Control Panel Not Functioning

[jasonorme666]

Hello everyone.

I've recently had problems with my "The Simpsons" 4 Player machine.
Its a fully original and dedicated machine, and when I had it, it was working fine.
Slowly within the past year or so the controls have stopped working, and Now all I have working is 1 of the 4 sets of controls (Player 1).

I didnt know anywhere else to turn so I thought the people wire control panels for a hobby would be the best people to contact.

Does anyone know what my problem could be, maybe a simple fix?
Unfortunatly my knowledge is very limited with arcade machines, as I am fully self tought with them.
But if anyone can help, I would be most appriciative.

Thanks alot and I hope you can help.


Kind Regards
  Jason A Orme

[AlanS17]

Were the individual player controls going out completely one at a time? It could be faulty ground wires. The groun wires are daisy chained so if it goes out at the base you could lose all buttons/joysticks on the chain.

If that didn't make sense I can slow it down some. Did you get that?

[AlanS17]

In what order did stuff start going out?

[Q*Bert_OP]

1. Check/Clean the JAMMA harness and edge of PCB.
2. Check power supply for even +5v and +12v

[jasonorme666]

Were the individual player controls going out completely one at a time? It could be faulty ground wires. The groun wires are daisy chained so if it goes out at the base you could lose all buttons/joysticks on the chain.

If that didn't make sense I can slow it down some. Did you get that?

I got some of that yeah, could you maybe explain more abit more basic?

Thanks for helping.

[jasonorme666]

1. Check/Clean the JAMMA harness and edge of PCB.
2. Check power supply for even +5v and +12v

I dont think its the power supply, its all original and was once all working and has been in good working order since 1991. Although I'm not sure if they can burn out, i think its more likely a wiring problem, but again, what do I know, your the experts.

As for clearning, its not the PCB itself, its definatly the machine as I try multiple boards in the cabinet and they all have the same problems.
The connecter itself (which goes from the machine onto the pcb) might have problems, can that be checked and clearned? or so how?

[AlanS17]

You can clean the edge connector on the harness with a pencil eraser. Just make sure you get the bits off.

As for daisy chaining...

Each button or joystick has 2 wires leading into switch. One wire is colored and the other is black. The colored wire is the button wire. The black wire is the ground wire. Notice how the colored wire goes all the way back to the harness, but the black wire goes from one switch to the next in a "common ground". It's called a common ground because a;ll the switches share the same wire and they all lead back to the same place. So it would be really easy for them all to stop working at once. You will likely have several common grounds on the same control panel but they all should function the same and can usually be re-routed to replace each other.

If the black wire gets damaged it can make all the buttons stop working on that chain (depending where it's damaged).

Has the control panel been removed many times? You could have tugged the ground wire out of its socket on the harness even though it looks like it's in there. Do you have a multimeter or some sort of continuity tester? I'd give that a shot.

If you don't have one, here's what you can do...

Turn the game on and get it up and running. Remove the colored wire from one of your known working buttons (don't forget where it came from). Now find one of the buttons or joysticks that you know doesn't work. Touch the metal tip of the colored wire you pulled out to the metal tip of the black wire leading into one of the "broken" buttons. If the working button acts like it's supposed to that means your ground wire is fine and we have to start from square one. If your button doesn't work that means the ground wire is damaged.

If it's your ground wire that's damaged you can either re-socket it into the harness (assuming that's the problem) or lengthen the daisy chain from the portion of the control panel that's working and rewire all the broken joysticks and buttons to work off of the ground wire from the working portion.

Did that make better sense?

[jasonorme666]

Thanks for the info, I will check it out and get back to you.

Thanks

[Q*Bert_OP]

There should be a knob that allows adjustment on the power supply.

Another way to clean JAMMA harness is with contact cleaner and or canned air.

[quarterback]

In what order did stuff start going out?

Yeah, and did certain directions on any given joystick stop working before others?