From Truxton II (to) Pleiads

[Superully]

before i start re-painting the BLUE part of the cabinet, i'm going to put some wheels underneath in order to make that "wooden giant" moveable.

four wheels - each supporting up to 50 kg - that should do the trick!



well then, let's get started. here's what i will be using today:



before starting the actual painting process, i'm appyling some base (it comes in powder form, but has to be dissolved in water). with the help of a sponge (have you noticed my "arcade sponge" marked with a big A?  ), i'm distributing the liquid equally across the cabinet. the function of this base is to prepare the cabinet's blue surface for the painting job (making it handy and non-slippery).



after leaving it on for 10 to 15 minutes, you can wash the liquid off with clear water. the cabinet's surface is now well-prepared. TIME TO PAINT!!!





the remains of a day ...



now on to the part which i hate the most: WAITING

.

..

...

after two days in "dry storage" the paint has dried almost completely and the results are in:



looking at it closely, one can see the spots where i reconstructed the wood with the woodfiller (and somehow a cat's hair managed to squeeze itself into the room and onto the cabinet), but overall i'm extremely happy with the results and the way this turned out. there are - of course - some minor imperfections, however, one must keep in mind, that these are only the sides of the cabinet and - after all - this was done by an amateur with amateurish methods / resources. what do you think?



@bruno: look what i've just found  this will be mailed to you (along with the marble madness marquee) pretty soon 

[Sonic 1992]

I think it looks great!!!!

Don't drive yourself crazy trying to get it "out of the crate new"   Even games new out of the crate have "imperfections"

All that matters is that YOU are happy with it!!     

Personal note, I've had my bouts with perfection, repainting over and over... trying to keep hair and little bubbles out...   They were almost going to have to call the looney wagon on me!  LOL

One thing that makes painting easier, using Latex Enamel, it dries without brush lines. 

[DarthNuno]

Same as Barry 

I think it looks great!!!!
Don't drive yourself crazy trying to get it "out of the crate new"   Even games new out of the crate have "imperfections"
All that matters is that YOU are happy with it!!     

Nobody will notice such MINOR imperfections :



You're doing a very good job on this restoration Ully

Hey   



...thanks for that blue paint sample   

I won't need to bring the full cabinet for scanning it 
 

[Superully]

bruno, i've updated the "things-to-do-for-superully"-list - we're getting there ...

- safely wrap up the glass bezel, send it over to germany

- measure the size of the front art

- take a high-quality picture of your pleaids front art so that it is possible to vectorize it (be careful to use a straight angle without any reflections)

- describe / take photos of the way your kick plate is attached to the cabinet (as you can see in this thread, mine had a lot of screws and nails  )

- take a picture of your plastic monitor bezel and measure its internal and external dimensions. does yours look like the one in the following picture?

and here's an update from my side of the fence: the electronical parts (american pleaids pcb, complete pleiads wiring harness) have just been sent on their way from the usa to germany, they should arrive within the next week or so. then it's time for the technical stuff to begin after all this plastic surgery. somehow i'm NOT looking forward to this because i'm a real noob when it comes to electronics, but i'm sure i will get there with your help.

[Superully]

while i'm waiting for the pcb and the wiring harness to arrive, there might be something to do for me in order to prepare for the electrical installation. the manual says that - although the game is shipped in 110 v configuration, the machine can also be operated in 220 v configuration with only minor changes to the game power transformator. have a look at this excerpt from the manual:



so, according to the manual, all i have to do is replace two fuses and plug in a red jumper plug. i assume the red jumper plug is "on board", but where do i get fuses like that? 1 1/2-AMP, SLOW-BLOW types

[petieken]

Any local electronics store will carry these fuses

[Superully]

if only we had a "local electronics store" ... 

[petieken]

Maybe you can order from conrad.de. I didn't find 1.5A slow blow but they do carry 1.6A slow blow. Such a small difference won't harm anything.

[DarthNuno]

- describe / take photos of the way your kick plate is attached to the cabinet (as you can see in this thread, mine had a lot of screws and nails  )

- take a picture of your plastic monitor bezel and measure its internal and external dimensions. does yours look like the one in the following picture?

Ok, as promised, here's the info 

...but regarding the plastic monitor bezel, the important thing is that the one you'll find have to fit YOUR monitor  But here's the details of the one I've on my Pleiads :



A : approx 30,3 cm
B : approx 39 cm
C: 48,5 cm
D : 52 cm

Here's now a couple of pictures taken in order to help you the junction between the front part and and rest of the cabinet :







More pictures in high resolution are available via the link I'm sending to you via private message

Hope it can help you 

[Superully]

thx a lot, bruno - that'll do the trick. interesting to see that your pleiads looks different inside than mine does (and i'm not talking about the spider webs  )
btw, i've just checked the status of my pleiads usa package: it has already cleared german customs yesterday, so it should arrive within the next couple of days - YEAHHH!!!

[Superully]

while waiting for the electronic stuff to arrive, i'm making preparations for the second painting job: blue is a goner, white to the stage, please!

here's what i'm using for that:



i'm starting by covering the artwork's borders with masking tape. don't forget the screws, or you're screwed 



as kit williams wrote in his world-famous treasure-hunting book "masquerade" (one of my other hobbies by the way): I WILL MASK IT



that's all for today, not so much time on my hands right now because the school holidays are over  . tomorrow i will be picking up the "scanned" pleiads white and hopefully a parcel will be waiting for me on returning home from school.

[DarthNuno]

You're so fast in all of this 
A very exiting post to follow...with a ton of pictures... I LOVE IT 

 

[DarthNuno]

I'm just back from DHL... the Pleiads bezel is now shipped  (I'll send you all the details via PM)

[Superully]

once again, the cat has dragged something in (those cats are busy indeed  ) ...



a closer look at the contents part 1: cable chaos



a closer look at the contents part 2: the heart of it all

[Superully]

as i've already said, i've never wired a game before, so i have NO IDEA (except for one or perhaps two cables) where those wires have to go. this is where YOU GUYS come into play 

i've taken some photos of the wiring. first a photo with all the wires in one picture. i divided this into two parts, A and B, which you can see in more detail on the two pics following the first one. here's the overall view:



part A in more detail:



part B in more detail:



now on to the details of the details    i've taken separate shots of each individual plug / connector to help YOU identify them. let's start ...

plugs 1 & 2:



plugs 3 & 4:



plugs 5 (should be where the control panel wiring goes, i guess) & 6:



plugs 7 & 8: these i know for myself *tata* *drum roll*  7 is the connector to the pcb and 8 of course is the power transformator.

on the transformator itself you can see the red and orange jumpers i was talking earlier about (regarding the reconfiguration from 110 to 220 V).
question: how do i get that ugly rust off the transformator? i suppose i can't put this into a rust remover bath 



ok, that's it from my part, i'll pass the torch on to YOU GUYS now to help me out with the wiring. together we will be able to identify all those bastards 

THX A LOT!!!