Restoring a Midway Galaga 1981 :)

[spystyle]

Hello from Maine,

I'm restoring a Midway Galaga from 1981, if I can.

I'll post some pics soon, it's at my brother's apartment at the moment.

RAM 2L is bad

I think I only need 2 of these to replace all 8 video RAM chips :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-of-10-New-2148-MBM2148-55-1Kx4-1k-x-4-static-ram-IC-2114-pinout-compatible-/221366949166?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item338a7f952e

Is that correct ?

I also read that these are not socketed and I'll need to desolder the eight 2147 chips. Can I add sockets for the two new chips ?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20-x-18-pin-DIP-IC-Sockets-Adaptor-Solder-Type-Socket-/320641390612?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aa7b75814

Thanks
Craig

p.s. I got a ton of great Galaga information here :

http://www.arcadeshop.com/galaga/galaga.htm

Also I found general arcade repair videos here :

http://www.youtube.com/user/varcadegames/videos?flow=grid&view=0&sort=da

It's all new to me as I'm only used to home made MAME machines LOL.

[spystyle]

Was it a dumb question ?

Did each person say to themselves "RTFM" and then leave ?

LOL, I'll try said parts and see what happens

[SirPeale]

I think, perhaps, most people said "whoa...dude...that's WAY over my head. "  Hard to give advice on something when you have no experience on the something.

Have you ever done board work, before?  It's not that easy, if you don't have the right tools.

[Malenko]

Hard to give advice on something when you have no experience on the something.

^This.  I can help ya witht he actual cab, but Ive gotten 2 sets of Galaga boards, 1 deep fried and borked the other was perfect. Cant help ya out, but look forward to watching the restore.

[spystyle]

LOL, thanks for chiming in fellas

I've done a lot of soldering and desoldering to boards, but never "arcade boards".

Is it any different than a keyboard encoder, mouse and gamepad PCB, or Playstation 1 mainboard ?

We'll see how it goes, I'll post pics

Right now the cab is at my brother's apartment. It looks pretty good like it will be an easy restore. 

Cheers from Maine,
Craig

[orion]

Never messed around with a Galaga board before, but if those chips are soldered I don't see why you can't use those sockets.

[spystyle]

*phew*

I de-soldered and removed 2 video ram chips, it was difficult LOL.

What gear are you guys using to de-solder and solder ?

I'm using the cheap stuff LOL, specifically this :

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062731

And this :

http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-Soldering-Station-40W-Iron/dp/B0002KW4AC

Those chips are quite stubborn, it makes me feel like I might be using the wrong gear

Thanks
Craig

p.s. I don't have any wick, I'm next going to try wick as shown in this video :




edit, oh after watching that video it occurs to me I can just cut the old ram out with a dremel, leaving the legs soldered, or removing them. It will destroy the chips, but I would have heated them too much de-soldereing probably anyway.

But the holes where the two higher capacity ram chips can go are filled with solder from the factory, so I have to de-solder them with the wick I bet ...

I'll post some pics and updates tomorrow.

Cheers
Craig

[spystyle]

Here is the 1981 Midway Galaga video board :



Here are the holes from the two RAM chips I removed so far, they were fighters and I even lifted a trace ...



Notice the legs on the remaining ram chips, I think I can cut them ...



Here are the RAM chips I removed.



The next two pics are where the higher capacity RAM chips will go, but the holes are currently filled with solder.

[ed12]

spystyle
go easy on the solder wick or u will lift the traces..badass move,best not to use it
age of the board,etc

>But the holes where the two higher capacity ram chips can go are filled with solder from the factory, so I have to de-solder them with the wick I bet ... <

no no no to the dermel
or u will damage the board ^^^^^

>edit, oh after watching that video it occurs to me I can just cut the old ram out with a dremel, leaving the legs soldered, or removing them. It will destroy the chips, but I would have heated them too much de-soldereing probably anyway. <

bar none the best way it to cut the chip out with a :small: pair of side cutter's
ok so u have some leg's left in..
easy way is to heat the bottom  >solder side of the board< and believe it or not bang it on your bench..u will see the solder and leg fall right out,if the solder olny falls out and not the leg,then reflow it and do it agian with a little more fource
just go gentel till u get the hang of it..that is how it is done without a very very good
vac-solder sucker..
if u have plug in rom's? ram's and mirco's just make sure they stay seated as u go
once u get the full hang of it u will fully understand why solder wick for 1980's board and up is a tad a pian in the ass

ed

[spystyle]

Thanks for chiming in fellas

I'll let you know how it goes.

edit :

Oh I still get a RAM 2L error on an upside-down screen with a star field in the background.

Well it was worth a try, I guess I'll just put a computer and keyboard encoder in there and run MAME.

I won't make any irreversible changes to the cabinet so someone in the future may wish to restore it.

I'll post pics here later.

Mission not accomplished LOL.

One thing that occurred to me, that cabinet which has the same controls as Mappy, has never seen Mappy ! In this way MAME is better than restoration. Every MAME'd cabinet gets to meet Mappy mouse

[orion]

Your giving up to easy I think. I know board repair is a pain and honestly I don't know enough to help you out here or I would. I usually go for the shotgun approach, because that's all I know to do really.  I can tell you though, sometimes those boards will tell you you have a bad ram when in fact they don't have the proper voltages hitting them. When I first got my Galaxian I was getting either garbage on the screen or bad ram messages. One night I was spending more time on it then my wife wanted me to, so I had to quickly leave it or face her wrath for a couple of days. In my haste I left it plugged in. Lo and behold when I came back the game was up and running. If this hadn't of happened, I would have never of thought of replacing the caps. Once I recapped it, it fired right up! Now if you can't get it up and running, you can contact say Mikes Arcade for example. I know at one time he would take damaged boards in exchange for a significant discount on a repaired board. Bottom line is, you could probably have that thing up and running cheaper and with much less effort than to Mame the thing.

[ed12]

orion
i agree with u 100 percent
recap board and make sure your 5 and 12 volts are spot on

ed

[spystyle]

OK I wont give up just yet

[spystyle]

Hey there is no FAQ here, for example :

1. Vacuum out all mouse droppings LOL
2. Test power supply voltages like so ...
3. Check boards for this and that ...
4. I don't know, I'm a n00b here LOL

People know how to make a MAME cabinet easily, these factory cabs are confusing, so with no FAQ the logical choice is to "MAME" (verb) these old confusing cabs.

So let's start a FAQ already The correct sequence to diagnosing and troubleshooting and repairing these old cabs.
 
What do y'all say ?

Cheers
Craig in Maine

[ed12]

you will need firefox
but go to mike'sacrade
look up your board
d/l the scehmatic and info sheet's
then at the bottom there is some time's on these old midway's a write up as u request
futher to that the next step is to recap the board and chk your power rails
this is normal practice for a board of that age

ed

[spystyle]

Thanks

I've been reading a lot.

Also why not just convert the cabinet to JAMMA :

http://arcadecontrols.com/BBBB/jh.html

$10 = JAMMA harness from eBay.

Install a new switching power supply, and run a multigame PCB that has Galaga on it ?

$23 = Switching power supply from eBay, "Min Dong" brand.

$59 = "Jamma 60-in-1 PCB Classic Arcade Multigame, Icade Game Board - New version 2 PCB board"

Then swap the 2-way stick for a 4-way, and it's good to go, I think.

That might be easier than getting this old board to cooperate

But I will give it a try.

Cheers,
Craig

[ed12]

were your points are all good
once u get the board to run..u can pat yourself on  the back
and the next time something like this comes up :which it will:
u will have alot more know

ed

[spystyle]

OK  

I'll see what I can do

[Malenko]

OK  

I'll see what I can do

I 60 in 1'ed my Galaga because the board was borked. I wish I had kept it a Galaga. That being said, its pretty easy to convert Galaga to use a switching power supply, and eliminate the standard Galaga power supply from the equation.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,129554.0.html

[spystyle]

Thanks

I'm surprised Peale isn't opposed to the 60 in 1 ... I'm expecting a reprehend any time now LOL

[Malenko]

I think he let me go cause I have a regular Galaga too :p

It has a newer switching power supply in it:

[ed12]

Malenko
i did the exact same thing
swaped out the linear for a smps
but kept the main board and did as i said ^^^^^^

ed

[orion]

Thanks

I've been reading a lot.

Also why not just convert the cabinet to JAMMA :

http://arcadecontrols.com/BBBB/jh.html

$10 = JAMMA harness from eBay.

Install a new switching power supply, and run a multigame PCB that has Galaga on it ?

$23 = Switching power supply from eBay, "Min Dong" brand.

$59 = "Jamma 60-in-1 PCB Classic Arcade Multigame, Icade Game Board - New version 2 PCB board"

Then swap the 2-way stick for a 4-way, and it's good to go, I think.

That might be easier than getting this old board to cooperate

But I will give it a try.

Cheers,
Craig

I have a 60in1,
The emulation for the most of the games ain't the best, but it's still pretty fun. Personally I would't 60in1 a galaga, especially since you could just send the board out for repair, for probably the same amount to 60in1 it. If you do go that route though, you can also use an old PC power supply instead of a switching power supply. Just splice the green wire to one if the black ground wires and your good to go. This bypasses the need for a MB with a momentary power switch. And you can usually find them for free .

[ed12]

orion
yup any old atx supply will do it
they are after all smp's
and yes splice green to any black and the power-supply is always on upon power on
of the cab..
just rem u may need to recap the ps
this is normal practice

ed

[spystyle]

Thanks for the tips, though I've decided to just buy a switching power supply. They are about the same price as ATX anyway LOL.

I hope to see an improvement with a new power supply

I see 3 brands on eBay, HAPP, MIN DONG, and HEI MA.

I'm inclined to buy HAPP for the extra $6, but for all I know they are rebadged ...

Which of the 3 are best ?

Thanks,
Craig

p.s. I'll be following these instructions :

Installing a switching power supply

One item that will need replacing is the power supply. Finding parts to repair the old PS can be quite hard, so you will be better off installing a new switching PS.

If you do install a PS, you will eliminate the need of two parts from the game:

1-The PS transformer (the big one)
2-The PS PCB (the PCB with the big ass heatsink mounted on the side)

Follow these 8 steps:

    Unplug the game!
    Remove the PS PCB
    Cut off the wires from the large connecter J2 (the small connecter J1 will no longer be used)
    Attach ALL red and the one white wire to the +5 on the PS
    Attach the orange wire to the +12 on the PS
    Attach ALL yellow wires to ground
    Attach the 120 VAC off the isolated voltage going to the monitor, to the PS
    Adjust the +5 if needed

Many people find it easier to combine all the yellow wires into one wire before tying them to the switching supply due to fact that there are so many (around 10). Same goes for the +5 (3 or 4 red wires and the one white one). There is only one orange +12 wire.

Note: The white wire is for the coin meter, and -5 is NOT used.

[Malenko]

those are the same directions I used, and they work fine.  I would suggest combining all the wires of each voltage into 1, it looks tidier and makes it easier.

Lots of parts suppliers right here on these boards, might even save you same coin over FeeBay.

[spystyle]

Well I looked but I didn't have much luck in the buy/sell forum.

What brand power supply is in your Galaga cabinet with 60 in 1 ?

"Min Dong" brand got 2 bad reviews here :

http://www.amazon.com/16a-Arcade-Switching-Power-Supply/dp/B004IVGWZE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394852249&sr=8-2&keywords=switching+power+supply+arcade

Or maybe I should just try ATX ? Here is a cheap one with 20 amps on the 5v line :

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_sop=15&_nkw=NEW+400-Watt+ATX+Computer+Power+Supply+Desktop+PC+400W+for+Intel+AMD+PC+SATA&rt=nc&LH_BIN=1

[Malenko]

Happ

[ed12]

Malenko
yup

ed

[spystyle]

Well in the end I decided to go with ATX.

I had a clever idea. I'll use an ATX extension cord and cut it and solder it.

That way an ATX power supply can simply plug in

 

[orion]

If your planning on trying to restore the galaga board, a PC power supply won't work. If your planning a 60in1 you don't use the ATX connector at all. All you need is 1 drive cable. That's it. I actually took my ATX PS apart, removed all the ATX cables from it and then just soldered the green wire to the spot where one of the black wires was. I used a 90watt supply that my local mom and pop PC store gave me for free . They actually gave me two, so I have a spare.

[orion]

Actually I don't think that will work on a galaga board. Don't have one, so I'm not sure as I don't know what voltages it needs and if it can be particular or not.

[spystyle]

Oops I thought an ATX power supply could replace an arcade power supply, but not vise versa.

As long as the amperage is sufficient ? So like a 450 watt PSU is good, but like a 200 watt PSU wuld not be good ?

But the 5v might need to be adjustable ?

I'm confused LOL ...

I thought it might bring the board back to life.

[orion]

That's what I'm not sure about, the amperage and the adjustment. You might want to wait until someone else chimes in. All I know for sure is that the switching power supply will work with both the Galaga board and the 60in1. I know an PC supply will work with the 60in1, not sure about the Galaga.

[spystyle]

OK thanks

[ed12]

just about any old 300 watt atx supply will do fine
for 30in1's-60in1's
for galga stick with 300watt
make sure u tie the green wire from the psu to black >atx style<
so as to bring it out of power down on its own,as long as there is ac feed to it
u should be good to go

ed

[orion]

Good to know! Out of curiosity are galagas like pac man and Galaxian with the transformer and the voltage regulation handled on the game PCB?
 

just about any old 300 watt atx supply will do fine
for 30in1's-60in1's
for galga stick with 300watt
make sure u tie the green wire from the psu to black >atx style<
so as to bring it out of power down on its own,as long as there is ac feed to it
u should be good to go

ed

That sounds like a plan.

Well in the end I decided to go with ATX.

I had a clever idea. I'll use an ATX extension cord and cut it and solder it.

That way an ATX power supply can simply plug in

 

[ed12]

with galga it is 50/50
with pacman there is a sub on the board yes :12v:
we just bypass it all
1 jumper e-c and the rest of it we remove,
did ton's of them


ed

[Cakemeister]

I think arcadeshop.com is still around. That's where I got my switcher.

[orion]

How's this project going? Updates?