Picked up an Asteroids

action53

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Just starting to tinker with my Asteroids I just got, my first vector.

Cleaned out the rat's nest made of old wasps nests and snake skin held together with pee.

Scrubbed the board, wait for it to dry then I'll reseat/clean the chips.

Tested my voltages at the harness not attached to the board. The top +5 is at +6, the bottom one is at +5.5. 36vac is at 17

I can look up at the monitor, no neck glow but there's a red led lit on the chassis

Thoughts?
 
Test the voltages on the AR first, with the game board and monitor unplugged.

Asteroids AR-I's are a little different, in that they have diodes instead, where the sense resistors normally are on AR-II's. This results in the measured voltage being high if you measure it without the game board plugged in, and it will come down once the board is connected.

You normally should measure around 6.3V (give or take a tenth of a volt) on the +5V test point on the AR, with the board unplugged, in order to get 5V on the board once it's plugged in. It's ok if it's measuring a little lower than 6.3V now, as you'll just need to bump it up when you plug the board in.

Getting a red LED on the monitor board is normal, as this is the spot killer LED, which shuts down the monitor when there are no XY signals coming from the game board. It should normally go out when the game board is connected and working properly, if the monitor's deflection system is working.

You should definitely overhaul the monitor boards (replace all caps, reflow the solder joints on all headers, and replace the mica insulators on the frame transistors with new silicone pads (silpads)), even if you find the monitor working. Many Asteroids monitors will work for a few days or weeks after not being powered up for years, and then crap out when the old parts give out.

Also, the 36V AC must be measured between the two 36V wires. If you measure either one to ground, you will get 18V.
 
Thank you, I'll try that next.

I plan on rebuilding everything, I'm just trying to see what I'm up against first. I have a Centipede I'm rebuilding to sell to my coworker that's going to fund my Asteroids
 
Press start. Does it play blind? (Check the dips to make sure it's in free play).

Also, what happens if you flip the test mode switch?
 
Test switch on and both start buttons stay solid on. Test switch off and they blink in unison fast. Idk if it plays blind, I credit it up a few times, push the start buttons and nothing happens, mice thrashed my speaker pretty good
 

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clean your edge connector, grab a cap kit for the monitor (security) with new linearity pots if it's a 19v2000, reflow, possibly new hv diode and possibly bottle caps. Report back with progress and welcome to the asteroids club its a great game!
 
Sounds like it's watchdogging (resetting continuously, which is what's causing the rapidly flashing buttons). Though it normally does that in test mode too when there's a problem, but not always.

Fix your speaker, so you can get more info about whether it's saying anything in test mode (either a good beep, or bad RAM beep codes).

It's possible the game board isn't putting out XY signals, which is why your monitor isn't displaying anything. But it's also possible your game board is outputting signal (maybe in test mode), and your deflection board (and more) may be having issues. You need more info, and the easiest way to do that is to put a good speaker on there, and see if test mode can help you.

Then order a cap kit for your monitor, as you'll want to do one anyway, though you don't want to start replacing stuff until you have more info.
 
I'm going to bed, I'll dig out a spare speaker in the morning and see if it's giving me any tones
 

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Probably not the processor, but you can swap it out if you want to try. Most other Atari games use them. Just be careful not to bend any pins when swapping them.

Also, take a DMM, and measure the AC and DC voltage on the XOUT and YOUT test points on the game board, with the game board plugged in, and in test mode. Post all four values here (two AC and two DC).
 
It sounds like you have PCB problems, at the very least, and there are a number of potential problems that could be causing it not to work, on both the digital and analog sides.

Without a ROM burner and a logic probe (and a desire to do board-level debug) you aren't going to be able to troubleshoot much further. If you don't have those tools, you might want to look into sending it out to someone.
 
Andrew,

You fixed my power boards, I have a now working PCB in my Asteroids...BUT still have the spot killer on in the monitor deflection board.

Took out the G05-802 completely out of the game, had a friend, who is an old Arcade tech and very good, do a cap-kit on it. Also reflowed the solder and headers on the boards.

No difference. Monitor still acts the same. Also, I dont think, in my case, the HV is getting anything. Nothing pops when I try to discharge the monitor....I did clean the HV board and diode with alcohol and a brush, and actually washed the deflection board. Fuses are all good.


So I am down to the wiring harness possibly or something else. Maybe the deflection board still has an issue....unclear.

Not to hijack this thread but maybe he has similar issues with his game so its all helpful.

I do have a spare wiring harness I could use...is that a good idea?

My Asteroids plays blind. Can coin up, start a game, fire move, thrust, etc..all good...lights blink properly on player 1 and 2 buttons and sound works great.

Just no picture.

Would you mind sending me a picture of the wire from the monitor chassis to where is connects to the game PCB? Mine does have a strange looking connector and I am not sure its a stock connector. I can dig out a picture of it and post here to show you what I mean.
 
I sent it off to get repaired and the guy said all the ram was bad and it must been exposed to a voltage spike or bad power supply.

The voltages were correct, could a bad Big Blue cause AC to leak and do the damage?

I'm going to replace it and rebuild the AR2 anyways, I'm just curious.
 
Sorry, not to hijack the thread again, but to update on my post, I have an issue with my g05-802 monitor confirmed...wiring harness is ok. I swapped in a different monitor into the game and it came up and worked fine....so need some monitor help now.
 
I'm putting in an order with security, I have the monitor cap kit, filter caps, big blue, full AR2 rebuild kit, am I missing anything? Should I replace the bottlecap transistors while I'm in there? What part numbers are they?

I wanna have this bad boy ready to go as soon as my board gets back
 
I'm putting in an order with security, I have the monitor cap kit, filter caps, big blue, full AR2 rebuild kit, am I missing anything? Should I replace the bottlecap transistors while I'm in there? What part numbers are they?

I wanna have this bad boy ready to go as soon as my board gets back


You really don't need to cap the AR IMO, unless the caps have been physically stepped on (and even then they often still work, LOL). Atari used really good caps on them, and it's not really worth the cost or work (or risk of messing something up) to replace them, as they don't really go bad.

The only things that typically go on the AR's are the 2N3055 bottlecap transistor (the one in the middle in the big heatsink). You can also replace the 5V adjustment pot if you want, which is a 1K. Best to keep the rest of it original. (If it ain't broke, don't fix it.) Also, reflow all of the other components' solder joints, as they like to loosen up on the Asteroids AR's.

Also, if it's an AR-I-01 (i.e., the normal one for Asteroids), note you will measure around 6.0-6.4V on the 5V test point, if you measure it without the game board connected. This is normal, and it will come down to 5V once you plug the game board in. Atari changed the designs of the AR's so the later AR-II's don't do this, but the Asteroids ones do.

For the frame transistors, they're 3716 and 3792. Two of each. But you should only replace them if they are bad (in which case your delfection board probably also has issues.) Look up how to test them. (Or download my 6100 PDF guide, as you can test them the same way in the b/w vector monitors, and the guide explains how:)

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=404600

If you replace them, you should use new silicone (silpad) insulators, instead of mica and thermal grease. The silpads are easier to use, less messy, and don't use grease. You want ones like these:

https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=SP400-0.009-00-03


Security0001 should have everything you need.
 
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