Namco Exceleena Restoration

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I’m not 100% comfortable working with tubes and chassis, mainly because of their scarcity and pain to get repaired. So I was really careful not to snag any wires on components or neck the tube. The reason I had the chassis out of the frame and not disconnected at the neck board was that there was a black silicon blob holding the neck board to the neck. I didn’t want to tempt fate and tug on it, so I just carefully manoeuvred it around. I ended up accidentally tugging on the wiring anyways and it pulled the neckboard away from the silicon. The Toshiba chassis mounting holes didn’t fit nicely with the Exceleena frame plate, so I kept the plate it was on and drilled and threaded some holes in that and then attached that to the frame. I had to do a bit of mental spacial gymnastics to make sure the chassis connector and pots were at least somewhat accessible. Lastly I gave the tube a clean and dusted the chassis with a clean paint brush. No chassis in the dishwashers for me thanks. I scratched the powder coat when experimenting with frame . I’ve got some polyester tape on order the cover this area now.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

A couple of weeks ago I took a few more parts to the powder coater. Some I’d already had done for my other Exceleena, but the colour wasn’t right. These parts are also straighter compared to the machine I’m restoring here, so I decided to move them over to this machine. I also got the front face hinge done which looks great. It was plated with something but rusting and it wasn’t going to buff out. I covered the coin box in some silver vinyl to protect the powder coat.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

The front looking more complete now. I’ve pimped the top panel with some alternative screws and anodised washers. The original screws and alternative I was going to use are pictured.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I finished the JAMMA harness today. I was feeling my way through it and following the wiring diagram as best I could. I missed a couple of ground wires that should have been doubled up on the JAMMA connector, so spliced them in after. The credit board wiring is a bit of a head f for me but I tidied up the wiring as if I’m going to use a credit board again. Ideally I just want to go back to a JP coin mech when I work out how to do that. I persisted with th wax string method.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

There comes a time in every Candy Cab resto where you give it a scrub with Simple Green on the lawn

Here’s the powder coated hinge back on the front face.

And the hinge looking smart inside.

The speakers are back in and wired up.

Resprayed grilles and new foam seal on the bottom.

The hinge top showing the two different types of fasteners. I’ve ordered some more smaller Torx ones as I want them all to be the same, but don’t mind the mushroom head Phillips either.

Taking shape.

I tried the bendy metal ties but they’re a little fiddly so fitted some proper JP adhesive retainers in some areas.

A few tabs on the CP were powder coated. I gave the CP a good polish and fitted the panel in place. The main fibreglass panel is solid and the paint shiny with its sparkly/fleck in it, but there are a few deeper scratches and chips that I just have to live with.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I got the JAMMA harness in today. The routing is a bit of a work in progress. My other Exceleena isn’t the best example to follow either. I’ve got it mostly laid out correctly, but I do like to be able to slide the pcb mounting board in and out with the JAMMA edge connected which means one needs quite a lot of slack in the cabling - which looks inherently messy. Of course as long as it all works, having beautiful tidy cabling in the cab is of no consequence other than to satisfy my own wishes. I think because the harness was modified for use with a credit board, I’ve got a couple of wires restricting the placement of certain branches of the harness “tree”.

 

[FrancoB]

Looking good my man. It's a great feeling when you start putting everything back together and you can see the fruit of your labour

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Museum Quality work being done here. Awesome job!

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

Museum Quality work being done here. Awesome job!

Thanks @PASTBLASTER and @FrancoB. It will definitely sit proudly in my home museum.

 

[rewrite]

Ridiculously nice work.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I plugged in the tube and connected my JAMMA testers. It was all dead. So I tested the power after the step down transformer but before the power supply and it was okay. Next I unplugged the connector that distributes power to the cab to test that. We’ll just wiggling that connector did something and we have power.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

There was a bit of noise in the picture of Strikers that I hadn’t tested since purchasing. But I could also hear high pitched squealing coming from the power supply that changed pitch and intensity depending on the image on the screen. I tried a PGM cart and Raiden and they were fine. My other Exceleena does hiss a little from the power supply and turning the machine off after five minutes and then on again makes it go away. On this new machine I found that pressing the degauss button also stopped the sound. I got the tube in the cab. The easiest way is to have someone tilt the cab forward and then you can hold the tube closer to your front as you lower the cab in. I tried some polyester tape to protect the mounting points powdercoat but it was too thin. I need proper clear adhesive mylar sheet.

 

[notsonic]

It looks like we talked about it all the way back on page 1 but those symptoms are exactly what my failing Cyber Lead PSU was doing. Sizzling and other noises noises that changed with what was on screen. I really thought it was a monitor problem at first. It also created interference in the video.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

True @notsonic. At least it’s not dead and I can go about a recap. I’ve got the parts ready. I quickly got every panel back on, and gave it a polish. There’s some overspray to clean off and a few deeper scratches to spend some time on still. I dropped the panel in and tried out the light tube I made. Thanks to @FrancoB for the Exceleena marquee and my @djsheep Namco ashtray. Perfect!

Next up is to connect all the buttons and tidy up the CP tray, cut a PCB mounting board and to make a couple of stickers and stick on some stickers I removed.

 

[tDRG]

Looking fantastic, so close! Love the lights and the balltop color. Cool dustwashers too.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

Looking fantastic, so close! Love the lights and the balltop color. Cool dustwashers too.

Thanks @tDRG, the grey would be a bit of a clash on some cabs but it matches the grey bezel and silvery grey of the metal cabinet very nicely.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I finished connecting the buttons and did my best to make it neat in the CP tray. I had to de-pin and shuffle around the joystick wires. The wiring was the same on my other Exceleena - some weird way it was done with the original joysticks. I settled on a button pattern 4.1.2.3. With 4. being the bottom left and 1.2.3. along the top. I figured for shmups the 4th button is fairly infrequently used and I can thumb it if need be. I got all the locks in place. What a pain that is getting the tang just right. I used locks called Gem Locks. They were $30 each but look and feel solid.

I had a board cut at the Hardware store based on measurements from my other Exceleena. Got home and it was a few mill too big so had to screw around with a Dremel and orbital sander to get it down to size. I just used a Forstner bit to make a thumb/finger-hold instead of drilling a hole. I mounted my Strikers on it. Then proceeded to work out the dip switches for that game as there was no attract mode sounds and the image was flipped. The issues I had earlier with the noise in the image were there again but went away after 10 minutes. I also ended up removing the book cover vinyl from the light tube because it was a bit subdued. Now it’s pretty intense so I might have to find a middle ground. I got a dozen or so games in which was awesome.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

Nearly there now. I did up some labels and reprinted the ¥100 sticker with a better one that someone on A-P made (thanks ). I stuck back on the factory stickers on the back too. I’d already affixed the operators placard on the back - even though it was originally a horrible thing to drill into a cab I’m keeping it as part of the provenance of the machine. The little Namco placard is on too.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

This might be a bit lame but there was a strange spot on the side of the cab. The powered coaters reckon it could have been some chemical on the steel that affected the coat, or maybe they just stuffed it up. Anyway I found a cool metallic embossed sticker to cover it. Hmm …yeah or nah?

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I re-stuck the rubber bumpers back on. Two I peeled off my other Exceleena and they peeled off beautifully and stuck right on. On the other Exceleena I stuck on some nice thick rubber that looks good enough.

I printed up some basic artwork to fill the marquee until a custom design I have coming arrives. The artwork will be like the control panel but scaled to fit edge to edge in the marquee. It will have Exceleena written in Japanese.

I used a couple of ¥50 coins as washers for the marquee