Still fighting Creature Reset issues
Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 1:12 pm
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
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