What's new

LuKa

Student
Joined
Aug 29, 2016
Messages
61
Reaction score
10
Location
United Kingdom
Hey guys I recently got myself a Thrill Drive 2 which I'm restoring. I have recently installed a new RTC with a socket successfully (very proud of myself
smiley2.gif
). After fixing the booting issue I tried playing the game but both sides have a issue with the steering. I did notice that the left side had a issue with the steering before I replaced the RTC on the right side (couldn't test the steering on the right previously) but to be honest I don't think changing a RTC chip will effect the steering.

I did notice that the ground cable going to the steering metal frame where cut from the rest of the machine on both sides, so I added new cabling to the machine and made sure it was getting proper ground.

I then thought that the pots might be old and worn out, so I popped the right one open and it looked brand new inside, so I hooked it up to a multi-meter and happily goes from 0k up 5.00k

I then thought the previous owner might of soldered in the cables wrong, because from memory (correct me if I'm wrong) normally the middle pin on the pot is ground, but this had ground (black) on the left then yellow, red. So I faffed around with the cable trying different combos but still the same.

Then I thought maybe it just needs calibrating, I go through the calibration and it fails each time. I did noticed that the pot used is a slightly different shaft type than the shown in the service manual. In the service manual it has a shaft like this: (I) whereas thew one in the cab are semi circle type, I don't know if that makes a difference.

I'm kind of stumped, has it got the wrong pot, or is there something I need to do, or is it a broken cable? After playing around I did manage to get them both turning to the left.

Does anyone have any leads or ideas?

Many Thanks

smiley4.gif
 
I then thought the previous owner might of soldered in the cables wrong, because from memory (correct me if I'm wrong) normally the middle pin on the pot is ground, but this had ground (black) on the left then yellow, red. So I faffed around with the cable trying different combos but still the same.
Never, i repeat, never ever doing combo on these things. what you should do is take multimeter and measure which two of them are ground and 5V. after you found them, attach these two on sides. the middle one is the rest of the cable.

now that you have done combos, i think you'll need another new pot.
 
I then thought the previous owner might of soldered in the cables wrong, because from memory (correct me if I'm wrong) normally the middle pin on the pot is ground, but this had ground (black) on the left then yellow, red. So I faffed around with the cable trying different combos but still the same.
Never, i repeat, never ever doing combo on these things. what you should do is take multimeter and measure which two of them are ground and 5V. after you found them, attach these two on sides. the middle one is the rest of the cable.
now that you have done combos, i think you'll need another new pot.
Ok so I might have burned it out.. great. How would I measure which two are ground, I thought 1 pin was ground the other two are +/- ?
 
easy. the ground should be the same as power supply ground. use the power supply ground as reference.
 
easy. the ground should be the same as power supply ground. use the power supply ground as reference.
Ah right I thought I was doing something completely wrong. I'll double check it all thanks :)
 
the pot may be o.k. - test it with a meter.

how games use pots - and they are all the same.
you have ground on one side, 5v on the other side, and the wiper(center pin/tab) is the output to the game.
so as you turn the pot, the output goes smoothly from 0 to 5v
 
I metered the pot and I was noticing that it was twitchy with the ground pin when wiggled. So I have ordered two new pots and hope that gives me some results.
 
This can be closed now. After many months of head banging against a wall, I managed to make a pass through adatpter which bypasses the steering wiring and is connected directly to the steering pot. Then boom steering is alive again! Everyone was correct with there being a issue with the wiring to the steering.

Thanks for the help guys :)
 
hey, do you have any service info for the viper hardware??
i have a few bad ones.
what do the diagnostic led's do on a working unit??
 
I can try and provide whatever info you might need. On mine the leds are red, they slowly count up and then start pulsing up and down once it passes it initial rom checks and then starts booting the mmc card.
 
so they run in series, or a binary pattern?

i really need to find out the diagnostic patterns these display - konami are a bitch to find tech data on.
 
I'm actually gonna be working on the machine tomorrow hopefully, gotta replace aload of screws and bolts. I'll video the boot sequence on my phone and upload it for your viewing.
 
thanks.
btw, keep them cool - use a fan if you have to.
i think the problem is caused by the gpu getting too hot in a confined space.
the fault on viper's is always the same - no video.
and i dont mean black screen, i mean "nothing" - not even a sync pulse.
 
Back
Top