Black Screen, flickering. ARpiCADE dead?

Moonshine_GFT · Post by **Moonshine_GFT** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 1:38 pm

Hello there.

I've had my ARpiCADE hooked up to my SEGA Blast City for a little over a year now, and the other day while I was working in my arcade, I noticed the cabinet, which was on and running in attract mode, had a black screen, flickering slightly, and making a quiet clicking noise. I thought maybe my monitor had kicked the bucket. Tried a power-cycle, tried hitting the reset button, removing and replacing the jamma connector, jiggling the wires...nothing. It hadn't been running very long. So I plugged in another PCB I had, and it worked fine. Is my ARpiCADE dead?

Post by **dee2eR** » Fri Jul 03, 2020 1:52 am

It's hard to say for sure what has happened. It does sound like something on the RaspberryJAMMA has failed. Perhaps the DAC failed, assuming both sound and video are not working that seems the most likely issue.

The other thing worth checking is the fuse on the RaspberryJAMMA, if the whole system isn't running it would also stop sound and video.

No matter what the issue actually is, the board is fixable. I'm happy to help you diagnose it, or if you want to send it to me to look at am happy to do that too.

Moonshine_GFT · Post by **Moonshine_GFT** » Sat Jul 04, 2020 11:05 am

I'm happy to help you diagnose it, or if you want to send it to me to look at am happy to do that too.

Yes, I'd appreciate that. How do we start the diagnosis? I'm not very knowledgeable about PCB troubleshooting, so I'm not sure where to begin.

Post by **dee2eR** » Tue Jul 07, 2020 1:39 am

I'd start by continuity testing the fuse with a multi meter (if you don't have a multi meter I'd recommend getting one, they're invaluable in this hobby). It's located just under where the SD card goes in the RPi on the RaspberryJAMMA. If you can see the RPi LEDs lighting up with the power you can skip this as if the RPi is getting power the fuse is fine.

You can test the DAC by removing it from the RaspberryJAMMA/RPi and trying it with another HDMI source (or use the RPi) to a monitor with VGA input. If the fuse is fine I'd say it's most likely the DAC has failed. If it is the DAC I can provide tested replacements if needed.

Given the symptoms that should be all the trouble shooting needed but if it's not we can move onto further testing.

Moonshine_GFT · Post by **Moonshine_GFT** » Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:19 am

Alright, finally had time to do some testing yesterday. LED lights were blinking, so I crossed that off. Plugged the DAC from my PC into my TV, and got nothing. Ordered a new DAC for ¥1000, and it just arrived a moment ago. Plugging it in now...

...everything is working swimmingly! Thank you, my good sir.

Black Screen, flickering. ARpiCADE dead?

Black Screen, flickering. ARpiCADE dead?

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