Author Topic: Asteroids Restoration -- Hardware 100% / Starting Cab work... (Read 49003 times)

mcfreak · « **on:** August 12, 2007, 09:17:13 pm »

Picked up a non working Asteroids Stand up in pretty bad shape at the Super Auction.

Couple of interesting questions/comments:

At some point the sides were cut in half about 3/4 the way up by the monitor. Why in the world would someone do that? We have been perplexed about this since the purchase and just can't figure it out.
Its a double PCB board with double 30-40 pin adapters going between the boards. Is that normal? I haven't seen an asteroids board that was a "double" board.

I got about 3 hours with the one I got at the auction, re-soldered the loose capacitor and repaired the power switch. Got it to power up but it blows Fuse F3 on the power supply. The Marquee light works and I get a red light on the monitor board...

It's a really weird board though. It wasn't what I expected when I opened it up.

These are general cabinet pics:

mcfreak · « **Reply #1 on:** August 12, 2007, 10:25:14 pm »

Okay, found a bad fuse on the monitor and replaced which made the red "spot" killer go away. I am still blowing the F4 fuse when the PCB is attached.

Here is the one in question. Should I go down the path of cleaning and reseating all the rom chips?

Some of the cuts/repairs, monitor...

Austin.Wolff · « **Reply #2 on:** August 12, 2007, 10:29:29 pm »

You might as well. I've heard of it working pretty well.

Paladin · « **Reply #3 on:** August 13, 2007, 09:47:09 am »

Have you tried figuring out what is powered from that fuse? You could try disconnecting the control panel and coin door and see if it comes up, maybe there's a stripped or crossed wire that's shorting.

mcfreak · « **Reply #4 on:** August 13, 2007, 10:55:11 am »

I unplugged the monitor, Marquee, Controls, coin door, just leaving the PCB board(s) plugged in and it blows. Without the PCB and but with everything else plugged in it doesn't...

Gonna do some cleaning and there might be a capacitor that is completely blown off of the PCB...

I also need to check the voltage again to make sure it is pushing what it should be. I am going to take a picture of the PCB to see if anyone knows if it is even Asteroids...

Jeff AMN · « **Reply #5 on:** August 13, 2007, 11:16:23 am »

Asteroids is one of my top 10 games. Do you have any pics? I'd love to see pics of your progress and I'm morbidly curious about the cutting they did.

mcfreak · « **Reply #6 on:** August 13, 2007, 11:47:36 am »

Yeah I just didn't have a camera with me at the time. I will take some this afternoon as I want everyone to see the carnage that was done. The only thing I have done so far is clean it up a bit, the monitor cleaned up nicely.

Also, Should the Vector monitor power up without the PCB board or is it powered from the PCB?

mcfreak · « **Reply #7 on:** August 13, 2007, 07:16:48 pm »

Okay, here is the PCB. What in the heck is it? Looks to be a conversion to me but I have no idea. Again, it is still blowing one of the fuses only when the PCB is plugged in.

mcfreak · « **Reply #8 on:** August 13, 2007, 07:36:48 pm »

More of the PCB...

Come on guys, help a newbie restore this beast. If I can find out "What" this is, it will at least give me a place to start.

mcfreak · « **Reply #9 on:** August 13, 2007, 07:37:26 pm »

Last one for now...

arcadefever · « **Reply #10 on:** August 13, 2007, 07:52:19 pm »

that does not look like an asteroids pcb at all $:-\$

what the hell is that

mcfreak · « **Reply #11 on:** August 13, 2007, 08:50:23 pm »

Quote from: arcadefever on August 13, 2007, 07:52:19 pm

that does not look like an asteroids pcb at all $:-\$

what the hell is that

GREAT Questions. I did a google image search for Asteroids, A Deluxe, Lunar Lander, and none of them look like this board...

I did, however, find a few problems on it:

Kaytrim · « **Reply #12 on:** August 13, 2007, 10:08:41 pm »

I can't help you figure out what it is but if you fix those caps and broken traces it might help stop blowing the fuse.

TTFN and Good Luck

Kaytrim

Separate the two boards and see if there are any markings on either side besides part numbers for each item on the boards. That might help an expert id this board set.

arcadefever · « **Reply #13 on:** August 13, 2007, 10:13:59 pm »

This project is starting to get very interesting

what is this mysterious PCB

by fixing those caps, may help you to get the answer

did any asteroids bootleg were produce

keep us inform on your progress

mcfreak · « **Reply #14 on:** August 13, 2007, 10:24:10 pm »

And on top of all the mystery with the PCB, why did someone cut her head off??

theCoder · « **Reply #15 on:** August 13, 2007, 10:29:28 pm »

I'm no oscilloscope jockey, but it looks like you've got a starting point for your repairs. Maybe you'll get lucky and it will fire up after these fixes. Good luck with it.

The Chugnut · « **Reply #16 on:** August 14, 2007, 10:42:06 am »

Really interesting project Mr Mcfreak. Can't wait to see the conclusion to the mystery!

Quote from: arcadefever on August 13, 2007, 10:13:59 pm

did any asteroids bootleg were produce

I believe there is at least one; it was a bootleg that ran on the Lunar Lander hardware apparently

EDIT: Linky

BobA · « **Reply #17 on:** August 14, 2007, 01:57:59 pm »

That extra board looks like a standard jamma finger board. Could your cab been reworked with a jamma harness? Seems a bit weird for a vector game but who knows what that cab has been through? Just thinking maybe the board in your cab is not even a vector game. Maybe it never worked.

mcfreak · « **Reply #18 on:** August 14, 2007, 02:03:33 pm »

I was thinking down that path as well. The vector monitor is obv still there so I am not sure what is going on. I will do the repairs tonight and see if I still blow the fuse and then go from there.

Level42 · « **Reply #19 on:** August 14, 2007, 02:27:04 pm »

Follwing your steps closely.

The only reason I can think of why they cut the cab is that maybe it has been moved to or out of a place that wouldn't allow it to be normally moved in/out. I have the same problem with my stairs in my house. I could manage to get an Atari Domino's up there (with the marquee box removed) but no-way I'm going to get any other cab like Galaxian, Mario Bros etc. up there. It's because of a turn in the stairs....

That disc capacitor is probably only there for filtering, I'd repair it but don't expect wonders of it. THe traces are definitely a problem though...

Search http://www.system16.com/ for maybe a PCB that looks like yours ....

mcfreak · « **Reply #20 on:** August 14, 2007, 07:23:45 pm »

Okay, made the repairs from above, re-seated all chips and cleaned prongs, found one other problem which I also fixed in picture 1...

Picture 2 is the only date I could find on any chip/board. It's an Intel Chip dated 1977. I don't know if that's good or bad but it's something.

I replaced the capacitor at C34, the one that was blown completely away, with a best guess because I don't know what board it is.

On power on, it that capacitor gets very hot and smoked for a short time. (until I pulled the plug).

I don't know if I got the Cap right or not but at least its some progress. Obviously something still isn't right...

Pictures attached.

mcfreak · « **Reply #21 on:** August 14, 2007, 07:42:31 pm »

Also got new Slow Blow fuses... Still blows, disconnected the secondary board, still blows...

Grrr....

IG-88 · « **Reply #22 on:** August 14, 2007, 08:06:46 pm »

Just curious, but how in the heck do you fix those traces?

mcfreak · « **Reply #23 on:** August 14, 2007, 08:43:46 pm »

Here's a pic. I did it pretty dirty just to see if it would make a difference.

This worked well back when people would use too hot of an iron on their original xboxes. I did a lot of "patch" jobs for friends that didn't think.

You basically just follow where the trace should go and bridge them with small wire, then clean up the traces to make sure they arn't touching... I don't know if this is the "right" way to do it as I am a tinker-er...

IG-88 · « **Reply #24 on:** August 14, 2007, 10:12:31 pm »

Ahhhh.... makes sense. Thats some darned small soldering. Doubt if my hand would be steady enough anymore....

mcfreak · « **Reply #25 on:** August 14, 2007, 10:13:00 pm »

And the winner is..... Drum Roll....

It's a Phoenix PCB... WHAT THE

http://www.crazykong.com/pcbs/P%20-%20S/Phoenix.pcb.html

IG-88 · « **Reply #26 on:** August 14, 2007, 10:14:36 pm »

Sweet! I love Phoenix. But what the heck is that doing with a vector monitor?

mcfreak · « **Reply #27 on:** August 14, 2007, 10:18:34 pm »

So I just need a sanity check here. I DO have a vector in this cabinet right???

Hammerhead · « **Reply #28 on:** August 14, 2007, 11:29:09 pm »

I know you have already identified the board, but here is a site that has a ton of pics of boards for all games
http://www.crazykong.com/pcbs/ (I'm new to the board so if everyone knows about it already sorry)

torez · « **Reply #29 on:** August 15, 2007, 12:08:18 am »

Quote from: mcfreak on August 14, 2007, 10:18:34 pm

So I just need a sanity check here. I DO have a vector in this cabinet right???

You have Electrohome 19" X-Y (vector) monitor.

Kevin Mullins · « **Reply #30 on:** August 15, 2007, 12:16:20 am »

CrazyKong is definitly a great site to help identify boards...... but sometimes the details of the board that is being identified need to be looked at. Such as in this case it may be a Phoenix boardset, but it may also just be Phoenix "hardware". Meaning that it may be based on a Phoenix boardset that has been modified. Note the small extra pcb on one side of the orginal posters boards....... that isn't on the pics of the Phoenix boardset. So it may still actually be based on Phoenix hardware, but NOT actually the Phoenix game.

Now there is still the question of why the hell it would be in a vector cab that still has the vector monitor in it. There is no way that pcb is outputting a vector signal of any kind.
And YES, that is the original vector monitor still in there to answer mcfreaks question.
I noticed it wasn't plugged into anything in some of the early pictures.....
Maybe this was a conversion in progress.

~~The only reason I can thing of as for the cab being cut like you described is that maybe it was badly water damaged and they cut it and replaced the side portions to fix it.~~
EDIT: Just looked closer at the pics and now I think it was just plain ol' "busted" and then repaired. Maybe it got dropped off a truck or something.

SavannahLion · « **Reply #31 on:** August 15, 2007, 01:10:53 am »

Interesting coincidence. There is (was?) a free Pheonix cocktail about an hours drive away. Got everything but the wiring harness according to the current seller.

Level42 · « **Reply #32 on:** August 15, 2007, 04:14:20 am »

Now that is interesting: an Intel chip with an AMD logo !

Or actualy, it's the other way around....an AMD chip, licensed from Intel...

About the monitor.....am I missing something ? I only see one little PCB, is that all ? Is that the HV-PCB, and if so, where is the deflection PCB ?

mcfreak · « **Reply #33 on:** August 15, 2007, 07:21:17 am »

Quote from: Kevin Mullins on August 15, 2007, 12:16:20 am

Now there is still the question of why the hell it would be in a vector cab that still has the vector monitor in it. There is no way that pcb is outputting a vector signal of any kind.
And YES, that is the original vector monitor still in there to answer mcfreaks question.
I noticed it wasn't plugged into anything in some of the early pictures.....
Maybe this was a conversion in progress.

I was already troubleshooting by then so things were getting unplugged as a test to see if it would blow that fuse. When I first powered it up, it had a good fuse in it, which blew.

mcfreak · « **Reply #34 on:** August 15, 2007, 07:27:10 am »

Quote from: torez on August 15, 2007, 12:08:18 am

Quote from: mcfreak on August 14, 2007, 10:18:34 pm
So I just need a sanity check here. I DO have a vector in this cabinet right???

You have Electrohome 19" X-Y (vector) monitor.

Yeah, I was 100% sure of that when i started bidding on it, now, it could be microwave de-cased and I wouldn't be surprised. This thing is amazingly interesting and very frustrating on the same token.

mcfreak · « **Reply #35 on:** August 15, 2007, 07:34:05 am »

Quote from: Level42 on August 15, 2007, 04:14:20 am

About the monitor.....am I missing something ? I only see one little PCB, is that all ? Is that the HV-PCB, and if so, where is the deflection PCB ?

Sorry, I just didn't take a picture of that side. Here is the HV in a metal casing on the other side, and from what I can tell it looks complete. Here is a web shot of one: http://www.andysarcade.de/data/picseries/vecmon_eh_g05802/pic001.html

SavannahLion · « **Reply #36 on:** August 15, 2007, 11:53:11 am »

Quote from: Level42 on August 15, 2007, 04:14:20 am

Now that is interesting: an Intel chip with an AMD logo ! Or actualy, it's the other way around....an AMD chip, licensed from Intel...

According to Wikipedia, Intel licensed production of 8086, 8088 and 286 processors to AMD between 1979 and 1991. Wikipedia also cites AMD as a formal partner to Intel pre-1986. It wouldn't be a far stretch to figure that Intel probably did the same with the 8085 in 1977. Interestingly, I couldn't find any mention of AMD producing 8085's anywhere.

arcadefever · « **Reply #37 on:** August 15, 2007, 02:32:27 pm »

when you pick up the game at a auction, did the seller told you a bit about the cab ?? or something

weird to see a phoenix pcb inside

mcfreak · « **Reply #38 on:** August 15, 2007, 03:05:18 pm »

Didn't even meet him/her...

torez · « **Reply #39 on:** August 15, 2007, 03:10:40 pm »

I don't see any burn in on the monitor. If it works, you still have a good score.


Main	Restorations	Software	Audio/Jukebox/MP3	Everything Else	Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements	Monitor/Video	GroovyMAME	Merit/JVL Touchscreen	Meet Up	Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing	Woodworking	Software Support Forums	Consoles	Project Arcade	Reviews
Automated Projects	Artwork	Frontend Support Forums	Pinball	Forum Discussion	Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board	controls.dat	Linux	Miscellaneous Arcade	Wiki Discussion	Old Archives
Lightguns	Arcade1Up	Try the site in https mode		Site News


Unread posts \| New Replies \| Recent posts \| Rules \| Chatroom \| Wiki \| File Repository \| RSS \| Submit news