Can you help me fix my power glove sensor bar?

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icemanxp300
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 6:17 pm

Can you help me fix my power glove sensor bar?

Post by icemanxp300 »

I have 2 power gloves(PG) and 2 sensor bars (SB). SB 1 works perfectly fine with PG 1 and PG 2. SB 2 does not work correctly with either PG 1 or PG 2. Just so we can eliminate the Power gloves themselves as being a problem or so I would like to assume.

On the SB 1 when turned on w/MTPO just the lower right led will flashes quick and then it's done all lights will be off and they will flash intermittently as buttons are used.

On the SB 2 when turned on w/MTPO all lights are steady solid and stay that way and automatically start the game and punches on it's own. However if no PG is plugged into the SB 2 no lights will be on and it does nothing. So there is something going on causing the SB 2 to malfunction soon as a PG is plugged into it.

I somewhat tried to clean the ultrasonic speakers... not really sure how, I wiped 2 of the 3 down with a q-tip and alcohol.

I swapped the amplifier chips from the working SB and vice versa, the chips are not the problem as both SB yielded same results.

I even sprayed deoxit into the controller port... yeah I'm reaching at this point haha.

I even did continuity on all wires to corresponding wires to make sure no wires were touching each other somehow. I did not do continuity to check for broken connections though.

Any help would be great. Thanks.
lidnariq
Posts: 11432
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:12 am

Re: Can you help me fix my power glove sensor bar?

Post by lidnariq »

.... Maybe try replacing the capacitors?

Do we have documentation of what's inside the sensor bar, other than the ultrasonic thingumies?
icemanxp300
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 6:17 pm

Re: Can you help me fix my power glove sensor bar?

Post by icemanxp300 »

lidnariq wrote:.... Maybe try replacing the capacitors?

Do we have documentation of what's inside the sensor bar, other than the ultrasonic thingumies?

That's about all there is lol. The main board has 2 amplifiers, and a crapload of resistors/caps.

The sensor portion basically has the ultrasonic speakers and not much else either, more caps and resistors. If you want I can snap pics of everything tomorrow.

I'm beginning to think cap replacement seems to be the only possible solution at this point.
lidnariq
Posts: 11432
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:12 am

Re: Can you help me fix my power glove sensor bar?

Post by lidnariq »

Ooh, wait, the reverse-engineering thread has pictures of the inside of those boxes: viewtopic.php?p=94952#p94952

Uh. The only thing that should make the LEDs go weird is if the shift register is doing the wrong thing. This kinda feels like a connection problem, now.

I guess replacing the ICs (a shift register and a bunch of op-amps) is within reason, but I'd look really carefully at the DE9 connector and the cable between the sensor bar and the glove.
icemanxp300
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 6:17 pm

Re: Can you help me fix my power glove sensor bar?

Post by icemanxp300 »

I'll try reflowing the solder joints of the connector cables both to the system and the glove, other than that they look fine? The connector to the glove I would not imagine is damaged. I could look inot the connector to the system more and maybe just swap it out w/an end from a broken controller and see if that works.

The red #5 wire on the system end did look a tad lose to me on the board but I didn't think if that connection was bad it what cause all the lights to light up red? At any rate I will reflow all the connections and give results.
icemanxp300
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 6:17 pm

Re: Can you help me fix my power glove sensor bar?

Post by icemanxp300 »

Ok so I reflowed all the connections and no good. So A grabbed an nes pad and pulled the cable harness out and realized the wires had slightly different colors. I then took a small piece of wire to see which holes the wires corresponded to and I found that there was no continuity from the yellow wire on the sensor bar to the controller port that goes to the system.

So I researched how to open that connector, which was pretty easy lol. Pulled the pin end outs and still no continuity on the yellow. The easiest method I thought of for repair "since I needed to use that crimped pin" was to just burn off some insulation and add solder to the bare wire and crimped pin.

Hooked it up and all is good now... well as good as you can expect from a power glove anyhow lol.

Thanks for leading me into the right direction. I wouldn't have imagined those pins could get disconnected. I guess years of prying can loosen the crimp enough?
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