I picked up a pair of Vewlix Dia Blues recently and a few people have asked me to post what I’m up to and I could do with some input along the way too so here goes. Feel free to skip the backstory and head for the pictures!
I wanted a pair of Vewlix’s, one hori and one tate so I don’t need to mess about rotating screens as they’re not the quickest thing to rotate. I contacted Mo @ Videotronics and he said he had loads of Vewlix C and F’s in stock and he said he had a few Blues left. I really like the look of the Blues so I arranged a date to go over and see them. I got a van booked as I planned on picking them up whilst I was there. A couple of days before I went up he found that he only had three left. I was a bit apprehensive of not having many to choose from but he sent me some pictures and I could see there was no major damage etc so I decided to continue as planned and make the journey up to him.
I set off at about 7.30am to the van hire place where I had booked a Luton with a tail lift from. I picked the van up, transferred a load of cushions/duvets into the van and set off to make the 160mile ~3hr drive from Bicester to Bradford. I got 15 minutes up the road in the van before realising I had left my tools and more importantly my ratchet straps in my car
There was no way I was risking transporting the cabs without them so I turned round and went back to pick them up. Half an hour later I was back on the motorway but this time with the ratchet straps. I had given myself plenty of time to get up there so it wasn’t a problem. I had a steady drive up the M1 and had one stop at the services and got to Mos bang on when I should have been.
I’ve known Mo for years and have done work for him so it was great to put a face to a name. He showed me the three Blues he had left that were dotted around his unit. One of them had quite a green faded side panel which I can only assume was sun damage so that one was out of the equation for a start. That just left two but after a quick look over they both looked to be in pretty nice condition, I could see a few marks here and there but there was nothing to put me off which was a relief.
One of the cabs had a JVS IO and one had a Fast IO. I assumed they would both be Fast IO (tbh I’m not sure what they would have originally come with, I know the Blacks came with nothing) but actually I thought one of each would give me some flexibility.
Next was firing the cabs up. We fired the first one up with a TTX2 connected and one of the cab fans was really noisy, no biggie, that can be changed . We couldn’t see any sign of life on the monitor though, greeeeeat. We metered the power cable and there was 100v going to the end of the IEC C13 cable so it wasn’t that. We power cycled the cab and checked other connections but nada. We left that cab and headed over to the other non green cab. We turned that one on and the monitor turned on but it was showing ‘No Signal’. We messed around with the OSD but we couldn’t get anything to show. We then tried the TTX2 on a nearby Vewlix F and that displayed fine. We went back to the first cab and tried it again but we still didn’t get a picture. At this point the cab was still partially covered with wrapping film and the top corner of the screen was covered. Whilst bent down I power cycled the cab and noticed something on screen in the top corner. We pulled back the film and could see it said ‘FAN ERROR’ -_-
Mo had seen this before on a cab he sold to Tonybolony and after checking some messages we could see that the cab and monitor needed to be stripped down and in Tonys case the fan needed cleaning. We went back over to the other machine but we still couldn’t get a picture, even with a mobile test signal generator. After the initial relief of seeing the cabs in good nick I was a bit down thinking I might go home with an empty van. I had been at Mo’s ages at this point when it should have been a fairly quick test and load. We had a bit of a chat and came up with a plan. I decided I would take both of the cabs. It seems like at minimum the cab with the FAN ERROR would need some work. Mo knocked some money off for me for the trouble of dealing with that and said we would sort things out further if I couldn’t get either of the monitors working.
We loaded the cabs up and protected them with the duvets and cushions I had packed and tied them down with the ratchet straps. I’m so glad I went back for them as they would have got destroyed sliding around in the back of the van. I set off down south again after filling the van up again with some very expensive diesel at the height of the fuel shortage in March. I took a detour and stopped briefly at my parents in Lincoln to pick up a mountain bike and after a very wet drive home I got back at about 6.45pm. The tail lift made light work of unloading the cabs on my own and I put them in my garage where they would stay whilst I did some further tests, strip and clean them before taking them up to my office.
Here's a pic after dropping them off. I ordered a UK-JA0750 from Airlink and that been delivered whilst I was out so that was a nice bit of timing. Both cabs came with pictured original marquee holders and one manual.
Whilst taking a closer look at the cabs I noticed that the serials were actually sequential!
The cabs had been no where near each other at Mo’s and it had been pure luck that these were the two in the best nick and were chosen. I thought it was a nice touch that these two came of the production line one after the other and they were still together after travelling to the other side of the world.
The next day I hooked a laptop up the cab that didn’t have the FAN ERROR and I was pleased to see that I got an image straight away.
Next up was stripping the cabs. I wanted to strip them to clean them and to also make them much lighter and smaller to take upstairs. I’ve got a 90 degree corner on my stairs and so I made a cardboard cut out of the foot print of a stripped cab to ensure I could get them upstairs prior to buying them.
I used @Penrhos’s Vewlix disassembly guide (Part 1) (Part 2) to strip the cabs and I separated all of the bolts etc into marked bags to make assembly easier.
I stripped the cabs down as far as possible without removing the wiring looms in the base. These are the first Vewlix’s I’ve had and I wanted to keep the base wiring in whilst I get familiar with everything. I didn’t want to rip it all out and struggle to get it all back in and it would make troubleshooting trickier too. I wanted to get them out of the garage pretty quickly so I thought I could always strip the wiring out at a later date and clean the looms then if required.
I didn’t take many photos whilst stripping the cabs but they were pretty filthy on the inside. They were thick with dust and there was a lovely layer of nicotine where the fans had drawn air through the cabs.
For cleaning the metal parts of the cabs I used [this] solvent free degreaser which worked really well and was cheap to boot. All of the plastics got a soapy wash in the sink.
I got a lift upstairs with the cabs and they were super easy to get up once stripped.
Next up was looking at the monitor with the FAN ERROR. I stripped the monitor down and found the fan had missing blades which I'm guessing caused a change in the RPMs, or caused it to stop completely and the monitor then shut down. More details on this and the fix [here].
I assembled the cabs and stuck a X360 and Switch in for their first full frontal glamour shot:
Note at this point the stepdown was just running the monitors, the consoles were powered via an additional extension lead out the back. I didn't have any audio setup and the controls were not connected, still it didn't stop me playing for a bit with a control pad
The control panels still want stripping down and cleaning, I didn't have time to do that, I just needed to concentrate on getting the cabs out of the garage. I'll probably do that when I rewire the CPs.
The cabs have a few dings and scratches here and there but it's nothing major and certainly nothing that I intend to fix, they've had a life in an arcade after all. Otherwise, plans for the cabs are:
*Power - Sort a power strip out so that everything in the cabs runs from one 100v power cable. (Complete)
*Control Panels - Both cabs have 1L7B panels with AIME card readers that I'm not a fan of. Order replacements for both (In progress)
*Control Interfaces - I plan on using a mix of original hardware, PCs and consoles in the cabs so I'll need interfaces to support all of those. (Complete)
*Audio - I'm leaving the stock speakers as is currently. I just need to get an analogue signal to the taito amp. (Complete)
*Monitors - I'll upgrade the monitors eventually but I'm not in a rush at the moment.
*Sub panel - Procure sub panels for the additional console buttons required. A volume control and headphone jack would be useful also. (In progress)
*1000 other things I'm forgetting....
That's enough for one post. I'll upload some more photos and continue....
FrancoB2022-09-02 21:48:35
I wanted a pair of Vewlix’s, one hori and one tate so I don’t need to mess about rotating screens as they’re not the quickest thing to rotate. I contacted Mo @ Videotronics and he said he had loads of Vewlix C and F’s in stock and he said he had a few Blues left. I really like the look of the Blues so I arranged a date to go over and see them. I got a van booked as I planned on picking them up whilst I was there. A couple of days before I went up he found that he only had three left. I was a bit apprehensive of not having many to choose from but he sent me some pictures and I could see there was no major damage etc so I decided to continue as planned and make the journey up to him.
I set off at about 7.30am to the van hire place where I had booked a Luton with a tail lift from. I picked the van up, transferred a load of cushions/duvets into the van and set off to make the 160mile ~3hr drive from Bicester to Bradford. I got 15 minutes up the road in the van before realising I had left my tools and more importantly my ratchet straps in my car
I’ve known Mo for years and have done work for him so it was great to put a face to a name. He showed me the three Blues he had left that were dotted around his unit. One of them had quite a green faded side panel which I can only assume was sun damage so that one was out of the equation for a start. That just left two but after a quick look over they both looked to be in pretty nice condition, I could see a few marks here and there but there was nothing to put me off which was a relief.
One of the cabs had a JVS IO and one had a Fast IO. I assumed they would both be Fast IO (tbh I’m not sure what they would have originally come with, I know the Blacks came with nothing) but actually I thought one of each would give me some flexibility.
Next was firing the cabs up. We fired the first one up with a TTX2 connected and one of the cab fans was really noisy, no biggie, that can be changed . We couldn’t see any sign of life on the monitor though, greeeeeat. We metered the power cable and there was 100v going to the end of the IEC C13 cable so it wasn’t that. We power cycled the cab and checked other connections but nada. We left that cab and headed over to the other non green cab. We turned that one on and the monitor turned on but it was showing ‘No Signal’. We messed around with the OSD but we couldn’t get anything to show. We then tried the TTX2 on a nearby Vewlix F and that displayed fine. We went back to the first cab and tried it again but we still didn’t get a picture. At this point the cab was still partially covered with wrapping film and the top corner of the screen was covered. Whilst bent down I power cycled the cab and noticed something on screen in the top corner. We pulled back the film and could see it said ‘FAN ERROR’ -_-
Mo had seen this before on a cab he sold to Tonybolony and after checking some messages we could see that the cab and monitor needed to be stripped down and in Tonys case the fan needed cleaning. We went back over to the other machine but we still couldn’t get a picture, even with a mobile test signal generator. After the initial relief of seeing the cabs in good nick I was a bit down thinking I might go home with an empty van. I had been at Mo’s ages at this point when it should have been a fairly quick test and load. We had a bit of a chat and came up with a plan. I decided I would take both of the cabs. It seems like at minimum the cab with the FAN ERROR would need some work. Mo knocked some money off for me for the trouble of dealing with that and said we would sort things out further if I couldn’t get either of the monitors working.
We loaded the cabs up and protected them with the duvets and cushions I had packed and tied them down with the ratchet straps. I’m so glad I went back for them as they would have got destroyed sliding around in the back of the van. I set off down south again after filling the van up again with some very expensive diesel at the height of the fuel shortage in March. I took a detour and stopped briefly at my parents in Lincoln to pick up a mountain bike and after a very wet drive home I got back at about 6.45pm. The tail lift made light work of unloading the cabs on my own and I put them in my garage where they would stay whilst I did some further tests, strip and clean them before taking them up to my office.
Here's a pic after dropping them off. I ordered a UK-JA0750 from Airlink and that been delivered whilst I was out so that was a nice bit of timing. Both cabs came with pictured original marquee holders and one manual.
Whilst taking a closer look at the cabs I noticed that the serials were actually sequential!
The cabs had been no where near each other at Mo’s and it had been pure luck that these were the two in the best nick and were chosen. I thought it was a nice touch that these two came of the production line one after the other and they were still together after travelling to the other side of the world.
The next day I hooked a laptop up the cab that didn’t have the FAN ERROR and I was pleased to see that I got an image straight away.
Next up was stripping the cabs. I wanted to strip them to clean them and to also make them much lighter and smaller to take upstairs. I’ve got a 90 degree corner on my stairs and so I made a cardboard cut out of the foot print of a stripped cab to ensure I could get them upstairs prior to buying them.
I used @Penrhos’s Vewlix disassembly guide (Part 1) (Part 2) to strip the cabs and I separated all of the bolts etc into marked bags to make assembly easier.
I stripped the cabs down as far as possible without removing the wiring looms in the base. These are the first Vewlix’s I’ve had and I wanted to keep the base wiring in whilst I get familiar with everything. I didn’t want to rip it all out and struggle to get it all back in and it would make troubleshooting trickier too. I wanted to get them out of the garage pretty quickly so I thought I could always strip the wiring out at a later date and clean the looms then if required.
I didn’t take many photos whilst stripping the cabs but they were pretty filthy on the inside. They were thick with dust and there was a lovely layer of nicotine where the fans had drawn air through the cabs.
For cleaning the metal parts of the cabs I used [this] solvent free degreaser which worked really well and was cheap to boot. All of the plastics got a soapy wash in the sink.
I got a lift upstairs with the cabs and they were super easy to get up once stripped.
Next up was looking at the monitor with the FAN ERROR. I stripped the monitor down and found the fan had missing blades which I'm guessing caused a change in the RPMs, or caused it to stop completely and the monitor then shut down. More details on this and the fix [here].
I assembled the cabs and stuck a X360 and Switch in for their first full frontal glamour shot:
Note at this point the stepdown was just running the monitors, the consoles were powered via an additional extension lead out the back. I didn't have any audio setup and the controls were not connected, still it didn't stop me playing for a bit with a control pad
The control panels still want stripping down and cleaning, I didn't have time to do that, I just needed to concentrate on getting the cabs out of the garage. I'll probably do that when I rewire the CPs.
The cabs have a few dings and scratches here and there but it's nothing major and certainly nothing that I intend to fix, they've had a life in an arcade after all. Otherwise, plans for the cabs are:
*Power - Sort a power strip out so that everything in the cabs runs from one 100v power cable. (Complete)
*Control Panels - Both cabs have 1L7B panels with AIME card readers that I'm not a fan of. Order replacements for both (In progress)
*Control Interfaces - I plan on using a mix of original hardware, PCs and consoles in the cabs so I'll need interfaces to support all of those. (Complete)
*Audio - I'm leaving the stock speakers as is currently. I just need to get an analogue signal to the taito amp. (Complete)
*Monitors - I'll upgrade the monitors eventually but I'm not in a rush at the moment.
*Sub panel - Procure sub panels for the additional console buttons required. A volume control and headphone jack would be useful also. (In progress)
*1000 other things I'm forgetting....
That's enough for one post. I'll upload some more photos and continue....
FrancoB2022-09-02 21:48:35
