Arcade Collecting > Restorations & repair
TheShanMan's Defender restoration - New repro wiring harnesses!!!
TheShanMan:
I got my joystick working reliably tonight. It has a rebuild kit, which includes new leaf switches. Surprisingly the "down" contacts weren't working reliably. I went into the switch test screen, and found that with the joystick pressed down, I could jiggle the joystick left and right and the electrical connection was flaky. I tried cleaning the contacts with paper - no luck. I tried cleaning them with fine sandpaper - fixed! I also adjusted the leaves to have a slightly bigger gap. The joystick is now working great.
On another note, I haven't really mentioned it here yet but I am still mostly getting a rom error on boot up (rom 9). Retro and I believe it's related to my power supply since he was never getting the error with my boards when he sent them back. The only real difference between my setup and his is the power supply. I'm still running a switcher, but I've rebuilt the stock linear supply and am only awaiting connectors from BR and the big 18,000 uF cap that BR's cap kit doesn't include, and hopefully the right power supply will eliminate my boot up problems.
The other nice thing about getting my stock PS installed soon is I'll be able to get the coin lights working again, as well as the coin lockout solenoid (yeah, who cares about that in a home environment, but I'm kind of anal about stuff like that).
RetroACTIVE:
It's probably that @$#!&@ 40 pin header I neglected to replace!
TheShanMan:
I can't tell if you're serious or joking, especially since you previously agreed that it must be the PS. You did replace the cable, but you're talking about the header that the cable plugs onto? If you're serious, should I re-solder all the pins? I just placed a mouser order yesterday so it's bad timing if I really should replace it. But if it's the same as a computer style header then I can pick one up close to my house for cheap (an 80 pin one that I can just cut in half).
Now that I have my joystick working properly and I’m playing the game more, I noticed that if I get the rom failure on start up, it’s not something I can just ignore. The system will reset sometimes while I’m in the middle of a game, and one time one of the buttons (fire or thrust, don’t remember which) didn’t work at all.
I should be getting the connectors I need for the PS board from BR tomorrow or Saturday (according to him) so I really hope that getting the original board installed takes care of it. I saw someone say that some people like to set their defender up with 5.1V. Maybe I'll try that in the meantime to see if that helps at all.
Right now I'm waiting for the game to warm up enough to not have a rom failure on boot so I can get some practice in.
RetroACTIVE:
I'm serious..... with all of the issues you've had I wouldn't be surprised. I did not see ROM errors here.. and I still stand by our initial diagnosis the only diff is the PS at this point. But those pesky headers are known for these types of symptoms.
Go ahead and reflow the pins first...add a bit of fresh solder/flux to make things flow well....just to eliminate the possibility ;)
TheShanMan:
OK, thanks for the suggestion. After the linear PS is in I'll give that a try if I'm still having the problem.
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