Star Wars Cockpit......SHE LIVES !!!!!

[lettuce]

I just checked it with the operation manual, and indeed it shows the exact same table as in the manual so the answer is no, the novram didn't save the high scores.

Thats a shame. I remember probably one of the last times i went on holiday with my parents i came across a Starwars machine, and it having my brother initals at the top of the table, which he must of entered 5-8 years before, so if anybody see's CBL on any tables thats more than likly my bro's. Im based in the UK though, so unless any found there way over to other countires then you probably wont see any, and it the systems been powered off for long periods of time it looks like they dont get stored 

[Level42]

It could very well be that my novram is defective. Not sure, I still gotta check. If so, I'm not sure if I will replace it, since the SW/ESB multi game kit has it's own (improved) way of storing high scores.

The original novram only stores the top 3 records by the way, the others get deleted when the unit is powered off.

[spocktwin]

 
lettuce I absolutely peed myself when I saw your avatar......where in the star trek universe did you get it???
Spock

[BrentRadio]

If anybody does need the NOVRAM you can get it at arcadechips.com

Brent

[lettuce]

lettuce I absolutely peed myself when I saw your avatar......where in the star trek universe did you get it???
Spock

Yeah made me chuckle the first time i saw it, cant remember where i got it from, had it for ages

[Level42]

Deflection board work:

1) Dried out gel under the deflection transistors....this is not good !!!
2) this is not good at all 
3) Take a look at the closest side of the PCB, that's where the deflection transistors are. Look at how black the PCB has become because of the heat.....I guess the heat is not going well into the cooling body, although it does get quite hot when running....

[Level42]

1) Molex PCB connector solderings......these have been transfering some current. You can easily see which have had the most load on them....

2) Poor solderings, especialy in the center of the pic. This pic shows the original solderings. However, this is caused by too small soldering islands IMHO. I couldn't get them much better....

3) Compare side to side. One is renewed, the other original.... I completely removed the old solder before applying new.

[Level42]

1) Transistor removed.....look at how black the cooling body is under the transistor, but this time it's ment to be black. The rest of the cooling body seems to have lost it's black paint. You can guess why......HEAT !!!

2) Cleaned wires and molex connector (outside). I hate handling dirty cables......

Anybody has a good way of cleaning the pin's inside the molex connector ? They look pretty good, but I guess they could use a rub......

[Level42]

PCB trace damage !!!

I wonder what this is causing on the screen. It's on the Vector generator PCB. Carries signal Z0. Has something to do with blanking, could be a cause of the not completely correct drawing of the lines.....

I soldered two wires to each side so I can bridge and open it at will.....I know stupid, but I'd like to see what effect this line has....

[telengard]

First power up (not really, but I was too concerned with other things during the REAL first start-up, AND more excited )




I would like to thank Mark Shostak from Cinelabs for making this repair possible. Without his efforts in getting these replacement HVT's build, this would be one dead game. Also, he is great in his support through mail and very helpful: a big round of  and of course:    www.cinelabs.com

Also thanks to Micheal Kelley, who wrote the fantastic Amplifone FAQ doc. It has helped me A LOT in understanding the problems on the HV PCB and everything else. Again: 

Wow, I sooo want a SW cockpit.  I just don't have the room (yet).      

Do you have the fresnel lens in the front?  I went to funspot a few weeks ago and the SW cockpit was MIA.  More booooo...

Great job on getting your cockpit working.  One more game back to life.

~telengard

[Level42]

Hey Telengard, thanks !

Don't have the room ? I don't either (yet) but it's not like you have an option if an ultra rare cab comes along like that

What fresnel lens are you talking about ? I don't think this uses any...?

I've been to funspot and I actualy can't remember that they had a SW cockpit. I did see the Red Baron though and it was out of order at the time (which was a shame really). What does MIA stand for ? Sorry, I'm Dutch

[telengard]

Hey Telengard, thanks !

Don't have the room ? I don't either (yet) but it's not like you have an option if an ultra rare cab comes along like that

What fresnel lens are you talking about ? I don't think this uses any...?

I've been to funspot and I actualy can't remember that they had a SW cockpit. I did see the Red Baron though and it was out of order at the time (which was a shame really). What does MIA stand for ? Sorry, I'm Dutch

Hehe yeah, I've dropped hints about using space in the living room for either a SW cockpit or Pole Position cockpit.  So far no bites.   
I did get the green light for utilizing the space if I pick up her favorite pinball.  So I'm getting *somewhere*.

Yeah they used to have a SW cockpit, not sure what they did with it.  I couldn't find it and I looked pretty well.  They still have the stand up though.  I think they are going to be expanding.  When I was last there, there were a bunch of new games in the miniature golf area.  Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, etc.  I sense a new wing being built in the classic arcade game museum!

MIA means "missing in action".        I was so bummed.  I really like playing the game in the cockpit.  Someday I hope they pick up a DOT environmental.  That's one I haven't played in a LONG time.

If I remember correctly some of the SW cockpits had what's called a fresnel lens for the front glass.  It makes the image look *way* bigger.  I may be mistaking this with some other cockpit game though.  It also might not be needed when a 23" monitor is used.  A SW cockpit expert hopefully will chime in.

~telengard

[Level42]

I hope Funspot will be expanding, that would be very good news ! When we visited the mini-golf area was closed, but we were there just after the end of the US holiday season.

Maybe they didn't think the SW could be repaired ?? Yikes, lets hope they didn't trash it

Should we mail them about it ?

Hey, start with that pinball, then she gets used to it and it will be easier from there. I started with my Mame cab, still in my living room, the wife just played a round of Puzzle Bobble

Galaxian is in the kitchen, Centipede and MB in the shed....SW at my friend's, Domino's and Pleiads cocktail in the attick........I need a game room !!!!!

Aren't you mistaking with Starblade ? I think this has a lens/mirror like you describe. I have never played that game until I visited Darth Nuno's lair one week ago. What a great game, and what a fantastic cab that is !!!!!

[arcadefever]

great restoration 

are you going to change the transistors (2n3792)? you should 

[Level42]

Incidently, I asked the same question on the vector-list:

Why ?

[arcadefever]

Incidently, I asked the same question on the vector-list:

Why ?

well, they have been there for quite long  and getting a bit tired too 
have you read this

http://www.vectorlist.org/Documents/bw_vector_monitor_faq.pdf

help me a lot while restoring asteroids ...

 

[Level42]

Thanks fever, I've read most of it, does it somewhere say that transistors go bad in time ?

I agree that they are pretty much loaded of course....I guess I will replace them, since I'll have to remove each one to re-do the cooling stuff/or use silicon pads...

In the meantime, if anyone is looking for a really nice SW CP:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Star-Wars-Cockpit-Arcade-Video-Game-Atari-1983-coin-op_W0QQitemZ280142984291QQihZ018QQcategoryZ13716QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Looks great. Again it is mentioned that "normaly" they came with a 19", but that a "few" were built with 25". This one is another 25", and so I still stick to my opinion that the SW Cockpits were equipped with 25" only.

O well....nice cab, Wintron HVT installed and running....bit pricy though I made a serious bargain on mine

[JimmyU]

I heard that a Cockpit just went for $7100.

[Level42]

Ok.

Been working on the cab....

I've got good news and bad news.

The good news is that the NOVRAM tested ok in the setup/test menu.All the other tests ran fine, apart from the raster test which seems to be overloading the monitor a bit (still have to re-cap the deflection board).
Also I managed increasing the size of the picture quite a bit ! And I managed to get rid of the poor linearity as well.  It looks really impressive, especialy the deathstar blow up

I checked the High Voltage and it was lower than what it should be. So I carefully increased it to the required 19,5 kV. When I took a look at the screen I could see retrace lines in the center, so I quickly turned the HV back to the original level. It looks fine that way, and it's safe I also tried to up it to the max for a second or 3, and it never reached the 25 kV that is needed to kick in the HV overvoltage protection. So I can safely play without being X-rayed.....

I fired the PCB up with the jumper wire that I created to repair the broken trace on the vector PCB. When I opened it, I got a lot of (quite interesting) retrace lines......so obviously I had managed to create that broken trace myself   . Anyway, easy fix, and it worked great for quite some time.....

The bad news is, that while trying to set a record to see if the NOVRAM really still works,something went wrong on the vector PCB....

All of a sudden, the Star Wars logo was screwed. I switched to set-up and ran the hardware tests (I had run them without errors before). I got an error on VG (Vector Graphics) RAMS at 4P and ROM at 1L   with some hex code.....

I tried reseating the indicated chips, cleaned the pins, no improvement. The game actualy still plays, but the fireballs look wrong, there's only partly text on the death star and the worst thing, the game crashes when going into the deatstar level for the 2nd time. Must be the vector generator being confused by the bad data from the RAM/ROM.....

SOoooooooo, I'm heading to the electronics parts store, get some new, wire wound chip sockets and check the traces.....

I think it's strange that it's indicating both a bad ROM AND a bad RAM all at the same time. Gotta check the schematics if there's some driver IC or anything that could also be faulty...

[Kaytrim]

Keep at it man, you will get this think working perfectly in no time. 

TTFN

[Level42]

Thanks for the encouragement Kaytrim, that keeps me going   I'm pretty sure I will

I just had the simple idea of moving the suspect RAM chip to another position (4M) and the one at 4M to 4L of course. Sure enough, the problem moved to 4M according to the self-test. I ran the game, looked good, no problems at all.....until I reached a level I had never reached before in the trench, where the blocks are left and right also. There it ran into some trouble... guess 4M is higher up in the memory table, or something like that.

Anyway, there was no more ROM error, so it's just this single RAM chip that has gone to the eternal bit fields......

I've searched and it seems that 5116's can replace these Toshiba TMM2016 RAMs. They are available from arcadechips and probably even local...

[Level42]

O I forgot. The set-up has some very extensive info about playing times etc. I guess this info is stored in the NOVRAM. The data in there is correct. The total games match the number on the real coin counter. Funny: people always seem to use the left coin mech, very rarely the right. The right was only used 373 times (of which probably 40 by me). The left almost got all the coins !

So I guess this proves the NOVRAM is still OK and saved it's data until this very day !

The fact that there are no hi-scores other than the default in the top 3 can have 2 reasons:
1) at some point, they were deleted through the set-up menu
2) the default scores were never broken

My bet is option 2)

I managed to score just into the 1.000.000 points, but just not enough to get position 3 
But hey, it was only my 20th game or so....

I am now being bugged by the fact that I cannot remove the screen in front of the CRT, because one of the inbus bolts is really worn out.....gotta find a screwdriver that fits exactly to force it :S

The convergence of the blue gun is really pretty poor on the lower left corner, which is a shame really because otherwise the picture is so great. I don't think I'm going to mess with the convergence though.....I've tried it on a TV-set onece and ....well let's say the results could be called "interesting" 

I may ask my uncle who has been a TV repair man for ages...or maybe I can play around with some of those magnet strips that they glue on the tube ? I doubt that degaussing will fix this...

[Level42]

Some more pics:

Cleaning of the PCB edge connectors with a simple pencil eraser:

1) Before
2) After
3) Before
4) After

Now I need a simple way to clean the contacts of the harness connectors, any tips ?

[Level42]

I could hardly get myself to do some work instead of playing

I couldn't remove the worn out bolt, guess I will have to drill it out or something.....

So I went on to remove the PCB cage and the Power Supply.

Looks like the power supply has had the worst things happening to this cab:

[Level42]

1) The "Big Blue" is a "Big Gray" on this PSU.
2) It's surprising how much better the underside looks !!!

Anyway, I guess this will get about the same treatment as Brantradio did Any tips ?

3) the fan that is factory mounted under the game PCB's. It feels really powerless and is really noisy. This one is not going to be put back in the cab. Regretfully it's 110 VAC  That's a bit weird for a cab that comes from Ireland and was meant for the European market....but I guess it's just because they designed it this way.....
I have the option of either getting a 230VAC replacement here and wire it to the marquee lighting wiring or getting a 110VAC from the US....

It's also weird they put on a finger guard. Think about it, here's a cab fully open, 20.000 Volts and even worse, mains voltages all around, and they get scared of some technician sticking his finger into this fan (which probably would hurt the fan a lot more than the finger).......
Anyway, this will also be not going back inside.....it blocks airflow without point....

[Level42]

Uploading some new video stuff I shot in the dark.....that's when a vector REALLY gets to life

Here's the first, just to get an idea how sharp the picture still looks...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j0z5AhFdZY[/youtube]

[telengard]

Looks awesome.  Was hoping to see the Death Star exploding though.      

That is one of my favorite things.  Just an awesome thing to see.  I'm willing to be I'm not alone.   

~telengard

[Level42]

Your wish is my command:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=l4fg9lUKWAE[/youtube]

However, this is lower quality than the other one, because Youtube complained it was too big.....if somebody has about 180 Mb webspace for me, I could post the full AVI there....

I also made a really long vid of all the set-up and test screens....Have to upload this later....

[telengard]

Your wish is my command:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l4fg9lUKWAE

However, this is lower quality than the other one, because Youtube complained it was too big.....if somebody has about 180 Mb webspace for me, I could post the full AVI there....

I also made a really long vid of all the set-up and test screens....Have to upload this later....

 

That never gets old!   Thanks.

~telengard

[Level42]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvaSxKpfMzM[/youtube]

This is a rather long video with all the set-up and test screens.....boring, and to top it off you get my "funny" comments 

Do you guys understand what I'm saying or is my Dutch accent too much

[telengard]

This is a rather long video with all the set-up and test screens.....boring, and to top it off you get my "funny" comments 

Do you guys understand what I'm saying or is my Dutch accent too much

Nope can understand you just fine.  "Bah missed the exhaust port".  hehe   

BTW Is your handle based on the band from the 80s?

~telengard

[Level42]

Yep it sure is ! Still a big fan  

http://www.level42.com/shop/recording.asp?recid=32


Go to  at least 2 gigs each year. We even go to the UK regularly for gigs. My son is called Mark after mister King himself (They wouldn't accept Atari )

Maybe daddy is stuck in the 80's

I even still got my 80's Ray-Ban  that is VERY fashionable again now 

I wear my ray-bans, driving in the car
Even on a cloudy day
She always says "Man , who d'you think you are?"
'cause she don't see it my way
We are all sleepwalkers
We only see the things we wanna see
Tunnel visions
And there's no end in sight

From Sleepwalkers-Level 42

[telengard]

Yep it sure is ! Still a big fan  

http://www.level42.com/shop/recording.asp?recid=32


Go to  at least 2 gigs each year. We even go to the UK regularly for gigs. My son is called Mark after mister King himself (They wouldn't accept Atari )

Maybe daddy is stuck in the 80's

I even still got my 80's Ray-Ban  that is VERY fashionable again now 

"I wear my Ray-Ban's, driving in my car,
even on a cloudy day,
she always says "Man, no matter where you are, you're always miles away"
We are all sleepwalkers, we only see the things we want to see,
tunnel visions, but maybe there's an end in sight"

From Sleepwalkers-Level 42

Yep it does sound like Daddy is stuck in the 80s.   

I'm a big fan of 80s music too.  I play guitar in a 80s new wave cover band.  We should do "Something About You".   

Keep up the great work restoring the SW...

All these restorations are inspiring (SW cockpit, DK, etc)

~telengard

[Level42]

Something about you was the biggest hit in the US I guess. It's the best "commercial" song from them IMHO.

They never really broke through in the US because of the separated  (to put it nicely) radio stations...

[Level42]

OK, back on topic:

In case anybody ever needs an exact replacement fan, this is the one used in my SW CP:
Rotron "Whisper" WR2M1 115VAC 50/60 Hz.
http://www.comairrotron.com/cgi-bin/acfandatasht.pl?Pnum=028291&VoltList=115v&FreqList=60hz&airflow_val=&airflow_unit=CFM&pressure_val=&pressure_unit=inh2o&diameter_val=&diameter_unit=in
If you want to use something else, take one that can handle 66 CFM, that's about 112 m3/h for us Europeans....

I've examined it a bit further. I wondered if the noise was coming from the fan itself or the way it's mounted. I needed to use 115 VAC to hook it up, and at home, the 230VAC to 115VAC transformer that is doing nothing now in my Galaxian cab now proved it's value

When I hooked it up and held it in my hands, it was really quite silent (as the name implies). Then I put it against the inner side of the cab and yes, that makes one great "speaker box" The noise increased immensely. The fan is mounted on a metal bracket with screws and this is then slid into a (wooden) support that is mounted on the side panel of the SW cab. Now, of course, in an arcade surrounding, no-one cares about this, you probably don't hear it. Anyway, I will look for some (PC case mod) rubber supports or something like that to mount it, because the sound IS annoying in a regular (game)room.

Despite what I though before, I will use it again, I've cleaned it, and I have to say the build quality seems pretty good.

Now the weird thing: I discovered why I thought it wasn't moving much air when it still was mounted in the SW:
This fan is mounted _under_ the metal cage that is holding the PCB's and ATRII. The fingerguard is on the up side, there where you would expect a hand/finger to go in.... So I held my hand there and noticed the low airflow (at least I thought). However, the other side was really blowing powerfully.....
I had expected this fan to be blowing up, towards the PCB's, and in support of the natural hot air flow....instead it is trying to pull the hot air down...... I think this is really strange !!!



Unless they tried to cool the "power brick" that is mounted on the bottom, but the fan is way too much backwards, so it's missing it's goal for that.

I think that mainly what the goal of this fan is to get some air circulation at all inside this rather small space with all kinds of parts getting pretty hot. I still would have mounted it the other way around though.....just my thoughts....

[Level42]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Atari-Star-Wars-Arcade-Video-Game-Project_W0QQitemZ150151915888QQihZ005QQcategoryZ13716QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


"Just" needs a monitor....

[polaris]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Atari-Star-Wars-Arcade-Video-Game-Project_W0QQitemZ150151915888QQihZ005QQcategoryZ13716QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


"Just" needs a monitor....

and pcb's

theres one in the uk for £620 mamed and ready to go

[Level42]

Seeing all the stuff and prices on e-bay, I can only say I got a serious good deal on my cab....

[Level42]

&sp&pJust a minor update....

1) Cleaned PCB cage

2) Cleaned FAN.......

In case anyone needs it, I figured out all the electrolytic caps on the SW PCB set.

Here ya go:
Star Wars Vector Generator PCB:      
100uF 35V   C43,C81,C77,C46   4   
22uF   25V   C45,C48                   2   
   
Sound PCB:
100uF 35V   C13,14,15,47,53   5
10UF   35V   C51,52                   2   
   
Main PCB:
4,7uF  50V   C94                           1   
100uF 50V   C49,50,51           3   
10uF;  35V   C93                           1   
NO GUARANTEES HERE !

[Level42]

By the way, on http://www.jammaplus.co.uk/ there is also a thread about a SW CP restoration......I saw this picture there. Since I haven't opened up my speaker yet, I was a bit amazed to see that these speakers are very simple single cone one's:


Some of you may remember the sound system I managed to squeeze in my Mame cab (man gotta dig up an OLD thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=42798.0)

soooooooo, I instantly thought about how the SW would sound using proper car speakers with separate tweeters/mids/woofers......  Maybe add some sub-woofer as well  (the perfect spot for that would probably the place you put your *ss on while playing  ).

Don't get me wrong, the sound of the original speakers is not poor. The magnets look pretty big (don't know about the weight though) and these are not the worst kind of speakers. Yet I wonder what it would sound like with some serious audio equipment.....

Makes me remembering the first time I hooked up my Atari 600XL to my home stereo audio system, man did I love the bass in Donkey Kong !!! It sounded great. And that 600XL only has one Pokey, where the SW has four and of course the famous TI speech synth

Does anybody know how much audio power an ATRII can handle

This is not on the top of my list, but it all just crossed my mind