The repair that started it all for me was my first Centipede board. After figuring it out with almost no tools or experience.. I was hooked. I bought 5 more just to ‘fix’ them. I spend years as a teen coding 6502 assembly language and my first real job I coded in a low level language that was one step above assembly language.. All of these boards are my kind of puzzle. I’ve repaired many boards the others couldn’t figure out.
My earliest repairs are likely to show my learning process. Repairs at the end of the logs are recent and really dig into the issues I’ve found and their fixes.
Asteroids – PCB Repair Logs
Received a board in for repair – not my first one, just the first one since I started documenting them. Initial inspection: This board also had an interesting mod. Someone replaced the 4 RAMs @M4, N4, P4, R4 with a 6116 @R3. Here are a few jumpers on the back and they cut a few…
Star Wars – PCB Repair Logs
I was very fortunate to pick up a Star Wars locally for a great price. It was reported as ‘it worked sometimes’ from the owner. He had it for nearly 20 years and his kids were not interested. He wasn’t a collector and decided it was time for it to move on.. I was lucky…
Major Havoc – PCB Repair Logs
I never really expected to work on a Major Havoc set. But I’ve been pretty lucky with this sort of thing. A good friend always wanted one – but an original is pretty hard to come by. He decided to get the reproduction cabinet and build the reproduction Major Havoc PCB. It’s been a long…
Tempest – PCB Repair Logs
When I picked up my Tempest cabinet – I was fortunate that it came with two sets of boards. Both in unknown working condition. At some point I picked up third set to work on and later a fourth. At the top here are some of the very first PCBs I ever repaired.. My full…
Battlezone – PCB Repair Logs
Visited a buddy on the west coast and helped get his Battlezone cab up and running. We did a fair amount of work to the cabinet, got the monitor functioning, rebuild the controllers and replaced missing parts. Once we got the game up and running, it looked pretty good. Then the bad vectors started. Over…
Missile Command – PCB Repair Logs
I’d picked up a handful of Missile Command PCB’s a while back to add to my repair list. My Atari Bench Power Test Rig has made creating adapters for each board I work on relatively easy. I can typically build one in a couple hours. Swapping between different game boards on the bench now takes…
Galaga – PCB Repair Logs
Had some good timing on this one. I while back an operator I do some work for now and then was planning on sending some Galaga boards, so I built up a bench harness. They never showed. My Galaga decided to stop working and I had picked a couple of boards sets up just to have. But…
Asteroids Deluxe – PCB Repair Logs
I’ve worked a couple of Asteroids Deluxe, but haven’t had one in on the bench for a while. Board #1 – Received a board in for repair This board looks like it is moldy. Can’t tell if it is oxidation or some other environmental damage. It got washed, then washed with vinegar, then washed again. Once that was…
Gravitar – PCB Repair Logs
I came across a pretty decent Gravitar cabinet that had everything except a PCB and a working monitor. I’ll be restoring the cab a bit soon. I was able to get a Gravitar PCB pretty reasonably priced from an operator I’ve done some repairs for.. Board#1 – My board Triage: First time through it failed…
Williams – PCB Repair Logs
I own a Joust upright and cocktail. Fortunately for me their PCBs were in perfect working order. I did acquire a stack of boards to work through and a friend sent me his Joust set. I’d built the beginnings of a bench harness to test a while back. All that said – I got a Defender in for repair…
Pole Position – PCB Repair Logs
My plan had always been to work on Pole Position PCBs. I have 4 or 5 sets myself, I just never got to them. My test bench adapter was rather easy to assemble as compared to some other ones I’ve built. The video board is just 5V+ and the video signals. The CPU board is…
Star Trek S.O.S. – PCB Repair Logs
I’ve been fortunate enough to be helping a friend rescue a Star Trek S.O.S. Captains Chair. The woodworking and restoration phase of the chair is nearing its end and it was time to transfer the electronics from a working upright to The Chair. Once the board stack got over to the chair – it decided…
Centipede – PCB Repair Logs
Log of Centipede boards repaired to date: My first attempt at repairing a PCB is how I determined my approach to triage and setting a baseline for repair. After watching hours of videos with different people and different techniques – I’ve seen three types in general: Guys who just start replacing parts without much diagnosing…
Warlords – PCB Repair Logs
I was asked if I could work on a couple of Warlords PCBs.. I said sure!! First step is to build a new adapter for my Bench Power Test Rig. I start with 18G wire for all the power connections, then use 22G wire for all the remaining ones. Power first, video second and controls…
Crystal Castles – PCB Repair Logs
Received a board from a friend – no sound. First think that popped into my mind was LM324 amplifier and I had not even looked at the schematics. That said – I had no way to test it.. Step 1 is to build up a bench adapter for my test rig. Takes a couple hours but…
Frogger – PCB Repair Logs
Board #1 – In for repair Board reported as not booting Step 1 is to build up a bench adapter for my test rig. Takes a couple hours but once complete, I can switch PCB’s in seconds and I’m always certain the power, video and controls are 100%. The PCB had minimal prior work, but…
Dig Dug – PCB Repair Logs
Working on Dig Dug boards started a little by accident. A single board came up for sale a few months back for a really good price so I picked it up and added it to my stash. Then a board with this description popped up: “Offering a complete, tested, not working, unfixable Atari Dig Dug PCB” That…
Tutankham – PCB Repair Logs
I’d never intended to work on one of these PCB’s. But a request came in and it is a very close cousin to Gyruss which I have repaired a number of times. Board #1 – In for repair Triage: Once I got it all connected up: Notice the characters are bad, but the star field…
Atari Bench Power Test Rig
My first full bench harness was for Battlezone since I do not own one. I knew when I made it that it would not be very well designed or efficient. I’ve also been repairing boards all curled up behind my cabs (Asteroids comes to mind..) and after making a slightly better DigDug bench harness, I…
Space Duel – PCB Repair Logs
I’d picked up a Space Duel board for myself a while back – it made it to the front of the bench. Board #1 – My board Triage: Started simple and replaced 7815 voltage regulator. Probing around I found the 12MHz clock coming off the crystal no problem.. The 12MHz was clean going into @F3…
Millipede Trackball issues
A picked up a Millipede a while back mostly because the price was right. My game is Centipede – but it was too good to pass up. Firing up the game – It ran – but the shooter would just lock up now and then even thought the game kept playing normally. I put it…
Gyruss – PCB Repair Logs
Here’s what it looks like when its done.. But it was a long road to Earth.. My real motto for this post is:You can’t learn to swim by reading a book – you have to jump in the water. I started by jumping in the deep end, very deep. When I picked up my Gyruss…
Ms. Pacman – PCB Repair Logs
I picked up a Ms. Pacman mini – surprisingly the board worked at first.. but it deteriorated after a few hours of use. Board 1 – The Origin board Here is the board that came with my Ms. Pacman Cabaret. It actually powered up and worked the first time I tried it. It basically needed…
Arcade PCB Repair Tips & Tools
My approach to fixing PCB’s – When you are just starting out. Digging into the restoration of my Centipede machine lead me toward fixing the PCB. Once I got going, it was quite interesting and I like that kind of trouble shooting. I picked up a pair of dead Centipede boards from a KLOV’r purely to…
Bench Isolation Power Supply
Working on this CRT (and potentially future ones) was becoming annoying.. Every time I wanted to ‘try’ something – I would break out the Atari Power brick and the Centipede wiring harness, plug it all together and use a Molex connector as a power switch on the Atari brick. It all works fine – but…
Lakeside Arcade 