New arrivals - Bunch of stuff

A fair amount of these bits will be required for a project I'm about to start working on. More details when the rest turns up!

New arrivals - Trimming tools, the wrong speakers

I finally got round to picking up some plastic trimming tools for pot adjustments. The speakers I bought for the aero tables also turned up. Kind of. Instead of one pair or larger shielded speakers I've received four pairs of little ones. I've contacted the seller. Hopefully they'll resolve it quickly and easily...

New arrivals - Taito F3 and aero pieces

I finally got to collect my two parcels this evening. These have taken their sweet time getting here! One box contained more or less the last couple of pieces required to complete the second aero table: an MS8 chassis and a control panel. The other contained a couple of new pcbs. I've never owned any F3 stuff before but picked this pair up in a trade. There's a full gekrindan kit (very tatty box though) akkanvader with copy arts and a JP mobo. I've had a few credits on gekrindan and am enjoying it so far. I've popped it in the candy 18 and will let it sit there for a few weeks.

Divestment

Not too much has been going on this last week. No new arrivals although I have a card for a couple of parcels to collect tomorrow. Fingers crossed they'll be the bits I think they are.

I put my cosmic smash dedicated naomi up for sale. It's sold but not exactly as listed. The buyer is taking the nice repainted base and wiring but with white plastics rather than black and a naomi uni CP rather than the cosmic smash one.

The black plastics are also on their way out though, they're involved in a bit of a trade and purchase I've organised. More on that as it gets completed.

So on their way out:
to person 1) black naomi monitor surround, black cp box upper, white cp box lower, naomi leg covers
to person 2) a naomi shell, complete minus monitor

They'll be going over the next week or so and their replacements will be coming along.

Aero table revival 7

I wired up the second table today. It's pretty simple once you've got your head round it (or had a kindly soul show you). The unconnected bits in the bottom are the monitor inputs and power, speaker cable and a spare 5V.

This table is about done too now. Just need to move two pins in the cp loom, get the monitor sorted and fix up a couple of other tiny wiring segments.

Aero table revival 6

Table 1 lives!

I got the first table wired up and finished today. Seems to have taken a long time to get to this point. It's lovely to sit and play on it finally. I'll wire up the other shell today perhaps and put up a few photos of where the wires run. Just need the monitor sorting for the other now and the panel for it (in the post). There are a couple of tiny wiring sections for that loom missing too but I should be able to get them fabricated pretty easily if necessary.

New arrival - Mr driller, cyberlead marquee holder, wiring

I had a few friends over for the day on saturday. They brought a few things for me with them. I'm excited to get the cyberlead properly up and running and put this system 12 mr driller pcb in there. System 12 boards have both jamma and jvs outputs and also special code for dedicated messages on the lcd header in the cyberlead. As well as the pcb and copy arts I also got some wiring and a repro marquee holder from FrancoB (head to arcade otaku and buy one now!) and a mighty fine mint aero mug I'll use to hold coins for my aero table.

The fine gents also gave me a ton of help with the looms in my tables and the monitor and psu in the cyberlead. That monitor looks loads better now. Unfortunately it'll need a new psu since the 5V in this one won't drop below 5.49.

I'll pick that up in the next few weeks.

Aero table revival 5

Over the last few days I've built up the other aero table shell.



I've also reapplied the serial number plate and the stickers. The serial plate had a protective film which had clouded. I removed it. I reattached these using bolts rather than the rivet type things that were originally used.
Super glue was enough for the stickers.

Step down converter repair

I recently received a stepdown in the post that was DOA. The seller offered a full refund but I thought I'd see what was wrong with it and whether I could bring it back to life.


First step was to check the fuse. That was fine. Next I needed to get inside it. It has security screws in it. The screws and required bit are pictured below.



I tested the fuse in its holder. No continuity. I opened up the holder to properly inspect it. It's shocking low quality! The holder is plastic with a thin foil overlay. You can see in the pic below that the foil had been worn away, breaking the circuit.

A friend desoldered the fuse holder and inserted another. It means I'll have to open it up if the fuse goes but I'm happy to get it up and running.

New arrival - naomi shells

These were dropped off this morning. It's been a manic few days round here with all the cabs showing up. That's if for now though!

I got these cheap off ebay as empty shells. when I get some time I plan to jamma convert them for sale. I expected totally empty shells with some missing bits etc but actually both have the power inlet, one has a transformer, one has an audio amp and there's a bit or wiring and a spare panel. There'a suprisingly full complement of leg covers, feet and leg covers too. Not bad. Both are missing the coin door but I have a spare for one of them.

Thing's I've noticed so far which need attention:
missing coin doors
one has the central bit between the speakers missing. The bit that folks often use to put out cigarettes on
cracked monitor surround in 1
missing illumination strip in that cab too.

That's all I've noticed so far. They're still wrapped up and on the pallet.

Cyberlead update 2

Managed to get the monitor back on! I had the cab running and gently tapped in a couple of places on the chassis. Tapping underneath brought it back! The cab now works using jvs. Not got the jamma stuff sorted yet. Monitor geometry is bad though and it dropped the image again biefly. I restored it by tapping in the same place at the bottom of the chassis. I would guess the chassis may need servicing. Will try and figure out what's going with the jamma stuff too.

Cyberlead update

I've rebuilt the cab and fixed the wires in the power supply. Good news is it now powers up. Bad news is there are still issues.

The 1 slot has a video RAM error

The 60 in 1 is fine!

The LED header is working fine!

Monitor is unwell :( It makes a bigh pitch buzzing and produces no image. It did briefly produce an image but that disappeared when I pressed the test button and the buzzing returned.

With a jamma pcb connected through the jamma > jvs there's no sound but when I connected a naomi set up (set at 15k) it would play blind. It wouldn't coin up with the coin switch, had to do that with the service button. I guess the chassis needs servicing. Maybe a new monitor required. I have some expert friends coming over soon so I'll get them to have a peek and give me some advice.

New arrival - Namco Cyberlead

It's been a busy day here today. After getting the aero table parts back this lunch time I spent all afternoon building them then at 7:15 I had this delivered.

It was a ridiculously great buy: £50 BIN on ebay. It was an IC09 raffle prize. Apparently it had been in regular use until 6 months ago when it was moved to the garage. When it was dug back out it was dead. The owner put it on ebay at £10 start, £50 BIN and I was lucky enough to be the one who got it. Thanks go to kernow for pointing me in the right direction.

Inside it has a Namco jamma > jvs, neo geo 1 slot and a 60 in 1 mvs cart.

I stripped it down and found out what had happened to it out in the garage. I identified the following clues...

1) a small hole near the kettle lead socket
2) severed power leads with tiny teeth marks in the insulation
3) rodent excrement :D

Hopefully it will be an easy fix

I was told it had a crappy hitachi monitor in it. When I pulled it out I found this orian tube (no idea what they're like. Not heard any mention on them) and, suprisingly a Toei chassis. The Toei in my U4 is awesome so hopefully this will be just as nice!


I've stripped it down following this guide (it wouldn't fit inside without doing so) gave it a going over with some soapy water and brought it inside just as the sun was setting. I had to rejig the furniture and cab arrangement to accomodate it. It's 10:30 as I write this but I have the week of work so I plan on building it now. Fingers crossed the broken power leads are the only fault!

Aero table revival 4

I installed the locks next. No keys for these unfortunately. I also put in the doors, PSU access panel, CP box and coin mech.


With that completed it's time to move onto the lid. The glass is held in place with a small section held in by four bolts. Ensure you place the screws for the mechanism to keep the lid open in their countersunk holes as you attach it.

I then patched up a few little scratches in the black backing of the glass. I used black acrylic paint and a fine brush.

I didn't take so many pictures on the home stretch but here are the steps:

Attach hinges to lid.
Attach the bar that keeps the lid held open for service.
Lift lid into place and carefully attach hinges to cab.
Attach latches in the front edge.

I'd actually put the psu, loom and monitor in before attaching the lid. Much easier to get access. I'll remove the lid again when I get to that stage. It's not too bad doing it with the lid on though.

As of now cab 1 is in this state. Cab two will match it later today once I rebuild it.

Left to do:
test monitor, psu and loom etc out of cab
put in psu, loom etc and secure wiring
put in monitor
put in flimsy bezel last to give you minimum chance of breaking it.

I'll take some more photos when I get round to that bit.

Aero table revival 3

Cable ties for the base in situ.

That's the base section done. I then reassembled the CP box.

Next section is the main white upper. First I attached the cable ties.


Next attach the side decals. It's much easier to do this now before the following step which blocks access.

Attach the degauss / test / service panel. Much easier to do this now when you canlip it over and get to the screws round the back.

The next stage is to attach this section to the base. Plenty of philips head screws to hold it in place.

Aero table revival 2

I had the powder coated Aero Table pieces delivered to me today. Overall I'm pretty happy with them. The blue is a little off the original (a little brighter) but it's a great colour. There are a couple of minor imperfections but not much. I thought I'd put up a few pictures showing the order I rebuilt one of them. May be useful to someone stripping one down if you follow it in reverse. I'm not saying this is the only order, or even the best order to do it. Just the order I did! For the moment I've just rebuilt the shells. The monitor, psu and wiring will be going in in a week or so's time when I have a few friends over for a little get together who'll be able to lend a hand.

Insert coin counter and the metal shielding above. This was a right pain to get out but snapped back in no problem. The shielding is secured with a screw.
Attach legs. There are three height settings.


Attach pcb board runners
Reattach wire tie ladders. I prised these off when I was stripping the cabs and removed the adhesive pads. I bought some replacement foam with adhesive on both sides and reattached them.

New arrival - aero cp looms

These showed up today. Hopefully this is the final piece of the puzzle for Aero Table number 1. All parts sourced just need to get the bits back from the powder coater and build it.

Aero Table number 2 still needs a couple of bits and bobs including some cp looms which are going to be fabricated using these as a model. They are wired for a 5 pin header to use LS32-01s.

I've included a highly professional diagram of the Mate N Lok pin out in case it's of any use to anyone. I'm not sure as yet which button is which or whatever. The stick colours are standard I think. There's a separate 3 pin loom for the start buttons. In the other set of looms the start will be in the empty hole since I don't have any 3 pin Mate n Lok connectors.