Pole Position Refurb. 11/09/14 Done.

[smarty]

Hi,

I was hoping to do this thread in more detail, but I have currently misplaced a whole SD card full of photos, so there's not really a lot of in progress shots of the cab being stripped and cleaned, when I find it I will update the thread.

Here's the photo's from the original post, as you can see the cab it pretty dirty, Its had a switcher installed at some point along with some good butchery on the loom, The rear wooden panel that holds 2nd ARII in place was broken. No Game board Present, but I could see the potential

Front view missing monitor at the time

Only real damage to the cab is the bottom left corner as shown in photo side art it yellowing

Power brick covered in 25 years of Arcade dust.

What I've done; well both ARII's have been rebuilt with new Caps and regulators, both had blown R29/30 usually due to poor edge connector connections, the power brick had the works too, with a complete strip down and rebuild. Fuse holder, fuses, big blue and a coat of paint to tidy thing up. See photo below of the finished brick.



Here's some photos of the cab with all of the loom been cleaned and refitted. As you can see, the back panel still needed to be replaced at the time of these photos. But It now look a damn site better.





I'll be the first to admit that I'm no carpenter, but my attempt at remaking the wooden back panel didn't come out too bad. I made it from some old Ply wood that I had and coated in in black emulsion paint. I should have black vinyl, I might do this once other parts of the cab a completed.

Everything fixed in place

So next up for the cab is to sort the edge connectors out as they're both badly worn out. Here's what I currently have...

Worn out with the Power and Ground having been chopped off

Hopefully I'll have more updates in the next few weeks.

smarty2014-09-11 13:33:35

 

[Setch]

Looking good so far

Whats your plans with the edge connector ?, replace with similar or solder type ?

 

[Bensonrad]

How did you get that brick so clean looking? are still going to use the switcher? or are you putting it right back to its good old days.

 

[DanP]

The switcher might be from the good old days. Atari released a retrofit guide on how to add a switcher to PP. The PCB's draw a lot of current so it's probably not a bad idea to connect up 5v and GND test points on the PCB to either the switcher or AR2 test points to give the lastictrickery another path to follow.

Good start so far btw

Dan

 

[Alpha1]

Very nice work!

 

[smarty]

Whats your plans with the edge connector ?

I have a Crimp/Solder connector from Bob Roberts for the larger one but have only managed to get a blue solder tag one for the 15 way. I may get another blue solder type for the larger type just for consistency.

How did you get that brick so clean looking?

Once stripped of parts it was cleaned in a bucket of washing up liquid and then primed and sprayed with some Hammerite spray, not quite original I know, I had a few to do...

The switcher might be from the good old days. Atari released a retrofit guide on how to add a switcher to PP.

Didn't realise the switcher was an official upgrade. I've read up & watched plenty about using switchers and linking the test points to the Volts/Gnd signals. Not sure which way to go tbh, I expect it'll cost me an arm and leg to get a working board, If I put new edge connectors on and jumper the test points using the ARII's would it be worth while using a switcher?

 

[DanP]

I've got a PDF copy of the switcher upgrade manual somewhere. Give me a day or two and I'll dig it out for you.

Dan

 

[Bensonrad]

That would be really good Dan, I have a System II cab from phils arcade clearance and it look similar in terms of dirt/dust etc to Smarty's cab, so looking to do a nice full strip down and cleaning, it had been wired to a switcher at somepoint (which is now missing) so any kind of manual/diagrams would be ace.....and Oliver....Coin Door please!

 

[forcefulfil]

All i can say is WOW!!
good work dude,the insides now look amazing!!

and you gotta be the the No 1 ar2 rebuild guy now!!

brilliant work,really impressed

total dedication

keep them pics coming

P.S. are the AR kits from Bob Roberts??

phil

forcefulfil2013-01-28 17:04:58

 

[Alpha1]

IT'S A BOOT!

 

[Alpha1]

The original PP mini cabs are really quite rare. Far less common than the PPII versions.

 

[smarty]

I've got a PDF copy of the switcher upgrade manual somewhere.

Cheers Dan, let us know if you find it.

All i can say is WOW!!

...P.S. are the AR kits from Bob Roberts??

Thanks Phil, other that the chunk out of the bottom corner and the back woodwork its a well solid Cab. The artwork has cleaned up v.nicely. In fact there's not too much more to do on this one. Edge Connectors/Main PCB/Monitor/ will see it up and running.

Yep, the Power Brick and ARII parts were all kit from Bob Roberts, and typically I should have ordered twice the volume that I did, I've not got much left from my original order to him now. I think you could make orders up from UK stockists for all the bits but really its was a time Vs convenience thing.

It's a Boot!

Ha ha, I used to collect vinyl records and always enjoyed having bootlegs in my collection, I know there's a boot PP PCB but were there any dedicated cabs running the game or would they have just been put in a generic driver cab?

Thanks for all the comments, Mart.

smarty2013-01-28 19:45:08

 

[DanP]

OK, I've uploaded the Switcher guide. I misremembered it isn't an official Atari guide but a Startech journal article. Anyway it's here;

PolePositionSMPS.pdf.zip

Hope it helps,

Dan

 

[Alpha1]

Nice one Dan

 

[smarty]

Cheers Dan,

Had a quick look and there's certainly more to that mod than what was done in my cab. I'll print the doc out tomorrow at work and have a closer look at what's required.

 

[Equites]

There's never been a better time to own a PP, what with the repro PCB around the corner with switchable PP/PP2 and for the first time ever, reliability.

I love PP.

 

[smarty]

...what with the repro PCB around the corner with switchable PP/PP2 and for the first time ever, reliability.

I'm subscribed to the thread over on the KLOV forums, can't wait... I'll defo be getting the final product when it's completed.

Pole Position Update: More cleaning and new edge connectors

I spent some time today doing a few more bits to the Pole Position cab. I got rid of the old edge connectors which had corroded pins and plastic casings that were warped and cracked. I cut the old connectors a few pins at a time and soldered them onto the new connectors, I've also used heat shrink to tidy and strengthen the connections.

New soldered edge connectors

Below is a photo of the cab with the front all cleaned up. Everything has been removed from the cab, cleaned and reassembled. The CPO has cleaned up very well, there is just one small area which has started to crack along the curve of the front, and a small area which has some marker pen on that I haven't been able to remove yet.

The steering wheel and gear mechanism have been totally stripped and re-greased. I'm finally getting excited about this cab now, I'm finally getting to the stage it's nearly ready to play.

Front view, CPO cleaned and Marquee light on

Next up is the pedal mechanism, which is working, just very grubby. The 5K Ohm pot measures out fine with a multimeter, as with the rest of the cab, its full of dirt. I will be stripping this down and giving is a new coat of paint along with some new grip tape for the pedal.

Here's a couple of photos of what it looks like now the next update should be once I've completed the pedal assembly.





Foot pedal showing sign of rust

Foot pedal and its worn grip tape

 

[saleem]

You'd swear that cpo was photoshop'd.

You get blinded by that control panel its that clean and vibrant.nice one!

 

[smarty]

Well its been awhile since I have posted anything about my Pole Position cab. I am making progress, just juggling work between all the project cabs need to get working.

I have now put a Wells & Gardner 19K series in from one of my old Jamma cabs which I sold, this was handy as it runs in 128V which the Atari Power brick provided for the original monitor.

As we've had some warmer and drier weather, I've progressed with tidying the marquee holder metal work and the foot pedal.

Below is the before photo of the gas pedal:

Original Condition of the gas pedal.

The metal work was sanded with a hand sander and then primered up. The actual foot pedal is not painted. it's just metal with some grip tape on. So after a sanding and a wipe over with some isopropyl alcohol, I put on a few coats of some primer which can be seen in the photo below. It looks really good in a matt finish, but this will need a top coat to finish it off.

Priming the metal work before the top coat.

One day later and the dry weather still with us, I added a few coats of some satin black spray, I finish isn't perfect, but overall it will do for what is going to be a 'players' cab and not some mint machine ready for a museum!

Top coat applied to the Pole Position metal work.

I also sprayed the metalwork from the steering wheel assembly as it was visible even when the wheel was fitted and it would have looked out of place if I had done the other parts and left this out.

After reassembling the gas pedal and using some skateboard griptape it now looks like this:

Complete Gas Pedal, not perfect paint but it'll do!

Here's some front shots of the cab showing the metalwork above and below the marquee and the steering assembly.

Steering wheel mount.

Steering Wheel assembly completed.Could do with a new Atari sticker on the wheel.

Resprayed paintwork on the marquee holder metal work.

I need to give the same treatment to the Coin Door and the coin box and maintenance panel which sits inside the coin door. After that I pretty much need to make a replacement back door, hunt down a working game board and start playing... Prepare to Qualify.... coming soon!

smarty2013-05-05 21:11:56

 

[IDCHAPPY]

, nice mate, I missed this the first time round but great work