I have taken a break from fixing arcade games for a while.  At the moment I now fix Bose Wave Radios and Bose Multi-CD players.  I will be taking photos and showing how I do some of those repairs in the near future.

New game to be fixed

Well, it appears to be darn near 3 years since I have posted.  I have been pretty busy due to work.  I think I will try to post a little bit again in the near future.  I recently picked up a Williams Base Hit pinball game that needs repair.  It is one of those old pinball games with a baseball theme.  It has the runners that pop up and go around bases in the backbox of the game.  Very cool.  I have always wanted one.  Found this one on Ebay and got it for a decent price.  So, I will tear it apart and do the necessary cleaning to all the switches.  This is an old electro-mechanical game which means it has no solid state parts in it....only switches, motors, and boatloads of wire.

Once again....it's been awhile since I've posted.  Let's get back to having fun!  Last week I purchased a non-working Roku M1000 for $15.  Roku is known for making devices for streaming music and videos from the internet to your home devices.  This item will stream music from the internet to your stereo.  Lots of radio stations from around the world now broadcast over the internet.  Very cool!  The seller listed this only...no power supply or remote control came with it.  When the Roku was delivered, the box was smashed.  I opened up the box and found the unit was jumbled pretty bad.  The endcaps of this thing are known to be pretty brittle.  Sure enough, the clips that hold them to the unit were broken. I heard something rattling when moving it around.  I emailed the seller and made mention of the problems.  I asked if I could tear it apart to see what was rattling.  If it was something major that broke off, I wanted to send it back.  He had no issues with me opening it up and checking.  Turns out one of the endcap clips had broken off and found its way into the main unit.  While I was in the guts of the Roku, I looked around to see if there was anything else noticeably burnt or broken. All looked good.  So, I put the unit back together and plugged in the jack from a power supply of my own.   I'll be darned if the thing didn't come right up.  Plugged it into the internet and it found stations.  I love it when things work out!   I think I will keep it and hook it up to my main stereo in the living room.  I just need to get a spare remote for it.  Plenty of those on ebay....

For the past few months I have been working on Donkey Kong arcade boards.  Value has really skyrocketed on Ebay so I figured I better try and capitalize on it.    I had around 7 or 8 boards that I was not able to repair from years ago.  I decided to move on to other boards.  When you get frustrated with repairs, sometimes it is just better put them away and come back to them later.  Well...later is now.  All of a sudden things clicked and I was able fix them all.  I sold them at prices ranging from $150 to $250.  KaChing!!  Now I have some Donkey Kong Jr's I will start working on.

I also had a few Cook Race arcade boards that had been sitting for years.  So, I thought I would give those a quick look see and try to fix them.  Cook Races are pretty much BurgerTime clones.  I have three of them.  Once again, things clicked and I was able to repare two of the three.  The third I was able to diagnose but need parts for the repair.  I doubt I will get a lot of money for them, but I only bought them for the fun of trying to fix them anyway.

I had a few Atari Crystal Castle boards that had been sitting around too.  Found that the issues on those seem to be memory chips going bad.  Replaced those and I now have two working boards.  I sold one on ebay to a guy that had a bad board.  He plugged mine in and said it would not come up. He sent it back to me.  I plugged it in and it fired right up without issues. The buyers original board would fire up in his cab. I built a jamma adapter for my boards to run in the cabinet I have.  I may have to find an original Crystal Castles cabinet to test my boards in.  I can't picture why my board would not work in his cabinet.

On a different note....Congratulations to Bo Pelini and the Nebraska Cornhuskers on their win over Michigan yesterday. 

It's been a long time!

I forgot I even had this blog. I will try to keep it updated more frequently. As this is mostly about my hobby...here is the latest & greatest: I recently bid on, and won, a couple of DLP projectors. Just wanted a new, fun, project different than the normal arcade stuff I work on. Got these for less than $50 for the pair. They were advertised as "non working" so I expected the worst. When they arrived, I plugged one in and it came right up. Sweet! I plugged in the 2nd one and the power and lamp lights came on. Nothing else. I swapped the lamp with the good unit and it tested ok. That tells me that something else electrically was wrong. So, naturally, I tore into the unit looking to see if the power supply was good and if anything else looked bad. I had parts all over the place. Could not find anything wrong. I attempted to put it all back together. Luckily, everything was back in its proper place. Still had the same issue when plugged in. My next step was to do research on the web (probably should have done that first!) I found a forum where someone suggested resetting the lamp timer. I figured that would be fine if I had just replaced a lamp...after all, it's only a timer to let folks know when to replace the lamp. I found the service manual for the unit online and downloaded it. It mentioned that if the lamp light was on and a known good lamp was in the unit, then there was a lamp circuit failure and the unit should be sent in for service. It also mentioned that you should reset the lamp timer. I figured, what have I got to lose. I reset the lamp timer and I'll be darned if the thing didn't fire up. Perfect picture...nice and bright! So now I have two working projectors with great pictures. I tested it with my cable box to see how nice the pic would look on a wall. It filled up an 8 foot by 10 foot section of the wall with a fantastic pic. Once again...sweet!!! I love it when things work out! I will most likely keep one and sell the other on ebay. Hopefully, I can get some good $$$ for it. A new lamp alone runs $150. On to the next project.

New Member of the Family

Welcome Joshua to the family! He is a 4 year old rust and tan doberman pinscher. He was adopted by me from the Doberman Rescue of Nebraska group. Same group we got Shine from. He is a sweetheart that also does not have a mean bone in his body. Loves everyone! I found that after Shine's passing I really missed having a dog around the house. So, after a month, I caved and adopted Joshua.

Joshua was rescued from the Humane Society somewhere in Arkansas. He was scheduled to be put to sleep but, at the last minute, was saved by a Doberman Rescue group member. He was then transported here to Nebraska and was kindly fostered by a local resident until I saw him at one of the stores I was volunteering time at. Took me all of five minutes to fall in love with him and adopt him. It was a great choice!

-- The passing of Shine --

My dog Shine passed away, due to old age and failing health, on May 30th 2010....Memorial Day. Not a happy day for me. However, I feel blessed to have had him be a part of my family for 9 years. His estimated age was about 13. Kris picked him out from the Doberman Rescue Society and has never let me forget about it! He was such a great dog. Smart and loved everybody. Kept the rif-raf away from the house as most are scared of Dobies. If ever you want a great family pet, please consider a Doberman. They are called "velcro dogs" cause they always stick by your side. Check out the current adoptable Dobies at Doberman Rescue of Nebraska. I am volunteering some of my time with them now. Those people really work with the dogs on their socialization and obedience skills. They don't have to work too hard cause they are naturally sociable and easy to train.

Let the fun times roll....

The company I work for is moving data centers from Denver to Omaha. We have been doing dry runs this week on some of the equipment I help maintain. Been quite a few late nights. Should be a nice weekend though. Plan on going over to Kid Guzzi's house early Saturday morning to help troubleshoot some electronic issues with Robert's (Kid's brother in law) Moto Guzzi. Hope I will be able to help fix the issues.

I haven't been able to do any arcade work lately so no news there. Hopefully, soon.

Fun week.....

On call for work and trying to get taxes done.... where does the time go? Apparently, I sold some stocks last year (I don't remember doing that...) and I don't have the documentation for tax purposes. I closed my etrade account and now they claim they can't get in and retrieve my old records. This should be fun....

Haven't posted for a bit.....

I've been very busy with work related issues. I should have some new arcade repairs to blog about soon!

Early Morning at Work

Happy Valentines Day!!

I had a dozen roses sent to my mom and to my daughter. Both did not expect it and were happily surprised when they arrived Saturday morning and afternoon. I am now a #1 son and a #1 dad.

I am here at work at 2:30 in the very dark AM. I am a Distributed Network Engineer for our company. Today we get to move all of our data circuits from our site in Denver to a new Omaha site. Fun stuff!! Very big move. Hopefully, all will go ok and I will be home and back in bed around 7 AM.

Avatar 3D

I've heard nothing but good things about this movie. Finally decided to go see it with Kid Guzzi. Oh man.... left me speechless. One of the best movies I have seen in all my years! Excellent graphics and a wonderful story line. 3D just made it that much better. I see lots of awards to happen for this movie! I am definitely going to see it again...this time in Imax. I can hardly wait....

Roku Remote is In

Finally got the remote control for the Roku. I am now able to configure the unit to connect to my wireless network and get stations that broadcast over the internet. Pretty cool stuff!

Bullwinkle - No cleaning today

Was tired of cleaning so that was out for today. However, I was tired of trying to figure out what the display was saying as it was in Spanish. So, I was determined to get the thing to display in English. Thought there was a switch that would change the language. Nope...none to be found. Nothing in the manuals. Hmmm....perplexing. Finally figured out that it is in the code located in the e-proms. Downloaded some new code, burned some new proms, and away she goes. Now the display is a little easier to understand!

Rocky & Bullwinkle - Day 2

I now have most of the playfield torn apart and cleaned. Have a little more cleaning yet to do. Then 2 or 3 coats of wax before reassembling. I will order a rubber ring kit for this game as most of the originals are cracked or broken. Starting to shape up nicely.






So that I can remember where everything goes, I take lots of pictures of the playfield and then I lay parts on two different tables. Here is where most of the metal guides are.










On this table is where most of the ramps and plastics are.










Upper half of the playfield. Almost done cleaning it.














Lower half of the playfield. Done cleaning but needs waxing.














Full view of the playfield. Looks a little less crowded now...doesn't it?

New Project - Rocky & Bullwinkle Pinball

Now that the SeaWolf is out of the house, I was able to start on the next project. I was looking forward to this as I love working on pinballs. As I started to open things up, I noticed a few things that I missed when purchasing this game. I already knew the game was dirty due to the playfield glass being gone. I was told that the CPU board was missing. Ok...so I bought a spare cpu to repair for it. Turns out that it was a power supply board missing...not a cpu. Ok...had to find a replacement power supply board. Done. This was all before I had even opened up the game. I finally open up the game and see that there are a bunch of cut wires. Nice. Thank God for schematics. Found where the wires were supposed to go, crimped on new ends, and placed them into a new socket. Plugged the socket into the proper board. Discovered a missing transistor on the driver board. Ordered the part. Ok...other than the transistor, everything looks proper and in its place. Time to power up and see what happens. Unbelievably, the pin sprang to life! Sweet! Time to disassemble the playfield and clean it up. I always take pics as I go along so that I can remember how to assemble everything..... Lots o' parts! As I am taking the playfield apart, I find that there is a missing motor to an important section. Dogs!!! Will cost me around $75 to replace. Looks like everything else is there. The flippers and assorted kickers don't work. Probably due to the missing transistor. Not worried about that yet. Overall, I am very happy with this pin. Time to continue on cleaning.








Cut wires... New power supply board on the left. You can also see the missing transistor on the board at the lower left. You can click on the pictures for a larger view.

















Pin powered up!


















Stopping after disassembling about 3/4 of the playfield. Time for dinner. You can see how dirty this thing is. Not for long!

Bon Voyage Seawolf

The Seawolf arcade game is now on its way to a new home in California. North American Van Lines pulled up in front of the house mid afternoon. The driver, Dennis, has been with the company for 15 years and has made stops here off and on for the past 5 years. He still remembers the Guzzi's!

Farewell Seawolf....enjoy California!

Roku Lives Again!

Finally got the parts in that I needed to finish repairs on the power supply for the Roku Soundbridge Internet Radio. I ordered the parts off of Ebay but didn't notice they were in Bejing, China. So, it took a little while to get here. The return address is from Ding Dong Feng. I swear...you can't make that stuff up! After working a bit and replacing parts, I finally powered up the radio. It lives once again! The only downside is that you need a remote control to program the unit. Fortunately, the Roku company sells them for $20. Not a bad price....so I ordered one. In the meanwhile, I will be able to listen to AM and FM stations just using the radio panel controls. Sounds pretty darn good! Thanks again to Chris "Kid Guzzi" Galardi for pulling it from a neighbors trash and giving it to me!

At Home Sick....But Still Busy....

Thursday night I came down with a nasty cold / flu bug that has really hit me hard. However, today I am starting to feel a little better. So, whilst I am moving slow I am still able to do some work on arcade boards. I have a few that will be going up for sale on Ebay this weekend. So far I have a Ms Pacman boardset, a Phoenix boardset, and a Popeye boardset. Tomorrow I hope to have a Donkey Kong boardset and a Gunsmoke boardset ready to sell as well. Maybe more...we'll see.

Also have to pull out the snowblower from the shed in the backyard as we are to expect some 2" - 4" of snow tomorrow and upwards of 8" on Tuesday. Not looking forward to that!

Sea Wolf finds a new home

Ever since I sold a Sea Wolf video game to a friend it has haunted me (see January 29th post). Came back to me after a week and has been here ever since (3 months now). I give up. Every time I fix one issue another pops up. Only the 2nd game to ever defeat my repair skills! I had it close to working and my friend finally said, "Just sell it". I put it on ebay not expecting much and a prospective buyer offered a nice sum of money to buy it direct. So, It will be on its way to California shortly. I wish it a fond farewell. My next projects are a Ms Pacman cocktail arcade game fresh in from Clermont, Florida (already fixed and working...just needs cleaning) and a Bullwinkle pinball machine. Looking forward to some pinball work....always fun for me! I will post pics of both soon.

New Project

My good friend, Chris Galardi, has finally moved back from Florida. Welcome home Chris...good to have you back! One of the things he found while unpacking was a non-working Roku Soundbridge R1000 radio. Pretty cool device. It connects to a wireless network to bring you free internet radio stations. Chris told me that it simply doesn't power up any longer and that it was mine if I wanted it. After graciously accepting this radio, I took it home to look at it. I did a little research on google for problems pertaining to this model of radio. Most of what I found pointed to a power supply issue. I was not able to find any schematics for the power supply so I was going to be flying by the seat of my pants with this. I opened up the unit (no easy task) and after an hour, I finally got to the power supply. I did find some puffed up capacitors. Those are definitely bad and can be caused by too much power or just faulty manufacturing. The google search said to replace them all. I have all but two in my stock and will need to order them. I will replace them with higher voltage rated caps. Hopefully, that will be the fix. Here are a few pics:







The Roku Soundbridge Radio



















The power supply to the radio











A couple of the "puffed" capacitors