Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion

[ataritoobin]

Upper animated lights are now working.  I replaced the relay, PC900V and a 16k resistor in the circuit.

Re-capped the audio amp PCB and now have good sound out of all speakers  .

I believe all the electronics/mechanical areas are now working as they originally did.  Next is to focus more on the cosmetics.

[DarthNuno]

 

[ataritoobin]

I've unfortunately come to the conclusion that I won't have any time to work on the cosmetics of this machine any time soon, so for the time being I've reassembled it.

It seems there's a short somewhere on the Audio Amp.  Occasionally the game will shut down, with a repeating "thump" noise coming from the rear speakers.  The speaker cones physically move when this occurs    If I unplug the rear speakers, or unplug the amp completely, all is well.  More investigation to be done!

[ataritoobin]

I mentioned over in HHaase's Starblade thread that I'm getting noticeable interference in the monitor image.

I checked through the wiring and saw that not only does the voltage for the monitor ride up with the same group of wires, but so do the Flashboy and rear light bulbs' power.

I measured to each connector of the entire video harness, and the resistance was far lower than I would have expected (there's a video connector on one of the PCBs to a connector on another PCB, then to the edge connector, to a filterboard, to the main harness, to a connector in the middle of the cabinet, to a connector at the top of the cabinet to a connector on the side of the chassis finally going to the connector on the monitor chassis itself!!)

In the base of the cabinet, I disconnected the 100V going to these parts, and powered the monitor externally and voila - the monitor's image all around is GREATLY improved.

So now to think about how to remedy that.

And just for fun  :

[HHaase]

Maybe try some ferrite choke beads on both sides of the 100v line?

-Hans

[ataritoobin]

Maybe try some ferrite choke beads on both sides of the 100v line?

-Hans

That's a great idea.  Sounds likely to be the least intrusive solution as well.

Thanks!

[ataritoobin]

I went to the local surplus electronics store and they surprisingly had a pretty good selection of clip-on ferrite beads in various sizes:



I tried them in various locations but surprisingly they didn't seem to make a difference.

Here is a picture of what the interference looks like:



As a note, with no video connector plugged in, or with a PCB plugged in remotely, I don't get the interference so it definitely seems to follow the internal video cable.

I did manage to find another PCB cage since the wood in the original was pretty rotted.  Amazing how far this has come:



Co-pilot:  



Some de-rusting to be done yet on bolts and such:

[ataritoobin]

Last weekend I tested a bit more on the sound amp (which would "pulse" with a thudding noise, particularly in the rear speakers).

One amp chip (LM-? - need to check again) appears to be operating around 3.5V and the other, identical chip is operating at around 5V.  The sound board is outputting a consistent 5V out to the speakers which can't be right.  Until I rig up a connector to test the sound amp out of the cabinet, I have disconnected it.

My father-in-law helped me straighten out the coin door and box a bit more:

As it arrived (too bad whomever did this tried to break into the wrong part!  - torqued so hard the side of the box was bend inward)


and as it stands now:



Today, I received two OEM Sanken Power Supplies from Japan (One for +5 and the other for +12V, per the original setup):





Below, you can see my original next to the new unit:


Mounted and ready to go:


vrAx hit the nail on the head over in HHaase's thread.  Though on paper the new standard switching power supplies I used should have worked, with the OEM power supplies I now get no trace of interference on the monitor   

Before:


After:

[Laszo]

Those lm chips tend to get bad. Replace it. When you remove the chip do you then get 5v on the board?