Zaxxon - Voltage Check Please

ArcadeTechGW

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I need a favor - would someone with a Zaxxon check the voltages on the vertical board (not the switcher) behind the transformer?

I'd like to get the voltages from the transformer back please - I need to validate what I have. Some look good, but I have an odd voltage on point 10 (red wire I think) so I'd like to see what someone gets on a working game, before I chuck the boards out to Eldorado.

Thanks in advance for checking / posting your results.

(By transformer back, the rectifier board has wires coming up from the connections starting at takeoff 10 on my power supply, and running back away from the transformer).
 
Figured this one out. The Sega/Bandit drawings stink.

Zaxxon Power Supply connection to Switcher

Step 1: Determine what wire goes where:

Starting on Page 116, you can identify 3 voltages in use at coordinates B-8:

  • 5 volts
  • - 5 volts
  • 12 volts

In addition, there is a common ground to both systems – this is not shown well, but can be seen from the installation in the game.

Moving to Page 117, you get the actual terminal assignments for the current power supply, but no voltages.

Regulator Unit AH-4002

Connection 10 – Lt. Grn wire, to connector D1
Connection 12 – Red wire, to connector D2
Connection 13 – White wire, to connector D3 (Note: On Zaxxon, nothing is connected on the other side of this connector)
Connection 11 – Black wire, to connector D5 AND Switching Regulator 400-0009

Switching Regulator 400-0009:

+5 at 6 Amps to Brown wires, (3 total), to connector pins D7, D8 and D9

Ground – Black (3 wires) to D6, D4, and to Regulator Unit AH-4002, Connection 11

-5 VDC to Pin D1
12 VDC to pin D2

The white wire gets disconnected and left for dead. Nothing used it.

This is submitted for posterity, or for the next poor guy who has to try to figure out how to do this.
 
And the best poor guy is me. I've had Zaxxon sitting out in my garage for over a year now and figured I should start at the power supply, and couldn't even figure out what voltages needed to come out of it. I was getting 2.5V off the white wire and was wondering what that meant. Now I finally know where to check for +5V, as I already verified -5V and 12V are good. I'm thinking I have a problem with the boardset now.

Thanks for posting the wiring pinout!
 
If you have boardset issues, Eldorado Games has them available. Zaxxon wasn't that popular (unless you count games being converted), so there are lots of low time board sets out there.

What are your symptoms? I worked on one for a few hours, before I gave up, shipped the boards to Eldorado, and started with a fresh batch.

Originally, I would get a Ram 2 error, so I replaced both Ram chips. After that, the game would not boot, it would just make firing noises. I tried cleaning the chip legs (all of them) the connectors (all of them), and I still had the same symptoms, so I abandoned boards.

Now it's back up and running, and the customer is happy. Yay!
 
Right now it won't boot and the only thing it does is makes a background sound that sounds like the forcefield sound. I also remember it blinks the LED on the control panel when I hit the fire button.

I'm hoping to get out there tomorrow and work on it a bit more and see it I can get anywhere. I may end up swapping the boardset if I can't get anywhere, thanks for letting me know where to send them off. I haven't done any work on any of my boards of my arcades, so that will probably be the best option.
 
It was very similar to my issue - the game I was working on wouldn't boot or coin, and just made a constant firing issue. Pressing on the ROM and RAM chips made some minor changes, but did not bring up a screen.
 
That's very helpful information on the power supply, thanks. I have a Zaxxon cab that was converted to Champion Baseball long ago (I acquired it this past Summer as a Champion Baseball). The Zaxxon sticker with serial number is still present, as is the control panel (with additional holes for the Champion Baseball button set, and generic ball top stick. No boards, no art, no joystick, no marquee, no bezels. And the cabinet itself is in pretty rough shape.

The original power supply (a weird combination - to my eyes - of transformer, switcher and linear) is still there, and was being used with Champion Baseball. There were a few unused wires and connections, but it appears that Champion Baseball used a similar, if not identical harness.

It also has the original 100v Nanao/Sega MC-2000-S monitor - mounted horizontally on a square wooden frame that can easily be rotated back to vertical. Did all Zaxxons have this rotatable monitor/frame, or do you think this something they did on mine during the conversion?

Right now I'm playing around with using this as a MAME cab, but I'm also considering converting it back to Zaxxon. I already ordered a marquee. So I would still need the boards, stick, buttons, and side art (repro stuff I assume), bezels.

What's a ballpark figure for cash outlay on this you think, assuming all this stuff can even be sourced without too much trouble.
 
I agree the power 'block' is a rather weird combo. I starred at it for about 10 minutes to try and figure out what was going on.

Mine didn't have the original monitor, but it looks like I have the original mount, which appears to be rotatable. It looks like Star Trek also used the same cab which was horizontal and vector.

Boards are available on Eldorado for $150. The bezel in mine is a generic black cutout, which I assume is stock. I'm not sure on the joystick, but I think I'd rather have a standard 8 way ball mount stick anyways, but I can't find much on it other than a new housing for $25 on ebay. I also think there is no repro sideart. Mine is in pretty good condition though and it could be scanned if someone lets me know how to do that properly.

My guess would be around $300-400 assuming you could get ahold of some sideart. As much as I like Zaxxon(and I seem to be one of the few) that sounds like a lot to put into a common and not very loved game. It's also a generic Sega cab, so if I were in your situation I might mame it.
 
Mine didn't have the original monitor, but it looks like I have the original mount, which appears to be rotatable. It looks like Star Trek also used the same cab which was horizontal and vector.

Does yours still have the isolation transformer with 120v & 100v connections and wires? if so I'm guessing the 100v leads must not be connected to anything if it's not the original monitor (unless they pulled the replacement monitor from a Nintendo cab from the same era, of course).


It's also a generic Sega cab, so if I were in your situation I might mame it.

Yeah, I understand that Space Fury was also housed in the same cab. Mine actually has a blacked out Space Fury cardboard monitor bezel - which of course is horizontal. I messed around with the monitor and cab the past couple weekends, along with my MAME PC. I rotated the monitor to vertical, and tried a few games out - including Zaxxon. With the exception of my seemingly non-functional horizontal width coil that won't let me shrink the screen enough to fit everything on it, Zaxxon looked pretty good! I felt a bit like I was walking the cab down memory lane, as it were... kind of like it was "back home again"... Corny I know, but then again, we arcade collectors are a nostalgic lot.
 
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Does yours still have the isolation transformer with 120v & 100v connections and wires? if so I'm guessing the 100v leads must not be connected to anything if it's not the original monitor (unless they pulled the replacement monitor from a Nintendo cab from the same era, of course).

Ahha, that explains the wiring hack in my cab. I didn't realize Sega had used 100V monitor originally and I hadn't traced it out. The isolation transformer is still there, but the lines are spliced into the 120V section for the monitor. As best as I could tell, the monitor in mine was pulled from a Pooyan. It's hard to tell though, the HOT is removed on the chassis and the power input wires are charred at the board. I'm not sure what happened there, but I think I'm going to try and get it working as there is almost no burn on the CRT.


Yeah, I understand that Space Fury was also housed in the same cab. Mine actually has a blacked out Space Fury cardboard monitor bezel - which of course is horizontal. I messed around with the monitor and cab the past couple weekends, along with my MAME PC. I rotated the monitor to vertical, and tried a few games out - including Zaxxon. With the exception of my seemingly non-functional horizontal width coil that won't let me shrink the screen enough to fit everything on it, Zaxxon looked pretty good! I felt a bit like I was walking the cab down memory lane, as it were... kind of like it was "back home again"... Corny I know, but then again, we arcade collectors are a nostalgic lot.

I get it, when I picked up the cab originally my thought was to maybe make it a mame cab, but with everything in place I'll keep it it original. I'll find myself an already converted or generic jamma cab for that project someday. I still think there are enough Zaxxons out there you're better off using it as a mame cab. It can always be converted back to Zaxxon at a later time if you collect parts, and for now as you said, you can still play it when you want, and other single button verticals as well.
 
I'll use it as a MAME cab for now, but slowly acquire the missing Zaxxon parts I need.

Speaking of that, I got the marquee in the mail a couple days ago, and I just picked the full populated control panel with overlay this morning on eBay. Yes, I still have the original control panel, but without the Zaxxon joystick or overlay, and with all the additional drilled holes from it's Champion Baseball days, you wouldn't recognize it.

Basically my goal will be to get the cabinet itself sorted out first, so at least it will look like a Zaxxon (hopefully side art and the monitor bezels won't be too hard to find).

Even if I don't find the boards right away, I could always have it running Zaxxon in MAME.

By the way, last night I took a really close look at the monitor. The Champion Baseball burn-in is most visible. But I definitely see the telltale Zaxxon burn-in too, so I'm pretty well certain this is the original monitor. But it's clear from the levels of burn-in that this cab spent more time as a Champion Baseball than it did as a Zaxxon. Slowly I will right that wrong.
 
A friend of mine is having a problem with a Zaxxon. It's completely dead.
Replaced the power supply with a happ switching. AC wires moved from old +5 supply to the switching ps. +5 and ground wires moved over. -5 (orange) and +12 (red) from the pcb connector snipped and moved to the switching ps. Upon power up, the new switching power supply LED flashed on and off. No image at all on screen although it has glow.

Powered off and disconnected pcb connector. Power on - LED stays lit on ps. Power off - reconnect pcb - LED flashes on then off.
Pulled the pcb and placed it into a known working zaxxon cab with original power supply. Yellow screen - so the pcb is dead, but that doesn't explain the problem with the brand new happ power supply. Am I missing something here or could there be a problem with this brand new switching power supply?
 
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Looked over the wiring again tonight. Everything looks fine. Maybe a bad power supply. There's no reason for that LED to flash on then off after the game is fired up. I didn't take any voltage readings however as I wanted to shut it down before any damage was done to anything.

IMG_5302_zpsy2zzafg3.jpg


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