Pole Position

All posts tagged Pole Position

Today, I finally completed the project. After having the machine split in 2 (thus unplayable) for so many months, I put the finishing touches on the front half today and joined it all back up for a game.

The first step was to remove the existing decals from both the left and right front panels. As it was, some of the decals had already come off. In some places there were chips missing from the side panels and even what look like burn marks (assuming cigarette).

Left panel start
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It’s been awhile since my last update on my Pole Position cockpit restoration. With some Christmas holidays on my side, I decided to start working towards completion. Over the last few months I had been gathering the last bits I needed to complete the project. The artwork arrived, the paint was purchased and a few minor parts were sourced. There was still quite a bit to do on the machine, so I decided to split the remaining work into two sections – basically the front half and back half of the cockpit.

To start with, I decided to focus on the back half of the cockpit and get that 100% complete.

The first step was to fix up the broken corners on both side panels. These had broken off at some point in the past – maybe by vandals, maybe just from movement between owners or locations. Anyway, some builders bog came in handy here to redo the curved corner. Once it had set, I used the router to cut a new t moulding slot (not shown).

Broken corner fixed
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One of the first issues I noted with the pole position machine was the condition of the screen acrylic and it’s lack of proper artwork. I wanted to address this as a priority, but it has taken a little bit of time to get around to it. This was the state of it when I first picked it up:

Screen artwork start
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When I first opened the back of the machine, this is the sight I was greeted with:

Blocked

A number of things bothered me:
1) The bottom left corner of the game board was physically resting on top of the switcher. This has actually left some marks across the top of the switcher and some discolouration on the side of the pcb.
2) The middle of the PCB is physically resting on top of the fuse switch. Not a big deal but I don’t like the fact the PCB is actually resting on components of the machine.
3) The pcb isn’t sitting properly due to a makeshift foot (see the top right pcb foot), which leaves it on an angle.
4) Loose power cable hanging across the PCB
5) The frame holding the PCB in place is attached to the base of the monitor panel. While the pcb itself doesn’t have much weight (and any it does have is currently resting on the switcher) I want to reposition it so it’s away from the monitor and not in the way of everything. There is no way to access the speakers, coin mech or steering wheel with this set up.
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Locating information specific to the Namco Pole Position 2 pin outs proved to be a challenge. The Atari pin outs are easy enough to find and are documented on a number of sites (although a number of sites reference the same documentation). The Atari PCB uses a 30 pin connector on the video board and a 44 pin connector on the CPU board. The Namco board set however uses a 20 pin connector on its video board and a 36 pin connector on the CPU board.

After much Googling, I came across a YouTube video showing the exact Namco PCB I owned. Interested, I took a look and read the comments. Tucked away in the comments was a link to a Japanese website that supposedly contained the pin outs for the Nambo Pole Position board set. Returning to Google with the web address, I was able to view a translated version. I was happy to see that this was the actual pin out for the Namco board set!

I’ve reproduced the pin out diagram here:

– CPU Board (J4): 36 Pin

Component side Solder Side
+12V OUT A 1 +12V OUT
LOCK OUT B 2 START LAMP
COIN COUNTER 1 C 3 COIN COUNTER 2
SERVICE D 4 TEST
COIN 1 E 5 COIN 2
START 1 F 6 START 2
N/A H 7 SHIFTER
GND J 8 GND
SOUND 1 K 9 SOUND 2
SOUND 3 L 10 SOUND 4
SOUND GND M 11 SOUND GND
VOL GND N 12 VOL GND
GAS P 13 BRAKE
VOL VCC R 14 VOL VCC
+5V OUT S 15 +5V OUT
N/A T 16 N/A
STEERING 1 U 17 STEERING 2
GND V 18 GND

* connect the “START 1” and “START 0”

– Video Board (J1): 20 Pin

Component side Solder Side
SP FRONT R+ A 1 SP FRONT R-
SP FRONT L+ B 2 SP FRONT L-
SP REAR R+ C 3 SP REAR R-
SP REAR L+ D 4 SP REAR L-
VIDEO RED E 5 VIDEO GREEN
VIDEO BLUE F 6 VIDEO SYNC
VIDEO GND H 7 VIDEO GND
GND J 8 SOUND 1
SOUND 2 K 9 SOUND 3
SOUND 4 L 10 SOUND GND

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