Recap and Astro Get

Well, it seems like I haven't used this blog very much. I started it and never posted again. Couple years later I have my first follower! Shout outs to Dave K.

I guess this means I should actually provide some content, no? When I first started this blog I had just barely gotten into Arcade Collecting. I don't think I even had my first Candy Cab at that point. Since then my cab collection has grown quite a bit. Currently running 2 blast cities and 2 astro cities. I've bought and sold a number of other cabs during the past two years as well.

For a while I had been keeping most of my arcade stuff at my office in the kitchen. It turns out that we're losing that part of the office so I needed to find a new home for my stuff. My current apartment in SF is tiny, so no room there. I thought about getting a storage unit to just house them temporarily, but decided that would be a bad idea. Most likely I'd put the machines in storage and then never use them again. Certainly not able to have good access.

So rather than deal with that I decided the best thing would be to get some additional space to do all my hobby stuff in. Luckily I'm in a position where this is an option. I ended up getting a workshop studio that is part of a larger converted warehouse in Bayview, SF. It's approximately 300 square feet and includes a ton of storage options. I moved my workbench out of my bedroom and took all of my arcade stuff here. It's a little annoying for it to be separate from my home, but in other regards it's better. I have unlimited use of utilities for a flat monthly rate, access to a metalshop and a woodshop, and a semi-finished light industrial workspace that I'm not scared to rough up. Primarily I'll be doing arcade restoration and repair, focusing on Candy Cabs. But, I'll also be using this space to further my interests in electronics and robotics.

Last month I decided to take on a huge restoration project. I worked out a deal with a guy I know down in San Jose for a lot of Astro Parts. I got a really good deal on the parts themselves, but no working machines. I got 11 Astro Shells, but only 6 tubes. All the tubes had chassis attached. From looking at the parts and using my gut instinct I assumed I would be able to make at least 1 fully working cab from the parts, maybe more. When I got everything back to my studio I started going through all the parts and seeing what worked, what needs repair, and what needs to be scrapped. I used the parts lot to build a test bench setup, which is basically a full New Astro City minus the shell. Turns out, I was able to get at least 1 cab's worth of parts working right out of the gate, then I used this known working set to figure out what else was good.

While I had 11 shells to use, I really only had enough working parts to put together 1 astro. I only had 1 working chassis out of the 6 that I got. Only got 2 front main access doors. Only had 3 sets of speakers and 3 control panel hinges. I took the best parts and combined them all together into one working cab. This one cab turned out nice enough that I would say the entire venture was worthwhile.

To get some of the other cabs working I've ordered some more parts from various other sources. I'm going to try to repair some of the PSUs and monitor chassis I got. Part of my reasoning behind getting this parts lot was that it would force me to become more familiar with every aspect of Astros. Fixing the chassis is going to be difficult, but it's giving me an opportunity to learn more about CRTs and their circuitry. A few months ago I wouldn't have been able to tell you the difference between horizontal deflection and vertical collapse. But after lots of internetting and youtubing, I now at least know conceptually how a CRT chassis works.

I'll try to make new blog entries detailing each of the chassis, their problems, and hopefully the fixes.