Tempest debugging

Now that my friend and I have a working WG6100 (I even installed the IPC
board) it wsa time to put everything back together. We tested the
power supplies, put the monitor in the cabinet, installed the game board,
and fired the machine up. To our surprise, we saw the high score screen
come up on the display. But none of the buttons worked, nor did the
player start switches flash. I didn't notice at the time, the the attract
mode didn't start either.

So, we called it a day and Bill went home. As I was cleaning up, I realized
that since none of the I/O worked, and the attract mode wsan't coming up,
the math box was probably bad. I pulled the board set, pulled the big
interboard connector off the math box, checked for anything obviously wrong,
and re-assembled it and tested it.

Viola! The buttons worked, the attract mode started, and I could play the
game! Woot!

No sound though. I'll dig into that later. Can't be too hard to figure out.

The game did lock up once after about 5 minutes, but power cycling brought
it back and it didn't lock up again.

So, it looks like we're close to getting this machine restored. Besides
the sound (which I'll debug with my portable o-scope next time) I'm
wondering about how to ensure stability in the system.

We already have:

1. Replaced all the electrolytics on the Audio/Reg board.
2. Replaced the big blue cap in the power brick.
3. Cleaned the card edge connectors with q-tips and alcohol.

My concerns are:

1. The card edge connectors seem pretty loose, and I worry that they may
not be making good contact. Is there any advice on what to do here, save
replacing the connector? Bill suggested using a needle to bend the contacts
in the connector further out to make better contact. He used to have to do
that to his TRS-80, way back when.

2. What is the best way to ensure the interboard cable and connectors are
making good contact?

3. I see the Real Bob Roberts has a cap-kit for Tempest. Is that worth
doing? Working on a Tempest board is more delicate than the monitor boards,
so I don't want to risk pulling up any traces unless people think it's worth
installing the cap kit. I'm rather handy with a soldering iron, and have
two Metcal irons with lots of tips, so I have the tools and skill, but it's
still a risk.

Thanks everyone! We're almost there!

___
Ken
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Received on Sat Aug 6 19:17:12 2011