Author Topic: Robotron Restoration (Read 47856 times)

Spyridon · « **on:** July 24, 2010, 03:35:17 pm »

Just got back with the next restore candidate. Unfortunately, this one won't be staying as it is a commission job.

The good news is that the cabinet is solid and after some bondo will clean up nicely. The bad news is the game does not work (but at least is complete)

The ugly Willis control panel has got to go

No top back door on the cab so I'll have to make one. Luckily, I have a Multi-Williams in a Robotron cab so I have one to match

Marquee may clean up, if not replicas are available.

Bezel has some flaking and no instruction sticker

Cigarette burns everywhere, but the blue buttons may be salvageable.

Both joystick balls are pretty banged up. What's the best way to try and clean these up?

Worst part of the cab is the front corner. A good healthy application of bondo will take care of it.

Coin door looks complete but no keys.

Not a problem on the top coin door, but the lower coin box may have to be drilled out. unless I can get to it when I remove the carriage bolts holding it in place.

Spyridon · « **Reply #1 on:** July 24, 2010, 03:43:02 pm »

Outside will get stripped and repainted with stencils

Let's take a look inside...

Monitor is a WGK4900. Looks like an error code message is burned into it. How bad the burn-in is I really can't tell until I get it out.

When I power it up, the monitor turns on but is just a solid whiteish/blue color. I get an initial Robotron sound patter and that's it. The number on the ROM board lights up with a 0 (which I think means it passes all the self tests?)

and all three led's are lit on the power supply.

This is my first Williams game so I need to start figuring out what everything is on here. Anyone recommend a place to start?

Spyridon · « **Reply #2 on:** July 24, 2010, 05:27:54 pm »

Quote from: Spyridon on July 24, 2010, 03:43:02 pm

This is my first Williams game so I need to start figuring out what everything is on here. Anyone recommend a place to start?

Okay, had some time this afternoon, so I started with the obvious first place to start looking...test the voltages.

-5V = -5.07
-12V = -14.39
+12V = 10.65

Looks like a power supply rebuild is a good first step.

Since my Moon Patrol was also in the garage, I pulled it over and plugged the Robotron into the Moon Patrol monitor. Got the same thing as the Robotron screen, so at least at this point I can rule out the monitor as an issue (other than cap kit)

Since I'll be placing an order with Bob Roberts for the rebuild kit, anything else you would recommend ordering (besides a monitor cap kit) ?

Spyridon · « **Reply #3 on:** July 24, 2010, 05:43:36 pm »

What do the batteries on the cpu board actually do? I'm guessing some type of bookkeeping save? High score save? Anyway, I'll order a lithium battery replacement for them.

saleem · « **Reply #4 on:** July 24, 2010, 08:32:22 pm »

dont some williams games suffer from burned connectors?i seem to remember a thread somewhere and a pic of one of the molex connectors with burning.

you know more about these things,you should be telling us!

opt2not · « **Reply #5 on:** July 25, 2010, 04:52:06 am »

Quote from: Spyridon on July 24, 2010, 05:43:36 pm

What do the batteries on the cpu board actually do? I'm guessing some type of bookkeeping save? High score save? Anyway, I'll order a lithium battery replacement for them.

Definitely a good plan. Yes, the batteries are for the hi-score saves.
The lithium battery is what I'm going with. Really easy replacement, and well worth it.

That cabinet looks to be in pretty decent shape. Too bad it's not staying with you, it's a classic!

Definitely rebuild the PS, williams games are notorious for their PS and connector problems.

As well, I would upgrade the RAM to the 4164's as well. It'll keep for longer, as they are more efficient than the current RAM chips.
If the monitor is fine, then it could be a problem with the RAM, or the connectors. Do a spot-check and see if any of the connectors are burnt, those could probably use a replacement. There could be a need to replace the headers as well (again, common problem with Williams games).

well, it looks like a parallel restoration is in order! I gotta get on mine, just to keep up!
Looking forward to see what you do with yours. GL!

opt2not · « **Reply #6 on:** July 26, 2010, 05:12:01 pm »

Quote from: Spyridon on July 24, 2010, 03:43:02 pm

This is my first Williams game so I need to start figuring out what everything is on here. Anyone recommend a place to start?

Here's a bunch of links I found while researching for Robotron info.

This is a pretty hardcore restoration, lots of good information here, quite the read but worth it. This resto came out looking amazing!:
http://www.biltronix.com/robotron.html

This site has a lot of information on Williams cabinets in general. There's some blurbs about Robotron, but you'll find a lot of useful stuff here for any William's game including Manuals and Schematics:
http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/

Williams Repair Log by Mike Ranger has a few good pointers of info:
http://www.ionpool.net/arcade/williams/ranger_repair_log.html

Bob Robert's battery conversion:
http://www.therealbobroberts.net/wmsbatt.html

Hope this helps get you started!

Spyridon · « **Reply #7 on:** July 26, 2010, 06:06:04 pm »

Quote from: opt2not on July 26, 2010, 05:12:01 pm

Hope this helps get you started!

Thanks for those links. I pulled some of them out of your restoration and spent a few days reading up on these games. I like the way the boards are setup and they really aren't that difficult to understand. I also found a Joust drawing set in a box of manuals I have. Since Joust is basically the same as Robotron with some different ROMS, they have been very useful. It's nice having a full sized drawing set and not a print out from the online documents.

Ordered my 4164 chips today from here. Good price even with the minimum order requirements. Putting together a Bob Roberts order in the next day or so.

matman · « **Reply #8 on:** July 29, 2010, 04:25:05 pm »

Did the original Robotron ship with the WGK4900? Just curious. (and i need to find a monitor for my robotron cabinet)

Spyridon · « **Reply #9 on:** July 29, 2010, 09:46:10 pm »

Quote from: matman on July 29, 2010, 04:25:05 pm

Did the original Robotron ship with the WGK4900? Just curious. (and i need to find a monitor for my robotron cabinet)

They may have used a few different models, but the 4900 in this one is the original.

MythTrip · « **Reply #10 on:** July 31, 2010, 04:37:48 pm »

Joe,

Thank you again for tackling this project. I really appreciate it. Looking forward to you bringing this one
back to life.

Thanks,

Jim T.

Spyridon · « **Reply #11 on:** August 01, 2010, 08:36:14 pm »

Pulled the boards out of the cab today and screwed them onto a piece of MDF to make it easy to work on outside the cab

Also pulled the power block. Looks like I'll be doing some cleanup in here:

Here is what it looked like right out of the cab:

and a little clean up latter:

It's nice to actually be able to see the color of the wires

I'll have to replace the molex on this one:

Q*Bert_OP · « **Reply #12 on:** August 01, 2010, 08:51:47 pm »

I don't know if you plan to repaint the transformer or not, but Rustoleum BBQ grill black paint works wonders...it's a high heat paint (over 600 degrees, IIRC), and a somewhat flat finish, so it looks close to the original finish.

Spyridon · « **Reply #13 on:** August 02, 2010, 08:34:32 pm »

Continued to strip the cab tonight.

Monitor has a bit of burn in on it

Control panel may look ugly on top, but it is solid and will clean up well

The hinge where the control panel hooks onto the cab is really rusted. Will need to strip this down to the bare metal

I saw this on one of the other Robotron threads as well - looks like the couldn't get the serial numbering right and had to do it a few times

Luckily the speaker grill is in good shape. Not an easy piece to find an exact replacement

That's it for tonight. What I have is one mostly empty cab.

The coin bucket is present in the lower coin door, but my dreams of finding a bucket full on quarters in a cab will have to remain just a dream...it was empty!

Spyridon · « **Reply #14 on:** August 06, 2010, 10:35:21 pm »

Boy, what a pain this old solder is on the power supply. Very hard to get it going and I have one spot where I just can't get the solder out of the hole. Gave up for tonight and will tackle it again tomorrow.

On a much better note, I got an awesome package in the mail today...

New Robotron joystick shafts!!!!

Here is a comparison between the old and the new. Much nicer and saves me a lot of cleanup

Spyridon · « **Reply #15 on:** August 07, 2010, 01:24:51 pm »

Picked up a new repro marquee today. Here's a back-lit shot of it as it still has the protective paper on it

One of the first things I like to do to all my cabs is replace the original legs with nylon ones. This makes moving the game around much easier as these things just glide on a concrete floor

Old legs removed

New ones ready to go

But I ran into a problem. The old t-nuts were loose and at an angle so these legs just won't sit at the right angle. I'll have to replace the wood base the legs screw into with new ones.

While I had the cab on it's back, I got a better look at the base of the cab. It's a little worse than I though. The corner will take some work to get back in shape

and I found some water damage at the very bottom

I broke out the sander and used it on the bottom area that had puffed out from some moisture. Starting with 80 grit and working down to 220, I now have a nice smooth lower panel.

Once it's primed and painted, you'll never know there was a problem

Spyridon · « **Reply #16 on:** August 10, 2010, 09:28:22 pm »

This is the second Roborton control panel I've done and I have come to the conclusion that Williams panels suck when it comes to new overlays. Not easy to get the old off and tons of adhesive left.

The heat gun, a scraper, and some elbow grease were used to remove the old overlay

The bolts holding the joystick bases in place from the bottom are completely stripped on top so getting them out isn't easy. I'll need to pry off the t-nuts from the top and replace with new ones.

Yuck...look at those cigarette burns

Next up is to remove the joysticks and then figure out what to use on the wood panel to remove some of the adhesive that is left over.

Got a couple packages in the mail today.

control panel
bezel
t-molding
control panel molding
stencils

Havok · « **Reply #17 on:** August 11, 2010, 03:52:39 pm »

Looking good so far. One of these days I need to pick up a Robotron and work on beating my highscore. 650K just isn't good enough!

Spyridon · « **Reply #18 on:** August 11, 2010, 09:47:33 pm »

Quote from: Havok on August 11, 2010, 03:52:39 pm

One of these days I need to pick up a Robotron and work on beating my highscore. 650K just isn't good enough!

If it makes you feel better, I haven't broken 200K yet

Kman-Sweden · « **Reply #19 on:** August 13, 2010, 08:12:40 am »

Love this thread.

I've similar plans for my "generic" cabs. They're just "plain" cabs with cherry wood finish that needs re-laminating and some general fix-me-ups.
Still it's fun to follow your thread and it pumps me up for my own project.

Good job!

Pinball Wizard · « **Reply #20 on:** August 15, 2010, 01:58:20 pm »

What overlay was on the control panel? That is labeled with the proper items but was no where near the right artwork. Make sure before using the 4164 rams that you adjust the power wires going into the main board or you'll fry the ram chips and need the entire set. That isn't an error message burned into the monitor just the attract mode text. If your getting a zero on the ROM board then the game is passing self-check and your video issues appear to be in the connectors or you wouldn't get a zero unless IIRC the only other possible problem could be the video decoder chip but most likely a connector has an issue in it for video.

Spyridon · « **Reply #21 on:** August 15, 2010, 02:26:34 pm »

Progress today. I recapped the sound board and the power supply. All my voltages are in line and the game powers up

Only issue I have now is a double image on the screen

Not sure what is causing that, but up next is to replace all the RAM chips with 4164 chips and do the power mod to support them. Not sure if that will fix the problem, but I'll tackle that before I try anything else.

Spyridon · « **Reply #22 on:** August 15, 2010, 02:30:57 pm »

Quote from: Pinball Wizard on August 15, 2010, 01:58:20 pm

What overlay was on the control panel? That is labeled with the proper items but was no where near the right artwork.

It's a Willis control panel overlay made for Robotrons.

Quote

Make sure before using the 4164 rams that you adjust the power wires going into the main board or you'll fry the ram chips and need the entire set.

Yep, already have that ready

Quote

If your getting a zero on the ROM board then the game is passing self-check and your video issues appear to be in the connectors or you wouldn't get a zero unless IIRC the only other possible problem could be the video decoder chip but most likely a connector has an issue in it for video.

Was definitely a power supply issue as now the game boots up. Still have issues however.

Spyridon · « **Reply #23 on:** August 15, 2010, 07:39:53 pm »

Worked on the main PCB a little today. First I removed the old battery holder and did the lithium battery upgrade

Next, I replaced these 4116 Ram chips

with the new 4164 chips

and the result

Plugged the game back in with the power mod for the 4164 chips but I still have the same double image on the monitor. At this point, I'm not sure if this is a board issue or monitor issue. I did connect the game up to a G07 monitor I had nearby, but I couldn't get the game to sync up (and I didn't have time to mess with it)

Pinball Wizard · « **Reply #24 on:** August 16, 2010, 07:44:11 am »

I have seen a similar issue with arcade monitors when vertical hold or horizontal hold needs adjusting. Could be something else but I have seen that to double and image similarly.

Spyridon · « **Reply #25 on:** August 16, 2010, 08:50:48 pm »

okay, ~~good~~ Great news. I plugged the game into my Satan's Hollow to see if this was a board or monitor issue. After initially having the same sync issue as my G07, I moved around a few wires, adjusted the vert hold and had a perfect picture. That means I have a working boardset.

I was also able to cut the new top back door out tonight.

Kman-Sweden · « **Reply #26 on:** August 17, 2010, 01:53:01 am »

Fantastic news!

brock.sampson · « **Reply #27 on:** August 23, 2010, 03:48:10 pm »

Where did you get these replacement shafts from? I'm looking to do a multiwilliams on a joust or defender cab. I have had zero luck locating leaf joysticks with the long shafts.

Quote from: Spyridon on August 06, 2010, 10:35:21 pm

Boy, what a pain this old solder is on the power supply. Very hard to get it going and I have one spot where I just can't get the solder out of the hole. Gave up for tonight and will tackle it again tomorrow.

On a much better note, I got an awesome package in the mail today...

New Robotron joystick shafts!!!!

Here is a comparison between the old and the new. Much nicer and saves me a lot of cleanup

Spyridon · « **Reply #28 on:** August 23, 2010, 07:33:52 pm »

Worked on the underside of the cab a bit today. Used a pry bar to remove the old leg leveler blocks

Next up, I'll need to cut some 3/4" plywood to size to create the new ones.

Also, the new monitor for this game arrived

Spyridon · « **Reply #29 on:** August 23, 2010, 07:39:33 pm »

Quote from: brock.sampson on August 23, 2010, 03:48:10 pm

Where did you get these replacement shafts from?

Unfortunately, these were his last ones.

Spyridon · « **Reply #30 on:** September 05, 2010, 01:43:44 pm »

Continuing with the new leg sections...

New blocks cut from 3/4" plywood

Holes drilled and t-nuts inserted

Glued and screwed to the bottom and nylon legs added

I tried out a product I haven't used before on the rusted bolts. Worked really well.

I also got started on the cab repair. First I applied some wood glue where some of the plywood was separating. After clamping tightly over night, I then used an orbital sander to remove all the loose pieces of wood. There was quite a bit of rot around the corners.

Next, I added some wood stabilizer to strengthen it up.

Next up....Bondo!

Spyridon · « **Reply #31 on:** September 12, 2010, 08:38:21 pm »

Did some more work on the control panel this weekend. The bolts holding the joysticks in place were a pain to remove. I had to use a dremel to cut new holes on the top because they were stripped from trying to remove with a screwdriver. They were so rusty that half of them snapped in half as I turned them.

I had to remove the t-nuts of the ones that broke off

I'll need to source some new ones and I will probably replace them all since I have to purchase new ones anyway.

Speaking of rust...

Once again the trusty wire wheel brush comes to the rescue

And a fresh coat of paint

Also did some body work on the main cab. I used my orbital sander to smooth down the cab. It felt very rough from the old cracking paint. Now it's nice and smooth.

I also started the bondo work. More to come...

Pinball Wizard · « **Reply #32 on:** September 12, 2010, 09:48:10 pm »

When you go to paint the cabinet, be sure to let us know exactly what paint you used. My robotron could use some body work and if I dive that deep I'll end up with repainting the entire thing and I'm curious as to what paint you use, especially how close to the original colors you get and such.

Spyridon · « **Reply #33 on:** September 13, 2010, 08:58:03 am »

Quote from: Pinball Wizard on September 12, 2010, 09:48:10 pm

When you go to paint the cabinet, be sure to let us know exactly what paint you used.

Paint codes I'll be using can be found at Gamestencils.com

These colors have been verified by several people that have used them.

Crayola · « **Reply #34 on:** September 13, 2010, 12:14:16 pm »

Did you have any trouble with your stencil order from gamestencils.com?
I oder a stencil for my defender a week ago and havent gotten anything from them.

Crayola

Spyridon · « **Reply #35 on:** September 13, 2010, 03:34:11 pm »

Quote from: Crayola on September 13, 2010, 12:14:16 pm

Did you have any trouble with your stencil order from gamestencils.com?
I oder a stencil for my defender a week ago and havent gotten anything from them.

No problems getting them. I don't remember how long it took, but many of these are not cut until after you place your order so a week isn't bad on the wait. Give it some time, they are a very reputable shop.

Lewis Black · « **Reply #36 on:** September 14, 2010, 04:40:35 pm »

Looks like a fun project. Good work so far.

Spyridon · « **Reply #37 on:** September 19, 2010, 08:07:26 pm »

It's amazing what you can do with bondo.

Before there was no corner, now...

Almost done with the final touches on bondo. I picked up all the paint this weekend (about $150) so I should be ready to paint very soon.

I also painted all the carriage bolts black.

Spyridon · « **Reply #38 on:** September 21, 2010, 06:40:17 pm »

Finished up the other side of the cab with bondo. Corners took a bit of work to rebuild, but they look good now

She is now ready to paint. I took Friday off from work to get started on the first coat of primer.

opt2not · « **Reply #39 on:** September 21, 2010, 06:50:18 pm »

Heh, I like the idea of taking a day off for arcade restoration work.

Nice job on the corners.


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