Power Drift - monitor/board help please!

[shrunkenmaster]

Currently I have no picture or real signs of life with this, which is mildly annoying to say the least.

So far I've stripped down, cleaned and reconnected everything off the PSU board and checked all connections, and I have power, with red LEDs showing on the two PD game boards.

I've also checked the three PSU board fuses, plus the two on the monitor chassis.

I have neck glow, but no picture. As I'm pretty new to all this I have no idea if it's a board or monitor problem, or both.

I also seem to have a spare connector:

which appears to connect to the main board as pictured here:

I can't see anywhere for this to connect to - all other cables are spoken for. I also labelled each and every connector so I'm pretty sure everything is plugged in correctly.

The manual has one overall schematic which hasn't helped me.

Could any of you lovely chaps help in any way? I have a multimeter and soldering iron but precious little else...

 

[shrunkenmaster]

OK,

At the video connector R/G/B I'm getting .53V at each, at the main board 5.56V and the lower (video?) board 5.6V.

I adjusted the pot on the flyback - see image below.

I'm presuming this main board was used in other games, judging by the empty spaces designated for other components? I take it this is why I don't have any cables to connect to the sockets marked in red below?

 

[cmonkey]

It's not unusual to have unused connectors on Sega boards. The Out Run board set also has connectors that are unused.

The 6-pin white unused connector (the one that you've highlighted on the left in the pic above) is very likely used in the deluxe version of Power Drift. That's how it is on an Out Run board anyway so I'd be amazed if it wasn't similar on a Power Drift board. The 4-pin connector to the left of it is the audio connection to the audio power amp for the upright and the 6-pin is the audio connection to the audio power amp for the deluxe, because the deluxe has a subwoofer and hence needs the extra signals from the board.

It looks like you're getting a raster on the monitor so it's likely that the monitor is OK. Have you got another cab that you could try the monitor in?

Are you getting any audio from the game at all, to indicate that it has entered attract mode after being powered on for a short while?

cmonkey2014-02-15 20:13:02

 

[shrunkenmaster]

Hey cmonkey, thanks for the info.

I'm getting no sound at all, other than a bit of crackle on power-up and a very faint 'circuit hum' (for want of a better description). I've tried pressing the test button too, coining up and the start button just for fun too!

 

[cmonkey]

Sounds like your board isn't booting at all then. Do you have a logic probe? If you do then probe pin 18 on all three 68000 CPU's and let us know whether it's high or pulsing high and low. If it's the latter then the board is going into a constant reset loop.

 

[shrunkenmaster]

I'll pick up a logic probe tomorrow. There's a half-marathon on in Brighton today that I don't fancy getting caught up in!!

 

[Paul_in_nottingham]

Those voltages seem a bit high. Turn them down to 5.0 so you don't fry the board while testing.

 

[shrunkenmaster]

Hey Paul, adjusted this last night and got the voltage at the board down to 5.1V - closest I could get it without dipping below 5V.

 

[cosine]

5.1v is fine, I have to have 5.2v at the switcher for Outrun, or I get reset issues, I doubt Power Drift is any different in that respect.

Does Power Drift have the FD1094 security CPU? If it's died, you get a black screen, but that would be worst-case scenario.

 

[cmonkey]

Strangely enough none of the Sega Y-board games used the FD1094 CPU.

Do you have an eprom reader so you can at least dump the contents of the main cpu program? It's unlikely to be bad eproms that's causing your issue but it never hurts to verify them to rule it out.

 

[Equites]

Correct me if I am wrong, but is that 6 pin white connector not the RGB connector?

At least it was on Afterburner and Outrun, R, G, B, GND, Sync - the other is unused

 

[shrunkenmaster]

Nothing so fancy as an EPROM burner here, just a multimeter and soldering iron. I can get hold of a logic probe tomorrow.

 

[cmonkey]

Correct me if I am wrong, but is that 6 pin white connector not the RGB connector?

At least it was on Afterburner and Outrun, R, G, B, GND, Sync - the other is unused

On Out Run there are two connectors like that next to each other on the CPU board (one for 4-pin audio for the upright and one for 6-pin audio w/subwoofer for the Deluxe). The video connector is on the bottom board.

This better quality image shows that it's likely to be the same on Power Drift, there are probably two audio connections on the CPU board and the RGB connector is on the bottom (video) board.

Maybe Hurray Banana/Indy Jones could clarify as they both have upright Power Drifts.

 

[cosine]

Strangely enough none of the Sega Y-board games used the FD1094 CPU.

Nice, that means I don't need to worry about it if I ever get my grubby mitts on one.

 

[shrunkenmaster]

OK, logic probe time. On CMOS setting - Pin 18 shows:

1) Synchronized flashing LO (Green) and PULSE (Yellow), with pulsing HI (Red)

2) Steady LO (Green)

3) Steady LO (Green)

shrunkenmaster2014-02-19 17:29:55

 

[cmonkey]

It looks like the board is going into a constant reset cycle, as I thought, hence the activity on the reset line of the master CPU.

I haven't been able to find the Sega Y board schematics anywhere on the net, despite searching all the places where I'd usually find them. Diagnosing the problem on this board would be difficult enough if I had the schematics and the board in front of me but without either of these it's virtually impossible remotely. I'd suspect either bad main cpu ram or a bad main cpu ram buffer somewhere but like I said, without the schematics and the board in front of me to probe, it really is a lose-lose situation.

I'd suggest contacting Mark @ retroclinic and ask him whether he'd be prepared to take this job on, he's an expert when it comes to Sega boards and I'm sure he'd have the board up and running again in no time at all, with or without the schematics.

Good luck and let us know how you get on. Awesome game by the way!

 

[shrunkenmaster]

Thanks cmonkey, dropped Mark an email this morning.

 

[ktm]

I have PCB of the same breakdown, too.

Did you know which place in PCB was broken?

 

[shrunkenmaster]

The board is now in the hands of Purity, a member on this forum, he may be able to help you.

 

[tin]

Just a point as it was mentioned in this thread, on the outrun board, the 4-pin connector is still the audio L&R on the deluxe, the 6-pin connector is for the extra outputs - for the subwoofer plus the two audio out RCAs on the front of the cab. The crazy wiring got me all confused as to why the 3 audio channels are split over 2 connectors, then it made sense - everything on the 6-pin is only present on the deluxe.