Bandai Hyper Olympic Challenge 5

NE146 · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 8:53 am Post subject: Bandai Hyper Olympic Challenge 5

One of my favorite games as it's a faithful port of the Konami arcade classic.

However I noticed on my unit the 2 switches on the front are really starting to show their age.. the contacts are real loose and iffy. Sometimes you cant turn it on, but if you tap the switch a few times it will power up. Also sometimes the sound goes off but if you do the same thing to the "sound" switch it will come on.

I'm sure the problem is either corroded or loose contacts in those switches.. they feel loose as is.

Is this something that's probably fixable? I've never taken apart a VFD before.. anything to watch for?

Rik · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 2:28 pm Post subject:

They are most likely made with a curved piece of metal on the underside of the switch that just sits on the circuit board. Over time, the curve flattens out and it doesn't work well. Open it up and look at the switches (it'll be obvious what I'm talking about if it looks the way I think it does).

You can kind of pinch the metal piece to give it more of a curve again, and it should start working fine. You can also probably clean the contacts on the circuit board, they might be dirty. Sometimes there a paste of sorts added to the board there and it can collect all kinds of dirt.

It should be pretty easy to do...

Rik

blanka · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:47 am Post subject:

And use the generic advice Rik has on the site about screws. And be sure to check if they are all the same lenght. You won't be the first to put a longer screw in a place that had a shorter one before....