What's new
By:

Gifted NAC Restoration Thread

kikaso

kikaso

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 4, 2020
Messages
2,019
Reaction score
3,469
Location
New York City
This is the restoration thread for my recently acquired New Astro City. The background on how I acquired this cabinet is an interesting one and I've summarized this in the spoiler section below.

The very awesome @imbord3rlin3 reached out to me in early March to ask if I had a spare MS8 chassis. I responded that I didn't and he replied that I should start looking for one. I was confused about this at first and figured I'd reach back out when I got home from work.

On my way home, I logged onto A-P to find out that this dude was giving away a New Astro City and I was the lucky recipient. At first I thought it was a joke of some sort. I've never been gifted anything this valuable and especially not by someone I barely knew. I had had some interactions with imbord3rlin3 but not much. I knew he was an active member and we were both members of some of the same Discord servers.

So after a few back-and-forth messages with him, I made arrangements to pick up the NAC the following weekend. He had offered to deliver the cabinet right to my home but I insisted on picking it up. Luckily, he isn't far from me, (shoutout to the northeast US arcade crew) and the trip went really smooth. imbord3rlin3 gave me a tour of his amazing home arcade--I've never seen so many Egrets all in one place--and I even got to check out his Egret 29 in person. We went over the cab and he explained that it was a China special and so it had lots of creative "restoration" work done to it and was missing the monitor chassis--more on that below. He was expecting a Capcom cabinet and no longer had the space for a NAC and decided to give it away as a way of giving back to the community. I think that that's an awesome and generous sentiment. I am really honored and forever grateful to him for this gift and I hope to do it justice by giving it the best restoration that I can.

Overall Condition

The cabinet is in rough yet functional shape. @imbord3rlin3 bought it from an exporter in China who is (in)famous for their restoration work. The cabinet had been (poorly) repainted using an incorrect color and the insides were covered in overspray. Luckily, it was complete with the exception of a monitor chassis. A cursory look also made me realize that I would have to do some plastic repair work as the control panel support had two big cracks in the usual spots and a lazy repair to fix it. Additionally, the control panel base also had a crack along the 2P side corner and down the center. The center crack had been repaired, but the crack in the corner needs attention.

IMG_7236.jpeg


  • Most of the metal access panels have serious rust, particularly the panels in back that provide access to the marquee light and monitor.
  • The cabinet came with no monitor chassis so I'll have to source an MS8.
  • The wiring, (with some small exceptions) is in very good shape--no hack job! Some of the wiring has overspray from the sloppy paint job but that doesn't affect the functionality. I'll probably just clean it up and otherwise leave the harness alone given that Sega used high quality, (and expensive!) wiring throughout the cabinet.
  • The control panel is original but it has a bizarre non-standard 4-button layout. So that'll be replaced with a reproduction panel from @Alberto.
  • The coin mechanism is functional, however, it is not original and the bracket that holds the coin switch is broken.
  • The speakers are original, sound good, and get nice and loud so that's a big thumbs up.
  • The power supply is original ( 400-5198 ) and works so I'll just clean it up and replace the aging electrolytic capacitors.
  • The locks are reproduction and work well. The tangs do look original.
  • The original marquee fluorescent light has been replaced with a (very white) LED fixture.
  • The AC power cord is not original.
  • Not sure if the instruction holder is reproduction or not but it's scratched to hell.
  • The upper and lower billboards both have peeling paint with lots of light bleedthrough.

IMG_5788_Original.jpeg


My general to-do list for this beautiful piece of arcade history is:
  1. repair cracks in plastic on control panel support
  2. repair cracks in plastic on control panel base
  3. sand and paint entire cabinet including powder coat paint for metal panels
  4. electroplate bare metal brackets
    replace marquee light
  5. procure and refurbish replacement monitor chassis
  6. refurbish original power supply
  7. replace locks and keys
  8. replace control panel with 2L12B reproduction
  9. replace damaged, stripped, or missing fasteners
  10. replace the AC power cord with new grounded cord
  11. Arcade party!

Stay tuned for further updates, (and photos, I promise).

IMG_5785_Original.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Monitor

I prioritized finding a monitor chassis given that that's the only missing part before I can test the tube. During my search, @rewrite put out a 'willing to trade' post; he wanted an MS8 yoke in exchange for his MS9. I figured that NACs came with an MS9 and decided to go that route given all of the good things I've heard about that particular chassis. We made the trade and now I had to search for a chassis.

IMG_6307.jpeg


I tried YAJ first and found a bunch of MS9 chassis at really attractive prices. I would later learn that there was a reason these chassis were priced so low; they weren't functional and the one that I ended up receiving had lots of pulled traces, lifted pads, and missing capacitors from what looks like a shoddy capacitor replacement / reflow. I had planned on replacing the electrolytic capacitors and didn't think much of it, however, the pulled traces and lifted pads was a job that was going to be more involved and take more time. Let that be a lesson to anyone looking to YAJ for a replacement monitor chassis. I then figured I would find an already working chassis and keep the YAJ chassis as a backup / parts board. I reached out to @ArcSys101 who indeed had an MS9 chassis for sale. We came to an agreement on price and I received it in the mail shortly thereafter. The chassis arrived and, while it was complete and functional, it had some (crappy, yet functional) replacement capacitors. Again, I had always planned on giving the chassis a light refurbishment so this wasn't a big deal to me; functionality mattered more. On @ShootTheCore advice, I planned on also replacing the vertical deflection IC and voltage regulator.

IMG_6887.jpeg


Before starting work on the chassis, I figured I should test it first. Thankfully, it fired up just fine, however, the convergence, purity, colors, geometry were all out of whack plus the tube had some minor burn and the glass was scratched. I knew replacing the yoke was going to result in some adjustment so I added all of this to the ever growing to-do list. After replacing the capacitors and reflowing the PCB, I was happy that the monitor once again fired up. I adjusted the B+ voltage on the 15kHz and 24kHz pots and took it all in.

IMG_7122.jpeg


I adjusted the colors by eye for now but still couldn't get the convergence or purity right. Colors and convergence look fine at the center but the corners suck. I took a look out back and soon realized why; there are no convergence strips! There are signs that the tube once had these strips so this is another task I need to get around to. I ordered permalloy strips on eBay a couple of years back so I figured I'd start there. More on that later.

To help with the colors and screen geometry, I picked up a Test Pattern Generator from arcadepartsandrepair.com. I usually use the 240p Test Suite on MiSTer (more recently on a Neo Geo MV1FZ) but figured the 24kHz option on the TPG would help here. I built a harness for the TPG to connect to the MS9 chassis using the following connectors and crimp terminals:
  • 09-50-8021 2-pin Molex
  • 09-50-8041 4-pin Molex
  • 08-50-0134 Molex crimp terminal
  • EHR-6 JST 6-pin
  • SEH-001T-P.0.6 JST crimp terminal
IMG_6805_Original.jpeg


About a week ago, while working on the power supply, the monitor crapped out on me. I went to turn on the monitor but all I got was a very bright white screen and some clicking noise on the monitor chassis. The monitor would shut down after 20 seconds too. I asked a few knowledgeable folks and @opt2not pointed me to the horizontal output transistor. @rewrite also shared that new capacitors might also put renewed stress on an old HOT. I had been told to leave the HOT alone if the chassis was working because modern replacements weren't as robust as the originals and this is where the backup YAJ chassis came in. The monitor fired right up with the YAJ chassis HOT. Hat tip to the knowledgeable OGs on this forum including @AlxUnderBase who helped me troubleshoot.

While the colors looked okay (albeit a little washed out) to my eye, I hooked up a B&K 467 CRT tester and rejuvenator to it to see what I was working with. I had picked this tester up a while back and wanted to see how the guns were doing. I have recently refurbished and calibrated the tester following Andy King's excellent guide on the CRT Database and also with help from @BuddyC. (Capacitor kit for B&K 467 CRT Tester). Unsurprisingly, (the coin counter reads well over 200,000 plays) the red, green, and blue guns all read "bad." I figured a low stress "clean & balance" rejuvenation might help here. After hooking it all back up, I noticed two things immediately, the colors were a tiny bit better (but that's probably just in my head since the guns never made it passed bad even after the rejuvenation) and the convergence was a lot better. I'm still seeing convergence and purity issues in the corners but it's pushed out further into the corners and far less pronounced. I won't be doing a full rejuvenation since I'm mostly happy with the colors and figure I may as leave well enough alone.

IMG_2176_Original.jpeg


Next steps are to pull the monitor from the frame and really dial in the colors, geometry, convergence, and purity. Also, maybe a sharpness mod to the chassis. I figure I can do this while the cabinet is being repainted.
 
Last edited:
kikaso said:
My general to-do list for this beautiful piece of arcade history is:
  1. repair cracks in plastic on control panel support
  2. repair cracks in plastic on control panel base
  3. sand and paint entire cabinet including powder coat paint for metal panels
  4. electroplate bare metal brackets
    replace marquee light
  5. procure and refurbish replacement monitor chassis
  6. refurbish original power supply
  7. replace locks and keys
  8. replace control panel with 2L12B reproduction
  9. replace damaged, stripped, or missing fasteners
  10. replace the AC power cord with new grounded cord
Click to expand...

What about
11. Arcade Party!
 
I purchased a Sega NVS-4000 power supply for this project with the goal of converting from mono to stereo sound. The new PSU isn't a direct drop-in so I had to build a harness adapter. It wasn't terribly easy to find information on how to do this so I am posting my process here.

Background

My New Astro City came with a Sega 400-5198 power supply that does not include a stereo amp. The PSU supports all of the voltages you would need in a typical JAMMA setup, 5V, 12V, and -5V.

IMG_7226.jpeg


The Sega NVS-4000 has a built-in stereo amp in addition to the PSU board. This PSU, however, is not fully JAMMA compatible as it does not have the -5V line that some PCBs require for audio. The consolation here is that this PSU supports 3.3V in addition to 5V and 12V making it a great PSU for JVS plus most JAMMA games. In reality, only a small percentage of JAMMA games require -5V for audio and for those that do, there are pretty straightforward solutions that I won't get into here.

IMG_7224.jpeg


Frustratingly, I wasn't able to find much information on harness adapters for the NVS-4000. I do know that Sega made harness adapters in order to install this PSU into a NAC but I couldn't find any solid information on pinouts. In all honesty, I didn't look very hard given I love a good crimp job. I did find new harness adapters on eBay from a seller in Europe but it was about $60 plus taxes and shipping but I figured doing it myself would allow me to share what I've learned.

Crimpin' Ain't Easy

I'm a visual learner and so the first thing that I did was to map the pinout in Google Sheets for the NVS-4000. Since my particular cabinet is wired for the 400-5198, I mapped that one out as well.

IMG_7231.jpeg


I was also making a harness adapter for a friend. Their NAC is wired for the 400-5198-01X PSU so here's the pinout map for that too.

IMG_7232.jpeg


I used UL1007 for most of the wiring in the harness adapter; it's the specification Sega used in the original wiring. I used 18AWG (0.823mm2) for all wires carrying voltage to minimize voltage drop and 22AWG (0.3255mm2) for all other wires. For the AC wires, I used UL1015 18AWG, (0.823mm2) wiring. The insulation is thicker on this specification compared to UL1007 and thicker insulation means UL1015 can carry higher voltages. This is the specification Sega calls for in their wiring diagram.

Thankfully, Sega was pretty good about using standard, (and still available) connectors in their cabinet wiring. For all connectors below, use AMP UP connectors and their associated pins. When facing the PSU receptacle, the circuits are numbered right to left.

IMG_7248.jpeg


Whichever way your cabinet is wired, if your PSU didn't come with a harness connecting the sound amp to the PSU, you'll have to build one for yourself. While the PSU assembly is encased in one metal box, the sound amp and PSU aren't connected internally. Gather one 3-position plug, one 15-position plug, some high quality wiring, and a ferrite core for this task.
  • Circuit 1 on the 3-position plug (neutral) connects to circuit 5 on the 15-position plug.
  • Circuit 3 on the 3-position plug (live) connects to circuit 15 on the 15-position plug.
  • Loop both wires around a ferrite core to minimize any video or audio signal noise.

In order to ground the PSU, insert a wire into circuit 2 of the 15-position plug and connect it to the ground lug on the back of the cab, (where the power cord comes into the cab) or to the leg leveler grounding screw just in front of the PSU.

IMG_7227.jpeg


400-5198-01X Adapter Harness

The good news, if your cabinet is wired for a 400-5198-01X, is that the adapter is a little more straightforward. The DC sub harness (18-position connector) for the 400-5198-01X matches up almost perfectly to the NVS-4000. The only difference is that the speaker positive and negative (circuits 17 and 18) lines of the JAMMA harness need to be routed to the sound amp and not the PSU on the NVS-4000 side. A reckless person would just snip those wires, add a connector, and plug it straight into the 'sound in' receptacle of the NVS-4000 but we're not reckless. What I did here was to build what is, essentially, an extension harness for the 18-position connector on the cabinet side but left out the -5V line, (circuit 5). For the SP+ (circuit 17) and SP-, (circuit 18) lines, I terminated those in a separate 4-pin connector.
  • Circuit 18 on the harness side connects to circuits 2 and 4 on the 4-position plug on the PSU side--just jump circuits 2 and 4 on the PSU side plug.
  • Circuit 17 on the harness side connects to circuits 1 and 3 on the 4-position plug on the PSU side--jump circuits 1 and 3 as above.

IMG_7228.jpeg


This 4-circuit connector goes to the SOUND OUT receptacle of the NVS-4000. This is for mono audio; I will review how to get stereo audio later. Additionally, I also included a way to disconnect the AF+, (circuit 16) and AF-, (circuit 12) on the extension harness but I'll get back to that later--this is also related to stereo audio.

The cabinet side 9-circuit plug includes the AC sub harness used to power the monitor and marquee fluorescent light. This plugs right into the AC 100V OUT receptacle of the PSU. Easy!

The remaining 15-circuit plug gets a little more complicated. You need to build a short extension harness that starts with a 15-position receptacle on the harness side and terminates into two plugs on the PSU side, one 3-position and one 6-position.
  • Circuits 15 and 5, are the neutral and live wires that get connected to the AC 100V IN receptacle on the amp side of the PSU, (circuits 3 and 1)--this brings AC power into the NVS-4000. DON'T SCREW THIS UP!
  • Circuits 11 and 13 on the harness side handle the demag circuit and terminate in a 6-position plug that goes into the MONITOR receptacle of the PSU, (circuits 4 and 5)--orientation doesn't matter.

400-5198 Adapter Harness

The adapter harness for a cabinet wired for a 400-5198 PSU is a little less straightforward and requires some patience and attention to detail.

The 9-position plug on the cabinet side is the DC sub harness and needs a short extension harness that terminates in an 18-position plug on the PSU side.
  • Circuits 2, 3, and 4 (5V lines) connect to circuits 3, 4, and 11 on the DC OUT 1 receptacle of the PSU.
  • Circuits 5, 6, 7, and 8 (grounds) connect to circuits 2, 8, 9, and 14 on the DC OUT 1 receptacle of the PSU.
  • Circuit 9, (12V) connects to circuit 1 on the DC OUT 1 receptacle of the PSU.
  • Leave circuit 1 (-5V) unpopulated on the adapter harness.

The 8-position plug on the cabinet side is the AC / monitor sub harness and needs a short extension harness that terminates in two plugs on the PSU side, one 9-position (AC 100V OUT) and one 6-position (MONITOR).
  • Circuits 3 and 4 on the harness side connect to circuits 1 and 3 of the 9-position AC 100V OUT receptacle of the PSU.
  • Circuits 7 and 8 on the harness side connect to circuits 7 and 9 of the 9-position AC 100V OUT receptacle of the PSU.
  • Circuits 1 and 2 on the harness side connect to circuits 4 and 5 of the 6-position MONITOR receptacle of the PSU.

The 3-position plug on the cabinet side is the AC in sub harness and can plug right into the 3-position receptacle of the PSU--AC 100V IN. Don't screw this up!

The 4-position plug on the harness side handles the test and service buttons and the mono sound in and needs a short extension harness that terminates in the 18-position DC OUT 1 plug we built above.
  • Circuit 2 on the harness side connects to circuit 6 on the 18-position plug on the PSU side.
  • Circuit 1 on the harness side connects to circuit 15 on the 18-position plug on the PSU side.
  • Circuit 3 on the harness side connects to circuit 16 on the 18-position plug on the PSU side.
  • Circuit 4 on the harness side connects to circuit 12 on the 18-position plug on the PSU side.
  • For circuits 1 and 2, I included a 2-position connector in between the extension harness. This is to disconnect the mono audio in case you're using stereo audio. More information on that below.

Finally, the 2-position plug on the cabinet side is the speaker harness and needs a short extension harness that terminates in a 4-position plug.
  • Circuit 1 on the harness side connects to circuits 1 and 3 on the 4-position plug on the PSU side--just jump circuits 1 and 3 on the PSU side plug.
  • Circuit 2 on the harness side connects to circuits 2 and 4 on the 4-position plug on the PSU side--jump circuits 2 and 4 as above.

IMG_7234.jpeg


Stereo Sound

In order to get stereo sound on your cabinet, you'll have to build yourself a harness for the SOUND IN receptacle and one for the SOUND OUT. The SOUND IN harness has RCA plugs that connect to your game and a 4-position connector on the other end that connects to the PSU.
  • The right speaker RCA plug, (usually red color) connects to circuits 1, (positive) and 2, (negative) of the 4-position connector.
  • The left speaker RCA plug, (usually white color) connects to circuits 3, (negative) and 4, (positive of the 4-position connector.

IMG_7229.jpeg


The SOUND OUT harness replaces the existing mono harness that goes from the sound amp on your game through your old PSU to the speakers. Open the control panel and the left most 4-position connector routes audio from the sound amp to the speakers. Unplug the speaker sub harness and make a new harness using one 4-position plug and one 4-position receptacle with panel mount clips.
  • Circuit 1 on the panel mount receptacle in the CP connects to circuit 3 of the plug on the PSU side.
  • Circuit 2 on the receptacle connects to circuit 4 on the plug.
  • Circuit 3 on the receptacle connects to circuit 1 on the plug.
  • Circuit 4 on the receptacle connects to circuit 2 on the plug.

IMG_7230.jpeg


Whenever you are running stereo sound, be sure to disconnect the mono sound in--the two audio lines on the 18-position plug on the PSU. You should not be feeding the PSU mono and stereo at the same time. Each time you switch from stereo to mono or vice versa, you'll have to swap the 4-wire harness that goes up to the speakers through the CP.

Big thanks to @TodoRojo for his very good written guide on his restoration thread and accompanying YouTube video.
 
Last edited:
Awesome write up man! Love seeing this thing get restored and the breakdown of your process.
 
I made some kick harness connectors for the cabinet this week; Sega IO, CPS1, and CPS2.

IMG_7250.jpeg


For those interested, I use a Hozan P-706 crimping tool and Engineer PAW-32 wire stripper and both work well for me.

I have used the crimping tool for the following connector pins and haven’t had any issues thus far
  • Hirose DF1B (CPS2 kick harness)
  • JST EH
  • JST NH
  • JST PH
  • JST PHD
  • JST VH
  • JST VL
  • JST XH
  • Molex mini-fit
  • AMP Universal Power
 
Hi there, just wanted to give a note re: convergence. The yoke you put on looks to me like a MS9-29SU yoke, that matches to a Hitachi tube (often M68JUA068X or similar) rather than the Toshiba tube (A68KJU96X). That's a swap I've never tried, but those two tubes aren't shaped exactly the same nor made by the same manufacturer, so it might become an uphill battle. If you can find the correct Toshiba yoke down the line and swap that in, you might have an easier time. Beware eBay sellers who hack MS8-29 yokes to plug into MS9-29 chassis and market them as MS9-29 yokes, though (look for the yellow and brown wire pair).
 
Oh man I remember this cab when borderline got it.
They actually left the tube in the cab when they sprayed it in china, because theres over spray on the actual dag coating on the back of the tube.... its not like a big big big deal but its just.. ||

Nice work so far man!
 
kikaso said:
I made some kick harness connectors for the cabinet this week; Sega IO, CPS1, and CPS2.

IMG_7250.jpeg


For those interested, I use a Hozan P-706 crimping tool and Engineer PAW-32 wire stripper and both work well for me.

I have used the crimping tool for the following connector pins and haven’t had any issues thus far
  • Hirose DF1B (CPS2 kick harness)
  • JST EH
  • JST NH
  • JST PH
  • JST PHD
  • JST VH
  • JST VL
  • JST XH
  • Molex mini-fit
  • AMP Universal Power
Click to expand...
You did a art by crimping that harnesses 🙏🏻 They actually look & feel like factory made ones ✌🏻
 
Hatsune Mike said:
Hi there, just wanted to give a note re: convergence. The yoke you put on looks to me like a MS9-29SU yoke, that matches to a Hitachi tube (often M68JUA068X or similar) rather than the Toshiba tube (A68KJU96X). That's a swap I've never tried, but those two tubes aren't shaped exactly the same nor made by the same manufacturer, so it might become an uphill battle. If you can find the correct Toshiba yoke down the line and swap that in, you might have an easier time. Beware eBay sellers who hack MS8-29 yokes to plug into MS9-29 chassis and market them as MS9-29 yokes, though (look for the yellow and brown wire pair).
Click to expand...

Good eye! I also have another MS9 yoke but the convergence was way off on that too. I guess I should stick with the other one, (non-SU)?

IMG_6807.jpeg
 
GeekMan1222 said:
Oh man I remember this cab when borderline got it.
They actually left the tube in the cab when they sprayed it in china, because theres over spray on the actual dag coating on the back of the tube.... its not like a big big big deal but its just.. ||

Nice work so far man!
Click to expand...

Thanks!

It takes 30 seconds to remove the tube? Don’t know why someone didn’t remove it.

I take it that there’s no easy risk free way of removing the overspray from the tube😇
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top