New big blue on a Crystal Castles cocktail

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Has anyone changed the big blue capacitor on an Atari cocktail? I have a Crystal Castles machine that needs a new one and ran into a question.

Here's a picture of what I'm looking at:

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/5105/ccbigblue013sv.jpg

I bought a new big blue from the Real Bob Roberts and it looks to be the correct part. I have two screws off the capacitor that's in there (which you can sort of see), but the third one is not only tough to get to, when I *have* aligned my screwdriver correctly it seems to take much, much more force to turn it. So far I've been unable to get that third screw out.

Am I going about this the right way? Should I remove the monitor first so that I have a better angle to work with? This is obviously my first time trying to do any tech work on an arcade game, heh.

[missioncontrol]

I have nothing really to add but to remind you that there are dangers working with monitors and capacitors....

[D_Zoot]

Just looking at your picture, it appears you are trying to remove the cap by removing the 3 screws that hold the cap bracket to the power brick?

The problem you are going to run into is that the wiring to the cap isn't long enough to pull the cap out from the top without first unhooking the wires.  Removing the whole bracket isn't neccesary.


Here's what you need to do:

1)  Remove the four screws that hold the power brick to the inside of the cab (make sure game is unplugged from wall!)

2) Turn the power brick on it's side, or if the wiring doesn't give you enough slack, unplug everything and pull it right out.   

3) From the underside of the brick,  remove the two screws holding the wires to the terminals of the cap (note which wires go to which terminals and note the orientation of the cap)

4) From the top of the brick, loosen the one screw that pinches the bracket around the cap and pull the cap out.

5) Reverse procedure.



D

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Let me apologize for bumping a month-old thread. I only just recently had a chance to get back to my problem here. (I've also been doing a fair bit of lurking -- this is a great friggin' site.)

D_Zoot, am I correct in assuming that I should remove the monitor in order to best get at the power brick? It certainly seems like the obvious way to proceed to me, but geez, I really wanted to be sure before I started mucking about with taking it out. The thing is, I don't think it's physically possible to discharge the monitor (as it's face-up) using the screwdriver and alligator clips method due to its orientation.

Thanks, everyone.

[RayB]

Shouldn't be necessary to remove the monitor. Just don't touch it.

You should be able to remove all plugged wires from the power "block" (label them first just to be sure you know where it all goes later).

Then unscrew the metal base from the wood bottom.

Then you should be able to slide the whole thing out, which then gives you access to the bottom, where the screws for the big blue are.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Ahhh, okay -- coming at it through the reverse angle. I would have never thought that I could have gotten to it that way. Thanks a bunch! I'm relieved that I don't have to touch the monitor.

[RayB]

(Im assuming you have the key to the lock to the side service panel door, right?)

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Yeah, there's two ways to get into the machine via key that I can see. The first is just the coin door (natch) and the second is at the side, which allows me to open up the glass top. When I bought the machine a few years ago it came with two copies of each key.

I actually turned the game over last night and learned the following: 1) There is an on/off toggle at the very bottom! Who knew? I had always had it hooked up to a power strip and used the toggle on that to turn it on and off. 2) The height of the legs seem to be adjustable, too, with the proper TORX or hex (forget which) screwdriver.

I got home late, so I'll try to remove the power block tonight instead. Google seems to this thread pretty high for "crystal castles," "cocktail" and "big blue", so I'll update with some pics for future CCC owners. At least in terms of what's been written about it, this configuration of CC seems to be on the rare side.

[JeepMonkey]

Best way to discharge a cap?  Throw it to one of your buddies and let him catch it.