Street Fighter Cab Restore Question

[FritzsCorner]

I recently went out and picked up my first Arcade cabinet tonight and I had a quick question for you guys before I do anything with it. 

The cabinet looks to be a SF II  Dynamo cabinet from what I have found online.  It has a Street Fighter 3 Alpha board inside and what looks to be a custom oversized X-Men vs Street Fighter marquee. It also came with an X-Men Children of the Atom board as well. 

The cabinet itself is in pretty rough condition but is still solid as a rock so I am hoping a little sanding, bondo, and TLC can bring it back to life.  The guy I picked it up from got it along with 5 other arcade and pinball cabinets last week and is pretty sure it isn't fully working but hasn't plugged it in to verify what all needs to be done.  I am going into this project with a mindset that everything will need to be restored but it would be a nice surprise if it I found some of it worked.  

My questions for you guys are:

- Am I correct in assuming this is a Dynamo cabinet? If so how do I tell what version it is?

- I remember hearing somewhere that I should wait until the system is at room temperature before powering it on.  Currently it is sitting in my 35-40 degree garage until I am able to have one of my friends stop over to help move it into the basement.

- Is there a certain process I should go through to validate what works and what doesn't before I start gutting the cab for restoration?

- Any other tricks/tips I should be aware of when working with a cabinet of this type?

Thanks!

Aaron

*Edit*  Please ignore the X-Arcade joystick box in the background.  I promise it is not going to be used with this cab! 

*Edit 2* I guess it isn't a Dynamo but a Generic 3KOAM "Z-Back" cabinet.  At any rate, It's my only Cab and I want to make it purdy again.

[Furry131]

Yay!! Congrats!! This was my first cab too! Except mine had tekken 3. It's going to be lots of work. When you start to pull off the vinyl get your self a heat gun it will make it go sooooo much faster than sanding. Make sure to be careful around the monitor chassis when you start cleaning it. Might still have some high voltage stored.

Well I'm not much of an expert so I will let the rest answer most of the questions.  But if you need anything let me know and I will try to help.

John

[FritzsCorner]

Thanks for the feedback!  It looks like the monitor might be bad.  I can power it up and hear the PSU fan and the game board fan and see the coin mech lights, but that is about it.  Nothing shows up on the monitor and I don't even see a dull glow.  Been watching videos on arcaderepairtips.com to educate myself a bit.

The good news is now that I have gotten inside the cab, structurally it seems to be in really good shape..

Thanks for the tip on peeling off the vinyl, it sounds like a lot of fun.. 

[Furry131]

Thanks for the feedback!  It looks like the monitor might be bad.  I can power it up and hear the PSU fan and the game board fan and see the coin mech lights, but that is about it.  Nothing shows up on the monitor and I don't even see a dull glow.  Been watching videos on arcaderepairtips.com to educate myself a bit.

The good news is now that I have gotten inside the cab, structurally it seems to be in really good shape..

Thanks for the tip on peeling off the vinyl, it sounds like a lot of fun.. 

Well the monitor might not be dead yet. Can you hear any sound when you turn on the monitor. It might not even be hooked up. Check all your wires inside the cabinet. It might be something easy. Hopefully.  Something might be loose.  I had that problem when i got mine. But who knows.  Be careful poking around the monitor.
Have you figured out how to open the control panel yet?
 Just curious. Where are you located?

Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions on here. Everyone here is very nice.  Don't forget about the search option. Lots of good stuff out there. Is you need pictures of something on the cab let me know. I'm willing to help because so many has helped me

[FritzsCorner]

I am pretty sure I have all the cables plugged in but I don't hear anything coming from the monitor.  I went out to take a closer look and took a few more pictures and what I saw didn't look good. (Other than all the dust!)  Seems like the connection from the Monitor to the circuit board may be cracked.. not sure what to call it

I did figure out how to open the control panel thanks to the videos on arcaderepairtips   I also like how the main game board slides out the front for easy access. 

I am located in Omaha, NE.

Thanks for the info!

*Edit* looks like maybe I was the one who cracked/broke it.. Looking at the photo's I have in the first post I don't see the same damage..  Not sure if that is even the root cause but I am hoping the monitor is salvageable still.  It doesn't look to have any major burn-in and it is quite a nice size. 

[Furry131]

Well that crack is not good. You may want to post over in the monitor section and they might be able to help you out. Did you unplug your rgb connector on the right of the monitor board?  Looked like it was there in the first set of pics but its not the there now.

[FritzsCorner]

yes, I unplugged all the cables after discharging the monitor that already seemed to be completely discharged.  I took the second set of photos afterwards.  I will try asking over in the monitor section to see what they have to say.  Thanks again!

[paigeoliver]

That little separation shouldn't matter if the glass isn't cracked and none of the pins are broken off. I have had the socket try to come off like that on lots of monitors.

You need to test your power supply voltages. Buy a multimeter if you don't already have one.

[FritzsCorner]

So I tested the AC Input and verified it was ~120 volt.  I have a PSU with a 9 Pin Molex connector for DC and a 3 Pin for AC.  The AC Output reads at 120 volt but when I tested the DC Output I got nothing.  I also tested the fuse for continuity and that worked fine.  Like I said earlier, I do hear the Capcom game board (is that what it's called?) fan spin up, the Marquee light powers on, and the coin mech lights turn on.  Does this mean they run on AC? If so I thought it was the opposite for some reason.

Just to make sure I am not insane, I have included the pictures of my power supply pin-out and Molex connecters labeled with I believe to be the proper pin-out.  Am I missing something?  Or is it just that the PSU is junk, AC works and DC doesn't?
 

[paigeoliver]

When people say check your voltages they generally mean your DC voltages, most specifically 5 volts at the board. You can also fry a working power supply by turning it on with no board hooked up, so lets hope you didn't do that.

[FritzsCorner]

You can also fry a working power supply by turning it on with no board hooked up, so lets hope you didn't do that.

I hope so too.   I guess I should not play with magic I do not understand.   

So when you say

most specifically 5 volts at the board

Where exactly do you mean?  The CP System II board, the Monitor board, or someplace else all together? 

*Edit*  After doing a bit more searching around I am pretty sure you were referring to the monitor board, or whatever it's called.  I took a reading from here as well and still show nothing.  Added a picture below of where I *think* I am supposed to be checking the voltages at. 

Not sure if this is good news or not but after I plug everything back in I have exactly the same result as before with the CP System II board fan spinning up and the coin mech and marquee lights power on.  I also hear what seems to be the speaker getting power from the amp. 

Thanks again for all your help.. I really do appreciate it!

[jasonl2972]

This might have nothing to do with the problem,but its one that got me before in the past so i'll pass it along to check.On some cabs there is a push button switch attached near the rear panel and sometimes another on the coin door.It cuts the power to some things such as the monitor (i assume for safety reasons) when either a coin door is opened or the back panel is removed and the machine is powered up.They are usually white,atleast the ones i've run into.
 Now all you guys don't jump on me for suggesting that,i only suggest it because i have had 2 cabs that had switchs like that that would cut the power on me if the back panel was not on and pressing the button to make the connection.Not even sure if its something that actually is supposed to be on cabs but i found 2 with them in my travels so far.
 Anyways,just look and make sure,ya never know.

[FritzsCorner]

I went and took a look but didn't see any other push buttons.  I was hoping it was something as simple as that.    my cab just has one master switch that runs directly to the PSU. 

I appreciate the Tip Jason.

[paigeoliver]

I mean at the game board. If the game board has test points you test for +5 volts at the test points.

If it doesn't then the easy beginner way is to test for +5 at the edge connector itself.

[FritzsCorner]

Thanks.. I am not sure if the CPS II Boards have test points or not.  I will take a look tonight.

[Furry131]

I mean at the game board. If the game board has test points you test for +5 volts at the test points.

If it doesn't then the easy beginner way is to test for +5 at the edge connector itself.

Fritz and I are going to face time tonight for a little bit so I can help him trouble shoot. Hopefully we can figure out the power issue.  I'm sure we will be on later asking for advise.  Lol

[FritzsCorner]

Furry and I took a look at my system tonight and we made some progress.  Once I was educated on how to properly use a multimeter we were able to determine I was getting the correct voltages at the board. We then went around and verified we were getting 120 at the monitor so the PSU seems to be fine.  There was one wire on the monitor board that wasn't plugged into anything (Pictured below) that we were able to find a home for on the neck board by comparing it to his system and still nothing.  We then realized there was a fuse all the way at the back of the monitor and it was blown.  It was a 2amp fuse so I went and got a few replacements but unfortunately as soon as I power on the system the fuse blows.  I did a little digging and found this article from about 8 years ago with someone that seemed to have a similar issue but the thread went stale without any followup.  http://forums.arcade-museum.com/archive/index.php/t-11918.html

Any ideas on what I should check? 

Thanks again Furry for taking time out of your day to help me out!  Next time I am out your way I will have to buy you a few beers! 

[Furry131]

Ok Aaron sounds like a short.  I did a little research and I found this thread over at klov.  It has a section about blown fuses.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=134818

Also here is the manual for the monitor

http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Monitors/Wells%20Gardner%20K7000%20Manual.pdf

Sounds like your gunna need to pull your monitor.

I think this would help out a lot.

Glad I could help. Next time your in town we will have to make our way to 1up!

[FritzsCorner]

Great stuff!  I have been doing some research tonight trying to become familiar with how things work and was actually looking for the manual when you posted this. 

I was looking at what lilshawn was saying on the other thread

sounds like the HOT or the Regulator is toasted.

So I had been looking for the location of the HOT and the Regulator for quite a while and am glad you found the service manual.  I figured I was going to have to pull the monitor out so I plan on doing that tomorrow night. Do I need power to the monitor to test the HOT and Regulator?

*Edit* It looks like the regulator is on IC4 Pins 1-4 and the HOT is at Q11.. That flow chart and Diagram really helps out  

Thanks again!

[Furry131]

I had been looking for the location of the HOT for quite a while so I am glad you found the service manual.  I believe the HOT is Q11 that I have circled on the diagram below.  I figured I was going to have to pull the monitor out so I plan on doing that tomorrow night. I don't need power to the monitor to test if the HOT is shorted do I? 

Thanks again!

Not sure i would ask the monitor guys. I would assume you need power. I saw over on your other tread about lighting up a light bulb with your board. So I think you need power

[FritzsCorner]

Yeah I am pretty sure of that too.. I responded to the other thread http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,129583.msg1326007.html#msg1326007 just to make sure I am doing things properly.  I really hate bouncing back between the two threads but I guess this is part of the restoration process. 

Assuming I am able to make progress and actually get power back to the monitor I thought I would look into putting in a new Cap Kit as well.  I found a nice "Cap Map" over at the Antelope Arcade forums when reading through this thread: http://antelopearcade.com/forum/yaf_postst6_Basic-monitor-information---how-to-ask-good-questions--Read-this-first.aspx  with the cap map located here: http://antelopearcade.com/files/Monitor%20Cap%20Maps/K7000_CAP_MAP.pdf which should come in handy if/when I get to that point.  I see that replacing the flyback on this monitor is also a common task so I am trying to prepare myself for that as well, although I really haven't found a good guide on that as of yet. 

I did take your advice and ordered a heat gun to help remove the painted over vinyl and that should be arriving later today. I figured that if I run into a dead-end on the monitor and need to step back and clear my head for a bit I can switch gears and start focusing on the cabinet restoration. 

I think I am going to turn in for the night now.. I think my brain has reached maximum capacity with all the forum posts and guides I have read tonight on arcade monitors.   

[Furry131]

Yeah I am pretty sure of that too.. I responded to the other thread http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,129583.msg1326007.html#msg1326007 just to make sure I am doing things properly.  I really hate bouncing back between the two threads but I guess this is part of the restoration process. 

I think since you know it is your monitor issue, I would just post over there until you do something that is not monitor related. That way you are not double posting.

Assuming I am able to make progress and actually get power back to the monitor I thought I would look into putting in a new Cap Kit as well.  I found a nice "Cap Map" over at the Antelope Arcade forums when reading through this thread: http://antelopearcade.com/forum/yaf_postst6_Basic-monitor-information---how-to-ask-good-questions--Read-this-first.aspx  with the cap map located here: http://antelopearcade.com/files/Monitor%20Cap%20Maps/K7000_CAP_MAP.pdf which should come in handy if/when I get to that point.  I see that replacing the flyback on this monitor is also a common task so I am trying to prepare myself for that as well, although I really haven't found a good guide on that as of yet. 

I would do as much repair as possible while you have the board out and such. Cap Kits are very cheap. One other option that you have is you could put in a CRT TV in there while you decide if you want to repair your monitor.  Here are a few good threads to read about. The Sony TV that they talk about in there is really easy to find and cheap if not free on craigslist and such. You might just need to decase it to get in your cab. But might be an option while you try to fix your monitor. or a perminate fix.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,121491.0.html   <~~~~monitor walk through
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,123378.0.html    <~~~~ hooking up PCB to TV.

I did take your advice and ordered a heat gun to help remove the painted over vinyl and that should be arriving later today. I figured that if I run into a dead-end on the monitor and need to step back and clear my head for a bit I can switch gears and start focusing on the cabinet restoration. 

Its probably smart to do that. you will pull your hair out if you concentrate on just one thing.  If you have any pawn shops around check them out too for tools and such. Usually you can find some pretty nice tools there for very cheap.  If you don't already have one, get an orbital sander!. much better than a square hand sander. I saw a dewalt sander at a pawnshop the other day for 15 buck that look like it was in good shape. Saw the same one at home depot for 75 bucks.

I think I am going to turn in for the night now.. I think my brain has reached maximum capacity with all the forum posts and guides I have read tonight on arcade monitors.   

[FritzsCorner]

I think since you know it is your monitor issue, I would just post over there until you do something that is not monitor related. That way you are not double posting.

I am taking your advice and will keep my monitor question posts in the other thread.  Lilshawn has been very helpful with breaking things down so even I can understand.. I think.   I may be getting in over my head but if I want to learn I have to be willing to get my hands dirty! 

I would do as much repair as possible while you have the board out and such. Cap Kits are very cheap.

I would tend to agree, depending on how my troubleshooting goes, and if my confidence level is high enough, I might just take that leap. 

One other option that you have is you could put in a CRT TV in there while you decide if you want to repair your monitor.

I am actually kicking myself now.  I had a perfect Sony 25" Sony Trinitron I gave away last March. I am thinking it should be easy to find one for free through my works BB though.

I just got the heat gun today and plan on starting to strip the cabinet down this weekend when I am not busy sitting on ---my bottom--- watching football. 

I know I told you this already but it really pain's me to actually be rooting for the Bronco's. As a life long Colt's fan I can't help but root for Peyton Manning to win.  The Bronco's have always been one of the 4 teams I would always root against, simply because I didn't like Elway growing up.  Childish I know.  I dislike the Patriots for a very similar reason, Tom Brady  . 

I better stop myself now since this is an Arcade forum not a football forum...  and with that I think I will be turning in for the night once again.   

*Edit* I find it funny that the forum automatically changes my choice of words to --my bottom-- 

[Malenko]

I dislike the Patriots for a very similar reason, Tom Brady  .

*Edit* I find it funny that the forum automatically changes my choice of words to --my bottom-- 

Agreed about Brady, and you can turn off the language filter in your preferences, its just on by default.

[FritzsCorner]

So I decided to take a quick break from my monitor troubles and start stripping down the cabinet to begin the restoration. For the most part it is in fairly good condition but I noticed something I completely missed before.  It looks like the right hand side of the cabinet that the control panel housing mounts to was "repaired" at one time using bondo or something similar. The T-molding was stuck in this section and also had a small chunk missing. (Picture attached)  I was going to strip the vinyl tomorrow and begin patching up any holes and dents but not sure how I am going to tackle repairing the prior patch job. Additionally one of the corners at the base of the cabinet has a chunk missing that I will need to patch. 

Right now for the control panel area I was going to try and make up some sort of a jig out of a piece of plastic sheeting or something firm that will bend around the corner to act as a guide or a mold of some sort and start putting down thin layers of bond to build it up.  For the bottom corner I would do something similar. 

Anyone had any experience doing anything similar to this?  Is this a good approach to take? 

Thanks!

[Furry131]

Blue masking tape worked great for me.   The bondo sets very fast. Just do a few layers you can sand off the extra bondo and form it however you want.

[FritzsCorner]

After it hardens can you cut the slot for the T-molding with a router?  Or I am wondering if I could just put a spacer the width of the slot and remove it after the bondo hardens.. If it would even come out.. 

It's been a rough day.. I was really pulling for the Broncos..  The ravens knocked out my Colts last week so I hated to watch them knock out an ex-colt this week.

[Furry131]

Yeah bondo can be cut with a router. You can get a slot cutter for your router.  I just used my drimmel to cut a a slot free hand. Once I took off the tape I just used my sander to shape.

I was at the game freezing my arse off. Very sad!

[FritzsCorner]

Blue masking tape worked great for me.

I will give using tape a shot.. in the meantime it was a bit too cold in the garage so I decided to spend some time stripping down the control panel.  The heat gun made this job SO much easier.  Glad you suggested that. 

I forgot to take the "Before" pictures but once I took off the cracked Plexi, the ripped overlay, and the remnants of a previous overlay, I used the heat gun to strip off the paint and then used my sander to do my best to bring it down to the bare metal. 

I have been doing some thinking about what I want to do with the control panel and thought I would post a picture of my CP with a few very poorly drawn circles where I would like to add additional buttons.  Currently the CP has the standard SF II layout.  I was thinking of adding 3 additional buttons per player, two option buttons in each corner, and pinball buttons on each side of the CP. 

Once I decide on my CP layout I need to start thinking about what I want to do for my CPO overlay.  I was thinking about sticking with the SF II theme but it's not set in stone. 

*Edit* I have decided against modifying the control layout and will stick with the standard SF II configuration it has now.

I am also going to need to replace the Plexi as the old one is cracked and scratched. I have never worked with Plexi before so I am not sure how difficult it will be to do this myself.

I am not going to add a trackball or spinner to this cab as I am in the process of building a bartop that will have these features. 

[Furry131]

Ok I guess my question for you is what is your final plan for this machine? Are you going to put a pcb back in there and restore it? or are you planning to mame it?  I assume you want to mame it if you are putting option buttons on there.

[FritzsCorner]

Ok I guess my question for you is what is your final plan for this machine? Are you going to put a pcb back in there and restore it? or are you planning to mame it?

That's my dilemma, I really wanted to do a restore and put the PCB back in, but I am not very confident in my ability to fix that arcade monitor. Additionally, I really have no idea if either the SF3 Alpha or X-Men Jamma boards are working.  I am going to continue to try getting the monitor to work, but my wife isn't very happy with having that cabinet in the garage so I need to get it out of there as soon as possible. In the meantime I was going to put a 25" TV in it's place as you mentioned earlier and use an original XBox with CoinOPS 5 and Vision as the "Mame" box. I really didn't want to put any more of a major investment (at this time) into purchasing a PCB RGB transcoder.  The nice part about using a TV is that I could hook the Xbox up directly to it without any modifications.  I was also thinking about parting the X-Arcade joystick I have, and using the control board and xbox encoder for the control panel hookup, and purchase all new joysticks and buttons.  I was going to use this all for the guts of the Bartop I am building but at this point I really want to get my full size cab up and running and get it out of the garage so I can can get my car back in there for the winter months.

If I do decide to go the "Mame" route, I still want to have the option of going back to the PCB If I am ever able to get the arcade monitor working. I still have the Jamma harness, and all the other parts where I could easily convert it back. The guy I bought the cabinet from has several extra Dynamo control panels like the one I have here that he sells pretty cheap so I could easily go back to the PCB. For this reason I want to stick with the SF theme for the cabinet restoration.

[FritzsCorner]

So I got to thinking about how I could go with the "Mame" route using my Xbox but still use the original CP layout to make it even easier to go back to the PCB.  I really only need the extra button's for player one in order to control CoinOPs, so I was thinking I could wire up the two coin reject button's using one as the "back" button used for "insert coin" and the other as the small black button used to move between different menu's.  I am thinking I could do without the 10th button. Just brainstorming right now, but I think that could work.

[FritzsCorner]

Expanding on my prior post of using the standard SF II control panel layout with my xbox "Mame" box, I have posted a quick video to youtube of what I have done so far.

 

I took some time tonight to get the control panel all wired up using the Happ buttons I reclaimed from the cabinet along with the X-arcade joysticks (To be replaced with something better) and xbox controller interface.  I temporarily wired up an extra Happ button to use as the insert coin button until I can wire it up to the coin reject button when it goes into the cabinet.  On the xbox I have VISION installed which is kind of a HyperSpin-esque dashboard for the Xbox.  I am running a slightly older version than what is currently available but it still works fantastic. 

More info on VISION here:  http://coinopsproject.freeforums.org/index.php?sid=19aff30ae8785b18c4f41a05cd637d84 

[FritzsCorner]

I was able to get a 27" Panasonic TV for free and spent the evening removing the case and mounting the chassis.  I got everything to fit but had to make a few modifications.  I think it turned out looking pretty good.  I have to go back and remove everything now so I can start refinishing the cabinet.  I also spent some time getting my workbench setup so I could work on the WG K7000 monitor outside of the cabinet. Hoping to make some progress on that this week too. 

[Furry131]

I was able to get a 27" Panasonic TV for free and spent the evening removing the case and mounting the chassis.  I got everything to fit but had to make a few modifications.  I think it turned out looking pretty good.  I have to go back and remove everything now so I can start refinishing the cabinet.  I also spent some time getting my workbench setup so I could work on the WG K7000 monitor outside of the cabinet. Hoping to make some progress on that this week too.

  Yay!  So now you can at least concentrate on bringing the cabinet back to life and play games.   You will still get that other monitor fixed and working I'm sure.  If you could would you take a picture of your new monitor when you get it out? I would like to see how you de-cased it and mounted it in the cab.

[FritzsCorner]

Sure. It is just sitting in there right now as I need to cut a new top mount board before I bolt it on. It is a bit wider so i had to modify the monitor mount bracket from the arcade monitor and cut slots on either side of the cabinet monitor framing so it can sit in flush.  I removed the arcade chassis mount from the monitor bracket as it was too small for the TV chassis. I used the small black feet from my gutted x-arcade CP as standoffs/risers to mount the new chassis to the back of the cab right above where the PSU mounts.  I will post the pics later this week.

[FritzsCorner]

I had a bit more time this weekend to work on the cabinet.  I used the heat gun to remove all the vinyl, replaced the condenser on the light fixture so that the lamp works, and started patching up some of the gouges in the wood.  It's hard to tell exactly what I did in the pictures for mounting the monitor, but here are the pictures as promised. I threw in a couple more pictures of the cabinet as well just for fun. 

[FritzsCorner]

Spent the day sanding and priming the cabinet and control panel.  It took about 3 coats of primer on the cabinet but it's starting to look good. 

I also went on a parts shopping spree last night.  I took to e-bay and was able to get an original SF II CE Marquee for $18 shipped.  I have also been looking for a SF II CE CPO on ebay for the past few days but had no luck so I bought one from gameongrafix.com  http://www.gameongrafix.com/products/streetfighter-2-champion-edition-cpo  It was a bit more than I was hoping to spend, but I guess I am just a bit impatient for one to show up on ebay.   In addition to the CPO and Marquee, I ordered the SF II CE side art decals and black 3/4" T-Molding.  If all goes well I am hoping to have this cabinet finished up in about a few weeks, I know my wife will appreciate me getting this mess cleaned up.  That is, until I continue with my bartop build I put on hold for this project.   

*Edit*  Just wanted to add that my plan is to only have the Xbox in here temporarily and I am looking for a good SF II CE Jamma board so that in the event that I get the WG K7000 working or I just buy an RGB Transcoder, I can easily convert the cabinet back making this a true restoration.  The xbox is meant for the bartop that I am working on after all.  I have yet to put up a project announcement for it but I thought I would post a picture of what I have done here just for the heck of it. 

[Malenko]

I PM'ed you about the Xmen and SF game boards, I have a regular SF2:WW PCB I could give you in trade. its a known good working PCB:

[FritzsCorner]

I received the Marquee, the T-Molding, and the Side Decals over the past couple days.  Just waiting on the CPO to get here.  I put the Marquee in and it fits and looks great.  Tomorrow I plan on getting the cabinet painted and the T-Molding installed.  Looking forward to getting this cabinet done!  It's been a lot of fun so far.