A noobs adventures in cab ownership!

[ChrisBEANS]

I fitted mine with Sanwa JLF’s and Sanwa buttons and managed to find some big washers for the extra large hole! your solution is nicer.

Ah that’s cool!! If you’ve still got any pictures of yours, I’d love to see them!

[cools]

Could you glue the washers to the stick mounting plates?

[ChrisBEANS]

Could you glue the washers to the stick mounting plates?

I could, but I’d rather not glue anything if at all possible.

Turns out the vinyl is extremely sticky indeed, and as there’s no rotational force on the washer I’m hoping it will happily sit there.

If it does twist, I’ll have to replace it and that will be my motivation to revisit finding an invisible mounting solution for the sticks...




Does anyone have any knowledge/thoughts/experience in replacing the PSU on these things?
It is SO loud!!

It’s certainly not something that I can’t live with, and it’s actually a bit of a fun idiosyncrasy of the cab, but the fact it sounds like a low powered hoover isn’t the best...

[thegreathopper]

I replaced mine with a generic Jamma power supply and fitted a new monitor, I was quite fortunate in that Hantarex were still trading in SE London and picked up a new Polostar for about £180 new in the box.

[thegreathopper]

Will have a look for pics, must have some somewhere.

[ChrisBEANS]

I replaced mine with a generic Jamma power supply and fitted a new monitor, I was quite fortunate in that Hantarex were still trading in SE London and picked up a new Polostar for about £180 new in the box.

Noooo! How long ago was this?? I'm in SE London (ish).

I'm sure you want rid of that Pulstar. I hear it's absolutely rubbish. I'm willing to take it off your hands. You're welcome

[ChrisBEANS]

Still a shed load to do, but we're really getting there. Hopefully I'll be playing some Metal Slug later today!

[emphatic]

Looks ace!

[zak]

I'm sure you want rid of that Pulstar. I hear it's absolutely rubbish. I'm willing to take it off your hands. You're welcome

Polostar is a monitor, not a typo for "Pulstar"

Also, great work on the cab!

[ChrisBEANS]

I'm sure you want rid of that Pulstar. I hear it's absolutely rubbish. I'm willing to take it off your hands. You're welcome

Polostar is a monitor, not a typo for "Pulstar"

Well, this is awkward...

[thegreathopper]

I'm sure you want rid of that Pulstar. I hear it's absolutely rubbish. I'm willing to take it off your hands. You're welcome

Polostar is a monitor, not a typo for "Pulstar"

Well, this is awkward...

Haha , I think I paid £30 for Pulstar

[thegreathopper]

Hantarex used to have offices & a warehouse in Sydenham, I bought a few monitors from there, the place was full of CRT,S

Polos and polostars, the polostars were tri-res pin sharp picture.

Probably around 2007 when I was last there.

[thegreathopper]

I fitted mine with Sanwa JLF’s and Sanwa buttons and managed to find some big washers for the extra large hole! your solution is nicer.

Ah that’s cool!! If you’ve still got any pictures of yours, I’d love to see them!

Here is my old cab from 2004 with Sanwa parts, new power supply and new monitor, sorry couldn't find any pics with the monitor on.

[ChrisBEANS]

Love it!!

You might be able to answer something I’ve always wondered with those cabs...

There are only five mini marquees, and it’s obviously a six slot...

What happens when you choose slot six? I take it they’re simply all unlit?

[thegreathopper]

These panels are not lit, just holders for 5 marquees but they do come with a 6 slot board.

[ChrisBEANS]

I feel like this post might get more responses if it was given it’s own thread, but I’ll try here first... Anyone know anything about the EL panels?

I was intending to get them all replaced in any case, however it seems some of them work and others don’t. Is it at all possible to salvage the original SNK parts??

The video below shows it in action, but what happens is as the MVS cycles through each game EL1 off/faulty -> EL2 very dim -> EL3 off/faulty -> EL4 off/faulty -> EL5 apparently fine -> EL6 apparently fine.

So as it’s not completely knackered, anyone have any ideas on what it might be and whether it can be saved?

https://youtube.com/shorts/TkzapCEI808?feature=share

[ChrisBEANS]

While we’re at it, slot 3 of the six slot board has some graphical interference. Almost like snow. A bunch of white dots/pixels all across the screen. Minor, but there. Any ideas?

Just to cover the obvious, I’ve blown out the slot, I’ve tried different carts in it. It is consistent with slot 3.

In fact, when the MVS is in hardware mode, and the EL test moves to panel three (which doesn’t work, see above) the same ‘snow’ appears even without a cart in the slot.

You can see this briefly in the video above.

[thegreathopper]

Your symptoms with the EL panels sounds common, the original panels are 30 years old now.

There are repro’s around, maybe time to replace all 6.

I have had a few 6 slot boards and been lucky all worked, apart from checking the pins between the 2 layers and checking for broken traces I would just buy another, at least then if you have the same model you could narrow it down to top or bottom board by swapping the 2 x layers.

[ChrisBEANS]

Yeah, fair play, I'm happy to get new panels. My hope was to save original parts rather than save money, but I completely accept that these things don't last forever...

Shame on the 6 slot. This is a replacement that I bought as the one that came with the cabinet was dead. I didn't notice this when I collected the replacement 6 slot, and to be fair, it probably wasn't even happening when I picked up the board.

I need to open it up to install a UniBIOS anyway, so I'll have a good look, and give a clean to anything that appears to need it. Ultimately, I might just live with it for now...




EDIT: I separated the two boards, gave slot 3 a clean with some IPA, installed UniBIOS 4.0 and made sure the two boards were seated back together firmly and cleanly, and now no more 'snow' on slot 3!!!

Super close to being finished now. Need to spray up the PCB cage, do the T-molding on the right hand side, and wire up the CP (Trying to decide between using the original wiring, or simply redoing it all myself more cleanly??).

Oh, need to reinstall the memory card module too. Replace the EL panels, and the screen needs some serious dialling in (colours and brightness levels are way off)

[thegreathopper]

Excellent news, probably just a dirty pin on one the connectors.