Ok, after a lot of trial and error I have managed to force that monitor to shrink to a playable and acceptable level. Huge relief. Was getting tired of fucking with it and thought I fucked it up last I worked on it.

Pro tip: What happens when you leave the circuit 38 section of a k7000 monitor chassis completely empty.. yet solder it’s intended parts into c58? The electrical feed to the tube neck will fail. No neck glow, no crackle, and nothing but a slim beam on the screen (horizontal collapse).

I thought I somehow messed up my experiment of tying two Mylar caps together and stuffing them both in the same section of the board to reach desired resistance of 80uF.. nope. c58 just looks a lot like c38 when it is already empty and so is your 2nd to last beer as the sun is coming up on a Sunday.

However, about 4 pm today it took me roughly an hour to pull the chassis board, neck board, etc AGAIN and correct the problem with the solder tools. Been on ever since as I randomly did other things and tinkered with the screen adjustment pots with plastic screwdriver.

Just "fixed" a game PCB. "Martial Champion" by Konami. Not as if I need more fighting games in my arcade collection, but I really liked this game when it came out. Probably because of Rachel ("Hi-yaahhhh!").

So, ever since I got my 2 19 inch k7000s straight I have been running the one that originally came in the Double Dragon in the DD cabinet. Has some burn in, but looks fantastic.. aside from it being too damn wide. This doesn't work well unless you like scores cut off or enemies appearing before you see them! I wanted to blame the ArPiCade. I looked into overscan options. All for not. The monitor just displays too wide on any board. I wanted that completely established by throwing a real JAMMA board in the cabinet. I've got a few JAMMA boards including the original DD board but it has annoying sound issues I've yet to fix. My best candidates are the Martial Champion or Klax board.

I bought the MC board at least 7 years ago. I plug it up, and it looks like shit. Really weak color and then the image is flickering in and out. Totally unplayable. Replaced the 2 large capacitors on the board and cleaned the edge connecter up a bit.. plugged it back up and it works! No more flickering and bullshit. Then, I realize the service button on the PCB isn't responding. Too tired to do it now, but soon I will rig a service "switch" via wires to the jamma harness to try force the board into service mode to see if I can make the sound louder or if the shitty Konami design warrants more repair.

"New" MVS 2-slot PCB yesterday and she is a beauty. No bent pins in the memory card slot! It does feel a bit weird though cutting leads to what used to be a main part (the "soft dip battery") back in the day as soon as I get something new to me. However, I'd rather drop acid again again than let another arcade or pinball PCB I come across get ruined if you narmean.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 11:46 pm Wait! No! How???

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/thread ... il.488206/

Fuck if I know at this point. All I was doing was installing a capkit to finally make the color output from the game board crisp. After the 2nd batch I went to test and it just clicks and shows me random sprites.

Wait! No! How???

And now my Neo Geo board is boned. Fuck I love this hobby.

AArdvark wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 2:42 am Bryanb added in Grateful Dead lyrics to your post, the phrase 'Taking my time' triggered it. Its actually pretty funny.


THE
SPACE YOUR FACE
AARDVARK

..

...

Hahha this is great. Ties into devlish ways and the original topic. Ok, now I get it! Also, congrats for convincing me to listen to a Grateful Dead song.

Bryanb added in Grateful Dead lyrics to your post, the phrase 'Taking my time' triggered it. Its actually pretty funny.


THE
SPACE YOUR FACE
AARDVARK

bryanb wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:06 am How I read the post:

Jizaboz wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 2:04 am Pulled the Neo-Geo MVS 2 game board the other day. Started replacing the caps but very slow going. Taking my time, a friend of the devil is a friend of mine, adding solder as needed to de-solder, I just might get some sleep tonight, etc.

We can all channel our Inner Paul. You just have to let him out!

I'm going to be completely honest with you here and tell you I don't get the joke. However, this is coming from someone who heard "STFU Donnie" around a friend named Donnie before I got around to seeing the movie 10 years plus later. What book or movie reference is this guys, help me out. I feel like if I try to search for it it won't be half as funny. Some war thing.. "took some casualties?". This is me proving I am never afraid to admit I'm wrong or just don't fucking know lol. People that don't admit they don't know really get on my nerves.

Also, perhaps you guys can work up a joke about this one:

Tonight I cleaned up the last of the holes from the 8 capacitors removed last night. Had to flow them from the top with the iron and suck from the bottom with the de-soldering gun to clear the holes.

bryanb wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:06 am How I read the post:

Jizaboz wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 2:04 am Pulled the Neo-Geo MVS 2 game board the other day. Started replacing the caps but very slow going. Taking my time, a friend of the devil is a friend of mine, adding solder as needed to de-solder, I just might get some sleep tonight, etc.

We can all channel our Inner Paul. You just have to let him out!

I'm not sure if this means I should be flattered for the compliment or disgusted for the insult.

Best of!

How I read the post:

Jizaboz wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 2:04 am Pulled the Neo-Geo MVS 2 game board the other day. Started replacing the caps but very slow going. Taking my time, a friend of the devil is a friend of mine, adding solder as needed to de-solder, I just might get some sleep tonight, etc.

We can all channel our Inner Paul. You just have to let him out!

- Interlock switch replacement went well a while back
- Dude that is working on the Bosconian game board had to order more chip sockets half-way through the PCB overhaul and has delayed another week but is communicating well.
- Pulled the Neo-Geo MVS 2 game board the other day. Started replacing the caps but very slow going. Taking my time, adding solder as needed to de-solder, etc. Got 8 pulled out of about 20 something earlier today without ruining anything or doing anything dorky aside from a couple of light scratches from my solder tip slipping off a leg. No lifted traces or pads.. yet!

Pac-Man fuse kit arrived. Will replace any fuses not marked with purple sharpie and hope the hum bar goes away. After which I’m out of ideas of that one. At least it plays great now without restarting. Still trying to avoid using a switching power supply kit on this..

New 6-tab interlock switches should arrive tomorrow. I will use one to fix the broken one in the Taito DD cab PCB drawer area.

Bosconian PCB has been examined. Bad ribbon cable! Simple enough to replace, but full socket and capacitor replacement will be done anyway so it doesn’t bite me later.

AArdvark wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 4:08 am Why does 'having fun troubleshooting ' a pac man board sound like an oxymoron? Probably cause I'm not an electronics superuser. All those little doo-dads on the circuit boards and any one of 'em could be failing, ug.

THE
HEADSCRATCH
AARDVARK

Forgot to reply this earlier, but I feel you brother.

Aside from still needing to clear up the last of that nagging hum bar wave on one side of the screen (Running out of things that could cause it at this point), Ms. Pac-Man is fixed, stable and running the multi save game kit off the original PCB.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 9:24 am

Jizaboz wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:53 pm Pac-Man PCB sent to an expert to go over my work, fix any pre-existing issues, and finally installing the kit so that I don't have to mess with a lot of trouble shooting just to get back to playing Pac/Ms Pac variations on the Ms Pac cocktail. Well worth the 50$ plus shipping costs I think so long as it returns working. Not fiddling with that also frees up more time to work on and test other things. The 4 cabinets running in my house are all near "done" status, but I have PCBs for at least 10 other games I would like to test and fix as needed on my workbench setup.

So, Pac-Man, Bosconian, Neo Geo - remind me, what is your 4th game?

Taito Double Dragon. That is the one I pulled the DD board from and installed the ArPiCade. That is how I play X-Men heh-heh

Jizaboz wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:53 pm Pac-Man PCB sent to an expert to go over my work, fix any pre-existing issues, and finally installing the kit so that I don't have to mess with a lot of trouble shooting just to get back to playing Pac/Ms Pac variations on the Ms Pac cocktail. Well worth the 50$ plus shipping costs I think so long as it returns working. Not fiddling with that also frees up more time to work on and test other things. The 4 cabinets running in my house are all near "done" status, but I have PCBs for at least 10 other games I would like to test and fix as needed on my workbench setup.

So, Pac-Man, Bosconian, Neo Geo - remind me, what is your 4th game?

Why does 'having fun troubleshooting ' a pac man board sound like an oxymoron? Probably cause I'm not an electronics superuser. All those little doo-dads on the circuit boards and any one of 'em could be failing, ug.

THE
HEADSCRATCH
AARDVARK

Pac-Man PCB sent to an expert to go over my work, fix any pre-existing issues, and finally installing the kit so that I don't have to mess with a lot of trouble shooting just to get back to playing Pac/Ms Pac variations on the Ms Pac cocktail. Well worth the 50$ plus shipping costs I think so long as it returns working. Not fiddling with that also frees up more time to work on and test other things. The 4 cabinets running in my house are all near "done" status, but I have PCBs for at least 10 other games I would like to test and fix as needed on my workbench setup.