Hi,

I bought a Street Figher CE last year and it works well. Subsequently, I have bought 3 PCBs with various levels of success.

Double Dragon - works pretty well. The graphics sometimes get a little screwy like the connection isn't totally clean. I've scrubbed the darn board a few times with minimal results. But at least it's working.

Silent Dragon - works perfectly.

Time Soldiers - it's a vertical game and it plays vertically but the picture constantly flips like the V hold is off on an old tv. I wasn't sure if I needed a vertical monitor for this game so I didn't worry about it. But now I believe it shouldn't be doing this?

Anyway, I just bought a Wonder Boy in Monster Land PCB with Jamma adapter from a very reprutable Ebay seller. I've scrubbed the board and yet I can't get it to work. The best I can do is a very, very snowy picture that's constantly resetting. I contacted the seller and he says the game should be working and to send it back to him and he'll either fix it or refund my money.

He asked if my power supply was between +4.8 and +5.0. I have no idea. I looked inside my cabinet and I think I found the PS but I'm not sure how to read it. I'll attach a pic (soon) so hopefully someone can tell me what I'm looking at.

Does anyone have a horizontal Jamma cabinet in the Ottawa region that we can test my boards in? I want to be confident the PCB for WB is in fact not working before I send it back.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

PS here's the ebay auction

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sega-origi.....QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Message sent Jason,

Craig in Ottawa

I took a pic of what I think is the power supply and since my camera sucks I wrote in the numbers.

Is this normal? Should my cab be able to play all standard resolution jamma games?

Thanks

And what does that turning knob on the right do?!!

Buy a digital multi-meter, set it to DC and touch the black lead to the GND and the red lead to the +5v with the game on. It will tell you how close to +5v you are and you can use the dial on the power supply to adjust accordingly.

The trouble you're having could very well be linked to low (or high) voltage problems. This is very basic troubleshooting for video arcade and pinball machines and tackling these sorts of minor challenges is a requirement if you intend to maintain your own machines.

EDIT: Bear in mind that higher voltages can quickly damage IC's. A reading of anything over 5.5v from the 5v terminal on your power supply can cause much larger issues on your gameboards. Don't haphazardly turn the knob on your PS.

Providing that your power supply is good and well adjusted to +5V,
along with proper Jamma adaptor/wiring for this non-jamma Sega
system 8 'Wonder Boy in Monster Land' PCB, your current set-up
should work (I think; I am not an expert at vids).

Your power supply has all the correct voltages for this board,
according to this pinout page:
http://www.arcadegeek.co.uk/node/204

Cheers,
- Sylvain.

Thanks.

I haven't touched the dial yet. I'm kinda scared to touch anything! It looks like a mad scientist connected all the buttons and joysticks...

I'll buy the digital multi-meter pronto.

While I'm at it, is there anything else I should be getting for basic troubleshooting?

Quoted from cooke

Buy a digital multi-meter, set it to DC and touch the black lead to the GND and the red lead to the +5v with the game on. It will tell you how close to +5v you are

Do this on the PCB itself too...

There might be some connection problem with the wiring or harness
and you could be getting less than 5V on the PCB.

GND is pretty easy to find on the board.
It's usually a big thick trace all around the PCB
and often has holes for the mounting screws.

For the +5V, these are standard pins for JAMMA,
so you should be able to find where they go on the PCB.

Good Luck.

Steph

The wonder boy could also use a different sync..

See here:http://arcadecontrols.com/BBBB/sync.html

Quoted from jasonw

I'll buy the digital multi-meter pronto.

While I'm at it, is there anything else I should be getting for basic troubleshooting?

A DMM should help with 90% of all troubleshooting.
It's certainly the single most important test device.

They easily range in price from $30 to $300+.

FLUKE is by and large the best ones out there, but they are very pricey .
(...they are auto-ranging which means you can't really overload them )

For a starter DMM, I've seen a decent one at Princess Auto for about $40.
It's not auto-ranging, but still has many features , and a nice big display.

Cheers,
Steph

Quoted from Steph

Do this on the PCB itself too...

Good advice. Voltage can also drop slightly between the power supply and the board, so measuring at the board is more accurate.

To replace my old non-auto-ranging DMM, I recently purchased a Mastercraft auto-ranging DMM on sale at Canadian Tire for $20 (marked down from $80). It works great. It's no Fluke, but it does the job just fine and the auto-ranging is a very nice feature.

Thanks for all the tips.

I bought the DMM at Canadian Tire. Fortunately it was on sale and autoranging so I figured it was the best way go. (It's now only 30 bucks if anyone else needs one)

http://canadiantire.com/browse.....&fromSearch=true

The good news is the cab was set at 5.07. The bad news is that when I turned it down to 5.00 predictably there wasn't any change.

I'll try checking the PCB next.

Quoted Text

Do this on the PCB itself too...

There might be some connection problem with the wiring or harness
and you could be getting less than 5V on the PCB.

GND is pretty easy to find on the board.
It's usually a big thick trace all around the PCB
and often has holes for the mounting screws.

For the +5V, these are standard pins for JAMMA,
so you should be able to find where they go on the PCB.

OK I've figured out the ground but I'm not sure about where the +5V is.

Are "standard pins" what the jamma harness connects to? Should I be touching the DMM to the one of these that is +5V?

That's my best guess.

Unfortunately, the game is NON JAMMA but it came with an adapter. I guess my next step is to find out which of these "standard pins" is +5V on the Wonder Boy in Monster Land PCB.

Quoted from jasonw

OK I've figured out the ground but I'm not sure about where the +5V is.

Another way to find +5V is that "usually" most eproms always have VCC (+5V)
on the last pin of the chip.

If you place the eprom with the notch facing left,
the VCC pin is the first one on TOP , on your left.

Eproms are usually socketted and typically have a little sticker to cover-up a
little glass window.  So find the eproms section on the board, and put the Positive lead
of you DMM on the top left pin , and negative lead to ground.

Cheers,
Steph

Quoted from jasonw

I guess my next step is to find out which of these "standard pins" is +5V on the Wonder Boy in Monster Land PCB.

WonderBoy in Monster Land is Sega System2, as is the original WonderBoy.  You can find the pinout here and compare it to Jamma:
http://www.crazykong.com/pins/Wonderboy.pin.txt and http://www.crazykong.com/pins/Jamma.pin.txt

As you will note the Voltages are more or less in similar places.  Its the controls and video that are different (a possible cause of your garbled graphics).  You will also notice that Jamma is 28 pins across whereas Sys.2 is only 22.  Its possible that your adapter is faulty or does not map appropriately to you cab which may or may not be wired correctly for standard Jamma.  Or you have a Sega System16 adapter (more common) which again would be completely wrong.  Among other things suggested, I would look at the wires and see if everything is 'wired correctly'

BTW great find, this is an excellent game.

Good luck,

-matt

Thanks guys for all the advice.

After looking at the board more closely I think I may have identified the problem.

The picture is a little blurry but that gold (wire?) is broken.

Could this be the problem? Can I solder it? Keep in mind I've never soldered anything...

Quoted from jasonw

Could this be the problem? Can I solder it? Keep in mind I've never soldered anything...

A broken trace could cause any number of problems.  Its very likely that it could be the problem but there is no guarantee.

If you have never soldered before don't let an $80.00 PBC be your guinne pig.
Ask another Ottawa member for help.

If you insist on DIY.  Practice on other things first .. I'm sure there are some how-to's on the web but you will basically be doing the following.

Adding a Jumper wire: ( a length of wire to act as a new path for the circuit.)
-locate the start and end of the trace
-depending on the components soldered at the ends of the trace you may either want to do the following.
-remove all solder +component and add jumper wire then put back component and re-solder everything back together.
or
-tack the jumper wire on top with solder such that you are happy with its bond to the components/board

Things to remember:
heat can screw up things on the PCB so again ask yourself if you want this to be your first attempt.

Good luck

p.s. you can read this guide for pinball pcb repair.  Most things will apply to arcade pcb
http://www.pinrepair.com/begin/index.htm

Ensure that the pins on each harness line up properly with the "pins" on each edge connector. Also, stupid question, but are the harnesses the right side up?

Hmmm, so soldering doesn't sound that easy. The seller has offered me a refund. I guess I'll take him up on it. It's too bad because I really wanted that game.

Anyone else have it?

Quoted Text

Ensure that the pins on each harness line up properly with the "pins" on each edge connector. Also, stupid question, but are the harnesses the right side up?

Trust me I do not take offense, I'm kinda learning on the fly here. But to answer your question I did line up the pins multiple times. And cleaned them too. It's also the right side up.

What would happen if I hooked it up upside down? Would it damage the game? Just curious how durable these things are.

Soldering is easy and a necessary part of the hobby (along with learning to use a DMM). Get a good temperature-controlled soldering station and practice on some junk PCB's before moving onto the real deal.

The results of plugging in your board upside down varies depending on the type of board and can range from 'nothing' to 'complete annihilation'. Be sure and triple check. Most PCB sellers won't offer a warranty on board sales because of the ease with which the board can be completely wasted by someone that isn't paying attention or doesn't know what they're doing.  

I have good news and bad news.

Craig generously offered his Jamma cab to test the game. Thanks again Craig. The good news is the game works. The bad news is the sound's gone. Probably the burnt connection on the soldered side.

And worse still is that my jamma cab isn't properly configured.

Does anyone in the Ottawa region provide:

A. Jamma cabinet tuneups?
B. PCB fixes?

If you do please PM me and give me a rough price.

Perhaps I'll try maintenance the next time but right now there's just too much I don't know.

Thanks again to everyone for their help.