Arcade Projects
R-Type monitor mounted and working!
I got news on the Jr. Pac-man progress yesterday, and it lit a fire under me to get back at the R-Type again.
This whole hooking up the monitor to an isolation transformer inside the cab would have been something easy for just about anyone. But I was paranoid. I didn’t want to ruin a working monitor, and worse yet, I didn’t want to have something happen to the tube, or something else exploding if something was hooked up wrong.
All that was left when I got home from work yesterday was to put wire nuts on the power lines for the R-Type monitor and power it up.
I got power, the neck glowed, but I got no image on screen. I figured it had to do with the weird RGB configuration and that I would have to make a new connector.
Later, when I got home, I had some time. Sarah needed to use the computer so time to finish the R-Type monitor task. I found a molex connector in my bag of connectors that would work. I took a look at the older connector that I left on the Mr. Do! machine, wired the new one up, and on the first power up I had a picture!
I was pumped. It was flipped so one dip switch fixed that. The image was a little stretched too, so a little pot adjustment and that was taken care of took. I put the WG4700 series monitor in the R-Type and got everything wired back up correctly and played a game.
I feel proud I figured it out, and I took the time to research everything. Hopefully tomorrow I can finally list it on ebay.
Wizard of Wor RAM boards in the mail
I have been talking with Mark Spaeth for a month or so now. He said that he could easily, and for an affordable price, fix my RAM boards for the Wizard Of Wor. I was pretty pumped, and finally got those WOW boards in the mail on Saturday.
I still don’t know if the sound is having issues or not. That will be the next piece of the arcade game to troubleshoot.
Space Invaders Deluxe works again!
I got the boards back in the game last night, powered up the game, and it worked like a champ. I was pretty pumped, played a couple of games…I wish that I was into it. It is pretty challenging, and a really cool design on the inside, but there is something about the gameplay that I don’t think I would ever play it a ton.
Here is a photo of it working.
Putting WG4700 Series monitor in R-Type
On Sunday night I got the bug to progress with this.
I had to take a whole bunch of stuff apart in the hacked together Mr. Do! cab, so much so that I am not completely sure I could get it back together again after another month or so. I would more than likely probably forget.
I got the monitor out and the isolation transformer. I brought everything out by the R-Type, and took the nice monitor out of the R-Type. I gathered up my supplies and remembered that I didn’t have any solder wick. I was going to need to add longer wires to the Isolation Transformer and I would have to desolder the old wires. I wanted to have a new clean connection, so I would just wait until I got more wick.
On Monday I got some wick and immediately I went ahead and desoldered the old wires and cut new wires. I soldered them on, and then got to looking a little closer. I think the wire I have is probably 20 gauge, and there is a slight enough difference between these and the old wires in size that makes me think the old wires were 18 gauge.
So, I stalled again. Such a stupid simple question, but not something I know. What is the minimum wire gauge you have to use when connecting wires to the 0V and 115V connections on the isolation transformer.
I posted on the original topic I had made in the KLOV forums, and I got little reply in a day. Someone told me that it was bad to go down in gauge, completely not answering my question. I am not sure of the gauge, and not sure how to test it save putting it in the little holes in my stripping tool to see what is closest. That doesn’t seem exact.
So, back to bugging poor old Bob Roberts since he is familiar with this topic already.
He told me that 20 gauge would work, but 18 is better. So, I am going to waste what I did and put some 18 gauge on there, hopefully tonight.
The other issue with the monitor is the RGB connection. It was something pretty weird on the other game, the molex connector having wires going in every other slot, not right next to each other like you typically see with a RGB pigtail. I will have that stupid little hurdle to overcome.
Space Invaders Deluxe Boards Arrived
I was happy to find these waiting for me tonight when I got home. I emailed my potential buyer to let them know. They would like to see some photos of the machine working again….naturally. I will have to try to get those to them tonight. But either way, it doesn’t sound like we will be working out something for 2-3 more weeks.
Jr. Pac-man truck progress
The truck continues to move along, but at a little slower pace than the beginning.
The last I heard it is still in North Carolina with the disassemble project they were working on. But, there is some good news for those getting games. There will be no new stops added, so hopefully the route it has is final and we can better judge when it will arrive.
I heard Rick is going to be out of town for a week, so I figure that the truck won’t even be to his place for another week. That puts the truck at my place now somewhere around the 21st of September. I assume they are still coordinating with Rick, he has other games than mine that they want.
The time is benefiting me from a savings point, but it is hard to stay patient.
Space Invaders Deluxe Boards Fixed!
I got an email back from Alex tonight. He got the boards, did his tests, and fixed them. It was the problem that I had narrowed down with the power supply, this is what he said;
We did find that the -5V voltage regulator on your power regulator board had failed. It’s been replaced, and the power regulator is working properly again.
The motherboard and sound board both tested OK – luckily the problem with the power regulator board didn’t do any damage to them.
My biggest concern was that the Space Invader that was racing across the screen when you plugged the game in was permanent damage. We had left the game on for awhile on the first night that I got it back in April, and I thought for sure that the wrong voltages had corrupted chips on the main PCB. This was something that Alex had indicated to me, and I wasn’t sure if that would be an additional expense because, really…that would have been my fault in a sense.
But, it sounds like things should work out fine. I just hope I still have a buyer when it gets sent back to me.
