New to arcade repair, monitor problems with a universal chassis

LaughingStar

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Hello,

I recently inherited 8 or so arcade machines in various states of operating and disrepair that I have in my game store. My popular one is cruis'n, and it worked fine till a few months ago when I lost red and green. I am new to soldering and electronics repair so I opted to try out a universal chassis in hopes of getting it working, while I take some time trying to fix the origional in the proper ways. it fixed the issue of colors, though it blew the big power side resistor after about 10 minutes. I have seen videos that call it the B+ resistor. heard it make a pop, another one as the plastic cracked, and as I powered it down and unhooked the power wire, the resistor was glowing under the plasitc.

when I initially installed it, I followed the advise of a video and cut the wall plug off and powered the unit from the on board Isolated circuit. I never checked until after the pop to realize that the power supply in the cabinet was putting out 120v and the chassis is clearly labeled for 110v. I mistakenly thought the system was just passing along the 110v from the wall. I also followed the advise of the video and didnt adjust the pot that alters the voltage going to that resistor, but it seems like I should have at least checked the voltage there before spending time adjusting. I was also getting a lot of whine, I think from the flyback, though it went away when the picture looked good.

so my main question is whether or not having the 120V on that input would kill that resistor, or if I should be looking at other parts of the chassis.

second would be what to do with it. for sure I will have to replace that resistor, but what should I do about that 120V? Run a 110v isolator on a seperate / or same circuit? or just run without and use straight 110 as that appears to be what its designed for.

3rd question is if anyone knows what voltage should be going to that resistor for a 25 inch monitor (i read later that you can adjust that pot to dial it in based on the size of the screen)

Sorry im long winded in forums lol. I still have the origonal which im sure is much better quality, but I think at this point I'd like to cut some teeth on this cheapy before trying to diagnose and fix that one.
 
knowing the model of chassis would help !
there are mod's to be done to these "universal" chassis before you use one
the model is a Wei Ya HL 2529. I have been doing some research and so far this is what I have come up with and/or tested.

the input power is 120v on an isolation circuit, so should be fine.
the 140 ohm resistor at R19 is faulty and overheated/overheating
input side of the 140ohm resistor is 150v

I was reading that this resistor should be replaced with a larger one, up to a 220 ohm, and also to replace one other resistor, though neither of these instructions were for my specific model, though they were for other Wei Ya's

edit - after looking into it more I think my choice would be a 50w 150 ohm resistor. general principle would be to keep the resistance as close as possible to origional but the higher watts will mean better head characteristics.
 
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These chassis are only designed to run on 100v not 110v or 120v .. only 100v with out mod's ..

the fact you have this 140 ohm resistor, i think you will find your chassis just another version of the Wei-Ya 426H chassis.

The 140 ohm 25w resistor can go to 180 ohm 25w
Ok. no need to stay close to original ohm's.. these chassis are designed to be mod'ed
they are based on a blend of many many arcade chassis, & they only fail when people not set them to their needs.
Now the 140 ohm resistor is Too Low ..
Here is why, the B+ voltage is regulated via a parallel between this resistor and a transistor.
by having a low ohm resistor it dumps more voltage thru this resistor hence they heat up, typically i run 180 ohm
also add a small heatsink to the transistor.
But more important is the input resistor to set the main voltage, this resistor may be a 2.2 ohm 5w RB stand up type,
this should be 3.3 ohm for 108v , or 4.7 ohm for 117v
 
Hello,

My popular one is cruis'n, and it worked fine till a few months ago when I lost red and green.

I never checked until after the pop to realize that the power supply in the cabinet was putting out 120v and the chassis is clearly labeled for 110v.

second would be what to do with it. for sure I will have to replace that resistor, but what should I do about that 120V? Run a 110v isolator on a seperate / or same circuit? or just run without and use straight 110 as that appears to be what its designed for.
A couple of problems.

First: As far as I know the 'universal' monitor chassis are only standard res (15khz CGA) and Crusin' is a Medium resolution game. So it will not work for that game at all

Second: The universal monitor chassis require isolated power. I believe the monitors that came with cruisin do not require that, so there probably is not a isolation transformer in the cabinet. If that is the case, the you've blown a few power diodes on the new chassis.

In your case, you'd probably be best off replacing the monitor with one of the new 4:3 unico LCDs.
 
These chassis are only designed to run on 100v not 110v or 120v .. only 100v with out mod's ..

the fact you have this 140 ohm resistor, i think you will find your chassis just another version of the Wei-Ya 426H chassis.

The 140 ohm 25w resistor can go to 180 ohm 25w
Ok. no need to stay close to original ohm's.. these chassis are designed to be mod'ed
they are based on a blend of many many arcade chassis, & they only fail when people not set them to their needs.
Now the 140 ohm resistor is Too Low ..
Here is why, the B+ voltage is regulated via a parallel between this resistor and a transistor.
by having a low ohm resistor it dumps more voltage thru this resistor hence they heat up, typically i run 180 ohm
also add a small heatsink to the transistor.
But more important is the input resistor to set the main voltage, this resistor may be a 2.2 ohm 5w RB stand up type,
this should be 3.3 ohm for 108v , or 4.7 ohm for 117v
ok, I have read about the 180 ohm resisitor. is the 50/150 wire wrapped screwed to the aluminum shield a better option or worse in some way? I have read about that one as well, but I generally like changing up as little as possible, and the 25/180 just goes in where the old one was.

how would I tell which is the input resistor? I havent pulled it back out yet to see, but there are 2 other resistors in the power circuit area. most all of the guides reference the 426H, but where things are is slightly different on mine it seems. Heres a pic of that corner of the board. the big white one is the 140ohm resistor, and Im assuming one of the 2 resistors on the left is the one you are speaking of?

board.jpg
 
Hello,

I recently inherited 8 or so arcade machines in various states of operating and disrepair that I have in my game store. My popular one is cruis'n, and it worked fine till a few months ago when I lost red and green. I am new to soldering and electronics repair so I opted to try out a universal chassis in hopes of getting it working, while I take some time trying to fix the origional in the proper ways. it fixed the issue of colors, though it blew the big power side resistor after about 10 minutes. I have seen videos that call it the B+ resistor. heard it make a pop, another one as the plastic cracked, and as I powered it down and unhooked the power wire, the resistor was glowing under the plasitc.

when I initially installed it, I followed the advise of a video and cut the wall plug off and powered the unit from the on board Isolated circuit. I never checked until after the pop to realize that the power supply in the cabinet was putting out 120v and the chassis is clearly labeled for 110v. I mistakenly thought the system was just passing along the 110v from the wall. I also followed the advise of the video and didnt adjust the pot that alters the voltage going to that resistor, but it seems like I should have at least checked the voltage there before spending time adjusting. I was also getting a lot of whine, I think from the flyback, though it went away when the picture looked good.

so my main question is whether or not having the 120V on that input would kill that resistor, or if I should be looking at other parts of the chassis.

second would be what to do with it. for sure I will have to replace that resistor, but what should I do about that 120V? Run a 110v isolator on a seperate / or same circuit? or just run without and use straight 110 as that appears to be what its designed for.

3rd question is if anyone knows what voltage should be going to that resistor for a 25 inch monitor (i read later that you can adjust that pot to dial it in based on the size of the screen)

Sorry im long winded in forums lol. I still have the origonal which im sure is much better quality, but I think at this point I'd like to cut some teeth on this cheapy before trying to diagnose and fix that one.
The 120 V feed definitely stressed that B+ resistor. Run the chassis from a proper 110 V isolated source and set the B+ with a meter (around 110–115 V for a 25"). Replace the resistor and double-check that pot before powering up again.
 
Can anyone confirm that the 'universal chassis' can do medium resolution (ega) otherwise there's no point to OP attempting this at all, as a CGA chassis will not be able to display the medium resolution output from the game.
 
Can anyone confirm that the 'universal chassis' can do medium resolution (ega) otherwise there's no point to OP attempting this at all, as a CGA chassis will not be able to display the medium resolution output from the game.
Most of the off-the-shelf "universal" chassis are strictly CGA (15kHz) only. A few sellers advertise dual-sync versions that can handle CGA/EGA, but they're not the norm. If OP's board is outputting true medium res (24kHz), then yeah — a standard CGA universal chassis won't cut it. They'd need to confirm with the vendor if it's a dual-sync model before going further.
 
ok, I have read about the 180 ohm resisitor. is the 50/150 wire wrapped screwed to the aluminum shield a better option or worse in some way? I have read about that one as well, but I generally like changing up as little as possible, and the 25/180 just goes in where the old one was.

how would I tell which is the input resistor? I havent pulled it back out yet to see, but there are 2 other resistors in the power circuit area. most all of the guides reference the 426H, but where things are is slightly different on mine it seems. Heres a pic of that corner of the board. the big white one is the 140ohm resistor, and Im assuming one of the 2 resistors on the left is the one you are speaking of?

View attachment 850778
your photo is too close to get a better idea of the chassis,
but i do see in the top left corner part of the B+ transistor,
that long large resistor may be your 140 ohm, just change it out for a 150 or 180 ohm of same wattage.
 
A couple of problems.

First: As far as I know the 'universal' monitor chassis are only standard res (15khz CGA) and Crusin' is a Medium resolution game. So it will not work for that game at all

Second: The universal monitor chassis require isolated power. I believe the monitors that came with cruisin do not require that, so there probably is not a isolation transformer in the cabinet. If that is the case, the you've blown a few power diodes on the new chassis.

In your case, you'd probably be best off replacing the monitor with one of the new 4:3 unico LCDs.
I never really got it dialed in, but it threw a decent picture. It was a split screeen, but it did dispay. were the multiple images a sign of the wrong res missmatch? I never got a chance to work the jumpers or board pots before the blowout, so there were adjustments I never got to see the effect of.

Google said that there is an isolation transformer in the stock game, and the previous owner said there was one, but I will physically check for one before turning it on again.

Thanks for the link for the LCD, but i want to try to learn the stock stuff first if possible. its another reason for the universal board. I haven't done any major electronics repair, soldering, etc. my final intention is to fix the origional chassis, but messing around with this cheapo board a little means i can do a better job with that one. of the 8 games 4 have monitor issues of various types so I had hoped that learning how to set up the universal one could get them eating quarters while I figured out the original parts. its nice to have the link to a proper lcd though.
 
It was a split screeen, but it did dispay. were the multiple images a sign of the wrong res missmatch?
Yes;

Medium res chassis are a really different beast. They are from this weird time where the quality of the hardware was getting bad and at the same time, more complicated. As a result, it's really hard to find medium resolution CRTs that are functional. A lot of them were tossed in favor of cheap Wei-Ya tri-scan monitors that were also garbage.

My Cruisn' world cabinet has a working and rebuilt CRT, but one day I may have to go the LCD route as there are not a lot of alternatives.

No disrespect intended, but by your own admission you are new to electronics in general and what you are working on is somewhat advanced and possibly dangerous. That's why I think the easiest path for you for now is just to replace with the unico monitor and keep the game up while you learn. The other monitors in your lineup are likely to be standard resolution as the majority of arcade machines run standard.
 
Most of the off-the-shelf "universal" chassis are strictly CGA (15kHz) only. A few sellers advertise dual-sync versions that can handle CGA/EGA, but they're not the norm. If OP's board is outputting true medium res (24kHz), then yeah — a standard CGA universal chassis won't cut it. They'd need to confirm with the vendor if it's a dual-sync model before going further.
its looking like a bad pair tbh. the game is for sure a medium resolution game, and was giving double images, which seems to be a think with the resolution missmatch, but there are jumper settings on the board for wide or narrrow image, and some pots for image tuning that I wasnt able to try out before it popped. the image was pretty good top to bottom, colors, etc, just had horizontal double images. still though, id rather repair it if possible to the extent it will throw an image again, I can likely use it for test or in other games. And for practice.
 
its looking like a bad pair tbh. the game is for sure a medium resolution game, and was giving double images, which seems to be a think with the resolution missmatch, but there are jumper settings on the board for wide or narrrow image, and some pots for image tuning that I wasnt able to try out before it popped. the image was pretty good top to bottom, colors, etc, just had horizontal double images. still though, id rather repair it if possible to the extent it will throw an image again, I can likely use it for test or in other games. And for practice.
Yep, that double image is a dead giveaway for 24k into 15k. Still worth repairing though, a working CGA chassis is always useful for testing or future projects.
 
But more important is the input resistor to set the main voltage, this resistor may be a 2.2 ohm 5w RB stand up type,
this should be 3.3 ohm for 108v , or 4.7 ohm for 117v
yah, the big white one is the 140 that will be replaced. I dont know which one is the input resistor you mentioned though. Im assuming its one of the 2 other resistors in the picture and will trace into the big 140ohm one?
 
yah, the big white one is the 140 that will be replaced. I dont know which one is the input resistor you mentioned though. Im assuming its one of the 2 other resistors in the picture and will trace into the big 140ohm one?
input resistor Not one of those 2w grey resistors in photo.
i need a better picture of that side of the chassis,
looking for a 2.2 ohm white ceramic 5w resistor
 
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