Still fighting Creature Reset issues

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CftBL
Posts: 183
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:59 pm
Location: Madison
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Still fighting Creature Reset issues

Post by CftBL »

I am going to apologize in advance, because I know I tend to be long winded.
I am also going to stated this is the first time I have truly torn in to the workings of my machine. I've been lucky for the last 8 years...
I have been continuing to work through my Creature Reset issues with the help of u2Sean. I wanted to make a post about it to 1) let others learn from my pain and 2)shake your head and laugh to your self saying, yup I've been there.

Back Story:
A dead machine led me to a leaking (newish) battery and a broken battery holder (it split at the seams under the battery), I moved the battery holder off the CPU. At the same time I cleaned up the board contacts on the entire CPU board and made sure I didn't have any bad solder joints on the pins.
This led me to a GI issue and a reset issue. After pulling the power driver board, I saw that it had been previously been repaired at least a couple times (the area of the board around C5 & BR2 looked especially mis-treated). I decided to avoid any driver board issues by just ordering a brand new Rottendog Driver board. When I put the new Rottendog board in, I replaced all of the IDC's that connected to the Driver board (yes even those little pain in the butt ones that use the smaller connectors). I buttoned everything up and the machine reset after several minutes of being on, then it went in to a continuous reset loop.
At this point I thought I had a transformer issue (see my Help finding Part please Post - lots of good useful information from you guys!), but it turns out a messed up the order on one of the IDC's (grrr). Fixing the order did not fix my reset issues. I then ran through all the PinWiki suggestions, Thermistor checked out, checked all my playfield diodes, house voltage variances, etc. Still getting resets. Sean put me on to a more thorough investigation of the logic circuit voltage. I went ahead and replaced all of the IDC's on the CPU board at this point - there was almost no change in the voltage supplied to the ePROM before and after replacing the IDC on J-210

This is where I am now. I measured all of the circuits (in table below). Nothing seems to low to me, but I could be wrong. I know I was told what the minimum voltage to cause a reset is, but I can't remember it. I am not sure if the voltages on the audio board are low enough to cause the machine reset.

Logic Circuit Voltages
Driver Board
at TP 2 5.001V
at J-114-(3,4) 4.973V
CPU Board
at J-210-(4,5). 4.973V
at CPU ePROM 4.937V
Audio Board
at J-502-(1,3) 4.966V (Haven't replaced this IDC yet, but going to
Dot Matrix Controller Board
at J-606-5 4.965V (Haven't replaced this IDC yet, but going to


Speaking of Audio boards, While pulling connections to measure voltages, I discovered that if I disconnect J-502 (logic power to audio board) the machine resets went away. So no audio, but the machine is 100% playable now. I am thinking that it has to be one of the capacitors associated with the logic circuit on the audio board. If this true, I would like to replace the board (if i can find one somewhere - I don't think anyone makes them for the WPC-89 series?) I am also thinking of having Coin-Op Cauldron go through the audio board for me; does anyone have experience with him? I don't mind working on a board that I know I can replace if I mess something up, but since I can't seem to find a replacement audio board, I'm a bit gun shy...

So in summary:
Is my logic correct?
Does anyone have experience with Coin-Op Cauldron?

Cheers!

Mike
Creature from the Black Lagoon, Twilight Zone, Star Wars Premium, Hobbit
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ralphwiggum
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Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2013 3:46 pm
Location: Helenville, WI
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Re: Still fighting Creature Reset issues

Post by ralphwiggum »

Audio boards can certainly cause reset issues, just doesn't happen all that often. Coin op Cauldron is great, no worries there. I can also look at the board for you, but it may be a couple of months before I get to it. The length of downtime is the downside, the upside is there would be no charge other than the components to fix it. I have a CFTBL here you are more than welcome to take boards out of and test yours in if you think that will help you troubleshoot yours more. I am super backed up on projects for myself and others, but am available every night after 9pm if you want to drive out and plug your stuff in to see what is going on.

I would (personally) get the original driverboard up and running and take the rottendog out of the equation, just a lot of hits and misses with the rottendog stuff. Their displays and power supllies are pretty reliable, everything else is a question mark.
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