| Arcade Collecting > Restorations & repair |
| Centipede restoration - My first - There will be plenty of pics |
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| bperkins01:
I DO have the flat T-Molding... I noticed that but have't really gotten that far. I would be interested in getting some And I just made a donation so I can see the thread. I've already got more than my donation work of value with the downloaded schematics, etc.. |
| bperkins01:
Actually - I thought it was flat.. my T-molding has a crown to it.. Now I wonder - was the original rounded or flat? (new thing to research) |
| bperkins01:
Control Panel and Coin Door Both need some work.... This is not a Centipede control panel if you ask me... The Original overlay was under this black stuff and they added a third button as a coin button. The trackball barely rolled and the fire button was way to stiff for my liking.. Step 1: Take it all apart. I got some closeups so that I know how it goes back together - but the coin switch is going away.. It's amazing the trackballs haven't changed at all.. this is nearly identical to the new one I purchased for my Mame cabinet. Explains why the trackball didn't roll. I got a rebuild kit from arcadeshop.com The new bearings had some lube in them that was a little sticky for my liking. I soaked all of them in WD40 to loosen them up and reassembled the track ball.. Its cleaned and ready to roll. The control panel overlay got peeled off. The original was under the black one and you can see where it was torn away by the rust stain at the trackball opening. Getting this sticky mess off took a while. I couldn't find my heat gun - so I used a chemical stripper to get it down to bare metal. Of course I found my heat gun about an hour after I finished.. It took a couple of hours to get the paint, sticky backing glue, etc. off. Overall these are pretty solid panels. What to do about the coin button hole. My goal was to not have it pop out after the new CP overlay is in place (i.e. Don't just fill with Bondo). I considered a welding shop to fill it. But figured I'd try soldering in my own patch first.. To begin - I sanded the paint off the inside and used a countersink bit to bevel the inside and outside of the hole so there would be center ridge for the filler to grab onto.. I got a small square of scrap steel, cleaned it up, added flux and clamped it in place. Heated it up with a torch and got the solder to flow. I was a bit surprised it actually worked.. After that I sanded it all down smooth. There will not be any pressure to this small spot. I like knowing that I should not have any issues with it popping out or impressioning through the new overlay. There were a few areas that I wasn't crazy about and a skim coat of bondo was worth the effort. Mostly pitting and the area where the hole got filled had a tiny bit of distortion. Sanded down it came to this. And painted - ready for the new overlay. All those years of playing Centipede - I had no idea this was the extent of the fire button technology. A $1.99 button. The new one is identical and not nearly as stiff as the original. The coin door is a little dinged up - I haven't decided if I'm going to repaint it or not just yet. There is a lot of wiring compared to the Mame coin door I have. Coin counters, solenoids that deflect coins when the machine is powered off (took me a minute to figure that out..) A slam switch (equals tilt on a pinball machine) I looked that up to see what it was supposed to do.. Keeps you from kicking the machine to get free credits.. dam kids! Issues with my coin mechanism: No coin mechanisms arcadeshop.com had the ones I needed. I also ordered LED bulbs to replace the coin eject ones. Something that I thought was going to be impossible to find.. I found.. When the prior owner bypassed the coin 1 switch - they removed the switch and this little bracket that the switch is mounted too.. For no good reason.. Luckily I found The Arcade Boneyard They had this little part (and the switch) needed to make coin slot 1 fully functional again. My plan is this machine will use quarters (at least for now) Coin slot 1 ready for wire connectors. More to come.. |
| Arroyo:
Nice work! You are moving quick. That hole fill and paint job are excellent. Looking forward to the next updates. |
| bperkins01:
This will all be old news to the experienced guys - but its my first time through a restoration so hopefully some other noob to this will get something useful.. I've been jumping all over the cabinet and messing with different parts. My plan is to go through the machine and each component... It's fun (to me anyway) to learn how to make sure everything is working properly. Understanding how it all works when its functioning correctly makes it easier to figure out whats happening when something goes wrong. First up is the what is known as the "Power Brick" Here is a bad picture of it: And after a bath in the kitchen to clean out all the crud. The large capacitor below (called Big Blue) is a new one. Pretty much every video says spend the $14 and replace what is there so you don't have any issues. Mine was the original from 1981. So It got replaced. I supposed technically it is the first part of an arcade machine that I have ever recapped... But does it count if its not even soldered?... It has a couple of screws that hold the leads connections in place. In the lower right corner - there is a rectifier. It consists of 4 diodes connected back to back. I did learn you need to disconnect the wires before testing with your meter. Otherwise you will get false readings. Testing diodes with a meter is very well documented - but essentially - you get about .5V in with the leads on one way and 0V if you reverse the leads. Work your way around the rectifier and the pattern repeats on all 4 sides. Otherwise replace it. The last part of testing the power brick is actually plugging it in and checking voltages at the Molex connectors. This site had very useful information: bitslicer I used this graphic to create my test chart: There are a number of YouTube videos on testing these - but I didn't find a actual test plan written down. The one item you need to address to *actually* bench test the power brick is the 6 pin Molex connector. Its the connector between the power cord and the rest of the power supply and cabinet. This connector is where the interlock switches terminate - these are the switches on the coin door and back panel that shut off the machine when you open them. I picked up a Molex connector to match and made a jumper block to simulate closed switches. Jump pins 1-4 and 2-5 on the 6 pin Molex to power up the brick. The 3 pin Molex on the power brick should have 120v AC on pins 1-3 - this powers the marquee light.. On the 15 pin connector: DC Voltage Test with the meter Pin 5 is negative Pin 1 - 5 -> 10.6 vDC Pin 2 - 5 -> 10.6 vDC Pin 3 - 5 -> 10.6 vDC AC Voltages Pin 6 - 7 -> 36 vAC Pin 8 - 9 -> 6.1 vAC The remaining pins are specific to Centipede Pin 10 - 11 -> 30 vAC Pin 11 - 12 -> 30 vAC Pin 10 - 12 -> 60 vAC Pin 13 - 14 -> 30 vAC Pin 14 - 15 -> 30 vAC Pin 13 - 15 -> 60 vAC One other item I learned is that the power brick is unregulated power - meaning the voltages can vary considerably.. But they all should be reasonably close to these numbers. Thankfully mine seems to be fine. Most of the power ends up in the ARII board. Mine *seemed* to be working fine and the consensus is that the only component that you really should replace is this power transistor. The 2N3055. So I did... There is some bench testing that can be done with this too. But I will likely need the harness from the cabinet to do any of that - or maybe I do the testing with the board in the cabinet. It doesn't really make sense to build a bench harness unless I go buy more Atari machines... More to come on the ARII board.. |
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