Of course it’s Easter Sunday and the hardware store is closed - and I need some washers to bring the monitor forward a little. I found some bigger ones in my supplies but they wouldn’t allow the monitor frame to drop in. So I painfully ground down the edge of six of them. My “workshop” is shameful and I don’t even have a vice so I had to hold them with Visegrips and one-hand the grinder.
So I placed three on each side at the top and lined everything up - and thought … I should really stick these together and to the cabinet so they don’t rotate on me when I drop the monitor in… Being a 26” I can just manhandle the monitor myself - but it’s heavy and awkward - especially with the CP tray in place. So after removing the monitor and rotating 90° CCW I get the monitor sitting on the mounts. But something’s not right. The f’ing washers had moved on one side and effectively locked the frame in place like those chinese thumb traps. The more I tried to pull it out the harder it held on. I spent a couple of hours trying to wiggle it out, banging it with a rubber mallet, prying with my fingers and undoing the monitor from the frame in that corner. I was pretty stressed and furious.
There was only one thing for it. To remove the monitor from the frame and take it out without dropping it back through the cabinet or necking the tube on the way out. I undid all the wiring in the back - disconnecting the neckboard etc. I then unscrewed the cage part of the frame from the left side so I still had part of the frame to hold onto. I then stuck a motorcycle tie-down hook through the right top hole where I’d removed the monitor mount bolt. I kind of wrapped the tie-down over my right shoulder and under my left arm and held it in my left had while grabbing the remaining part of the monitor frame. After a pause and heave I got it out and forward a bit and it dropped an inch or so onto a bit of wood I had protecting the cabinet. Anyway I got that f****er out without losing a finger or necking the tube. Some wiggling later I got the frame out.
A cup of tea was called for and I put the monitor back in the frame and attached all the wiring, neckboard etc. I abandoned the death-washers and found some solid rubber washers instead. If only I’d found these before. Two at the top and a single drilled out ¥50 coin at the bottom. In goes the monitor again nice and easy this time - but I go to screw the retaining nuts down and the top and there’s no thread exposed. Fek! I pulled the monitor forward off the top mounts and “unscrewed” one rubber washer on each side (it was a tight fit). Then back down it sat and I secured the nuts. Then I temporarily screwed the bezel in so I could give it a last rub and clean with silicon grease. When it’s bolted down it’s much more rigid and easy to apply pressure to.
In the above pic there’s some cloth tape covering a hole (four holes) that white was visible through. This would normally be covered by the black paint that surrounded the glass. Do you think I had any black electrical tape. No. After doing much thinking on how I would reproduce the painted border I decided I did not have to do that right now. I suspected any acrylic enamel I used would rub off and two part paint was too expensive. The bezel itself produces a black border anyway. It honestly looks fine. Before putting on the glass I made some little bushes out of cheap nylon that I ordered online. The inner and outer diameter was perfect - I just had to cut them to length. Others have sourced proper grommets for this purpose but it was going to be expensive for me to buy so few items and get them posted from the US. After cleaning the glass and putting it on a then taking it off twice to clean more smudges (on the inside) I finally had the screen, bezel and glass as I wanted them. I used some nice new black security Torx screws and black anodised washers (again) to screw things into place. I threw on the Alberto panel just to give me a boost for the pics. I’ll be getting a different overlay for this in the coming weeks that is more akin to the original styling.
It’s looking great!! I’ve been enjoying following along, thanks for sharing the detailed write up and all the pics. The “death washer” situation sounds like a really frustrating nightmare!! Really glad to see it all worked out after all.
It’s looking great!! I’ve been enjoying following along, thanks for sharing the detailed write up and all the pics. The “death washer” situation sounds like a really frustrating nightmare!! Really glad to see it all worked out after all.
Thanks mate. Yes me too. I’m ready to plug in a game but just waiting for the chassis repair guy to reply to my query about a missing capacitor on the neckboard. I could swap it with my other one but I’ll just wait until business hours commence tomorrow. I have decals from Arcadeartrepro here now but will wait for repros from Mikonos as he’s reproduced them from scans and the old side decals and control panel overlay that I sent him. And then there’s just a few pieces that were powder coated the wrong colour I have to pick up. Other than the decals I expect to be finished this week
I put the game board in today with the @everten stereo module. I did a bit more research on the earthing wiring and whether I should earth the noise filter. It didn’t come that way and it’s not shown on the wiring diagram in the manual, but the internet says it should be. I also have an orphaned earth cable in the control panel that came from one of the joystick mounts and runs about 8" before terminating in a single molex mate n lock connector. But there is no joining connector. There is however another earth lead that runs from the control panel hinge to a point on the back of the control panel and then down into the earthing point in the AC unit/power box. I guess as long as the cabinet metal is earthed it all good. I’ll neaten that up tomorrow.
Hopefully you guys can help me out here. As I mentioned before, the new chassis I got was missing the C332 capacitor from the neck board. I wrote to Jomac who provided me with the chassis and he mentioned that because these neck boards are used on a number of different chassis’s it’s not uncommon to have some parts unpopulated. I’m still a bit cautious however to turn the machine on until I know definitively that this capacitor is or isn’t required. I can see it’s been de-soldered on the back even though the plastic cover is in place again. So I’m putting it out to the forum members to see if anyone can offer some advice please. Perhaps you can chime in @nem
Unfortunately I couldn’t get stereo out of the Raiden Fighters board. Not sure if it’s the PCB or the stereo module itself. I confirmed that the little amp works okay though and is powerful enough for the job. I quickly adjusted the screen position and it looks pretty good. I have no experience with these chassis so will dig in deeper later. My Raiden Fighters PCB has some graphics glitches that come and go and pressing on the PCB fixes it - so there’s a dodge connection there somewhere. Also the blue dropped out for about three mins and came back and stayed back. There’s also a little wobble in the picture. You can’t notice it while the game is playing but you can on title images. All in all I’m very happy so far.
Here’s a YT short. You can see the graphics glitches appear in the last 10 seconds.
While tinkering with the machine today I found out the powder coated parts they did the wrong colour were ready. So I went and collected them. The coin box door was a tight fit. Too tight for regular use but okay to bang closed and lock. I suspect they just powder coated over the top of the existing layer and the tolerances were exceeded. I could Dremel some edges but will see how it goes. The CP is super gooey with the excess coating. I put the access panel on as well - it was warped but I just gave it a good push on the edge of a bench and there was an audible crack - which was just the powder coating releasing along the internal brace. I think the door warped in the hot oven and then stayed that way when the powder coat dried. I filled all the little key mount holes with security Torx just for neatness.
