Final week! I'm shooting for Friday to be put on location (aka my living room). That is, fully functional, lookin' and sounding good. The wiring isn't going to be completely clean, and the coin doors aren't going to be fully functional, but that's fine, I'll do the best I can but the idea is to have this playable and looking fresh by Friday night.
After being able to peel away from the multiple family gatherings, I was able to make a bunch of progress this weekend, and hit my goal of having the cabinet fully wired with power and running the PCB on the monitor.
Did some spray painting on the CP, Power Block panel, and some bolts for mounting the marquee brackets:
I like painted undersides of a CP, as well as having the joystick holes blackened. The marquee bracket bolts were rusted to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- , so I threw them into the drill chuck and hit it with some fine grit sandpaper before painting them.
Power block has been rebuilt (and yes, I like my pink screwdriver):
I salvaged the old isolation transformer, and EMI filter as they rarely go bad from my experience, but the fuse blocks were cracked and falling apart so I got new ones.
Originally this PSU block had 4 fuses, 1 for the monitor, 1 for the florence lamp, and 2 for the switching PSU. I removed the PSU fuses because with newer switcher technology today, overprotection is a lot better handled by the PSU and you don't need that extra fuses mudding up the works.
The wiring in this cabinet was pretty hacked up, but I don't have the time to recreate it from scratch, so I cleaned up the original wiring, repaired/replaced broken connectors and patched some of the frayed wires. The JAMMA harness also needed updating to support button 3 since TMNT/Simpsons only had Buttons 1 & 2, and the JAMMA loom didn't even have those pins installed:
All installed into the cab, along with the PCB:
The wiring follows the original set-up, along with door switch and main power switch at the top of the cab.
I still got to properly install the Ground Braid, and throw some more tie-downs into the cab for cleaner organization and sturdiness when moving this thing around.
After testing it one last time with my CraftyMech TPG, I plugged in the X-men PCB and voila, it lives!
I did a bit more Convergence and Focus tuning to get it a bit more sharp. I'll probably do one more pass before the party to get the image as crisp as possible, but I'm happy that it's all properly working right now:
FINAL STRETCH!
The 5-day plan this week is as follows:
Tonight - Apply ArtworkSide Art, CPO and Marquee should be arriving this afternoon. I plan on installing the the Sides and Marquee tonight, along with the T-molding. And yes, I'm going to do it with the CRT and PSU block in the cabinet. I'm trying to save time here, so I'll make sure everything is fastened down securely when I lay it on it's sides. While it's laying down I'll install the new leg levelers as well.
Tuesday - Control Panel workDrill the holes for the buttons. Install the threaded inserts for the joys. Apply artwork, and t-molding. Repair the existing control looms, including the "Alternate Harnesses" for P3 and P4, and get all the temp controls wired up while I wait for the new joysticks and buttons to arrive.
Note: in hindsight I should have paid for quicker shipping from TwistedQuarter. They use FedEx SmartPost for their default shipping which TAKES FOREVER to arrive. My order shipped last Tuesday, and won't be here till this Friday -- domestic shipping!
Wednesday - Monitor Plexi and Bezel/Shroud Since I couldn't find a replacement bezel/shroud to buy from someone, I'm going to cut one out of poster board and use that as a temporary solution until I can get my hands on an original bezel. I'm going to take queues from Centipede's shroud, since I like the look of it and it doesn't seem to difficult to create:
Also, I looked into plexiglas prices recently and holy smokes! Plexi prices have gone up over the years. For the size I need, I'd have to buy a sheet, and sheets are going for $160+ around these parts. That's too much for me to spend on this right now, and since I have some Novus laying around I'm going to try to buff out the scratches on the original monitor plexi that came with the cab.
Thursday - Coin Door assembly and installI got all the parts I need for the "facade" of the coin door, but not for functionality. I'm going to have small pushbuttons sitting in the coin return chutes, temporarily, then after the party I'll task myself to finishing off the coin doors to be fully functional.
Friday - Controls Swap, Final touches and Smoke TestMy Twisted Quarter order should be here on Friday, so I'll just do a quick swap to get them onto the completely wired CP. After testing the controls, I'll then do one last convergence and image tuning. Then, a final wipe down of the cabinet, light polish of the plexi pieces, before letting the game run for a few hours to see how it does for prolonged play. So far I've only run the current power set-up for about an hour, but it really needs a proper smoke test.
If all goes to plan, this should just be "finished" for Saturday's festivities.