Today I worked on lots o’ cabs! (The CRT porn thread)

[BuddyC]

Finally got all the parts I needed to finally complete one of the Mario Karts that had given me major headaches, so it was time to fix the shit out of it!

Was sold as working, but had a faulty chassis, busted speakers and a fubar Triforce unit…
Got a surprisingly clean spare PD1843 chassis from Yaton and some new speakers that I found by accident (https://www.arcade-projects.com/thr...rs-for-mario-kart-gp-2-cab.21179/#post-342156), but hooked it up to my trusty Rejuvinator first just to check the tube.

Not at all the results a tube from 2003 should produce, but a quick clean & balance worked wonders! Everything in the green.

After installing the new chassis I was greeted by this lovely image

Needs some love!

Convergence was surprisingly good, so just some tweaks to screen and focus & color calibration. Results where quite nice if I may say som myself.

 

[BuddyC]

Mario Kart GP2 good to go!

 

[ChrisBEANS]

Alchemy… straight alchemy

 

[BuddyC]

Today I had a date with a 2-player Star Wars Arcade Racer. Both chassis need a full recap and most likely a new flyback, but operator wanted them in ok playing condition until we could get some backup chassis in stock. With 472 000 plays, it has definitely seen some shit!

Monitor was epic nasty, so I polished the glass with my old friend Novus 2
Mmm… Much better!

Opened the back and found my old arch nemesis…Shanghai novel tube and Sanwa 29E31S chassis. Damn I hate this combo…

Most of the caps looks ripe for recap, but lets make it as pretty as possible.
Colors needed alot of adjustments, flyback was set way too low, contrast and brightness almost at max. Looks like shit…

Before:

 

[BuddyC]

After some love! Not perfect until recap etc is done, but perfectly serviceable until then.

 

[Mrhide]

The one who did adjustment before you needs some glasses!
And I love the smell of novus 2 in the morning!

 

[BuddyC]

The one who did adjustment before you needs some glasses!
And I love the smell of novus 2 in the morning!

My best guess is that no one has done any adjustments in 15+ years…

 

[nem]

Monitor must have been replaced at some point? I have a Shanghai Novel out of an Arcade Racer and it has some crazy burn in.

Nice work once again!

 

[BuddyC]

Thanks @nem According to the operator, cab is 100% stock directly from Sega Europe. Was expecting a Tosh-Nanao combo…. Kind of a bummer.
Ps. I also got zapped by a failing Intervideo flyback today.
It sucked.

 

[nem]

It can't have that many hours on it if there's no burn in

Arcade Racers all came with 29e31s. Cosmic Smash and Monkey Ball also. I want to say Ghost Squad too. Can't remember what else. It is a very common chassis in dedicated Sega cabs (unfortunately).

 

[BuddyC]

Haha! It has pretty nasty burn in, but since it’s burn in from the same game it looks ok-ish. Full white screen… Not so much..

#creditburn-party

Looks WAY worse in person

 

[Megalocade]

Started to work on this beast of a Neo Geo sitdown cab. Has a very nice 33” CRT with a intervideo chassis. Just needed some flyback adjustments and general geometry adjustments. Color was good and everything worked, So a easy start.

Picture looks nice! Baconstrip scan-lines!

First time playing with a Intervideo chassis. Pretty easy to use.

Those Intervideo chassis are excellent especially that particular one, Just dug out one to put in my Big Blue, I've got a box of them for all size tubes in storage parts are easy to get for them too, there is a couple of off shoots of these boards made by Selti and Sivid both Intervideo Italian brands and are identical i have loads of them as well, thing I like about these chassis is they will pretty much marry up with any Yoke without a problem and have a good range of picture adjustment pots aswell.

 

[BuddyC]

Those Intervideo chassis are excellent especially that particular one, Just dug out one to put in my Big Blue, I've got a box of them for all size tubes in storage parts are easy to get for them too, there is a couple of off shoots of these boards made by Selti and Sivid both Intervideo Italian brands and are identical i have loads of them as well, thing I like about these chassis is they will pretty much marry up with any Yoke without a problem and have a good range of picture adjustment pots aswell.

I do like chassis from intervideo. Easy to fix and calibrate. Good stuff!

 

[BuddyC]

Today was a challenge… Time Crisis II - Redux.

I did some work on this cab about a year ago. Both tubes was really starting to show their age back then, but it has been relatively stable until last week. Tube was dim and chassis was on its last legs.
Let’s do some CRT-CPR!

Local arcade technician put in a Hantarex Polo in the player 2 cab, but it was according to him very dim, bad focus and fucked colors.
#gangster wiring..

Player 1 cab still used a Intervideo chassis that has seen better days. Thought I might as well give it some rejuv-loving while I’m at it + a new calibration.

# gangster wiring part 2

Hooked up my trusty B&K 467 to do a test on the tube and….. Nothing.

No response to cut off. No life left in the tube. All guns fucked..
Even after a clean and balanc (rejuv light) I still got nothing.
Time to bring out the big guns!

I needed to do a full rejuvenate 3 times on both tubes just to get some life back to it. 3 times is a lot… Got G1- K shorts on both tubes and some crazy neck glow during surgery. These tubes was on their last legs!
Are shooter cabs more receptive to CRT fatigue? Looks like it.

Got some life back to them, but I’ll give them max 3-4 months of full operation before they go to CRT afterlife. Green gun better, but still crap.
Still impressed by my rejuv though. A real champ!

 

[BuddyC]

They live! Looks like shit, but hey… Alive and kicking!

Both cabs sucked to calibrate. Colors was all over the place and both had pretty poor/shitty focus. Could be tube, bad chassis or just gangster wiring, but my best guess is tube on its last legs.
I think both of them deserve to retire soon, so I pimped them to the best om my knowledge so they could be in full operation until operator gets 2 spare tubes to replace them.

Not great, but not bad for dead tubes. Full color and good convergence. Kind of shit focus, but the best I could do.
Perfectly playable with full tracking for both guns.

P1 cab

P2 (Was stone cold dead…)

Not to bad

 

[Megalocade]

Those B&K 467 Rejuvenators are the best if they can't bring a tube back then nothing will, got one my self after the tube in my sf2 cab died, brought it back and 3 year later still works fine, the tube has so many hours on it that even big ben would look on with envy.

 

[hoagtech]

Player 1 looks low on red power and too red in the image at the same time. That's an arcade oxymoron issue

 

[BuddyC]

Player 1 looks low on red power and too red in the image at the same time. That's an arcade oxymoron issue

That’s a sure sign of a dying tube

 

[nem]

I’ll give them max 3-4 months of full operation before they go to CRT afterlife

I expect closer to 3-4 weeks.

Out of interest, what kind of tubes? I think you could find TV tubes for them pretty easily.

 

[BuddyC]

I expect closer to 3-4 weeks.

Out of interest, what kind of tubes? I think you could find TV tubes for them pretty easily.

3-4 weeks sounds more realistic.
The 2 player one that was basic dead was a Thompson A66-something..I forgot to write it down. Player 1 had no tube sticker, so don’t know.

Would be fun to try a tube swap! Any suggestions @nem?. Not a lot of CRT available here in Norway anymore.