Mushihimesama PCB Blues

[K-2]

Plugged my Mushihimesama board into the machine for the first time in a while and by stage 2 all the color went blue.

Tried it on multiple machines and still displaying blue only.

I have limited technical know how, six months ago I was playing the game fine everyday no problems.

Any ideas or help would be much appreciated.

[parodius]

Sounds like the issue mentioned by system11 in his blog & repair log
http://blog.system11.org/?p=355
http://www.system11.org/temp/PCB_repairs.html

[system11]

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53273

Doesn't look like that does it?

If so - Bahamut sent me his board for inspection and I was unable to determine the problem other than eliminating all the analogue parts and final stage of the picture drive. Signs pointed to the BGA mounted custom.

[Strikers1945guy]

Cv1000 color problems. Since Futari seems to be the most popular SH3 board in Japan I'm guessing the thousands of hours running 24/7 in arcades kinda runs these games into the ground and they experience these problems.

Are all SH3 games prone to this over time? I've Seen plenty of Futaris with it but never any other SH3 games... yet. Anyone else seen an ibara or espgaluda ii with these color issues?

[K-2]

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53273

Doesn't look like that does it?

If so - Bahamut sent me his board for inspection and I was unable to determine the problem other than eliminating all the analogue parts and final stage of the picture drive. Signs pointed to the BGA mounted custom.

This is exactly what it looks like.....That's a bummer.
I'm guessing the mysteries of that particular chip haven't been dicovered yet?

Is there any place on earth that can fix it?

This is a Mushi 1 board, not Futari for the record.

[Strikers1945guy]

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53273

Doesn't look like that does it?

If so - Bahamut sent me his board for inspection and I was unable to determine the problem other than eliminating all the analogue parts and final stage of the picture drive. Signs pointed to the BGA mounted custom.

This is exactly what it looks like.....That's a bummer.
I'm guessing the mysteries of that particular chip haven't been dicovered yet?

Is there any place on earth that can fix it?

This is a Mushi 1 board, not Futari for the record.

Sorry to hear that. At first when it happened to my futari I thought it was a cap on my monitor neck board thing and replaced some with no avail. I know you won't know the history of the board but does the edge connector look like it'd had countless hours of use? I wonder if jts a timing thing to go along with use or it's just a time bomb sort of thing for SH3 boards...

[K-2]

Aside from a semi worn Cave SN sticker you wouldn't know the know the board had seen heavy use. Certainly couldn't tell by the edge connector.

Here are some photos of what the problem looks like:




I also notice some pixel twinkling which could be related or some other fault elsewhere....

[Strikers1945guy]

I'm guessing with cave closing their doors you can't send it to them anymore. Anyone in Japan know if TRY or MAKE offer services for faulty pcbs? Probably isn't cheap though and you would need a middleman as well.

Years ago I got a board upgraded through cave but I had to send it to Fujita as a middleman and it all wasn't cheap :/

[system11]

Aside from a semi worn Cave SN sticker you wouldn't know the know the board had seen heavy use. Certainly couldn't tell by the edge connector.

Here are some photos of what the problem looks like:




I also notice some pixel twinkling which could be related or some other fault elsewhere....

Is the pixel twinkling along one side of the screen?

[K-2]

twinkling is a bit scattered throughout. almost uniformly. You can really tell in the opening legal notice about every word has some twinkling on the letters. I'll have to look at it again when I get back from work.

[system11]

It really sounds like the same fault as Bahamuts. You could try getting it sent to MAK...

[K-2]

What do you think the chances of a well regarded American arcade distributor and tech being able to fix the board?

[system11]

What do you think the chances of a well regarded American arcade distributor and tech being able to fix the board?

Close to zero.

[K-2]

Was picking up some monitor chassis I had serviced at the tech I mentioned and brought the board to be looked. Of course it worked fine with all color and no twinkling.

He did say that if it was the BGA mounted chip it's almost impossible to fix. We tried pushing on different components to recreate the fault and let it run for 10 minutes and it stayed true.

It will probably go blue when I get home.

[chempop]

FFS

[Necronopticous]

I truly hope you can manage to find a way to fix your board.

I have no advice to offer, but here's a Mushihimesame cinquain I wrote in 2008 that is strangely fitting:

She streams
soliloquies
beneath scanline and screen,
yearning pink stimulus though all
her blues.

[system11]

That's interesting! When I was looking at the DSMBL board it never once healed itself. I tried varying voltages too.

[Strikers1945guy]

That's interesting! When I was looking at the DSMBL board it never once healed itself. I tried varying voltages too.

Was just going to ask you this. Truly weird indeed. Let us know if/when it goes blue again K-2... hoping it doesn't though!

[K-2]

I will keep people posted on this, but so far so good, just credit fed my way through five stages of maniac and all appeared normal again.

Me and the tech weren't gentle with it when we were trying to get it to fault again. Pushed on and wiggled every chip and component; pratically banged it on the table. Kept playing and looking fine throughout the abuse.

Note: the middle aged tech gave zero fucks that this was a "Cave PCB," I was feeling queesy, to say the least.

[K-2]

Necro bumping this - The Blues are back...

Any new developments on the fix for these cave boards in the past 5 years?

Edit: also now have no sound... Joy!

[K-2]

Update No sound on supergun, but sound on Astro City. Did some searching and I guess this is known issue with cave boards and superguns.

Is there a repair shop in Japan or somewhere these can be figured out? I know Mak Japan was mentioned. Mushihimesama must still be in rotation on location in Japan. A local arcade to me has one stretched all to hell on a "modern" Noir cab. I love this game, playing it blue and twinkly is the pits.

[XtraSmiley]

No idea on progress, but I know some devs are starting to test PCBs for MiSTer implementation, which means eventually some of the customs would hav to be figured out to make that work, which may help you.

You could also look at maybe donating (or lending) your PCB to one of these devs who may be able to figure out the issue/fix your PCB along the way.

[rtw]

Mushihimesama has a DIP SWITCH block called S2. Switch 4 makes the image blue. Make sure the DIPs are in the correct position, if they are all ON turn them all OFF and back ON again.

K-2 can you shoot a video where we can see the twinkling ?

K-2 can you take a picture of the color bars you can find in the test screen 4. COLOR ?

Another thing to try is to remove the legs from your PCB (if they are mounted) place the PCB on a flat surface whilst connected to your cabinet and then poke the FPGA with a spudger or a BIC pen to see if you get any change in the colour.

[K-2]

Not sure if pasting a Youtube url works here, but here goes nothing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH4SqVCXMiw

Video starts in color after rocking all the dip switches on and off. It's not totally happy though. Didn't quite get it on camera the first time, but it would phase slowly blue with twinkling and back after a few seconds on the first run I did off camera.

When I install the board in the arcade machine around 2:10 it starts up blue again. I had it on its side nested in some pink bubble wrap. When I turn it off, rock dips again and lay it flat - back to full color and stable image.

Above is just for people that don't want to sit through a dumb unlisted 7 minute video. At this point I've had it running on the Astro for 20 minutes and it's still full color. Bizarre! I suppose it's ok, but definitely not a super healthy Bug Princess. I've never had mounted with feet and never put it in a pcb sandwich or anything silly like that. Had the board for about 6 or so years. It had been in storage for a year and half before I brought it out and noticed the blues were back.

Thank you for your help RTW! So could this mean cold joints on the dip switches? seems more promising then other possible ailments.
Thanks guys!

[DejahThoris]

Sounds like that one dip bank is going.

[rtw]

K-2, It looks like it's the DIP block which is giving you issues.

It should only be SW 4 which is the issue.

I would start with reflowing the DIP block.

You could solder a jumper wire across SW4 as well.

If you are in the states I know a guy who might be able to help you if you are not happy with soldering.

It always makes me happy to see a Mushihimesama working