Speed Controllers

So recently I've made a push to complete more on this Astromech droid.  My short term goal is to have most of the functions working by the release date of the new movies.  That's this December if you've been living under a rock.

Some clever folks on the forum worked out how to use the tiny and inexpensive PS3 navigation controllers to drive their droid and control it's sounds, head turns and movement.

Once I saw this I knew right away it was the route I wanted to go.  Who wants to carry around a large radio to control a robot that needs to look autonomous?  The Sony PS3 nav controller is almost hidden when held in the hand and can interface with the devices I have already decided to use in my build.  One member has already designed a method for interfacing this controller with the Marcduino control boards I am implementing for the lights, panels, and sound controls.  So it was a big relief to see these options all coming together.

Over the last month I've ordered in and installed most of my electronics.  The dome drive motor, I ordered up as a kit, and so that was a breeze to get working.  I polished up the Rockler bearing, and reassembled it, with much success.  The head turns nicely now, and relatively quietly.

I then mounted two shelves in the top portion of the body in order to provide space for the components I was going to need to get the droid rolling and moving about.

The components trickled in and I had everything ready for install on a Saturday afternoon, I think it was June 4th.  I spent the day with little to no interruption, just deciding where each piece should go, and carefully getting it all wired properly.  Later that evening, I was able to test the system.  I'm now quite happy to say the droid is driveable, and his head can be controlled or allowed to run autonomously.  It was an awesome feeling to have, what up until now, seemed like a pile of parts, be mobile.

 I built and mounted this little control panel in order to mount the main switch and two foot drive switches.  I plan to add whatever switches become necessary to the panel, if I need more room, perhaps I'll have to make a larger panel or re-think what I'm going to do.  For now it works and I'm reasonably happy with the look.

In my excitement, I sent this to James:

He followed up with this hysterical parody:  I LOVE IT!  He even does the bit where I hold the controller up! =)

Patching up the Donkey Kong Cabinet

I had a good amount of free time this weekend and I spent most of that patching up this old cabinet.  I lost count of the number of times I had to fill and sand with filler putty.  In addition there were several bad spots where the plywood was delaminating.  For those places I had to brush wood hardener between the layers, then clamp that all down with a scrap piece of wood to get it flat again.
 

The cabinet was sanded down, inside and out.  After which I noticed several more spots I had missed, and so the process would begin again.  I try to repeat this cycle as long as possible, but in the end it comes down to what I'm willing to live with, and I think this one is now good to go.

The inside panels got three layers of primer, sanded between each.  Afterwards they get three coats of satin black.  As before, not perfect but as close to the original look as I can reasonably achieve.

I took a chip from the inside of the cabinet to Lowe's and had them color match the paint.  I ordered a quart of oil based paint and picked up a quart of the standard Kilz primer.  While I was at the paint counter I asked them to tint the primer as well.

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The front panel needed replaced so I cut a new one from some spare half inch plywood I had on hand. You can see here, that like most folks, I removed the speaker panel in order to get a better finish. This and the new panel are getting two coats of Kilz primer.

I gave the sides of the cabinet two coats of Kilz and called it a day.  I'm going to allow the primer to dry for a few days and go back and sand it as smooth as possible in preparation for the paint.

It was a beautiful weekend, perfect for working in the garage and just hanging out.  My old friend Lee came over on Saturday and we listened to a good many records from his collection.  We also ventured out for lunch to grab some tacos.

This project seems to be moving forward nicely.  I'm even contemplating ordering new side art.

Pac Man gets capped

As I have posted about in the past, I usually have the game room/garage cleaned up and open for Halloween night.  Over the years I have drawn a small crowd of repeat visitors.

This last Halloween, one of my daughter's friends were playing Pac Man when the flyback transformer died and sent out a nasty cloud of smoke.  Not a big deal, the next day I swapped the G07 that was in the game for another that I had in reserve.  Just the other night I finally got around to doing a cap kit on it.  The horizontal output coil needs replaced but I didn't have one on hand.  The image was also too large to see the high score.  So for some reason I thought it would also be a good time to check the B+ voltage.  Good thing cause it was around 140V.  I adjusted it down to 120V and the screen shrank just enough to get the score on the screen.  I still need to replace that coil though.

So for posterity I decided to add a post here about the Pac Man.  I was looking at the blog the other day and noticed that the majority of my traffic is for the one Pac Man post were I'm applying the vinyl artwork.  Well folks here is a pic of how it turned out.  Nothing really special to see.  I suppose as Pac Man goes, this is a pretty nice one.  Better still would be to use the actual stenciled artwork painted on the cab as was original, but I'm not that much of a purist.

I had been having intermittent issues with the game not booting up.  So one day I got tired of that and sent it off to Slava Madrit to get it all fixed up.  You can find him on E-bay as Madrits. While he had it, he was kind enough to add the High Score kit that allows for initials to be entered, so that was special.

Oh and I added one of those little electronic Pac Man key chains to the mix, very special indeed. =)

DK control panel and controller

If you look closely at this control panel you'll notice it has several things wrong.  I'm certainly not a Donkey Kong expert, but I can see that the jump button is all wrong.  The other thing missing is the clear disk that sets under the controller.  I think it's called a joystick guard.  The eight tiny bolts that hold the plastic overlay in place are completely rusted on the tops.  Lastly the joystick is rusty and shabby looking.

I started by disassembling the joystick.  It was really dirty and rusted inside.  Adding some white lithium grease and cleaning it up made a world of difference.  I was a little concerned because the joystick was seized up in a strange manner.  My first thought was that maybe there were some parts missing, but everything was there and in order, just dirty.  I guess these little Nintendo joysticks are very robust.

Mike's Arcade sells all the parts you will need to rebuild one of these.  If you're doing a restore, please don't toss out the original controller.  They can be refurbished and if you don't want to do that, then post it up for sale on KLOV or even eBay.  I need to order the clear plastic joystick guard, so I'm thinking about ordering a replacement shaft and spring.  This one will work fine, but I'd like the control panel to look as good as possible when I'm finished.  And let's face it, the controller is a main focal point.  It's important to get this bit right, as the controller is the game so to speak.

I plan to replace the missing orange button, the rusty bolts, and the instruction card.  Once I had the buttons off and the bolts out, the control panel overlay slips off and you can see the result of all the years of spilled soda.  This part I cleaned carefully, you don't want to scratch the back side of this as it will show through.  Once all this is cleaned up, I could see that I had lots of cigarette burns.

Fortunately none of them are really bad.  I dug out a headlight restore kit that I had on hand, and used it to polish up the panel.  It did an okay job, I guess if I wanted to get it perfect I could spend hours polishing this thing, it looks good enough for me at this time.

Sanyo 20-EZ gets a cap kit

I think this is either my second or third cap kit on a 20-EZ.  The one thing I remember is there is nothing EZ about removing the chassis from the monitor frame.  This thing has cables and cable clamps a plenty, and it's a real PITA to remove.

After getting the board out and blowing away as much dust as possible, it's a bit daunting when you look at all the numbers on the board.  However once you adjust your eyes a little, you'll see that the majority of the capacitors are indicated with a circle on the back side of the board.

I used to have a large piece of styrofoam that I would push the capacitors into as I was putting them in order. Somehow that isn't around anymore, so I did my best to line them all up on my work bench.  I do this and double check the values of each as I go.  I like to take my time, put on some music and pretend this is a leisure activity. =)

There are a bunch of caps in this kit!  After getting it all done, I like to wipe down the wires and anything else that can be cleaned with some Simple Green and a paper towel.  Before returning the chassis to the monitor frame I cleaned it up as good as possible.  For me it doesn't have to be spotless but getting rid of the majority of the dust and grime makes the whole thing look better and certainly smell better.

So here it is, a thing of beauty!  Indiana Jones would say, "It belongs in a museum"!

Cap kit for Donkey Kong audio amp

The parts I ordered for the DK were waiting for me when I got home on Tuesday.  So I wasted no time getting started since I had both the little audio amp board and the Sanyo 20EZ to repair.

The little Nintendo audio amplifier board is mounted beside the monitor chassis.  It's easy enough to rebuild with one of the many kits available, or you could just source the parts yourself.  I ordered my kit from Arcade Shop, just for convenience.  This is such a simple job, I think it should be a first for anyone looking to start doing their own repairs.

Take a photo of the board with the cables connected before removing it from the game.  There are two cable that can be crossed or plugged back in the wrong spot, and a photo should help you from the mix up.

My kit came with a handy diagram, so I would think just about anyone could get this job done in less than an hour.  Line up the components in the same order as the instructions, and check and double check their values. Replace them one at a time making certain the negative line on the capacitor matches with the line on the top side of the board.  On this board, the capacitor numbers are clearly labeled for each.

While replacing the caps on this board, I found three that had one leg entirely corroded away.  Here is a shot of one of the bad capacitors.  This wasn't obvious from looking at the board prior to removing.  So having found those problems, I'm pretty certain it was a good idea to go ahead and re-cap this board.

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My kit came with replacements for the two transistors, and they are easy to replace also.  Remove the screw, and un-solder the three legs.  I had some thermal compound handy from another project so I used a little of that between the transistor and the heat sink. 

So here it is, all clean and ready to go.  I'm already looking forward to hearing that iconic Donkey Kong intro music.  I wonder if it would be too much to add a subwoofer to the cabinet?

First Steps on the new DK!

First stage is to see what I have here to work with.  The cabinet is delaminating a little.  I'm going to try gluing that back together before I add body filler.  I'm tempted to wash down the entire cabinet as it has that dusty smokey bar smell.

Today I stripped it all down and boxed up the parts.  I removed the monitor and hauled it up into the attic where hopefully it will be safe.  I left the power supply and harness inside but I'll likely remove those also.

The coin box shelf had been unscrewed on one side and had been pushed back, I guess to make room for the bogus front panel that someone added.  I'm guessing the original operator kept the coin door when he sold the game, and fitted it with the red plywood panel and credit button.  Fortunately that was an easy fix, the missing screws were in the bottom of the cabinet so it's back in place now.  I ripped off the thin plywood front panel and tossed it in the trash.  I've got to start looking for a coin door now and I'll need to cut out a new front panel.

Donkey Kong Project

Our DJ at work offered to sell me a Donkey Kong over a year ago.  I really didn't have any use for yet another game in my garage, so I decided to let it go.  For whatever reason, this week I decided to give him a call to see if he still had it available.  A few hours later he texts me the address and it was only a few minutes down the road from the resort.  I drive over there and it appears the game had been setting in a storage shed for decades.  So here it sits.  I'm actually somewhat excited about working on a new project.

As Donkey Kong cabinets go around here, this is a pretty nice one.  The back door is still there, the edges of the cabinet are in reasonably good shape, and almost all of the artwork is intact.  Sadly the front panel was replaced with a thin sheet of plywood and the coin door is missing.  The orange jump button is missing and was replaced with a standard, and too large red button.  The t-molding is gone, and the joystick is seized up in a strange way.  When I attempted to power on the game, it played the jump sound and the monitor buzzed and displayed garbage.  How nice.

Here are a few shots of the game as it sits now.  I took a little time today to vacuum out the insides of the cabinet.  I ordered a cap kit for the audio board and monitor from www.arcadeshop.com on Friday before I left work and it should be here sometime soon.

Anyway, I got a good deal on the game, and I'm actually jones'n to get started.