Fixing Space Ace

Gabber on!

Get the smart Christmas present out!

Now to find out what’s wrong with the Space Ace!

 

I’ve spent all day following the basic principle of swapping individual parts out of my non-working Space Ace into my working Dragon’s Lair. That way I can work out exactly which bits of it are broken.

The final result is:
– The PSU makes a loud buzzing noise but works perfectly.
– The monitor fires up but doesn’t display a picture.
– The CPU board fires up but won;t accept coin inputs and gives a “3” in the leds. It plays the laserdisc linearly from beginning to end.

Other than that it is fine. I reckon £50 to fix the monitor but I don’t know about the CPU board. I am going to re-cap it and see if I can find someone that can repair it if that doesn’t work.

So a bit of a mixed result, the biggest plus being that I didn’t electrocute myself!

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Got it out…

Let the electrocutions begin. I worked out how to get the PSU out. You have to drop the control panel and then you can get at it.

So I have taken the PSU out and am ready to start trying to fix it. First stop will be to replace that big green capacitor which should be an easy job because it’s screwed in and doesn’t require any soldering.

Before that though I am going to take the PSU out of my Dragon’s Lair and put that in the Space Ace to see if it works. If it does it means there is definitely a problem with the PSU. If it doesn’t it’s something else.

Making Room

Bloody Shoes. If it wasn’t for the bloody shoes… And the coats… If the shoes and coats weren’t in Mission Control I wouldn’t have to do this… Damn them to hell!

A new Dragon’s Lair arriving means that I need some drastic alterations! So here goes

First off, move the Dragon’s Lair 2 from the back of the room:

Then shorten the shelves and desks and move stuff along (not forgetting to move the Goliath cabinet out of the way!)

 

Desks and shelves finished, all the wiring re-done and the crappy old stereo left for the bin-man. Now my machines are nice and snug!

Fixing a Space Ace – eeek!

It was one of those moments where I just thought, “sod it!”. I had a chance to buy a Dragon’s lair and, if I wanted too, a Space Ace. The more observant amongst you will know that I already have a Space Ace so there was no real point to buying it, except I could butcher it to fix my Space Ace and also the Dragon’s lair I would get with it. So I bought both.

Well the time has come, the Dragon’s Lair is working and my Space Ace just needs a bit of tinkering. So I have a second Space Ace which is all but a shell with bits in it. All the bits mind you. So I have decided to do it up. I have all the side art, control panel overlay and marquee stuff I need but when firing this thing up it just makes a weird buzzing noise and the monitor displays crap…

Like this:

At least I know the monitor displays a picture of some kind, which is always better than a dead one!

At first I thought it was the monitor causing the noise but after taking out the monitor chassis I realised it was the power supply

Have a guess how much I know about fixing power supplies? Nothing, nada, zilch and so it is time for some education, more than likely a few electric shocks and some solder burns.

I can’t get at the power supply until I take the telly out and I could do with getting out my other Space Ace so I can test stuff in it so my mate Les is coming over tomorrow to help me mifligate stuff and take out the telly.

Wish me luck!

Avaguddun.