Sega Astro restoration

[Parris]

I purchased an Astro cabinet from a member of another forum. He purchased six rather beaten up machines and put together a few from the parts he plundered. Having taken what he wanted, he then placed the remaining two up for sale. Well, one of them has just landed in my garage (actually two, but one is not mine).

A few other people went to see these remaining units and decided not to take them due to their poor condition, however I think it looks in far better condition than I initially thought it would given that others passed on them.

It's filthy, smells of damp and fags, has scratches galore, chips and dings, dents and cracks and yellowed paint... perfect! This was bought to keep me occupied this winter whilst the wife and kids watch X-Factor! Progress will be slow and down to what time / parts I can obtain.

Yes it would have probably been better to buy one in better condition, but where's the fun in that?



The Y100 ashtray - yep, put a coin in and whilst you are playing just use the coin entry as an ashtray, brilliant!

[Parris]

and the next day I started working on it:

The CP cleaned up nicely. Depending on the cabinet I guess it'll be getting a re-spray to match.

Before. It was soaked for several hours.




After

[Parris]

and then:

The cab could do with a bit of patching up, but there are no cracks and luckily no missing cabinet parts that I can spot.

Actually, given how the unit was described initially it's in pretty good shape.

Before, whilst stripping it down




After a good power wash. The more fragile parts were again soaked in the bath.

[alphagamer]

Looks like a lot of work, and as I know you that's just how you like it :-)

[Segata Sanshiro]

My favourite cabinet, visually. :3

It's gonna look awesome when you're done.

[Stuart.C]

Another arcade restoration thread :thumbsup:

Do you still have the Initial D unit? last i heard you were waiting on a coin mech or something i think.

[Jamtex]

Can I have the Mahjong control panel? :D I see it's using a mid 80s Nichibutsu Mahjong wiring loom, which is odd...

[mrmark0673]

Can I have the Mahjong control panel? :D I see it's using a mid 80s Nichibutsu Mahjong wiring loom, which is odd...

My brother has been basically trying to GIVE our Mahjong panel for my Egret II away, I wish someone were in the market for one of those haha.

Damn, New Astros are so sexy. I think I like them even more the Astros just for the speaker housings.

As far as a "beater" cab, this one is in really solid shape. Very interested to see the final product, I'll be following this thread closely :icon_bigg

Good luck with the restoration!

[VMS]

Parris - what exactly is that new control panel you have there, with no holes in it yet? Did you print it yourself?

[Jamtex]

My brother has been basically trying to GIVE our Mahjong panel for my Egret II away, I wish someone were in the market for one of those haha.

With the basic death of Mahjong games in Japan, Mahjong control panels are very cheap in Japan. My NESgun (http://www.assemblergames.com/forums...ad.php?t=21376) uses a tabletop majong panel for space, although I've been collecting a few panels too. :) If he wants to give it away then I might be able to find a home for it. :D

[Parris]

Parris - what exactly is that new control panel you have there, with no holes in it yet? Did you print it yourself?

It's a reproduction panel overlay. I could have obtained an original, but the button layout is different. The difficulty then is getting an original Astro CP. As the CP is exactly the same shape as a Naomi one, I already had one here so went for the repro and cut my own holes to match!

Can I have the Mahjong control panel? :D I see it's using a mid 80s Nichibutsu Mahjong wiring loom, which is odd...

Yes you can have it - I was going to list it on eBay, but frankly they don't sell very well and it would just be sitting there doing nothing. The loom appears to be complete. I don't have the key to the lock on the bottom left though.

Another arcade restoration thread :thumbsup:

Do you still have the Initial D unit? last i heard you were waiting on a coin mech or something i think.

Yeah, I like the restorations my self, keeps me out of trouble and boredom of banal TV. Honestly, I think I watch about 3 things a week now as everything is reality this, locations that, chat show this, celebrity what not with people falling in & out of love or trying to get a music contract without having to actually work for it. Utter bollocks! Having 400 channels to choose from hasn't made my TV viewing any more pleasurable either as I flick through and think "God, I hated that first time round, nope seen it 3 times already... jesus, will Dave EVER stop showing continual repeats of Top Gear?"

I still have the Initial D. I have the coin mech in place, I've got the card reader in place, I have the force feedback board in place, I have most of the wiring loom, the additional 2 x PSU, but I was let down on the original Dashboard & servo. Waiting until someone is breaking one up until I finish it off.
;-)

[Parris]

My brother has been basically trying to GIVE our Mahjong panel for my Egret II away, I wish someone were in the market for one of those haha.

Damn, New Astros are so sexy. I think I like them even more the Astros just for the speaker housings.

As far as a "beater" cab, this one is in really solid shape. Very interested to see the final product, I'll be following this thread closely :icon_bigg

Good luck with the restoration!

Yeah, I found the same thing when I looked into it and yes, I too am giving my Mahjong panel away lol.

I love my Egret II, but much prefer the Egret 3, although dislike the artwork Taito used on it. It's this pseudo chinese scroll (as you will know). The Egret 2 artwork is available as repro now from Sega Shed here in the UK. Next year I'll take that E2 out, respray it and apply proper artwork to it. It was actually an AWSD unit so it's got AWSD sticker on the back, Egret II stickers on the side and Egret III CP overlay. Take your pick!

When this turned up covered in brown & paper tape, grime and the like I thought "Oh no, it's just a pile of junk". With no locks the main door just hung suspended by tape. Cleaned up, it's a lot better already.

I'm really impressed with the quality of the unit though. It's the first one I have owned and it's solid.

[vectrex_rox]

how the hell did you get the CP so clean ??? it looks NEW (at least on the little pic)

damn !

[Parris]

how the hell did you get the CP so clean ??? it looks NEW (at least on the little pic)

damn !

It's got a tiny amount of grey still to it. Sometimes in photographs it looks marginally better than it really is, however it is a great deal cleaner than before. I guess I may still have to paint it to match the paint job for the rest of the cab. We shall see.

Elbow grease and washing up liquid, also magic eraser from JML, which is a God send! I highly recommend this product. A small cube of this stuff dabbed in water and rinsed out, then use it to scrub at stubborn marks and they just disappear!

http://www.jmldirect.com/product.asp...gecurrency=GBP

[Parris]

Got a few questions about the Astro wiring. I just bought a PSU & loom. My unit was clearly converted to 240vac, but the PSU I bought is 110vac. I was unhappy with the way that the cable supplied with the cabinet was originally converted for UK use. It was the original Japanese (black & white) wiring with a trailing earth cable and also a very dodgy looking internal transformer. So, I have started gutting this and re-wiring.

How the power cable looked on arrival...



So I removed this and changed the wiring, looping the earth through the metal plate instead of being external.





What I want to do is use a step down internally, removing the rubbish looking transformer. The idea is to cut into the 240vac supply as it comes out of the noise filter (pink & blue wires coming out of the top of the noise filter in image). Take it off to a step down 110vac and return the supply prior to this black connection.


I'll have to change how the unit is earthed as normally the earthing would presumably connect to the transformer. I'll need to connect to the earth for the step down.

Anyone think of any other issues I might have missed on this before I proceed? It means the cabinet is properly earthed to the mains. I'll also get it checked over by an electrician.

This is the loom connected up to the PSU


Am I missing a cable or is the left hand block not used on the PSU?


Lastly, I am trying to ascertain whether this is right or wrong? Normally the connectors are color coded or only connect to a block of exactly the same shape / size.
I cannot read the Japanese txt so I am not sure of it's purpose. In fact it may even be upside down!


Many thanks!

[Parris]

Before I offend anyone, here's the Japanese text again.


I cannot read it, but checking over the schematics I "think" it's the power supply to the marquee lighting.

Again I assume this is power to the monitor chassis as it looks very similar to the connection in the Naomi.



There is a diagram on the PSU, but there are no other connectors in the loom that are black or are an exact match, so either I am missing a cable or its' not populated.

This is what I am trying to avoid re-using, it seems a little............ rubbish!


The filter is marked 240vac and has been used in the previous rubbish conversion, so all is good.

[Jamtex]

It says 'Keikoutou' or basically the florries in the top marque panel.

The other one does indeed say 'Monitor'

Here is a pic with the pin out, which should help you.

ACN ACL are I assume are isolated Live and Neutral, FG is Frame Ground and DMG is the demagnetising coil. OTL and OTN is the live and neutral for the florries, remember if you use a 110V supply then you can't use 240V florrie units.

The other connector has more 5V, Gnd and a 12V connection so I am sure it was used for something...

The step down doesn't look that bad, as it seems to be a multivoltage step down, transformers rarely fail either unless badly coroded, give it a clean up and tidy the wires up and I'm sure it would be good. Although I suggest if you do replace it that you use a 240V to 100V to 120V isolation stepdown rather then an autotransformer. The PSU and the monitor chassis (which I assuming is 100/120V?) should be fine with 120V.

Just make sure all metal parts are earthed, but your wiring is clean and neat so far. Personally I hate line filters as they can cause problems and you don't realise it until you've checked everything else...

[Parris]

Thanks for the confirmation Jamtex.

The transformer has what looks like water damage to it, so I am not so keen on it.

I'm assuming that it's been previously wired in exactly as I am about to wire in the 110vac step down. Cut supply lead, feed off to step down after noise filter and then return feed before it hits the internal 110vac PSU. going on the length of the pieces of flex left attached to the transformer, it would certainly seem that way.

[Parris]

I have very little time on my hands in the next fortnight due to other commitments, but I decided to use a few hours of my spare time today to have another stab at the cabinet.

I took the entire cabinet to pieces



And sanded all of the plastic parts down in preparation for respraying them. I then stuck the major parts into the conservatory to dry off.


I had removed all of the metal parts such as doors and door frame. They were sanded down, cleaned and spray painted with white primer & tonight (8hrs later) some white gloss. I'll sand them lightly tomorrow to make them ready for a second gloss coating.

Pretty much all of doors looked as good as this


I had also previously worked on a replacement lighting rig, taking out the 110vac Japanese one out and setting it aside for Bernie's cabinet (should he want the original) and setting up and testing a UK 220vac one with 13w FT that's easy to find locally. I've stuck that light aside so that I can attach it properly once the spray job is complete.


I cut out the holes for the buttons and sticks using an extremely sharp craft knife. I have to say it's actually a really hard job to get it right and not lift the plastic surface to reveal little bubbles. I'm still waiting for the pink & green ball tops, 2 x yellow 24mm buttons plus 6 x blank button covers to arrive, and then it will be finished.


I put in what parts I had.

[Johnny]

All i can say is fantastic work, as always!