astro city dissection + refurb

[bay]

so with my vert monitor being out of commission i figure what better the time to start on my refurb of it? as the cabs i got were in overall nice shape, they have scuffs and scratches, loss of paint, and other cosmetic issues.

my current list:

1. sand+bondo / re-paint entire cabinet white (whitewater pearl?)
2. sand + bondo / re-paint monitor bezel black
3. clean marquee (done)
4. replace marquee bulb / starter
5. remove sideart / replace with replica
6. replace instruction card with replica
7. replace jamma harness + add gpin
8. replace all locks with sega style
9. replace control panel w/ new sanwas (done)
10. cleaning the audio + other pots/knobs in the power supp
11. replace coin entries with non cigarette tinge (got em)

01-08-06 - the breakdown
----------

with the exception of one screw that was previously stripped (and had to be drilled out), disassembly of the astro is very simple. i'll be making a parts inventory of the astro for geek fun, im sure you can find it in the astro manual and whatnot as well.





pretty much indicates that taking one of these apart cause you can't get it up the 4 floor walkup tiny stairs apartment you live in is definately possible. the 29" monitor is a bit heavy, but way more managable when its out of the cab.

we've got a couple connections with print shops + vinyl plotter / cutters. making the side art should be easy. i might opt to create some customized art in the same line of the normal astro city side strips. we'll see.

more as it develops...

[elvis]

Cheers for documenting this. I'll be reading updates with great interest.

If you haven't already, I'm sure posting this on KillerCabs will also get a good response. There's plenty of guys there who have been through this already and can offer help, and others who are keen to see these sorts of things.

[bay]

quick update.

i've totally dissassembled the cab, cleaned up the front bottom and am about to sand, primer & paint it.

also wasted some time today and popped in the new buttons and whatnot for the panel on the vert. skeleton and bubble tops... some people hate this look, i think it's pretty smooth. i kept the general blast city / astro city colors. pink & green.



since this is going to be shmup only, 4 buttons max.

[Dave_K.]

Some pics of my Astro 2 restoration last year. I had it apart since December of 2005...so it felt like a giant jigsaw puzzle putting it back together (thankfully didn't loose any parts).
http://arcadefever.blogspot.com/2006/03 ... leted.html

I am curious how you plan to sand and primer/paint the cab. I didn't like how krylon fusion came out in the end. I'd recommend you take it to a professional to get sand blasted, and then sprayed with automotive paint. It was not worth the time for me to do myself since it took sooooooo looooooong.

[bay]

I am curious how you plan to sand and primer/paint the cab. I didn't like how krylon fusion came out in the end. I'd recommend you take it to a professional to get sand blasted, and then sprayed with automotive paint. It was not worth the time for me to do myself since it took sooooooo looooooong.

part of the fun is doing it myself, also doing it with car paint will cost a bit more than i really think i want it to cost this time around. i've got some friends that would help/do it for me, but paint costs are way higher.

i'm going to give it a go with me and the spray cans. sanding and priming, spraying on a matt white, then clear coating it. wetsanding the clearcoat to get rid of the orange peeling if it develops.

we'll see if i feel it was worth the effort to do it myself, probably end up saying no.. but at least i did =] the weather is kinda cold right now, so that makes it a bit tricky, but i'll figure it out.

[bay]

been rediculously busy with things other than cabinet refurb, however i just ordered a wei yah tri synch chassis to hopefully only be a temporary replacement for my non working nanao chassis.

wei-yah c3129a

there is the possibility i may keep this chassis in the cabinet and make it a hi-rez naomi cabinet. i'll have to decide.

now to clean up the nanao boards and send them out for repair.

shmupmeet is next weekend, gotta get it together!

[Dave_K.]

been rediculously busy with things other than cabinet refurb, however i just ordered a wei yah tri synch chassis to hopefully only be a temporary replacement for my non working nanao chassis.

wei-yah c3129a

there is the possibility i may keep this chassis in the cabinet and make it a hi-rez naomi cabinet. i'll have to decide.

now to clean up the nanao boards and send them out for repair.

shmupmeet is next weekend, gotta get it together!

Where did you buy this chassis from? A local friend just bought a tri-sync "upgrade" chassis from excellentcom, but it came with no documentation or manuals. Its supposed to be a drop in replacement for the dual nano in a new astro city. 15khz looks pretty good, but needs a trapazoid adjustment, 31khz needs to be enlarged past what the controls enable. Anyway, just cuirioius if this is the same board (please take a pic when you get it).

[zakk]

been rediculously busy with things other than cabinet refurb, however i just ordered a wei yah tri synch chassis to hopefully only be a temporary replacement for my non working nanao chassis.

wei-yah c3129a

there is the possibility i may keep this chassis in the cabinet and make it a hi-rez naomi cabinet. i'll have to decide.

now to clean up the nanao boards and send them out for repair.

shmupmeet is next weekend, gotta get it together!

Where did you buy this chassis from? A local friend just bought a tri-sync "upgrade" chassis from excellentcom, but it came with no documentation or manuals. Its supposed to be a drop in replacement for the dual nano in a new astro city. 15khz looks pretty good, but needs a trapazoid adjustment, 31khz needs to be enlarged past what the controls enable. Anyway, just cuirioius if this is the same board (please take a pic when you get it).

It likely is the same board, but I'm not 100% sure. When I was looking into this the pictures cosmic had of their chassis looked just like a 3129A, so excellent is probably selling the same thing.

There's a trapezoid control on the deflection board. I also seem to remember having a 31khz issue, I can't remember if it was too big or too small though. Again, I think there's some size controls on the deflection board you can adjust. Unfortunately my 3129A is installed in my Egret2 so I can't take a picture. I'll try to dig around for the manual.

[Dave_K.]

Here is a picture of the excellentcom tri-sync board.

[bay]

mine should definately be an wei-yah 3129A, i was told the A is very important to match up with compatibility with my nanao from my astro city, there is apparently another version ending in another letter.

when i contacted cosmicco they said they had this for a new astro city, which isn't what i have (i have a normal astro city) but perhaps new astro cities share the same nanao chassis?

Code: Select all

The chassis 29" 15 / 24 / 41Khzs 666A for New Astro City

on the killercabs forum i was told this was a rodotron chassis, and the picture queenie sent was much like the one Dave_K posted.

i've heard that both are the same chassis under different taiwan brand names. i'd be curious if the wei-yah 3129A is the exact board as the rodotron 666A. i'll know next week and post the success/failure of this endevour.

i ordered my chassis from alva amusements in miami, FL. they indicate they can diagnose and hopefully fix my original nanao chassis. i'll be sending that out this coming week hopefully to hear good news.

provided i get no documentation i hope you guys can help me get this fitted on my toshiba tube.

Dave_K & zakk : care to share information about all those wires and a general idea of what goes and does what where?

[Dave_K.]

Dave_K & zakk : care to share information about all those wires and a general idea of what goes and does what where?

It wasn't too difficult, which is maybe why it didn't come with instructions. I assume you already know how to safely disconnect the anode cap since you sent your board out for service.

This kit comes with a very small degaus ring, and the yoke connector/wires which we did not use. You can use the existing yoke connector on the tube, and original degauss cable (there is a matching connector on the PCB). There is no control to degauss on the fly, it simply degauss' itself when powered on. The VGA cable hooks onto the neckboard with a matching ground connector. You'll also need to connect the monitor's grounding strap to the neckboard (again matching pin like on the nano neckboard). The other vga port looking connector w/wires in that picture is used to splice into the Astro City harness for R/G/B/S/Gnd. So its used for 15khz, and mates to the VGA cable which connects to the neckboard. Both Hor/Vert wires on the VGA port connector splice to the jamma harness Combined Sync line. Power is fed through its own cable/connector on the PCB, which we just ran out the back of the cab to the extra plug on the back (warning, this means the monitor stays on even if you turn the cab off).

That was pretty much it. Well one more thing, the new chasis didn't fit exactly onto the monitor frame, but I got one screw to line up in the corner and the other side slid under the holding bracket to make it very secure.

[zakk]

What dave said. Despite looking like a mess, it's actually quite obvious where everything goes. I just went back and dug through my post history at killercabs to remember some of the more important things.

I swapped out on an Egret 2, so some things may be slightly different.

One of my yoke connectors didn't quite fit the chassis. After destroying the plastic to get at the metal connectors (which just fit over the pins on the chassis) I discovered they actually ship with a small dongle that converts the connector properly. Ooops.

The little VGA dongle they shipped me actually fits the input connector of the egret 2 perfectly. No wire patching required, you just plug it directly into the cab. It may or may not work that way for you (but I suspect most of the Nanao chassis use the same one)

Power: It ships with a wall plug cord. You can use this directly for power. It also ships with a converter that lets you use the cab power. YOU NEED TO GROUND THE CHASSIS IF YOU USE THIS. There's a very short ground wire on the chassis. It has a little ring shaped metal connector on it. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. Use some wire and get this attached to some part of the cab/frame. Otherwise it energizes the entire metal case of the cab. It isn't insta-death type but I did feel it when I brushed my hand against metal while reaching into the cab. So look out for that.

Degauss: Like Dave said, it auto-degausses on power up. The only weird thing is the degauss connector fits the power connector perfectly.


I'm not sure if that excellent chassis is actually a 3129A or not. It ALMOST looks like it, but there's a few minor differences. I suspect it may just be a rebranded Wei-Ya, or they licensed the design out to other companies. Which would explain some of the small yet inconsequential differences.

I really consider this chassis swap an almost-mandatory upgrade to most cabs.

[bay]

[bay]

the biggest difference i notice from the pictures is the rodotron chassis has a different neckboard, the mainboard and adjustment board seem to be the same.

i recieved that manual inside the box, ill probably pdf it and put it up for download.

tonight i'll be fitting the chassis, hope it goes well.

[sven666]

1. sand+bondo / re-paint entire cabinet white (whitewater pearl?)

ive done this in the past, its a shit-ton of work, takes alot of skill aswell (which sadly im lacking, making it even harder).

i wish you the best of luck and will be watching closeley.
(why paint it white btw, choose another not-so-washing-machine-like colour?)

[bay]

1. sand+bondo / re-paint entire cabinet white (whitewater pearl?)

ive done this in the past, its a shit-ton of work, takes alot of skill aswell (which sadly im lacking, making it even harder).

i wish you the best of luck and will be watching closeley.
(why paint it white btw, choose another not-so-washing-machine-like colour?)

i might hold off doing this by hand until the spring/summer when its warmer out and i have better options. i was trying to paint in this cold time and it wasn't coming out right in my test spots.

as for painting it white
a) it looks original
b) white is a clean color
c) white works with most rooms, like my living room. having a weird blue monster cabinet wouldnt =p

i wanted to try the whitewater pearl look, which is like white with a mica chip sparkle in it.

from what i know astro's only came in white, tho i've seen candy cabs that are a variety of colors out of the factory... korean or taiwan ones i think.

[bay]

jeff came over and we got the chassis fitted, was pretty simple. i've not bothered to tweak any values/settings. couple things..

1) the picture is real sharp in the center, but blurrier on the edges. is this a function of the chassis at 15khz or are there some settings i need to tweak. we did the focus so that the center looks really sharp, but the edges of the tube arent. (you can see its a bit off in the first picture on the right side)

2) pincushion helps so much, but i think i'll need to tweak the trapazoid pot on the mainboard to get a better 90 degree angle at the edges

3) the vertical of the picture can only get so large before the edge of the vertical screen gets a brighter line through it. adjusting the vhold and vsize/vpos doesn't seem to get rid of this. any suggestions? (you can see the brighter line in the images below of mushi)

4) the colors are still vibrant like on the nanao, and past the blur that i see on the edges the picture is pretty nice.

[MattR]

This thread looks interesting

I had the original Nanao serviced by Jomac. If your after help/info send them an email. http://www.jomac.net.au/. Picture quality on return was like new.

Would you mind posting information about spare parts etc when you get them?

Cheers,
Matt

[LARGE KRO]

Damn !! That's exactly the thread I was searching for.
It seems actually hard to find a WEI YA C3129A chassi... Also does anyone could say what chassis are the best between the WEI YA and RODOTRON ones ?

[bay]

i'm pleased with the wei-yah, we just had shmupmeet #3 and all went well.

i adjusted the trapazoid pot on the mainboard and it's pretty dang close to what i want.

i may want to look into making the size of the horizontal go out farther, it's at max right now but could stand to push out a bit more up the edge of the tube.

about to sell my 2nd astro and paint the other one. should have the continuation and conclusion of at least that part of the puzzle soon.

[ckong]

the biggest difference i notice from the pictures is the rodotron chassis has a different neckboard, the mainboard and adjustment board seem to be the same.

i recieved that manual inside the box, ill probably pdf it and put it up for download.

tonight i'll be fitting the chassis, hope it goes well.

I'm just curious about how your project regarding the tri-sync chassis is going (went).

Did you manage to upload the chassis manual somewhere?

[bay]

Did you manage to upload the chassis manual somewhere?

if you'd like it i did get my scanner setup recently so it shouldn't be a problem.

[ckong]

Did you manage to upload the chassis manual somewhere?

if you'd like it i did get my scanner setup recently so it shouldn't be a problem.

That would be very nice. I'm sure there are more people interested (on the arcadeotaku forum for instance). Perhaps you could post it (also) over there in the library section

[Kenchan]

I actually realized I will probably be following this closely; I'm refurbing two Astros myself as soon as Keith Elliot on sega-naomi sends me the keys (I've been waiting almost a month!)

[Square King]

I'd like to know how this turned out. An update, perhaps?

[kernow]

How strange, I just came across this thread via google.

I'm thinking about tweaking my wei-ya chassis' 15k performance *again*

I'll never be happy with them

[emphatic]

It's a known issue with Wei-Ya trisync chassis in 15kHz then? I have a Chinese Wei-Ya knock off in my Chinese cabinet and I'm really happy with the 31kHz mode, but it's really hard to get the geometry correct in 15kHz.

I managed to get the blur "under control" by adjusting the "focus" setting (one of the black pots next to the D-Sub connector. It'll give you less sharpness in the middle, but an overall more balanced picture.

[kernow]

Might give that a go, I've posted countless threads about these chassis over at Arcadeotaku, I'm never 100% happy with their 15k output but then on a tri sync I don't think I ever will be.

[Dave_K.]

I've had experience installing/tweaking Wei-Ya, Rodotron, Kortek, and NeoTec tri-sync chassis. All of them (ALL OF THEM) had geometry issues with 15khz. The only tri-sync I've seen that had perfect geometry in both 15khz and 31khz is the Toshiba chassis in my Windy II.

I think its safe to say any cheap tri-sync chassis is optimized for 31khz only.

[kernow]

Yeah, I'd agree with that.