Ms Pacman Cocktail

[StuDaBaker]

Well, since I've been bitten by this bug, I came across an ad for a Ms Pacman working arcade game for a ridiculously low price. Without too much optimism I decided to give the guy a call. He said it was still available and that another guy was supposed to come look at it and already offered him double for it (I wondered why someone would offer a seller twice as much for an item than what they were asking, but I digress). Long story shortened after a couple days trying to get with this guy to check it out I finally got directions to his place and met up with him last week. He plugged it in and the control panel lights came on but no display or sound. I pretended to fiddle with it while he talked with his roommates for a few minutes and then told him that I didn't have time to sit and figure out what was wrong with it, but I'd give him $5.00 more than what he was originally asking for it and they loaded it in my truck. This is what I got for my $ and some phone calls.


As you can see, it's got some pretty serious burn on the monitor.
The glass is scratched but not really as bad as it seems in the pic. If this thing is salvageable I'm sure I'd replace it.


That lower right corner is the worst spot on the cab.
Hmm. Corner protectors or remove wood grain laminate, repair and re laminate?


Internals of the coin mechs seem to be pretty much intact. No keys, of course.


Top down view into the cabinet. Actually wasn't as bad as I expected. Maybe I'll retract that statement after I get those shields off.


Ok, now we see why there was no display at all. This is what worries me a bit. Need to buy or build a discharge tool before I attempt to plug that back in. I'm not hopeful of the monitor working, but you never know I guess.

Time will tell if I can turn this turd into a tiara, any suggestions are welcome. I'm a still a noob at this stuff so I could use any suggestions. My dream for this is to ultimately turn it into a multi-pac, though those seem tough to find these days and not sure what a fair price for one of those kits are.

[dafelandry]

A friend of mine sent me this link.... http://home.everestkc.net/mdoyle/multipac.htm some guy selling a 96 in 1 multipac..... dont know about how legit or good it is (could be dead)

or you could always hit up lizard lick http://www.lizardlick.com/pages/boards.shtml and get the 24 in 1 iv heard good things about that!

as for the monitor im a noob as well my scramble formation monitor was DOA.... so swapped it for an LCD for a mame cabinet...

[opt2not]

That's a nice cabinet to restore. Other than the monitor issue, it's probably in better condition than what my Canucks cocktail was at.

If you're going to repair and re-laminate it, you'll probably have to do the same to all the sides, if you want to retain the same wood colour. I'm sure over time the laminate faded a bit. A new application of wood grain laminate might not match what's there.  Or you can go through the route I took and removed the laminate to give it a new painted finish. I personally am not a fan of wood grain looking cabinets...

How are the joysticks?  Have you taken apart the CP's yet?  It'd be great if you can salvage the originals.

As for the monitor, perhaps it's just the tube that's trash-able, the chassis might be salvageable. I'll be watching your progress, good luck!

[opt2not]

I just pulled off my last piece of Laminate from the swiveling monitor-mount part of the cocktail cabinet. I was going to throw it out, but you wanted to do a less labour and cheaper attempt at restoring the original Laminate, it's yours if you want it. It's a 16" x 21" piece that I managed to keep roughly all intact while peeling it off. It should be enough for you to play with.

It should be an exact match since my cabinet is also a midway cocktail, but the grain might be tricky to line up.

I was thinking you can cut away the laminate and make a clean line, fill in the damaged parts with wood filler, the let it dry and sand it into shape. You can then cut the exact shape of the laminate out of the material i have and contact cement it back in place.


Removing the laminate is easy, just heat it up with an iron or heat gun, wedge a putty knife or paint scraper under it and peel it back.
Getting corner protectors would probably be easier, but if you want to retain the original look, this route might be good enough if done right. Let me know.

[StuDaBaker]

dafelandry, thanks for the links, and even though it's a little more and roughly 1/4 the options, the 24 in 1 appeals to me more. Tempts me to order one to put in a drawer until I'm ready for it.

opt2not, the joysticks seem to be in good shape, but I haven't had the opportunity to go over them. They look to be original. When I get in to them I'll post some pictures, but at first impression they seem salvageable. The overlay on the opposite side of the above pic is totally gone and I'll be ordering a set soon. Once I get that I'll be itching to take them apart, if I hadn't already.

Thanks for the offer of your laminate refuse. I hadn't really considered doing that. I'm sure it would be very tough to match up the lines in the grain, but if the cut piece fits tight, I'd probably be the only one to notice. If you could, please hang on to it for me a little while until I get the t-molding off to assess the rest of the cabinet. I'll let you know either way. Thanks again.

Nice canuck canabanet BTW! That's going to be sweeeeeet when finished. Probably doesn't mean much to you coming from a Chicago Blackhawks (my family from Chi) and Tampa Bay Lightning fan. There are a few hockey fans living in Florida!

[opt2not]

No problem, I'll hang onto it for you!
Thanks for the compliment also, so far my cocktail is turning out well, I'm hoping I can get it done in the next few weeks! *fingers crossed*

[Spyridon]

That is definitely some serious screen burn, but overall, the cocktail seems to be in pretty good shape.  Should clean up nicely.  I'd love to pickup a Midway cocktail, but I haven't seen any around for a decent price yet.

[RayB]

Um, you don't need to discharge a tube that's had no power going into it. Just connect the annode back onto it. You see the 2 prongs sticking out beneath the cup? They both need to fit inside the round hole (they stick inside on each side, under the edge of the hold, holding the whole thing in.)

Then power up and cross your fingers.  Chances are those that power up with it detached will have caused arcing to other parts, damaging them.

[StuDaBaker]

Well, took a few minutes and fiddled with this, re-attached the anode cap (made sure both prongs were inserted into the hole) plugged it in and .... nada. Seems the monitor isn't getting any power. No glow, hum, sparks, fire or smoke. The only thing that happens is the control panel backlights come on and what sounds like a fan in the bottom of the cabinet. Guess I'll be checking the power supply next.

[RayB]

(here we go again)

Monitor gets AC power from the big block thing called an isolation transformer, not the power supply. The power supply converts AC to DC to power the game board.

Post more photos. 

[StuDaBaker]

(here we go again)

Monitor gets AC power from the big block thing called an isolation transformer, not the power supply. The power supply converts AC to DC to power the game board.

Post more photos. 

Hopefully, I'll have some time this evening to get some tools on this tonight, and I'll definitely be posting some more pictures when I do.

[StuDaBaker]

I've moved this machine from my garage at home to work because every time I'd go out to work on it, I'd get interrupted by my wife or kids and wouldn't seem to get anywhere with it. So now that I have it at my shop, and business has been slow anyway, I've done a little tinkering and a lot of reading on it. On to the pictures.

A shot of the underside of the cabinet, it's sitting on the dolly still, so the bottom is partially obscured by that, but overall looks good there.



And here's a closer shot of that damaged corner:



I put a couple of bulbs in the coin door, and they work.



With it opened you can see pretty much everything that seems to be working at this point, with the exception of the fan in the bottom of the cab.


A pic of the pcb connector:

I'm not even sure if this is on correctly or backwards, I couldn't find a good enough picture online that I could compare, seems there was a decal on the connector at one time, but obviously that's long gone. I've considered purchasing the deluxe pac wire harness from Bob Roberts, but I guess that requires a switcher.

It's got the "suitcase" power distribution assembly, here it is in the cab with the sheild removed.


And after it's been pulled from the cab:


Underneath the pda:

I know the Isolation transformer is in the lower right with the decal on the bottom of it, but the block to the left of that (not sure what it's called) seems like it had leaked something at some time or another. The wires to the left of the grommet are very stiff and seemed to have absorbed whatever came out of there, while they are still pretty clean and flexible on the opposite side of the grommet. I found a picture here http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=42663. It's from a Domino Man cocktail, and seems identical to what I have, but with less "leakage".

I've tested the fuses for continuity and they all check out. I don't know enough to know how to check the other components here, or even if the multimeter I have is able to correctly do so. Is it even worth trying to get this power distribution assembly functioning correctly (assuming it's not) or should I look into installing a switcher and a new shielded isolation transformer?

I'm guessing this is what I need to concentrate on at this time, making sure everything is getting power. Pardon my ignorance.  Redirection, suggestions and comments are welcomed as usual. Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[RayB]

Can you summarize what you do know? What makes you think the power block is faulty? When you had previously powered it on and say it made no sounds, are you sure you properly coined up and hit Start first? Is the speaker hooked up?

The first step is measuring voltages with it all assembled. You measure the voltages at the board (im not sure what Ms Pac's require, so I won't throw numbers out).

You should also, disconnect power to the monitor and measure the AC going to that power connector. If you see 110v AC then the monitor is getting the right power.

[StuDaBaker]

I dropped the suitcase back in the cab and reconnected everything. I checked to make sure the speaker is connected, and reconnected the pcb as it was connected when I got it, although I'm not sure it's oriented correctly. I unplugged the connector for the monitor power and verified that it was receiving power, and upon closer inspection there was a connector that was not fully seated on a pin header on the monitor board, and after pushing that down and powering up, I did get a blank screen on the monitor. I tried hitting both coin lever switches and credit button inside the coin door, and pressing 1 and 2 player start buttons and no sounds or change in display. There is a vibration switch on the coin door, I don't know if that makes any difference or not. I'll search and see if I can find something on checking voltages on the board.

[channelmaniac]

First, unplug the harness from the board. Look at the edge of the board. Are the connectors shiny or are they burnt? Burnt connectors = poor voltage to the board. It's a common problem. Use copper tape to redo the edge connector and replace the connector on the harness if that's the case.

Next, measure the AC voltage on the back side of the harness edge connector that plugs into the game board. If it's missing then check fuses and the transformer. If it's there then check at the diodes on the board to see if you have the AC voltage going into them. If you do then you have a board problem. Download the troubleshooting guide and start looking for the power supply problem.

RJ

PS: The cab supplies AC voltage to the Pac board. The board has its own power supply onboard.