Today's installment is unfortunately going to be pretty much all text, because I haven't been taking any pics of this game. (I honestly never expected it to become part of this section if that is any indication) I have been working on this game on and off for a few months at a friends, and it's just been one of those games that I knew I didn't want to work on right from the start. (I think I've used the words "bain of my existence" on more than one occasion when talking about this game among friends) This thread will be an on-going saga as things progress and I will update it as things develop, but let me give you some of the back story...
This game was purchased in a complete project state. What I mean by this is the previous owner at some point decided he would attempt to resurrect this game, shop it out and do whatever with it after that. The reason I wasn't thrilled about tackling this one is the game was already partially disassembled by the time the current owner got his hands on it. The topside of the PF was almost completely torn down. The underside of the PF had 98% of the bulbs removed, flipper coils had been cut out, some of the mechs hanging by the wires, some mechs are missing, some mechs are missing pieces here and there. The good thing is the BG is great, the cab is ok, and the PF is decent. Now according to the previous owner, most of the parts that he removed *should* be in one of the many bags of parts and pieces that accompanied this machine, but I'm pretty sure he didn't remove everything that is missing. Nothing is labelled or sorted, just a big pile-o-parts. The game wouldn't power up because it required a new PS board, but it came with two MPU's one of which was apparently tested working at some point, but not by me or the new owner. Sounds like good times right? You can imagine my enthusiasm for this project. :FP:
So first things first, we replace the power supply PCB with one of Jim's @ Rottendog Amusements because we like Jim and he makes good stuff. (Ed @ GPE's version of this board is also fantastic but not always available) I don't have any pics of this process on this game, but I will be posting pics of replacing this same PCB on another upcoming thread, so not to worry. Basically remove one wire at a time from the back of the original PCB and swap it over to the new PCB, and then mount it into the original location in the game. Power it up with ONLY the J2 connected and test all of the voltage test points to verify everything is good, which it was. Then the best thing to do is replace and re-pin the 3 connectors that attach to this board, as I have yet to see a game that doesn't require this. Do this one pin at a time to minimize mis-wiring the new connectors, and pics help with checking your work when done.
Once the re-pinning was complete, only connect J2 and J1 on the power supply, and J3 and J4 on the solenoid driver PCB. All other connectors in the head should still be disconnected. The voltages used to power the 12v and 5v on the MPU go through the driver PCB first and you want to ensure these are all correct before powering up the MPU. During this portion I found the high voltage section of the driver PCB (to power the displays) had an issue. There are two Hi-Voltage test points on the driver, and these two should measure different (TP4 around 240V and TP2 under 200V) but when something fails in this section of the PCB (which is often) they test at the same voltage, and in this case they were. First thing to check and adjust is the trim pot which I verified was the failed component. Given its age and original quality being low, it literally fell apart when I adjusted it. Replaced it with a standard single turn pot and it solved our HV section issue. Dialed the pot in so the test points were 240V and 180V. TP1 and TP3 came in at around 5VDC and TP5 around the 12VDC mark. With the other voltages on the driver checking out ok, it was time to connect J4 on the MPU to see if the game would boot.
I will continue this post with what happened after connecting the MPU a little later on… (This game should have been called "Tits and Balls" btw, and I will definitely be adding some pics)
D
This game was purchased in a complete project state. What I mean by this is the previous owner at some point decided he would attempt to resurrect this game, shop it out and do whatever with it after that. The reason I wasn't thrilled about tackling this one is the game was already partially disassembled by the time the current owner got his hands on it. The topside of the PF was almost completely torn down. The underside of the PF had 98% of the bulbs removed, flipper coils had been cut out, some of the mechs hanging by the wires, some mechs are missing, some mechs are missing pieces here and there. The good thing is the BG is great, the cab is ok, and the PF is decent. Now according to the previous owner, most of the parts that he removed *should* be in one of the many bags of parts and pieces that accompanied this machine, but I'm pretty sure he didn't remove everything that is missing. Nothing is labelled or sorted, just a big pile-o-parts. The game wouldn't power up because it required a new PS board, but it came with two MPU's one of which was apparently tested working at some point, but not by me or the new owner. Sounds like good times right? You can imagine my enthusiasm for this project. :FP:
So first things first, we replace the power supply PCB with one of Jim's @ Rottendog Amusements because we like Jim and he makes good stuff. (Ed @ GPE's version of this board is also fantastic but not always available) I don't have any pics of this process on this game, but I will be posting pics of replacing this same PCB on another upcoming thread, so not to worry. Basically remove one wire at a time from the back of the original PCB and swap it over to the new PCB, and then mount it into the original location in the game. Power it up with ONLY the J2 connected and test all of the voltage test points to verify everything is good, which it was. Then the best thing to do is replace and re-pin the 3 connectors that attach to this board, as I have yet to see a game that doesn't require this. Do this one pin at a time to minimize mis-wiring the new connectors, and pics help with checking your work when done.
Once the re-pinning was complete, only connect J2 and J1 on the power supply, and J3 and J4 on the solenoid driver PCB. All other connectors in the head should still be disconnected. The voltages used to power the 12v and 5v on the MPU go through the driver PCB first and you want to ensure these are all correct before powering up the MPU. During this portion I found the high voltage section of the driver PCB (to power the displays) had an issue. There are two Hi-Voltage test points on the driver, and these two should measure different (TP4 around 240V and TP2 under 200V) but when something fails in this section of the PCB (which is often) they test at the same voltage, and in this case they were. First thing to check and adjust is the trim pot which I verified was the failed component. Given its age and original quality being low, it literally fell apart when I adjusted it. Replaced it with a standard single turn pot and it solved our HV section issue. Dialed the pot in so the test points were 240V and 180V. TP1 and TP3 came in at around 5VDC and TP5 around the 12VDC mark. With the other voltages on the driver checking out ok, it was time to connect J4 on the MPU to see if the game would boot.
I will continue this post with what happened after connecting the MPU a little later on… (This game should have been called "Tits and Balls" btw, and I will definitely be adding some pics)
D
