I need rehab.......I just bought this....Missile Command Cabaret

[Level42]

[Level42]

That video showed the (planned) replacement of the PCB edge connector on my Missile Command.

The machine is running now and there are two things I noticed after replacing it:

1) The colors on the screen are MUCH brighter ! Really, this was a difference between needing a less dark plexi or not !  I am absolutely amazed by it myself. I kinda noticed it right away but thought I was kidding myself, but even my wife said it improved a lot.

2) The power supply was humming really loudly before. That hum has gone away by about 75% now. Maybe I'm just imagining this one. It could also be just that the cab moved a bit or something like that.

Anyway, it shows that bad contacts create "resistors", hurting the signals.

I gotta get out my DVM to check if the 5V is not too high now because of the lower resistance in the power lines.......

Anyway, this is the first time I replaced a PCB edge connector, but it was definitely worth it. If your connector pops off as easily as this one, I strongly suggest replacing it. It's a tedious job, but definitely worth it.

[Level42]

Today I received a pretty big "envelope" from Germany:









This is not some kind of "look-a-like" stuff, it is THE SAME stuff as the original. Notice the structure on the back. The color is darker on the original scrap piece because of the glue !!!!!








A BIG  and  to my friend Andreas !!!

It's kind of funny to know that this vinyl comes from a place pretty close to where I picked up the actual machine

Andreas warned me that cutting it is really tough. So I will have to be REALLY careful when making the holes for the coindoor and "marquee". He suggested cutting a model in wood first......anyone ever worked with this stuff before. It's not vinyl but laminate I think. It's really stiff.

[zorg]

router is a good tool for that, make a template, stick it on the elaminate, sitck another piece of wood on top of them, clamp everything firmly.

Drill a hole where's your coind door will be.

use a copy tool on the routeur and here you are

[Level42]

Yikes. Was afraid of that. Everybody knows about my cab building skills....... (non existant). I'll ask my brother, he's good with this kind of work. I definitely do _not_ want to screw this up....

[Level42]

Received a set of imperial sized tools to be able to work on the trackball (great to have a good contact with the guy that orders our tools for work ).

So:







Working on it, you gotta admire the construction of this thing. Looks like it would have been sturdy enough for NASA requirements......must have cost a lot to produce.

O by the way, one of those inbus bolts were even the wrong size for my tool-set. I guess it was the 128/4096 size (DAMN  !) Luckily those bolts have those "grip" marks on the side of the head and I was able to remove them with pliers.

[RayB]

Do you get vibration now?
Btw, I love Atari engineering. You can adjust the position of the "corner" bearing post so that as the rollers wear down, you move the post to shrink the gap that gets inevitably created as the ball "sinks" down into the roller wear groove. However, i found after reassambling my trackballs, I just couldn't get them to roll without vibration. 

[Level42]

Uh, no not at all. This is the second trackball I did. The first was the plastic housed 2.25" on the Centi.
Didn't notice that it was able to adjust that.

The real problem is that I seem to have misplaced the bolts to fix it to the CP so I can't give it a proper test-drive. Not that I have much time for that.....need to go back to work on the gameroom

[Level42]

Hah ! Today I was cleaning out the gameroom to start painting and I cleaned a lot of my tools that were in a box. Guess what was at the very bottom of the box ? The bolts

Installed the trackball and it works like a charm.

[Level42]

I decided to sell this machine.

I've got a reservation on it.

[Level42]

Sold. It will be going to a very good place indeed, the arcade museum in Denmark !

http://www.playright.info/museum.php