Pole Position... You knew it was coming.

Actually, the fan IS there, and it does work! =D

I didn't realize you only need to run to one test point, so I kinda did "overkill" and wired them all up. Oh well. I can undo some of them, I'm just now getting back to the project.

Edit: Scratch that.... just found it on the main site. <slaps forheard>
 
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Well now.... that was a traumatic and harrowing experience. Aside from the few minutes I worked on Dig Dug, it's been quite a while since I've used a soldering iron that long.

I'm not sure, but I think part of my solder is possessed. Got to the LAST connection, put the tip above where the solder was going, and I shit you not...... the solder melted, and went UP the leg to form a bubble on the tip of the iron.

No problems AT all(except a few heat burns on my fingers)..... until that LAST leg.

Oh, and on the "I should have just stopped right there and left it sit for the night" front..... I'm checking which pin gets routed to the PCB, and which one doesn't(seems that only the component side should get routed), but replacing the pin on the other side..... and dropped my pin extractor. Anyone want to guess where it went?

Right. Under the cabinet. Guess what sits low enough to the floor, that I can't get anything from beneath it?

Should have called it quits right then and there. I'll laugh about it tomorrow, when I figure out how to get it out.... but for the moment.....


Shit.
 
I dunno why but whenever I drop something on the floor it always rolls under the cabinet I'm working on. ALWAYS.
 
I dunno why but whenever I drop something on the floor it always rolls under the cabinet I'm working on. ALWAYS.

Well, I'm as nearsighted as you can get... so I didn't have my glasses on when this happened. It actually bounced INTO the cab, right where the angled board with the casters on it meets(or, should meet) the actual bottom, and rolled under as soon as I touched it. *sigh* I've shifted the cabinet around a bit, so who knows where under there it actually is at this point.

However, I have an idea..... one of my son's friends stayed the night(I know this, because he came upstairs this morning). Soooooooo...... I'm going to recruit him to tilt the cabinet up on it's good ...... well... better side.... while I get down and try to retrieve it. Once he lets the cab back down, he can help me off of the floor. :eek:

I'm thinking I need more beer for this.

Edit: Ian.... I've looked through your online store, but I don't see Atari Big Blues listed.... do you have any in stock?
 
Alright, I've retrieved the pin extractor.... and finished up the AR board repair. It's back in, and in place(actually close to where it belongs).

I'm going to jump back into the harness connector shortly, and get that finished up.

Question: Should I remove the pins for the Sense, or not? Since I've basically re-wired the board to give clean voltages across the whole thing... And if so, will just wrapping them in electrical tape prevent any issues?

Also, the old Big Blues were obviously bad, as the game originally came up when I replaced only them. Or, at least one of them was. Figured I may as well do both at the same time.
 
Right.... so I wired everything up, and probably have something hooked up wrong. The PCB still isn't getting power.

I did notice something, though..... there's a pin in one side of the video board connector, that lacks a wire. IIRC, it's labeled as "GND" on the pin-out. I checked the harness a bit, and don't see a broken wire anywhere in it.

I'm also going to re-check my work on the AR-II board, I know the right parts are in the right place, but I may have missed something.
 
not sure if this has been pointed out or not in this thread but there are two ARII's in that game, one for the CPU and one for the Video board. Both need to be working in order for the game to work.

Can you check your +5 on each board?

Since you've hardwired the GND and +5 connections from the power supply to the boards theres no need to defeat the sense circuit. It goes haywire when the edge connectors dont make good contact with GND and +5. You shouldn't have that problem anymore.
 
Yeah, that's why I'm focusing on the one AR board..... everything else is getting power, except the PCB. Monitor comes up, marquee light comes on, etc.... but the LEDs on the PCB....... nothing.

Does it matter which side of the board the +5 and ground go to? I noticed that there was only a +5 to the solder side of the Video board, and there's the missing GND wire for the pin in the harness connector.

I actually let the thing sit for a couple of days while I try to let things work out in my head. I think today, I'll go back in and poke around a bit.

I will check the +5 on the AR board, the one I've been having issues with. Aside from the wiring issue, I think that's where my problem lies.
 
How can I explain this....

You should have at least one red w/white and one red w/green striped wires coming from each ARII to each board. You can combine/mismatch the ground (red w/green) wires but if you have more than one red w/white striped wire coming from an ARII DO NOT cross the two outputs together. Also, if the sense wires are still intact on the edge connector and ARII board you need to make sure that you dont apply the +5 from the OTHER ARII to that board.

Take some pics of your edge connectors and post them. We can probably help point out which wires are which.

Also, each board should have an LED on it when powered that would indicate the presence of +5. Are the LEDs lit on both boards? Neither board?
 
No LEDs lighting on either board. I'll get the pics of the edge connectors in a little bit. I've got a couple of things to get done before I can dedicate time to that thing.

I did leave the sense pins in the harness, because I was unsure if I should disconnect them or not. If it won't hurt anything, I'll just leave them. I also made sure that the wire-hacks I did went from the correct board to the correct harness*(and I'm sure the polarity is correct). The only "switcheroo" I did, was the +5 and the GND from the soldier side of the harness to the component side of the PCB. I can reverse that, though. I thought both were there for both sides of the board via the harness, but there's no +5 on the component side on the harness, and the GND wire is missing from the pin that's still there.
 
So no LEDs means that neither ARII is working which really means that you probably have a blow 20/30 amp fuse on the transformers assy. Real common on Poles. Repalcing that fuse probably isnt going to be the end of your problems though. Usually that fuse holder is bad, the wire leaving the fuse holder going to the bridge rectifier is usually fried and a few wires on the bridge may be bad.

See if you have +10.3VDC on that big blue thats standing up on the bottom of the cabinet.

No need to move the wires front/back on the boards. So Long as youre making good contact you should be fine.
 
Yeah, the voltage coming off of the big blue is pretty much nil. I'll check the fuses tomorrow, as I only had a minute to look at it today. I'll also check the AR boards to see if there is any component damage, and look for anything else visible.
 
Yeah, the voltage coming off of the big blue is pretty much nil. I'll check the fuses tomorrow, as I only had a minute to look at it today. I'll also check the AR boards to see if there is any component damage, and look for anything else visible.

Blown fuse or fried connections on the bridge rectifier on the bottom side of the transformer assy.
 
Blown fuse or fried connections on the bridge rectifier on the bottom side of the transformer assy.

Oy..... Okay. I'll make sure to pull that, too. I guess the logical thing is to trace power from where it comes in, to where it is and isn't going.

Thanks!
 
Wow... completely forgot to update this thread. Okay.... down to it.

I got things sorted to where it's working. Fuse holders are good, new Big Blues, everything connected well.

So... here's where I stand:

FI8Ey5m.jpg


It's working.... but there's still a few things to sort out. Going to recap the monitor and put a new battery in place(more on that in a moment). I went with Ian's kit, because everything is labeled where it goes, and this is my first one.

(Hey, Iggy ain't dumb)

The battery, I ordered from Amazon. It's a cordless phone battery, and I've seen where this can be adapted to work. Now that I know the mA doesn't need to be perfect. That and the cap kit should be in the mail today.

I've also learned where to look for potential trouble(probably just dirty pins), that should clear up the track's graphical issue. While I've got everything out, I'll see what I can do about that.

It's going to be a fun day. Hopefully, at the end, this baby will be working as well as she did 32 years ago.

(well, short of taking coins, that is... but that's coming too. Just not today.)
 
Wow... completely forgot to update this thread. Okay.... down to it.

I got things sorted to where it's working. Fuse holders are good, new Big Blues, everything connected well.

So... here's where I stand:

FI8Ey5m.jpg


It's working.... but there's still a few things to sort out. Going to recap the monitor and put a new battery in place(more on that in a moment). I went with Ian's kit, because everything is labeled where it goes, and this is my first one.

(Hey, Iggy ain't dumb)

The battery, I ordered from Amazon. It's a cordless phone battery, and I've seen where this can be adapted to work. Now that I know the mA doesn't need to be perfect. That and the cap kit should be in the mail today.

I've also learned where to look for potential trouble(probably just dirty pins), that should clear up the track's graphical issue. While I've got everything out, I'll see what I can do about that.

It's going to be a fun day. Hopefully, at the end, this baby will be working as well as she did 32 years ago.

(well, short of taking coins, that is... but that's coming too. Just not today.)

Iggy, I hate to pee in your cheerios but you've got yourself a board problem there as well. That graphics corruption could be some thing simple like the interconnect board not being seated well, a ROM or two needing to be reseated, low +5 up to an actual IC failure. :(
 
I don't have the info in front of me.... but supposedly it's something on the video board that could either not be seated well, or needs cleaning(where the track data is stored). I'll check the interconnector too, while I'm at it. I screenshotted on my iPad the locations. Sounded like someone had pretty good experience with it. I'll be taking that down with me, seeing how "PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!"...... ;)

Even if that's not the issue, that will rule it out, and the game still plays just fine.

As long as it's playing, I'll take my time figuring things out, and getting the parts to replace.

(Dear baby Jesus.... that's not a challenge to get me to work faster by blowing what I'm doing today. Please don't take it as such. I need time due to lack of funds, and you know it.)
 
Well..... Surgery has been completed.

Here's a picture of me re-wired PCB:

CNse2WZ.jpg


I pulled it out, and soldered a pair of wires to the terminals where the battery goes..... ran them out a bit, and, well... just sat it somewhere convenient:

Oh, and I reseated the chips I was told to, and had at them with a tooth brush, just for S&G.

nuRXWYR.jpg


So.... then I got to work pulling the monitor apart. Discharging went well(it didn't put me into a wall this time), and I played a little bit of Hell getting everything disconnected. However, I managed it....

OJLEnSB.jpg


Right.... so I got down to it. Some of them were a PITA to get to on the component side. And, while it took me a couple of hours.... DONE!

CbGwNTk.jpg


Right...... okay... so that's done. Now to put this beast back together, and see what happens....

2aTJl1P.jpg


Yes sir.... first cap-kit done! Now, I just need a little bit more luck, and she'll be good to go for many years to come!

:D
 
awesome!

For the record all that extra wire running around the boards isnt needed. The traces are more than large enough to distribute power where it needs to go. What is needed is wire between the board and the harness (which you've done) but thats all thats needed.

Put that battery below the boardset. If it leaks where it is its just going to leak on the board.
 
Yeah, overkill.... As for the battery, I'm going to secure it next time I pull it out. Put it back in the line up for tonight. Been playing it a bit.
 
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