18 wheeler drive belt replacement

Thought I'd throw some pics of this up in case anyone else needs the info. It's probably the same process in a crazy taxi / jumbo safari etc.

You'll need a spanner or socket set, philips head screwdriver, allen keys and a new drive belt. For 18 wheeler that was 187L 075.

First undo the three bolts to allow the cp to open.

Then undo the chain which stops it opening too far
This plate needs to come off. It's attached with four allen bolts

You then need to lever off this C ringwhich holds the axle in place.

These screws hold the potentiometer in place. You can loosen them and slide the little bracket to the side a few mm to disengage the teeth.


You can then just lift off the whole plate and slide on the drive belt. After that you just have to put it all back. The wheel will self center. You need to make sure it's lifted off the ground (I put a box under the cp front to keep it propped up) Then just make sure the pot is in it's central position when you reassemble.

I've got the cab partially built. Unfortunately the pedals are also in need or repairs. I thought they were going to be OK before I got it in hand. I also need to get a couple of minutes to look at the sound wiring since it's a bit different from a normal naomi. Not sure when I'll get this all finished since I'm too low on funds to pick up any new pieces til we get to August. I'll just have to get all I can done for free with elbow grease!

New arrival - Aero panel

I got this lovely aero track ball panel in the post yesterday. I don't have any trackball pcbs but there's some compatible stuff on a 60 in 1 I have so the ladyfriend can play the classics (big ms pacman fan).

It's a lovely panel, rare, beautiful shape and the price was right. I couldn't resist!

New arrivals - Last of the driver bits

Unless I've forgotten something this couple of packages should be the last of the pieces I need for the two drivers.

Just need to finish off building them now.

Cyberlead update 3

I finally got this cab up and playing properly! It's not 100% done but it is 100% playable now.

I had to replace a faulty PSU in it. The 5V couldn't be adjusted to below 5.45V. These PSUs are incredibly strangely designed. The 5V pot in particular is crazily inaccessible.


The 3 voltage pots also aren't labelled. I took this pic that show's what's what.

With the voltages set correctly the jamma > jvs i/o is also working fine. Left to do with this cab:
1) install a replacement NTSC pcb
2) sort out the LED. On power up it displays "please wait". It shows that for a minute or two then goes blank
3) the monitor needs tinkering with a bit more. It's OK now but looks a bit washed out and has a few other little issues
4) get a nice Namco logo on the top above the LED to replace the mostly worn away original one

It's great to get a bit of Mr Driller in, even if it does need a bit more attention to get it totally sorted

Neo print

I picked this curiosity up at the weekend







It's an SNK neo print cart and mother board. It would have lived in a cabinet much like the one in the link below

http://www.arcadeshock.com/images/images_126/l_neoprint.jpg

It's a photo machine which allows some image editing (adding borders etc), it then prints stickers of the image you came up with. There were apparently lots of carts released in Japan specially themed for certain occasions etc. I guess world versions were less numerous.

It looks a lot like an MVS set up but as you can see there's no jamma edge and the PCB is actually pretty different. I like that long row of caps down the centre. The cart apparently won't boot in an MVS mobo either, it will just hang on black screen.

An interesting piece of kit but I can't say it'll going to be much use to me!

New arrivals - Another big pile

I had a great weekend. Went to West Yorkshire for a bunch of cab play and a trip to videotronics to buy some gear. I came away with this mound of stuff. I've actually done a fair bit to cabs today and on friday night which is wothy of documenting and have a bit to write about one or two bits I picked up this weekend but that will all have to wait for later in the week when I have time. For now, I'll just put up a list of what I got and a few pics:

MS9 29 with tosh tube. This is almost burn free and will be swapped with the already very tasty one in my E2.


ID side panel. This replaces a damaged one on the cab that turned up last Friday.

Cuber lead PSU x 2
sega 4 way gear shifters x 2
barrel locks x 7
ID pedals (think these are NOS)
sega driver woofer (think this is NOS too)
sega dash
ID manual
virtua NBA naomi cart



cyberlead NTSC pcb
an interesting SNK piece I'll write a bit about later in the week

almost burn free MS8 26 tube for the other aero table

New arrivals - driving time

Got this lot delivered on Friday. Looks a bit of a jumbled mess but should be great once it's all built up. There's an almost empty Initial D cab (with monitor but no wheel, FFB, mobo etc) and all the dedicated stuff for an 18 wheeler cab which I'm going to put on a naomi shell. The ID is going to have a 360 put in it.

I'm really looking forward to getting this lot up and running! I'll document the building phase when I get to it.

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!