The Broken Joystick

I took my Star Wars PCB set over to a local guy named Kip today so he could check them out on his bench. Turns out the problem is with the boardset for sure. On his test bench it showed the EXACT same problem that it does in my cab. Now to get someone to fix it and I’ll have a working Star Wars again!

I picked up a NICE local Tron today. I have wanted a Tron for about 10 years to go with my Discs of Tron. I have seen a few locally but they were either too expensive or too beat up. Last week I saw one locally on Craigslist for $1900 (!!!). Only a pic or two and it looked decent – no pics of sideart but he said it worked 100%. I emailed the guy and offered him $400. We went back and forth over email – me explaining that it wasn’t worth $1900, him showing me BINs on ebay for $2200, me showing him completed sales on ebay for $800. In the meantime, the price on CL went down to $100, then $850. He told me I could have it for $650 – I countered with $600 and it was mine for $600.

So, I pick it up and it’s the nicest Tron *I* have ever seen in person. There were just a few nicks here and there in the sideart. CPO is perfect except a little cracking on the bend. The stickers on the spinner and stick are perfect and intact. Cool metal Showbiz Pizza Place asset tag on the back. The monitor is bright and clear with only a faint hint of the cone burned in on it. All lights work. It only had 14995 plays on the credit counter. I could not be happier and it looks great next to my DoT.
Pictures of my Tron

I saw this on ebay and it was a 2 hour drive away and was at $51 with a day left. I watched it and right before the end I sniped $78 in and won it for $66.

So, for $66, 240 miles and 4.5 hours of driving, it’s mine now. It works 95% and is in pretty good shape. The left flipper is weak, it needs a new set of rubbers all around, needs new flipper buttons (faded), it doesn’t’ keep score (always says 0), and the far right drop target is always down. I’m VERY happy with it.

I picked up the restaurant booth today. It’s almost perfect. Just the right size – not too big. I could do without the brown but it will do. Gonna rearrange the arcade this weekend and make room for it.

I also played around in the arcade tonight and I got my Konami NBA Play by Play kit working! Turns out a dipswitch was flipped. Cool. Not as fun as NBA Jam, but I played a few games of it. Cool PCB setup with mini I/O boards to connect P3 and P4 and USB ports to hookup a separate cabinet (I think) and VGA output even.

I had 5 switching power supplies of unknown state. A guy at work (Scott) who also collects, tested them all for me. Three worked so he kept one and I kept two – so now I have two extra working power supplies. YAY! I may need one to fix Tapper.

Man it’s frustrating when you don’t really know what you’re doing.

I posted this to RGVAC and the klov forums:

Quick backstory:

My Centipede worked 100% 2 years ago. I pulled the working PCB to use to test another cab and then put it in a box that was fairly well protected. I ended up pulling the monitor too for another project. I go to put it back together and she doesn’t work now.

I had the PCB set to free play. When I power it up blind I see the start buttons are staying on and not blinking. I check some voltages and turn the voltages down a bit and now the buttons do blink. I can hit one of the start buttons and it stays lit. I get NO sound at all. I hook it up to a monitor (then another then another) and I get the pic you see above.

Basically, it’s a green line through the middle that moves a bit randomly and then a thicker red line that sometimes stays at the top or bottom and sometimes scrolls through. No sign of any Centipede graphics at all.

If I press a start button it stays lit and eventually goes back to both blinking which makes me think the game is actually playing and eventually all lives are lost and it goes back to blinking.

I tested the voltages on the PCB next to the connectors and got this:
+5 = +4.85
+12 = +11.53
-5 = -5.36
+22 = +24.1
-22 = -24.5

That’s pretty much all I know to do now. Can anyone point me in the right direction as to what to do next? I don’t know if it’s my cabinet/voltages or the PCB that has the problem. Any help would be appreciated.