Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Arcade Collecting => Restorations & repair => Topic started by: Dervacumen on March 12, 2012, 05:23:41 pm

Title: Tron won't move in two directions. Used to, though.
Post by: Dervacumen on March 12, 2012, 05:23:41 pm
I also posted at KLOV but I'm stumped.
I had a working Tron machine.  then I unwisely decided to start the restoration.  I figured a good cleaning of the control panel and controls would be a good way to ease in to this project.
I took out the controls, cleaned them up and reassembled.  Pretty straightforward.  I didn't fully disassemble the joystick, only the clam shell and trigger.  It looks killer now, BTW.
Problem is, Tron won't go down or right anymore.  And the Player 2 start button doesn't either, and it used to.  I checked connections, checked continuity of the leaf switches with a multimeter to make sure they work when pressed (yes they do), re-soldered one broken wire on the Up direction switch.  I then traced the wiring back to the connector that plugs in to the board, and the wiring appears good and has continuity.  I verified the molex connectors were inserted properly.

All I can figure is that one of the chips on the board is bad, but I wonder why only two directions would get weird and not all of them?  Is that even possible, Or am I completely botching the troubleshooting process?  Any thoughts?
I guess I can reflow the solder on those two switches, and also reflow the solder on the surface mount connector.  I pulled the board and didn't see anything obviously wrong.

Title: Re: Tron won't move in two directions. Used too, though.
Post by: THE POKER BRAT on March 14, 2012, 02:57:47 pm
My gorf mini does something like that,..it wont go down.. :cry:
Title: Re: Tron won't move in two directions. Used too, though.
Post by: Dervacumen on April 27, 2012, 12:29:03 am
After a lot of troubleshooting, I found the problem to be a bad molex connection that was adjusting weird when I put the CP back on the machine.  That's why it checked out okay when I ran my continuity checks with the CP tilted up from home position.  Good new is I also found several other loose wires, reflowed a bunch of connections, and got to know very well the wiring harness.

So...if your Gorf mini won't go down, I'm now convinced it's a wiring issue, or an issue with the switch.