Rush the rock steering issue

cysnake

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Ok, so when the game is turned on and it starts the steering test, it turns the wheel at mach 5 left and right so fast that it could potentially break fingers. I replaced the pot with a jameco one and got no change. During game play the wheel goes from left to right by itself really hard and fast. Anyone have an idea of what i should look at next?
 
I don't know, but first thing I'd do is to take and disconnect the force feedback drive. Then use the diags to check to make sure that cold/hot/etc it is reading the steering pot properly. If so, then I'd put the problem somewhere in the force feedback board (most likely).

I'm guessing something to do with the force feedback boards. I presume you do not have any additional boards to try board swaps ?

I believe the force feedback board is the more troublesome one in the game. Though usually it fails to provide feedback, not to aim for bone breaking maneuvers.
 
I get a good range on the pot with the motor disconnected. I thought for sure it would've been the pot, because my rush 2049 had the shaky wheel when I first got it, and a new pot fixed it. Ill try to get a video up of what its doing tonight, ive searched the forums and internet, and haven't run across anything like this.
 
if you plan on keeping it around, i would start with replacing the two power transistors on the driver board. they are expensive (~$50 from mouser, don't try and save a few bucks on stuff from china on ebay IMO). it has fixed a couple weird steering issues i encountered, and might fix yours as well.
 
if you plan on keeping it around, i would start with replacing the two power transistors on the driver board. they are expensive (~$50 from mouser, don't try and save a few bucks on stuff from china on ebay IMO). it has fixed a couple weird steering issues i encountered, and might fix yours as well.

Do you have personal experience with stuff from China?

I am waiting on some power transistors from e-bay China for my RtR driver board.
As I am not sure that the transistors are the problem, I didn't want to buy expensive transistors right away.

On one of my boards I replaced all of the eeproms/transistors and diodes, and the problem remained (steering wheel constantly pulling to the left), but I did all that after replacing the power transistors from China.
I always thought that the new transistors were also faulty, but I am not sure, and never took the gamble to buy and place expensive quality transistors.
 
I don't think so, as many members reported a steering problem caused by the transistors, and after replacing those with new ones solved the problem for good.
You would think that a bad motor would cause the new transistors to blow up.
 
I replaced a bad OP amp and TIP120, as well as both fuses by the power connector (both blew). Checked the 4 diodes (configured as a bridge rectifier) - all good. This time I tried the board in another machine. Powered up. I hear the steering wheel turn one way. Before it turns the other way, the fuses pop again. I'm guessing the other OP amp is (or was) bad? I replaced the one that showed visible damage to it.

I haven't found any info online as to what causes those fuses to pop or the OP amps to blow. I didn't notice the 'overvoltage' LED light up; if it did, it was for a split second before the fuses went. I don't want to keep throwing parts into it w/o knowing what the root cause is. This seems to be a common problem with these boards, but as I said, there's very little info about it.
 
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in my many years of operating these games replacing just the feedback IC's (known in this thread as the power transistors) NEVER fixed those stupid boards. I always had to send them in to a distributor which then sent them to WMS for service.

I think those boards are multi layered so be careful when pulling the IC's. If you pull the vias out with the IC leg the board may be finished.
 
That's the problem. It was a WMS design from the looks of it, plus there's no schematic for it in the manual, which is something Atari always provided with every game, starting with Pong.

The game is over 20 years old. *Somebody* out there must know more about repairing them :)
 
Well, I replaced the other OP amp and checked the other large diodes and those were good. Now when I power it up, the fuses don't pop but in the calibration, it doesn't turn right, only left. Does anyone know which OP amp and related circuitry is for left and right?
 
My board has the problem to pull the steering wheel instantly to the right when I power the game up, and then it's the upper OP (when you look at the board when it's in it's original vertical mounted place) that get's really hot.
So I suspect that upper OP is for direction to the right.

I've just received 2 new OP's (from China) and will replace the upper OP to see if that solves the problem that I have.

I think that I have time to do that today, I'll let you know.
 
Thanks. At least now I can target the right area of the board. That's the OP amp I just replaced, so it must be something else (IC?) in that circuit. I have a working board to compare it with, so I'll see if any chips get hot or the logic probe shows something.
 
Okay, so I replaced the upper OP, and voila, everything works as it should!

While the other (lower)OP looks old (little corrosion), I decided to let it sit and keep the other new OP for reserve since I have two cabs linked (RtR is a GREAT racer btw!)

In your case, though are you sure that all soldercontacts are good, and the soldercontacts on the board undamaged?
There is a little resistor near both the OP's placed near the heatsink that should be like 60 - 70 ohms if I remember correctly, I had one damaged by corrosion, so you might wanna check these also.
 
Okay, so I replaced the upper OP, and voila, everything works as it should!

I need to stockpile a few of these... Did you find a good deal on them?

Awesome that it worked!
 
Yes, I paid less than $15 for two amps, including shipping from China to Holland.

However, before I had received them I checked e-bay and the auction was cancelled by e-bay, but the items were still underway.
When I ordered these they had a few hundred in stock, according to the auction.

I already asked the seller if they will sell the amps again, but no response :-(
 
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