So here’re pretty much the finished pics until I get it inside. I gave it a bit more of a buff with Vuplex. All I’m missing is the coin return flap and a credit board/NRI coin mech combo or a mechanical coin mech setup.
Well a week later after I took the above pics the screen started to pincushion. The pincushion adjustment no longer worked either. So I bit the bullet and sent the chassis and power supply off to Jomac. I’d already purchased most of @hatmoose s suggested BOM for repairing the power supply, and sent those of with it. May as well get a pro to do the work faster and better than I could. In the meantime I rebuilt the original joysticks. It was nearly as expensive and just getting new sticks, but at least I can keep them with the machine as the originals - even though they’re not in the panel.
With the chassis and power supply now back I’m really happy with the outcome. The chassis has a stack of new caps onboard and the power supply was repaired beautifully. I didn’t take it out of the mounting bracket but can see it’s had some bullet proofing of traces on the back, and I’m guessing lots of solder reflowed. Joey also identified the burn marks on the circuit board under some resistors that get hot. He added some ceramic tube to act as a heat sink.
So I got everything installed today and tested out the tube outside the machine. All perfect. Then came the usual power-lifting moment getting the tube back in the machine. I chocked up the back wheels under a couple of bricks - tilting the machine forward more. This time I removed the control panel only and laid a little bit of plywood in front of the monitor mounting frame. This way I could lift the tube and lay it down on the wood and rest, then grabbing the monitor cage I slowly lifted it onto where it sits and then tipped the whole thing back until the pivot dropped into its slot.
The power supply is completely silent now and the picture pops. Even though it was great before it looks better now. I wheeled my Windy II out of the lineup into the garage while I await its chassis repair. In came the Excelleena to join the other cabs.
Thanks mate. Yeah it’s great when everything is up and running. I got a couple of hours in this week which was great. Had a few guests too who had a play.
Even though I managed to get a marquee holder for this project, I was missing one for my other Exceleena. Using the existing holder I traced around it with some cardboard and then had that shape drawn up and plasma cut. I then cleaned up the rough edges and used a bending machine at work to do the bends. The plasma cutting guy also made me a plate that goes across the back of the holder to give it rigidity. The original had a small strake/bend in it to perform that function but the bending machine I have access to isn’t able to do that bend. I had it powdercoated and it came up very well. The original has spot welded threads on it to hold the marquee, but I didn’t get that fancy and just used some nice security Torx screws with anodised washers that match the others I put on the restored machine. It was all quite costly as a one-off piece (about $275 AUD) but that’s restoration for you.
