The Broken Joystick

OK, I’m a total idiot. I was hooking up the output of my Centipede to my test rig incorrectly – I was hooking up the RGB,GND, SYNC to SYNC, GND, BGR (image above is what you get)! Once I hooked it up right I could see the game playing. No sound or mushrooms though.

I went to bed and tied it again the next day and everything worked as it should. it had sound and mushrooms. WTF? I didn’t touch it. I’m happy it’s working but worried it will die on me again. Sigh.

I also tested the monitor from the bartop and it works great and has an awesome picture!

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.

Worked today on the monitor in the multigame. I could not get a picture on it. Power going in was fine. Used my JAMMA test rig to send a signal to it too and got nothing.

I ended up swapping in a different monitor that’s crystal clear and no bun-in. Looks great. Have to figure out what to do with the control panel now (layout/art/etc.)

I also fixed my adapter for my Apple monitors I use for testing arcade signals. I resoldered a few connections and it works again.

I picked up a Toobin at an arcade auction a few years ago and the sound never worked. i finally got off my butt this past week and decide to fix it.

Summary: Toobin has no sound and coining up doesn’t work (nothing happens when you coin up). I set the game to free play so could play it but I got no sound. Some googling and searching through RGVAC told me that the 6502A chip on the soundcard controls the sound and the coinage. Bought a new 6502A chip for less than $10 shipped from http://ataricade.com, popped it in the sound card, and I now have sound! W00t!

Just wanted to thank everyone for helping me get my Toobin sound working again. Specifically – all the RGVACers that helped me understand the differences between a 6502 and a 6502A, George Rowlands for pointing me to http://ataricade.com as a source for the 6502A, Francis at http://ataricade.com for excellent customer service, Mark at Basement Arcade for posting the Toobin manual, and all the people over the years that answered Toobin tech questions that lead me to figure out what was wrong. Hopefully now this post will help people in the future too.

Does anyone know a source for gator stickers on the side? I think I remember seeing someone repro’d them a while back. I see gamestencils.com had them but is out of stock it seems.