[Restoration] The Joust Begins ...

[Superully]

How many projects are you working on right now? It seems i choose the wrong job!

Too many, sometimes it's difficult not to lose track with all those parts lying around waiting to dry, to be sanded down or to be replaced. Don't you love those school summer holidays? 

Right now I'm working on Toobin' (still waiting for the vinyl, otherwise almost finished), Wizard of Wor (waiting for the paint to dry), Joust (waiting for TONS of woodfiller to dry) and Pac-Man (waiting for the paint to arrive). But wait a minute: writing this I just realized I'm not working on anything AT ALL - all I do is WAIT!

PAAAAAAATRIK, let's carry the Defender and the Centipede up into my apartment!

[DarthNuno]

Well, you'll have a big work to do under the cab'  It reminds me that I've to do a similar work for my Space Invaders   



 

[level42]

+1 !

[Superully]

those space invaders cabs look more like water invaders 

[Superully]

while restoration work on the cab's structure continues unnoticedly (well, that's not quite right: lately my mother's neighbours have been complaining about that humming noise during daytime  - i wonder where that is coming from  ) ... anyway, i'll start again: while restoration work on the cab's structure continues unnoticedly i'm also trying to figure out what's wrong with the game itself. remember: IT ISN'T WORKING 

my first guess is the power transformator because of the humidity the cab was exposed to, so i've carried it home to my place to check it out unhurriedly - more of that later. but when i examined the boards i noticed something 



computer, enlarge!



damn, those batteries have corroded!  let's remove them



did you notice that turquoise spot on the first picture in the lower right corner. i was afraid that the leaked batteries might have destroyed the pcb board from the back without being noticable on the front. so i removed the board to have a look underneath. some of the screws holding the board were rusted in (another sign for humid storage of the cab), so i had to drill them out!

here's the turquoise spot again in closeup - see that rusted socket?



time to turn the pcb on its back! fortunately (at least from the looks of it) only the batteries' circuit paths have been affected ...



i guess those batteries are there to save the highscores, right?

question 1: is it possible that those corroded batteries are responsible for the game not working?

question 2: where do i get the replacement parts for the batteries as shown in the following two pictures?

question 3: is it even a good idea / possible to replace those batteries?





i'm afraid the time has come where i have to use my soldering iron 

[Sonic 1992]

THIS is why I (expleteive deleted) Hate Batteries!    No matter what, they leak.  Batteries can go straight to HELL!   

There has got to be an alternative nowadays!...  A conversion etc? 

I feel your pain when I saw that picture! 

[level42]

This is very typical for all Williams games, even pinballs.

To answer your questions:

1) No. Sorry to disappoint you. It's only there to keep settings. (Not sure if it does hi-scores too).
Williams PCB sets are notorious for the large number of problems they develop. Most famous is the RAM's., next the poor connectors used (or too much current through the connectors, whichever way you put it, it's a design fault), more poor connectors (inter-board) connectors and the PSU.

Did I discourage you enough already ?

For all the problems there are solutions. But it's a long, hard road. More later.

2  & 3)
Let me put it this way: You don't WANT replacement parts for that ! The battery holder is a NIGHTMARE. The same happened to my Getaway Pinball CPU board. The PCB tracks under the battery holder were EATEN by the leakage.
So, you want a INSANELY better solution. With a battery that lasts at least 10 years without leaking.

Check it out here: http://www.stickycarpet.com/pinx/defmod.html

or here if you want an EXTREMELY long version:

http://www.therealbobroberts.net/wmsbatt.html

It's VERY easy to do ! And cheaper in the end and NO worries about the batteries leaking....also it saved me from having to fix the PCB tracks.

DO clean up your PCB as good as possible, neutralize the acid with some vinegar !!!



Also.........I know you're going to ignore my suggestion, and I also know you will regret ignoring it later (let's say after about 1 year of trying to get the old boards running) but here goes:

I advice you to use this instead of trying to get the old set running:

http://www.jrok.com/hardware/wsf/

[level42]

Here's another version of the battery mod:
http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/techwilliamscpubattery.html

You can get a "kit" from Bob Roberts, which is merely the lithium battery, a holder and a piece of wire. It's ok to order this if you're going to order more parts (like the PSU rebuild kit, a shit load of Williams connectors etc) but I would try to find it locally if you only want the battery replacement mod.

By the way, http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/ is a great source for more Williams mods/repair tips, look under Williams. There it is also explained how to do the RAM conversion.

[Superully]

Also.........I know you're going to ignore my suggestion, and I also know you will regret ignoring it later (let's say after about 1 year of trying to get the old boards running) but here goes:

I advice you to use this instead of trying to get the old set running:

http://www.jrok.com/hardware/wsf/

  are you a clairvoyant? 

anyway, thx a lot for your detailed answer, it helps a lot and i know for sure that i will be replacing the battery with one of the lost-cost suggestions you made.

as for the board: let me at least TRY to get it working, the multi-board is an option i might be considering once i'm frustrated enough 

one more question before i'm OFF for tonight: can i test the boards without the batteries or are they necessary to even get the game booted?

[DarthNuno]

This is very typical for all Williams games, even pinballs.

I agree, for example my Defender board and I got it : battery holder missing and... and same turquoise spots   



I would go into the "SYSFPGA  / Williams all-in-one" solution too 

[level42]

Yeah, it's a lovely color isn't it. Was all over some of the IC's on my Getaway pinball too......amazingly they still worked.

Yes Ully you can start the boards without the batteries.

[Etienne MacGyver]

I hope you can get the board to work, in that case i would go for the Lithium Battery kit modification instead of batteries

in some time batteries will leak again.

clean the connections, or solder the wires for the new battery straight to where the cirquit tracks takes the original connection.

[level42]

Oh, and don't get me wrong, I totally support your try to get the boards fixed

[Superully]

the restoration continues ...

two of the four wooden panels where the leg levelers go into are missing completely, the others are - let me put it mildly - unusable 



four new scratch-built  wooden panels



and to make this mini-project complete, a package from the states has just arrived 



inside, five sets of those wonderful nylon castors which makes the cabinet both stable and quite moveable at the same time



now on to the cabinet itself again: over the last couple of days i've applied, sanded down, applied, sanded down, applied, ..., countless layers of wood filler to deal with all that water damage to the bottom





additionaly in between, i've used wood hardener to strengthen some of the weaker wooden parts. man, that stuff stinks 



but the results exceed my expectations 





before 



after 



before 



after 



the base of the cabinet: this is like day and night! the water damage at the bottom has been fought successfully and all those scratches / holes all over the cabinet have been filled.



to be continued ...

[DarthNuno]

Great job so far 

But ... But... one picture is missing 

Yes, I would like to see a picture BEFORE applying the wood filer, a picture just before this one 



I would like to see the amount of wood you've removed before applying the wood filer?