Arcade Collecting > Restorations & repair
TheShanMan's Defender restoration - New repro wiring harnesses!!!
TheShanMan:
I got the linear PS installed and unfortunately the -5V supply isn't regulated properly, but fortunately since I'm using 4164 ram that isn't critical (though I plan to replace the regulator anyway). This has allowed me to move the switcher (which is brand new) to my cyberball, which had a flaky switcher, causing random resets (now it resets half a dozen times when first turned on, then is rock solid thereafter).
So the externally noticeable improvement by reinstalling a stock PS is that I could hook back up the coin door lights, and the coin lockout (though it's not working). Thanks to parts from RetroACTIVE and Pinball Resource, I now have 3 fully working coin slots, including the lighted coin inserts (middle one says DOLLARS as it did originally, though all slots actually take tokens). There was quite a bit of effort that went into the coin door. As bad as my CPU board was, the coin door was probably a close second in condition. So it's quite satisfying to see it fully functional and looking good!
My ROM 9 failure on start up still is present - it seems to happen most of the time whether warm or cold. Current thinking is that I need to replace the 40 pin header that connects the cpu and rom boards because that's one of the few things RA didn't do.
I've also been dealing with spontaneous resetting which I previously believed was tied to the rom startup failure, but now I'm thinking they may be distinct problems. Hopefully the linear PS will give me a steady, noise free supply of voltage and thereby prevent the random resets. I'm doing a test right now by pulling the battery and adding a credit. I'll watch it over several hours to see if that credit goes away. Fingers crossed.
Here are some pics of the coin door and the linear PS (taken by reaching my arm in the coin door ;D).
TheShanMan:
Fingers crossed... My Defender is currently working 100%. No rom failures on start up, and no spontaneous resets. It appeared to be a faulty connection of the ROM board power connector (though I couldn't reproduce the failures with more jiggling of the harness) and possibly also not enough voltage from the linear PS. I replaced the really big cap on the PS board, and replaced R2 with a pot so I can adjust the +5V supply.
It was kind of a "duh" moment for me and Retro afterward - we had been saying "what's different between our 2 set ups" since my boards were working fine for him. The answer previously was "the power supply". We should have also said "the wiring".
I will be replacing the pins on the connectors after my next mouser order! I'm also seeing about a 0.07V drop from the PS board to chips on the CPU board, which may be attributed to those pins. Heck, I might not even need that pot after replacing the pins!
TheShanMan:
On another note, I now have the coin lockout working on the coin door. I needed a spring to engage the lockout when the power is off. Some might say "who cares for a home machine" but little things like that bug me. ;D
Spyridon:
I love this shot:
TheShanMan:
Thanks!!! The cab looks SOOOO much better now that the coin slots are right (compare to my original pic of the coin door in my first post), not to mention the rust being gone!
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