[Restoration] Gauntlet - warrior needs food ...

[Superully]

when everything is connected and its on in "monitorgraymode" do you still have the voltages on the connectors that are connected now?

don't know, will have to check tomorrow!

is there another powersupply wich you can use to test the board ?

i think the power supply is still working fine, because it provides all the voltages i need!

it sounds like its toast...

i'm afraid so, too! damn, this was working just fine before the restoration, i didn't change a thing and i took a lot of pics for comparison.

and i read in your roadtrip there is a spare board, did you test that as well ?

there is a spare board, but it is missing some chips. i could change them over from the board now in the machine and see what happens. all this will have to wait until tomorrow though ...

[Laschek]

Just wondering if it is possible to get rid of that stepdown converter by replacing the switcher with a 220V one or switching the old one to 220V (many have this possibility). It may also be necessary to replace/get rid of that filter, though I don't know about them, maybe they are not dependend on the voltage?
Just a thought...

[Superully]

Just wondering if it is possible to get rid of that stepdown converter by replacing the switcher with a 220V one or switching the old one to 220V (many have this possibility). It may also be necessary to replace/get rid of that filter, though I don't know about them, maybe they are not dependend on the voltage?
Just a thought...

sascha, that's exactly what i was asking a couple of weeks ago here. but from what i understand, the game is set to run on 120 volts (because it's coming from the usa), so if i set the switcher to 230 volts, don't the power supply and the monitor get too high voltages?

[Laschek]

Maybe some wires have to be swapped on the linear power supply. As I said, it was just a thought, I can't say much more I'm afraid.

[Superully]

well, but it can't be the power supply setup which made the fuse blow, because (a) it was working with the same setup before and (b) all the voltages just checked fine. could / should i have measured anything else?

[Superully]

here's an update on some things i did, but first of all a picture of the switching power supply setup



from top to bottom:

AC1
AC2
FG (unused, what does FG stand for?)
- (minus)
-S
+ (plus)
+S
NC (again unused, what does NC stand for?)

- to begin with, i started checking the voltages at the connector right before it "enters" the pcb: all the voltages showed ZERO
- then i measured the voltages at the connector right before it "enters" the pcb: all the voltages showed ZERO
- ok i thought and went back to the switching power supply: measured over AC1 & AC2: around 120 volts
- went to the monitor and measured the connector right before it "enters" the monitor: around 120 volts
- went back to the switching power supply where i got steady +5 and -5 volts yesterday, but today: ZERO

just to make sure i'm measuring that stuff correctly: one lead to +S, the other to + should give me 5 volts, the same for the minus side (-5 volts then)? i'm sure that's how i got my 5 volts yesterday. as for the connectors: one lead to ground, the other lead to whatever i want to measure (+5v, -15v, ...) should give me the desired result? am i doing something wrong here?

the strange thing is that nothing seems to be reaching the pcb and the audio board, but the 120 volts for the monitor are there and the coin door lights (which are powered "through" the audio board") also work fine!

[PunkRockCaveman]

Hi Ully!

... and Hi to everyone else. Im around for a while here ... another great arcade forum with nice people. I come from germany and ... ah, who cares, I will write an introduction thread soon Now let's move on to help Ully.

- FG means "frame ground" ... in germany usually the green/yellow cable in the power cable
- NC means "not connected" so you can ignore that one
- +S / -S looks like the -5 indeed ... since Gauntlet has two power supplies this one is only for 5V and -5V

I suggest to test to remove all cables from the supplie except the AC ones. Then test the voltages again. If it reads something, there might be some short on the pcb ...

cheers, prc

[Laschek]

Many switchers have a fuse inside, did you check that?

[Superully]

I suggest to test to remove all cables from the supplie except the AC ones. Then test the voltages again. If it reads something, there might be some short on the pcb ...

you mean remove all the cables from the switching power supply except the black and white one at the top? if i measure there (with the other cables still attached), i get 120 volts. as for the other measures on the connectors: i'm doing those measures with the connectors removed from the pcb, so it's impossible that a short on the pcb causes those zero voltages ...

[Superully]

Many switchers have a fuse inside, did you check that?

nope, i didn't. but if that fuse were blown, shouldn't it register no 120 volts and shouldn't the coin door lights be off?

the way i'm measuring is correct, right? just to be sure ...

[PunkRockCaveman]

as for the other measures on the connectors: i'm doing those measures with the connectors removed from the pcb, so it's impossible that a short on the pcb causes those zero voltages ...

ok .. so you habe an issue with the switcher, that's quite sure. Since it delivers only 5V and -5V you could use a regular switcher in exchange. Most of them work with 220V and 110V ... it' just a switch on the device. Should be changed easily.

cheers, prc

[Superully]

ok .. so you habe an issue with the switcher, that's quite sure. Since it delivers only 5V and -5V you could use a regular switcher in exchange. Most of them work with 220V and 110V ... it' just a switch on the device. Should be changed easily.

if there's something wrong with then switcher then, how come the coin door lights work and the monitor is powered?

but let's say i installed a new switcher (and set it to 120 volts), how do i wire that thing up? thw switchers i have give me the following connections: -5V, +5V, +12V, GND, GND and AC1&2.

brown wires to -5V, brown/white to one GNF, red/white to the other GND and red to +5V? would that be correct?

even if that worked, i'm still having the problem i've had before: ive measured the outputs with all the connectors removed from the pcbs and monitors which measured fine then, but when i plugged in the connectors and turned on the game, the fuse blew. is there anything to check to prevent this from happening again? as i've said: the connections are good (because i took comparison pictures) and i didn't change a thing in the setup ...

[Laschek]

Did you remember to set your multimeter to DC? 
120V=AC
+5V etc=DC

FYI, switchers need to a load (like a connected pcb) to work properly. So measuring the output of the switcher without the PCB connected might give wrong results, they can be way off.

[Superully]

Did you remember to set your multimeter to DC? 
120V=AC
+5V etc=DC

yes, i did, i just checked again. but thx for reminding me, something like that really _could_ happen with a noob like me on the multimeter. AC is the V with the "wave" on top, DC the V with the straight line - at least something i have learned

FYI, switchers need to a load (like a connected pcb) to work properly. So measuring the output of the switcher without the PCB connected might give wrong results, they can be way off.

when i first took the measures with everything disconnected, it showed steady +5 and -5 volts, now it always shows ZERO - with or without connection!

[Laschek]

Did you check for any damage inside the switcher? Maybe somethings blown inside there (caps?) and it's working only partially, who knows?
Plus you could check the wiring for continuity.