Author Topic: Why does my cabinet burn out PCBs (Read 3973 times)

Crowquill · « **on:** January 19, 2006, 02:14:11 pm »

Today the cabinet I'd bought last week was delivered--a Primal Rage cabinet.

It had been converted to Tekken 3, and the operator told me that the board was bad and that's why he was selling the cabinet so cheap ($100 w/ workign 25" monitor).

I plugged up one of my boards and it came up and worked fine for about 20 seconds, and then all audio and video disappeared. I'm trying to figure out where to go from here.

Is there a fuse that might have blown? The PCB still had it's LED on though. I'm guessing something's wrong power-wise and that's why the Tekken PCB stopped working and now Mr. Driller might be hosed. Where should I start looking to isolate the problem?

RayB · « **Reply #1 on:** January 19, 2006, 03:55:53 pm »

If you own an arcade machine, you should own a multimeter. Always measure the voltages.

ChadTower · « **Reply #2 on:** January 19, 2006, 04:02:19 pm »

First guess, power supply is giving out bad juju.

Second guess, your harness is bad.

fredster · « **Reply #3 on:** January 19, 2006, 04:06:15 pm »

Yes, check the power supply and see if it's giving out too much or too little power.

Look for frayed wires all around. Look for bad connections and tape. If you see black tape, take it off and fix whatever is under it well.

The other thing is to check to make sure the thing is grounded. It could be an issue with YOUR power. Especially if you live out in the country. REMC's are not known for stable spikeless power.

Crowquill · « **Reply #4 on:** January 20, 2006, 02:08:37 pm »

Can't find my multimeter so I started tracing the harness wiring. Only thing that looks funky is a crappy splice in the control wiring to make the first action button also trigger the start button. Primal Rage didn't have seperate start buttons so that makes sense I guess. I'll look for my multimeter when I get home from work tonight.

I also figured out what the three extra unconnected wiring pairs were for. They're all power. At least one of them plugged into Primal Rage's sound board (as did the loose wires leading to the sub). Much more to figure out...

Crowquill · « **Reply #5 on:** January 22, 2006, 02:07:45 am »

Found the multimeter tonight. Looks like the 5V on the PS is putting out 5.06V. The 12V on the other hand is putting out 12.3V. I'm guessing this is what messed up the boards. Not a giant jump, but these are sensitive electronics (Playstation hardware to be exact). I also checked voltages at the JAMMA connector. Everything was the same across the board, but I did find one strange thing maybe...

One of the 5V pins isn't putting out voltage.It's actually connected to 2 wires leading to the control panel harness. The pins on the opposite side of the molex plug are empty. Is this normal? I know some controls use 5V, but I expected that pin to be giving power, not taking it.

RayB · « **Reply #6 on:** January 22, 2006, 10:38:59 pm »

Those voltages seem fine. They are not the cause of your problem.

fredster · « **Reply #7 on:** January 23, 2006, 10:27:00 am »

I dunno. Those voltages are good. Nothing wrong there.

Try plugging that board in again and make sure it's snapped in tight.

ChadTower · « **Reply #8 on:** January 23, 2006, 11:47:31 am »

Depends on WHERE he tested. If he tested at the PS end, we know the power supply is good, but know nothing about the harness. If he tested at the harness, we know the harness is good, but still need to know about the board's edge connectors... if he tested on the board's test points, well, then he has a problem on the board itself.

My guess is still in the harness.

grantspain · « **Reply #9 on:** January 23, 2006, 12:45:20 pm »

Have you got a modern switch mode psu in your cab?
you have got one of two problems either your psu is on its way out or more than likely something is wired up wrong-most pcbs use -5volts(sometimes -12v)for the sound-if thats wired wrong it will take out every board you put in.
Is it a jamma connector?if so get a jamma pinout and follow your wires to the psu to make sure they are in the correct place.
sounds like the guy sold it cheap because he could not find the problem.

ChadTower · « **Reply #10 on:** January 23, 2006, 12:46:49 pm »

Or, alternately, swap it with a known good JAMMA connector and see if it still happens.

Crowquill · « **Reply #11 on:** January 24, 2006, 04:49:23 pm »

It was built in '94, so it has a switching Peter Chou power supply and a standard JAMMA harness. It looks like in the conversion to Tekken 3 they didn't screw with much of the wiring. I'd wire up a new harness, but this is my first cab and I don't have any extra parts built up.

The wiring is kind of a pain to track down in this thing (see pic). On top of the fact that it has a slide-out drawer for accessing the board and harness, there's quite a few terminal blocks and molex connectors. Most of the time when it hits the molex plug the wiring color changes, so that's annoying. All the other games I've dealt with in the past are classic games all the wiring in plain view. The molex connectors make it a bit intimidating to rewire with a new harness, but I guess they're really not neccessary.

After doing some searching on the 'net I found one guy who's power supply was outputting different voltages under a load. So I hooked up the dead Tekken board and checked the voltages again. With the board connected, the 12V output is reading at 14.8V. 5V was at 4.9V. I'm guessing my best bet is to just pick up a new power supply and try that. I still can't find any wiring that looks like a problem. Neither Primal Rage or Tekken 3 use -5V which explains why there's nothing even hooked to the power supply or harness.

Q*Bert_OP · « **Reply #12 on:** January 24, 2006, 05:16:08 pm »

Power supplys are repairable

Witchboard · « **Reply #13 on:** January 24, 2006, 06:00:52 pm »

Todd at TNT is selling used working supplies for $6 each.

grantspain · « **Reply #14 on:** January 25, 2006, 09:37:15 am »

bit of a wierd fault you got there,only way a game board would blow is if you had a voltage in the wrong place or your psu output went very high-the voltages you have are not perfect-always read your 5v and 12v at the edge connector board side this allows for any power loss on the wiring-your ideal voltage is around 5.05-5.10,dont worry about the 12v so much(remember when you turn up your 5v your 12v goes down and vice versa).the wiring in your cab looks good from what i can see,all i can think is your other board was on its way out.

fredster · « **Reply #15 on:** January 25, 2006, 10:25:44 am »

It has a little dial on the PS that adjusts voltages.

14 is high.

You can buy one for $25 from Bob Roberts.

I always have one handy.

Crowquill · « **Reply #16 on:** January 25, 2006, 10:26:52 am »

Unfortunately, I hadn't had a chance to try out the Mr Driller 2 board in a different cabinet before hooking it up to this one, so it might just be that board. I'm just paranoid now and want to make sure everything is in good order before I hook up another board. I'm actually looking around for a cheap JAMMA board that I wouldn't miss too much if it did get ruined. I'm going to make some calls today to get a new PS. I figure I'm better safe than sorry.

fredster · « **Reply #17 on:** January 25, 2006, 10:27:59 am »

good point.

What's a "cheap" jamma board to you?

ChadTower · « **Reply #18 on:** January 25, 2006, 10:38:34 am »

Something like a P.O.W... one that could be had for $15 in person.

Crowquill · « **Reply #19 on:** January 25, 2006, 11:07:56 am »

That's kind of funny. One of the first games I thought of was P.O.W.. I'm thinking somewhere in the $10-$15 range. Most people charge that much for shipping off of eBay, so I'm going to see what I can find locally. Anybody have any crap boards laying around?

ChadTower · « **Reply #20 on:** January 25, 2006, 11:31:28 am »

I said P.O.W. basically because I have one sitting in my basement that is waiting to be converted... and the game IS crap, IMO, and very cheap.

fredster · « **Reply #21 on:** January 25, 2006, 12:12:29 pm »

Well, sell him the board Chad.

ChadTower · « **Reply #22 on:** January 25, 2006, 12:22:13 pm »

Can't, my kids actually like it. $:-\$

Crowquill · « **Reply #23 on:** February 12, 2006, 03:18:58 am »

Finally got a new power supply in the cabinet. Everythihg tested fine with the multimeter at the power supply and the JAMMA connector. I plugged it up and checked the pins on Tekken 3. Still getting weird readings. Since I figured Mr Driller 2 was probably trashed I tried it. I've never been so happy to hear high-pitched japanese screaming come over my speakers. Audio works fine and I got a picture.

Now I just have to straighten out the monitor's blurriness.

Thanks to all for suggestions.


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