Re: TAXI Newbie Questions
- From: "Lloyd Olson" <ltg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:59:48 -0600
Welcome Bob. You have a couple good games there.
Everybody has to start somewhere, so if you need to do any board repairs,
get an old board and practice taking parts off and putting them back on.
Once you can do that good and quit burning off traces, and your confidence
and skill level increases, you'll be up to board repair.
http://webpages.charter.net/coinopcauldron/Index.html ( if you need help
with board repair.
On the Taxi problem, figure out there power is coming from. Outlet, to
transformer, to power supply board. Unplug the game and reseat connectors.
Then try it and see if your problem improves. If so, it may be time to go
over the connectors to the power supply and off, may just need solder
reflowed on the board, may need new pins on the board and new connectors.
Ed will have the stuff you need -
http://www.greatplainselectronics.com/ . If you are good, when the game
browns out, wiggle power supply connectors, if it comes back up then you'll
know right away it's connectors.
If it doesn't appear to be connectors, then your power supply board itself
may need some new parts. First suspect would be any brdige rectifiers and
electrolytic capacitors.
On displays, with manual in hand, get your meter and measure power to them,
if that is good then suspect connectors or displays going bye bye. If power
to them isn't right, then figure out where they get power and fix that. LTG
:)
<RBTConsultants@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:02923431-21d2-414d-b0a2-c4b62bf4a9fe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Please forgive a newbie. I acquired a TAXI for a project. It works
pretty well and definitely part of the project will be mainly
cosmetic, as the playfield needs some touchup, and I want to clean it
all up, replace rubbers, etc. However, I would like to make sure that
the mechanicals and electronics are all in top shape also so it has a
long life.
I have looked at Marvins site in detail, and I am learning how things
work. I have carefully pored over schematics and such, and I have some
ideas on what to ultimately do. I can do the "check all solder
connections" stuff and get out a meter and check all the transistors
and diodes and coils and as I beome more versant in how things work I
will surely wander down that path. I have NEVER done anything
electronic or soldered a board or anything so I need to start slowly,
acquire some tools like a soldering station and a meter, etc and
fiddle a bit. I view getting into this hobby as an opportunity to
learn about some of this stuff.
I have observed a couple specific things in the few weeks I have had
the game and I figure they might be a good starting point for me to
look at to get my toes dipped in the water, and some advice from this
fine group on where to start with these things would be helpful and
appreciated.
Twice while playing the game something happened that can best be
described as a "brownout". The first thing I noticed was the flippers
got very weak, barely able to move the ball. It seemed like the pop
bumpers seemed to lose their pop, maybe the lights dimmed a little,
not sure. The Flipper weakness was the most immediately noticeable
thing. After a short time (10 seconds?), like when the ball drained
because I couldn't flip it anymore, then it seemed to pick back up and
work fine.
So, where to start looking at that? Is it a main power supply issue?
Is it something on a power supply PCB board? Didn't seem to me to be
directly related to the flipper coils or anything, but maybe it is
since the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone. Rectifiers and
bridges and transistors, oh my! I do software for a living and I know
that I hate intermittent problems the worst.
Second problem, also intermittent, is that the displays seem to get a
bit hinky every once in a while. Single line segments on letters or
numbers that should be there aren't. Single line segments appear where
nothing should be. Once, for a short time, I noticed that all three
displays (upper, lower and jackpot) displays kinda faded in the middle
for a bit.
So, is that display issues? It doesn't seem like the display since it
seems to affect all the displays. Is it the display PCB board? Is it
the power supply board?
You can tell me to continue to read Marvin's, and I will. These exact
symptoms aren't addressed specifically, and Marvin as well as lots of
searching in this group have given me some ideas on what to look at,
but maybe with these specific symptoms on this specific machine
someone can give me more specific ideas on what to look at rather than
a "generalized" approach, just to help me get started without being
overwhelmed or taking the machine out of commission for three
months :-)
One more thing, I also have a Jokerz, which is the same vintage, and
works perfectly, so maybe swapping some parts would help me check what
things work and what don't? I don't know, there are some obvious
differences in the two machines, particulary related to the third
display on Taxi.
Thanks for your help.
Bob
.
- References:
- TECH: TAXI Newbie Questions
- From: RBTConsultants
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