Great video James. Well that was certainly a pig of a board to fix. Glad you stuck with it and sorted it all out. Nice use of your test gear to verify and debug different aspects of the the board. I do like what you can do with the Fluke 9010,
I can't believe you uploaded this today. I was in the middle of watching one of your other videos to get a clue as to what's going wrong with my Missile Command, and you post this one in the meanwhile! You must be psychotic... I mean psychic!
+Delf Meek you're very welcome, these Missile Command boards aren't the easiest in the world to do sometimes you can find the fault in a few minutes, other times it can take a fair number of hours.
Hi, Great Vid! I currently bought a MC and fixed so far that it worked. Now all of a sudden I'm missing the green and red signal from the PCB going to the Monitor. I'm reading 3,2V on the blue and nothing on red and green. On the screen of course I'm only seeing blue.. Any hint what to look after? Thanks Mark
You'll need a scope here, get the schematics out, find the G and B output pins and work backwards from there, it really is that simple, likely there's a transistor that's not working or it could be the colour PROM. If you need it repairing and you're in the UK or Europe you can send it to us for repair, contact us via our website.
They can be a saviour and also take you on a wild goose chase. They can only diagnose things as far as the CPU is concerned so that only takes out one small thing in the chain of why a board isn't working. Then you'll go on the chase for every POD you could ever need. Get a decent 4-channel scope like my Rigol DS1054Z (arcadeuk uses the same one) and use it to diagnose the input and output simultaneously on certain chips.
I have a ton of old lab equipment i've collected over time, I mostly use my new scope (not in this video) which is a Rigol DS1054Z, a Fluke 9000 with the right POD for the board and a decent soldering iron/desoldering station. On top of that a decent RGB monitor, a power supply and something to hook it all together and be able to test the board (its an old Playstation arcade controller retrofitted).
@@retrogamesparty He makes it sound straightforward but in reality you actually require a science degree or 30-years of hands on experience to be able to have a good hit rate with these game board repairs.
Question, where did you get your schematics on the PC? I'd like to order some if I could. I'd like to try my hand at repairing some of those old cabinets myself, I'd like to get a few out of nostalgia alone.
This is a good question, heat is important, I have in this video a Metcal SP440 which has a sensor in the tip which adjusts the temp at the board appropriately to the heat of the board. Its currently bust so I usually set our other rig (a Duratool) to about 370 to no real ill effect. Its all about not overheating the pad and preparing the area properly first - if the solder is dull, brown or furry, reflow it first as it just won't desolder, add flux as well and if its really stubborn, I grab the board in a vice gently and apply solder at the same time as using the desoldering station (ie, feed solder in under the nozzle into the joint) - it works great for those last few pads. I try not to just cut chips out - I like to take them out and then test them and prove they were faulty. I should really bag up the dead components and send them back to customers with their repaired board - proves you've done the work.
+Ben Foster Hey Ben, I can't remember if I answered this when we met up a few weeks ago. I'd recommend this definitely, i'm finding just one or two very minor things, like the time it takes to detect and display a static HI or static LO signal - eg, you're looking at a changing state and then find a stuck pin, it can look like its got a state change for a good few seconds before it flattens to top or bottom of screen - it might just be the way i've got it set but overall i'm very pleased with it. See EEVBlog's review of the other clone of this for more juicy info.
Thanks Markus, it is made easier that Atari put the memory map in the schematics, I just didn't show that part in the video. Not every manufacturer did. However, MAME is a great resource as they have documented most of the memory maps for most games as they made drivers for them.
ok but I don´t know many people, that understand this cryptic parameters today... I do a awesome job here to show you all that stuff. I think you take a lot time for debugging that you are not showin in the video... PS: where to get such Debugger you use here?
But where's the actual learning exercise there? Shotgunning is what the arcade repair groups on facebook teach - ooh, just change all the caps and flybacks - what did you learn?? Nothing really. Just how to change components. Understand what they do because if you can design your own stuff you have a skill that people want.
no i agree fully - but in this case I'm thinking if you'd just cleaned up the board and put proper sockets in for each chip you'd be able to expedite the process - getting everything in good knick is never time wasted - an intimidating number of chips to resocket though i admit!!!
Great video James.
Well that was certainly a pig of a board to fix. Glad you stuck with it and sorted it all out.
Nice use of your test gear to verify and debug different aspects of the the board. I do like what you can do with the Fluke 9010,
I know this pcb had a lot of issues, but it was great watching the troubleshooting process for many failures.
I can't believe you uploaded this today. I was in the middle of watching one of your other videos to get a clue as to what's going wrong with my Missile Command, and you post this one in the meanwhile! You must be psychotic... I mean psychic!
Wow, lots of faults fixed on that board! Great stuff!
Love these Old video's.
+Amy Marie Thank you, trying to produce more. Not short of repairs needing doing, just time.
Enjoyed this one... lots of fun to be had there.
Top video James! Very informative.
Fantastic video. I learned a lot of troubleshooting steps. Thanks for posting this!
+Delf Meek you're very welcome, these Missile Command boards aren't the easiest in the world to do sometimes you can find the fault in a few minutes, other times it can take a fair number of hours.
You are real good. 5☆ Too smart and experienced for me.
Another awesome & informative video!
Hi, Great Vid! I currently bought a MC and fixed so far that it worked. Now all of a sudden I'm missing the green and red signal from the PCB going to the Monitor. I'm reading 3,2V on the blue and nothing on red and green. On the screen of course I'm only seeing blue.. Any hint what to look after? Thanks Mark
You'll need a scope here, get the schematics out, find the G and B output pins and work backwards from there, it really is that simple, likely there's a transistor that's not working or it could be the colour PROM. If you need it repairing and you're in the UK or Europe you can send it to us for repair, contact us via our website.
Really interesting, thanks!
I gotta get myself one of those Fluke 9000's. Fixing boards would be so much easier!
They can be a saviour and also take you on a wild goose chase. They can only diagnose things as far as the CPU is concerned so that only takes out one small thing in the chain of why a board isn't working. Then you'll go on the chase for every POD you could ever need. Get a decent 4-channel scope like my Rigol DS1054Z (arcadeuk uses the same one) and use it to diagnose the input and output simultaneously on certain chips.
What equipment do you need to repair these old systems? You've got some stuff I've never seen before.
I have a ton of old lab equipment i've collected over time, I mostly use my new scope (not in this video) which is a Rigol DS1054Z, a Fluke 9000 with the right POD for the board and a decent soldering iron/desoldering station. On top of that a decent RGB monitor, a power supply and something to hook it all together and be able to test the board (its an old Playstation arcade controller retrofitted).
@@retrogamesparty He makes it sound straightforward but in reality you actually require a science degree or 30-years of hands on experience to be able to have a good hit rate with these game board repairs.
Question, where did you get your schematics on the PC? I'd like to order some if I could.
I'd like to try my hand at repairing some of those old cabinets myself, I'd like to get a few out of nostalgia alone.
I know this is such a newb question James but what temperature do you desolder at? I just bought a new iron...
This is a good question, heat is important, I have in this video a Metcal SP440 which has a sensor in the tip which adjusts the temp at the board appropriately to the heat of the board. Its currently bust so I usually set our other rig (a Duratool) to about 370 to no real ill effect. Its all about not overheating the pad and preparing the area properly first - if the solder is dull, brown or furry, reflow it first as it just won't desolder, add flux as well and if its really stubborn, I grab the board in a vice gently and apply solder at the same time as using the desoldering station (ie, feed solder in under the nozzle into the joint) - it works great for those last few pads.
I try not to just cut chips out - I like to take them out and then test them and prove they were faulty.
I should really bag up the dead components and send them back to customers with their repaired board - proves you've done the work.
It's my favorito game thanks
Hey James, it's Ben. Your scope looks pretty decent. Is it one you would recommend?
+Ben Foster Hey Ben, I can't remember if I answered this when we met up a few weeks ago. I'd recommend this definitely, i'm finding just one or two very minor things, like the time it takes to detect and display a static HI or static LO signal - eg, you're looking at a changing state and then find a stuck pin, it can look like its got a state change for a good few seconds before it flattens to top or bottom of screen - it might just be the way i've got it set but overall i'm very pleased with it. See EEVBlog's review of the other clone of this for more juicy info.
+Retro Games Party Ok thanks dude
wow this is very time consuming. you have to know the memory map and all that io adresses .... respect. this is rocketScience
Thanks Markus, it is made easier that Atari put the memory map in the schematics, I just didn't show that part in the video. Not every manufacturer did. However, MAME is a great resource as they have documented most of the memory maps for most games as they made drivers for them.
ok but I don´t know many people, that understand this cryptic parameters today... I do a awesome job here to show you all that stuff. I think you take a lot time for debugging that you are not showin in the video... PS: where to get such Debugger you use here?
Allways you surprise men
You are ginuise kip going
Cheers
sometimes it's way faster just to replace EVERYTHING on the board
But where's the actual learning exercise there? Shotgunning is what the arcade repair groups on facebook teach - ooh, just change all the caps and flybacks - what did you learn?? Nothing really. Just how to change components. Understand what they do because if you can design your own stuff you have a skill that people want.
no i agree fully - but in this case I'm thinking if you'd just cleaned up the board and put proper sockets in for each chip you'd be able to expedite the process - getting everything in good knick is never time wasted - an intimidating number of chips to resocket though i admit!!!