Pole Position not always booting

SuperGunGuru

in Memoriam

Donor 2014
Joined
Aug 20, 2005
Messages
5,102
Reaction score
311
Location
Bath, Michigan
Well I'm still battling a few more bugs on my Pole Position machine. Right now the biggest problem is the damn thing won't boot up sometimes. It'll get stuck at one of the screens of half zeroes like you see when it boots and not go any further. The board was repaired by Dick Millikan and I have rebuilt both ARII boards, replaced both big blues and even replaced the edge connectors and pins. Power is set at +5 for both and Dick said he's never seen one need to go above that. I've only jumped one test point and ground on each board which I've read should be enough. Any thoughts on this? The last time it didn't boot up, I was able to get it to boot by turning it off and then back on.
 
edge connector, the one i just sold would boot up to all zero's on a blue screen. retinned each of the fingers and booted up just fine. if the copper is wearing away you need to re-tin it as it's not making a good connection.
 
I think that pole position can have problems initializing if it see's input from the gas pedal when you turn it on. I seem to remember reading that in the manual. Perhaps the pot is flaky on the pedal or the pedal sticks sometimes.

Check the manual. I am pretty sure it was the gas pedal.

Murph
 
Thanks for the replies guys. The board's card edge has already been touched up as needed and since Dick repaired the board I wouldn't think that's the issue. CamaoMurph you bring up a good point. When I've been in test mode I've noticed the gas pedal is showing up as a bit flaky, meaning I can see the value fluctuate slightly without even touching it. I may just want to go ahead and replace both gas and break pots to be safe.

Edit: Yes the manual does mention not to touch the accelerate or brake pedals when powering up even entering test mode. I'll see what happens when I replace the pots.
 
Last edited:
just disconnect the pedal and then try to boot. if it still fails then it aint the problem..everything i've seen with mine for a blue garbled screen has been the pcb interconnect or the edge connector.
 
Fudd's got a good suggestion. If the problem happens often enough you should be able to just disconnect the pedals and try turning it on enough times to realize it's fixed or not.

Pole Position certainly brings with it it's own large list of problems. Keep in mind that even if the fingers on the PCB were repaired and are good the connector on the main harness that pushes over it could be bad. This is very common. Same with the interconnect board itself.

Keep us informed.

Murph

Edit: Just re read your original post and see you've already replaced the main wiring harness edge connectors (both???). Maybe check the interconnect.
 
Last edited:
Hmm well that test didn't take long! I unhooked the accelerate and brake connector and the machine still locked up on the 2nd restart I did. I took the board out and had a look at the interconnect pcb. A few of the solder joints looked cracked so I took the time to re-flow all of them. So far it has booted up each time since after about 7 attempts. Thanks for the advice, Fudd and Murph. Hopefully this is it. One thing that I've noticed since getting the board back are some black, vertical lines that appear on the title screen or the high score screen. They lines don't run the entire height of the tube and they seem to be random and only on those 2 screens. If anyone has a thought on that I'm all ears. Since the board was repaired by Dick I wouldn't think that's the issue, but who knows with Pole Position.
 
those black lines are from whatever chip is coming loose. Pole boards are similar to galaga boards, the sockets are absolute shit. most likely pulling and reseating your chips on the video/cpu board will fix it...i'm about to replace the sockets on mine for the same reason. usually i get mine in a specific area like large cars or small cars or even the signs. i just look them up in the manual and pull the chip related to the graphic problem.

as for the edge connector i even added some solder to mine. what i did was soldered each of the fingers and then came back and reheated it up and wiped off the excess with a sponge. worked really well.
 
Last edited:
those black lines are from whatever chip is coming loose. Pole boards are similar to galaga boards, the sockets are absolute shit. most likely pulling and reseating your chips on the video/cpu board will fix it...i'm about to replace the sockets on mine for the same reason. usually i get mine in a specific area like large cars or small cars or even the signs. i just look them up in the manual and pull the chip related to the graphic problem.
Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check the manual later on when I get home from work.

Also looks like I spoke too soon about having fixed the occasional lock up on boot. Even after re-flowing the interconnect board it still didn't start up the last time I tried before going to bed. After turning it off and then back on it came up. This is a really perplexing problem. :confused:
 
if you just reflowed the interconnect then go ahead and reflow the edge connector too. add solder and wipe off with a sponge. that connector is so finicky, it needs a really snug connection.
 
Back
Top Bottom