over the past few weeks i've been putting the cabinet back together - slowly but surely and with the help of a lot of clamps
it took quite a while, but this is where the cab stands right now! i couldn't be happier with the way this turned out
but we all know that cosmetics are only one part of the restoration hobby, the other part is the electronic stuff. everything i got for this cab had been totally untested, therefore i had no idea where i stood. so i started with the power supply, because those taito power supplies were
NOT built to last. and lo and behold, mine wasn't any better, because it only produced the +12V voltages, everything else was dead!
so i followed the first rule of every taito restoration: throw out the old power supply and get a switcher with an adapter from arcadeshop. and so i did! ordered it a little over two weeks ago, today i got a letter from the customs office that something was waiting for me. drove over, paid my balances, drove back home, set everything up properly, double checked all the connections (because there's a lot of wires guys) and basically was ready to give it a try. here's my temporary setup with everything connected ...
the monitor had the wrong connector, so i had to rewire it, but then i was finally ready to go. i always expect something to blow up in my face when i power up a game for the first time after having worked on it, but fortunately everything remained quiet. so i got up, walked around to check the monitor and here's what i saw
the picture looks a little bit washed out, but (a) i haven't cleaned the monitor yet and (b) the camera was somewhat out of focus, but in reality it looks really good. what you can see here is a test screen waiting for the inputs to be checked. unfortunately, i couldn't move any further, because the coin door (which has some switches that you need to move through the menu) is already installed in the cab and the control panel with the joysticks and the buttons is currently disassembled because i'm waiting for a missing piece (joystick grommet). but for now, i'm EXTREMELY HAPPY, i have a great picture, the boards are running so far (although i have no idea whether the self test will show any ram / rom errors) and everything seems to be fine!!!
next order of business: remove that board and wire mess from the floor, fix the switcher and the stepdown converter to the power supply board and throw everything into the cab!!! can't wait to continue work on this one ...
