Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

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Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

Post by NoAffinity »

So I'm proud to announce that I've finally officially joined the candy club here. Grabbed an Aero City today, in good overall condition. Needs a bit of TLC, but the bare essentials are in great shape.

now for my first quandry as a candy cab owner. The cab was running a mah jongg game. I watched the game running, sound and video were great. The owner kindly swapped out the Mah Jongg panel for the standard 2P6B panel. I get it home, and the harness within the cab will not connect up to a JAMMA edge connector. The JAMMA harness in the cab is a couple mm short of beign wide enough to plug onto a JAMMA edge connector.

I'm already in contact with the seller about remedying it, but hoping to get feedback from the experts. Is there a simple fix?
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Last edited by NoAffinity on March 7th, 2017, 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Rossyra
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness?

Post by Rossyra »

The Aero needs a 36p > 56p adapter for Jamma.

Looks like you just have mahjong adapter instead, it plugs into that little slot at the door, check the wiki to see what I mean.
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness?

Post by NoAffinity »

Rossyra wrote:The Aero needs a 36p > 56p adapter for Jamma.

Looks like you just have mahjong adapter instead, it plugs into that little slot at the door, check the wiki to see what I mean.
Oh man, that sounds like an easy fix. Thank you! Doing some fact finding now.
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness?

Post by NoAffinity »

Ok, so not finding anything on a 36-pin to 56-pin adapter or harness. Don't see anything in the manual on the wiki, either. I've been talking to River Service about a 2L12B panel for this guy, and asking if they have them. Any other suggestions on where to get one?
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness?

Post by NoAffinity »

Well, given enough time, I can sometimes solve my own problems. :p

Found the pinout for the 36-pin card in the Aero City. Had a spare JAMMA extender harness. Started comparing the pinout to readings taken with a multimeter, on the 36-pin adapter. Then I pulled it out and saw it is labeled. Game on!

A couple hours later, cross-referencing the 36-pin card pinout and JAMMA pinout, I've fashioned a fully working JAMMA harness. :-D

Now to get with River Service about those 6-button panels.

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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness?

Post by mirkvid »

Nice fix and cab, welcome to the candy club!
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness?

Post by Rossyra »

The pinout is on p28 of the manual, which is on the wiki.
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness?

Post by NoAffinity »

Rossyra wrote:The pinout is on p28 of the manual, which is on the wiki.
So it is. Guess I skimmed through it too quickly. The way I did it may have taken a bit longer, but also ensured I was thorough. You never know, a lot of times manuals have errors. :penser:
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

Post by NoAffinity »

Now for quandry number 2. Decided last night to attack the filthy glass, and presumably also the screen. Started pulling the glass off and as the second security screw was coming out, a black goop came with it. Same for screws 3 and 4. Removing the glass, I found a black goop sandwiched between the glass and bezel, and between the bezel and the "frame" that the glass sits in. it doesn't look too bad in the first picture below, but trust me, it was a mess. Mostly sticky, but hardened and caked in other areas.

Proceeding to clean it all up (about 1.5 hours worth of work :problem: ), I got the frame and the bezel cleaned, starting on the glass last. The goop on the glass is isolated to the painted "surround" at the outer edge of the glass. When I say the "surround", I mean the factory paint around the edge of the glass which hides the screw holes in the bezel and makes the whole assembly more aesthetically pleasing. Starting to clean it off seems to be going well, but then that paint starts coming with it. :problem: :problem: So, I go as slow as possible and as delicately as possible, to minimize the loss of that factory paint. In the end, I got most of the goop off, but left a small bit on so it didn't take up any more of the factory paint. Will have to find a solution to fix that. Anyone else with an Aero City ever seen anything like this? I'm guessing not, but worth asking. Strange thing is, there seems to be a little bit of it that dripped down from the frame onto the main (game/power switch area) door, but there was no sign of it anywhere else, even at the edge of the glass.

But, after getting it all cleaned, with the exception of this minor destruction as a result of the cleanup, the monitor looks great. I just need to spend a bit of time filling the screen to the edges and color and white balancing. Looking at the monitor from the back of the cab, it looks almost brand new. The chassis is super clean. The tube has almost no dust on it...certainly not consistent with what I vacuumed out of the rest of the cab.

I also found all monitor bolts loose, with one completely off. Fortunately I unknowingly found all the pieces when vacuuming out the cab the day before, and kept them all assuming they would probably be important. Monitor firmly re-secured. 8-)

:edit: seems the black goop IS from the factory. :( http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?t=34443 philsublime, if you're still around, how did you clean it? And did you have the problem I've had and had to repair any of the painted "surround" at the outer edge of the glass?

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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

Post by arcadista »

First, let me congratulate you for your cab. I live in Argentina, and we have quite a lot of aeros here, but they are all are rusty and in really poor shape.

I had the same goop and pait problem with all of my 2 cabs, not to mention that the bezel gets broken by just looking at it.
I opted to repaint the balck border on the glass, and used black matte color spray, in sucesive layers and the ressults were very good. I suggest you to do so.

In a side note, I envy a lot the cabs you people get the chance to find.
I have to work a lot to get something near looking like original. Look:

https://youtu.be/9VUYYODOhSQ
There we are rebuilding a missing corner due to rust and some poorly made mod to fit a fixed stool.
And here you can see my previous work:

https://goo.gl/photos/EBqzuzAn7fWXhUJY8
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

Post by NoAffinity »

Very nice, arcadista. And let me commend you for your great work! I thought my year-long hunt that finally ended with this cab was a feat, but you truly have greater challenges to overcome.

Thank you for the advice. I was starting to think along those lines - completely remove the black border and re-paint it. Question - can you use painter's tape on the tint (on the inside of the glass) without fear of harming the tint?

And, lol, I understand now what you mean about the bezel. I handled it very delicately, and got some cracks on all inside corners. Nothing too bad, and nothing noticeable once behind the tinted glass.
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

Post by trev1976 »

You used to be able to buy a replacement bezel that was made of a stronger plastic ,a company in Australia used to do them.

I think they were identical apart from the plastic being slightly textured instead of smooth.

Damn shame there not available anymore as the original ones are so brittle.
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

Post by NoAffinity »

Next quandry. :awe: :cry: After spending an hour or so last night getting the picture dialed in - filling the screen, looking crisp - I am now getting the top of the image cutoff at startup. It went away earlier, after the cab was on for a good 10 mins or more. Hasn't gone away yet on this power cycle (been on about 10 mins now). Thoughts? Is it simply an adjustment that I pushed a little too far without knowing? Or is it signs that a cap kit or other deeper attention is needed?

When tuning yesterday, I only adjusted pots accessible through the front of the chassis. I didn't dig in from the back at all.

:update: after sitting down an playing a few rounds, the issue cleared up. Screen looked as it should.

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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

Post by Moonwalker »

Welcome to Candyland! :)
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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

Post by NoAffinity »

Got my CP's, bolt for coin door and key from River Service today. Lit!

Only one problem: 2 keys are needed to lock the control panel. :-o It is not possible to pull the key out with the lock in the open position. So, if I rotate one to open, the other one is still rotated to locked which will not allow the cp to close, and I can't remove the key with the one lock in the unlocked position. If anybody knows how to defeat this, please chime in. I disassembled the top of the right lock for now, and the left lock is locked and secures the panel fairly well. However, you can see in the picture the CP is slightly off center due to not being secured in place by the second lock.

Well, getting closer, and for now at least very excited I can play my favorite games with ALL buttons.

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Re: Finally Nabbed a Candy - Wrong Aero Harness? and Other Quandries

Post by kamex »

Nice looking Aero, glad that you seem to have gotten most of your issues with it sorted out. My currently out-of-commission Neo Candy has the same one control panel key issue, I just leave one of the locks partially loosened (which was the condition I received it in). Yeah, not ideal, but I just haven't bothered to get another key or analyze the mechanism for a different solution.

...The Aero City is the one type candy cab I still want, actually. Or rather the only model I still want AND can reasonably house. Heh.
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