Deteacher Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Thank you for the extra troubleshooting measure. I'll crack it open (I've gotten pretty good at doing that) and check for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaperJam Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 Okay, so I managed to piece together one “very nice” unit from two units I own. It works great. Everything from both units is functional, it just that most of the parts don’t play well with each other. The unit I played as a kid is very well worn. You can see in both pics how much time I spent spinning the knob. I applied a little plumbers grease to the plate and knob. I hope it will last longer if periodically clean and lubricate this area. I ran into the missing pixels and blank screens a couple of times during the build, the same symptoms as Deteacher. I was pulling the unit apart so many times that I started limiting the number screws I was using. This short cut turned out to be my issue, the screws on the back of the unit near the cartridge slot are critical. This weekend I will work to put the “salvage” unit back together. I imagine it will be quite the fight. I hope everybody has good luck and manages to get a working unit out of this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 @5-11under thanks so much for seeing this through. Super simple drop-in installation - one of two rotty old screens replaced, it looks so good. Picture doesn't really do it justice 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 anyone know a way to service the cartridges? or rather someone who has the parts for it, i went and bought all but one of the games im missing(super blockbuster is elusive as expected), but some of them have damaged membranes, not a big deal but kinda ugly, in theory it should be easy to print replacements and the one has had its clips snapped off so its prone to popping out on its own, thankfully its vegas slots so there is no dial or reaction speed involved and i can just hold it down, but it wouldnt hurt to hear if anyone has some fix for that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaperJam Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 6 hours ago, nickle241 said: anyone know a way to service the cartridges? or rather someone who has the parts for it, i went and bought all but one of the games im missing(super blockbuster is elusive as expected), but some of them have damaged membranes, not a big deal but kinda ugly, in theory it should be easy to print replacements and the one has had its clips snapped off so its prone to popping out on its own, thankfully its vegas slots so there is no dial or reaction speed involved and i can just hold it down, but it wouldnt hurt to hear if anyone has some fix for that Super glue and baking soda. Look for “easy plastic reconstruction and repair” by a YouTuber named Tech Tangents. or just use a rubber band or a cool wrist band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaperJam Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 (edited) Here are a few troubleshooting tips for those who are looking to resolve a blank display. Without a visible display you can confirm the Block Buster game cart is working by listening for the tones. If the game is playing the tones correctly then assume the game is working and focus on the LCD contacts. If you don’t hear the tones, work on the cart connector first confirming the compression connector is doing it’s job. When you first power on the system with Block Buster installed and do nothing you should hear 3 short tones after 10 seconds and again every 30 seconds after. If you press the GO button three times you will release the first ball followed by a “raspberry”. Pressing GO twice again will release yet another ball until you run out of the default 7 balls at game end which sounds like a. Raspberry and a long tone. There are many videos on YouTube about fixing LCD issues on Fluke multimeters. It’s all about cleaning the surface pads on the motherboard. These contacts oxidize over time. This oxidation prevents the flow of current to the LCD. Some people seem to get away with using alcohol alone to clean the pads on the motherboard. Our machines have been oxidizing for much longer so acetone may be necessary to clean up our boards. You can see in the photo that the contact pads are deeply pitted. I will try tinning these pads with a solder iron. The point is, that these pads are the point of failure, not the soft zebra strips. Lastly, when inserting the metal screws, turn them counter clockwise lightly until you feel the click that indicates the screw has seated into the plastic threads. Failure to complete this step will cut a new set of threads and the screw may never stop turning. All four small screws on the LCD cover and the two large screws on the cart cover are critical to the electrical connection being made. Edited March 15, 2021 by PaperJam 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 19 minutes ago, PaperJam said: Lastly, when inserting the metal screws, turn them counter clockwise lightly until you feel the click that indicates the screw has seated into the plastic threads. Failure to complete this step will cut a new set of threads and the screw may never stop turning. All four small screws on the LCD cover and the two large screws on the cart cover are critical to the electrical connection being made. This is something I always assume people know to do, but I suppose many do not. Speaking of oxidation.. yeah. wow. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 on this topic of troubleshooting and repair, any easy fix for a warped cartridge? one of the ones i bought has is curved outward making it impossible to press the upper buttons and this one is actually a reaction based game so this is a bigger issue than the missing clips on my other damaged cart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaperJam Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 12 minutes ago, nickle241 said: on this topic of troubleshooting and repair, any easy fix for a warped cartridge? one of the ones i bought has is curved outward making it impossible to press the upper buttons and this one is actually a reaction based game so this is a bigger issue than the missing clips on my other damaged cart Can you post a pic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 13 minutes ago, PaperJam said: Can you post a pic? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaperJam Posted March 16, 2021 Share Posted March 16, 2021 This Replacement LCD is pure perfection. Thank you @5-11under for making this possible. I am enjoying this game more now then when I was a kid. I have some rather interesting news for you Block Buster fans. This LCD is completely up to the task of presenting the game correctly. In fact it may be better then the original LCD. i have not only broke the 999 barrier, but I also discovered a repeatable brick pattern to score much higher. It’s just too bad the score rolls to zero instead of presenting 4 digits. Maybe that’s a good thing. Now I won’t obsess with scoring 10K. Here is a video demonstration of the repeatable brick pattern. It always starts and ends with the same brick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+5-11under Posted March 16, 2021 Author Share Posted March 16, 2021 First of all, great work, PaperJam! Now on to the updates... The online store is currently sold out. I'll be mailing out a batch of orders tonight, and then I should have a dozen or so left... I'm holding them back, for a few more weeks, in case of breakage or other unforeseen events. If you haven't ordered any, and would still like one or more, please send me a PM. I'll put you on the list for the remainder of my stock. Depending on future demand, I might also order another batch. We'll see what happens. At some point recently, I did send out a thanks to all of you who ordered and helped make the project a success. I'd like to also thank those who are assisting with those who are having connection or other issues. I'm not a expert on Microvision repairs, so all help provided is awesome. Feel free to continue to reply with questions & answers, successful install pictures, high scores, or whatever else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 16, 2021 Share Posted March 16, 2021 something i remembered, is there any side effects to running a type 1 cartridge in a type 2 system? i now suspect it was me bumping the cartridge but i tried running mine with only one battery and had some glitchy behavior when the system had to process how to take its turn ending with it turning off or crashing, but i initially thought it might be a result on running at half power so i do wonder if there are any effects aside from battery life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariuser85 Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 (edited) Wanted to reach out to the community to please request some troubleshooting help. Just received my new screen. I followed the installation steps carefully. Game sound and game play seems to be working. However screen is not displaying correctly. See below pictures. Any suggestions or tips on how to correct this would be appreciated. Thank you in advance. Edited March 18, 2021 by Atariuser85 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 clean and reseat the connections, the screen ones and the cartridge ones, if you have one available try another game to see if its an issue with that game or the console itself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariuser85 Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 (edited) Thank you for the suggestions. I tried with another cart and have the exact same problem. When you saw I need to clean the cartridge and the screen connectors, may I a little more details on how to go about doing that? I have rubbing alcohol and q-tips. Can you map out how I should go about this process? Apologize, but a complete newbie to repairing electronics. Edited March 18, 2021 by Atariuser85 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 both sides of both zebra strips, the contact surfaces on the motherboard and the screen, the cartridge connector and the surface it is held down to, those are the main areas of fault, if that doesnt work then there is a chance its a solder joint or one of the components on the motherboard, it could be the screen controller which is presently a nonreplaceable part Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariuser85 Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 (edited) I cleaned all the connectors - between the lcd and the motherboard. The zebra connectors. both sides of both zebra strips, the contact surfaces on the motherboard and the screen, the cartridge connector and the surface it is held down to. Screen still displaying correctly. Any ideas? Note some of the below pictures were before I cleaned the motehrboard. I noted a few solder terminals not connected (see highlight in picture). Is that correct? Edited March 19, 2021 by Atariuser85 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 well that looks like a manufacturing defect, you should probably connect those, i knew they had a high failure count back in the day but i didnt realize such a blatant flaw could make it past qc, although it looks like the pads were torn out so maybe its a result of 'repairs' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo-Torch Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 I'd reflow those two jacked up solder joints and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 if this kind of fault turns out to be bad connections on the solder joints then its probably worth reflowing them whenever this kind of glitchy screen shows up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariuser85 Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 (edited) Thank you for the helpful tip. Ok I have a solder gun and solder somewhere. I have not used a solder gun in 35 years. Any tips to follow to "reflowing" those two solder joints? Edited March 19, 2021 by Atariuser85 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Atariuser85 said: Thank you for the helpful tip. Ok I have a solder gun and solder somewhere. I have not used a solder gun in 35 years. Any tips to follow to "reflowing" those two solder joints? those are beyond reflowing, you will need to create the connection yourself, you should also make sure nothing is shorted together afterward basically push the pins toward remaining traces and try to bridge the joint, the pads are missing so this isnt exactly going to be entirely straightforward edit: also check that all of the pins actually connect to their respective screen connection Edited March 19, 2021 by nickle241 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariuser85 Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 So it seems this unit is beyond repair in this case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickle241 Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 if the broken solder joints are the only issue its still easily fixable, its just not as simple as a standard reflow to get it to connect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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