Galaga not right!

[Netropolis]

I was wondering if any Galaga experts on here could answer this riddle for me.

I picked up a Galaga the other day, it was... a good price and looked to be in good condition.
The owner disclosed there was some issues with the buttons and joystick but it had been fixed before by cleaning the contacts.

After completely disassembling and re assembling the control panel components I have LEFT (NO RIGHT) Player 2 (NO PLAER 1) and Fire working.

I checked continuity and the wire itself is good...  but I followed the wire from the CP molex connector and it goes to the power supply... and somewhere during it's life this was done... and I dont know why.  I also don't know if this is why I am having issues with the2 buttons but this IS the wire that connects to both the button and Joystick Right that is giving me the issues.

See the one wire that is soldered to the bottom of that (I think it's a) capacitor?  Thats the one... 


Thoughts? Suggestions?

[VertexGuy]

is there a rapid fire board?

[Netropolis]

Yes it has the rapid fire board on the opposite side near the PCB
Pictured above is the power supply.

[VertexGuy]

any shorted there?

[Netropolis]

Hey!
Nope the rapid fire board seems solid I checked and everything appears to have continuity.
Board looks good and Single Fire AND rapid fire pins work.

[iankellogg]

The wire going to the cap looks to be a grounding wire used for the harness. Might have been a hack instead of putting it properly back into the connector. Have you checked the switches for good contact as well as following it all the way onto the PCB

[Netropolis]

Thanks for the reply...

Yes, I just found this on some other forum post from a million years ago... 2009 I think.  LOL

All other wires go the gnd (yellow, yellow/black, yellow/white, yellow/violet, white/green...

The Wire in question is the Yellow-Violet which appears to be grounding the Button and the Right on the Joystick.

Both the button and the Joystick are getting good contact, the leaf's are straight and free of rust or corrosion.
So it has to be this weird - 'solder to a cap jobbie' that's the issue - I THINK!

If I CUT the wire - where would/should/could I re-attach it to make ensure it is connected to the right thing?

[iankellogg]

So it sounds like it is infact the grounding wire and it should be connected to ground. Find a ground to attach it to, or try to figure out what pin on that connector it should goto. You could probably figure it out by seeing where the other grounding wires are.

[Netropolis]

That's what I thought!

Thanks Ian and Vertex!

Ok I will get crackin' on this and report back - I think I finally have an excuse to buy a soldering iron!  YIPPIE!!!

[Netropolis]

NOW I have ZERO CP functionality.

Here is what I did and what I noticed.

I cut the ground wire that was soldered to the bottom of that cap.
I was able to use the Midway wire punch to add the wire to it's designated pin...  (so it was right back where it was supposed to be)
And the whole CP is down.

I checked the molex everything is connected right.
I did notice however - on the PS itself...  there is a 1A glass fuse completely missing!?!
in my photo above, the fuse socket/seat is obscured by the wires... 

Do you think I need to have a 1A fuse there in order for the ground wire to work? 

[VertexGuy]

I know if you don't have voltage to the cp it might not work.
I went with a switcher btw.

[Netropolis]

Switching to a switcher has been crossing my mind - I have a couple of them.
An aweful lot of wires going to this PS though...
I will go pick up a fuse and see if that works...

The Midway PS (90427) is NOT a galaga PS... it is another Midway Medium PS.
I can't find any pinout info for it anywhere all my searches come up with them on ebay and the like.

It looks Clean no burn...  so I am going to try the fuse.

[VertexGuy]

try looking up gorf power supply.

[Netropolis]

Victory!!!

We have a working Galaga!!! 

I played a little wiring russian roulette...  I saw where the wire WAS before and thats where I put it after I cut it off that capacitor.
Since it went back there NOTHING worked on the CP. So I took it out of the harness and moved it to a free pin next to all the other ground wires... Seemed logical.
Guess what...  It worked and I didn’t release any of the magic smoke out of the Power Supply!

As we all know once the Magic Smoke is released it never works the same again!

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[Netropolis]

Here she is!