In The Zone ... Battlezone

[FrizzleFried]

This project turned out to be pretty expensive and a pain in the ass. First off, the ---meecrob--- bag I bought it from was a hard ass and wouldn't come down in price even after 6 months of it just sitting there doing nothing. That said, it's on me for over-paying for this at $300.00 in the condition it was in. I had no idea though...

Where to start with the problems? Lets see. F100 on the monitor was BURNING UP...glowing red... and F101 had no juice at all. I re-capped the chassis... same deal... I re-flowed the connection headers (which i should have done while the boards were out for the re-cap). After re-flowing the connection headers both F100 and F101 blew. After a bit of testing I determine the diode bridge rectifier was bad. Another order from Bob later and the monitor powered up.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the beginning of my problems. When running, the image on screen would pulse...here are a couple videos of the problem:





Not happy...not happy at all. I pulled the G05 from an Asteroids I have here and it did the same thing with the Asteroids... hey, at least I ruled out the monitor.

After another order from Bob I replaced the big blue. No fix. Like a dumb ass I didn't order a bridge rectifier for the power supply at the same time as the Big Blue, so yet ANOTHER order from Bob and once again... NO HELP. Now I had a rebuilt power brick ruled out and the monitor ruled out. I tried a 2nd AR-II... nope...same issue. All I had left was the PCB itself and the harness. I wired a direct ground... no help. It HAD to be the PCB... right?

Well, I managed to acquire a working set of PCBs (cha-ching!) and sure enough... the pulse went away. Something in the main PCB is jacked as I am still using my original AUX board.

Other things I did: I picked up new color gels... and new bellows for the sticks... I also build a new monitor bezel (where the color gels attach) out of black foam board.

Finally I cleaned it up, tried to restore the art as best as I could... added new T-Molding to the step... and added casters lifting the cab by about 3.25" which helps me as I had to really crouch down to play before.

[Level42]

Did you check/replace any caps on that first PCB ? Looks like power problems to me.

AND, so often overlooked: Poor edge-connector contact....

[FrizzleFried]

Did you check/replace any caps on that first PCB ? Looks like power problems to me.

AND, so often overlooked: Poor edge-connector contact....

I've done nothing to the problematic BZ pcb thus far.... edge connector LOOKS fine...and the harness works great on the other board.  I'm thinking bad filter caps on the board?  Not sure.

[HaRuMaN]

Hmm...  noted for interest...  I have a Battlezone that plays blind that I need to work on.

[Kevin Mullins]

Looks good, especially compared to mine.   

[Level42]

Did you check/replace any caps on that first PCB ? Looks like power problems to me.

AND, so often overlooked: Poor edge-connector contact....

I've done nothing to the problematic BZ pcb thus far.... edge connector LOOKS fine...and the harness works great on the other board.  I'm thinking bad filter caps on the board?  Not sure.

Yeah, the filter caps are a good candidate then.

I am already extremely happy that I _played_ a BZ a couple of years ago at Speleo's place, let alone owning one....300 bucks would be a steal for it here.....