HELP : Lost My Mojo ??

[TheDaddy]

Ok so I don't know why but i seem to have lost all interest in my repairs of late for at least 6 months. Last year I hardly repaired anything and I seem to be nervous or even scared of getting in my repair room and doing anything. When i was in there last year there was a massive lull in repairs, I have about 4 or boards I just cant get running (Mainly Konami !).

I have just gone into my repair room , Stood in the same place & Looked around for 10 minutes then walked straight out again.

I don't really know how to get my mojo back !! When i am well I can go in there prety much whenever I want as my wife basically never bothers and my kids are all grown up ( All though I have a 25 year old child that refuses to leave us ! lol ). I basically have all the time in the world but cant get going at all.

I seem to spend all of my time sitting watching shit on TV and thinking about arcade stuff , I have just had 17 days of work and not been in once.

Any ideas on how to get it back ! Have I lost my confidence in my own abilities ?? HELP : Inspire me please !

Dave.

P.S I have the same thing with my Driving Cab just cant seem to move forward with that.

 

[Vorbis]

Have a holiday

 

[Sbdesign]

Tip 1
Don’t give yourself a hard time for down time
It’s a waste of down time! Relax and enjoy it

You’re not the type of person to remain there and go into depression, as you are on here already acknowledging it. I believe conscious people of there own feelings don’t get into that trap.

Tell your self, it’s all pointless, just for shits and giggles, so don’t stress if not doing it. If they all rot away so what, if not touched for ages- so fuck. Not causing a problem!

Then go to it one day with no goals…
Have a shift around and tidy up, reorganise, no pressure, and if this has the effect it has on me, you’ll be tinkering in no time, no doubt before bin gets emptied and cuppa finished.

You need one easy highlight in the hobby, like a easy fix, or a good blast on a game and you get that fuzzy feeling of, there it is, there’s the joy

 

[Georgian2]

Same here man, maybe it's time for a new hobby. I'm not good with motivational speech.

 

[big10p]

It happens. Don't worry about it. I haven't actually done anything arcade related for a long time, but I currently don't have a games room or workbench setup, as I need to have it all renovated. You can't force yourself to enjoy doing something, so just wait for the motivation to return. It usually does.

 

[Flyback2021]

You are not alone in how you are feeling Dave.
I personally struggle being motivated in the winter months - certainly for me I think it is a seasonal disorder. I love doing creative stuff and gardening outside arcade hobby so that drops off this time of year and really miss.
I reduce my expectations of what I can complete this time of year and just have a small number of things on a work bench which for me is replacing cpos currently on some Panels. It is easy to get overwhelmed with stuff so when I feel like that I either have a change or a rest!
As regards your repairs of the Konami boards you have taken on quite a challenge - ( I am not a board repairer but followed and enjoyed your thread and done reading along side) I would probably put all to one side and look at something else when you feel like repairing again.
It’s great you are part of the forum and can share thoughts /
Feelings with likeminded ukvacers - chances are the majority of us feel like this sometimes !

 

[Wahoobies]

I waited almost 20 years to do my second cab set-up.. remember it's for fun and do what you enjoy. If you're looking to re-capture the joy of playing and experiencing them visit a really well maintained arcade. Always gets me! It was a trip to one last year this time that got me re-energized..

 

[Deleted member 7540]

It's interesting that you mention feeling like this as i have noticed after being away 2 or 3 years that for whatever reason now that i am back everything has slowed down here for lack of a better word. Perhaps it's the time of year that i have come back but i have definitely noticed... urhm not less members or anything but less actual work going on, arcade cabinets being available or shown off, less active work logs. Perhaps most have achieved what they wanted from the hobby.

For you in particular though i'd say take a break, see how you feel about it after you come back. absense makes the heart grow fonder and all that. But if that's not the case even then perhaps it's time to find something else or additional to do?

 

[pubjoe]

I know the feeling. I'm not as technical as you but I have a lot of projects.

I'm not sure if I've posted these before but a couple of years ago I bought a load of project cabinets (from @agent4125 here). Here are some:



For nearly five years spare time was very hard to find. I lived in with my mum who needed day and night care in her last years of Alzheimer's. I'd finish work and rush to the school for my youngest then rush to my mum's just in time for the minibus dropping her back from the day centre. We'd have dinner then I'd get us all in a taxi back and forth to my place just so I could spend a couple of hours tinkering with those cabinets. I had to do some hardcore furniture moving to set up a workspace downstairs and a temporary lounge area upstairs, safe and comfy for my mum. I'd work on the cabinets in short moments, and some evenings were a wasted trip when my attention was too divided to get anything done. Still, it wasn't long until those machines above looked like this:



My point in this is that I was pretty proud of my effort and that was squeezed in during one of the most demanding and stressful times of my life... But that was then.

Now, I have more time and I can't be bothered to do anything. It really doesn't help when you pull out a few things and find out that they're now broken. Like some PCBs and two of the monitors pictured above.

I think spare time is a weird one. I find things seem overwhelming when you have more time to think about them. But it also really doesn't help when you spend hours one day and end up further back than when you started.

 

[Lurch666]

I've been the same but over a lot shorter time ( a month or so).
Just no motivation to tinker.
Few days back rewired my test monitor and found the PCB I used to test it had failed (again) so that's got me back into it.

But I fully understand the lack of motivation.
The issue as I see it as when you first start fixing any small victory feels like a major achievement but at you get better it takes a more complex fix until you get the same feeling of achievement.

Hence your motivation needs to be higher to tackle the bigger fixes and even then you have no idea if you will succeed.

I've been thinking for a while of coming round yours since it would be cool to talk to a fellow fixer over a few PCBs.
I could bring my slice and show you how much of a shortcut it can be but if I do that you will really want to get one yourself.

 

[Wahoobies]

I know the feeling. I'm not as technical as you but I have a lot of projects.

I'm not sure if I've posted these before but a couple of years ago I bought a load of project cabinets (from @agent4125 here). Here are some:

View attachment 30296

For nearly five years spare time was very hard to find. I lived in with my mum who needed day and night care in her last years of Alzheimer's. I'd finish work and rush to the school for my youngest then rush to my mum's just in time for the minibus dropping her back from the day centre. We'd have dinner then I'd get us all in a taxi back and forth to my place just so I could spend a couple of hours tinkering with those cabinets. I had to do some hardcore furniture moving to set up a workspace downstairs and a temporary lounge area upstairs, safe and comfy for my mum. I'd work on the cabinets in short moments, and some evenings were a wasted trip when my attention was too divided to get anything done. Still, it wasn't long until those machines above looked like this:

View attachment 30297

My point in this is that I was pretty proud of my effort and that was squeezed in during one of the most demanding and stressful times of my life... But that was then.

Now, I have more time and I can't be bothered to do anything. It really doesn't help when you pull out a few things and find out that they're now broken. Like some PCBs and two of the monitors pictured above.

I think spare time is a weird one. I find things seem overwhelming when you have more time to think about them. But it also really doesn't help when you spend hours one day and end up further back than when you started.

wow those are amazing.. great restorations

 

[eliotcole]

In addition to anything that anyone else is saying ... I think you might also want to speak to your doctor, too.
I say this because I think that there's a *massive* epidemic of (mild-to-not-mild) depression going around completely undiagnosed.

I am seeing it in so many disparate fields, that people (in general) are just no engaged with their lives and what once interested them (or perhaps never really interested them in the first place, but they didn't know it) ... ... and I see this manifesting in conversations like "oh, people just aren't interested in it anymore" (when trying to explain commercial fall-off ... or "the devs are shit!!!!" when an online game is losing players.
Those are just two examples ... but they aren't alone (and don't quote me on them for some fun whataboutisms) ... and it's very CLEARLY a societal thing, almost definitely having some legacy from the pandemic ... but also because we're watching a lot of the world going to shit ... and if we're honest we're mostly powerless to do anything about it.

So, yeah ... I think it's worth speaking to a doc to get a referral for a proper diagnosis ... for sure. I mean ... I should follow my own advice ... truly ... and ... yeah ... this does all sound a bit over the top and I promise you it's not melodramatic ... good mental health is so important ... if you catch stuff early, it won't even be a problem ... but ... yeah ... what've you got to lose?

Ok so I don't know why but i seem to have lost all interest in my repairs of late for at least 6 months. Last year I hardly repaired anything and I seem to be nervous or even scared of getting in my repair room and doing anything. When i was in there last year there was a massive lull in repairs, I have about 4 or boards I just cant get running (Mainly Konami !).

I have just gone into my repair room , Stood in the same place & Looked around for 10 minutes then walked straight out again.

I don't really know how to get my mojo back !! When i am well I can go in there prety much whenever I want as my wife basically never bothers and my kids are all grown up ( All though I have a 25 year old child that refuses to leave us ! lol ). I basically have all the time in the world but cant get going at all.

I seem to spend all of my time sitting watching shit on TV and thinking about arcade stuff , I have just had 17 days of work and not been in once.

Any ideas on how to get it back ! Have I lost my confidence in my own abilities ?? HELP : Inspire me please !

Dave.

P.S I have the same thing with my Driving Cab just cant seem to move forward with that.

... me? I haven't been engaged with the things that I enjoy for the longest time ... and I'm buying up tons of shit ... and putting it on a shelf ... or climbing over it ... none of this is healthy ... ... and we won't even get on to the subject of my friends! 😅

-----------------

Also ... fuck everything I just said, too. 😅 ... Enjoy the time in front of the telly!!

 

[big10p]

I know the feeling. I'm not as technical as you but I have a lot of projects.

I'm not sure if I've posted these before but a couple of years ago I bought a load of project cabinets (from @agent4125 here). Here are some:

View attachment 30296

For nearly five years spare time was very hard to find. I lived in with my mum who needed day and night care in her last years of Alzheimer's. I'd finish work and rush to the school for my youngest then rush to my mum's just in time for the minibus dropping her back from the day centre. We'd have dinner then I'd get us all in a taxi back and forth to my place just so I could spend a couple of hours tinkering with those cabinets. I had to do some hardcore furniture moving to set up a workspace downstairs and a temporary lounge area upstairs, safe and comfy for my mum. I'd work on the cabinets in short moments, and some evenings were a wasted trip when my attention was too divided to get anything done. Still, it wasn't long until those machines above looked like this:

View attachment 30297

My point in this is that I was pretty proud of my effort and that was squeezed in during one of the most demanding and stressful times of my life... But that was then.

Now, I have more time and I can't be bothered to do anything. It really doesn't help when you pull out a few things and find out that they're now broken. Like some PCBs and two of the monitors pictured above.

I think spare time is a weird one. I find things seem overwhelming when you have more time to think about them. But it also really doesn't help when you spend hours one day and end up further back than when you started.

Bravo! 👏 I went through the same with my mum, so how you managed this on top is mind boggling.

 

[yoganuggy]

Fixing pcbs is a real labour of love and frustrating when you get a few "can't fix" in a row. The solder fumes are very unhealthy too so make sure you have good ventilation and fine extraction.

@TheDaddy is that the ridge racer cab you have? If it has the original loom it's an easy conversion. Here is the post with the connectors you need:
ridge racer cab to pc

ridge racer cab plug and play between pc/pcb

For steering, acceleration and brake, this should work. It might depend upon the game how gear shifting is implemented. Most games likely will use automatic shifting with just an up / down option. A small program on an arduino could convert an arcade gear shifter into some gear up / down key...

www.ukvac.com

I can send you my PC mage with all the driving games (mame, m2, super model, tekno parrot) all through a nice hyperspin frontend. A great project to complete.

 

[pubjoe]

Bravo! 👏 I went through the same with my mum, so how you managed this on top is mind boggling.

I'm very sorry to hear that.

I guess any other things to focus on help keep you sane. And I was quite motivated at the time.

As eliotcole says, there is a general lull in motivation in this miserable time we're in, and it's hard to be hopeful for the future when we're bombarded with so many stupid reasons to be enemies by engagement farmers. I really need to cut down on time online. I'm easily triggered into debate but most of it is a waste of brainwaves.

... or climbing over it ... none of this is healthy ...

Ohhhh, I know that one.


That was my lounge at one point while I wasn't at home. My eldest was living among that. 😬

Sorry. I should split off my crap to another thread. May help motivate me.

 

[Deleted member 7540]

Good lord!!

 

[agent4125]

I know the feeling. I'm not as technical as you but I have a lot of projects.

I'm not sure if I've posted these before but a couple of years ago I bought a load of project cabinets (from @agent4125 here). Here are some:

View attachment 30296

For nearly five years spare time was very hard to find. I lived in with my mum who needed day and night care in her last years of Alzheimer's. I'd finish work and rush to the school for my youngest then rush to my mum's just in time for the minibus dropping her back from the day centre. We'd have dinner then I'd get us all in a taxi back and forth to my place just so I could spend a couple of hours tinkering with those cabinets. I had to do some hardcore furniture moving to set up a workspace downstairs and a temporary lounge area upstairs, safe and comfy for my mum. I'd work on the cabinets in short moments, and some evenings were a wasted trip when my attention was too divided to get anything done. Still, it wasn't long until those machines above looked like this:

View attachment 30297

My point in this is that I was pretty proud of my effort and that was squeezed in during one of the most demanding and stressful times of my life... But that was then.

Now, I have more time and I can't be bothered to do anything. It really doesn't help when you pull out a few things and find out that they're now broken. Like some PCBs and two of the monitors pictured above.

I think spare time is a weird one. I find things seem overwhelming when you have more time to think about them. But it also really doesn't help when you spend hours one day and end up further back than when you started.

They scrubbed up pretty good mate, good work!

 

[funk]

Have a holiday

Yup, agree with this, ultimately you're not doing it for a business you're doing it for fun.

 

[69er]

Sometimes we start too many projects or repairs at once and a queue of jobs becomes overwhelming? Accept that some jobs need to be ignored and choose the most interesting route back into the hobby.

Think of people like me …… if you were to visit my home workshop you would go back home feeling top of the world happy.

No matter how down and behind any schedule you had in your head , I am certain there’s plenty of us out there who have even said above “ same here” comments ….. I look on the bright side it no longer costs me commercial downtime and the kettle is always ON on demand!

I get knee pain , back ache and tired fingers all the time along with a 70 year old brain that’s stuck in a low gear nowadays so just don’t fancy getting into some jobs for too long without a good result ????? That’s the motivation I find but I have machines here been waiting attention a long time … e/m pinballs with all rubbers perished and spider webs inside the playfield and one embarrassing Brenco Wheel of Fortune been waiting on a arrow drive motor since I converted it from old Brittania 1d penny to small post 1971 decimal penny .. I pulled that into the workshop in the late 70s after changing old big pennies in the arcade for a couple of years … then I sadly sent the motor for refurb to a company called Rodstock in Lancashire , the guy who rewound them left and the motor was mislaid then next thing they ceased trading!

Now that’s a real OUCH ! and depressing to see it stood there even moved here with us in 1985 and only ever moved to re carpet the workshop and the odd wipe off of dust!

So Dave I hope that lifts your spirit a bit? My motivation is entering my graveyard and having to perform an exhumation of piles of monitor chassis , coin mechs , parts , and general junk before I can even see some machines… the floor is filled with boxes and piles of parts that even to do a simple job at the vice bench is a navigational challenge in itself … then the movement of any machine is like one of those childhood hand held plastic picture puzzles that have 15 sliding tiles in a 16 position matrix. !!!

To get to a machine and move it to enough space to even start attention is a 3 day operation shifting loose paperwork and small jobs to a place it can sit safely out of the way without it sliding into an abyss or need moving twice more…..

I am lucky I probably have most of the necessary parts and tools likely to be required BUT finding them when I look that’s another hurdle and 2 hours wasted looking in all the possible places…..

THERE !!! I BET YOU FEEL A WHOLE LOT BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF NOW ????

And at my age time is not on my side either! Tho I expect to get through the jobs sometime?

 

[pubjoe]

the movement of any machine is like one of those childhood hand held plastic picture puzzles that have 15 sliding tiles in a 16 position matrix. !!!

Now there's a comparison I'm stealing. "Cab Tetris" makes it sound far too easy.

Thank you. You were bang on. I'm a 'same here' and I do feel better.