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Maximum Tune 3DX+ Restoration/Refurbish

WMMT6 still uses the same shifters, so you can buy all parts from Namco if you have a contact.

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In the US you cannot buy the parts individually. Namco of America will only sell you entire shifters, as far as I understand.
 
WMMT6 still uses the same shifters, so you can buy all parts from Namco if you have a contact.

wmmt_shifter_parts.png
Yeah, sadly I don't have anyone who can buy from Namco Japan. I asked the USA branch and they said if it's not on their web store, they don't sell it. They also use their own part number system, and their prices are crazy. I've been gambling buying entire used shifters from China for $30 to use for parts and combining them into a few good ones, haha.
 
Got all 4 bezels on and polished up. So nice having them all match finally. Also the really nice wheels on every cab.

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I started on a big audio upgrade. Got a great deal on 4 Tang Band W5-1138SMF woofers, and I'm upgrading the 24v PSUs with Mean Well 350w units, and replacing the stock Namco amp with the cheap dual TPA3116D2 chinese chip amps. These are small dual-chip units which offer a 2x50w stereo output and a 1x 100w woofer output with adjustable low pass filter, making it ideal for a use case like this. The woofer I chose has low sensitivity, but makes up for it with a significantly lower frequency response than the other options.

The original amp is only rated for about 40w. Also, the low pass is tuned way too high, so distortion was quite bad and showed up at low volume. In the test I did, this new setup sounds significantly better than stock, offers deeper bass and goes much louder without distortion.

All of the amps need their bluetooth chip removed and bypassed so people can't connect to it. There is a guide here: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/help-with-zk-tb21.383644/

Unfortunately with the bluetooth chips removed, the circuit responsible for solving startup pop is also removed. You can solve this by adding a schottky diode and a capacitor to pull the mute pin high on startup. https://www.360customs.de/en/2015/0...schaltung-anti-pop-auch-fuer-tpa3116-tpa3118/

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It's a bit janky, but it works great. :)
 
G'day bud!
Joined specifically to be able to message you and ask some questions in regards to the mt3 card readers!
Would that be ok?
 
Been working on tons of stuff in the background but finally some big news. I spent some time going through all the public dumps and info and was able to get the game running decrypted and dongle-free off an SD to IDE adapter on the N2. The gist of the process is:

  • Flash the two bios chips with the patched ones which allow you to load non-AES encrypted containers (U15_DEC.bin and U16_DEC.bin from the public dumps)
  • Image a new drive with the raw 3DX+ image and replace ALL of the files in the ext3 partition with their decrypted counterparts (also public)
  • Modify the /sbin/init script in aeinitrd.img to bypass the aemount failure case
  • Unsquash /boot/exec/boot and modify the script '.profile' to bypass the initial dongle check entirely and not load aksusbd (safenet daemon). Needs to be repacked with squashfs-tools 2.1 which is ancient
  • Unsquash the game container and replace the 'main' executable with a version that patches out the dongle check. Also needs to be repacked with squashfs-tools 2.1.

Still have a number of things to do before public release but it does work and eliminates the need for married hard drives. Right now I have about a month before these go to their first show and there's still a bunch that needs to be done. This is the first time all cabinets have been on at the same time, and the first time a 4-way game has worked.

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We had an issue with the clock settings not propagating correctly, which gave issues with data merging. The way we were able to get it to work was to disconnect all cabs from the LAN hub, set all the clocks, let the game complete a full attract cycle (cabinet sync jobs happen during the title screen). Then reconnect all cabinets to LAN, go back into test menu and exit so all cabinets find each other again. It will give you the message to reboot the system, just let a full attract cycle happen, then power off all machines and power them back on at the same time.

ALL artwork is now scanned and cleaned up or remade as a vector. A local print shop is handling the marquees and seat backs. Once those are printed, I will release the full set of cabinet artwork for anyone to use for any purpose.

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In preparation for the new seat artwork, I removed all the seat backs, then wet sanded and polished them. Lots of paint overspray all over from China, so it's a big improvement.

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More very soon!
 
This is such good news!!! Super excited to be able to run these off a SSD and have an image of it that is easy to copy over if the drive ever goes bad!
 
I will be, as time permits, going through the release of this modification and getting it cleaned up and working. Sadly I had hit roadblocks with running data on a non-N2 PC that stopped me dead in my tracks.

Also of note we could only get the cabs to link with a hub as there was something weird with multicast traffic not being transmitted properly with two different switches we tried that originally worked when using factory OS install + dongle. Will be trying some other switches that support IGMP snooping as that is my hunch currently on why linking is not working.

Probably will have the modded game images battle tested during a convention that the cabs will be going to next month and then release based on the results of that.
 
Some less than great news--my last spare STR2 steering board is having issues. Both boards that arrived in the Chinese cabs arrived completely dead (logic side lights up, motor has no movement at all), I replaced one with a spare, but now my second spare appears to be bad. It disconnects from the machine randomly after 5-10 minutes, and the problem follows the board. I want to repair it in the future but I really don't have time right now.

If you have an STR2 V320 that's tested working 100% which I can buy, please DM me asap!!!


Also, unfortunately the print shop that was handling my marquee and seat decal prints did not complete the job as asked and I need to try another shop on Monday. 3 different shops have so far been unable to reproduce the vivid neon green used on the decals exactly.
 
No more giant hole. This weekend, I get to apply NOS side art :) It didn't come through in the photos, but what it came with was a really crappy reprint, hand cut with scissors.

Interestingly, the plastic material on this one is slightly different. It is less glossy, a shade or two brighter, and feels more durable. It feels like a thinner, smoother version of the Rush The Rock green plastic. I might hit it with some ceramic coating before applying the artwork to see if it will gloss up like the other ones.

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I managed to source another STR2 board from Canada--it arrived and now all four cabinets have working FFB with my own boards. I put some temporary marquees on, closed up the cabs, and hosted the first playtest with several players from the local 5DX+ scene. It went great, no crashes or issues.

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These are VERY close to complete. I have a short checklist of things to do:

  • Replace bad cab 3 side plastics
  • Replace cab 3 temporary monitor with PFX (parts arrive monday)
  • Replace marquees with final prints
  • Install seat art (waiting for prints)
  • Replace shifter cover plates (6 on order, arrives next 10 days)
  • Install front speaker boxes on cabs 3 and 4
  • Final tuning and cleaning
 
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