In the Hunt pcb no sprites

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geosnow
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In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by geosnow »

I bought the pcb some years ago and it worked flawlessly. Today wanted to play the game again but the sprites do not appear on the screen. The sound is working and in the "test" menu ROM & RAM are okay. also all inputs, sound, tv etc settings are working. I can start the game but also in the intro the wales and the ship are not on screen but the text is. I can move the ship as well while playing but I don't see it and any other sprite.

I already removed the ROM chips and but them back in but i did no clean them. any ideas?
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by Asure »

The sprite handling is done on the rom board as well.
There are a number of SMD mounted big chips on it. Take a few high resolution pics of this if you can, and post them here.

This also means you cannot swap the mainboard with one of the crappy games like major title 2 for example.. :(
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by VectorGlow »

geosnow wrote:I bought the pcb some years ago and it worked flawlessly. Today wanted to play the game again but the sprites do not appear on the screen. The sound is working and in the "test" menu ROM & RAM are okay. also all inputs, sound, tv etc settings are working. I can start the game but also in the intro the wales and the ship are not on screen but the text is. I can move the ship as well while playing but I don't see it and any other sprite.

I already removed the ROM chips and but them back in but i did no clean them. any ideas?
With the components of the top board uppermost, orientate the board so that the edge connector is to the right. Now look at the top left corner of the board - you'll see a small, probably black, plastic jumper that's bridging two pins. Remove and replace and/or wiggle this to see if the sprites appear. If that jumper is removed or not making the good contact the sprites will be absent. Many other things can of course cause missing sprites, but that jumper is the easiest place to start. :)
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geosnow
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by geosnow »

Foto 2(8).jpg
Foto 1(8).jpg
as wished. ;)
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by VectorGlow »

Top picture, look in the bottom right corner of that - locate that jumper on your board and remove it then replace it on the same pins that you removed it from. See if the sprites re-appear. Also ensure it's making good contact with the pins as they can rust a little.
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by geosnow »

VectorGlow wrote:
geosnow wrote:I bought the pcb some years ago and it worked flawlessly. Today wanted to play the game again but the sprites do not appear on the screen. The sound is working and in the "test" menu ROM & RAM are okay. also all inputs, sound, tv etc settings are working. I can start the game but also in the intro the wales and the ship are not on screen but the text is. I can move the ship as well while playing but I don't see it and any other sprite.

I already removed the ROM chips and but them back in but i did no clean them. any ideas?
With the components of the top board uppermost, orientate the board so that the edge connector is to the right. Now look at the top left corner of the board - you'll see a small, probably black, plastic jumper that's bridging two pins. Remove and replace and/or wiggle this to see if the sprites appear. If that jumper is removed or not making the good contact the sprites will be absent. Many other things can of course cause missing sprites, but that jumper is the easiest place to start. :)
It worked. :D Those this has something to do with the -5V?
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by VectorGlow »

Great, very pleased. I love easy fixes. :D
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by Asure »

I made a mental note of that fix, right after saying "wow"!

Looks to me like this is for a 1M/512kbit rom option, and this probably swaps a CE line somewhere (when nothing is jumpered, the chips never get enabled and no sprites are ever read into ram.)
Lovely fix, hat off to your kind sir :)
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by eggsanwich »

Apologies for the necro.

I have a Kaitei Diasensou with the same issues. The jumper you're referring to, is that the ceramic cap on IC53?

My chip in that position is also missing a pin, it would be right under the "S" on "S74" in Geosnow's pic. I can't tell from the pics if the pin is supposed to be there or is missing on his as well - can someone confirm?
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by VectorGlow »

Are you able to post a good quality pic of the area on the PCB please?
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by eggsanwich »

IMG_1357.JPG
Pic of the area, as requested. The missing pin is right beside the "S"

Larger resolution here: https://imgur.com/a/HUXsr
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by VectorGlow »

The jumper is what you see marked as J3 - it's a black rectangular plastic enclosure with metal contacts inside, you'll see that it can bridge two of three pins. They tend to get corroded a little so power off, lift it off and push it back on a few times. You can even carefully clean the pins if you wish. Make sure you place it back on the same pins as it was previously on.
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by eggsanwich »

Thanks VectorGlow, I see it now :awe:

I've removed it and cleaned the pins (they were definitely dirty) and replaced it, and the sprites are more or less present now.

However there seems to be extreme sprite flicker, notably when there is lots of action on the screen but other times as well (ship disappears when whales pass in the intro, credit countdown is often partially missing). Further wiggling/adjusting of the jumper has no impact on this issue.

Any ideas on where to look?

Also - the jumper on my board appears to be on different pins than Geosnow's, is it safe to swap to the other pins and test?
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by VectorGlow »

I can't remember what the other jumper pin does so I'd be wary of moving the jumper there without checking first that its not +5 volts (which is unlikely, but better safe than sorry).

As for the flickering, that sounds like it may be a RAM issue, hard to say for sure though.
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by zak »

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eggsanwich
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by eggsanwich »

Thanks for the heads up VectorGlow. I checked out the other pin first and it appeared safe, so I went ahead and swapped the jumper position. It looks like this has resolved the sprite flicker issue :awe:

For anyone referencing this thread in the future, the jumper position as shown in geosnow's picture is the correct position.

Thanks for the link Zak. This jumper seems to be doing the job for now but I might end grabbing some just to have extras.
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by VectorGlow »

Excellent. :D
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by chaincarousel »

I was searching for the same problem on google and found this old thread here. I read that refitting the jumper on the board might help.

after resetting the jumper I was a bit careless it seems by replugging the MAK Super gun. For some reason I left the power on before I reputt it on the jamma connector.

since then I only get a strange clicking noise from my MAK supergun PSU. Not picture at all -> https://instaud.io/37sC

what went wrong? is it really that dangerous to put plug the mak supergun in powerstatus "on" to the board might that have damaged something ?
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by nem »

You most likely shorted the power lines. Open up the PSU and look for visible damage.
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Re: In the Hunt pcb no sprites

Post by chaincarousel »

nem wrote: January 3rd, 2019, 3:00 pm You most likely shorted the power lines. Open up the PSU and look for visible damage.
The PSU works with other pcb boards without problems. Only in the hunt won't start now so it must be dev. the PCB ?! :(
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