Archive for August, 2007
Ms. Pac-man Separations Update
I had some downtime where I couldn’t use the internet last night so I spent about 25 minutes or so working on the separations for the stencils. I got through a good portion of Ms. Pac-man herself.
I am trying to decide how to make a rule for how much the pink should bleed underneath the black, or if every piece should bleed according to what is around it. If I can make the pink larger underneath a surrounding black part, like on her gloves and such, I think I am just going to go ahead and make it as big as possible. This will give me more coverage in some areas in case the registration is off.
I did find out that the stencils are a one time use though. So, even if I finish the separations for the Ms. Pac-man sideart, there is no guarantee I may get some because of the cost. I don’t have any of the tools, the mask, the airbrush, or the paints, so above the cost for the three colors of stencils I will have to invest in the other supplies. I will have to make some sort of decision of whether or not I will use that equipment again or not.
G07 Blowing a F902 Fuse
I got this monitor last year in October. I bought a bowling game that worked completely for $150 and this monitor was thrown into the deal. I immediately sold the bowling cab and everything in it for $50, keeping the monitor that worked and the one that was bad.
The one that was “bad”, worked fine the original owner said, until he did something early one morning maybe before it had warmed up, or just without thinking.
There was a blown fuse that needed to be replaced, so that is what I did. I powered the monitor up and it blew the fuse again. So the monitor sat.
Now, with the possibility that I might need it for the Xevious game, or another game, the timing was perfect when I read a thread on KLOV about what to look for to repair a G07 that is blowing the F902 Fuse. The post said that a bad Flyback and HOT (Horizontal Output Transistor – Had to have someone help me with that acronym) can cause this to happen. Usually when the flyback goes bad it takes the HOT with it. Bob Roberts has a kit that includes caps for the chassis for all of this stuff for most monitors for around $40.
I emailed him and asked him if this sounded correct. What he told me sounded more accurate. Remember the previous owner made a mistake when working with the monitor, maybe he plugged it in without a isolation transformer. Here is Bob’s email
When F902 blows it is 95% due to a shorted diode D901 thru 904 commonly
shorted by someone plugging them in without an isolation, but they can short from a simple voltage surge, as well.
When F901 blows it is 95% of the time due to a shorted flyback with the remaining 5% delegated to the HOT or other HV compent shorting.
I wish I would have emailed him about this a long time ago, or posted on the KLOV forums. Sounds like something I can test easy, figure out where those diodes are, do a continuity test and go from there. But it may be a cheap fix to just replace the diodes, and I thought $40 to repair and get a working monitor wasn’t too bad if it was a sure fix.
If it really is F901 that is blowing, then a flyback, HOT & fuses would be $30.50 making buying the kit more economical. There are no holders made to fit the mis-aligned G07 chassis… the reason that pigtail fuses are needed.
New Joker Images from The Dark Knight
Were these leaked? Probably. It makes me a little sad to look at them, but I can’t hide my excitement either. I don’t want to have to wait until December to see something big.
~Edit – You can also view them at John Bierley’s Flickr page if Warner Bros starts taking them down from either site.
Frenzy – Going to trade it this weekend
The plan is right now that I am going to trade the Frenzy this weekend to another good friend collector for a handful of other cabs and projects.
I knew Tim really wanted a Frenzy, and this one was in good condition minus the ZPU-1001 board. He was close enough and he has been so helpful in the past that although I could have tested the market to see what it would have sold not working, I decided this was the better route to take. I don’t like the game enough to go out and buy a Berzerk Frenzy combo board, so I wasn’t going to keep it.
Simpsonize Me – Jeff Rothe
Like I said, I haven’t updated my blog much, and it has been less than I thought as I work harder on the WordPress version. But I thought this was so awesome that I had to post it here.
I have started to see these around, and the commercials didn’t make me realize this was something you could do.
Check it out at Simpsonizeme.com
19K4635 Wells Gardner Monitor – Difficult to do a cap kit
It was cool outside last night, and I was feeling motivated, so I started the cap kit on the Wells Gardner 19K4600 model monitor.
Let me tell you, I thought doing a cap kit on this monitor was for an advanced user, not for the faint of heart.
I had the hardest time figuring out how to get at the bottom of the chassis board. I finally figured out that you need to unscrew the cross beams from both sides of the frame. Then, pull the sides apart and get the chassis out. There are a number of different connectors that you need to unplug, one or two from the neckboard, and a couple from the 19K4635 chassis. But even unplugging them all doesn’t matter.
Underneath the chassis board is a metal plate, held on by four screws. You have to take those screws off and then you have the plate hanging off the chassis board. There is some sort of discharge? copper spool that is soldered from the plate to the chassis board that unless you want to solder it all, you can’t take it off.
So, it was on big balancing act. Most of the caps are on the cards that plug into the chassis. One large cap, a 1000 u 35V? on the one card, and a ton of caps on the other card.
I found that on this monitor, most of the time, the size of the caps were downgraded significantly. I don’t know if this indicates how long it has been since a cap kit has been done or not, but there was a ton of dust on the chassis so I don’t think it has been for awhile.
I had found my cap kit list for this 19K4635 Wells Gardner monitor at Ionpool, and chose the Zanen Kit #201A. I don’t know why I chose this one over the WICO, I don’t know the difference. But I am glad I did, the Zanen version had more caps.
But I did find that I needed three other caps that I will have to go back for. Those three are;
- 1000u 35V
- 4.7u 25V
- 22u 16V
Nokes was a very bad boy
I had written that I have been leaving Nokes out in the house for short periods of time, no more than two hours usually. I hate that we own a dog, but have to have him shut up in a crate all day long. Seems counterproductive to the idea of having a pet.
So when I went to the gym last night, I left him out. I got a rude awakening, and no indication that something like this would happen. He had been an angel until this point.
He shredded a paper bag full of papers that were supposed to go to recycling, and he also tore apart one of our newer rugs that was hanging over the child gate by the steps.
He was so happy to see me, I was firm, but what can you do? Scold him really firmly for something he already did? I just now know we can’t leave him out all the time, and he always has to be in his crate. It makes me sad, but I am just glad he didn’t chew up my laptop power cord. That would have been the worst.
