Author Topic: Darth Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*  (Read 8298 times)

DarthNuno

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Darth Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« on: July 10, 2017, 07:36:13 PM »
For archives, I'll describe here some majors issues I got on my Galaxian Theater.


AUGUST 2015 : No more boot!

At power on, the boards inside the PCB rack 2 don't boot... no led... no activity... nothing  :arrow:



Note that all the boards from rack 1 are on, and there's power on rack 3 (LD/Amps).

The +5V to feed theses boards are coming from this industrial power supply, over the huge red/black wires :



...and that power supply doesn't provide the 5V anymore : no tension at all. That iS the problem!

Let's remove it :



Of course, this precise power supply model is no more available. But I luckily found one, second hand, in China (very expensive  :?):



...same reference ... (old vs 'almost' new)  :arrow:



Let's test it before firing up the theater... yeah!  :-*  :arrow:



Now let's hook it up to the theater...



...and let's go for a first test... yeah... the boards are now powered  :arrow:





Yes!  :-*



 8)
« Last Edit: August 12, 2017, 08:03:57 PM by DarthNuno »

Andreas_AUT

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Re: Darth's Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2017, 03:55:29 PM »
Gj Nuno.
But since you have that spare non working ps now, I would give it to someone who can repair it .

Pinge

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Re: Darth's Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2017, 06:33:08 PM »
Awesome, I hope I can try that machine out someday... a beast of a game
- Always looking for Playchoice & Mega-Tech -

DarthNuno

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Re: Darth's Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2017, 07:07:13 PM »
...But since you have that spare non working ps now, I would give it to someone who can repair it .

...shame on my ... I threw it ... in the trash  :oops:

DarthNuno

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Re: Darth's Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2017, 04:09:53 PM »
July 2017 : No more playable!

This issue came at the worst moment... when I had guests inside the Nuno's Lair! :evil:

Symptoms : the game boots... everything looks normal except you can't start the game.
On Galaxian3 you can credit the game as a normal arcade game , or start the game in the 'operator mode', via a special operator panel (see here)... but none of these work anymore...

All the inputs are managed by three identical PCB inside the first rack. They are called by Namco 'personal PCB'. Here they are  :arrow:



Well... a green led one each board is supposed to light when they are operating... and it's not the case anymore. Because all the three boards are not lighting up anymore, it's obviously a power issue...

The power for these three boards a coming from the black power supply, the one on the right of this pic  :arrow:



Indeed, the multimeter shows me random issues on that one... sometime output voltages are ...double then expected!  :shock: -30V instead -15V, +10V instead +5V... sometime no voltage at all!

So let's see if its still possible to order this power supply SANKEN SSP50615 model. Well, nothing found on internet...  :-X
I contacted Sanken Japan about it, here's the reply :


We thank you for your inquiry for SSP50615.
This model was developed exclusively for certain customer and
it has been obsolete and we do not have any stock at all
since the model was terminated long time ago.
We unfortunately have any alternative either to be replaced.
We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Takashi(Tac) Sato
Sanken Electric Co., Ltd.
1-11-1, Nishi-Ikebukuro
Toshima-Ku, Tokyo, Japan 171-002



I eventually found one in USA, from the same brand, that have the voltages I need (+5V, +15V & -15V)... here's the BEAST :



...a way bigger than the original one, probably because the additional output voltages in there (+12V, +24V), more powerful (see load/amperes values) but because this one can be monitored via an interface. I believe this is the kind of power supply used in a medical environment, where equipments have to be monitored?  See :arrow:



Comparison  :arrow:



While I'll figure out if the original power supply can be fixed, let's hook up that replacement power supply. I've built custom connectors in order to NOT damage the original ones. I'm ready for the test!



Power on... it's a good start...see the green light on the three personal PCB  :)  :arrow:



Don't spot them, huh? Seeee!  ;D  :arrow:



Damn, this power supply itself is already a spectacle to see...all these lights... cool!  :arrow:



As usual, the game boots...



... but can it be playable now? Let's press start!  :arrow:



Hell yes!  :-*  :arrow:



Next steps : figure out what could be the issue on the original power supply, and of course insulate my temporary wiring used to connect the replacement power supply.

But for now...GAME ON!  :-*
« Last Edit: August 12, 2017, 04:23:57 PM by DarthNuno »

Pinge

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Re: Darth's Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2017, 07:28:49 PM »
Awesome repairlog with a happy ending!
Lucky for you the doubled power did not damaged the boards
- Always looking for Playchoice & Mega-Tech -

DarthNuno

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Re: Darth's Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2017, 08:23:52 PM »
Awesome repairlog with a happy ending!
Lucky for you the doubled power did not damaged the boards
Yeah, these crazy power values scarred me... hopefully the personals boards are fine... Namco did it well!  ;D

DarthNuno

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Re: Darth Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« Reply #7 on: November 26, 2017, 03:37:07 PM »
November 2017 : issue on one half of the picture!

After not power up the Theater since many week, where what happened after 15 minutes warm up  :arrow:



The half right of the picture shows garbage bars colored!  :-\

A nice characteristic about the Galaxian Theater : there are the same amount of boards dedicated for each screen. I mean there is a set of boards used for the left screen, and the same set of boards for the right screen. So it's easy to swap boards dedicated to the left screen ... for using them for the right screen. This is very useful to debug as you can guess...  8)
So let's swap the PGN boards : bingo! the gfx garbages are now located to the left screen!
Fortunately, I have spare for that PGN board (which is also used in the Starblade hardware, see here) :



Great! No more GX issue!  :) But there will be a time when I'll be out of spare, so I really should investigate on that defective board one day... or hope old technicians @ Namco Japan could help? ...

Belike

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Re: Darth Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« Reply #8 on: November 26, 2017, 03:52:39 PM »
Nice and esy fix, I wish I could have a spare boardset for all my cabs. :)

Pinge

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Re: Darth Nuno's Galaxian³ *repair Log*
« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2017, 12:04:17 PM »
Nice!
Spare boards is always a good thing
- Always looking for Playchoice & Mega-Tech -