Tempest with Optipac problems...

[newkillergenius]

Added a CPU to a dead Tempest today.
Wired up the optipac to the original spinner...

nothing.

FYI, I did enable 'mouse input' in MAME...anyone have any idea what I might have missed?

Any assistance appreciated.

[mgb]

I think you'd be a lot better off to pot some pics of your wiring and explain a little more of what you did and all that good stuff.

[newkillergenius]

It sucks that I cant post pics at the moment-
Wired the Optipac up correctly as far as I can tell, even tested the board and verified 4.6v and ground, the 2 outside signal wires I put in the y1 & y2 ports, but can get no response.  I also flipped the signal wires and still nothing.  It's pretty clear which wires are G and 5v, and I've got that right, so I'm baffled as to what else it could be.

From what I've read, you pretty much wire it up and enable mouse input, though I can't seem to get anything out of it.  Is there something more specific that could be the issue?

[newkillergenius]

Okay, figured out a way.  (new phone)

Here's the spinner, and the optipac.  (Ground wire black on spinner, but green to Optipac, jumped from harness.)  Anyone see anything wrong?

[spkywlnt73]

Does the spinner work outside of mame? Like does the curser move side to side? If it does, than it could be as simple as going into the mame ini file, and changing a 0, to a 1, in one of the settings!

[newkillergenius]

No, the cursor does not move at any time-

[mgb]

I wonder if the optical sensor could be bad. I don't suppose there's a way you can try it in a working Tempest?

With optical score switches on ticket games, I always use my cell phone camera in order to see if the light source is lit. I'm not sure how easy it would be to see it on a spinners sensor though.

[newkillergenius]

Unfortunately, the Tempest boards have seen their last repair, which is why I went ahead and decided
to run it in MAME.  I left the original boards in there for posterity though- but there's no way I can test the spinner.
It's been in storage so long I can't remember if the spinner was a problem before or not. 

Well, I'm running out of possibilities, and I guess the sensor being bad could be one.
If we were to assume that the optical board/sensor were bad, would I be able to theoretically
replace all of the components on it and expect it to work again?  I don't want to shell out over $50
for a used Tempest spinner...I've already got one!  (b/c who knows what 'untested' could really mean, right?)

[newkillergenius]

So, are we agreed that I guess I'll have to eat a spinner?

 

[mgb]

arcade shops has replacement optic boards
http://www.arcadeshop.com/pics/atari_tb_pcb_os.jpg

They're $14

Are you sure the optipac is good, how about trying a trackball with it or the spinner on another input.

[newkillergenius]

mgb, I doubt the optipac is bad, I just received it new from Andy.  I wish I had another device to try with it.
Thanks for finding that information about the optic boards, this looks like a much less expensive solution, I think I'll give this a try.

 

[mgb]

Yeah you're probably right, I wouldn't expect the optipac to be bad if its brand new. For the fun of it though, you still may wanna try it on another input of the optipac, if you haven't already.

[newkillergenius]

Well, update, bought a replacement optic board from AS, installed it, no change.
Verified 49.v at the solder side of the optic board.