Namco Light Gun Not working

copious

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I have a Time Crisis kit that I recently unboxed. The game works as does the pedal. The gun however fails to shoot in screen? The screen flashes, recoil works, bullet sounds and depletes, but the shot is registered on the screen?

Could this be the gun pcb or the gun driver board?
 
Not sure about Time Crisis in specific, but in general optical gun problems can often be traced to the monitor adjustments. Before assuming something wrong with the guns or boards, there are a few easy things you can do:

- make sure your monitor face is clean, any front glass is clean, and that the lens in the gun is clean.
- make sure the monitor brightness and contrast are well-adjusted. A too-dim display can cause problems.
- make sure the colors are adjusted well. If "white" is color-tinted due to mal-adjustment, shots may not register properly.
- make sure your game PCB is getting a good 5.0 or 5.1 VDC.
- try playing in a darkened area. Bright lights/reflections can interfere.
- go into the games test/diagnostic mode, and find any gun calibration and/or flash brightness adjustment. Perform these tests/checks/calibrations per the game manual's instructions.

If none of these do anything for you, there are instructions somewhere on the 'net for testing the output with a flashlight and a DMM... I'll see if I can find that.
 
I'll try to adjust the onitor tonight I should have done that before As it's on a TV using the namco RGB convertor they used in the 50 inch screen. I have used it on this TV before but that was quite some time ago.
 
Did all this and nothing in the gun calibration I get an error when I fire at the screen. I'lllook for the DMM test online next.

If anyone can verify how to test the GUN DMM that would be great.
 
things to test

1. Gun position 'b' board in the card cage is properly seated and connected to the external PCB for the gun signal wiring. It sits on the CPU board and can work itself free.
2. Check harness wiring and presence of 5V on the gun harness
3. Check Opto is not broken or misaligned in the gun
4. Check continuity of gun wiring from the opto to the plug
 
Time Crisis 1, not 4, right? If it's 4, you should have gotten two bars of infrared beacons that you have to mount above and below the screen to get the gun to work. If it's 1:

One thing a lot of people overlook -- make sure the computer is connected DIRECTLY to the monitor, and the monitor is a CRT and the chassis doesn't do any internal scaling (unlikely, but there are a few pants-on-head retarded chassis out there). If there's any reason the beam on the screen doesn't EXACTLY match the signal coming out of the computer, the gun won't pick up.
 
Continued

I thought this thread is very helpful for what im trying to do right now however, after running through the list of things to test everything seems great, but i cant get the gun to sync with the Monitor, I installed a new monitor into a House of the Dead (1).. each gun when in calibrate/test mode reads numbers on the Horizontal but it jumps between 0-8000+ pixel location and Y constantly shows 0. The monitor recognizes the sensor, but it seems like it cant figure out where it is on the screen. I point the gun at the corner of the screen holding it still and the H axis moves (0-8000 axis) Y (0), Is there a chance that its the wrong monitor (raster rate issues, Resolution problems) , or is it the board not complying with the information on the screen? Thanks a ton!
 
I am troubleshooting a Time Crisis II now...game works, pedal works, guns have sound, recoil works, trigger pulls register ammo being used but there is not tracking on the screen.
I have checked the monitor brightness, no luck.

I saw on there a way to check the sensor and this is what I just found on another site to check the opto with a flashlight:

Checking the optical diode: three wires connect to this part: a black, red and yellow. First check there's +5vdc between black and red. You should also get +5vdc measured on the black and yellow wire. Now shine a flashlight into the opto led, and this +5v on the yellow wire should drop to (almost) 0. There may also be a capacitor on there too which often fails, so check and replace this too if necessary.

I am going to test that next and see if I just have a bad Opto sensor...
 
A bad optical sensor is usually easy to spot. If the screen flashes, but you don't actually see the shot on screen, most likely the optical is bad. You can try to calibrate it in the settings and see if the calibration is way off, but usually a flash with no visual cue on screen is a bad optic. I have a buck hunter on location that goes through an optic at least once a month from abuse. Luckily even optics for a namco gun are relatively cheap compared to say, a sega gun. If the shot will not move from center then the issue is either calibration or wiring, especially if you are adapting a happ gun to replace a namco.

Oh, and lastly, make sure the plastic clear piece that is in the barrel isn't all scratched and mucked up. that often gets overlooked.
 
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