Author Topic: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion  (Read 51990 times)

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #45 on: December 08, 2012, 09:38:39 AM »
:o  the most incredible part is that the board pcb didnt corrupt or got rusty and ran right away
Yeah that is in fact pretty damn amazing !

DarthNuno

  • Administrator
  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • *****
  • Posts: 11708
  • Singe's castle
    • View Profile
    • Dragon's Lair Fans / Arcade LifeStyle
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #46 on: December 08, 2012, 11:36:33 AM »
:o  the most incredible part is that the board pcb didnt corrupt or got rusty and ran right away

Not really... it's made by Namco, the best arcade game company!  ;D

 :spaceace:

ataritoobin

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 410
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #47 on: December 16, 2012, 04:52:49 AM »
:o  the most incredible part is that the board pcb didnt corrupt or got rusty and ran right away

Not really... it's made by Namco, the best arcade game company!  ;D

 :spaceace:

 :lol:


As has been typical with the machine so far, almost every piece has at least one screw rusted in place.  The back plastic panel was no different.  Unfortunately in these situations it's tricky to use a Dremmel type tool as the last thing we want to do is damage the plastic.  Luckily the stuck screw on the bottom had enough open space around it that this wasn't an issue.  A flat-head type cut was made into the screw and it was STILL incredibly hard to turn and remove!

Inside, I was surprised to see that the asymmetrical-axis motor that generates the "shake" effect was actually mounted in the portion of the seat against your back.  That would explain why it's so jarring on the "max hit"! :o

From here I was able to access the rear of the tee nuts on the wood of the seat structure that hold the plastic side panels to the seat.  I applied some lubricant in there to help dislodge some of the rust.  It's necessary to remove these panels to gain access to three hefty bolts under the plastic on either side that hold the entire seat to the frame.  We need to do this in order to gain access to the "floor" of the main metal structure so that it can be refinished.

The humorous thing is on the top canopy, facing the rear of the machine, the left hand side bolts were rusty while the right side was in good shape.  The opposite is true of the seat!   4 screws on the right side plastic are rusted solidly in place.  Luckily, the left side came apart with no issues.

I again applied lubricant to the rear of the 3 large bolts to hopefully prevent a bolt from snapping.  The bolts were removed pretty easily with a ratchet, albeit "crunchily."  :D  I lubricated the ends of the bolts and ran them back through the nuts to clean up the threading.

I removed the cushion assemblies from the seat in order to give them a good cleaning, and inspect how they were constructed.  Unfortunately, one hex bolt (again!) in both the rear and bottom section broke upon removal.  The back of the seat reveals the exact same construction methods as the Pole Position seat  :spaceace: :spaceace:

Unfortunately, I'll need to come back to the remaining stuck screws on the side another day.  Two are in a tight plastic channel with no room for error.  Any ideas what the best way to approach this is?  I'm thinking drilling through the head of the screw, taking time making sure not to heat up the head in the process.

I did remove the rusty speaker grille (with, you guessed it, one rusted screw!!) from the rear which will need to be repainted.  Upon closer inspection, only one of the rear speakers actually works!  New set of speakers all around then  :'(.

Ah yes, and I forgot my camera today.  Boring text for now  ;D!
« Last Edit: December 16, 2012, 08:33:15 AM by ataritoobin »

ataritoobin

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 410
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #48 on: December 23, 2012, 08:17:30 AM »
I now have 1/2 of the stuck screws on the right hand seat freed up.

Here is a shot of the seat without the cushions/grilles.  The metal plate acts as support for the motor mounted on the rear.


And a shot of the other side of the seat with the side plastic removed, and a glimpse of the motor:


I opened up the yoke handles to replace the broken switches.  I debated on whether or not to replace the working switches.  I figured, since I had it apart, I'd go ahead and do so.  Here's how it had been hooked up with the rapid fire circuit - one wire had been removed from the thumb switches and chained to the trigger switches, with an additional wire to go to the rapid fire circuit.

There was even a small pile of rust inside the handles  :o.  The left-handle had a bit of "home brewery" done to the inside - tape around the metal support and solder rounded up along the screw hole supports seemingly to act as a wedge of some sort.



Cleaned this all up, and now all fire buttons work and I can access all areas of the test menu  :).

I do have a question regarding the flasher controller.  I noticed only one relay is kicking in when the FlashBoy fires.  Currently only the right one fires, but only one of two relay on the PCB clicks.  I figured one might engage the motor, but I don't see any activity on the PCB when the motor is engaged.  Are each of the FlashBoys controlled independently or do they operate off of the same circuit?  I assume on the same circuit, but I haven't tried moving the bulbs around just yet to see if there's a change.
« Last Edit: December 23, 2012, 08:20:55 AM by ataritoobin »

HHaase

  • Jr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 37
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #49 on: December 24, 2012, 03:45:59 AM »
Any chance you might have the manual as well for this one?

Looks like the Japanese version has a couple more lights located in the rear of the cabinet, plus the illuminated start button.  I'm wondering if I might be able to wire them into the US version as well.  Not sure if they are active in the software or not, won't know until I can try to wire them up.

-Hans

ataritoobin

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 410
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #50 on: December 24, 2012, 07:58:47 AM »
Any chance you might have the manual as well for this one?

Looks like the Japanese version has a couple more lights located in the rear of the cabinet, plus the illuminated start button.  I'm wondering if I might be able to wire them into the US version as well.  Not sure if they are active in the software or not, won't know until I can try to wire them up.

-Hans

Hi Hans-

I unfortunately don't have the manual for this (but would love to buy one of anybody has one  :)).

The start button lamp is software controlled and should be tappable as I believe the hardware is the same between versions (the ROMs are different but I imagine the functionality is the same).

There is an option to test the top rear lamps in the test menu, but I believe they're hard wired to 100V (I can confirm this for sure later) so toggling the option doesn't seem to make a difference.  Although this could also mean something is stuck on the hardware if they're not supposed to be lit all the time  :D

Hope that helps!
« Last Edit: December 24, 2012, 07:14:44 PM by ataritoobin »

ataritoobin

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 410
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #51 on: December 27, 2012, 03:27:37 AM »
Thanks for bringing this up, Hans.

I double checked the wiring and the rear canopy bulbs are hooked into the small PCB that drives the flashers, and appear to be "triggerable" from the test menu.  There are slots for two sockets on either side of the canopy, but only one on either side currently work (100V 20W bulbs).  Even with only half the bulbs, it seems too warm in there when lit all the time to be as designed.

I'll take closer look at the PCB and see if there might not be a bad transistor on it.

Can anyone confirm how the rear canopy lights are supposed to operate?  Thanks!


HHaase

  • Jr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 37
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #52 on: December 27, 2012, 05:50:57 AM »
Thanks for bringing this up, Hans.

I double checked the wiring and the rear canopy bulbs are hooked into the small PCB that drives the flashers, and appear to be "triggerable" from the test menu.  There are slots for two sockets on either side of the canopy, but only one on either side currently work (100V 20W bulbs).  Even with only half the bulbs, it seems too warm in there when lit all the time to be as designed.

I'll take closer look at the PCB and see if there might not be a bad transistor on it.

Can anyone confirm how the rear canopy lights are supposed to operate?  Thanks!



Hmmmm, if heat is a problem, perhaps LED's are a solution to it.  I wonder if that's the reason they removed the lamps in the original production run. 

-Hans

ataritoobin

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 410
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #53 on: December 27, 2012, 07:02:49 AM »
Thanks for bringing this up, Hans.

I double checked the wiring and the rear canopy bulbs are hooked into the small PCB that drives the flashers, and appear to be "triggerable" from the test menu.  There are slots for two sockets on either side of the canopy, but only one on either side currently work (100V 20W bulbs).  Even with only half the bulbs, it seems too warm in there when lit all the time to be as designed.

I'll take closer look at the PCB and see if there might not be a bad transistor on it.

Can anyone confirm how the rear canopy lights are supposed to operate?  Thanks!



Hmmmm, if heat is a problem, perhaps LED's are a solution to it.  I wonder if that's the reason they removed the lamps in the original production run. 

-Hans

Yeah, that could certainly explain why they were removed from the US machines.  I took a look at the manual that Bruno scanned from the Namco-America version, and it looks like the wiring diagram mostly was left over from the JP version (100V running the monitor, remote degauss, etc).

Looking where the orange/green wires come from the "DRIVE PCB" assembly they appear to terminate at the fluorescent light assembly, which would imply that the lights don't actually change state during the game.  I'll confirm physically on my machine whether or not the rear bulbs are simply tied into the fluorescent fixture wiring.  If this is the case, I wonder if the software implementation, if any, for the rear lights still works?

It looks like there are a few LED options available with the BA15d base  :).
« Last Edit: December 27, 2012, 07:09:39 AM by ataritoobin »

ataritoobin

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 410
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #54 on: December 29, 2012, 06:39:31 AM »
Today I did some troubleshooting and made a few observations:

- The rear canopy 100V bulbs are indeed wired into the same circuit as the 100V florescent light, meaning they aren't animated, but static.

- The rear speakers actually do work.  However, there seems to be an issue with the rear amp circuit, causing the rear audio to be tinny and quiet.

- I'll be darned, the left FlashBoy still works!  I tested it in the right bulb's position and it worked with no issue.  There is apparently an issue with the circuit on the DRIVE PCB that triggers the left FlashBoy.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2013, 03:59:16 AM by ataritoobin »

ataritoobin

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 410
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #55 on: December 30, 2012, 03:39:47 AM »
I traced the left FlashBoy issue down to a dirty/corroded relay on the DRIVE PCB.  Opened it up and cleaned it with bits of a business card and now both flashers are working. :)

EDIT: The sound design when attacking the core of the Octopus is @#$ing incredible  :o!
« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 03:48:33 AM by ataritoobin »

Belike

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 4769
  • Budapest, Hungary
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #56 on: December 30, 2012, 10:02:25 AM »
Well done Steve, Xmas time is ideal for taking care of our babies. :D

ataritoobin

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 410
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #57 on: December 31, 2012, 09:20:52 PM »
Well done Steve, Xmas time is ideal for taking care of our babies. :D

 :D :D Indeed!

It appears the high scores aren't saving once entered and powered down.  I believe there's a HN58C65P EEPROM on one of the PCBs, which I imagine would hold the scores?  The settings seem to be holding fine, however.

This assumes, of course, that it retains the high scores.  That would be brutal if not!! :o
« Last Edit: December 31, 2012, 09:23:53 PM by ataritoobin »

ataritoobin

  • Member
  • **
  • Posts: 410
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #58 on: January 02, 2013, 03:55:32 AM »
I made some good progress today disassembling the seat and seat/control rail assembly.

The most ideal way to do this would be to remove the monitor and canopy, and disassemble from there.  Since this requires about 3 people to do it safely, I decided to disassemble what I could, since most of the remaining fasteners were rusty anyway.

I was able to get the seat off, finally.  Some rusted out tee-nuts will need to be replaced, and the delamination at the rear base of the seat will be re-glued and clamped.





This left the rail/control portion which is attached via three posts (two bolts each), two near the front and one near the back.  The issue disassembling this way is the assembly can't be removed as the rear wouldn't provide enough clearance.  However, the rear post is attached via a removable plate with two bolts that once removed, would give us proper clearance.



These, happened to be thoroughly stuck!  I had tried Allen bits on a ratchet, Allen bits with a wrench but no luck.  I was finally able to find an Allen Wrench large enough (I believe it was M10) and had to step on it to finally get enough torque to loosen them!  :o

However, the assembly came off quite easily and gained me access to the remaining rust (cardboard to prevent any scratching while removing):



The best part was, I found this Sumo Wrestler inside of the wiring channel:



Officially the neatest thing I've found inside of a cabinet  :)!

Belike

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 4769
  • Budapest, Hungary
    • View Profile
Re: Japanese STARBLADE Saved From Oblivion
« Reply #59 on: January 02, 2013, 10:40:55 AM »
Lol, I'm just wondering how old this sumo guy could be. ;D