Arcade Projects
Jr. Pac-man truck update
Well. As I thought, it is taking longer for the truck to get here than planned. In theory I may have had the machine today, but that is fine. I get to keep my money longer and have more time to try to sell the R-Type.
The main reason it is taking longer is the generous and expanded route by DanOfEarth. He is having Troy swoop way south to Atlanta and back up the east coast. My guesses are that he should be up to PA sometime in the first few days of next week. That would put my machine here probably in a week from Saturday or Sunday…maybe:)
I am just worried now, with the expanded route, that something might happen to the machine, or they might run out of room. That would be even worse.
R-Type wiring diagram – Adding older monitor without isolation transformer
I am trying to make sense of how to wire up a spare monitor to my R-Type, so I can keep my Vision Pro before I sell the machine. The vision pro is a nice new monitor, and it also has an isolation transformer built onto the chassis. In the diagram below I have drawn what I already have, and how I am hoping to attach another monitor.
Bob Roberts said this in two emails;
First Email –
You need a 1:1 isolation xformer to run your monitor. The pic you have is of power entrance with an auxiliary outlet & a switcher.
I don’t know if there are different versions of isolation transformers, and if the most common ones are 1:1, but right now, I am assuming the most common transformer is 1:1.
Second Email –
No… you can’t tie in to the AC in feed. You have to have the 1:1 output isolated & there is only one place with 2 terminals to hook that up to without regard to polarity since AC has none.
In the first email I thought I described that I would put an isolation transformer directly off the power supply, and then from the transformer I would run my two power lines. But knowing how crappy some of my emails are sometimes, I must not have done a good job explaining which is my bad.
His second email I take away that I need to have some sort of polarity based voltages, and AC doesn’t have that. Like, I would need +120V and -120V, and this is just +120V directly to the monitor.
It’s a gift that Bob even responded to my emails with an explanation, he sells parts, he isn’t a tech support guy or something. So again, a big thanks out to Bob Roberts and his big heart for helping the lowly collectors trying to figure things out.
I don’t understand the polarity part, so I am posting to the klov group to see if they can help me and explain it a different way.
Photos of Sega Pengo Isolation Transformer
Photos of the isolation transformer. Pretty old and crappy looking like most of these from the 80’s, but how it looks isn’t an indication of how it works. I just need to figure out what voltages are going in these wires from the Power Supply so I can tie in a switching power supply instead.
Happ Vision Pro 19″ Monitors – $130-$135 Sale
I heard this on the forums and decided to check into it for my Pengo at the local HAPP rep by my work. Well, as of June 30th, they shut down that location. Crap….
So I did get contact information for the sales rep who is now based out of their house in Greenfield. She said the sale is until the end of Sept. 30, ’07 and they are $135 a piece, or $130 if you buy four. Pretty good deal if you ask me. Shipping she estimated at around $20, so that would put a brand new monitor at my house, in 2-3 days for about $155. Tempting.
Rick Ford may try to help walk me through how to do a switcher in the Pengo, so I will try to exhaust my understanding of that route first since it should be cheaper. But I have until the end of Sept. to think about getting a new monitor for a great price.
Space Invaders Boards in the mail
I dread sending large boxes in the mail, many-fold.
- First, I have to find the time during working hours to get over there.
- Second, a lot of times it is crowded when you make it just before the end of the day, so you have to wait forever.
- Third, I never have boxes around the house to put larger objects (like arcade game PCBs) in for mailing.
- Fourth, if I even have supplies to wrap the game boards up nicely, then I have to cover the whole box with wrapping so that no wrapping is showing.
- Fifth, it is relatively expensive to mail any classic arcade items, let alone PCBs.
But, the box with the Space Invaders PCBs is out, and I hope when it comes back, I am done with this game completely. It is becoming like the Dig Dug. I am approaching a year with this arcade game, and I don’t know what I have learned. Other than, be very careful when it comes to buying classic games if it looks like there is a board issue.
Don’t get me wrong. Alex Yeckley of Elektronforge has been great so far. He does excellent work, and he is pretty affordable if you buy the arcade game machine cheap or want to keep it. He is fast, he does ok on email, and he stands behind his work.
I at least I supposedly have a buyer, and although I am getting close to my investment threshold for what the Space Invaders Deluxe is actually worth, I am not totally tapped out and I have confidence the buyer will come through.
Space Invaders Boards Out
Have to figure if Alex Yeckley at Elektronforge needs the angled pcb supports or not, but the Space Invaders Deluxe game boards and the power supply are one step closer to being in the mail to be tested together and hopefully finally fixed for good.
Removed Diodes from G07
Figured out during the day today what I need to replace them, and the part number.
Will call or stop at Meunier tomorrow hopefully to see if they have replacements, along with the fuse. I did notice that the diodes symbol points different directions on the bottom of the chassis. You can tell how much I know. That is good that I noticed that, so they are directional. But the D401-404 are all the same so that makes it easy.
