be an issue there. However, when I unplugged the pcb, the +5V light came on. There are two jumper wires that have been installed on the board, so I figured maybe this was the source of the issue. (see pics below).After looking around a bit, I noticed that EVERY Make Trax board on eBay also has these same wire traces installed. Is this typical of these boards or just a common repair? Any suggestions on how I can start trouble shooting this issue, or should I just try to source out a new board? Does anyone have a Make Trax cab or board that I can use to do some trouble shooting? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Those were factory mods. Which power supply do you have? MakeTrax shipped with both the Defender PS (big board wth two heat sinks mounted on it) and the Robotron/Joust PS (smaller board with a separate large heat sink).

It is possible that what you are seeing is the result of one of several possible failures in the power supply. It may be supplying +5V with no load and the voltage may be dropping due to the load from the board.

1) Check to make sure the fuses are tight in the fuse clips and that there is no corrosion on the fuses or the fuse clips.
2) Check the BR1 to make sure it is good.

Some links to help:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?p=1506543
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=161942 (check the video referenced in Dokert's post it will show how to test the bridge rectifier).

ken
 
Hey Yellowdog, thanks for the input. This issue was indeed the ps (+5V was only putting out about 3.5V). I put a switcher in for now and it is working again. I really hate switchers thought, so I am going to work on rebuilding the ps (which is the single board larger version). I do have a back-up two board version for my Robotron and was going to use that, but the pin-outs are different and I got a bit confused. ARe these two ps board types interchangeable? I will have to do some more research to see if I can figure this out.
 
The two PS types are interchangeable. The Defender style transformer has a 12 pin connector which will fit on the Robo/Joust style PS boards, but you will lose the 6.3VAC for the coin door lights unless you add the W1 & W2 jumpers (two pads for the jumpers are between the fuses and the large capacitor).

You just need to make sure the key on the transformer lines up on the correct pin. If the transformer connector has the key inserted, that is not a problem. You will only be able to insert it one way. If it does not, then you need to make sure you plug it into pins 1-12 of the R/J power supply board. Trust me, bad things will happen if you get it wrong.

There is nothing wrong with running MakeTrax on a switcher. It does not have the CMOS issues that other Williams classic boards have when run on switchers. MakeTrax is a different architecture as it was licensed from somebody else.

ken
 
Thanks again for the input. Currently running the machine with a switching ps. Rebuilt an old single board PS that my friend gave me today and it works great. Not sure if I will keep this second one as a BU or reninstall it and pull the switcher. Either way, game is now funcitonal. :)
 
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