In Progress Gottlieb Wipeout

[deathrow]

Here is my new very Sickly Wipeout.

I bought this from a UKVAC member knowing it had an unusual and stubborn power issue.


The intention is to restore the cab, artwork, PF and all the elastic trickery.

She was bought as a non runner. Nothing would light up and no power was read leaving the transformer area.

I will add some pictures and videos as it progresses.

The machine will have a few mods and some non standard powder-coated parts.

The pictures make it look better than it is.

 

[deathrow]

(sorry about the picture quality)


So first up on the agenda was to try and get some power in her.



I have to admit this nearly broke me! What a frustrating yet simple fault!

I could measure voltage in several places but could not get her to power up on any boards. I could follow the feed in and around the transformer but then it would vanish. The transformer is ok though.

One problem was found when I went back to the old fashioned wiggle and pull wires/connectors.
The wire on the back of the machine had been caught and pulled many times with being moved and in out of arcades and in some places it was missing its outer casing.
This made me wonder if the wires inside the sealed plug were still ok? I ran a continuity check from each pin on the plug to the machine connector and found the blue wire was at fault.

Chopped the old plug off and fitted a replacement standard plug.



OOOoooh I get a buzz now....

Still not working but I now have some noise when I flick the switch

 

[deathrow]

So we have buzzing but nothing working...

More hair pulling fun until I noticed the switch box on the door. Its been changed! hmmm.
Checked the wiring from the main power switch to the door switch and one of the terminals inside the box plug hasn't been crimped to the wire but instead to the casing. (no contact)

Fixed and now we have an even louder buzz!



The game boards are now showing erratic power but they do have power! So in for a penny n all that I figure lets try and get her going....

The dmd springs into some form of life but is deff not right and the PF is mental?
The DMD gets stuck and is flickering??

 

[deathrow]

Now I know the transformer is ok.
Looking at the Caps sitting next to it with one of them having a swollen top I figure I will pop a couple of oldies in that I got with some ebay spares a while ago.



and guess what?



we have video!

The top line isnt great. This could be out gassing but I am thinkling its a very poor connection as the dmd was a swapped out item from another machine me thinks. (was in upside down at first ).

will look into this further as time goes by.

 

[deathrow]

I tried to start a game....

Nope:



Looks like the battery on the main board is dud. Still its lasted from 1994 so has done well!
Should I waste my time going to Maplins? Seems they never have what I need anymore

Looked on Google and found others suggesting the fitment of a holder and a standard button cell replacement. So ordered these yesterday and should be with me in the morning.

Whilst looking at system 3's and battery faults one guy said to hit the reset button on the board and this should force it into a basics settings game.

And:





We have a full house!

Well kind of... I dont have any pinballs to put it it and most sections dont have rubbers either. Ho-hum will have to see what postie can deliver ready for next weekend.

PS this machine is humming like a randy hornet! Think there is an earth loop problem somewhere?

Do Gottliebs hum like Data East machines do? That 60 hz noise.

 

[deathrow]

Well the postie came and emptied his sack through my letterbox

left a battery and holder for me.

 

[deathrow]

Fire up the soldering Iron then...

First up I thought I would break the connectors off the old leaky battery as I don't fancy popping it.





Yup leaky.

While the board was off I reflowed the connections on the back of the board. A couple had started to crack so well worth doing.



Fitted my oh so expensive £1.29 holder.





Popped a standard 2430 battery inside (non rechargeable)



Ooh nice and flashy again.




Cant start a game yet but all seems to work. I can now access all tests and settings etc.





Anyone have a manual for one of these?

 

[cooldan]

great write up, thanks for taking the time dude

 

[deathrow]

Thanks Dan

Ordered a few new caps and will add some more when the postie turns up

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Ahhh ...Ravs unit when it was stuffed to the roof with games

Good stuff Deathrow. Its a cool game.

 

[deathrow]

Ahhh ...Ravs unit when it was stuffed to the roof with games

Good stuff Deathrow. Its a cool game.

Never played this one before.
It was a fair deal and seemed a great project so thought I would have a bash at getting it going again.

Sounds are funny lol

Would have loved to visit Ravs unit as it was in his 2009 vidoe on youtube. Awesome!

 

[deathrow]

Postie has been!

 

[Carl Spiby]

Do you need a blocking diode to prevent the machine trying to charge the battery?

 

[deathrow]

Do you need a blocking diode to prevent the machine trying to charge the battery?

I thought the same but did a search and a test & found that these are not getting anything from the board.
The memory section takes so little from the battery that they last around 5 years.

Old fruit machines that I have repaired need rechargeable's end even early post EM pins too.
Lots of people have done this mod on system 3 with no issues. (google)

My DE Laser war has an external battery box mod and has normal AA batteries, no need to add diode in that one either.

Maybe one of the regular pin mechanics can explain this better than I could.

 

[deathrow]

Ok so the postie has delivered the main caps.

A 35v 33000 UF and a 25v 10000uf

I am replacing these as the originals had been causing issues around the machine and I was getting ALOT of humming.

Heres the newbies:



Around half the size of the originals.

 

[deathrow]

Fitted:



Powered her up and the hum is at normal levels but the machine has gone bat **** CRAZY!



All kinds of strange crud on the screen and the sounds are overlapping each other and wrong! I didnt know this machine swore?

Now I couldn't see why the machine would act so badly on new caps but I did notice the tolerance on the 10000uf cap was fairly broad. Cheap?
So I disconnected this and ordered a replacement cap. An original style one this time.
This turned up sat morning so I gave it a quick test fit:

 

[deathrow]

She's behaving again now and all actions seem correct and the sounds are back to normal too.

Heres the new correct caps at home:



So heres the first video of her almost ready for her strip down:

 

[Calimori]

This is one of my concerns, we do our homework and see that something else can work but without someone else confirming it we sometimes have to just give it a go. At least you knew the machine well enough to know that the things you have changed caused the new issue and were able to fix it.
Good work.

 

[deathrow]

Thanks mate

 

[deathrow]

More elastictickery for today.

The dmd seemed a little dim and was real buzzy. Time to investigate.



Not shabby soldering but some had balled up over the tracks and the solder looked very old so I am going to remove the lot.




Wow soooooo many pins!



Removed all the solder and found this!



The pin is missing.



I spent a fair while silver soldering the pins and then ran a wire for the top around the edge of the board.



Popped her back in and:



Much brighter and much more visible in sunlight and LOADS less buzz. No more buzzing through the speakers with full screen display images either.

Chuffed!

Now I am ready to strip her down for the re-build. wish me luck!

 

[deathrow]

Thinking of changing the red acetate? to purple to cover the dmd?