Dragon's Lair Fans - Arcade Lifestyle
General Chat => Technical Area => Topic started by: Belike on May 18, 2013, 02:46:28 PM
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A few months back, I bought 3 Astro Wars + sound pcb from a german guy, unfortunately I don't have a dedicated cab (yet), so I had to find another way to test them.
The pcb looks identical to Quasar, but I was not sure about the pinouts, I had to ask a Zaccaria expert in the States, to make sure, if I can test them in a Quasar cab. :D
Thanks for Digimon (Jörg), we had the manual for both boards and Paul was so kind to compare the pinouts and sent me this, as I'm not an expert in reading schematics (yet). :D
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hX1qVhFutKQ/UZdy0NvTTjI/AAAAAAAAHZI/7Amx6g2Vgww/s912/AstroWars_vs_Quasar_Wiring.jpg)
Seems like the 8 pin CN1 (power lines up) were ok and on the video side 7 PIN CN6 it looks like SYNC, GND and GREEN line up but the colours RED and BLUE are swapped, but it was not matter for testing.
Ok, let's remove the Quasar board and plug in just CN1 and CN6
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-LzWoxAV9bxs/UZdxriueKmI/AAAAAAAAHYA/88BWUpAm4U8/s512/WP_001749.jpg)
Hmmm., the pic was blue with some bars. :-\
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-iq33T0K1Dh8/UZdxrmnxpjI/AAAAAAAAHYE/jH8B7PcoLhM/s512/WP_001750.jpg)
I had a feeling that it is not a pcb related problem, so I used the good old russian treatment, I hit the monitor frame a few times with a screwdiver and voila ;D
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TGtp_GzCe0k/UZdxrY9WODI/AAAAAAAAHYM/ZCD6LAdK9Po/s512/WP_001760.jpg)
You can see it in the top, that red and blue swapped, otherwise it works fine. ;D
Pcb No.2. also works, but there is a horizontal line in the middle.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-S7VcuzyQ0qs/UZdxsSsDSKI/AAAAAAAAHYQ/A1gpKjle940/s512/WP_001761.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-l1TXV7YGG5I/UZdxsq8TrsI/AAAAAAAAHYU/tAQuQoV5mAs/s512/WP_001763.jpg)
Pcb No.3. looks like broken, for first test, there was just garbage on screen
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-XnkaWjaX6Jk/UZdxtFjPpVI/AAAAAAAAHYg/KxpBNBIA2aU/s512/WP_001767.jpg)
After a bit of reseating
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BrNvWS_6T74/UZdxtT8KNsI/AAAAAAAAHYk/1yhqwU20RX8/s512/WP_001768.jpg)
It is better but still garbage. :-\
I made a visual investigation on the pcbs and realized, that the processors? are not the same on the broken pcb.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-h1bWjNBjot8/UZdxtp_il2I/AAAAAAAAHYw/AqGgAZKgi68/s512/WP_001771.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Lk9c9XcrC6k/UZdxuAn7asI/AAAAAAAAHY4/XTZVrttgnUE/s512/WP_001772.jpg)
Swapped both between them, but still the same dissorted pic.
That is where we are atm., looks like we have a fully working, an almost perfect and a broken Astro Wars pcb here. ;)
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Nice that you got a worker out of it. Looks like one is also booting but has a video fault. The 2650 series has two part codes - 26xx varieties and CT4xx varieties - but they are equivalent parts.
Hehe, in the first none-booting pic you can see the (horizontal) 00 00 score from the 2636 home console video controller.
Paul.
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Hehe, in the first none-booting pic you can see the (horizontal) 00 00 score from the 2636 home console video controller.
Paul.
Yeah, I also spotted that and I have no idea why was it there. :D
Btw., the pcb with the garbage screen also works in attract mode, just none of the objects are perfect. ;)
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About the CPUs, couldn't it just different manufacture's versions of the same CPUs?
Ie for Z80, the original Zilog is named Z80, while NECs are named D780C etc
I find it hard to believe, that you'd see anything at all on screen, with a totally different CPU?!
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You know this video?
It fits to pcb 2:)
https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=youtube%20galaxian%20repair&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDcQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DfFQ9pEk5ANU&ei=5teXUemMKszwtQaE3oB4&usg=AFQjCNHvwjl9agsX15ik752YdKToblQMkQ&bvm=bv.46751780,d.Yms (https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=youtube%20galaxian%20repair&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDcQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DfFQ9pEk5ANU&ei=5teXUemMKszwtQaE3oB4&usg=AFQjCNHvwjl9agsX15ik752YdKToblQMkQ&bvm=bv.46751780,d.Yms)
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You know this video?
It fits to pcb 2:)
https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=youtube%20galaxian%20repair&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDcQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DfFQ9pEk5ANU&ei=5teXUemMKszwtQaE3oB4&usg=AFQjCNHvwjl9agsX15ik752YdKToblQMkQ&bvm=bv.46751780,d.Yms (https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=youtube%20galaxian%20repair&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDcQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DfFQ9pEk5ANU&ei=5teXUemMKszwtQaE3oB4&usg=AFQjCNHvwjl9agsX15ik752YdKToblQMkQ&bvm=bv.46751780,d.Yms)
I think by now everybody knows that video ;D
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Yeah I saw that video and slowly start to understand it. :D
I took a closer look on the cpus, they are 2650 and 2636 on both boards and I think the manufacturer is also the same, just the year of manufacturing is different, 1978,1979 and 1980. :D
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Hfa9Jj09k0E/UZiDKo9atFI/AAAAAAAAHZg/r1yiodAqSEE/s720/Astro%2520Wars%2520cpu%2520001.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0IRD2bY1Ct0/UZiDKjzOEMI/AAAAAAAAHZc/OIfUPeyyXHo/s720/Astro%2520Wars%2520cpu%2520002.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4oikNrWAihk/UZiDKoSYaiI/AAAAAAAAHZk/9G5ay0qnnz0/s720/Astro%2520Wars%2520cpu%2520003.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-GuSTSM27aWM/UZiDL3WB_II/AAAAAAAAHZw/cqL7ZbBDCSc/s720/Astro%2520Wars%2520cpu%2520004.jpg)