Road Blasters Cockpit - Newbie Needs Advice

[DjinniMan]

Hello all,

Well, after a lucky find off Craig's List, I'm the owner of a Road Blasters sit down cockpit cabinet.  It's in fair condition, and was advertised as non-working, but it fired up when I plugged it in.  It has a few issues, and as a real newbie to this sort of thing, I'd appreciate some advice.  

The first issue is with credits.  The coin door has been wired with a credit button, and the mechs (I think that's what they are called) have been removed.  There is a loose wire hanging off the cherry switch for that button.  If that wire touches metal, credits are given.  I'm guessing this is the ground?  I'm not sure exactly were to put it, but the real problem is, it doesn't always work.  Sometimes pushing the button doesn't add credits even when the wire is held to metal.  To me, this indicates another issue, but what?

Second issue, the screen shows very little green, and most green shows up as yellow.  I don't think this is the kind of issue a cap kit would fix, is it?  What would be the first thing to check?

Third issue is the sound.  Everything sounds fine for about 15 minutes or so, then it all goes to static until I restart the machine.  It seems to happen after a crash in game.

Any thoughts are very much appreciated.  I'm hoping it's something simple, because looking at all the wires and such is very overwhelming to me!

[drventure]

can't help with the monitor problems, but that switch. Usually, arcade buttons are wired to a common ground, and to the board itself. When you push the switch is makes contact and connects the board to ground, which triggers whatever action is connected to that switch

Most typical arcade switches have 3 prongs, a NO (normally open), NC (Normally closed), and COM (common).

The COM is wired to ground. NO is disconnected with the switch is not pressed and connected when the switch is pressed (you normally wire buttons to this).

the NC is CONNECTED when the switch is NOT PRESSED and disconnects when you press the switch. This is used in rare cases where the switch will normally be pressed constantly and the player does something to "release" it.

Cool find BTW!

[DjinniMan]

Here are some pics, because, hey, everybody loves pics!


There's an up close shot of the upper coin door. 


And the full coin door.  You can see the credit button here.  Also, it looks like someone tried to get into the coin box at some point, and it was "fixed" with the metal brace.  It's hard to see in the pic, but you can see some of the details of how the credit button is wired.  I'm guessing that's the "common" wired into the upper coin door, and you can see the loose wire, which I think is attached to the NO.  That's the one that gives credits when it touches metal.  I wish I had taken a closer pic.


The back of the monitor.  Seriously dirty but I'm afraid to mess with it much given the poor electrocuted guy symbol haha.


I'm guessing this is the power supply?  You can also see the gas pedal controls in the far left corner.


Not sure what this is, but it looks important. 


Thinking this is the sound, the wires seem to lead off to the speakers.


And the main board.  Wondering if it is safe to disconnect this and move it up a few inches, it is so low it's hard to shut the door!

Any thoughts or insight appreciated.  I'd even accept some mocking at this point, as well. 

[vintagegamer]

I know this is an old post but did you get this up and running?

[DjinniMan]

I did not. In fact, after several months, the whole thing stopped working entirely. Now, when I power it up, there is no game sound at all, and the screen displays only some faded gray lines. I have no clue how to proceed. Seriously thinking about MAMEing it.

[vintagegamer]

I would hate to see you do that but if you did I could use some of the parts for mine!

Have you flipped the test switch on inside where the coin door is?