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arttu

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Hi!

I have a Namco System 11 Dancing Eyes pcb but the weird thing is that the top PCB is missing some SMD capacitors. I can see on the pads that there used to be capacitors (smd leg -sized grooves in the solder on the pads) but I have no idea of their values.

Can someone who owns the same game post a photo of the top pcb or just the caps?

(at the moment the game does not boot and I haven't even tried to inspect it any closer before I can resolve the issue with the caps)

Thanks!
 
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Most of the caps on that board are just filter caps and it should be able to run without them.

However the Top Board is just a generic CPU board. The same CPU board is used by all System 11 games so if you have a tekken or other System 11 PCB you should be able to swap the top board to see if that is indeed the issue.

I've fixed quite a few Namco System 11 and System 12 games by simply replacing the top board with one from a cheap game. Though a lot of times the issue ends up being somewhere else as well.
 
Most of the caps on that board are just filter caps and it should be able to run without them. However the Top Board is just a generic CPU board. The same CPU board is used by all System 11 games so if you have a tekken or other System 11 PCB you should be able to swap the top board to see if that is indeed the issue. I've fixed quite a few Namco System 11 and System 12 games by simply replacing the top board with one from a cheap game. Though a lot of times the issue ends up being somewhere else as well.
My Xevious 3D/G and Soul Edge are very deep in the storage but I guess I'll dig them out at some point if I can't get it running.
Thanks for the info about the caps being filters!

And thank you rewrite for linking to the photos, they were exactly what I was after!
 
And thank you rewrite for linking to the photos, they were exactly what I was after!
It was pure luck. I'd just grabbed the first PCB I saw on my shelf to test the Jammafier and I saw your post ten minutes later.
 
Most of the caps on that board are just filter caps and it should be able to run without them.

However the Top Board is just a generic CPU board. The same CPU board is used by all System 11 games so if you have a tekken or other System 11 PCB you should be able to swap the top board to see if that is indeed the issue.

I've fixed quite a few Namco System 11 and System 12 games by simply replacing the top board with one from a cheap game. Though a lot of times the issue ends up being somewhere else as well.
Can you explain what a filter cap is? Is it filtering the power to keep it steady? If so, why would run the board without it? Or do you mean, just for testing purposes?
 
Can you explain what a filter cap is? Is it filtering the power to keep it steady? If so, why would run the board without it? Or do you mean, just for testing purposes?
Yes it's there to help keep voltages stable, or rather to "filter" out noise in the power. And yes, just for testing purposes. I'm not suggesting running the board without them, simply stating that if your board isn't booting that's not going to be the issue because most PCBs will still boot and play with those caps missing.

Honestly a lot of bootleg and other cheap PCBs don't even have them, it's not a huge deal if they're missing, usually the worst that happens is you get some noise in the graphics or sound, particularly if you have a crappy PSU.
 
OK awesome, thanks for the explanation. I wasn't questioning why you said that, I was just trying to learn and you have taught me!
 
However the Top Board is just a generic CPU board. The same CPU board is used by all System 11 games so if you have a tekken or other System 11 PCB you should be able to swap the top board to see if that is indeed the issue. I've fixed quite a few Namco System 11 and System 12 games by simply replacing the top board with one from a cheap game.
Knowing basically NOTHING about System 11 hardware, here comes a hasty and stupid question:

Just out of curiosity I just swapped the rom board from Dancing Eyes to (a fully working) Xevious 3D/G and the game does boot up but after the "This game is for use exclusively in japan"-message I get blank screen with two 16x16 squares of garbage graphics. After a while the game reboots and repeats the above.

Here's the stupid part I promised you: :)
Does the bottom board contain any game-specific logic/keys/roms/whatever or are the bottom pcb (with jamma connector) and the top CPU board totally generic from game to game?
Meaning, what should I expect if I just swap out the ROM board (the one with the smd roms "upside down") from one game to another?
Could game swapping on Sys11 really be that easy....and thus my problem being a simple case of checking the smd roms and replacing them. Can't be that easy :)
 
Both System 11 and System 12 have the program ROMs on the main board.

The "ROM board" as you call it is really just an expansion board, not every game has one.

so you need to keep the ROM board and the main board together. the CPU board is the only board that can be interchanged between games.
 
What a weird division, layout-wise.

The expansion pcb smds' connections didn't look too good so I reflowed them. Lo and behold, the game now works 100%! Currently "stress testing" it in my bench... it seems to be perfect. Weird that the connections were bad, considering that the expansion pcb should not bend too much as it's really close to the connector and all...

Thanks again twistedsymphony!
Now it only needs the filter caps - thanks to rewrite again!

You're the greatest!
 
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