Just picked up a Aero City!

[Titchgamer]

Just picked up a Sega Aero City!

Been after a nice full size Candy for a while after I did those Dino Kings a while back.

Its fully working bar the marquee light but is in need of a severe deep clean and a few tweaks for things I want to do such as add a 4th button.

[opt2not]

Why don't  you post your updates to this forum as well? 

[Titchgamer]

I may do yet, took me a while to write up the last 2 days though so will prob do some copy and pasting lol

[Mike A]

You don't really expect to get away with not posting that here do you?

[Titchgamer]

Ok so here is a quick summary of the last 2 days

I have had a itching for a Full Sized Candy since I got and converted those Dino Kings last year but Finances and Space have been a issue in realising that dream until now of course

So I persuaded the Wife that if I give the old MAME cab I built years ago to her bro she will let me have a candy.

I got a Aero City that was pretty much straight out of the container from Japan.
I had to make a pretty long drive to collect it so I spent a night at my Sisters place who turns out lives 15 mins away from the seller.

Anyways after getting to put a face to a name and meet the guy who's been doing my artwork the last few years me and the wifu hit the road with the Aero crammed in the back of my Volvo Estate.

We took it steady all the way back, Trying not to do any damage to the monitor, I will work on anything in a cab bar the monitors which I am totally clueless about.
When the seller showed me the cab running the monitor was stunning so it would be my worst nightmare if something happened to it en route to my place!

The first thing I wanted to do before I got it out of the car was clean the base off as it smelt kind of funky....
I figured I would do it in the car as it was elevated to a nice working height.

So it turns out that despite what this little cab would have you believe the original colour was actually white not Yellow! Who knew huh!?

Anyways after fully cleaning the base, getting it out of the car and situated in my conservatory as a temporary work place I fired it up to check everything made it ok.

My heart sank when it all powered on but the screen was almost black! 
It was displaying the blue kind of but nothing else, Must admit I was a little scared we had killed the monitor at that point but I had to run out to do some tasks so it had to wait.

Later in the day having been worrying about it all day I went back to it and thought maybe it was the test board I used so I plugged in my trusty MVS 1FZ instead which powered up in full colour.

I believe the previous days issues with the monitor were caused by the JAMMA edge on the Sega Adapter.
I noticed when plugging in the MVS that it was really frigging tight on the edge and flexed which I have never had happen before.
Maybe because its old or something I dont know but I installed my JAMMA pass through with volt meter on to the JAMMA edge which I know fits all my boards nicely and even that was tight to push in!
But I got it on and held it tight with 2 screws so hopefully I wont have any more scares going forward!

So then as this is the first Cab I have ever brought that actually works there is not much for me to do internally other than clean but going forward I do want to add a 4th button.
But before I do that I need to get another panel, I dont want to drill the original 3 button CP.
But I can only find a 6 button variant so I guess I will get that and put blanks in.
On the plus side it gives me future 6 button option if I want and gives me some flexibility in 4 button layout.
But yeah thats all for another day,

I also found a small crack down the back edge of the plastic CP, I want to secure it so it does not become a issue on the top in future.
I will likely use the same stuff I used on my Dino King bezels but I dont have any to hand right now so again for another day.

So all I have left to do right now is clean....

Lots and lots of cleaning.....

So I started by cleaning the front of the Cab, The header, Bezel, CP area and around the coin doors.
Most of it has cleaned up pretty well.
It does make the scratches etc more obvious but I am ok with the aged petina look I wont be painting or powder coating it etc. Want to keep it OG as possible.

That being said I have found the Board access hatch and Coin box hatch have been painted in the past so they have not cleaned so well.
Will have to think what to do with them, Maybe strip and paint them but thats for another day.

So heres the progress made so far today with around 6 hours of scrubbing......

Lower section with coin door left for colour petina comparison!

I did the coin door last as the furniture was a little rusty and as its hinged to the cab and a tight space I knew it would take a while as well as a quick clean inside the bottom.

And once that was all done I decided to call it a day as my back was killing from lieing on a cold floor and scrubbing lol

Right thats about it for the last 2 days LOL

[Mike A]

Very nice.

Opt2not has a bunch of experience with those cabs.

He could be helpful in sourcing stuff like the CP you are looking for.

[Titchgamer]

Very nice.

Opt2not has a bunch of experience with those cabs.

He could be helpful in sourcing stuff like the CP you are looking for.

Yeah I found his refurb threads from some time back that was very useful.

I am currently waiting on a little ratchet to help me get the CP off the front so I can clean behind and get into the Lamp gear but more on that later

[Titchgamer]

Start of day 3.

So I started the day with more cleaning, The good news is it now nearly all cleaned, still needs some final polishing up etc but it looks like a whole different cab now!

So with that I promise no more cleaning related photos until its 100% completed lol.

I am also bored to death of cleaning so needed a break.
So I have 2 other objectives for today.

1) Investigate why the marquee light does not work (it did sort of when I collected it but no longer does.)
2) Get the CP box off.

Now Number 2 is harder than it sounds. Originally I thought it was just a case of unscrewing the 4 screws inside the CP and pulling it off.

Well its not! These things really are built like tanks and its screwed through from the back as well.
You cant even get a stubby in there without pulling the monitor out which aint happening so I have formulated a cunning plan! More on that later though....

So back to Number 1.

Now to access the marquee light is pretty straightforward, Open the access hatch on the back which is secured with T20 torx screws and voila:

As you can see its pretty cramped in there for the lamp, fitting and 2 speakers!

I pulled the lamp out which is a FL15D and apart from being filthy does not look to bad.

Next job getting into the light fitting which was again made awkward by the tight spaces. Getting the lamp out was tight, But again no room for a screwdriver so I settled for a driver bit turned with a pair of pliers.

I probably wont bother replacing the screws in the lid as its held down by the lamp anyways.
So once it was off I was greeted with a rather basic ballast and starter.
The Ballast looked good and the starter did not look to bad either but had rattled loose a little which is likely the cause of my non working light.

The starter is a FG1E for future reference:

So I reassembled it all after cleaning and will have to wait to see if it solved the problem.
I did however find a source for new lamps and starters here:
https://www.smallcab.net/neon-fl15n-p-2169.html?osCsid=flt3ntmfp5denr63bfsrk1lk50
So I have ordered one of each just incase.
They have the lamp listed as a FL15N rather than D, I am not sure what the difference is but I think it should be ok.
I am assuming N for Neon D for daylight? Dunno....

So as I mentioned previous the Control panel box is attached to the machine via 4 large phillips dome head screws on each side of the cab going into a rail that the CP sits on.
You can see them on the left of this pic, But also there was 4 (some were missing I think!) smaller phillips screws going into the CP box from the cab itself just in front of the monitor.
You can just see one sticking out bellow the lip of the CP under the Sega label.

So yeah as you can see the gap to access said small screws with the monitor in place is tiny.
So I ordered myself a secret weapon from Amazon to assist me!
Frustrating as I have one somewhere already but cant find it!

Anyways enter.... The mini bit Ratchet!

So with the assistance of my mini friend (giggidy) I was able to get the CP box off and pull away.
I dont think I will bother replacing the smaller screws as the rails seem to hold it perfectly well and it will allow for easier removal in future when I need to move the machine to its future home in the nerd dungeon.

Oooo look more 30 year old grime that needs to be cleaned off.......

Ok so I lied about the cleaning pics.....

After that I just refitted the box minus the rear screws and mounted the little plates back in.
Anyone know what all the little plates are for in the CP box?
Theres a rectangular one in the bottom, A rectangular one front right and one blocking up 2 round holes on the front left?
I assume theres an actual reason for them, Like attachments or something?

So thats it for today, Not much I can do now Until my repair patch comes to patch up the CP and I still have not been able to order a new CP.

But I do intend on mapping out the player control harness pin outs tomorrow for future reference as I cant find them listed anywhere and its always handy to know which wire is which!

[Mike A]

Looking good.

Those mini ratchets are really useful.

[Titchgamer]

Looking good.

Those mini ratchets are really useful.

For sure, I had to buy one years ago to get the top on my CCTV junction box due to reduced room but could I find it could I hell LOL

[opt2not]

Yeah if you need any answers that are not apparent in my restoration thread, feel free to reach out.

I love these cabs. So much I picked up a second one not too long ago that I will need to restore as well.

[Titchgamer]

Yeah if you need any answers that are not apparent in my restoration thread, feel free to reach out.

I love these cabs. So much I picked up a second one not too long ago that I will need to restore as well.

Very cool!

Do you know what the 3 plates are for in the CP Box? Just curious on that.

Also not sure if you have the same monitor as mine but do you have the Monitor controls  order?
Mine has rubbed off beyond being readable.

[opt2not]

Do you know what the 3 plates are for in the CP Box? Just curious on that.

One of the plates is for those 2 holes on the left side front on the CP, those are for headphones.  There is supposedly an additional amp assembly that gets installed into the CP and allows people to connect headphones while playing. It one of those amps that cuts out the signal from the speakers and routes it to the headphone jack.  These amps are rare. I have never seen them installed, nor ever on the market for sale.

The plate on the right side front of the CP is most likely for a card reader system or something. Not too sure about that. Perhaps the manual might point it out.

As for the 3rd... beats me.  maybe a security access or something. *shrug*

Also not sure if you have the same monitor as mine but do you have the Monitor controls  order?
Mine has rubbed off beyond being readable.

Yeah looks like you have the same Nanao MS8-26 (but yours might be an SU revision).  You could peak in the back of the cabinet and see if there are any labels that look like this:  (this is mine)


Here's the pots order:



Also, I would strongly suggest downloading the manual for this cabinet: https://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/images/e/e5/Sega_Aero_City_Manual.pdf

And here is the manual and schematics for the monitor (if yours is an MS8-26SU):  http://www.flippers.com/pdfs/Nanao_MS8-26SU.zip

[Titchgamer]

Cheers Opt!

Sadly the label for the monitor has gone to
But that looks promising thanks

Interesting info on the extra amp etc to cheers.

Surprised they even thought about card readers back then, Though if that was the case the bottom hatch could of been for access to the mech which would make sense I guess.

[Titchgamer]

In todays news, Well I have done very little as I am still waiting on the plasti patch to reinforce the CP, was hoping that would of been here today but no dice.
Once it is though I am patching it and putting the CP back on so I can actually play some games!!

What I have done today though is mapped out the player control connectors up in the CP.
I have no seen this info anywhere else and its always something I like to have available for when you loose a button input etc.
Also handy for when I eventually am able to rebuild a new CP, I have the connectors etc ready I just need a panel and controls now....

Anyways for everyone's reference this is the pin out in my cab, I assume its standard as it all seems original:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13N9qDe9Vj-UNXSh2fe5uVEnEu8t5rBia/view?usp=sharing

So yeah thats it for now....

[Titchgamer]

Got her all back together today!

Reinforced the CP, Got it all back together and decided to have some after dark Neo Geo fun seen as I cant do anything else until I can get a 6 button panel.




Oh and the lights working again

[Titchgamer]

Well still nothing to report on the CP front but I have hopefully got one sorted

However when I was browsing the interwebs for a new CP I stumbled accross a rather cool little website selling oddities.

Including a repo original Aero City marquee/topper border thing (You guys know ime sure the red box thing :p)

Anyways I ordered one of those to frame my custom ones I intend on making but it was as expected to large, So I have scanned it in and shrunk it down to a useable size for future use.

But also when mooching the site I found some other cool items, Namely repo Sega ash trays, Tokens and Keyrings.

That gave me a idea, As I cant find anywhere for the life of me that is willing to sell me a few dozen 100 yen coins to use with my new Aero (And I am one of those that likes the feeling of dropping a coin)
I decided why not convert it to tokens!?
Sega tokens to be exact.

So I 3D printed a new "Coin mech" at work as I didnt want to faff around mod'in the original plus I wanted to keep it original so...



I then proceeded to wait a few days for my tokens to show up and put some funky touches into place

[Mike A]

Those tokens are cool.

If you come to Zapcon could you bring a few?

I can trade you for some of my custom tokens.

[Titchgamer]

Those tokens are cool.

If you come to Zapcon could you bring a few?

I can trade you for some of my custom tokens.

Sure.

[opt2not]

If you're looking for high quality repro panels for the Aero,  no one does it better than alberto1225 on the arcade-projects forum:  https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/ic-repro-2l6b-aero-city-panel-6-5-2020-update.7789/

I have a few of his panels and they are amazing.

[Titchgamer]

If you're looking for high quality repro panels for the Aero,  no one does it better than alberto1225 on the arcade-projects forum:  https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/ic-repro-2l6b-aero-city-panel-6-5-2020-update.7789/

I have a few of his panels and they are amazing.

Cheers Opt, I have actually just messaged him to hook me up!
Glad they are good quality!

[emphatic]

They aren't good. They are AMAZING.

[Titchgamer]

They aren't good. They are AMAZING.

Awesome!
I placed a order with him this morning!
Cant wait to finish her off

[opt2not]

Tell him I referred him to you.

You won’t be disappointed.

Also, hi emphatic! 

[Titchgamer]

Tell him I referred him to you.

You won’t be disappointed.

Also, hi emphatic! 

LOL to be fair I think you were about the 3rd person!
But that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside lol

[Titchgamer]

Well its been a long time since my last update, But heres the final whistle!

So my new CP from alberto over at AO finally arrived, And I must say it was worth the wait!
Its real nice quality and I am really pleased with it:



As mentioned previous I only really wanted 4 buttons but I could not get a 4 button CP in the style I wanted and I thought sod it, Its ok to have expansion room so I got the full 6 button layout even though I dont have any 6 button games LOL.

Anyways I pretty quickly got to wiring up the new CP and fitting it out with some shiny new Sanwa JLF's complete with Octo gates and some Seimitsu buttons.
I originally wanted to use Seimitsu sticks but the mounts did not fit so I had to slum it with JLFs LOL



Now you will all recall I said I did not want to butcher the original Harness in any way and wanted to leave it 100% OG as much as possible so that of course raised the Question of exactly how I was going to wire the CP into the machine.

I used the original type Molex connectors for P1&2 Sticks, starts and Buttons 1-3 so its plug and play with the original harness, But I also added a additional connector the eagle eyed of you may of spotted for Buttons 4-6.

The big question was of course how I was going to wire the extra buttons without butchering the harness.

After some consideration I decided the best way would be to use a JAMMA passthrough adapter and solder some wires onto it for --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type---6.

But when I was browsing the bay of Sin I came across a seller selling custom made kick adapters, Basically a passthrough adapter with headers to plug the wires on so they could be easily removed.
I thought this would be a great way to add the buttons as I could then individually just add or remove buttons from the adapter by plugging or unplugging them, It also has room for a volt meter!
Winner winner!

So I ordered one but it had some issues, Now I am not sure if it was assembled wrong or if the seller did not understand what I wanted from it as we had discussed its use.
I wont go into the whole thing as its not relevant but the main take away was the headers were connected to the wrong side of the adapter!
Basically the headers were connected to the fingerboard/wire side of the adapter as opposed to the JAMMA edge that plugs onto the board side.

This obviously means that if you press a button nothing would happen as it never got to the board.

Now luckily this was a relatively simple albeit bodgey fix.
Basically what I did was cut the traces on the fingerboard side so there was no continuity between the headers and the wiring harness.
Then I used the built in solder bridges to connect the headers to the relevant pins on the JAMMA edge.
And after testing confirmed it works great

So I then plugged it into the cabinet and connected up button 4 wires (yellow and orange in the pic bellow) I didnt bother connecting up 5&6 as they serve no use right now but the dupont wires are there ready if ever needed!



I am really pleased with how it came out, Everything is working great and I still have a 100% original Aero that I can return to stock just by pulling out a adapter and plugging back in the old CP.

And all fitted of course:



Also in other surprising news when I first picked it up I noticed the CP was peeling a little, I never really cared to much as I knew I was changing it anyway but  When I pulled the old CP off and looked a little closer it turns out it still has the protective cover on it LOL

So yeah Thats all I have really.

I do have one Q for you more knowledgeable than I regarding the CP artwork.

I have seen 2 different CP types the one like mine with the Starts in the CP and the other with Start buttons mounted into the CP bezel.

Now I have also seen artwork which is a blue square that goes around the bezel, Mine obv does not have it but everyone I have seen has the 2 start button holes in the artwork.

So did mine originally not have the blue box around the CP? Was that only on the other type with the starts in the bezel?

I cant seem to find any real info on it but if its supposed to have it I will get one, Just not sure if it is or not!

[javeryh]

Looks great.  Such a clean panel too.  Maybe you will get the itch for some fighters down the road and make use of the 6 buttons...

[Titchgamer]

Looks great.  Such a clean panel too.  Maybe you will get the itch for some fighters down the road and make use of the 6 buttons...

Yeah I wouldn't be against picking a few up its just the good 6 button ones are all damn expensive and I aint that into them to warrant the cost.
I have quite a few 4 button fighters though including KOF98 Samurai Shodown 2, Tekken 2, Ehrgeiz and a few others for Neo Geo and PGM.

[Mike A]

Is the CP just a metal sheet with holes drilled in it or am I missing something?

[Titchgamer]

Is the CP just a metal sheet with holes drilled in it or am I missing something?

Yeah its just steel plate.
But the coating on them has a metallic sheen so you cant just vinyl coat or print them.

[Mike A]

Buy a steel sheet, drill the holes, spray them with a glossy clear coat after you apply vinyl. Would that work?

I have some steel laying around. I could experiment for you. See if the results are good enough.

I don't know much about Candy Cabs, but I see people buying CPs all of the time.

It is just a flat sheet of steel. I don't understand.

[Titchgamer]

Buy a steel sheet, drill the holes, spray them with a glossy clear coat after you apply vinyl. Would that work?

Not really, You cant tell in the pic but the outer lines of the boxes are like a silver shiny foil type effect.

[Mike A]

Okay. I guess if you want to make it exactly the same.

I think you could make a really nice looking CP with just vinyl artwork for a fraction of the cost of buying one.

[Titchgamer]

Oh you defo could.
But my intent was to keep it looking as original as possible.

Its a desirable cab and unlike my others its all original (bar the CP now) so I wanted to keep it that way.

[Mike A]

I get it.

[pbj]

Nothing makes the panties drop like authentic control panels.

[Titchgamer]

Nothing makes the panties drop like authentic control panels.

Yup. The chicks really dig those ciggie burns.

[DaOld Man]

Sweet find. And good job restoring.

[Titchgamer]

Sweet find. And good job restoring.

Thanks