Author Topic: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!  (Read 271215 times)

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #285 on: February 20, 2015, 08:16:49 AM »
Okay, lets see;

Serial decal      
Warning decal  

working on the Bottom decal and the Aux panel decal

Do you have the measurements for the aux panel decal ?

I have placed two "dots" as it looks on the example that they are there, or is that dirt ?



Etienne, I hate to question your awesome vector skills, but, to me that font looks too bold

That sticker is gone from the Aux panel....not sure if I still have it....maybe I can measure the remainders, I'll try this afternoon.

I can also compare the font to the other cards, I don't thing there's a reason for them to change font right ? From that we should be able to figure out the size of the sticker I guess :)

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #286 on: February 20, 2015, 09:03:38 AM »
they did switched some fonts, for example, the warning sticker has the "WARNING"  in Motiva Sans Black, and the rest of the text is Helvetica.
Then for the Aux panel they switched over to Aharoni (and i need to check if i have the "light" variant as this is too thick).

So on two labels they used 3 fonts..

The bottom decal looks to has the same setup as the warning decal, Motiva and helvetica.

 :ghost: :ghost: welcome in my world..  :ghost: :ghost:  ;D ;D ;D

(p.s. i want to thank chrischris who Always has a "listening ear" when i am desparate looking for a match  :D)
« Last Edit: February 20, 2015, 09:05:44 AM by Etienne MacGyver »

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #287 on: February 20, 2015, 09:22:35 AM »
Ettiene, another thing I've just see with the sticker, maybe you have too, the arrows appear to be separated on that game/test switch
- BLANK -

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #288 on: February 20, 2015, 12:04:08 PM »
Looking at the zoomed image, i would say indeed !

i doubted, because the Original has the damage exactely in that spot.

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #289 on: February 20, 2015, 11:50:06 PM »
http://youtu.be/A-LBeeve9cM?list=UUn47kbEAlRBSmWmdae45P2w


Took more Q*bert cursing to get the knocker working....also other shit going on, like loosing sync on the monitor....luckliy I very quickly discovered that the "ready made" video cables I bought from......I think arcadeshop has some serious problems on the criming of the pins in the connector: I could pull out the wires one by one.

Since I received trifurcon pins today from TwistyWristArcade I decided to replace them all with those, nothing but the best for Q*bert !

More on the knocker problems later.....very happy now....and tired....

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #290 on: February 21, 2015, 07:55:46 PM »
Too tired to talk in the video ?  ;D

Nice work man !

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #291 on: February 22, 2015, 10:05:20 AM »
Indeed !!!    ;D

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #292 on: February 23, 2015, 09:58:59 PM »
Riptor's stuff arrived quickly and without problems like "import duties" and "taxes".....  ;D\


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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #293 on: February 23, 2015, 10:05:37 PM »
Oh yeah....this stuff arrived last friday and I set out to use some of it (or all ;)) that evening.

First of all, I wanted to hear the sounds. So I soldered the wires I had put on the tiny temporary pot to the new definite one and hooked it up. Worked like a charm ! Finally I got to play some games with sound....a world of difference, especially so with Q*bert which, apart from the speech, has some of the best arcade sounds ever.

But....there was still something missing of course....yes the famous knocker !

Ahhhh, how hard can that be....I got a "brand new" (??) one that I bought when I was just a MAME-boy, when I dreamt of hooking it up to my MAME machine....hahahaha ;)

OK first hurtle to take is clear on the picture....the connector on the knocker seems to have been washed too hot...

Of course I had already seen that and I had ordered the correct connector for it. I am making good use of my Molex crimper these days, pins I already have :)

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #294 on: February 23, 2015, 10:24:38 PM »
Oh...I also had to add on a fuse holder and fuse in one of the wires. All done.

As a precaution I measured the coil for resistance. It was about 18 Ohms, sounded OK to me.
There is a damping diode in parallel across the coil but you can't measure that because of the low resistance of the coil which "spoils" any diode-check attempts with a DVM (you will get a short/beep in both directions). So I figured it would be OK because -ususally- diodes go short when they die, in that case I would have measured something very close to zero ohms.....

So had it hooked up and powered on: flash, that was the fuse....

Mmmmm.....OK but why ? Let's measure what comes out of the transistor on the PCB: argh....a constant 30V...that's not good, the coil would burn if there hadn't been a fuse !
SO: the transistor must be dead. Luckily there are 4 identical transistors on the board and only the knocker and coin counter are usually used. The other two are for optional coin-lock out and an extra coin counter.
So I compared them with DVM in diode check and sure enough all three others showed other values than the one that triggers the knocker.
So I removed the bad one and moved one of the others to that spot.

Let's try again.

Power up, one trigger of the knocker and FLASH there goes the 2nd fuse.... :evil: :evil: :evil:

WTF ???

How can this be....damn....

mmmm-mmmm-mmmm. OK the only thing I KNEW I hadn't tested was that damping diode because it's soldered so tightly over the coil terminals....but now I HAVE to. So I cut it loose instead of unsoldering it and measure it:

OPEN in both directions ! OK I KNOW semiconductors can fail in two ways but I've actually ALWAYS seen diodes gone bad in short !

Conclusion: the damping diode could not do it's work when the trigger was fired. What this diode does is prevent a "back current" into what steers the coil. So this is what happened and blew the fuse.

OK....replace the diode, it's a standard 1N4004 or so....and try again.

Because I only had fast 1A fuses and it actually needs to be a slow-blow I decide to go for a bit higher value this time because maybe this is also causing the fuse to blow.

Try it again.....nothing......but this time the sound dies too after a few seconds. So I look at the 30V indicator diode -> no light !
This time the 30V section fuse was blown....argggh..

OK so I check the transistor again and sure enough...the failing diode had blown the transistor (again).....so I move the last "spare" one, put in a 1A fast fuse again, replace the 30V fuse on the PSU board and try again.....

Holy crap....it works.....and it works. ......and it works.....sweet victory !!!  ;D ;D ;D

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #295 on: February 23, 2015, 10:26:48 PM »
I also received some used but good ballasts from Riptor. At less than 4 bucks each I figured I'd stock 2.

Measured them and they all are about 30 ohms....the one on my Q*bert showed about 6 ohms....

Replaced and "Let there be light !".....


I still think the 60Hz 110V ballasts are not 100% happy with our 50Hz.....you can actually hear it when they're running but....oh well.....we'll see how long it lasts...

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #296 on: February 24, 2015, 10:05:02 AM »
Lots of detailled info, thanks !


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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #297 on: February 28, 2015, 05:48:47 PM »
You're welcome Etienne :)

Surprisingly, the wood sides are extremely smooth. I had applied the wood hardener and one go was enough for this wood, although I wouldn't say it makes it rock solid.

I only had to fill one corner. I'm pretty tired and sick of using "Bondo" so I say fuck the Bondo and I used some Action "fast" wood filler that my wife had bought. A bucket full costs close to nothing....I've worked with it before and it was damn fine. I love that you open the lid, use the stuff and ready after drying....no mixing too much or too little hardener etc.

I used the old T-molding as a guide...

Of course I also had to fill the two holes they made for the security bar....

« Last Edit: March 01, 2015, 02:35:22 PM by Level42 »

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #298 on: February 28, 2015, 05:52:30 PM »
So let's do the primer. First time I have primer mixed to color.

First pic after one layer, second two layers.....the particle board really sucks this stuff up.


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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #299 on: February 28, 2015, 05:56:15 PM »
And the other side.....

I will sand and do at least two more coats of primer....I still got plenty of it anyway.

I also did most of the black parts first coat but forgot to take a pic.

I will do the rest of the paint job inside....too much stuff floating in the air and landing on the paint.

Must say I am REALLY happy with the paint color....looks very promising IMHO.....

Anyone got suggestions for the best roller for the final coats ?
« Last Edit: February 28, 2015, 06:01:01 PM by Level42 »