great. ive started a resto on my dlx cab. ive got the boards and have a tech but i think a spare set is the go. see attached pic of mine. it has resistors removed.... can you elaborate on this john? after reading above its got something to do with your previous posts?
Afterburner DLX motor drive boards
- Thread starter John Bennett
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John Bennett
Senior Member
That triac board has been harvested for parts. I can’t see how it would work now. It’s missing the 50 and 100 ohm resistors that connect the optos to the triacs.
Should be fixable, of course.
Should be fixable, of course.
well as of yesterday id had a good look over the cabinet wiring and made wiring checks etc i initially installed a good known game pcb in without the motors boards connected up and focused on the crt picture side of things. i had already talked to a guy here that repairs my game pcbs about looking at my motor boards because they cosmetically look in a sorry state most likley from rat/mouse urine on the triac board. Then i thought what the hell and pluged them in.....nothing ....although some movement from the chair motor on startup which was promising... i then removed the small 2 pin plug from the pcb (pressure pad curcuit) and an ajustment on the main cab position potentiometer and to my suprise its working in all directions in sync with the game. i am guessing im lucky? i hear alot of problems with this part of a after burner dlx? any way if you can shed some light on how this is working with those resistors removed i would like to document this into my file on this machine for future reference.
any thoughts John? this stuff is beyond my pay grade ill just stick to the odd cap replacement and wiring repair . let me know if further pics may help.
i would still be looking to purchase boards from you for possible troubleshooting/future repair.
Stu.
any thoughts John? this stuff is beyond my pay grade ill just stick to the odd cap replacement and wiring repair . let me know if further pics may help.
i would still be looking to purchase boards from you for possible troubleshooting/future repair.
Stu.
John Bennett
Senior Member
Ah, oops, I missed that there's resistors on two sets of triacs.
I've two theories. Could probably work out which is the case, but hopefully it won't matter if I get repros done.
1. Your machine and the drive control PCB are setup to use just a two triac setup (later units went that way). Someone has then modified that triac PCB to do away with the redundant triacs. The problem is to use one triac, they bodged on large uprated triacs on a metal plate. Yours will be utterly thrashing those two TO220-sized triacs. For the repro I put on large uprated TO-247 triacs in all 4 positions, so it'll work with either setup.
2. Your machine is a 4-triac setup and it's going with one triac lost for each direction. The problem with that would bit it would only be putting half the volts into the motor, so it would be limping along at half speed.
So I suspect it's 1. and someone's been modifying stuff. The 3-pin power plug to the triac board, how many wires does it have? That's a possible indicator of whether your cabinet is a 4-triac or a 2-triac setup.
I also wonder if someone's re-pinned a harness somewhere as it's puzzling why it's working with resistors on the 1st and 4th triac and not 2nd and 4th.
I've two theories. Could probably work out which is the case, but hopefully it won't matter if I get repros done.
1. Your machine and the drive control PCB are setup to use just a two triac setup (later units went that way). Someone has then modified that triac PCB to do away with the redundant triacs. The problem is to use one triac, they bodged on large uprated triacs on a metal plate. Yours will be utterly thrashing those two TO220-sized triacs. For the repro I put on large uprated TO-247 triacs in all 4 positions, so it'll work with either setup.
2. Your machine is a 4-triac setup and it's going with one triac lost for each direction. The problem with that would bit it would only be putting half the volts into the motor, so it would be limping along at half speed.
So I suspect it's 1. and someone's been modifying stuff. The 3-pin power plug to the triac board, how many wires does it have? That's a possible indicator of whether your cabinet is a 4-triac or a 2-triac setup.
I also wonder if someone's re-pinned a harness somewhere as it's puzzling why it's working with resistors on the 1st and 4th triac and not 2nd and 4th.
John Bennett
Senior Member
Around 2018 a group of us decided to remake the Outrun/Space Harrier drive PCB as there were lots of cabinets needing a board (there’s a large thread on it somewhere in this section). After making dozens of those, I think someone asked about Afterburner. It’s very similar, so wasn’t hard to take what we’d done and rework it. I think maybe four boards were done, there wasn’t much interest - I let one person build two of those up from the bits as I didn’t have time. But nice it’s got a bit of interest again (and I’ve a helper who’ll do the labour 
).
I’ve not got any motion cabs, I just like making things.
).I’ve not got any motion cabs, I just like making things.
John Bennett
Senior Member
Yeah, I've got loads. I'll send you a PM about it later this week with details (bit busy today)
Hi again John attached is my video on this machine for your amusement...no need for you to watch the whole thing..... i feel like just a hack compared to some of you guys but you will see the machine working with those boards. plan is a part 2 you tube vid on this machine and i would like to talk about this botched triac board so with your help id like to figure out whats going on with it. firstly if you watch the video do you think the cabinet is moving at the right speed? i watched another video that looked as if the cabinet was moving faster than mine however this could also be attributed to the fact i haven serviced the motors in any way yet. i can also investigate wiring and report back to you.
kind regards, Stu.
kind regards, Stu.
John Bennett
Senior Member
I'd need to play with MAME, but if it's the same as Outrun, then there's a timeout in the self-test, so if it's not moving the motors quick enough, it'll set a fault.
There might be a reasonable tolerance in that, so a weaker/straining motor can still pass it, as long as it's not crawling. I've not got a real machine to compare to that video, unfortunately.
Can you get a picture of the wires to the triac board - see if there's two or three per side?
There might be a reasonable tolerance in that, so a weaker/straining motor can still pass it, as long as it's not crawling. I've not got a real machine to compare to that video, unfortunately.
Can you get a picture of the wires to the triac board - see if there's two or three per side?
esoteric_rt
Newbie
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Just checking in,
If the AB DLX Motor Drive/Triac boards get another run, I'm keen!
Thanks
If the AB DLX Motor Drive/Triac boards get another run, I'm keen!
Thanks
Rating is stupid on mobile, just given 3 stars but meant 5. Why can't we edit
We need to look into that again.
John Bennett
Senior Member
Thank you for the nice reviews (even you, Banana!). This was always a bit more low-key than the Outrun boards (which I reworked into these), but it was nice a few made it out there into machines the first time around.
Sorry I'd not appreciated it's been 6 months since this thread was resurrected. I've had a lot going on in life (elderly parents this time), but I'll try to focus to at least get some blank PCBs ordered soon, to build up some momentum again.
Sorry I'd not appreciated it's been 6 months since this thread was resurrected. I've had a lot going on in life (elderly parents this time), but I'll try to focus to at least get some blank PCBs ordered soon, to build up some momentum again.
Hi again John.... Hope you are well. finally an update! that took a while..... there is no rush anyway. here is a photo of my triac board and the wires... all three wires on each plug and all wiring to breakers and motors all seems original and untouched.... So.... does that mean my motors have likely been running slow with those missing resistors on the triac board you think? maybe they were just stolen to repair another? it certainly is odd..... maybe slowed down on purpose! i dunno... just thinking out loud. i guess. so still keen on your replacment boards as backup when you have time. ill start the rebuild of the boards i have in the meantime..... thoughts? Stu.
John Bennett
Senior Member
Sorry, I'm away on business so a bit slow. I was going to put in a PCB order imminently (along with stuff for another project), so at least that's a start (who/when I assemble them is another matter, but I won't drag that on too long)
I'm puzzled with that board. It couldn't hurt to put some resistors on there and see what happens. They're just 3Watt 50 and 100 ohm resistors, so not expensive.
It'll either use them or it won't.
If I can get the chance, I'll mess around with MAME to see if Afterburner faults if the motors are too slow.
I'm puzzled with that board. It couldn't hurt to put some resistors on there and see what happens. They're just 3Watt 50 and 100 ohm resistors, so not expensive.
It'll either use them or it won't.
If I can get the chance, I'll mess around with MAME to see if Afterburner faults if the motors are too slow.
Update John,
Hope you are well.
Thought you might find interesting -
My triac board finally failed... with bad triac and a couple of bad resistors.... it was in such a sorry state anyways...a freind of mine did a bit of a rebuild... all resistors installed but it diddnt last long before triacs failed again.... worked in the startup test but blew a triac with a bang when my 95kg was in the seat pretty quickly.
So i went ahead and replaced the triacs with the 40A version by drilling 2 new holes for each triac and the game is now working again
the motors are so much more responsive to gameplay and stronger than before... time will tell.... i installed the 40A triacs myself hence why it prob looks a little DIY.
1 resistor was taken out with the triac so that was replaced again with a 3W.
So why was my board missing resistors in the first place? Dunno.!
thoughts?
still keen for your replacement boards when you have time.
Hope you are well.
Thought you might find interesting -
My triac board finally failed... with bad triac and a couple of bad resistors.... it was in such a sorry state anyways...a freind of mine did a bit of a rebuild... all resistors installed but it diddnt last long before triacs failed again.... worked in the startup test but blew a triac with a bang when my 95kg was in the seat pretty quickly.
So i went ahead and replaced the triacs with the 40A version by drilling 2 new holes for each triac and the game is now working again
the motors are so much more responsive to gameplay and stronger than before... time will tell.... i installed the 40A triacs myself hence why it prob looks a little DIY.
1 resistor was taken out with the triac so that was replaced again with a 3W.
So why was my board missing resistors in the first place? Dunno.!
thoughts?still keen for your replacement boards when you have time.
John Bennett
Senior Member
I suspect you've got the single-tap transformer, despite the wiring and it's only using half those triacs. As the little TO220 versions were never meant to work with a single-tap transformer, it murders them quite quickly as they're getting 2x the intended load.