Refurbishing my Vanguard (Zaccaria)

[liquidx]

I used to own a Zaccaria Phoenix and was quite surprised after tracing all the connections to find that the pinout was the same as the official board so it just plugged right in. I was expecting some kind of zaccaria/bootleg pinout.

If I remember correctly there was a small PCB in there for credit settings but it worked without it.

And, no, I don't know what that chain is for, mine had one too

[Etienne MacGyver]

That chain is to attach yourself in the case your wife/girlfriend is calling you come out of the gameroom and to stop gaming, so you have a good excuse not to come out of the gameroom  

[ckong]

A few weeks ago I got a Centuri Vanguard PCB. When I checked the wiring in the cab with a schema which I got from Mike's Arcade site, I noticed that it was not correct at all for the Vanguard game. I assume there has been another game in it.

Today I recieved a new edge connector and I rewired the harnas in the cab. However, when I turned on the cab, I got this image:



I tried to adjust the pots on the MTC 900 chassis for ver.freq, hor, freq. and others, but without any improvement. Could someone lead me to the way where to look for the solution.

[liquidx]

That looks more like a problem coming from the board. Are you sure you wired the harness correctly?

Have you tested the board on another cab/rig/adaptor and/or tested the monitor with another game/source?

Are your voltages correct at the power supply?

[ckong]

That looks more like a problem coming from the board. Are you sure you wired the harness correctly?

Have you tested the board on another cab/rig/adaptor and/or tested the monitor with another game/source?

Are your voltages correct at the power supply?

I'm pretty sure I wired the harness correctly, but I will do a second check.

I haven't checked the board on another (jamma) cab, I have no wiring adapter for it. But I'm thinking of making a jamma adapter to check the board in one of my jamma cabs.

I checked the voltages, they are correct.

[liquidx]

I haven't checked the board on another (jamma) cab, I have no wiring adapter for it. But I'm thinking of making a jamma adapter to check the board in one of my jamma cabs.

Proceeding by elimination tends to be the best bet most of the time.
When I need to do these kinds of tests I just wire up an adaptor with the minimum needed: power, video… I can always add credit, control and whatnot later if I need it (plus I really hate making adaptors )

[italiandoh]

Could someone lead me to the way where to look for the solution.

Before trying anything else, I recommend a double check of the sync signals to the monitor. Double check that you got the correct sync and eventual polarity, according to what the monitor sync input expects. Syncs can be separate (H, V) or composite, negative or positive. Most Jamma boards run on H- only, but some older boards don't.

Matteo

[level42]

Yes, Matteo is right. This is _VERY_ likely a sync issue.

The Centuri Vanguard doc specs just "Sync" so I assume it's composite (H+V). The 900 has two sync inputs. It's the right-most pins on the signal connector (when looked from the back). Try the other

I just watched some great video containing a lot of Vanguard. I never played the arcade version, only the Atari 8-bit home version (which was a great game already!). Can't wait to play it

[ckong]

Matteo and André, that is useful information.

As André said, the Vanguard schematic just mentions Sync on pin 33 ( http://www.coinop.org/kb_dl.aspx/KB/gametech/board%20pinouts/vanguard.txt )

On the video connector in my harness a previous owner cut the wire second from the right (vertical sync):



The most right wire (horizontal sync) is intact all the way, and I did solder (only) this wire to pin33.

So what do you suggest? Repair the v-sync wire, combine it with the h-sync wire, and solder both
(combined) wires to pin 33?

Another question for André: I happened to view your first Star wars video today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJLPxdg7lvQ

At  2:10 min.  you guys are talking about the high-frequent sound which comes from the deflection yokes. The MTC 900 produces the same sound. Is this a serious problem, or pretty normal for an old monitor? And what causes the sound?

[italiandoh]

So what do you suggest? Repair the v-sync wire, combine it with the h-sync wire, and solder both
(combined) wires to pin 33?

This is useless because both pins are already tied together on the monitor electronics (see schematics of the monitor). Repairing V-Sync would be useful only if your game board had both sync outputs.
If the monitor is a Hantarex MTC-900, there should be a jumper to change sync polarity. First try changing the position of that wire jumper and adjust H-Sync pot to see if you get a stable image.

At  2:10 min.  you guys are talking about the high-frequent sound which comes from the deflection yokes. The MTC 900 produces the same sound. Is this a serious problem, or pretty normal for an old monitor? And what causes the sound?

First get a stable image, then worry about the sounds produced by the monitor. With an out of sync image the monitor produces an horrible noise.

Matteo

[level42]

I stand corrected Matteo ! Thanks for pointing that out. I did check the manual for the connector but not the schematics.

And indeed a good sync-ed monitor will never sound like a vector

The sound is caused by the deflection signals going through the coils in the deflection yoke. Since these are AC signals they will make something resonate in the frequency of the signal in or around the coil.
It's probably the wires themselves moving a little bit or maybe the yoke itself. You've probably heard a transformer humming before, this is the same thing happening.

When there are few objects on the screen the frequency is low. When there are lots of (small) vectors to be drawn (like f.i. the scrolling texts on the attract screen) the frequency goes way up. You can easily hear that happening.

It happens only on vector monitors because the beam moves very quickly in all kind of directions. That doesn't happen on a raster monitor because on those, the lines are drawn left to right, top to bottom every line. So, the signals in the deflection yoke are more "linear" when compared to vectors monitors.

But in your case, the monitor is out of sync, thus also moving the beam like nuts (and thus giving this scattered image) and it's getting a signal that's not "linear" at all...

Hope to have explained it as clear as possible

[ckong]

Another old topic comes alive  

After I finally finished the Centipede cab last weekend, at least almost finished it, I now want to get on with Vanguard again.

As posted above I didn´t get the game running properly yet. I had to redo the wiring because it´s not original in my cab. I do want to get the wirtng original again, with the power supply etc, but I first want to get the game running with the present parts.

So, I have a few questions.

First of all, here is a picture of my (SNK) Vanguard PCB



At first I assumed that the pinout is the same as a Centuri board (it was advertised on Ebay as a Centuri board), but is it? If not, does someone have the pinout for my board?

Then, please watch this photo:



Does someone have the specifications of the wiring of the two biggest connectors (one of which has some wires cut)?

When reading the Vanguard topic of Robinholland, and seeing some pictures of the internals, it is obvious that my wirng is far from original. I do have the big metal block (what is it called?) and some kind of general power switching supply. What parts do I need to get the internals of my cab original?

Finally, there is 4-threaded cable present, coming from one of the connectors on the PSU, yellow-orange-red-brown. Mine isn´t connected to anything. Where is it for, and is it not connected in my cab because I have some kind of general power switching supply installed?

[Robinholland]

pinout is the same (i have the same pcb) only the roms are different
http://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/spies.cgi?action=url&type=pinout&page=Vanguard.txt
The pcb use NEG Sync
Check on the hantarex monitor if the pos\neg kabel on the pcb are on the neg sync jumper

[Digimon]

Etienne made a wonderful Tutorial for my Powersupply:

https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=3489.0

If you need more infos please ask,
My power supply is ready for measurements;)

Cu
Digi

[Etienne MacGyver]

That "4-threaded cable present, coming from one of the connectors on the PSU, yellow-orange-red-brown" goes to your monitor
That is the powersupply cable for the MTC 900

Will go to the other threat now to answer the rest   

ps, i have a full harness here for a minizacc, i dont know if its the same as the full upright, but if youre interested, and it can save your zacc, its yours