some days nothing goes right :(

arcadejunkie

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so i went to scan a marquee i just got and my scanner wouldnt turn on. something inside was loose so i opened it up. the clip that holds the slide bar was busted off and the board that controls the buttons was snapped in half. traces are way to small to repair. im just really bummed. its an older scanner but i love it the scan surface is larger than alot of the new ones. so theres my short rant what an end to a crappy day.
 
so i went to scan a marquee i just got and my scanner wouldnt turn on. something inside was loose so i opened it up. the clip that holds the slide bar was busted off and the board that controls the buttons was snapped in half. traces are way to small to repair. im just really bummed. its an older scanner but i love it the scan surface is larger than alot of the new ones. so theres my short rant what an end to a crappy day.

Could be worse.

Yesterday, I had 3 machines I wanted to get back up.

SnowBros was a monitor issue... HOT was blown, replaced it... came back up, HOT blew again after about 10 mins.

Indiana Jones resetting. Got it back up, stayed stable for about 15 mins... started resetting again.

Defender, needed new connectors on the PS board. Put the new connectors on, powered up the machine. Melted the connectors and probably fried the board (not even putting up a rug pattern anymore).

After all that I started hearing a little fizzy sound from what I thought was the wall. Tapped the wall, sound got louder and I noticed it was coming from the ceiling. Pushed the tile out of the way and looked up there. A neonsign transformer (NO LOAD) had grounded out to the shelf it was resting on. I got my flashlight and wire cutters to clip the 110V lines going into it... started reaching for it and the conduit the wires going to where the neons used to be arced over to my stomach and gave me a pretty nasty electrical burn.

I decided that was enough shit for the day. Cut the lights out, left a note saying to not turn the lights on that wall of the arcade on, and went the fuck home.
 
Could be worse.

Defender, needed new connectors on the PS board. Put the new connectors on, powered up the machine. Melted the connectors and probably fried the board (not even putting up a rug pattern anymore).

After all that I started hearing a little fizzy sound from what I thought was the wall. Tapped the wall, sound got louder and I noticed it was coming from the ceiling. Pushed the tile out of the way and looked up there. A neonsign transformer (NO LOAD) had grounded out to the shelf it was resting on. I got my flashlight and wire cutters to clip the 110V lines going into it... started reaching for it and the conduit the wires going to where the neons used to be arced over to my stomach and gave me a pretty nasty electrical burn.

I decided that was enough shit for the day. Cut the lights out, left a note saying to not turn the lights on that wall of the arcade on, and went the fuck home.


And I saw the Defender sitting there at Game Galaxy... rushed over to play it... and it wasn't on. Damn. Well, at least now I know why. LOL Hope the board isn't fried though. It was a beautiful cabinet. Let me know when it's fixed or if you decide to sell it to me after you convert it into a multi-williams. Hint Hint.
 
lol wow! imma stay oughta canada when ur having a bad day :p
 
I was thinking the same thing yesterday, when I was granted the day to go out and work on my games to get them ready for a New Year's Eve gathering..

My TRON spinner has officially stopped working altogether. I checked all of the wires and molex connectors, nothing brought it back. So, I'm guessing it's the optical sensor board that is shot. While checking everything, I figured I would test my "backup board set" that I'd bought in supposed working condition... Well, it doesn't work. The boardset powers up, but you just get a garbled screen. So, I removed those boards and put the original working boardset back in. Well now that boardset isn't booting up. !@#$)(#$)@#$()@#$

I put everything back together and moved to my Omega Race game- I knew it didn't have working boards, but the light in the lower marquee was only partially lighting up. I opened up the front so I could swap out the bulb and, the the bulb fixture in that lower marquee is a nightmare. I had to remove the marquee AND the lighting assembly, just to get the bulb swap done! It was actually the starter in the fixture that was the problem, but I figured since I had it apart I would do both at once. But, while working on that, my Sorcerer pin was going psycho!!! In attract mode it makes some noises to tempt you to come play, but the volume when in attract mode sounds like it's going to blow out the speaker. I went over and turned down the volume pot, but it made no difference. I played one game of pinball, and for whatever reason that managed to temporarily correct the sound problem and put everything back to normal. But hearing that deafening attract mode, after the dying TRON issue, and the Omega Race light bulb fixture fiasco, I wasn't feeling like I was having much good luck out in the Garcade!

The only good twist of luck I had was I managed to get the 906 bulbs that I needed for my T2 machine, and found where they were located in the machine and swapped them out. I LOVE the game with the "hit" effects working! All 8 bulbs were shot and needed to be replaced. I was terrified when having to pull out the upper mirrored glass, so I can see why the techs never replaced those! But that was the one piece of good luck I had.

I'm so happy that my TRON decided to take a dump just before the year that the new movie comes out. :(
 
My TRON spinner has officially stopped working altogether. I checked all of the wires and molex connectors, nothing brought it back. So, I'm guessing it's the optical sensor board that is shot.

Check them for continuity from the optical board to the game boardset. And clean the optical sensors with a q-tip and some alcohol. I don't think I have ever seen an optical board go out.

While checking everything, I figured I would test my "backup board set" that I'd bought in supposed working condition... Well, it doesn't work. The boardset powers up, but you just get a garbled screen. So, I removed those boards and put the original working boardset back in. Well now that boardset isn't booting up. !@#$)(#$)@#$()@#$
Check the ribbon cables on both sets. Wiggle them a bit, and check for cold or cracked solder joints on the header pins. Reseat the chips, clean the edge connectors and make sure the harness is plugged in right. There is an unused connector on the boardset that the harness will plug into, and if I recall correctly you just get a white screen if you plug into it.
 
Check them for continuity from the optical board to the game boardset. And clean the optical sensors with a q-tip and some alcohol. I don't think I have ever seen an optical board go out.

Check the ribbon cables on both sets. Wiggle them a bit, and check for cold or cracked solder joints on the header pins. Reseat the chips, clean the edge connectors and make sure the harness is plugged in right. There is an unused connector on the boardset that the harness will plug into, and if I recall correctly you just get a white screen if you plug into it.


Thanks for the help Sean- I went out and checked the levels going to the optical board, and according to my manual there should be 2 pins separate from the others that are 12V and a ground, and then the first pin after the ground should be 5V. Well, the 12V wire reads ZERO when the game is turned on, and the 5V pin is only at 4.7. So, I have the following questions:

1. should the 12V wire always be hot? or is it off until a certain point?
2. if the 5V connector is only at 4.7, I can turn up the power coming from the PS, but need to know which pot to adjust. There are 2 on it.

Thanks all for the help! Help me save TRON! :(
 
2. if the 5V connector is only at 4.7, I can turn up the power coming from the PS, but need to know which pot to adjust. There are 2 on it.

Thanks all for the help! Help me save TRON! :(

go here, page 17 and 18. it will tell you what pots to adjust. i measure the +5 on the ssio (top board in the board stack) at a rom, you will typically get a bit of a drop on these games between the power board and the pcb.

http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Arca..._Midways_MCR_II_&_III_Systems_(July_1983).pdf
 
Could be worse.

Yesterday, I had 3 machines I wanted to get back up.

SnowBros was a monitor issue... HOT was blown, replaced it... came back up, HOT blew again after about 10 mins.

If the monitor here is a K7000, it might very well be the critical cap. I had one do the same thing and I still haven't gotten around to checking it out and ordering the parts.
 
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