The heart of the Atari Asteroids Deluxe power supply is the ‘brick’ that lives in the base of the cab. the transformer provides the necessary voltages for the game including the monitor. This is an early one, there’s usually a voltage selection plug so you can set the bricks expected line voltage but it’s not present on this one so I’ll have to use a separate step down transformer as this one is 110v and it’s 230v out of the wall around here.
Looks like a previous owner has replaced the ‘big blue’ capacitor (27,000µf – 25v), they’re usually pretty reliable but I have seen them blow up sending the unregulated 10.6VDC into disarray so this is no bad thing.
You can strip this all down and repaint it but I went for a sympathetic option (i.e. easier!).
- Gave the metalwork a wipe down with some duck oil to give it a clean and protection
- Used some wire wool on the fuse holders
- Contact cleaner on the fuses and molex connectors
- Replaced missing bolt holding the big blue
Plug it all back in and tested all still working.
Now onto the next link in the chain, the AR board…
