Cap kit installation videos
Posted by BP in Uncategorized on July 12th, 2009
The folks at Varcade Entertainment have put up some helpful arcade game repair posts, the most recent of which is information on installing a new cap kit for your arcade game monitor. Check it out:
It also looks like they have a lot of other postings on diagnosing and fixing problems with arcade games, with the difficulty ranging from beginner to expert.
Quick post for April
Posted by BP in Working pretty well on April 27th, 2009
Nothing really new to report, other than that I have put in the coin door locks that The Real Bob Roberts sent me. So far, I have not been able to eclipse the 2+ million points I scored on my first game with the new joysticks, but I have been coming close.
Move joystick replaced
Posted by BP in Working pretty well on March 29th, 2009
Thanks to the helpful Bob Roberts (the Real Bob Roberts, of course), I replaced the guts of the often malfunctioning move joystick on the Robotron. I would guess that the joystick was original to the game, as the leaf switches were pretty much shot. My first game with a 100% working move joystick reached 2,159,100 points. I still need some practice.
Also, the monitor is showing some anomalies. The two things that jump out right away are some colored pixels visible at the extreme right side of the monitor, and some mostly vertical lines at the top of the display, with an area of cycling colors as part of these lines. (Please see the high score screen picture in my last post to see what I am talking about.) Does anyone have any ideas as to how to remedy this? Hopefully it is fixed with an adjustment, as I am not sure I am ready to install a new cap kit.
Settings now saving correctly
Posted by BP in Working pretty well on February 1st, 2009
Thanks to Bob Roberts, the Robotron is now working pretty close to 100%. I replaced the CMOS RAM chip on my spare CPU board, and now it is in good shape. Here is a picture of the handiwork on the CPU board, and a picture of the high score screen after I played the first game with it working…
Now, the move joystick is a bit wonky, and as you can see from the picture of the screen, I think I need to get a cap kit.
Parts ordered
Posted by BP in Partially working on January 28th, 2009
I ordered some replacement parts from Bob Roberts (see the link to his web site on my Robotron 2084 links page), I will be trying to undertake the replacement of the 5114 CMOS RAM chip, which I suspect is shot on the CPU board in the machine now.
Also, in my 10 minute Robotron challenge, I just scored 905,875 points and reached wave 30. Yeah, I know, I my skills are still super rusty.
Battery clip transferred, no effect
Posted by BP in Partially working on January 17th, 2009
I took the battery clip off the non-working CPU board and put it on the working CPU board, and installed fresh AA batteries in the hopes that the adjustment failure message would go away. Alas, it did not, so I will need to search for a new angle to try and get this game working 100% again.
Just for fun, I decided to try and see how many points and waves I could accumulate in 10 minutes time. So, I got a timer, set it for 10 minutes, started the timer, and then pressed the 1 player start button. The instant the timer started beeping, I let go of the joysticks. In 10 minutes, I had scored 760,625 points and reached wave 29. Boy, am I out of practice…
The machine lives, but is still sick
Posted by BP in Partially working on January 4th, 2009
On a lark, I took a spare CPU board that I got off of eBay, popped one of the RAM chips off the CPU board in the machine, put it in the empty socket on the spare board, wired the spare board in the machine, and flipped on the power:
OK, so the machine seems to boot up now, but it is still not without problems. There are three things I need to address:
- The spare CPU board does not have the 3 AA battery clips, it has been modified. I suspect this could be why I get the message “Adjustment failure, restore factory settings by opening front door and turning game off and on”.
- The one player start button does not seem to work.
- The monitor has some interference at the top and on the right side.
But all in all, I am happy that for the first time in about 10 years, Robotron sounds can be heard throughout the household.
Power PCB connections resoldered, no effect
Posted by BP in No rug pattern on January 4th, 2009
I went and tried to reflow the solder on the connections between the 4 wiring harnesses and the power PCB board, and just for good measure I tried to reflow the solder on the bridge rectifier. There was no effect in getting the machine to work correctly, it just does the same things as before.
However, one interesting thing I noticed is now, when I try to test continuity over the F2 fuse clips after removing the fuse, it no longer shows it as continuous.
Happy Holidays
Posted by BP in No rug pattern on December 31st, 2008
I hope everyone out there is having a prosperous holiday season. Mine has been very busy, and as a result, no time to work on the Robotron.
Hopefully, I will get a chance to work on it tomorrow. I have pulled the power PCB and I am going to try to resolder the connections for the power harness. I have heard that this can do wonders, and truth be told, the solder joints on the board look none too good right now.
Current status, 12/16/2008
Posted by BP in No rug pattern on December 16th, 2008
OK, here is the current status of the Robotron.
I plug it in and turn on the power switch. I hear the hum of the power supply as the machine fires up, the 3 LEDs on the power supply board all light up solid, and the numeric LED on the ROM board flashes with a “u” or a “c”, depending on how you look at it. There does not appear to be any kind of numeric pattern to the flashes.
The screen just displays a green screen with a strange pattern.
I have posted a video to YouTube that shows the LED on the ROM board and the screen. Here is the video of my sad Robotron:
Also, I have posted some pictures to Flickr of the inside of the machine, if you would care to look:
Oddly enough, one time when I fired up the game, the monitor still looked as it does in the video, but the machine was repeatedly playing the sound that it makes when you are at the high score entry screen.
I have the game’s instruction manual, and a set of the drawings for the game. (Not that I can make any sense out of the drawings, I have a very limited knowledge of electronics. Please keep that in mind if you make any suggestions.) In the instruction manual, it tells you that if the rug pattern does not appear, that one of the first things you should do is check the fuse F2 on the power supply board. I did this, and the fuse appears to be good as I got a tone on the continuity checker for my volt meter. However, on a whim, I took the fuse out of the board and touched the probes to the empty clips, and received a tone. Is that supposed to happen?