Atomiswave nightmare: "Coin Error" ... Now what?

[supergoose]

I've had this Atomiswave for way too long and and it is really **** me off to no end. I'd love to just smash it and toss it out, but I'm afraid that that's no option.

Problem:
All it does is showing me a black screen with a white "Coin Error" text. I already tried to find a solution online, but all I could find was this:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=52105

Which links to this thread:
http://www.gamoover.net/Forums/index.php?topic=28168.0

Thing is, there are NO buttons connected as of yet, so it can't be a problem with the coin mech or the coin buttons.
I was in the process of consolizing it. Started pretty much allover again last night at 9:30 pm and gave up at 8:00am.
I started with the GND, +5V and +12V connections. Then I soldered the RGB wires. Everything seemed fine, so I decided to wire up Joyport 1 next and I also wanted so go into the settings menu, so I set DIP 2 to "ON". That was at around 6:00am. That was when I first got the "Coin Error". I set DIP to to OFF but the damn thing wouldn't boot anymore, so I unpluggued it and waited a few minutes. Plugged it back in and it at least showed me the Sammy logo screen followed by a cart error message but that was ok since I didn't have a game inserted at the time. Powered it down. Put in a game and powered the sytem on again and was greeted by the Coin Error message ... again.
As I said, I tried to find a solution online and that was when I found the thread on shmups. The guy suggested removing the ZD7. That changed nothing. I read the other thread that he linked to and figured that the coin button has to be connected to one of the other ZD diodes (?). I removed one after the other. Still nothing. I still get that Coin Error.
I didn't even have a Stick plugged in and never tried to press any buttons. There are no solder bridges or damaged traces...

I'm **** off and frustrated. Any suggestions? I need to get this thing out by last week. I've got more important things to worry about than videogames, atm.
Seriously, the Atomiswave has to be the worst piece of **** hardware that I ever had to work on.

Also, if you're thinking about modding an AW for someone else and the guy askes you to hurry up because he can't wait to play his precious games ... DON'T:



That was the first AW that I was working on, before I had to find a replacement. Did I mention how much I hate the AW hardware?

[leonardoliveira]

You're lucky enough that Atomiswave isn't Naomi and you can get a compatible replacement Holly chip (Dreamcast GPU) from a Dreamcast scrap...
But you need someone who can rework those pesky BGA chips to put it on the Atomiswave board...

About the stuck coin input sadly it's handled by a Sammy custom chip.

[supergoose]

Do you have any idea how that could happen all of a sudden? All I did was that I wired up the joyport for player 1 and set DIP2 to ON. I didn't touch anything else.

[nem]

The Atomiswave is a strange piece of kit. I have two that both mysteriously stopped outputting audio from the jamma edge when I changed the original fans to quieter ones. Same thing happened to someone on Arcade Museum as well.

I guess it doesn't like to be tinkered with.

[PrincessPrinPrin]

Did you check with the DMM if the jamma pins for coin inputs are stuck low/shorted to ground? If removing ZD4 (which is the only one that matters for these inputs) did not remove the short, then it can only be FL13 (EMI filter), RA18 (resistor array) or the custom IC that handles the inputs.

[leonardoliveira]

Do you have any idea how that could happen all of a sudden? All I did was that I wired up the joyport for player 1 and set DIP2 to ON. I didn't touch anything else.

The one that was sent to me for repairs was abused with a mechanical coin counter. It fried everything including the Sammy custom. I had trouble to separate the board from the heatsink but I am well aware how weak these NEC BGAs are I didn't try to peel it out with violence. The trick is disassemble the board while it's warm.

[PascalP]

The Atomiswave is a strange piece of kit. I have two that both mysteriously stopped outputting audio from the jamma edge when I changed the original fans to quieter ones. Same thing happened to someone on Arcade Museum as well.

I guess it doesn't like to be tinkered with.

That's quite common, you probably installed a 2 wire fan instead of the original 3 wire.
Connect the extra yellow wire (pulse wire / rpm wire) to the ground wire of the fan.

It's just a security thing of the Atomiswave, if there is no fan signal it shuts down the audio. The idea behind it would have been to tell the arcade operator something is wrong (my guess).

[leonardoliveira]

That sounds like a design error... On a retail Dreamcast a stuck fan (rpm sensor not pulsing) causes the clock generator to cease oscillating, killing the video, the sound and all the rest of the machine. But that prevents the Holly (GPU) and the SH4 chips from overheating as lack of clock signal keeps them from operating.

It makes no sense cut the audio signal considering that safety feature was supposed to prevent damage on the chips...

[nem]

That's quite common, you probably installed a 2 wire fan instead of the original 3 wire.
Connect the extra yellow wire (pulse wire / rpm wire) to the ground wire of the fan.

It's just a security thing of the Atomiswave, if there is no fan signal it shuts down the audio. The idea behind it would have been to tell the arcade operator something is wrong (my guess).

Well, that never occurred to me. What a ridiculous feature.

[darksoft]

Normally the most common source to a coin error message is...... a problem with the coin mechanism

I'm not familiar with this, but I would assume that it needs an extra cable like JVS type 3, to detect that the coin mechanism is properly working. Either that or the coin switch remains pressed.

[leonardoliveira]

From my experience, the coin error happens by connecting a automated coin counter at the coin mech line without a diode to protect the input. A electromagnetic discharge zaps the input from the board making it think the input is being held low, causing the coin error message to pop up.

Unfortunately the inputs are driven by a custom Sammy IC. So you cannot salvage it from a dead Dreamcast (most parts though, you can, like the Holly chip, the SH4, the AICA chip or the RAMs.)...