While switching power supplies are the standard in newer arcade games, classics such as Ms. Pac Man and Galaga originally had non-switching, linear power supplies that can be quite intimidating at first glance. These classic (or old school) power supplies usually look like a brick located at the bottom of your cabinet and can be difficult to work with due to years of wear and tear. In this post, we will discuss how to check the voltage coming out of your classic power supply as well as how to check the voltage on your board at the harness connection.

Checking A Classic Power Supply

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ff7TpOMV7I

First off, we want to identify where our classic power supply is in our cabinet. These power supplies are typically located at the bottom of the cabinet and resemble a brick-like structure. They should have AC voltage coming into of the bottom of one side either directly from the wall or from an AC filter. The bottom of the other side should contain the DC voltages that go out to the board and other cabinet parts such as coin lights. Be careful not to mistake your isolation transformer with your power supply. Isolation transformers can look very similar to classic power supplies except for the fact that they only use AC voltage and typically just run the power to the monitor. They usually have two wires coming into the bottom for AC input from the wall or AC filter and two coming out of the top for AC output to the monitor.

If you just see one brick-like structure in the bottom of you cabinet it could be that you have a dual power supply/isolation transformer unit. If this is the case then the bottom of both sides should have AC input lines with the top of one side putting out DC voltage to the board and the top of the other side putting out AC voltage to the monitor. While these dual units are not as common, they are certainly something to be aware of in case you run across one.

Once we have located the power supply in our cabinet, we can begin the process of checking the voltages. Let’s start off by setting our multimeter to DC voltage just like we would if we were checking a standard switching power supply. Now we must identify which of our contact points are grounds and which ones hold voltages. Most of these power supplies were labeled at one time or another, however, age and normal wear and tear usually leave them in an unreadable state. Instead of just randomly touching our contact points without a clue, we recommend placing the black probe of your multimeter on the AC ground coming from the wall. The AC ground is usually easier to located than the DC ground and allows us to check the contact points safely with our red probe. Obviously if we touch a contact point on our power supply and the multimeter doesn’t indicate any voltage then we are probably touching a ground point.

Something to keep in mind when checking our classic power supply is that not all of them put out the same voltage. For example, a Ms. Pac Man usually puts out 7 VDC instead of the standard 5 VDC because of the other cabinet parts that use that particular line. If you find that your power supply is giving off higher voltage than what the manual for the game shows then you might try checking the voltage where the board connects to the harness. This can usually be accomplished by finding the ground and DC voltage pins on your harness (via your manual) and placing your multimeter probes on these points. Your board might have easily accessible contact points that you can place your probes on for testing. Whatever way you decide to check the voltage going to your board, performing this check allows you to make sure your board is not just getting power but the correct voltage.

You might also notice some fuses located in the bottom of your arcade cabinet around the power supply. While you can certainly check these in the traditional manner that we discuss in our post on Checking Fuses With A Multimeter, you can also check them with the game on by placing your black probe on a ground point and the red probe on the other side of the fuse. If voltage is flowing through the fuse then you know that it is good. Also, make sure that you are careful when working with an arcade game that’s plugged in. Always take the necessary measures to make sure you are safe when working in these situations.

Most of the arcade games that people consider classics such as Ms. Pac Man and Galaga did not have the benefit of switching power supplies when they were produced. As such, having the skills to check a classic power supply can be a very valuable as you work on these older arcade games. Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions by leaving them in the comments section below.

If you’ve worked on many arcade games, you might have come across a problem where your picture does not fill up the entirety of your screen even after you’ve tried multiple potentiometer adjustments. It could be that this problem is related to a part on your monitor chassis called the horizontal width coil. In this post, we will discuss how to adjust the horizontal width coil so that the picture fills your screen on your arcade monitor.

Adjusting The Horizontal Width Coil

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuTlChCko4k

Before you begin, we highly recommend purchasing a plastic or non-conductive alignment tool kit. These kits come with plastic tools that are specifically used to adjust these kinds of parts. You can use an Allen wrench to adjust the horizontal width coil, however, there are many down sides to doing this. For one, an Allen wrench generates a lot of torque that could cause your coil to crack or break. Also, you must have the game off while you are using the Allen wrench to adjust the coil. If the game is on when doing this the Allen wrench will heat up and can burn your hands not to mention that you will be navigating around some very high voltage areas with a piece of metal in your hand. Take our recommendation and purchase a plastic or non-conductive alignment tool kit.

Buy the Non-Conductive Alignment Tool Set, 5 Pc. from Amazon.com now!

Buy the Universal Color TV Alignment Tool Kit from HAPP Controls now!

Please make sure to be careful around your chassis if you are attempting to adjust the coil while the game is on. Should you make contact with any high voltage areas on your chassis you could receive a bad shock. Be very cautious at all times when attempting this process. Also, it’s a good idea to set up a mirror in a position where you can the results that are caused from your adjustment.

Now that you have the correct tools and setup, it is time to adjust the horizontal width coil. Take your alignment tool and carefully place it into the coil and attempt to turn it. You may need to turn it clockwise and counter-clockwise a couple of times to loosen it up. Try not to force it too hard as too much torque even with the alignment tool can break your coil. If you cannot get it to turn or do not see a change in your monitor you might try leaving the monitor on for about an hour and retrying this process. This should cause the coil to heat up making it more easy to adjust.

If you have tried the techniques we’ve mentioned and you still do not see the changes you want, you could have more of a capacitor problem than a horizontal width coil problem. Look around your coil and see if you can find any polypropylene capacitors. These capacitors typically look like rather large pieces of Chiclets chewing gum and also control the picture width. Try replacing these capacitors to see if it changes your picture. You could also try checking your B+ voltage adjustment on your chassis. If the value of it is incorrect (it should be 120 VDC on most monitors) then this could also cause some picture size issues.

A Polypropylene Capacitor

Buy a Monitor Width Cap Kit from Bob Roberts now!

If you deal with enough arcade games you will eventually come across this problem where the picture does not fill up the entirety of your screen. Knowing how to adjust the horizontal width coil as well as the other measures we described should help you greatly in solving these issues in the future. As always, please leave any questions or suggestions in the comments section below.

Repairing arcade monitors relies heavily on your ability to identify where the problem resides. Being able to tell where on a chassis the problem originates from will greatly increase your chances for a successful repair. In this post, we once again visit with our resident monitor repair guy Michael to talk about how to identify and repair some common monitor issues.

More Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael (Part One)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuZjLIzpVOc

More Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael (Part Two)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NLyvHD98rs

Most of the questions we received through the website are related to problems with arcade monitors. Since the topic of monitors is so prevalent, we thought we would once again get together with Michael to discuss some more monitor troubleshooting techniques.

In the picture above we have a horizontally mounted monitor that has what appears to be horizontal lines located in the top half of the screen. It is important to note what direction the lines are running as this will help us determine what section of the chassis we need to focus on. Even though you might think that this problem is located in the horizontal section of the chassis, it is actually related to the vertical section.

Side Note: There is a common misconception that horizontally mounted and vertically mounted monitors are different, however, they are actually the same monitor. The location of the mounting rails and the way the picture is displayed are the only differences between them. The anode (located underneath the suction cup) will always indicated the top of the monitor.

When you have these type of lines running along your screen, these are typically caused by a bad capacitor in the respective section of your chassis. There are many reasons why capacitors go bad. For instance, many electronics manufacturers use cheap capacitors to cut production costs. Also, dust can act like a big blanket on top of your board heating up components and causing them to fail. This is one reason why making sure your game is sufficiently cooled is so important. Please see our post on Installing A Fan In An Arcade Cabinet for more information on cooling.

Lets say we didn’t know that this problem was related to a capacitor, we could always start by identifying what is working with our monitor. Since we are getting a picture, we know that our flyback, anode and tube are probably good and that we are getting power to the monitor. Our colors look pretty accurate so the connections from the PCB and the neck board to the chassis are probably good as well as the neck board itself. This pretty much leaves us with just the chassis. This process-of-elimination technique works very well for troubleshooting the majority of parts in an arcade cabinet.

Now that we’ve identified the problem, we can now begin to track it down on our chassis. As we said before, this problem is more than likely caused by a bad capacitor in the vertical section of our monitor. Some monitors might have this section labeled on the chassis while others will not. A good way to determine the location of the vertical section is to trace down the yoke wires coming off of the tube to the chassis. A green or yellow yoke wire from the tube usually leads to the vertical section of the chassis. Conversely, a blue or red yoke wire usually leads to the horizontal section. These sections have a location number that corresponds with the parts in that section (i.e. the vertical section might be IC600 with the capacitors in the section being number C610). This will help you in determining which parts go with which section.

When we’ve located the vertical section, we can now begin to look at the parts associated with that section. On this particular monitor there were two capacitors located in this section. Using an ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) meter we were able to determine that the 100μf (microfarad) capacitor was bad while it was in circuit. You can also use a multimeter with a capacitance tester to check your capacitors but you must take them out of circuit (i.e. out of the board) to get an accurate reading.

Something we covered in our post on Installing A Cap Kit is the importance of replacing a cap with another cap of the exact same microfarad and in the exact same polarity position. Also remember that the voltage of the new cap does not have to match the voltage of the old cap. As long as the voltage is greater than or equal to the original cap you should be fine. Another reading you should consider when replacing a capacitor is the degrees. The degrees of a capacitor indicates what frequencies the capacitor is rated for. We recommend using 105 degree capacitors as they can handle most of the frequencies used in arcade monitors and power supplies.

Once we replaced the cap on this particular monitor, our picture was as good as new…

Remember you can always install an entire cap kit, however, these kits usually do not contain a replacement cap for every cap on the monitor chassis. Cap kits are usually comprised of capacitors that have a high failure risk. As such, your cap kit might not contain the capacitor you need to solve your particular problem. If you install a cap kit and continue to have the same problem, make sure you check some of the caps that you didn’t replace.

We talked a little bit about the thin horizontal line monitor problem in our original Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael post but thought we would revisit this topic for a moment. Should you have a monitor with this problem, check the vertical IC (Integrated Circuit) chip to see if it is good and if it is getting power. You can check it with a standard multimeter. You can try refreshing the solder around the chip but if that doesn’t work we recommend just replacing the chip altogether.

Learning how to identify problems with arcade monitors and being able to locate the source can save you a lot of time and trouble. With these techniques you should be able to narrow down the scope of your repair to just the trouble spots that are causing your particular issue. Good luck in the future with all of your arcade monitor repairs and if you have any questions please feel free to post them in the comments section below.

Arcade cabinets tend to take a little punishment over the years. Time really does take it’s toll on your arcade cabinet and sideart. In this post, we’re going to discuss how you can restore some of the life back in to your arcade cabinet by laminating it.

Laminating An Arcade Cabinet

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1hBA0011eI

One of the most popular parts of our old website, Tim’s Arcade Restoration, was a post that we put together about laminating an arcade cabinet. We thought that we would revisit this topic in this post and provide some additional information that we forgot to add the first time. Also, I thought for nostalgia sake that I would repost the original article on the site for those of you who haven’t seen it. Yep, we’ve definitely come a long way! Well, enough reminiscing, let’s get started.

Before we begin the lamination process, lets do some prep work. We started off by using an electric sander to sand our cabinet almost down to the bare wood. This allows the spray adhesive we use for the laminate to stick better to the cabinet. After sanding the cabinet, we took some bondo and filled in some of the holes and rough areas. Once the bondo hardened, we sanded it down to make it even with the cabinet. While this prep work can be time consuming, it can really make a difference in the quality of your laminating job.

With the prep work complete, we can now start laminating our cabinet. Laminating a cabinet requires three things: laminate, spray adhesive and a laminate router. You can purchase these items from your local hardware stores such as Lowes or Home Depot. You can also follow the links below to purchase these items. We usually use a sheet of black laminate (4′ by 8′) per cabinet side. You should have enough left to also laminate the top and the front depending on the size of your cabinet. These sheets are typically priced around $50 each. The spray adhesive that we recommend is High-Strength 90 Spray Adhesive by 3M. It usually runs around $15 a can and most jobs can be completed with one. Laminate routers vary in price depending on brand but you can get a basic one for around $100 or less.

Buy 3M High-Strength 90 Spray Adhesive from Amazon.com now!

Buy the Porter-Cable Laminate Trim Router from Amazon.com now!

Let’s start off your laminating project by measuring your cabinet and tracing it out on the laminate. Remember to add 4 or 5 inches to your measurements to make sure that every part that touches the cabinet has spray adhesive on it. Take the spray adhesive and apply it to your arcade cabinet and laminate. Spray the laminate only in the traced area that you are going to apply to the cabinet so that you don’t waste your spray adhesive. After this, wait 10 minutes so that the spray adhesive can start creating a bond with your cabinet and laminate.

Once you have waited 10 minutes, we can now apply the laminate to the cabinet. While you can do this yourself, it is nice to have help as the laminate can break if you are not careful with it. Line up the cabinet with the traced area on your laminate. Make sure that the laminate hangs over at least 2 inches on each side of the cabinet. With the laminate applied, push on it and wipe it down with a cloth so that it bonds with the cabinet. Let it sit for a minute while you get your laminate router ready.

Now that we’ve got the laminate on the cabinet, we can now use our laminate router to cut off the excess. Make sure you use a laminate router as sometimes regular routers don’t work as well on laminate. Also, make sure you have a laminate cutting bit as well. Take a look at the bottom edge of your cabinet and adjust the depth on your laminate router accordingly. It might take you a few tries to get just the right depth but once you do you can fly around the rest of the cabinet. With your laminate router adjusted to the right depth, start tracing the outside of the cabinet to cut the laminate. Remember, try not to force the router around the cabinet. It should move easily around with very little effort. After you’ve cut the majority of the excess laminate off, go ahead and trace it at least one more time to remove any small pieces that are still attached to the cabinet.

When you have finished cutting the excess laminate off, you can retrace the cabinet with the laminate router using a 23 degree bit. This is nice because it does give the cabinet a sharp looking beveled edge, however, it also allows you to see the edge of the laminate. We usually just take a sponge style sanding block and go around the edges to sand off those rough spots that are left over from the laminate router. Of course, you want to repeat this process with the other side of the cabinet and perhaps the front and top. Once you have done this, your laminating project is complete.

While it might take a little more effort than painting, laminating an arcade cabinet takes less time and the results are typically just as good if not better. It really gives new life to cabinets that have been beat up over the years and allows you to easily apply any sideart that you have. Please see our comments section if you have any questions or suggestion about our site or this post.

Installing a cap kit on your monitor chassis can be a great way to restore washed out colors as well as fix other problems that you might encounter. In this post, we will take a look at how to identify what cap kit you need and how to install it once you have received it.

Installing A Cap Kit

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XArHdR78K9M

Here’s another video from our friend Dan that also shows you how to install a cap kit. Thanks Dan for letting us use it!

Cap Kit (Dan’s YouTube Channel)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3EEPLjJeXg

Before you can install a cap kit you need to identify what cap kit you need. If you know the brand and model of your arcade monitor then getting the correct cap kit is easy. If you do not, however, then your first step is to find out. Look on the monitor frame or tube for any stickers that might indicate a brand and/or model. If you do not see any stickers or still can’t identify it, take out the chassis (please review how to Safely Discharge A Monitor) and compare it to the images on the What’s My Monitor? page on therealbobroberts.net. Bob Roberts is also a great source for cap kits if you need to purchase one.

Once you have identified, ordered, and received your cap kit, it’s time to get started with the installation. Before you start installing your cap kit, we recommend reviewing our post on Your First Arcade Toolbox as it goes over exactly what tools you will need to perform this procedure.

Now, let’s talk about some general information about electrolytic capacitors or caps. Most of the caps that you will receive in your cap kit will have two numbers printed on them. The first number is usually the voltage indicated by the letter v after it. The second number is usually the microfarad indicated by symbol μf after it. Caps also have polarity meaning that there is a positive and negative end. The negative end is usually indicated by the shorter lead and the positive the longer lead. There is also a stripe on the cap itself that will usually indicate the negative lead.

It is important to note that you must replace a cap with another cap of the exact same microfarad and in the exact same polarity position. Should you use a cap with the wrong microfarad or place it in the wrong polarity position your monitor will end up in worse shape than when you started. Another important note is that the voltage of the new cap does not have to match the voltage of the old cap. As long as the voltage is greater than or equal to the original cap you should be fine.

With all of that said, let’s replace our first cap. The first thing you want to do is locate a cap that you want to replace. A bad electrolytic capacitor will often swell or bulge at the top or leak out of the bottom, however, they can still be bad even if they don’t look bad. If you have an ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) meter you can test the cap before you remove it to see if it’s bad or not. Since caps are so cheap, however, it’s good to just go ahead and replace them all. Use either a desoldering iron or solder wick to remove the solder from around the leads of the original cap. Be careful not to pull up or damage the trace on the board as this can cause problems. Once that is done, remove the cap making sure that you note the polarity position of the negative and the positive leads.

Look through your cap kit and locate a cap that has the same microfarad and the same or greater voltage as the original cap. Put the new cap in the same place and polarity position as the original cap. Pull the leads up through the holes and bend them away from each other so that the cap stays in place. Solder the leads to the board using your soldering iron and some solder. Once the solder cools, clip the protruding part of the leads from the board using some wire cutters and you’re done with one cap. Continue repeating this process until you have used all the caps in your cap kit.

While applying a cap kit to a monitor will not fix every monitor problem, it can help with issues such as washed out colors, vertical drop, and/or lines across the top of the screen. Now you can fix these common issues yourself without too much trouble. Do you have any other comments or suggestions about installing a cap kit? Please leave them below in our comments section.

Knowing where to start when your monitor goes out can be a valuable time saver when repairing arcade games. In this post, our resident monitor repair guy Michael will give us some quick tips on how to troubleshoot some common issues.

Troubleshooting Monitors With Michael

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu7A-hcmhHM

There is not a whole lot of difference between an arcade monitor and a regular tv. The same electronic principles used in arcade monitors are also used in televisions. Knowing how to repair arcade monitors can help in repairing not just older televisions but newer televisions as well.

If your arcade monitor won’t come on, a good place to start is in the power supply. Follow the power cord from the connector to the chassis. This should lead you to the primary power supply. Check to see if there is a fuse around this area. If so, check the fuse to see if it is bad or good. If the fuse is bad, replacing it might not solve your problem. There is always a reason why a fuse blows. Check the surrounding components and make sure that they are not shorted to ground before replacing the fuse. You can refer to our article on Checking Fuses With A Multimeter for more information on fuses.

We have already talked about how dangerous arcade monitors can be in our Safely Discharge An Arcade Monitor post, however, this point can not be reiterated enough. Please be careful around the suction cup as it contains an anode that goes to the monitor tube. The wire coming out of the suction cup is attached to the flyback. A flyback can put out a large amount of volts depending on the chassis. If you suspect flyback trouble, the first thing to check is the HOT (Horizontal Output Transistor) with a standard multimeter to see if it’s shorted. If it is shorted, that’s a good indication that you have a bad flyback. If you hear a hissing noise around the flyback that might indicate that the casing is cracked. If upon futher examination you find that the casing is in fact cracked, replace the flyback.

Another good thing to know is that while cap kits can be helpful they will not fix everything. Some signs that might you need a cap kit include washed out colors, vertical drop, and/or lines across the top of the screen. A bad electrolytic capacitor will often swell or bulge at the top or leak out of the bottom, however, they can still be bad even if they don’t look bad. It’s a good idea to go ahead and replace all the caps if you are going to do one. A cap kit is easy to do and cap kits are pretty inexpensive.

If your monitor only displays a thin horizontal line in the middle, check the IC (Integrated Circuit) that powers the vertical to see if it is good and to see if it is getting power. You can check it with a standard multimeter.

You don’t need expensive tools to work on monitors. A good soldering iron and a multimeter will allow you to troubleshoot the majority of arcade monitor problems. ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) meters also help as they allow you to check capacitors in circuit so you don’t have to desolder and remove them to see if they are bad.

Well, good luck in the future with all of your arcade monitor troubleshooting. If you have any questions for Michael, please feel free to post them in the comments section below.