My new aquisition.....

[RitchieTheBrit]

Hey guys!

Well, kinda' landed on my feet today.  After passing one of the last remaining arcades in my area (even though all they have in them now are bandits), I noticed a rather forlorn looking machine stood by itself, un-powered.

I asked the dude in the change booth, and he said that the owner was selling up soon, so there was a good chance I would be able to buy the machine.  It is a Miday Offroad Challenge.  The sideart has been put through the wars, especially by someone calling himself XL, who , it would appear, had a set of keys.

Anyway, apart from the small lean-to seat missing, the machine looks pretty original.  Some new T-moulding and stripping the side-art off will do wonders.  I really wish I could keep the sideart, but it's far more than just a few small scratches.  The top half was literally cut to ribbons by kids scratching their names into the vinyl.

Here's the fun part.  It won't run!    The exact symptoms vary slightly.  During power on, sometimes a beep can be heard, the cabinet fan kicks in, and the left hand buttons on the CP light up, and thats it.  No monitor, and nothing else happens.  Other times, there is no beep, and no lights (case fan still kicks in).  Shutting the machine down causes the steering wheel to snap to the far left.

Apparently, the machine was running fine until last week, when it refused to start up one day, and the owner couldn't be bothered getting anyone to look at it.

My bro's coming across tomorrow with his multi-meter.  Any ideas?  Is this a common thing?  I was thinking it was something to do with the PSU?  It would appear the marque light is blown as well.

Still, I got it for a pretty damn good price, and if the monitor is actually okay, I'll be well happy!  It's a Hantarex 26" Polo, and what's even better is that when I opened the back of the cab up, there was an envelope in there with the instructions for both the monitor and the cabinet!

[Crowquill]

I'd definitely start with the power supply. Check the voltages coming off of it and adjust it if necessary. Other good first steps:

Check and clean the edge connectors.
Check the board for physical damage and loose chips.

Don't know much about Off-Road Challenge, but these are good first steps for any cab.

[RitchieTheBrit]

Okay, will do!  I'm thinking of Maming this sucker (using a J-Pac and ArvadeVGA), and simply disconnecting the control panel, unbolting it, and replacing it with my own, leaving the integrity of the cab in-tact.  Apparently, these machine aren't that common, so I don't want to hack it around.  If I replace the rear door with my own lump of wood, I will simply be able to mount the computer on that, leaving the cabinet intact.

Bro's due over today, so hopefully, I know what's up with it by this afternoon.

BTW, found THIS for repair newbies.  Looks pretty handy.

EDIT:

A few quick pics.  One side of the cabinet had virtually no art left, just horrible sticky crap, which came off with a little brake cleaner and a lot of elbow grease!  I'm leaving the other side intact until I get some good, distortion free photos that I could use to re-create the art (unless someone knows where I could get some from?)

As you can see, the inside is pretty much original, just a little dusty!

[RitchieTheBrit]

Okay, we've had a good poke around inside.  Not that different to a PC really.

From what I can see, the problem seems to be power related.  The gameboard is equipped with 3 LEDs (D5,D6,D7), and there's one on the amp.

On startup, a beep can SOMTIMES be heard.  When this beep happens, the amp LED is on, as are the two gameboard LED's (+5VDC and SOUND ACTIVITY, the third ones designates processor reset, and its normal state is OFF).  The VIEW buttons on the left of the CP light up, but the monitor never kicks in, and the steering wheel doesn't initialise (it should move).

Most other times, there is no beep, and the SOUND ACTIVITY LED on the gameboard remains off (signifying a problem with the 12V line?).  The VIEW buttons do not light, but now the coin mech will light up!

The tube for the marque is blown, like I said, so I can;t really use that as an indicator, but as the fan works, I would hazard a guess that the marque will be receiving power as well.

A little poking around with a multimeter showed the +5V rail running at 4.78V (I know that this is well within tolerance for a PC), but the times we tested it, the 12V rail was running at a rather concerning 10.71V, and I guess that this will fail to power the amp, hence the gameboard reporting that there is no sound activity?

So, the symptoms vary slightly, but it all seems related to power.  The fuses are all okay, but there is some seemingly out-of-tolerance voltages.  It is also worth noting that the PSU seems to be a refurbished (as in, there's a handwritten sticker on it saying 'spares' ) Entron black box job, so it's not the first time the PSU has had problems.  PSU's seems to run for between £10-£20 on eBay, so even IF this isn't the problem, I reckon it probably wouldn't hurt to replace the unit.  What do you guys think? 

The good news, I've found a guy with some original NOS sideart for the cabinet!  Woohoo!  I'm tempted to buy 2 sets.  One to use, the other to keep as spares.

My plan goes thus:

Get the cab running - probably a new PSU will fettle this.

Cosmetic work - New t-moulding, laminate repair kit (some of the edges are chipped, though not too bad) and sideart should make it a very presentable cab, with the replacement of some mismatched and manky allen bolts.

Mame it!  Don't sweat, I have a plan!  I Replace the rear door (it simply lifts off) with my own wood.  All the PC will be attached to this with a JPac and ArcadeVGA.  The control panel will be removed, along with the pedals, and a blanking plate made for the pedal hole.  A new control panel can be fabricated from metal sheet, and it will use the original mounting holes, hus, the integrity of the cabinet is maintained, and it can always be put back to it's original spec without too much work. 

The only thing that puts me off this is at the moment, the Jamma loom looks very intimidating!  I'll have to read over Jamma before any connectors get undone, but EVERYTHING will be tagged! 

So, best of both worlds then.  I may even get the original sideart, and store it with the controls, gameboard and marque, and replace them with Mame jobbies.  I made a 3D Mame logo, and it would be a good excuse to do some high-res renders for print!

[RitchieTheBrit]

Just in case anyone was curious, this is the model I meant....

EDIT:  Just noticed that I was in such a hurry when I mocked this up that there's a spelling mistake!   

[grantspain]

sounds like the monitor is faulty,you should check for bad solder connections on the monitor chassis

[SavannahLion]

Has anybody ever reverted a cabinet back from MAME?

[RitchieTheBrit]

@Grant - I actually thought it was more than that.  AFAIK (reading the manual), part of the POST is to set the alignment of the wheel, and as this wasn't happening, I was under the impression that the POST was basically failing, possibly due to power fluctuations.  Although, in saying that, whilst the unit was powering up, I could hear a slight ticking noise coming from the monitor, like an internal switch that couldn't flick across. 

Even with a duff monitor though, I should still be able to hear credits added and game sound, shouldn't I?  Even with a fried gameboard, will the monitor turn on?  I actually tried running the machine up with the controller borad jumper set to test, but there was absolutely no output.  The monitor doesn't draw its power from the PSU does it?

I think I may need an engineer to take a look at it, but I really haven't got the money for that at the moment.

@Lion - I have no idea dude!  I just like the idea that I can use this relatively rare cabinet for the purpose it was bought for (Mame), without actually doing anything irreparable to it.  So, on the one hand, I can have a decent Mame cabinet, and on the other, I have everything required to put the cab back to standard.

[RitchieTheBrit]

IT IS ALIVE!!!!  Woot!

Adjusted the 5V pot (very carefully!).  I stopped when the 5V rail steadied at 5.05V, restarted the machine and it seems as though everything is working now, except the monitor, so I guess Grant is bang on the money, faulty monitor.  I was hoping otherwise, as I'm scared s@#?less of those things!  That, and I have no idea where to start.  Lol!