A Mame machine in an antique buffet - USB probs solved (I think!)

[drventure]

Well. I'm back. Finally.

I had a lightning strike hit about 2 weeks ago. Took out pretty much every piece of electronic equipment I had plugged in. Even stuff behind UPS's and surge suppressors (and took out the UPS's and surge suppressors too!).

AC compressors, thermostats, Garage door opener, TIVO, stereo amps, all my network gear, phones.

And.... 

The No. 18


<sigh>

The CP itself was completely disconnected, as I was still working on it, but the PC won't boot anymore, powers up, then shuts right down.

No idea what else got fried with it. I'm hoping the speaker/sound system is still ok.

And I'm starting a new job in 3 weeks, but not a single computer in the house was usable.

Anyway. Numerous trips to frys and Best Buy (and orders from NewEgg) and I'm starting to get back online.


@thecornishhen
Thanks! And congrats on the new baby. Those are fun times!

@Dr.Zero
Love the handle<g>. I'm going to have to check out Progear.

@Ond
That is spectacular! Can't wait to actually get it up and running in place. Thanks again!

@DonkeyKong
Didn't recognize the name Emmett Brown till I googled it. Nice.

@Wilno45 and RoundEyz
Thanks guys!


Hopefully, there'll be more progress soon. I had to scramble to get a machine back up, still having to fight with the Alarm system company to repair things, and with the UPS company to reimburse me (those units were both under warranty and have a 250,000$ equipment gaurantee. We'll see how that works out.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

How horrible

Good luck with your UPS reimbursement. I've always wondered how they might honour those.

[gryhnd]

I had a lightning strike hit about 2 weeks ago. Took out pretty much every piece of electronic equipment I had plugged in. Even stuff behind UPS's and surge suppressors (and took out the UPS's and surge suppressors too!).

Whoa...that sucks for sure.

We had a strike like that the end of May. I did lose one hub/switch, needed to power cycle another and my garage door had mysteriously opened itself. Neighbors next door had recessed lights knocked out of their ceiling by the sound. The electric co.'s digital meter on our house blew its brains out, but continued to function. Luckily we otherwise came away unscathed.

The same can't be said for the two trees it hit (this one looked pretty excited by the whole event), nor the sidewalk which had multiple huge junks of asphalt blown out of it.

[Benevolance]

That sucks. But, at the risk of seeming insincere...

Let's just be clear what you're saying here: a steampunk arcade cabinet, a painstakingly crafted conglomeration of art and function, hand assembled by an ingenious mad scientist in the very heart of his secret lair, got struck by lightning. That is some hard-core authentic ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- you've got going on.

[EightBySix]

Really sorry to hear about what happened.

That sucks. But, at the risk of seeming insincere...

Let's just be clear what you're saying here: a steampunk arcade cabinet, a painstakingly crafted conglomeration of art and function, hand assembled by an ingenious mad scientist in the very heart of his secret lair, got struck by lightning. That is some hard-core authentic ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- you've got going on.

It IS kind of ironic though. I suddenly got a picture of you in my head like this one...


When you get No18 back online, promise me you'll say "It's ALIVE!"....

[Benevolance]

So much for it being a secret lair.

[drventure]

@Benevolance

    

I about spit my tea over that one.

[drventure]

Well, I knew the CPU mobo was toasted, but I just was running tests and it turns out the speaker system's is fried too 

That's the Altec Lansing System I'd hacked and shoehorned into the glass lamp shade things...

Ugh. The controller board is actually all hot glued in place. That's going to be a bear to replace...

Lightning doth sucketh 

[mgb]

Wow,
I've seen the posts about this controller but never really gave it a look.
That really is a cool looking controller.
I'm sorry to hear about the lightning strike.
I hope it all works out

[drventure]

Thanks

It was fun making it once, but remaking it isn't sounding quite so fun. Ah well. I think I'll make a point from now on to just keep it unplugged when I'm not actually using it.

Now just gotta figure out how to actually get it out of the cabinet

[gryhnd]

Thanks

It was fun making it once, but remaking it isn't sounding quite so fun. Ah well. I think I'll make a point from now on to just keep it unplugged when I'm not actually using it.

Now just gotta figure out how to actually get it out of the cabinet

      

[drventure]

@gryhnd

Captures my mood pretty well, I'd say...

[sstralkowski]

Thanks

It was fun making it once, but remaking it isn't sounding quite so fun. Ah well. I think I'll make a point from now on to just keep it unplugged when I'm not actually using it.

Now just gotta figure out how to actually get it out of the cabinet

Dude, you're not bailing on the project now, are you?  After so many hours? 

[Ryglore]

Man, I just read about it. That SUCKS! But don't bail on the project! You'll get it back together no problem. 

[drventure]

Oh, no, not bailing. But still, it sucks.

And I'd just finished redoing the CP and was about to start putting all the pieces together and finish out the detail work. Sigh.

Ah well. Press on!

Hey, Anyone have a set of Altec Lansing VS2321 2.1 channel computer speakers they want to get rid of cheap? It'll go into a good cause

[smalltownguy]

Oh, no, not bailing. But still, it sucks.

And I'd just finished redoing the CP and was about to start putting all the pieces together and finish out the detail work. Sigh.

Ah well. Press on!

Hey, Anyone have a set of Altec Lansing VS2321 2.1 channel computer speakers they want to get rid of cheap? It'll go into a good cause

http://rochester.craigslist.org/ele/1790294135.html

http://newjersey.craigslist.org/fuo/1851801468.html

Good luck!

[Benevolance]

Man, that's gone from ironical to sucks. We don't get lightning up here much, so I'm know really sure how much damage it can do to electronics. The speakers themselves should be alright, shouldn't they? It's just the speaker board that's fried?

[drventure]

I hope so. I'm hoping I can pick up the exact same unit and just swap out the sub and the controller board but leave the speakers in place. Those things were NOT easy to fabricate.

Still, getting that controller board out will be a trick.

Yeah pretty upsetting. Oh well, now I have one more excuse to keep working on it 

[Benevolance]

And, hey, put it this way: lightning is the least of a mad scientist's worries. I mean, a protagonist could have stormed your house, beat up you and your underlings, and then destroyed your diabolical mame cabinet far more thoroughly just because he's a hero and a dick. Then you'd have a broken arm and a non-functional arcade cabinet. That would suck worse.

Edit: Just thinking further...were the speakers physically wired to the control board? Or did they have the standard phono/audio jacks? Could you plug the speakers into another sound system?

[drventure]

Actually, that's what I'm hoping for. I can pick up another VS2321 set for less than 50$, so I think I'll do that, rip it up and start replacing pieces. Hopefully, it'll just be the subwoofer and main power board that's in there.

I can't imagine that the actual speakers themselves are fried, but who knows.

Yet another casualty, looks like my pool heater got toasted as well. Pool guy took three stabs at it and can't get it working.

That REALLY sucks.

[DaOld Man]

Man, sorry to hear about your bad luck, but judging from the damage that strike did, you are probably very lucky it didnt burn down your house.

[drventure]

Yeah, Agreed. From what a neighbor saw, it struck very close by. Have yet to find exactly where though (if that's even possible).

It'll just delay things some, so in the grand scheme, it's not a huge issue.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Now what would be rather awesome would be if the lightning struck the ground itself and created one of those fused sand-glass structures (Fulgurites), you found it, and then somehow incorporated that into the rebuild. Internally illuminated, made up like some kind of 'power supply'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite

Wishful thinking, eh?

[XNIF]

I think this is one of the most original designs i have ever seen. And so well executed, very nice! I hope you will finish it to improve mankind

[drventure]

Thanks, guys!

@cotmm68030
I'd heard of that but never knew what they were called. I'd kind of been hoping to find some evidence somewhere, but so far, no luck. I'll definitely post if I do though. Being glass, something like that could look very interesting lit with LED's 

[XNIF]

i was thinking that it should make sounds from old movies when in idle state.  Weird beeping stuff and strange sweeps.... 

[drventure]

Possibly... I've already been putting together the details of a system using an old MP3 player to play a bunch of mechanical/orchestral "bootup" sounds while the PC actually boots.

Wouldn't be a far cry to play something when in "idle, though that might get annoying after a while 

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Snag a few motion sensors and have it play some steam noises and groaning when someone walks by.

[gryhnd]

Possibly... I've already been putting together the details of a system using an old MP3 player to play a bunch of mechanical/orchestral "bootup" sounds while the PC actually boots.

I forgot you were going to do that. For my Rat Rod jukebox, I picked up a couple of Radio Shack 20 second recording modules  (one being potentially sacrificial for testing purposes) with the thought of having it emit an engine starting sound clip when the juke is fired up. I'll either feed the output into the audio amp, or use it directly driving a TV speaker that's larger than the one that comes with the modules. I'll probably also replace the microphone with an 1/8" audio plug to program the sound(s) directly through my PC.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

on the topic of motion sensors:
http://kbcarte.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/netbot-irc-controlled-air-freshner/

Glade Airfreshener accessed via IRC.

Just re-route the 'spray' trigger to the 'play' button on an mp3 player, or the radio shack sound chip mentioned earlier.

[drventure]

Now here's a funny one for you guys.

So, the insurance company basically wants proof that my systems either can't be repaired or can, and for how much.

Ok. So how do I do that, I asked.

"Just take em down to Best Buy and have the geek squad look over em"

Hmmm...

So, I'm off to Best Buy tomorrow with a machine that looks like this....



This should be interesting 

[gryhnd]

custom = BestBuy Guess * 10

...@ minimum 

Drop the dude a $20 for the required $$ you need.

[Benevolance]

Hopefully they can get you set up with a new computer right quick. Would that include the speaker system, as well, or is this just the computer? And wouldn't that be lucky if the Geek Squad happened to be a BYOAC member?

GS: "Oh hey! The Arcadium! Sweet! So, here's a blank work order, fill out what you want and we'll sign off that it couldn't be repaired..."

[saurian333]

If I worked for Geek Squad...well, first of all, I'd have to kill myself.  But looking past that (even ignoring the fact that I've followed you here since last winter), I'd give you an awesome insurance quote on a sexy machine like that.  And I'd make a house-call on my own time for the No. 18.

So sorry to hear about the incident, man.  Hope the insurance thing works out for you.  I had a nasty power surge recently myself; I think it came in through the cable and over the network (immediately went out and bought more surge protectors, making sure to get one with a coax port).  Fortunately my PS3 and my main desktop survived.  But I lost two other network cards, both of my wireless routers, and my color laser printer (also networked).  I thought that was bad enough, then I read what happened to you.

Electricity is a harsh mistress.

[Benevolance]

Don't know if you saw, but Rush is doing their latest tour totally steampunked. Here's some shots of Neil Peart's steampunk drum kit to cheer you up.

[mgb]

I would love to be there when the geek squad guy looks at that.

[drventure]

If I worked for Geek Squad...well, first of all, I'd have to kill myself.

 

Well, geek squad was a bust. I spent 140$ for the guy basically to try turning on the machine, see that it didn't boot, and write up a letter that basically said, "The machine doesn't boot, it appears to be the motherboard. Recommend replacing motherboard"

Seriously. That's an almost literal quote.

I was steamed (and not in a good steampunk way  )

I went back up there when the guy that did that "diagnostic" was actually back on duty and asked him "WTF?" to which he replied "We can't test individual components". Seriously? W....T....F?

Anyway, got my money back from that waste of time, and took them over to Fry's. The guys there seemed a lot more accommodating. Here's hoping they do a proper diagnostic. At least when I described what I needed, he looked at me like "Yeah, that's what a diagnostic is supposed to be, isn't it?" which was a good sign.

About Rush's drum kit. Holy hell! Only thing is, if you look too closely, it all just looks like a bunch of painted on gears. More Hollywood show that otherwise, but still, I'm betting it looks damn good in concert!

So far, other than the 1% deductible, insurance has been pretty decent.

One thing about surge suppressors that I did not know. Apparently, none of the consumer grade versions protect from spikes on the GROUND line. So, if, say, you had lightning strike the ground, close enough, or strike a grounding spike outside in a certain way, it could cause a surge up the ground line, back into the house. If that happens, most suppressors are useless.

At least, that's what an electrician and several knowledgeable guys at work has said, independently.

Who knows...

I suppose it's still better to have a suppressor on the line than not, but that was pretty annoying to hear.

Got a replacement speaker system (exact same model as what's in the cab). will be using it to figure how much damage was done to the sound system. Hopefully, I can just swap out the PS board inside the sub (or just swap out the sub completely).

[TEKNYNE]

The people you talked to are correct about the damage from the surge but it is most likely did not come in from the ground but from the hot lead, but since your surge suppressor was most likely a mode 2 device or mode 3 surge device
the resulting surge was directed to the ground. Mode 2 if I remember correctly goes strait to ground and mode 3 goes to the neutral and ground. The resulting surge on mode 2 and 3 devices can cause damage to low voltage circuits on pc and av equipment that use ground as a reference voltage. You should look for mode 1 surge suppressors that use a inductor to handle the surge and release it back through the neutral only.

[drventure]

Hey Teknyne.

Did not know that. Any idea how to discern whether a device is mode1 2 or 3? I've never seen any indication of a mode on any of the surge suppressors I've bought.

For instance, I just picked up an APC Backups ns-1250

http://www.amazon.com/APC-Back-UPS-1250-LCD-connector/dp/B001QFLRRI

But I didn't see any notes about a mode.

I'll do some more digging and see what I come up with...

[drventure]

Maybe something like this?

http://www.zerosurge.com/eightoutletmodels.cfm