So, all of my old projects won't have pics.
Allow me to explain.
I used to have all project photos stored at Photobucket. Back when I initially had an account there, I had a decent storage and bandwidth for photo storage. This was probably back in 2006 or so.
Fast forward to today. I can link and share pics through Google Photos. I figured that I could just download my photos from Photobucket and just re-upload them up to Google.
The download didn't go so well. All the images came up as 0KB file sizes.
...
On the plus side, thanks to Android OS, every single one of my photos from April 2012 until now are all saved on Photos. On the bad side, all the old photos I had from old flip phones and my Blackberry are gone...but not gone gone. I know I have backups somewhere on disc. Finding them is another story.
I may have to go back to my old stuff and figure out if I really want to relink the pics for said projects back.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Neo Geo 4 cleaning continues...
After taking care of some things this afternoon, I finally got around to removing the power supply from the Neo Geo cab. The main thing I wanted to get done was to remove the power supply, open it up, swap out the fan, and blow out all the old dust and cobwebs inside the case.
...that was the plan anyway.
After removing the power supply from the arcade, I noticed a little bit of patina on the bottom of the power supply case. I didn't think anything of it.
After wiping it up, I proceeded to open the case. I was greeted with this:
Yikes!
And no, hitting it with an air duster didn't move this gunk, not one bit.
I had to sideline the project for now. I'm getting consensus on what to do next. Instinct is telling me to:
1. Spray it down with a cleaner (more than likely Simple Green), use a toothbrush to scrub it down, then spray it down with water and final rinse with distilled water. OR
2. Go to town with a pressure washer. OR
3. Swap out the power supply in the other arcade, then later get another power supply for that one when I start to work on it.
I'll probably just do 1, let it dry for a few days, then reinstall it. If that fails, then step 3.
Now that I can just link up my pictures from my Google Photos, posting might be more frequent now. Stay tuned, I suppose.
...that was the plan anyway.
After removing the power supply from the arcade, I noticed a little bit of patina on the bottom of the power supply case. I didn't think anything of it.
After wiping it up, I proceeded to open the case. I was greeted with this:
Yikes!
And no, hitting it with an air duster didn't move this gunk, not one bit.
I had to sideline the project for now. I'm getting consensus on what to do next. Instinct is telling me to:
1. Spray it down with a cleaner (more than likely Simple Green), use a toothbrush to scrub it down, then spray it down with water and final rinse with distilled water. OR
2. Go to town with a pressure washer. OR
3. Swap out the power supply in the other arcade, then later get another power supply for that one when I start to work on it.
I'll probably just do 1, let it dry for a few days, then reinstall it. If that fails, then step 3.
Now that I can just link up my pictures from my Google Photos, posting might be more frequent now. Stay tuned, I suppose.
Thursday, September 26, 2019
I fixed the thing!
And man, I am happy!
First off, here's what I did...you know, since the recapping of the board.
These 3 things...are the bane of my existence. These are capacitors are responsible for the horizontal phase (is that what it's called? I'm not sure.) of the monitor. The width, if you will. These things were old and possibly worked. So, $22, 5 days shipping time, and 30 mins for desoldering and replacing these old caps with these:
(it's the brown, square-ish things), we are ready to reinstall the chassis to the cab.
I also have to note that I also took my Allen key and turned the horizontal coil (that white, PVC looking thing with the copper coil around it) all the way down.
I put the chassis back in the cab, connected everything, and turned the cab on. And I was greeted with...loud hissing and popping from the CRT and some screen snapping weirdness.
...
At this point, I thought I screwed everything up by replacing those three components with the wrong thing. So, I turned the cab off and went to the back to discharge the CRT from the anode...and the anode just popped out.
...
I didn't put the anode in properly. Silly me. Luckily, that was an easy fix. So here I go again, round 2, with turning the cab on and seeing if the fruits of my labor paid off.
Well...
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Before, the game select screen on my 161-in-1, you couldn't see either all of Terry Bogard's left arm or you wouldn't be able to see the game select arrow at the left of the screen. Now, it looks way better.
...I love the King of Fighters series. It's not evident, but you wouldn't be able to see either a chunk of the left side of the screen (you would only see half of Terry) or the right side of the screen (half of Ryo).
Now, mind you, I'm not sure if me setting the horizontal coil all the way down was part of it and I'm just a dummy for not testing that out first, but I figure this old thing could use some fresh components after sitting in the warehouse for so long.
So, I'm marking this as a successful result!
Next part of this thing: fixing the fan on the power supply...and more cleaning up inside.
First off, here's what I did...you know, since the recapping of the board.
These 3 things...are the bane of my existence. These are capacitors are responsible for the horizontal phase (is that what it's called? I'm not sure.) of the monitor. The width, if you will. These things were old and possibly worked. So, $22, 5 days shipping time, and 30 mins for desoldering and replacing these old caps with these:
(it's the brown, square-ish things), we are ready to reinstall the chassis to the cab.
I also have to note that I also took my Allen key and turned the horizontal coil (that white, PVC looking thing with the copper coil around it) all the way down.
I put the chassis back in the cab, connected everything, and turned the cab on. And I was greeted with...loud hissing and popping from the CRT and some screen snapping weirdness.
...
At this point, I thought I screwed everything up by replacing those three components with the wrong thing. So, I turned the cab off and went to the back to discharge the CRT from the anode...and the anode just popped out.
...
I didn't put the anode in properly. Silly me. Luckily, that was an easy fix. So here I go again, round 2, with turning the cab on and seeing if the fruits of my labor paid off.
Well...
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Before, the game select screen on my 161-in-1, you couldn't see either all of Terry Bogard's left arm or you wouldn't be able to see the game select arrow at the left of the screen. Now, it looks way better.
...I love the King of Fighters series. It's not evident, but you wouldn't be able to see either a chunk of the left side of the screen (you would only see half of Terry) or the right side of the screen (half of Ryo).
Now, mind you, I'm not sure if me setting the horizontal coil all the way down was part of it and I'm just a dummy for not testing that out first, but I figure this old thing could use some fresh components after sitting in the warehouse for so long.
So, I'm marking this as a successful result!
Next part of this thing: fixing the fan on the power supply...and more cleaning up inside.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
I got a thing...
That I've been wanting for SOOO long...Since I was in high school, working at an arcade.
It's not the "Big Red" Neo Geo 4 cab, but a 4 game cab nonetheless. It's really worked, as it probably came from a laundromat or something, but still running...so to speak.
The only major thing is that the monitor's width is stretched...really wide. Worse part is, the coil that allows adjustment wasn't working properly...from what I could do, anyway.
I hit up some people/friends through forums and social media and consensus was to do a recap on the monitor chassis board.
So, after vacation, I ordered a cap kit and went for it. Got out the trusty soldering and desoldering station (2 different devices, don't judge).
It's not the "Big Red" Neo Geo 4 cab, but a 4 game cab nonetheless. It's really worked, as it probably came from a laundromat or something, but still running...so to speak.
The only major thing is that the monitor's width is stretched...really wide. Worse part is, the coil that allows adjustment wasn't working properly...from what I could do, anyway.
I hit up some people/friends through forums and social media and consensus was to do a recap on the monitor chassis board.
So, after vacation, I ordered a cap kit and went for it. Got out the trusty soldering and desoldering station (2 different devices, don't judge).
The recap job took about an hour since I was being really meticulous and there was one or two caps that were hard to install. After the recap, I installed the chassis back into the cab. Did it help at all?
...no, it didn't...
So, I just ordered 3 more, high voltage capacitors that are part of the width circuit. I hope this will fix the problem, otherwise, I have to get another component (horizontal width coil) to fix the problem. I hope that does it, otherwise, I'll have to replace either the chassis or the whole monitor, which I don't want to do.
There are other things to fix up in there, like rewiring the controllers, rewire the test button, break and replace the coin door locks, vacuuming the inside of the cab from ages of dirt and grime, and changing the fan in the power supply...possibly adding more fans for the heck of it.
Oh, and if you haven't noticed, there is another arcade cabinet next to the Neo Geo cab. That's another project for another time.
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