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Berty's Collection and Projects


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I'd thought that I would start a post about my collection and the projects that I'm working on. Some of these projects will be retrospective, others will be current. Like many of you in the hobby, I tend to spend more time fixing things than playing things. Personally, I get more satisfaction out of this part of the hobby these days.

 

Megalo 410 Project

This is my second Megalo 410 and the first project Megalo 410. I bought this can via GT from another member here. The state of the cab when I got it was as follows;

 

- Disabled

- Missing pretty much all of the internals except for the AC input and master power switch

- Usual damage to the body

- Really poor paint

- No fresnel lens for the RP

- Control panel was there, but no buttons.

- No locks.

 

The good news was that there was no major issues. So long as I could get parts for the Megalo 410, I would be able to restore it. My goal for this project was to have a JVS compatible cabinet that would be either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio and look and feel as much like a regular Megalo 410 as possible from the outside. I didn't take any pictures of it when I got it, but here is after the long weekend.

 

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"large","data-tempid":"temp_150365_1587422013482_276"}[/ATTACH]

 

To get the cabinet to this point, the header was completely disassembled and painted. The paint that was on it was really crinkled so I had to sand it right back and then use a high-fill plastic primer. From there, I applied some automotive paint (just in a rattle can). After a few days of leaving it to cure, I used 2000 and 3000 grit sandpaper and some buffing compound to give it a gloss finish. I also took the time to repaint the speaker grill and the metal casing of the header.

 

Internally, any rust was cut away and surfaces were repainted with a rattle can. For the white sections, I applied an 800 grit wet sand and painted using appliance white. Not that the whole machine was in pieces while I was doing this so it made life much easier. For the blue plastic parts, I wet sanded them with 2000 grit sandpaper and then applied buffing compound to get rid of the scratches. I also did the same to the gloss cardboard instruction card.

 

Once the cab had been painted, work began on the internals, starting with figuring out how to replace the rear-projection system. The cab came with a mount for a 32 inch LCD panel. As I'm really only interested in older games that used 4:3, using an LCD panel is never an option for me. I've done a number of cabs now where I replaced the rear projection system with a modern ultra-short-throw project. I really like this solution, because if you couldn't see the internal electrics, you'd just think that you are looking at a perfect rear projection image. My weapon of choice for these conversions is the Hitachi CPA range of projectors. They are cost-effective, can deal with sub-640x480 RGB inputs and can often be retrofitted without needing to retain the mirror. The downsides of these projectors are their size and relative lack of adjustability compared with some other units.

 

In the pictures below, you can see how the projector sits within the body. I buy ceiling-mount projector stands to add them into the cabinet permanently. The second images shows the cut that I made to the frame - I remove a three-centimeter strip of metal so that the image was not occluded by anything. I'll come back to the projector setup later as this conversion gave me some challenges,

 

wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==​

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[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"large","data-tempid":"temp_150364_1587422069581_635"}[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"custom","data-tempid":"temp_150335_1587351744969_18","height":"281","title":"20200419_111437 (1).jpg","width":"579"}[/ATTACH]wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==​

 

 

The next part of the restoration involved sourcing the internal boards and wiring and pricing that back together as best as I could. Luckily @Redferatru had gutted his Megalo 410 so I bought the internals and wiring loom from him. Then began the task dropping in the old wiring loom and converting the machine to 115V.

 

In the picture below, you can see two transformers, so power distribution boards and a normal Australian power-point. The Megalo 410 has two switches - one on the rear of the cab and one under the control panel. The switch at the front of the cab triggers a magnetic relay at the back of the cab and this magnetic switch requires 240V for it to trigger. I learnt this the hard way.

 

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"large","data-tempid":"temp_150361_1587422083533_181"}[/ATTACH]

 

Initially, when I wire the cab up, I dropped the AC voltage to 115V as soon as it entered the machine. This meant that the magnetic really was only getting 115V AC to it - not enough to trigger it to turn on. I red-did the wiring so that the step down from 240V to 115V AC happens after the fuse, rear switch, relay, and line filter. In the picture below, you can see that 115V output of the transformer goes into the two AC voltage distribution boards.

 

The second transformer in the picture is an 18V VAC that is used for the sound circuit housed in the power supply. I also added an internal power socket for the projector which you can see at the bottom of the image.

 

Next up I had to figure out the internal wiring loom and board setup. Although there is no wiring diagram for a Megalo 410, it does have a lot in common with other Sega cabinets including the Blast City. I made a plyboard board so I could start mounting.

 

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"large","data-tempid":"temp_150362_1587422106965_8"}[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"custom","data-tempid":"temp_150337_1587352208241_105","height":"508","title":"20200418_115223.jpg","width":"768"}[/ATTACH]wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==​

So that's where I'll leave this project for now. As of last night, a lot of the internal wiring was done. I couldn't get the PSU to fire up though so I need to trace some of the 115AC wiring. I know that the blast city cabin sets had a safety switch that cut the 115V AC circuit when you opened the door. I'm not sure if the Megalo is the same. Plenty more to do which I will talk about at a later date.

image_150336.thumb.jpg.f592b600bd2531ed9942e7a2ea64ac76.jpg

image_150337.thumb.jpg.dc52c42e1fe6f2469ec22b09c721517f.jpg

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image_150336.thumb.jpg.df2f3fa753cf0385f9e49b04437c00dc.jpg

Edited by Berty
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I'd thought that I would start a post about my collection and the projects that I'm working on. Some of these projects will be retrospective, others will be current. Like many of you in the hobby, I tend to spend more time fixing things than playing things. Personally, I get more satisfaction out of this part of the hobby these days.

 

Megalo 410 Project

This is my second Megalo 410 and the first project Megalo 410. I bought this can via GT from another member here. The state of the cab when I got it was as follows;

 

- Disabled

- Missing pretty much all of the internals except for the AC input and master power switch

- Usual damage to the body

- Really poor paint

- No fresnel lens for the RP

- Control panel was there, but no buttons.

- No locks.

 

The good news was that there was no major issues. So long as I could get parts for the Megalo 410, I would be able to restore it. My goal for this project was to have a JVS compatible cabinet that would be either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio and look and feel as much like a regular Megalo 410 as possible from the outside. I didn't take any pictures of it when I got it, but here is after the long weekend.

 

 

To get the cabinet to this point, the header was completely disassembled and painted. The paint that was on it was really crinkled so I had to sand it right back and then use a high-fill plastic primer. From there, I applied some automotive paint (just in a rattle can). After a few days of leaving it to cure, I used 2000 and 3000 grit sandpaper and some buffing compound to give it a gloss finish. I also took the time to repaint the speaker grill and the metal casing of the header.

 

Internally, any rust was cut away and surfaces were repainted with a rattle can. For the white sections, I applied an 800 grit wet sand and painted using appliance white. Not that the whole machine was in pieces while I was doing this so it made life much easier. For the blue plastic parts, I wet sanded them with 2000 grit sandpaper and then applied buffing compound to get rid of the scratches. I also did the same to the gloss cardboard instruction card.

 

Once the cab had been painted, work began on the internals, starting with figuring out how to replace the rear-projection system. The cab came with a mount for a 32 inch LCD panel. As I'm really only interested in older games that used 4:3, using an LCD panel is never an option for me. I've done a number of cabs now where I replaced the rear projection system with a modern ultra-short-throw project. I really like this solution, because if you couldn't see the internal electrics, you'd just think that you are looking at a perfect rear projection image. My weapon of choice for these conversions is the Hitachi CPA range of projectors. They are cost-effective, can deal with sub-640x480 RGB inputs and can often be retrofitted without needing to retain the mirror. The downsides of these projectors are their size and relative lack of adjustability compared with some other units.

 

In the pictures below, you can see how the projector sits within the body. I buy ceiling-mount projector stands to add them into the cabinet permanently. The second images shows the cut that I made to the frame - I remove a three-centimeter strip of metal so that the image was not occluded by anything. I'll come back to the projector setup later as this conversion gave me some challenges,

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next part of the restoration involved sourcing the internal boards and wiring and pricing that back together as best as I could. Luckily @Redferatru had gutted his Megalo 410 so I bought the internals and wiring loom from him. Then began the task dropping in the old wiring loom and converting the machine to 115V.

 

In the picture below, you can see two transformers, so power distribution boards and a normal Australian power-point. The Megalo 410 has two switches - one on the rear of the cab and one under the control panel. The switch at the front of the cab triggers a magnetic relay at the back of the cab and this magnetic switch requires 240V for it to trigger. I learnt this the hard way.

 

Initially, when I wire the cab up, I dropped the AC voltage to 115V as soon as it entered the machine. This meant that the magnetic really was only getting 115V AC to it - not enough to trigger it to turn on. I red-did the wiring so that the step down from 240V to 115V AC happens after the fuse, rear switch, relay, and line filter. In the picture below, you can see that 115V output of the transformer goes into the two AC voltage distribution boards.

 

The second transformer in the picture is an 18V VAC that is used for the sound circuit housed in the power supply. I also added an internal power socket for the projector which you can see at the bottom of the image.

 

 

 

Next up I had to figure out the internal wiring loom and board setup. Although there is no wiring diagram for a Megalo 410, it does have a lot in common with other Sega cabinets including the Blast City. I made a plyboard board so I could start mounting.

 

 

 

 

So that's where I'll leave this project for now. As of last night, a lot of the internal wiring was done. I couldn't get the PSU to fire up though so I need to trace some of the 115AC wiring. I know that the blast city cabin sets had a safety switch that cut the 115V AC circuit when you opened the door. I'm not sure if the Megalo is the same. Plenty more to do which I will talk about at a later date.

 

Pics are broken mate.

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Daytona USA Project(s)

Once I start posting more about my collection, you'll soon see that I have a sickness for large, dedicated machines. If I'm given the choice between a sensible, compact arcade cabinet and a ridiculous, full-size deluxe machine, then I will always take the deluxe.

 

A few years ago now, a fellow AA'er posted four Daytona USA Deluxe machines for sale. All of them had issues and the one I put my hand up for had a rear-projection screen which was on its last legs. Although I have my own box trailer, I knew these things were massive, so I decided to hire a larger trailer to pick it up. Fortuitously, the only trailer that was available at the hire place was massive. This paid off because when I arrived to pick up the machine, I was offered another machine for free!

 

DSC_0135_17.thumb.JPG.360951982df4e2557c4d52cb15a53987.JPG

 

As you can perhaps tell, these machines came from a well known QLD amusement park.

 

Here were the issues with both of these machines;

 

Machine #1 - 'Chrome Bar'

- Complete & working, but showing the signs of being on location for 20+ years.

- Rear project system working, but not great

- Rear bumper damaged and needed fiberglass repairs

- Crappy Happ steering wheel - i.e. not the 'Gallop' Sega one.

- Issues with the amplifiers

 

Machine #2 - 'Black Bar'

- Missing the main stack, sub-stack, steering wheel, gear shifter, etc

- Seat rail system stuffed

- Rear Projection system completely dead

- Missing bits and pieces from all over the cab.

- No Coin mech

- Busted service and volume switches

 

'Chrome Bar' was dropped at home and put into my garage-cade as it working, and "Black Bar' was placed into storage at my work while I went through the process of accumulating all of the missing bits.

 

Chrome Bar is a very cool machine. It looks like it was originally owned by AMF in Australia and then changed hands to Dreamworld. I found some AMF tags inside the machine as well as some relics from Dreamworld - Tokens and Tickets. I still recall the look on my beautiful wife's face when I pulled up to the house after picking the machines up. I vividly remember seeing her lips utter the phrase W...T...F... I took it that she was as impressed as I was with the score!

 

The first bit of work I had to do on Chrome Bar and Black Bar was to do fiberglass repairs to the bumpers. Given my rich bogan heritage and experience, this was a pretty quick and painless job on both machines.

 

IMG_20170513_111219.thumb.jpg.f1be273a3285478053242fb2a350d415.jpg

 

 

The next bit of work was possibly the most challenging. The Black Bar machine was missing it's sub-board. This is a combination of a few boards, all in one common housing that includes the steering I/O, MPEG soundboard, three amplifiers, DC power supply, and some power distribution blocks. Luckily, all of these parts are common Sega Parts. The steering I/O is the same that is used on Virtua Racing (NB - The Deluxe Daytona doesn't use the normal Daytona steering board - not sure why this is), The amplifiers are common sega amps and the MPEG soundboard is used on a range of Model 1, 2 and 3 stuff and can be easily reprogrammed with some EPROMS and updated dip switches. Here is what the sub-board should look like. This is the one from Chrome Bar...

 

 

IMG_20170610_165126_557.thumb.jpg.3e0fc87936894a665f81b61f17aa1485.jpg

 

 

After a while, I was able to source all of these, but then came the hard part - making the complex wiring harness from scratch. This took ages...

 

Bottom of the sub-board.

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And top...

 

1751085084_20180312_201139(1).thumb.jpg.f1b75cb2c96616df05df21c20c96da64.jpg

 

Now that this was done, it meant that I could finally run Black Bar, and here she is...

 

 

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The rear projection screen is Chrome Bar died fairly quickly after buying it. The burn-in was nothing short of spectacular!

 

383957016_20180415_173506(1).thumb.jpg.614dab70e71d82a1a252ec2aedfcaa5e.jpg

 

So, both of the read projection screens got gutted and I replaced them with ultra-short throw projectors...

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Afterburner Commander Project

 

So this ended up following me home a few weeks ago...

 

20200429_164256.thumb.jpg.175ecb906827a3ef747ccdffe2956159.jpg

 

Some of you may recognise this cab from a previous AA thread. It's a 'Commander' type After Burner II machine. To cut a long stay short, I went to pick up some Neo Geo carts from AK, and ended up buying this too - kind of sight unseen. The previous owner (not AK) had it stored in sub-optimal conditions. Although the machine powered up, the movement didn't work, nor did any of the buttons or controls. There was also no sound.

 

Upon disassembly of the machine, it was apparent that the wiring harness needed some love. There were about 20+ repairs that needed to be made to the loom. As luck would have it, once all of the damaged wires and plugs were repaired, the machine was90% working again!

 

 

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The last major issue was due to a broken rose joint in the mechanism that is responsible for moving the main carriage.

 

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Below you can see the shiny new rose joint installed in the cab.

 

20200428_135904.thumb.jpg.871c6a93174f5edd89d00525e2946f74.jpg

 

I started doing some research on these cabs and found that the base had been re-painted so I decided to bite the bullet and do a resto on the machine, starting with a repaint of the base in the same Battleship Grey colour that they left the factory in.

 

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I also took the opportunity to replace all of the nuts bolts and washers with new, black bolts and washers. I also took the opportunity to do rust treatments and re-sprays of the internal base components while it was apart. This included putting all of the wiring harnesses into conduit to mitigate the risk of future damage to the wiring harness.

 

 

20200505_165214.thumb.jpg.082ca0eb3d6546126ce436b688161981.jpg

 

I've already re-made the protective rubber guards for the cabinet. Next up is a respray of the blue frame and some work on doing plastic repairs to the chair. Thanks so much to AK for hooking me up with this. I'm really stoked to have it in the collection. (so much so that I got a speeding fine on the way home from doing the deal)

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some minor project updates...

 

Megalo 410 Project

The majority of the internal wiring is now done - including additional connections for kick harnesses, etc. I had to remake sections of the wiring harness that were missing such as the control panel harness and some of the sound wiring. Luckily RS Components stocks all of the necessary connectors and crimps. I had intended on using a short-throw projector in this machine however, I had all of the parts needed to do an LCD conversion so I did that to try it out - it's the first machine I have ever owned that has an LCD and boy does it look like shit compared to a CRT / Projection. Sure it's sharper but the lag and blur between frames is really shocking - no more LCD conversions for me!

 

 

The Megalo 410 is now completely playable. It is JAMMA and JVS compatible, but for now it is running a Pandora's Box 6. There is more work to go on this cab, but nice to be able to finally use it.

 

20200526_101653.thumb.jpg.99b011ba5cdd7949523f1790d4a6c0b3.jpg

 

Afterbuner Commander Project

Most of the spare time that I have has gone into the Afterburner machine. The carriage got a lick of paint a few weeks ago. Here is the rust-proof primer layer...

 

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Then followed by the final topcoat...

 

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I also got the control stick sandblasted and powder coated in a gun-metal grey colour. All new Torx machine screws and washers were installed in the machine, including new bolt hardware on the machine. New dual-ball bearing, 100V AC cooling fans were also added to keep everything cool.

 

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I managed to get it all up and running about a week ago and played a few hours worth of games on it. Thinking it was pretty much done, I moved on to some other projects, however, when I fired it up a week later, the board game wasn't working. I decided to take the time to do some fault finding on two of the four boards that I have. One that was now completely dead, and the other which has a sound and graphics issue. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a test program for the Sega X Boards which was really invaluable in tracing the faults. Below is an image of the test program running on the board which had suddenly stopped working. All customs were good, and the fault turned out to be a very corroded 8K x 8 SRAM. Luckily I had a few of these leftover from working on the Captain Zodiac.

 

20200524_181115.thumb.jpg.7fbc065b58893a63b04325e0dab460ef.jpg

 

New chip installed and hey presto...

 

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I've since cleaned the boards and cleaned all of the chips to ensure that any corrosion is either removed or halted from progressing. A big issue with one of the boards was that there was no cage in place to prevent foreign objects from coming in contact with the PCB. To counter this in the future, I made a new cover for the cage using some spare MDF.

 

20200525_140301.thumb.jpg.8260ede2686929220d26d1978d500fcb.jpg

 

Some of you who are familiar with Afterbuner know that most of the settings are applied through the Dip Switches. Although my new cover prevents easy access to these, I am now in possession of a software solution to handle this. Stay tuned for more updates on this project.

20200524_181115.thumb.jpg.a0e7f2640e37e001d4fbe8ae14faa6bb.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Some small updates

 

Afterburner Commander Project

The machine is now at a point where it is 99% done. I still need to reproduce some stickers for it and attach the new strobe lights (Flash boys) that I got from Aliexpress. I'm completely out of space at home now and while I am in the process of building our new house, a lot of my machines are now living at friends houses - including the Afterburner Deluxe. The game is also now running the Afterburner Enhanced Edition ROMs which give you a bunch of good features such as level select, proper sound in attract mode as well as new audio tracks and high score saving. An absolute must! Here the machine is in it's new temporary home.

 

20200622_190436.thumb.jpg.66138e948dbe326c5fafae56bbc8e40f.jpg

 

Sega G-Loc Deluxe

The Afterburner project renewed my interest in the Sega "Super-Scaler" games of the late eighties and early nineties. I think that the obscene processing power (relative to 1980s standards) and combination of innovative and moving platforms is really the epitome of the arcade experience. Given that I am going to have a dedicated arcade space at the new house, I have been working towards acquiring and restoring more of these machines. Here is the latest project.

 

IMG_20200628_163313_727.thumb.jpg.1db422e00c89ba3ddcbc477c3f48b8d2.jpg

 

It's complete including all of the hard to get motor drive and control boards which I am in the process of rebuilding. The Daytona Deluxe cabinets are going to be leaving my home arcade to make way for this project to occur. It's in terrible condition, but I am pretty confident that she'll fly again.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Sega G-Loc Deluxe

Work on the G-Loc continues, albeit at a very slow pace due to work and other commitments. I have been spending most of my time painting the cabinet. I had a lot of issues trying to find a colour match in spray cans so I decided to bust out the air compressor and spray gun. I've previously had experience in using this setup, but never with water-based paints. I've had to re-spray the machine twice now due to muck ups with getting the mix of paints correct. As the machine had a lot of surface rust, I had to use some body filler and spray putty on parts to get it looking good again. The spray putty seemed to react with the standard enamel paints for some reason, even letting it cure for days. The reactions ranged from wrinkling to to cracking.

 

To cut a very long story short, I ended up going with a water based enamel for a few reasons. Firstly, I could get it in a close color match and secondly, the clean-up was a lot easier to deal with. The painful part about using the water based enamel was that the manufacturer said that it could only be thinned to a maximum of 10%. At 10% thinning, it was barely thin enough to make it through my gun, even with the gun settings "maxed" out. The consequences of this was a finish that is a bit too rough - particulary when I have been spraying in direct sun.

 

Anyway, here it is in undercoat.

 

 

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20200913_162036.thumb.jpg.7b06f7ea1044814b1e2c01df675a82ad.jpg

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sega G-Loc Deluxe

 

Now that there is a bit more daylight available, I've been able to get to painting jobs after work. The base of the cabinet is now stripped down. I also removed the gearboxes and motors so I can do a basic cleanup on these. I've also got Carson working on some new stickers for me.

 

Here is the base stripped down to metal and the base in undercoat.

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20200922_165011.thumb.jpg.ac6694207caa37426047c0b385703ce9.jpg

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Sega G-Loc Deluxe

 

Painting continues on the G-Loc Deluxe. Due to the paint type and increase in temperature, early morning painting is the only thing that works. If it gets too hot, the paint will harden as it is coming out of the gun, making the finish feel "sandy".

 

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I've also started on some of the restoration of individual game components. The throttle lever was looking a bit tired so I gave that a quick tidy up last night.

 

 

Before

20200921_163642.thumb.jpg.38bfaad34e74e61c44c23c652d59fc2f.jpg

 

After

20200924_084556.thumb.jpg.79519a3ba6724273ad70cd0d4ceb0a7a.jpg

 

 

20200924_084556.thumb.jpg.04212fb6f562e80e897d3aabfd172ac7.jpg

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[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-attachmentid":"2166825","data-size":"large"}[/ATTACH] So good to see these machines coming back to life again and quite enjoy reading through the restoration process. Awesome work @Berty!

 

(Spoiler alert)Just saw this on Noodleshirt's Instagram page, they could very well be for your G-Loc I'm guessing.�

8f78251b45f11acef9835603aac6ce0d.thumb.jpg.1e0dd2e882202c55d4b0056bfe25086c.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sega G-loc Deluxe

 

Painting and stickering of the G-loc is now complete so the machine has been moved into the garage so that electrical repairs can re-commence. For reference, this picture shows the state the machine was in when I first got it. Rat shit and piss. Corrosion and chewed wires throughout.

 

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Those pictures show the front section of the machine where the power supply, transformer, amplifier and motor control boards are located. The wooden boards that these items sit on where disgusting and soaked in rat piss so I had to make new boards and transfer components over. This was a good opportunity to inspect everything.

 

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Some if the parts where not recoverable so replacements had to be sourced from OS. @Jomac refurbished the power supply and chassis for me too.

 

Most of the AC input wiring had been chewed so many repairs where required to the wiring loom. I wasn't 100% certain that I had got the wiring correct so I used my trusted bamboo stick to fire up for the first time.

 

[video=youtube_share;B6f-m0uQPEM]

 

The good news is that the ac and dc power supply section works and has been reinstalled back into the cab. There are still a few wires that need to be repaired but it shouldn't be too long before I can fire the machine up with the board in it.

 

@Noodleshirt did an awesome job in the stickers. Here are some vefore and after pictures of the cab and the new artwork. I also got some new old stock decals for it from overseas.

 

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I'm still waiting on a bunch of stuff from China to arrive, but hopefully I can start the repair of the motion system soon. In the meantime, there is a new deluxe cabinet project underway at Berty HQ... stay tuned. 20200905_091618.thumb.jpg.3f4491b3f0963f2770d12d9715837c23.jpg

 

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Project updates

 

Sega G-Loc Deluxe

The cab is now inside and up and running, sans motion. I was unable to get the original board running so I had to locate another board. I intend on starting a repair thread on the original board as I have been working on it now for months with no success.

 

Below is a picture of the cab running the new board, All of my wiring repairs had paid off, but I needed to use a lot of Jaycar's "Electric Clean and Lube" in the connectors to get the joystick and buttons working. @Jomac did a fantastic job on the chassis as per usual. The picture is stunning.

 

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Once the board was in, I noticed that the sound wasn't working. Interestingly the amplifier used in this game is common to a lot of Sega cabinets but for whatever reason, Sega decided to use different header connectors on G-Loc. After changing the header connectors over to another amplifier I had, the sound came alive. I'm going to repair the other amplifier but it is pretty low on my list of priorities.

 

Most of the work on the G-Loc has revolved around fixing the motor control boards and motor power supplies. This has taken me months to do, largely because of all of the delays in the postal network caused by COVID. After months of stuffing around, I managed to remove every part, measure it and then replace as needed - around 200 parts where individually desoldered and about 170 of those were replaced! The issue I had was the amount of corrosion caused by the rat piss. Below is the board with most of the parts off it.

 

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The picture below shows what it is like as of last night. Every capacitor, IC, resistor, Diode etc was changed. The only parts that are original are the potentiometers, inductors, headers, the large green axial cap, and the rectifier. I know this sounds excessive, but nearly all of the parts where heavily corroded. I've also socketed the PC910s to allow for easier servicing in the future. Massive thank you to @perjmolsen . I couldn't have done this without your help.

 

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I am still awaiting a few more parts before I fire it up for testing. I'm making a test rig for it as I still need to do another one after this.

 

So what did I learn about my boards? It's really hard to say exactly what was the cause of my machine being retired by operator who owned it. I suspect that it was one of two things;

 

1. A power supply / issue in power regulation issue that killed the boards and / or

2. a main board failure that wasn't worth repairing.

 

After testing nearly every component on the motor power supply board, I noted that about half of the 5v regulators were giving odd test results. I also found that the triac was giving poor test results. I am of the opinion that there was a short in the transformer but given that there was so much corrosion, it's hard to say for sure. Either way, this board is nearly ready for testing.

 

Another part of this restoration that has taken a lot of time has been repairing corrosion on the digital motor control board. I replaced all of the resistors, caps and a few ICs that looked suspect. The Fujitsu SRAM was replaced, as too was another Fujitsu counter and some other glue logic chips. All of the custom chips on this board have had corrosion treatment and look okay, but I will only know for sure where I do a full test.

 

I've created a full inventory of the motor power supply components including images and measurements. This is based on the excellent work of a French forum member. I'll be sharing this with the community soon.

 

Taito Chase H.Q. Project

In my previous update, I made a comment about more updates at "Berty H.Q." Last year, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to continue the restoration work on @Kaizen's Chase H.Q. Deluxe. Thanks to Adam's generosity, I now have the machine back after selling it to him about eight years ago. Massive thanks to Adam - he has done a huge amount of restoration work to the machine already and I am optimistic that I can take the restoration through to completion.

 

Progress on this has been slow as I have focused what little free time I have on the G-Loc, but I have made some progress.

 

For those of you who followed Adam's restoration thread, you would have noticed that the car shell had some damage - cracked fiberglass mostly. Below is a picture of what it was like when Adam got it.

 

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I have a fair bit of experience with fiberglass and body repairs from working on cars, so I got to work on fixing the damage. First I "stitched" the fiberglass together with cable ties. By drilling small holes and stitching the shell together, I was able to get the "geometry" of the shell as close to original as possible. Below you can see some of the stitching work.

 

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After a bit of fiberglass and bog, the body damage was back under control. Below is a picture with some "rattle-can" paint. The benefit of doing the painting is so that you can spor high and low spots during sanding to get the shape 100%. Doing bog work is really time consuming on curved shapes so this still needs a bit of work before I fully paint the machine.

 

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The overall shape of the machine is heaps better. There has been lots of bog work all over to fix dings and tears in the fiberglass. There is probably another 5-10 hours in it before I can repaint the whole shell with my spray gun setup.

 

One of the missing parts from the machine is the rear wheel cover. This is used to cover the circuit boards. I was very very fortunate enough to encounter another person in Australia who had one of the machines. He was kind enough to lend me parts from his machine to help me with my resto (more on this later). One of the parts that he lent me was the wheel cover.

 

I decided to try a bit of an experiment to duplicate the part. Using silicon, I was going to try and make a mould to duplicate the part. First I made a 'dam' to contain silicon. The wheel is a bit of an odd shape so I needed to make some compromises to the shape of the mould.

 

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Once I had the dam in place, I got a shit load of silicon and cracked it all into a bucket with shit loads of detergent and then kneaded it together.

 

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Once I had kneaded all of the silicon together, I put it over the top of the wheel. The wheel had been coated in petroleum jelly to stop the silicon sticking and causing any damage to the original part.

 

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The detergent is also meant to act as a catalyst for the silicon. After 48 hours, I then made a fiberglass support for the mould and used some expanding foam to make it rigid. If I hadn't of done this, then the shape would not have been maintained.

 

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So how did it turn out? Not great. Pictured below is the final mould which I have since used to make the duplicate. The shape is a bit off unfortunately and I am not happy with the end result.

 

 

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Te size is roughly correct but it looks like a kick-in biscuit tin. I'm going to explore making a 3D model of it and printing it bit by bit in a 3D printer. Shoot me a message if you can help me to do this as I don't have a 3D printer, but I can probably make the model.

 

In addition to the body work, I have been working on the electronics. I was able to confirm that the program code that I had was not correct. I *think* that the original EPROM may have been subject to bit-rot due to an exposed window. I did a side by side hex comparison of a rom that I was lent and found that mine was fairly different. I've never 'seen' bit rot so I am only speculating as to the difference in HEX values. I also note that the supporting PAL chips are the same. This leads me to believe that one of the chips contains corrupted code - likely my chip.

 

The same bloke that kindly lent me the wheel cover also lent me the his drive board and servos. These have been invaluable to working out what is wrong with my board. Not only was I able to establish that my drive logic program code was wrong, but I also found that pretty much every TL081 had shit itself. After speaking with Jomac, he recommended I look at the caps driving the inputs. Sure enough, about 50% of them were cactus.

 

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Interestingly, every single CD40107 was also stuffed but no other logic chips. Work continues on these boards, but I am hopeful that the issues I have found may be the issues that prevented Adam from being able to get the motion working. The first servo board has been disassembled and new parts ordered. More to come...

 

Neo Geo Collection

On a slightly more mundane note, I have finally cracked 44 Neo Geo MVS carts. I'm slowly trying to get to a full set of original MVS games. SvC Chaos is the only boot in the lot below. I actually enjoy the Super+ version of the game more!

 

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Edited by Berty
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  • 5 months later...

Taito Chase H.Q. Deluxe Project

 

Progress has been slow but steady on this. I'll start my update with a bit of a description of what I've done with the base section. The base section contains the motors and transformers required for vertical and horizontal movement. Sitting on top of the base section is a black frame that is connected via some rose-bushes and sits on two rollers.

 

I had to repaint the black frame section as well as fix the rollers and the rose bush connections that connect it to the lower blue section. The rollers needed to have their axles straightened as it was not going to be possible to purchase new ones. Not only do the rollers act as a normal roller would, the long axles also serve to stop the black frame from becoming disconnected from the base. It's difficult to describe, but basically the rollers have extra long axles that petrude from either side of the housing. These long petrusions fit into a slot on the blue section that makes the roller assemble captive. For this reason, they couldn't easily be replaced. The picture below gives a visual of what I mean.

 

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The process of straightening these involved my trusty blow-torch and a large vice. The process was to heat and compress over and over again until the axles were straight. Once this was done, I rebuilt the rollers and put the assemblies back on the frame.

 

The next part was to replace the rose bush arms that attach to the housings on the underside of the black frame. There are two arms that connect the horizontal motor's carousel on the base to the housings on the black frame. Below you can see the new arm that I have made and how it connects to the motor's carousel.

 

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Once this was done, I could connect both sections together.

 

 

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In the image above, you can see both sections now attached. A plywood shell sits on top of the black frame and then the fiberglass shell sits on top of that. A also purchase a 42CM ribbed drive belt for the rotation motor to connect to the carousel on the lower section. I still have more painting work to do on the base and its peripherals but these are not necessary to test the movement.

 

Next up is the work on the car body.

 

When I first got this, the fiberglass shell had been dropped and was in need of major fiberglass work.

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I am happy to report that after much bogging, sanding, filling, sanding, bogging and sanding that I was able to put down the first proper coats of paint. Here is the sequence...

 

Finishing the last of sanding work...

 

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Starting the process of taping in preparation for the black paint layer...

 

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First two coats of paint laid down with the gun and compressor...

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Removing the tape...

 

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So far so good. For the paint I went with a standard Epoxy Enamel with about a 10% reduction with thinners. My gun has a 2mm nozzle, so it can spray very thick paint if needed. The line work is okay, but I will look to correct poor edge work on the next layer which will be the red layer.

 

I am still undecided as to whether I will re-do the grey section. I don't like it when cabs lose their history in a restoration so I have been trying to keep some aspects of the original patina.

 

There has been a lot of other cosmetic work going on with this cabinet, but sadly I haven't been taking a lot of pictures. I have disassembled the steering wheel and pedal assembly and re-painted. Below is the steering wheel prior to me re-attaching the decals and adding new stainless steel fittings.

 

 

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In terms of other works, I have re-capped both of the motor control power supply boards. I have also repaired two more Chase H.Q. boards and upgraded them to be compatible with the motion cabinet. The original chassis has also been repaired by Jomac and is ready for installation.

 

If space wasn't such an issue, I would have been able to get the movement tested by now. Unfortunately one half of the machine is in my storage shed and the other half is here. I have plenty more project updates to share. Stay tuned.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Arcade King
This post was recognized by Arcade King!

"Keep up the great work mate."

Berty was awarded the badge 'Great Content' and 10 points.

I completed the main phase of painting. There is still some touch-up to go, including dealing with some overspray where my masking hasn't been tip-top.

I've intentionally left some of the original paint and decals in place such as on the white section of the wheels and on the rear of the car. I'm 50/50 as to whether I will keep this in place. 

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