Arcade & Retro Repairs & Mods, all new recipe, with no added MSG...

CiDeRmAn

Steve X2 wrote: »

The RPi foundation might have something nice coming out within the next 8-12 months that might do the job you need with beefier specs etc.

eddhorse

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

eddhorse wrote: »

Yeah its from Mo, only charged €150 delivery to Cork.
I believe it is a clone or a Chinese Vewlix aka Chewlix.
I prefer the Black and Red ones but this is what he had.
Oke of the other lads has spent lots of time with Hyperspin so its pretty much flawless.

What have you running in that Viewlix?
I like my RPi3 but I reckon it's probably going to be replaced with something a little more serious in the coming 12 months.

Mame laptop, beefy but its great, goad i didnt have to configure hyperspin but have a backup if needed.
Wii version of mario kart getting a lot of play.
Same in my office this week on Xbox coinops8 , mario kart 64 getting a lot of play, intense.

BGOllie

Started a scratch build for a Donkey kong Cabaret cabinet for a Crazy Kong pcb. Starting to take shape now & getting exciting

readyletsgo

Give the Lazer a light clean with a q-tip?

And I mean, a very light clean, don't press in. Then let it dry for a min or two. Use that medical antiseptic stuff if you have any. Should be a couple videos on YouTube on how to.

Steve X2

sugarman wrote: »

Anyone familiar with Dreamcast repairs?

Bought a non working console on the cheap that wasn't reading discs, as in not even spinning up.

Took a chance hoping it was just the lid mechanism.

Opened it up and held down the lid switch, disc spins and all im getting is the 'Please wait while disc is being checked' screen and nothing else.

I am using a burned disc mind you, no original games yet to try.. but its doing the same on with regular music CD's too.. So seems to be something else going on.

Any ideas?

You might need to adjust the calibration on the drive if its been used for years to read CD-R's instead of GD-ROM's.

http://retro-hack.blogspot.ie/2010/06/sega-dreamcast-laser-calibration-guide.html

xckjoo

readyletsgo wrote: »

Give the Lazer a light clean with a q-tip?

And I mean, a very light clean, don't press in. Then let it dry for a min or two. Use that medical antiseptic stuff if you have any. Should be a couple videos on YouTube on how to.

I was going to suggest adjusting the POT but the description of this tutorial video suggests that if the disk isn't spinning up at all then adjust the POT is not going to help

Steve X2

sugarman wrote: »

Thanks, first thing I tried. No luck!

I think the motor to move the laser up and down is knackered. Doesnt seem to move on its own accord (Its not stuck) ...Disc drive motor is fine as it spins and the laser seems good as at least its trying to read discs from what im seeing / hearing.

I'll have to find out info about the motor and try drive it with a low voltage battery to rule it out.

Is the cooling fan running? I know the DC wont start fully if it isn't running or connected.

CiDeRmAn

Damn, that K cable, for wiring my 2 player controls to the Jamma loom of my cab are out of stock, with my order being cancelled

eddhorse

Where were you trying to order from?

80s Synth Pop

sugarman wrote: »

Just a heads up for anyone in the future with a similar issue.

PS1 games WILL NOT play on a PS2 via component. Well on most TVs so it seems.

Spent the last 2 hrs messing about with the drive thinking the CD/PS1 diode was shagged before I thought of trying an AV cable.

Its so odd. The few vague answers ive found online claim its because it outputting at 240p and most TVs cant handle it.

But my own TV plays MD, MS, SNES etc.. fine at 240p.

Anyway. There you go. Pain in the tits.

Component should work. There is a setting in the menu you have to select. Check the my life in gaming ps1 rgb video on youtube. Around 8 mins in they talk about the setting required.

Firefox11

Did some speccy modding yesterday. Nice new keymat and faceplate.

CiDeRmAn

Firefox11 wrote: »

Did some speccy modding yesterday. Nice new keymat and faceplate.

Throw up some photos!

Firefox11

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Throw up some photos!

I think i have a 'before' pic of this spectrum because it was in a bit of a sorry state when I got it. Ah here it is...

Tom Mann Centuria

Firefox11 wrote: »

Did some speccy modding yesterday. Nice new keymat and faceplate.

Are they the glow in the dark key mats? Love the silver face plates.

Firefox11

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Are they the glow in the dark key mats? Love the silver face plates.

Yes but you would have to be in a room with no light whatsoever to see it. I may try it with just the screen on and see.

moonlighting

best for dreamcast
https://gdemu.wordpress.com/

xckjoo

sugarman wrote: »

Having got the Dreamcast working I was troubleshooting a page or 2 back, im now looking to mod it as Im already tired of burning discs! Have to keep hotswapping my laptops optical with the second HDD, not to mention the time burning and costs of discs.

Anyone any experience with this? What is the best mod?

SD or IDE?

Worth BIOS modding too?

Ive read a lot about both, just trying to weigh up pros/cons of each. Leaning more towards the IDE mod.

Difficulty isnt an issue, Im an electrical engineer:)

I've no advice but would you mind keeping us updated on what you do? Getting tempted to dig out my own Dreamcast

o1s1n

Here's a weird one, not sure if anyone has had this happen...

Went to play Super Metroid this evening. PAL copy of the game on a modded Super Famicom (set to PAL region)




Thought I might have the region set incorrectly, so I flipped the switches,
reboot and get the 'standard' incorrect region warning


upload my images

Set it back to a PAL region and get the first, weird warning again.





Thought that maybe the game didnt like the bluetooth snes controllers so I disconnected them and went with an official one instead, same issue persists.

Just to note, I've played through Super Metroid with this exact setup before. Tested a load of other games and they're all playing correctly/showing region lockout correctly.

So what gives with my PAL Super Metroid cart all of a sudden?! It can't be dirty etc and it's correctly booting and showing error messages.

edit - I wonder is it the battery? I think it has one of those keystone cr2032 holders in it. Maybe the battery popped out...

The Last Bandit

Some games do a clock check booting up, so you need to power up PAL games at 50Hz and then switch to 60Hz when its running. Others barf if the lockout is disabled though, but if this cart worked before it probably just a case of getting the switch combo right

o1s1n

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Some games do a clock check booting up, so you need to power up PAL games at 50Hz and then switch to 60Hz when its running. Others barf if the lockout is disabled though, but if this cart worked before it probably just a case of getting the switch combo right

Yeah I booted it in full pal mode, so 50hz and the lockout chip set to PAL region - that's when I get the weird first warning.

Any other setting combo with anything NTSC or 60hz enabled gives the second, standard region warning.

Really odd! Shame I sold off all my other Super Nintendos, would have been handy for troubleshooting.

eddhorse

Sounds like it did some automatic updates over wifi overnight, classic problem with consoles now.

CiDeRmAn

Don't ever leave your classic consoles on stand by, just in case!

KeRbDoG

Project 'Spectrum 48k':
Cap-kit done, regulator replaced, transistor composite mod done - and it still WORKS! Wahoo!
Desoldering gun was well worth it. Unsure why I didn't get one years ago, more of Ciderman's consoles might still be working if I did

SMART Card V2 Spectrum Interface makes loading games like a flash cart

CiDeRmAn

According to Kerbdog it seems the edge connector on my MegaCD is borked.
I'm going to try and clean it thoroughly, see if it helps.

KeRbDoG

sugarman wrote: »

Nice!

What one did you get/where?

Was literally just looking at picking one up there, and/or a bench rework station.

I got a 'cheap' one, didn't want to spend 3~4x

Inviere

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

According to Kerbdog it seems the edge connector on my MegaCD is borked.
I'm going to try and clean it thoroughly, see if it helps.

Should be a handy enough fix if it's the edge connector. I done really no fault finding with it, as I'd an entire collection to go through, list, and sell. The info I found online suggested the symptoms align with failing/bad caps, but if it's an edge connector issue, a thourough cleaning should resolve it.

KeRbDoG

Inviere wrote: »

Should be a handy enough fix if it's the edge connector. I done really no fault finding with it, as I'd an entire collection to go through, list, and sell. The info I found online suggested the symptoms align with failing/bad caps, but if it's an edge connector issue, a thourough cleaning should resolve it.

I'd be happy to replace the caps should ciderman get the (seems there be a few versions of the Mk1) kit

CiDeRmAn

Inviere wrote: »

Should be a handy enough fix if it's the edge connector. I done really no fault finding with it, as I'd an entire collection to go through, list, and sell. The info I found online suggested the symptoms align with failing/bad caps, but if it's an edge connector issue, a thourough cleaning should resolve it.

Ah, no criticism here towards the seller, it was sold as a fixer-upper!

I'm going to reclaim it and have a go at cleaning it well, see if I can't coax some life back into it!

BGOllie

Finally seeing the finish line with this one. It powered on initially but then I had two boards die on me, followed by a couple of coils, fuses, flipper coil switches, motor, flashers resistor for the functional parts ... a good bit of rust to remove, parts to buff and various screws, poles and plastic rivets and parts to replace here and there. I was very close to selling it on at some point as I just couldn't get it to boot but it ended up being worth the effort and perseverance.
I'm in no rush to this again though . These are fun to repair once you understand a bit more how they work but when things go wrong they go wrong BIG and issues start to snowball and compound.

Doing the final LEDing at the moment and it's almost time to put the glass back on and enjoy it fully

BGOllie

anyone else getting plagued by adverts.ie and donedeal alerts for "Arcade Fire" ?