Time Crisis 4 gun calibration issues

[ashasaur]

Hey all, this is my last ditch effort to try and solve my Time Crisis 4 issues before I just take this cab to auction and hope for the best.

I've got a TC4 standard, original CRTs, guns, IO etc and I cannot get the left side to calibrate for love or money. The right side calibrates and works fine, issue is only present on the left. All the IR LEDs are functional. So far this is what I have done so far to try and fix this:

1 - Moved IR array from right to left, no change
2 - Moved gun from right to left, no change
3 - Moved IO in tower and near gun from right to left, no change
4 - Installed SEGA sensor in gun, no change (works fine in right side just FYI)
5 - Swapped all factory wiring from right to left, no change
6 - Painstakingly replaced wiring in tube and tower, no change
7 - LCD converted to see if smaller area would make a difference, no change
8- Removed/sanded gun lenses, no change

I genuinely cannot figure out what to do next. The upper right hand corner of the left side is where the issue lies - sometimes it can be calibrated there, most times not, and, even with a "successful" calibration, the gun sight is all over the place. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[bagheera369]

Hey there.

So here are a couple things, based on what you've said.

ONE

Have you moved THE CABINET to a different location? If something is triggering the IR sensor in the upper left, regardless of what array (1p or 2p) you used, it could be environmental. Not likely, but stranger things have happened, and it's something worth trying to rule out....turning off the lighting in your space, and attempting recalibration might also be worth a shot.

TWO

There are TWO pcb's in each tower.

The NA-JV pcb,

https://www.arcadespareparts.com/ar..._time_crisis_4_io_board_v329_na_jv/18075.html

and the TSF CPU PCB

https://www.arcadespareparts.com/arcade_parts/namco_parts/tsf_cpu_pcb_time_crisis_4/13933.html

Which "IO" did you swap over?

The TSF CPU is what takes all the IR signals between the Gun and Sensor Array, and converts it down to X&Y for the NA-JV PCB to hand to the Main 256 CPU.

If you only swapped the NA-JV pcb, and tried to recalibrate, then you need to swap over the TSF CPU PCB as well, and try again.

THREE

Have you contacted NAMCO directly, or their official game repair center SPEEDY'S ONE STOP?

These are the professionals most likely to give you answers to any of the really WEIRD or ONE OFF type things they've seen go wrong with this game over the years, and also may be able to guide you to make adjustments with the potentiometers on the TSF CPU PCB (DO NOT MAKE THOSE ADJUSTMENTS WITHOUT CONTACTING THEM), where maybe a setting could use some minor adjustments.


I hope these help, or at least give you some new avenues to explore. If something works, or Namco/Speedy's helps you find a solution, make sure to share it back here, so that other people may benefit as well.

 

[ashasaur]

Thanks for the reply:

1 - yes, this cabinet has been in several physical locations, all with the same issues present
2 - yes, both the control board in the top of the tower and the lower JV board have been swapped, as well as the entire wiring harness from right to left with no change in behavior
3- no, I haven't investigated calling or trying to contact NAMCO directly. That's honestly probably not something I'm interested in if it has any sort of cost - this cab was $500 and I've already dumped dozens of hours into cleaning it up and troubleshooting which at this point it will never make that back in my arcade or on my con circuit.

 

[bagheera369]

No worries.

Last I spoke with them, no cost to call Namco or Speedy's at all.

It's worth attempting the conversation with them. I'd start with Speedy's, as TC4 is older.

Also....before you sell that cabinet....if it has the Sanwa PFX tri-sync monitors....those are REALLY solid monitors that work in all sorts of stuff.

If they are working and clean, the monitors alone are worth the 500 you paid for the cab.

I know it's frustrating...but if you test everything, one by one, on the right hand side, and it all works....parting it out is a valid option, as you'd probably pull 1K without the monitors, just in parts sales.

Just some things to consider as you move forward.

 

[ashasaur]

An update to this saga! It works!

I had thought of giving up entirely on this project when I had a strange idea - what if I moved the gun from right to left again, which if you'll recall I had already done. Something I didn't mention in my original post was that a wire on the gun connector harness had it's clip broken and had been wire nutted together to bypass said clip. Well, in all of my testing, this wire had come undone and THIS time when I moved the right gun to the left and attempted to calibrate...it worked..ish. The gun would "calibrate" but would now not show the crosshair in the LOWER right corner instead of the upper. So naturally, I hooked this wire back up and the gun went back to acting as it did before - would not calibrate. This lead me down the path of taking both guns apart and tracing wires AGAIN to find that the left hand gun was mis-wired in both the gun AND at the tower! The gun wiring is actually on me, I had black and blue swapped but the TOWER was done by the previous owner. Not only was the connector broken, but the connector had been partially re-pinned as well would has been the issue the entire time.

Fixing these wiring issues, both sides calibrate right up and everything works! This cab was sold to me not working and the previous owner couldn't get it working - now I can see why. This has taken me countless hours of work and thinking to get going and I very nearly gave up. Thanks to bagheera369 for the replies! I really appreciate it!

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[bagheera369]

Very glad to hear you got it sorted!!!!