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Messages - Kaizen

Pages: [1] 2
1
Arcade Lifestyle / Re: Baby Pong - A Half Size Pong Replica
« on: June 11, 2017, 01:01:46 PM »
Thanks for the positive feedback.
I worked from 4pm to 2:30am most days/nights to get it done in that time.
A lot of that time was spent refining dimensions and making sure each step of the build process was in the right order.
Many hours scouring the web for images and info.
The artwork was the biggest challenge but I managed get that sorted in the end.
If I had everything cut and ready to go I could build one in around 10 hours.
There a plans to build another 2 more and I have the templates now so it shouldn't tale anywhere near as long to complete them.

When those are done I'll get started on the full size cab which will be CNC cut.


I thought I'd have a play with the game board and see if I could juice it up a little.
I cranked it from a paltry 2MHz up to 20Mhz but all I got was this random garble on screen.




I decided to go all out and crank this baby up to 2GHz.
This was the result...

https://youtu.be/VsClqn22zAY

2
Arcade Lifestyle / Baby Pong - A Half Size Pong Replica
« on: June 11, 2017, 06:36:40 AM »
A week ago I decided I was going to knock up a 1/2 size Pong cab.
The purpose of the build was to check the dimensions of the plans and work out any issues if they arise with the artwork and finishing of the cab in preparation for a full size build.
At that stage I wasn't aware of Etienne's build thread on here though I vaguely recall seeing it a couple of years ago before joining the forum.

The panels will be 9mm MDF for the fromt and 9mm plywood for the sides, adhesive vinyl was used for the woodgrain.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/boyle-1-5m-x-45cm-natural-dark-wood-self-adhesive-film_p1661110

The control panel was printed it onto gloss photo paper at home.

I've learnt that it's easier the make a template out of 18mm marine ply for the irregular shapes and flush trim each panel with the template using a router.
A complete side can be cut and shaped in a mater of seconds as opposed to hand cutting the profiles with a jigsaw (which never cuts perpendicular) and sanding into shape.
A fair amount of time and attention to detail is required for fabricating the templates but the amount of time saved when cutting multiple panels is definitely worth the effort.
The same was done for the bezel cutout.










Here's a short video of the flush cutting being done.
The blank panel was cut 3mm oversize.
I use the template to draw an image over the panel and rough cut the profile with a jigsaw.
The roughed out panel is laid over the top of the template and the bit is set so that he cutting edge is 1 or 2 mm longer than the panel you're cutting.
I square the bottom and back edges together with the template then clamp them together, I do a first trim to reduce the 3mm down by about 50%.
I then do a final pass in one straight run if possible.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB5VaO7ek-0






Baby Pong is born...

The cabinet initial assembly is complete.
The bezel still needs to be routed out and and the control panel will be redone in 12mm MDF.






I also made a bezel template for a full size cab






The monitor is a 16:9, 7" Reversing Camera Monitor.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhWRzKrPokw




I picked up the perspex screen and control panel overlay for $5.
This cab will have yellow card stock with PONG printed on it which sits behind the perspex.
The perspex screen for the bezel has been cut 6mm wider than the panels and will be rebated into the sides.


All the front panels are now cut I also cut a second set at the same time.
I tested them in place and the dims are spot on.
There's nothing holding the front panels in place in the image below apart from the interference fit.





The bezel has been copied from the template.




We have colour...



The first shot is with the flash and the second is without.




It was the closest I could find from Officeworks, it's just sitting in place but I'm happy with the colour.
The internal width of the cabinet  (297mm) is exactly the same width as a piece of A3 card stock.
The 4.5mm clear perspex will lay over the top.
I just need to get 'PONG" printed portrait and dead centre on the other piece I bought before I cut it.

Here's the current build plans I'm working from.
These are a work in progress and are missing some information.
I'm constantly adjusting dims as the build progresses.



The cardboard piece for between the bezel and monitor has been roughly shaped and will be redone in thick matt black card stock once I'm happy with the final position.
The LCD will sit 125mm back from the bezel.




It's time to get to work on the 'PONG' marquee.


At first glance it's only 4 letters but it does need to look correct and be positioned in the right place to be printed straight from the file onto a piece of yellow card at Officeworks without tweaking.

Here are some reference images I started off with.
Basically I just needed PONG positioned in the middle and a small distance down from the top of an A3 sheet in portrait.
A member on another forum helped me out as I'm terrible at Adobe Illustrator.


I'd also like to get this done in an EPS cut file as well so I can get one laser cut in yellow perspex as well...





The bezel needed a back angle at the rear edges, top and bottom.

I set the table saw to 35 degrees and ran each side through a few times until the blade was just short of the bottom edge.
It will all be hidden by the yellow card and perspex sheet so a perfect knife point edge isn't needed.




The cab is now stripped back down again so I can route the rebate for the bezel glass (perspex).


 


All panels are now cut and pre screwed.
I'll reassemble it again and make final adjustments so everything is a tight fir.
The router bit is slightly larger than 4.5mm ,
I'll lay the woodgrain vinyl over the panel and slice it down the centre line of the rebate, that should take up a little more of the gap and give it a softer edge than the wood to sit against. As long as it doesn't rattle it should be okay.





The cab is back together, it takes an hour to put the flatpack together.
The perspex screen was slotted in during assembly and the the rebate depth was perfect.





The next big challenge is getting the 1/2 size control panel artwork done.
I first need to find the drive with the artwork file from Etienne.



I found the artwork file for the bezel, the width is 23.7 inches or 601mm, close enough for a full size cab.
It was used to create a blank PONG image positioned so that it will print in the centre of an A3 sheet and the correct distance down.

I also worked out the 1/2 size dimensions for the marquee.
For a perectly centred text 107 should be 109.5mm, that will be fixed before printing.
I believe everything else is correct.




The next day I got it printed onto A3 Yellow Card Stock like the image below at Officeworks .





I got two sheets printed at Officeworks for a total of $2 and done in 5 mins.



I had a play around in MS Paint and spliced together the two partial scans I had for the control panel.



That's the limit of my artwork production skills.
Just as I has done that I finally got a hold of the CPO atrwork file that I couldn't find.



All the panels are prepped and painted and wrapped with self adhesive vinyl.

I worked out how to lay the text over some Brushed Metal texture in Ai and I'm happy with how it looks.



Almost done...





I placed a Coke can in front for perspective.





A test piece has been printed off for checking the CPO size, looks good to me...



Baby Pong Build is complete. 8)



It's taken just over a week to build but over 60 hours worth of work went into it.
I'm really proud of this little cab, everything has been scratch built including the game board.
A lot of lessons were learnt for when I build a full size cab.



There's still a few little things I need to do but it's now complete and working.




















3
Technical Area / Re: Toei CMD14, problems
« on: March 06, 2017, 07:54:35 AM »
A guy who repairs these mentioned you need to measure the voltage at the location it is being supplied, including the ground reference.
That cap will supply the most accurate reading.
It's safer to solder two wires to the board at that location and connect your multimeter to them.
There can be inconsistent readings if you take the ground from the frame.

4
Technical Area / Re: Toei CMD14, problems
« on: March 04, 2017, 02:42:14 PM »
Check your B+ is 110v.
The Toei CMA20HC and the CMA14 are the same PCB, do you have a picture of your chassis?
The B+ adjustment is done through VR11 pot.
You can measure it across C86, make sure you take the ground and B+ reading is from the cap on the solder side of the PCB, don't take the ground from the frame of the chassis.
This is an uneducated guess by a backyard hack (I take no responsibility if your chassis explodes).









Link to Schematics

http://www.paulswan.me/arcade/manuals/TaitoTVMonitorServiceManual_CM-R14_CM-R20_C14C_C20C.zip

7
Artwork / Space Invaders Documentation and Artwork
« on: March 01, 2017, 07:05:31 AM »
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id =0Bzy5XMBV05xGR2owWTZqbHBmVDg&usp=sharing

The link above contains my stash of Space Invaders Documentation and Artwork that I've collected over the years.
Most of the contents have been taken from various websites etc.
Enjoy...

8
Technical Area / Taito Space Invaders PtII 3-Layer PCB Repair Log #2
« on: March 01, 2017, 06:43:51 AM »
I picked up this PCB recently and finally got around to plugging it in and testing it.
It fires up and runs the attract screen okay but has a few issues:

Issue #1 - Upon Player 2's turn the base immediately shoots a missile.

Issue #2 - Upon Player 2's turn the base goes all the way to the right.

Issue #3 - The 'thump...thump' invader noise is very soft, adjusting the pot (VR6) makes the noise disappear when you turn it all the way down but turning it all the way up, you only get a faint sound.


https://youtu.be/DdzcRfjto7o



I decided to look at the control issue first.
First thing to do was to see what was happening with the 7414's at [2] and [3].
Number [3] was behaving correctly, inverting the signal from a HI to a LOW and vice versa when you press the corresponding switch.
The outputs at pins 8 and 12 on [2] were stuck high.
I removed the chip at [2], socketed and refitted a new 7414 and the Player 2 controls are now working correctly.









Issue #3  was just a case of the master volume was a bit sticky.
After turning it a few times all other sounds rose to ear piercing level.
Adjusted the rest of the sounds as required and the board is now 100% working.  :)

9
Technical Area / Re: Taito Space Invaders PtII 3-Layer Repair Log
« on: February 26, 2017, 10:16:21 PM »
They don't come up very often, when they do they are overpriced or get snapped up quickliy.
This was my first repair of a dead spacies PCB.

10
Technical Area / Taito Space Invaders PtII 3-Layer PCB Repair Log #1
« on: February 26, 2017, 01:27:54 PM »
I was asked to look at this PCB (Space Invaders PtII Colour 3-layer)for fellow member on AA forum.
This was the screen output and the 12v fuse kept blowing.



I replaced the CPU and ROM's with tested working ones to rule them out, it made no difference.
With the 12v to the audio disconnected I powered the board up and started looking around.

There were a couple of lines stuck high on the roms.
I started at the CPU and found that there were two 7408's at 11 and 18 that weren't behaving correctly.
After socketing and replacing the chips there was life back in the board.
The 74LS157 below them had some dry solder joints so I reflowed them as well.








The next thing was to work out why the screen only displayed red.
A feature of SI Pt2 is when you get hit the screen turns red, there seemed to be an issue somewhere along that line.
Probing backwards from the 'bomb' line I could see the 74174 wasn't behaving correctly.
After socketing and replacing the chip I now had some colour.







Last thing to tackle was the sound, first thing to do was the identify the cause of the 12v fuse blowing.
A common issue with these PCB's is the Tantalums failing and going closed circuit causing a short to ground on the 12v (18v) audio supply.
I put a multimeter across the Tantalum next to the sound output amp (LM377) and sure enough it had a dead short across it.
After removing and replacing it, the 12v supply no longer blows the fuse and the audio has been restored.





There's some issues with the 'Trigger' sound (makes a short 'pop' sound) which I'll look at next.
When you press the fire button you could hear a short pop through the speaker there was a signal being generated but no audible 'Trigger' sound.
The most likely culprit was one of the LM3900's in the 'Trigger' circuit.
I started with number 35 which was on the end of the row.
Chip removed, socketed and a new one installed and fired the board up and all sounds are now working.
I'll socket and replace the rest of the LM3900's for preventative maintenance as well as the 4006 and 4030 CMOS chips.

https://youtu.be/JxwAUnRxNnY







11
Artwork / Re: Taito TT Cocktail Instruction Cards
« on: February 18, 2017, 09:47:08 AM »
DEFENDER


13
Artwork / Re: Alu sticker repro run
« on: February 11, 2017, 12:40:14 AM »
Yes, I noticed this when I got the finished product back.
I'm not sure why/how they ended up with that font, lazy printer?
It was the first time doing a reproduction run, there are so many little things that need to be confirmed with the printers before giving the go ahead.

It will definitely have the correct font if i do another run.

14
Artwork / Re: Alu sticker repro run
« on: February 09, 2017, 11:52:27 AM »
I did a small run of the Taito Upright Coin Door stickers last year.
Etienne graciously helped me out with the artwork making the whole process quicker (thank you btw) :).
They were printed onto 1mm aluminium with 3M adhesive on the back, each piece was die cut.
They have all been sold.






15
Artwork / Taito TT Cocktail Instruction Cards
« on: February 09, 2017, 11:38:43 AM »
I've posted these on another forum and thought some people here might benefit from them.
Some are original scans while others are Photoshopped/traced and may have been modified.


Link to my Photobucket folder :   http://s1038.photobucket.com/user/Kaizen088/library/Taito%20Cocktail%20Instruction%20Cards

ASTEROIDS
(Japanese)




PHOENIX
(English)



(German)




POLARIS
(English)






LUNAR RESCUE
(English)









SPACE INVADERS
(English)







(Japanese)




SPACE INVADERS PT II
(English)







(Japanese)







LUPIN III
(English)



(Japanese)







CRAZY CLIMBER
(English)




JUNGLE KING
(English)





ELEVATOR ACTION
(Japanese)




ARKANOID
(Japanese)





HALLEYS COMET
(Japanese)




GALAXIAN
(Japanese)






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