82-T/A Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Hey guys, so... I finally got the new Galaga cabinet that I had talked about in this thread: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/236746-oh-man-what-did-i-do/ I got everything switched over from the old cabinet, to the "new" (restored) cabinet. Most everything was a nice simple swap, but it looked like mind had been modified a little. The monitor didn't fit the way the original should have, so I had to emulate what my old one had. Never the less, it looks great, and plays awesome. The game works perfectly. The only problem is that: 1 - The marquee light doesn't work. 2 - The 25 cent indicator lights don't work. For #1 - So the issue with the marque light, it worked before I took everything out, and now it doesn't work. The new cabinet had a new lighting fixture, so I used that one (had the correct harness on it). Never turns on. I tried it with the old lighting fixture, new bulb, and new ballast, still doesn't work. I can't get any voltage coming from the line. For #2 - So I had one bulb in there that was SUPER dim... it was a 12-volt bulb, and barely put out any light. I assume maybe the circuit isn't 12 volts? I tried putting a multimeter on it, and within seconds, the circuit shorted out, and now that bulb doesn't come on, and I don't get any power reading. I don't know what I did wrong, I didn't cross anything, I don't see why it just shorted. I mean, the positive aspect is that the game runs and plays perfectly, with sound. I checked all the fuses on the power board, but they all look fine. There was also some kind of weird power transformer in there that looked new (less than 15 years old). The original transformer was HUGE, but had almost all the leads cut off of it, and everything had been routed to this fancy looking box with an LED on it. So, I guess I shorted something out on the 25 cent circuit... and now I've got to figure out where. Any advice? Also, how the hell do I use this damn multimeter? It's got dozens and dozens of settings between DC, AC, different amperage. How am I supposed to know that before I test it? Isn't there a multimeter with just a gauge that tells me... BAM, there's power here, and it's so and so, DC, AC, whatever? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Rat Shack has a portable pocket-sized dumbed down DMM that I use for testing simple shit. Super short leads though and that sucks. Oh and the thing seems to be just dying inside my toolbox. LCD screen issues. lol So… two transformers in the cab… one's the garden variety step down (large) and the other is a smaller isolation transformer that's just for the monitor. Oh - but I see your cab might have been hacked to now include a (typically) cheap switching power supply that provides your 5v and 12v voltages, which is why the game plays and there is sound. Extremely rare that transformers ever go bad though. Hmm, wonder what's up with that. Anyway… Up top, you should have 110-120v going to the marquee fixture. Ensure wiring is good all the way by using your tongue (kidding!) or your DMM switched to diode or continuity mode. Diode simply measures whether a circuit is open or closed. Open and you've got a bad lead or connection. Could have a bad connection in the fixture leads that bite into the F15T8 bulb, bad starter socket, etc. Make sure you've got 110v first. Small #47 or #44 bayonet lamps are 6v… throw a 12v lamp in there and it'll naturally glow more dim. If you're getting nothing out of it now, probably just a coincidentally bad connection at the socket. Holding the bottom middle lead so nothing shorts, you can sometimes bring it back to life by twisting the bulb in the socket until she lights. They're known to rust out. If no joy, but you've got your voltage, then switch the machine off and clean with a little steel wool, sand paper or fiberglass brush. Maybe some DeOxit in the socket for good luck afterwards. Or just replace the socket with a new one. If no 6v at the coin light or 110v up at the marquee, check fuses on the bottom of the cabinet. Fuse holders and solder joints connecting the leads famously known to go bad in these machines. Ensure good physical and electrical connection between everything that way. That includes twisting the fluorescent bulb up top in the marquee until she lights. Typical bad connection stuff, to be expected when moving a machine anywhere. Even a few feet from where it's been sitting for years and has been working perfectly fine all that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 With a switching power supply in there and large transformer all cut up, what's supplying the 6vac needed for the coin light? What's powering the monitor? Small isolation transformer still hooked up? Follow the power leads going to the monitor and tap into that for the marquee light if you want. OR better yet, get your 110ac for the marquee at (after) the power switch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted April 16, 2015 Author Share Posted April 16, 2015 Thanks! I appreciate the help. So... it looks like there are two transformers. There's a HUGE one, and a small one as shown in this picture (not mine): The one on the right has had pretty much everything cut off of it, except for a single 14 volt wire on the far right. Don't even really know what that goes to. It looks like the smaller transformer powers the marquee light, from what I can see, and apparently nothing else? There's a single fuse that goes in-line between the marque harness and this transformer (the small one). I pulled the fuse, and it looks perfectly fine. It says 240V on it... no idea why, but that seems excessive? Shouldn't it be 120 volt? Anyway, I'm getting voltage just before, but not after... but the fuse looks fine, so I stick a screw-driver in the slot to bridge the gap, and plug it in. The marquee light turns on! But blows the light bulb within a half-second. The voltage meter doesn't really seem to give me a good reading, quite honestly... I have no idea what it's telling me. It keeps jumping around from 80 to 134 to 36 to all kinds of crazy numbers, maybe I'm just don't know how to use this thing, but I assumed it would be a constant voltage? So, anyway, I pull the screw driver out (after unplugging it) and I blew the bulb. Any idea? It sounds to me like maybe the transformer is bad? Is it possible that it's giving too much power to the bulb? Not sure how that's possible, but I'm not an electrician. From what I can tell... it looks to me like they (whoever owned the original galaga before me) replaced the use of the huge transformer with one of these guys (not my picture, looks similar to mine) Thanks for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Ok, so... I think the two transformers have gone bad. They have both been replaced by that new transformer. The only thing they were being used for was to power the fluorescent light, and the two coin door bulbs. So, should I replace them, or is there a simpler solution than replacing them with two huge prehistoric behemoths? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Well, you could always run the marquee lamp straight into the same line that powers the monitor or 12v power supply and replace the bayonet style bulb sockets (coin lamps) with the wedge style and use a 12v LED bulb powered from that switching power supply. Heck, for that matter, could just use an LED strip up at the marquee and get rid of the fluorescent altogether. Besides longevity, this scenario would have the advantage of NOT needing any 6vac or noisy 120v fluorescent lamps in your cabinet. www.happcontrols.com sells everything you'd need for these simple mods: http://na.suzohapp.com/all_catalogs/lighting/91-0557-00 http://na.suzohapp.com/amusement_products/lighting/91-10WB-123W?SS=ON http://na.suzohapp.com/all_catalogs/lighting/70-0506-00 ...btw: those LED strips for $19 are awesome! Use them all the time to replace all sorts of fluorescent fixtures. Nice, even and bright! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 Thanks 2600, I appreciate the links. So, the bulk pickup truck came the other day, and I had my old Galaga cabinet out there. It sat in the rain for a couple of days, but it was pretty solid still... just ugly as dirt, and pretty beat-up. The truck picked it up with that claw thing that it had, the guy turned it around to see what was in it... lifted it into the air above the dumpster attached to his truck... and then in a second, the clamp crushed it into a thousand pieces in mid-air... then... dropped the claw onto what was left of the bottom part that fell into the dumpster. I was like damn... almost felt bad, like watching someone get knocked out cold that didn't deserve it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
number six Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Thanks 2600, I appreciate the links. So, the bulk pickup truck came the other day, and I had my old Galaga cabinet out there. It sat in the rain for a couple of days, but it was pretty solid still... just ugly as dirt, and pretty beat-up. The truck picked it up with that claw thing that it had, the guy turned it around to see what was in it... lifted it into the air above the dumpster attached to his truck... and then in a second, the clamp crushed it into a thousand pieces in mid-air... then... dropped the claw onto what was left of the bottom part that fell into the dumpster. I was like damn... almost felt bad, like watching someone get knocked out cold that didn't deserve it. Next time let the local collector base know, somebody would have probably saved it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 Next time let the local collector base know, somebody would have probably saved it. Do NOT feel bad... this cabinet was toast. The sides were all swollen at the bottom, the T-moulding was trashed, the entire thing had been spray painted over with a gloss-black enamel paint (over the artwork and everything)... which was done BEFORE I got it. The corners by the control panels were smashed in, so basically the T-moulding wasn't really attached to anything (they used drywall screws to keep it down). There were literally no graphics left on it, and there were "L" brackets at every major butt-joint due to the fact that it had been beat up so badly... it was clearly an attempt to keep it together. It was really beat up. I also took EVERYTHING that was worth anything off of it. The only thing I left was the shell of the coin door, which I didn't need. But I took the security board that separates the back of the coin door area to the rest of the cabinet, the brackets, all the screws, the lighting fixture... any paper that was stapled to the inside, took the plaque off the back that had been painted over (used brake fluid, which by the way, is perfect for removing enamel and leaving the under-side perfect). What was ultimately crushed... was basically total junk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo-Torch Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 What model monitor are you running? If it requires an isolation transformer and you're not using one, you have a potential death trap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 What model monitor are you running? If it requires an isolation transformer and you're not using one, you have a potential death trap. Ugh... this is where I wish I had gone the Electrical Engineering path, rather than Software Engineering. There "IS" a transformer that powers the monitor. It is the smaller one of the two (from the example picture in the 2nd or 3rd post above). So that IS working. I don't know what kind of monitor it is... but it appears to look just like the one that everyone else is using that they still sell new old stock of. But I assume that the transformer it is hooked up to is an "isolation" transformer, though I wouldn't know the difference. The other transformer, the huge-ass one... has had almost everything clipped off and hooked up to one of those new boxes. The only thing left hooked up to it appears (from looking at it recently) to be the fluorescent light and the coin door lights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 Well, you could always run the marquee lamp straight into the same line that powers the monitor or 12v power supply and replace the bayonet style bulb sockets (coin lamps) with the wedge style and use a 12v LED bulb powered from that switching power supply. Heck, for that matter, could just use an LED strip up at the marquee and get rid of the fluorescent altogether. Besides longevity, this scenario would have the advantage of NOT needing any 6vac or noisy 120v fluorescent lamps in your cabinet. That's what I ended up doing. Although, I got them from eBay. I bought a 10 watt AC to DC converter box, and two dimmers, along with four 4 LED strips. I'm going to modify the extra light bar that I took out of the old cabinet, and attach the strips to that. That way, I can just wrap up and save the old one should I decide I ever want to use it again. I'll use all the factory wiring, and just reconnect it instead to the AC/DC converter. I'll do the same for the coin door lights. I also need a new CP overlay for my Galaga, it's the only thing that looks bad. Figured I'd post a picture of my two machines. I've also got an old Zaxxon in the garage that I'm going to strip down and turn into a Polybius with a multi-game in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo-Torch Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 If it's powered off the isolation transformer you're fine. The multitap stepdown would be for the old powersupply. Without an isolation transformer, the monitor chasis can end up hot. Nice set of classics. MC was the first game I bought back in '98 and my all time favorite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 If it's powered off the isolation transformer you're fine. The multitap stepdown would be for the old powersupply. Without an isolation transformer, the monitor chasis can end up hot. Nice set of classics. MC was the first game I bought back in '98 and my all time favorite. Me too (Missile Command)! I bought it back in ~1997, and I've held onto it. I don't know how... but it's stayed with me through all of my apartment moves, all of my moves to another state, for work... etc. I don't think I can ever get rid of it. By hot, you mean the huge capacitor at the back of the monitor would fry me if I accidentally touched it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo-Torch Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 As in electrified. http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=280792 Pay no attention to what the OP thought it was for. Read a few posts down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 Looks nice! Wish I could help you out with the control panel. Gave an original NOS Galaga cpo to a friend who never installed it (biggest procrastinator I know) and ended up "losing" it in a nasty split with his girlfriend. First he was booted from the house, then she sold all his shit on him! Talking about several arcade and pinball machines, music collection, stereo gear, etc. Poof! Greg at www.arcadeshop.com may still have some. Or could have the www.gameongrafix.com guys make you one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 As in electrified. http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=280792 Pay no attention to what the OP thought it was for. Read a few posts down. Damn! Well put... Looks nice! Wish I could help you out with the control panel. Gave an original NOS Galaga cpo to a friend who never installed it (biggest procrastinator I know) and ended up "losing" it in a nasty split with his girlfriend. First he was booted from the house, then she sold all his shit on him! Talking about several arcade and pinball machines, music collection, stereo gear, etc. Poof! Greg at www.arcadeshop.com may still have some. Or could have the www.gameongrafix.com guys make you one... Yeah, been there a few times. That's actually where I got my Missile Command PCB upgrade. I have an old board, and the roms have gone bad. I ended up getting his single rom solution, and it works flawlessly... perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Well, you could always run the marquee lamp straight into the same line that powers the monitor or 12v power supply and replace the bayonet style bulb sockets (coin lamps) with the wedge style and use a 12v LED bulb powered from that switching power supply. Heck, for that matter, could just use an LED strip up at the marquee and get rid of the fluorescent altogether. Besides longevity, this scenario would have the advantage of NOT needing any 6vac or noisy 120v fluorescent lamps in your cabinet. www.happcontrols.com sells everything you'd need for these simple mods: http://na.suzohapp.com/all_catalogs/lighting/91-0557-00 http://na.suzohapp.com/amusement_products/lighting/91-10WB-123W?SS=ON http://na.suzohapp.com/all_catalogs/lighting/70-0506-00 ...btw: those LED strips for $19 are awesome! Use them all the time to replace all sorts of fluorescent fixtures. Nice, even and bright! The light bar looks interesting. Would the lights in the arcade machine still work if you only replaced one of the fluorescent lights with an LED strip and left the other ones as is? I'm wondering since only one of the three fluorescent lights in my machine is giving me trouble and I'm thinking of replacing that one with an LED strip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 The light bar looks interesting. Would the lights in the arcade machine still work if you only replaced one of the fluorescent lights with an LED strip and left the other ones as is? I'm wondering since only one of the three fluorescent lights in my machine is giving me trouble and I'm thinking of replacing that one with an LED strip. I replaced the fluorescent tube with 6 LED tubes, and it's definitely not as bright as it should be; however, the previous owner put a white sheet of paper in front of the marquee since the back was scratched. When I replace the marquee, it'll be back to normal. Check my other post though. I have the ballast, transformer and the wiring from my fluorescent light assembly if you want it (free, just pay shipping) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebulon Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 I replaced the fluorescent tube with 6 LED tubes, and it's definitely not as bright as it should be; however, the previous owner put a white sheet of paper in front of the marquee since the back was scratched. When I replace the marquee, it'll be back to normal. Check my other post though. I have the ballast, transformer and the wiring from my fluorescent light assembly if you want it (free, just pay shipping) I don't suppose you have a photo available showing the fixture with the ballast, starter, and the molex cable connector, do you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 I don't suppose you have a photo available showing the fixture with the ballast, starter, and the molex cable connector, do you? I might have cut off the molex connector, but I'll take a picture and post it later today, just about to leave my house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.