After working so much on my Tron lately, and not quite getting to 100% working status, I decided to take a break and work on something else. I have a Pole Position 2 that I want to get working, so I can either trade it or sell it to make room for my Donkey Kong 2 project. The last I left this cabinet, it was all taken apart to clean up all the pieces before reassembly. I needed to repair the monitor because it had a broken neck board. And finally the PCB did not work (what else is new in Pole Position stories).
Well, I did the neck board repair over Christmas vacation a few months ago. I will post some pictures of that soon. Also completed a power supply rebuild to get two working AR2 boards. I have a few pictures of this repair below. They both were in need of serious repair, having some of the common symptoms of failed AR2 boards such as burned out resistors from the Sense circuit drawing too much power from the board. These boards were made to monitor the voltage drawn from the PCB they are powering and automatically increase the voltage to ensure the PCB runs properly. This is a great concept, but Pole Positions were so poorly designed that they often would draw more power than the AR2 boards could supply without burning up. This would also cause the PCB edge connector on the Pole Position boards to burn up. There is a quick modification that can be made to disbale this ‘sense’ detection, preventing the AR2 board from automatically adjusting the power output.
This week I decided to attack my PCB. The first problem with the PCB was that it did have the classic “edge connector burn” from the AR2 board. I needed to repair this, and do a few other modifications to “bullet proof” the game to prevent future failures.
Burned up resistor on the AR2 board – common!
Disabling the “sense” circuit is just a couple quick jumpers on the back of the nine pin connector
Completed AR2 boards!
Edge Connector Repair
The common repair for a bad edge connector is to just lay down a line of solder to replace missing connector contact pads. That is obviously what the previous owner of this game attempted. This is a very short-termed repair, as it really does not allow for a clean connection. I decided to buy an edge connector kit from Bob Roberts. This kit comes with a female edge connector with solder pins, and a male-to-male edge connector adapter. Basically the concept of this is to solder the female connector over the existing burned-out edge connector on the PCB, then put the M2M adapter in it to leave a male edge connector on the PCB. Since the Pole Position had less pins than the new connectors in the kit, I was able to cut down the adapter to allow wire ties to hold it in the female connector. Hard to explain, but easy to show in the pictures below:
Burned edge connector on the PCB
Burned edge connector solder “repair” removed.
Bob’s repair kit.
Female connector in place over the old edge connector, ready to solder on.
Needed to trim off the excess Male connectors before placing it.
Finished repair.
Another view of the finished repair.
Power Distribution Modification
One of the most recommended fixes I found on the Internet was to distribute the incoming power to the PCB to the various “test points” instead of just from the edge connector. This would allow the power to be more consistent throughout the board, and to cut back on the power draw over the edge connector (remember the burn?). To do this, I soldered wires for the +5v and Ground to as many test points as I could find marked for this. I then ran all of these wires into a molex connector to allow me to remove the board easily. I’ve already had to remove the board 20 times or so, which proves this molex connector idea was a good one! From that connector, I ran a mating molex connector to a terminal strip which I wired directly to the supply voltage in the wiring harness.
Here are some pictures:
PCB with powr wiring soldered onto the test points.
Molex connector and terminal strip used to send the power to the power wiring on the boards.
All connected and ready to go!
Other Repairs to the PCB
There was some visible damage to the PCB. I had to repair some traces that were burned up as a result of the power problems it had. Also had to replace a few smaller components:
Bad trace
A couple burned components repaired.
I wish everything I did so far was enough to fix it. My first attempt at placing it into the cabinet resulted in the following:
Hey, at least it got power! I then adjusted the power supply to get +5v as close as I could, which was easy to do across my terminal strips. Here’s what I got:
Gave me a RAM 6 error. I had a fellow KLOV collector send me a nonworking Pole Position PCB last week in preparation for this repair, so I swapped out the RAM 6 with it. Placed it back into the cabinet and I got:
Another RAM error. RAM 40. I went ahead and swapped that RAM and got the same error again. Before going crazy trying to figure it out, I decided I should check the voltage again. It was low. I then adjusted it again, and immediately heard the game boot up! Here’s the test screen showing all my RAM and ROM was OK, and a screen shot of the game:
However, if you notice I am getting some graphics corruption on the background objects like the mountains and amusement park. Went ahead and tried to swap out some of the custom Atari IC’s that the instructions said contribute to that circuit but got nowhere. I think maybe my 6N Video ROM may be corrupt, even though it passes the self test. Here are a couple more screen shots to show where I’m at:
Finally, I replaced a few other components that were damaged from the battery failure on the CPU board (another death blow to Pole Positions). I had a few new chips, and the rest came from the extra boardset I had. Here’s a quick shot of the bad chips – notice the corrosion on the pins of the ICs:
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49 users responded in this post
Thx for posting this. I just picked up a PP2 over the weekend which looks like it has the same type of issues. Right now I don’t get any ROM errors but have the garbald screen, so I’m thinking I may have a power issue like you described. This is my first cabinet repair, so it should be fun
Thx
DF
Glad I could help! I am still have a little bit of trouble keeping this power dialed in, so I will likely be posting some further information. I may end up adding a switching power supply to supply the +5v to the boards, and just use the ARII’s for sound amplification. Will do some testing soon.
hi jeff. I’m trying to sell my pole position arcade but but I’m having sporadic problems with it. Upon power up its just a blank blue screen. sometimes its displaying ram 53 or ram 62.
Can the ram be found anywhere besides other PP boards?
thanx.
Not sure if your problem actually is RAM. Since I also got RAM errors until I got the voltages worked out, you may be seeing the same thing. I would double-check to make sure you’re pushing 5V to the board. I’ve actually heard 5.15V is a good number to aim for. If that is not the problem, you can check with sites that carry RAM such as http://www.arcadechips.com. I don’t remember right off hand what chip they need, so you’ll want to reference the manual for your board. Check http://www.klov.com and look up Pole Position. There will be a link to a manual at the bottom of the page.
I’ve done the regulator repair and also did the sense fix. So I’m getting 5.1v to the board, but still have a garbled screen. So I’m thinking it might be in the ram somewhere. Which leads me to:
How can you test the ram chips? Is it just a voltage thing, or is there some nifty gadget you can get?
Cheers
I’m sure there is a way to test them, but I honestly wouldn’t know how to tell you to do it. Your best bet would be to pick up a non-working PP PCB and start swapping.
Also, start running power wires directly to the test points on the board. You may not actually be getting the 5.1V to the board like you think you are.
thanx. i’ll check that out.
hey Jeff. im havin trouble makin sense of the schematics for the pcb’s. i see all the tabs marked 5.1v and GRN, like the ones below. are those he test points you were referring to?
thanx for your help.
http://www.jeffsgames.com/images/arcade/games/pole/pp2/pp2pcbburn.jpg
Yes, those tabs are the test points. Just be careful that you are using the right ones. There are the voltage ones, but also some of the other wiring has test points. For example, I would guess GRN is GREEN for video signal. Don’t have a board with me but if I remember right, it’s GND for ground.
oh man… glad you mentioned that. i might not have noticed that. i dont have my board right now eithr but im pretty sure you’re right .
thanx again.
No sweat! Make sure you remember to let me know how it goes! I’m finishing up my Tron over the next couple weeks and then I’m going to get this game done. If I can knock out the power issues I’ll let you know.
Hi. I have a PP1 and I’ve started working on it. The PCB has many wires soldered to the board itself with its own power supply. The sense wires are cut so would this be a situation where the AR boards are used just for sound? Do i plug in the switching power supply and the transformer assy separately? Thanks
MK
Mark, it sounds like that’s what they’ve done. I may end up doing the same thing. Double check that the power wires from the AR boards are not still being sent to the PP game PCBs. There should just be sound wiring. The sense wires really aren’t important to worry about if the PCBs are using a seperate power supply.
Hi again. Do you have a blank red screen when you
power up the game with nothing attached? I’ve got just the monitor power hooked up right now. Do the AR boards have to be hooked up to the PCB for it to work? Sorry so many questions. Thanks
MK
Mark, The AR boards supply power to the game, so yes they need to be hooked up. You could use a separate power supply, then you should be able to test it without the AR boards. I need to do the same thing but I haven’t had time to mess with it lately.
Hey, thanks for the great tips!
I have a PP2 PCB with some battery dammage and alot of dirty chips. What is the best way to clean theses? I tried gently scratching off the dirt on the chips, but seems to do more damage than good.
-Dan
@Dan: I’ve heard washing PCB’s in a dishwasher is helpful. You’d have to remove all of the socketed chips and wait for days to dry. I’ve never tried it and to be honest would be wary of doing so. As for the battery damage, I’ve heard washing with white vinegar is useful. I’ve done it before to neutralize the corrosion.
for the PCBs i have removed the damaged and cleaned up the board pretty nice.
I was asking more about the legs of the small socket chips. I have some that are very tarnished or rusted.
i have a PP2 that was working just fine until the monitor went out a few months ago. Does anyone have any suggestions at to what kind of replacement i should get? I’ve seen a few generic ones and was wondering if those are okay to use. thanks!
Hey Jeff. I think I might have fried something in my pp2 pcb. I tried redistributing the power as suggested.
I wanted to test it out, so i ran a couple of wires to a test point and a ground. When i powered it up, there was a puff of smoke from the pcb. Now the board is getting no power.
I hooked them up to what i thought was the power. All the cables routing to the boards were connected to the blue cylinder with the terminals on the top.
Any advice on what to do now and what i might have done wrong.
thanks again.
Hey Jeff, Thanks for posting this great site with all its info you have provided. Finally finished my PP2 and it only took 7 years. I had some of the same problems and a bunch of others. Thanks again.
Rick
@Rick, glad to hear you’ve got your game done! I’m hoping mine doesn’t take as long.
Hi I was given a Pole Position 2 arcade machine. Its my first one and have no experience fixing them. But i seem to have the same exact screen as the picture with the caption (“My first attempt at placing it into the cabinet resulted in the following:”) I would like to try and adjust the voltage but I don’t know how to go about doing it. Any help would be great. Thank you.
Hi Jeff, Happy New Year to ya! Thanx for posting this! I have had an original PP for about 7 years and want to upgrade it to PP II. Web research has has turned up a few vague answers to this; most stating that a conversion kit was available for original PPs’s that included, among other things, new EPROMS to plug into the PP PCB.
So I was wondering…. if I get a working PP II board set, can I simply plug it into my PP system? Or must/can I swap EPROMS to get this done? …Or am I flippin dreaming and am stuck at the Fugi Speedway..
@Jeff, you should be good to go if you pick up a boardset for PP2. The kit was a modification to the original PP board, but a converted board has all the same wiring and connections to plug right in. The kit actually includes new EPROMs and some custom chips, so unfortunately it’s not just a quick ROM swap like many conversions. If you do get a working PP2 board, you are gold!
Yea man, GOLD! ..that is what Mr. Bob Roberts told me as well! “Plug n Play” were his words and I am flippin stoked! The boards should be here end of next week..
Bob’s site has the breakdown on what is needed to do the conversion and it is beyond my known knowledge; not saying I wouldn’t try it, but there would be a fair amount of cussing when I render the board dead…. lol
As it is, I am looking forward to flat-footing it around Seaside! Woo Hoo!
I love the old arcade games and am certainly glad there are peeps who use their means to preserve them.
ha ha is this pic: http://www.jeffsgames.com/images/arcade/games/pole/pp2/pp2scn6.jpg
saying no to martinis??
Would replacing the battery on the Pole Position board with the MCR battery replacement kit that Bob Roberts sells be acceptable? Also, have you come across any Pole Position high score save kits?
Thanks!
I replaced my monitor and it’s up and running great again. Unfortunately, i noticed that i can’t hit max speed sometimes, does anyone know the cause of this and how do i fix it… it only happens intermittently so i can live with it, but any advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
@Jason, I don’t know if that kit would work or not. You can ask Bob. He’s an expert on these things too! I know you don’t need a battery for the game to run. It is probably just for high score save.
@Michael, maybe check the gas petal mechanics to make sure everything is running smoothly. Other than that, I wouldn’t know what to try right off.
Thanks Jeff! I’ll check it out! btw, has anyone tried qualifying on the Test track with the 2nd lap? I accidently did it and it really bumps up your score… just fyi… i don’t believe it’s possible on the other three tracks…
Well, I recieved my PPII boards today, looked to be sound, not terribly dirty but does have extra solder on all the pins of the vidoeo board input. But since the guy I got it from said it is “working” I plugged it in and promptly got a garbled screen exactly like the RAM 6 error screen above, ‘cept my screen shows “error IC25″ which the manual saysd is the chip 4K.. which is not in a socket … so much for “working” lol
Edit: further investigation reveals that IC25 is referring to the PCB board in which 4K IS socketed. It is the video board 4K that is not socketed..
So I pulled the 4K chip and reseated it as it was very clean. Now the game boots (hear the crash) but the screen goes to a light brown and has some rights info.. will post a link to the pic in a few minutes.. Also, the self test checks out good now.
Here is the link to the pic of my stuck screen
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffairdeadly/images/MISC_Stuff/PPII%20screen.jpg
Any help with this would be highly appreciated!
O MY GOSH, O MY GOSH O MY GOSH!!! Do you know what that screen is?? It is what shows up when dip switch 8 is set to “ON”, on 9JA!! Presumably during shipping the dip switches got pushed on and that is what had caused my frustrations!! Bummer I had not looked into that prior to all the other stuff…
All is good now! Woo HOO!!
Congrats on finding the switch! That’s great. Check out http://forums.klov.com now that you have it working, and also sign up for http://www.coinopspace.com. KLOV has some good discussion on some Pole Position scores (search for KLOV High Scores), and COSP is a new arcade collector “community” of forums that will teach you a lot.
Jeff we have a pubtime dart board. We are having problems with getting it to allow anymore then one player nto play. Then when you do hit the number you need to go out for 301 it says busted, Cricket works fine, but will only allow one player no matter how many quarters you put in. We do have the schematics book,
It was working when we bought it at the pawn shop. Do you have any suggestions on how to fix it. IF SO DO YIU KNOW ANYONE IN OUR AREA WHO COUKKLD HELP US,.THANK YOU Shirley Howard We live in New Port Richey, Florida and love to play darts at home. PH# 1-727-264-7140 Call us collect. email add: shirl0609
where do you get replacement ram and memory chips for a pole position 2 mine has the same problem you had with yours and after i get it running can i rewire it in too a pole position 1 sitdown version ?
You can swap a PP2 board into a PP1 cabinet. Should work great. For replacement parts, I’d start with Bob Roberts. His address is on my links page. you may need to email him to ask about what you need.
You completely rule, man! Between the sense jumpers and the burned resistors, this page helped me get my PP back and running!
Thank!
Glad it helped you! Congrats on getting it running again. Make sure you check the edge connector on the PCB to make sure it’s not damaged. Also, you may want to run some power leads to the board test points just to bullet-proof it.
I am trying to fix my PPI video game and have a really basic question. If the lights on the PCB do not light up, would that indicate that my board is not getting enough power? The monitor glowes in a bright pink and the fax, lights all work. But I don’t get any sound or picture on the screen. Any clues where to start in fixing this is appreciated.
I can’t believe these posts. I have no idea why you guys can’t fix this stuff. It has to be the easiest electronic architecture ever made. The boards are nice and big, the components are spaced so you can work on them. 9/10 problems can be solved with a DMM and logic probe.
Thanks for the help, Steve.
i have a pp1 arcade and when i turn it on all i get is a blue screen
with a bunch of ones, zeros and other numbers and random letters what do i do to fix it.
jared: join the forums at forums.arcade-museum.com and post your question there.
I have the same graphics issue with my game. The clouds and background are distorted. Did you ever figure the problem? I replaced 6n and 7n and my power supply voltage is good.
Nope, I still haven’t fixed it. I gave up on it for a while to work on some other issues. I am trying to read up on some of the components to learn how to test them out.
Hey Jeff, thanks for posting your info. I have a Pole Position that during gameplay, shows shadows to the right of all cars and signs, a shop told me is was either a RAM or ROM oissue, but couldnt go any further. Any idea?
Craig
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