Star Wars cockpit...did I REALLY FINALLY fix it 100% ??

[level42]

Hey guys....I think I FINALLY found a problem that kept chasing my SW....

The thing was that after playing the game for about 20 minutes or so, the screen sometimes started to show what looked a bit like a sinus wave on the horizontal deflection. When played on, it got a bit worse apparently and the deflection spot killer kicked in (good to know that works !)...
It was only brief moments, picture would come go for a fraction of a second and be back for 4 or 10 seconds...

I first tried another game PCB set to make sure I was correct in my assumption that it was on the deflection board.
And indeed, the problem stayed.

So I started to closely examine the deflection board. Obviously, the issue was heat related because the problem only started after 20 minutes or so.
However, the fan that I installed does an EXCELLENT job on keeping everything cool, the difference is really huge, so I was a bit baffled that it still could be a heat issue, but localy of course, heat can still build up (a bit).

Now, I looked at the horizontal deflection section. SW owners know that this is on the upper section of the deflection board. In a cockpit, this is pretty close to the "lid" that is over it. Thus, this area is probably the hottest spot in the cab. (without the extra fan).
I started "feeling"/wiggeling at various compenents and looked CLOSELY what happened on the solder side. Very quickly I noticed that C11 had moving pins/soldering islands. Removed the old solder and resoldered it, fixed. So I started suspecting this area so I checked all components there an sure enough I find at least 4 other parts that have (slight) movement on the solderings. Fixed them all. Sometimes the islands had lifted because of the heat so I had to scrap a little off the track to solder it to that.

SO,I had good hopes, put it back in the machine for some more test-playing (oh what punishment ! ) For a while I though I had fixed it, but after a while again the problem appeared.

So, while it was still running I watched the deflection board. Sure enough I could see the spot-killer LED go on every now and then. I was feeling/wiggling parts all over the horizontal deflection section to see if I had missed something. And YES, suddenly I found, that when I was pushing on Q14 (the small transistor on the big heat-sink at the top) the LED would go on, and when released it went out again. I could really turn it "on and off" by pushing straight on that transistor.

Took out the board, checked the solderings and sure enough there was a problem with one of the legs. The track had curled up a bit under it and it was making contact, normally, but when pushed the contact went open. So, had to scrape open some part of the track and soldered it to that, and also renewed the two other solderings.

Now, I am pretty confident that I fixed it, but it's long bed time here, so testing will be done tomorrow.

[Belike]

Can't wait for the following "punishment" testing, I would like to spend the whole day in that cockpit at Eurocade.

[Muerto]

Hope it works flawless now André! - remember, you still owe me a play or 2 in that cockpit 

[level42]

Well, I'm 99,9 % positive that I found the problem, haven't tested yet though. But the location was very clear now...

[Superully]

nice fix, andré, and well-documented. columbo-esque work at play here!

[ckong]

If you need a 'volunteer' then I'm very glad to play test it for you tomorrow. 

[level42]

Well, Erik did à couple of games today. But The best test team today and yesterday was my son and his best friend who during the testing told me he was "addicted" to the SW cockpit

Anyway, it has been playing flawlessly during lengthy sessions. Although I'm convinced I now really fixed it, I'll put it through an all night test tomorrow. Poor me, all this playing needed to do...

[level42]

....and what do you guys think ? It wasn't fixed yet. !!!

I still had the same problem appearing after prolonged playing and pushing on the Transistor.  
I noticed that the other tracks had problems too. So I decided to bridge al three. However, apart from this looking very ugly, it didn't work out because one of the legs broke off because of age and strain. So now I had a dead deflection board, a couple of weeks before Eurocade !

I needed to replace the transistor. A new one would have long legs, so I could scrap off some of the beginning of the PCB tracks and solder the legs to them.

I tried looking for a bit more common (locally) available alternatives for this transistor. Although there may be alternatives, they are not pin-compatible.
I don't want this, especially because I needed as much length of the legs as possible. Of course I could have ordered these transistors at good old BR, but as you can imagine, I was kind of in a hurry, and then Speleo said he had some he would sell me !

Woo-hoo !

So today i received them. The one's sent by Speleo are the larger version, which means they can handle more power (or stay a bit cooler at the same power throughput).

See the difference here:


However, since I now had to solder them a bit further on to the tracks, I had to fix the transistor as close as possible to the PCB, BUT the cooling "fan" is larger on this one. With some smart and careful bending, I fixed it really nicely. Since it was a larger AND since I now have a BFF (Big F..... Fan) in there, I figured I could use a "plastic" insulator instead of the mica.

Anyway, fixed all checked for shorts where not needed and continuity where needed, and put it back in.
It's been running 100% now for a couple of hours. The youngest classic-arcade-videogame test-team (you'll meet them at Eurocade) is NOW stress testing, but I haven't seen one black-out or wiggly lines anymore. I tried pushing down on the transistor, tried wiggling the PCB but nothing get's it to go into spot-kill anymore !!!

Not going to say it until it's been running fine for a week though.....but I think "WE GOT'M" !

Thanks Andreas !

[Muerto]

Great to hear André!!!!!

[Hi]

Great news !
Hard to fix it   

[level42]

Not really hard in the end....but taking a lot of time.

Did a 3 hour test yesterday. After playing about an hour I had confidence enough to let it run for another. Then I played some more.
Not a single blink !   

Rock steady performance. I am confident now: the Star Wars cockpit is 100% fixed !

[gyruss]

 

[Belike]

Yessss!!!

[Superully]

well done, andré! a lot of effort went into this, but hey man, it's your grail of grails - and your coffin eventually!

[level42]

Wahaa....let's hope that'll last a bit still