Smash TV - repair project

Vongoosewink

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Last month I visited an Op's shop, and came away with a non-working Smash TV. You can read about the whole 'Op Raid' story here:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=194029

Basically, the Op had a bunch of old games from the late-80's early 90's, but their business had moved toward the Cherry Master gambling games since the downfall of the Arcades. They had been parting out their old games and using the monitors for the Cherry games -- except for the games that were not working. Since Smash TV was dead, they never bothered to part it out... It was still a good looking cab though, in solid shape with a few chips and scuffs, and a faded Marquee. The sides still look pretty colorful! I offered them $100 for the cab, and took the thing home.

I now have a little spare time so now I'm going to try to get this sucker working. This should be a challenge, since I'm basically an electronics newbie... I'll try to document my efforts here with plenty of photos. Hopefully there are some Smast TV experts here that can keep me heading in the right direction.

OVERVIEW:
The interior of the cab is VERY dusty on the floor, but everything looks complete at first glance. Looks like it sat around for years with the rear door off. Plug the game in, there is no sound or lights, but the monitor has a very faint glow, not bright at all just barely visible, unplug it and you can see the screen collapse into a little square in the center, like an old TV when turned off. But no game screen/graphics, nothing.

I've read that the first thing to check is the fuses, so I started there. I found one along the interior left wall, between the boards and CP, and another on the monitor board. I pulled them, and checked with a cheap multimeter (the no-sound version), it looked like they were bad. I was surprised to see each fuse was a different kind. Put in new fuses from Radio Shack, and tried to power up. Nothing, but now there is no glow to the monitor at all. Weird.

Also should mention, none of the little red led lights on the board light up.

Had a look inside the Marquee, the light there had fallen out and was hanging down the back. I pulled it out and was surprised to find it was a regular incandescent bulb, dead. Replaced it with a 60w equivalent CFL bulb, tried the power, and it lights up. Woo! A very small victory, at least I now know the plug works!

So where do I go from here? I guess the next step is to test the power supply? If that went, the machine would still get power to the light, since that runs AC direct from the plug, right? And the power supply coverts the AC to DC for the board/monitor? Somebody please let me know if I have that right...
 

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Power supply definitely, and make sure you got the slo blow fuses from radio shack and not the fast blow ones.

your correct about the marquee light and converting ac/dc current.

there's a small flame working there definitely.

me being the way i am also, i'd probably remove all of those crimp connectors and heat shrink and solder those connections (one could be failed but it's doubtful), as i said just me and my hate for crimp connectors in line.
 
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Slow blow
Fuse that can withstand a heavy current (up to ten times its rated value) for a small period of time before it opens. Normally used for inductive loads like fans, transformers, etc.

Fast blow
Fast-acting fuses have no intentional built in slow-blow and are used in circuits without transient inrush currents. Fast-acting fuse opens on overload and short-circuits very quickly. This type of fuse is not designed to withstand temporary overload currents associated with some electrical loads.
 
Always go with the fuses in the schematics...some circuits can be damaged if the wrong type of fuse is used. I would get a replacement switching power supply. They are cheap and plentiful. Always verify correct voltages BEFORE pugging in a new PS...sometimes the +5v is not correctly dialed in. If its too high..you could damage the board.
 
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Step one - test the power supply. Use a multimeter to check that you're getting 120vAC TO the power supply, and check the 5v and 12v DC outputs FROM the supply. Chances are, the power supply is dead. I've seen several Midway games with dead power supplies. They're cheap enough, and not generally worth repairing.

I'm going to bet on you needing a power supply - my Smash TV had a dead supply as well.

So, check that first thing. If it's dead, replace it. Don't forget to check and set your 5v on the new power supply.

From your description of the monitor, it sounds like it's working fine - that's what it will do if it runs with no input. Try turning up the SCREEN pot on the flyback, and see if you can get a white screen with retrace lines.

On the fuses you are checking - are you sure you know how to check fuses? Sounds like the one in the monitor at least was good before, because if it wasn't, you wouldn't get that glow/collapse. Did you put a fast blow fuse in place of a slow blow one?

-Ian
 
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On the fuses you are checking - are you sure you know how to check fuses? Sounds like the one in the monitor at least was good before, because if it wasn't, you wouldn't get that glow/collapse. Did you put a fast blow fuse in place of a slow blow one?

-Ian

Thanks for the info. OK, these are 'fast acting' fuses, looks like the wrong kind. I took the original fuses to Radio Shack and they said I needed these (I told them it was for an arcade, which has basically a TV and a computer in it.)

Moral of the story: ask the experts at KLOV, before the ding dongs at Radio Shack.

I'll get some correct fuses and then get the power supply checked.
 
Thanks for the info. OK, these are 'fast acting' fuses, looks like the wrong kind. I took the original fuses to Radio Shack and they said I needed these (I told them it was for an arcade, which has basically a TV and a computer in it.)

Moral of the story: ask the experts at KLOV, before the ding dongs at Radio Shack.

I'll get some correct fuses and then get the power supply checked.

happens, now you know and knowing is 1/2 the battle, change out that PSU and let us know how you make out (bandit style).
 
OK, correct fuses are in, monitor is lighting up again. The fast-acting fuse in the monitor was already blown -- didn't take long!

Tested the power supply, we're getting about 133AC going in, but basically no readings coming out. Looks like this power supply is dead! Hmm, where is the best place to get a replacement...
 
Updates?

do me a favor and take a pic of the underside of your control panel :D
 
Updates?

do me a favor and take a pic of the underside of your control panel :D

Just waiting on the Switching Power Supply to arrive so I can proceed. I ordered it from jammaboards.com, and I got a notice that it finally shipped today. Hopefully it will be here before the week is out, I'm impatient to get this working too...

Underside of the CP? You mean with the wire harness and stuff?
 
i wanna see the underside of the cp with the sticks, getting ready to restore a machine myself.
 
Power Supply arrived, questions...

OK, the Power Supply just arrived, I'm getting ready to hook it up. This is my first one, so I want to make sure I get this right.

It is this one in the link below:

http://www.jammaboards.com/store/15...3ff68f529742=502333c9a416f1d071c49f698ded5ed6

I checked it over, and the switch on the bottom for 110v or 220v was set for 220v. That is supposed to be set at 110v in the USA, right?

Last question, this Power Supply has a little switch at the AC connectors that has 2 settings: +5v or MTR. What's MTR? This is supposed to be set at +5v right?

Somebody let me know before I throw the switch... I wanna play Smash TV!
 
yes 110 in the us good catch. not sure what mtr is i think it should be set to +5 but don't quote me on that.
 
Well, dammit, still not there.

Got the power supply loaded, and the game powers up -- great picture on the monitor, sound is great, but the graphics are all messed up. Lots of blocky pixels over the characters.

Just to be sure this wasn't the connections/cab, I tested a Heavy Barrel game in it -- worked fine. (But hard to play the game sideways.)

Anybody know where there is a really good deal on a tested & working Smash TV board?

I'll upload pics in a bit, for those who want to see the gruesome details.
 
make sure all the roms are fully seated and cleaned up with some fine sand paper. (did it pass the rom test? if so cleaning up the legs of the chips prolly won't help but might you never know).

Make sure your voltages are spot on also, that Power Supply might need some slight adjustment (check this after checking the prom test menu), tho saying your other board worked good is making me think this isn't the case, it's good to make sure on the board that's giving you issues.
 
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