Deco Cassette System

[guddler]

[ukvac] Deco Cassette System
Anyone with experience of troubleshooting one of these got the time to mail
me - need advice!

Getting a bit bored with watching it go from 099 to 001, and the schematics
are TERRIBLE quality in the PDF :O)

Ta,
Martin.

------------------------
Guddler's Arcade
http://www.guddler.co.uk

 

[P-Man]

Re: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
Usefull advice would be good :O)

Okay, it was 2am when I posted that, so I'll elaborate a bit now I'm awake!

Aside from the mame emulation progress there seems to be little up on the net
about them...

Scanned schematics are bloody awfull (original may be just as bad), so an
original manual would be a good start.

Not sure where to start with troubleshooting it. It appears to have board issues
as the tape counter quite happily gets to zero, but I then either get a blank
screen, or a few blips of garbage.

I've removed the three PCBs and resocketed and cleaned anything that was
removable, plus the edge connectors. A couple of the pins on the roms either
broke off in the process or are very dodgy, so I guess that's the first stop.
Then I noticed on the schematics an army of 24 4116's which are more than likely
going to spell trouble (thankfully I have plenty of spare as I shotgunned my
Joust with 4164 when I had it).

But after I've looked at all that, the first step is I need to know how I can
determine if the cassette really is loading alright or if it's just going
through the motions, then if the dongle is okay, and finally if the resin
blocked cpu is alive and kicking...

Also, there is 13v unregulated shown in the manual. Making a jamma loom so I can
troubleshoot on the bench would be a major bonus, so can I just bung 12v on the
13v unregulated? No idea what it's used for yet.

Now perhaps it's a bit more obvious why I was asking if anyone knew much about
them. Funnily enough, I'm finding this way more interesting than yer average
faulty game.

I like a challenge for the winter months, which is exactly what it's doing in
the garage in the first place :O)

Martin.

> > Anyone with experience of troubleshooting one of these got
> the time to
> mail
> > me - need advice!
>
> throw it out.
>
> [snip]
> > Martin.
>
>
>
> Andy Welburn
> www.andys-arcade.com

 

[Alpha1]

Re: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
Check RGVAC archives in Google for all error codes for the Deco cassette
system.

/o

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
All the error codes (and solutions - even if they are vague like "swap the
PCB") are listed in the manual.

I don't get any error codes. This is what leads me to believe the tape IS
loading correctly and I likely have board faults!

I will Google the RGVAC archives though anyway. Didn't realise you could do
that until about 2 minutes ago when you suggested it - VERY handy!

Martin.

Check RGVAC archives in Google for all error codes for the Deco cassette
system.

/o

 

[Alpha1]

Re: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
Yeh good isn't it. Google is watching you

/o

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
Sadly, after ten pages of results I still can't find anything helpful though
(and then you get into Deco stuff totally unrelated to arcade machines).

Oh well, just posted a new thread, you never know, someone may have bothered to
get one working rather than just junk it :O)

Martin.

> Yeh good isn't it. Google is watching you
>
> /o



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

 

[PaulSwan]

Re: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
Hi Martin,

If you decide to junk it, I'll have it

But if not, there is a test tape so you could try making one of those
(non trivial).

Does sound like there is a fault, as normally it's a pain just to
persuade the tape to load without error.

Regards,

Paul.

Martin White wrote:
>
> Sadly, after ten pages of results I still can't find anything helpful though
> (and then you get into Deco stuff totally unrelated to arcade machines).
>
> Oh well, just posted a new thread, you never know, someone may have bothered to
> get one working rather than just junk it :O)
>
> Martin.
>
> > Yeh good isn't it. Google is watching you
> >
> > /o
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
Briefly going back to this test tape...

Any idea what's on it?

I'm aware that it has screens for displaying the dips and stuff, but does it
have a tape head alignment program like you used to be able to get for Amstrad
CPCs and stuff. I'm thinking of one where you can run the program and it
produced a graphic representation of the data (much like a scope would) on the
screen, so as you adjusted it you could see what you were doing.

I tried this Sunday night with my scope and the signal was so weak you just
couldn't do it at all. It took me over two hours to get the damn thing from
reading tapes, but not sure if the alignment was out or if the tape is in error
to not reading anything and then back to where I started.

Very frustrating - not surprised so many people junk the things, but I WILL get
there :O)

I've cleaned and demagnatised the head and screwed about with the alignement.

If it has a ram error on the BIO8 board (VERY likely that's where all the 4116's
are), is it possible that this would cause the tape to corrupt the display as it
loads? IIRC speccies did this, and it was a sure sign that the machine would
just crash when the tape load had finished.

Still trying to locate the other game tapes.

Martin.

>

 

[LukeWells]

Re: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
Silly question ...

Is there anything specific about the tape drive for the deco system or can
you not just go down to argos and buy a £10 portable tape player like you
could for most old home computers?

I understand it's likely to have start and stop controls from the game board
(like old computers did too) so you could sort that out I am sure.

Never seen a deco system so sorry if I've missed something obvious about the
hardware

Luke

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
It's a Micro Data Casette drive. Looks like a dictaphone drive, but isn't. Hence
the take are like rocking horse poo too as they're not at all easy to copy!

>

 

[LukeWells]

Re: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
So does it use those mini cassettes like dictaphones use, but in an endless
loop like a answer machine OGM tape?

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] Deco Cassette System
It has mini casettes, yes, but apparently there are three kinds. Two of which
are still fairly common these days and a third which is no longer made. Guess
which one it uses? :O)

The cassettes also fit into the Fluke 9010 casette deck. Don't know if this
opens up any possibilities - probably not.

As for the make up of the casette. It's not an endless loop. The game code
resides on one side of the tape only. When you power up the cab it first ensures
the casette is at the start (via an opto shining through the casette leader),
rewinds if reqd, then plays the casette from start to finish. As it's doing
this, it counts from x blocks to 000 (in the case of Lock N Chase 099 to 001).
Then it rewinds the casette, soft resets the machine (or appears to) and starts
the game. This can all be seen in mame, although why you'd want to emulate the
casette reading is beyond me!!

The Lock and Chase casette here ALWAYS corrupts the screen display when it
reaches block 071, although it will complete the read process before the machine
resets and goes to a blank screen. Hence why I was trying to align the head
slightly better to see if it would read it any better.

Regardless, I suspect a board fault too.

Martin.

> So does it use those mini cassettes like dictaphones use, but
> in an endless loop like a answer machine OGM tape?

> It's a Micro Data Casette drive. Looks like a dictaphone
> drive, but isn't. Hence the take are like rocking horse poo
> too as they're not at all easy to copy!
>
> > Silly question ...
> >
> > Is there anything specific about the tape drive for the
> deco system or
> > can you not just go down to argos and buy a £10 portable
> tape player
> > like you could for most old home computers?
> >
> > I understand it's likely to have start and stop controls
> from the game
> > board (like old computers did too) so you could sort that out I am
> > sure.
> >
> > Never seen a deco system so sorry if I've missed something obvious
> > about the hardware
> >
> >
> > Luke
> >