My first cab - MVS Mini 2 slot

So I've had this about a week now. It's my first cab and I'm really excited. I know the mini's are pretty rare and I plan on restoring it to it's former glory. Some of you may have a small heart attack to know I only paid $120 for it. I'm going to start by swapping out the monitor for an LC.... (kidding).

I've already replaced the battery for a coin cell plus ordered new buttons, joysticks, and T molding. The ballast on the fluorescent marquee light was bad so I swapped that for a regular cfl bulb (just need to get a lower wattage bulb, 60w equivalent cfl is way too bright).

The whole plan:
> Strip the CP, replace the buttons/joysticks, and put a sheet of plexi over the overlay. The overlay isn't in great shape but I'm going to hold off on a complete replacement for now.
> Rewire the AC in the cab. Right now the fuse and AC toggle aren't connected. I'm going to follow this guide.
> Fixed the smash front corner. Not sure if I'm better off trying to patch it with bondo or cut it flush and make a replacement to glue on so comments are appreciated.
> Cap kit on the monitor. Some vertical waves on the left side of the monitor and a real tough time dialing in the colors make me think a cap kit is in order. If anyone has a suggestion where I can find a kit for a Ducksan monitor please let me know.
> Strip and repaint the exterior.
> Replace the coin slot and marquee lights with LEDs to bring down the power consumption.



MORE PICS HERE!

cool deal, even if it's in a bit of rough shape. I think this was the Mini i was scoping out on craigslist.. this one come with Puzzle Bobble and Sengoku? I was going to look at it, but then ended up buying a a 2 Slot Big red.

Look forward to seeing your progress as far as the restoration goes.

That'd be the one. So are there any good local places for parts?

nice deal man! I would love one of those mini's pretty close too

Awesome deal brother, you stole her!

Love minis! I hope the restoration go's smoothly for you!

mrbippers said:

That'd be the one. So are there any good local places for parts?

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Not that I know off hand anymore.. there may be somewhere that has parts, but if not, I highly recommend lizard lick. Great prices and fast shipping.

Does the screen have any burn-in or just have lines on the side? Interested to see if the cap kit brings it back to life.

Biohazard53 said:

nice deal man! I would love one of those mini's pretty close too

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I'm not opposed to the idea of swapping this for a full size if you have multiple cabs and want to work out some sort of trade.

valgalder said:

Not that I know off hand anymore.. there may be somewhere that has parts, but if not, I highly recommend lizard lick. Great prices and fast shipping.

Does the screen have any burn-in or just have lines on the side? Interested to see if the cap kit brings it back to life.

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I ordered a full set of sticks and buttons from Lizard lick. They were on a break but those should be shipping soon. I'm pretty sure the lines aren't burn in. Between those, some light background snow, and colors that I can't seem to get right I'm putting my money on the cap kit. The caps look like they're stamped with a date from 1987 if I'm reading them right, so well due for replacement.

That sounds like a nice project. I wish I had the skills to restore old cabs.

What size is the monitor btw? It looks like it could be replaced with a slightly bigger one.

mrbippers said:

I'm not opposed to the idea of swapping this for a full size if you have multiple cabs and want to work out some sort of trade.

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nah, i'm only down to 1 Astro city due to space issues, if you ever want to sell that I would definitely be interested.

BigDeadFreak said:

That sounds like a nice project. I wish I had the skills to restore old cabs.

What size is the monitor btw? It looks like it could be replaced with a slightly bigger one.

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The monitor is a 13" and although a larger one would be nice, everything I've seen says a 19" is too large to fit in the cab. When you are actually playing it the monitor doesn't seem that small so it's not a huge deal.

Also, it was pointed out to me the monitor is actually a WG K7000 in a Ducksan frame so I'm placing the cap kit order now. Hope it fixes the issues.

Congrats. the minis are great. Have the sides of yours been painted? there is no side art on it.

bendor said:

Congrats. the minis are great. Have the sides of yours been painted? there is no side art on it.

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I'm assuming so. The sides are dinged up so I'll be filling/painting them myself anyway. After that I'll work on getting the side art back on, either by decals or stencil.

First update!

I just finished the CP today and it came out pretty good. Stripped and repainted the CP, new buttons/sticks, overlay printed on glossy photo paper, and a lexan cover on top. I highly recommend a stripper called Crica 1850 if anyone needs to strip a CP. It's what I use for most of my stripping work and it tore through the paint on the CP, even where my heatgun wasn't doing much. I accidentally ordered only a single carriage bolt with the rest of my stuff, so machine screws will do it for now.

The monitor is giving me some major problems at the moment. Did a cap kit and replaced the flyback. It worked briefly but is now constantly blowing fuses. If I can't figure it out soon I'm going to have to send it out for repair which is kind of a bummer.

CP looks nice. Bummer about the monitor though.. after doing the cap kit though, did it fix the image quality at all? (besides the fuse issue)

valgalder said:

CP looks nice. Bummer about the monitor though.. after doing the cap kit though, did it fix the image quality at all? (besides the fuse issue)

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The image looked great, for about 5 minutes. Then the horizontal transistor overheated and I accidentally shorted it after fixing the heatsink connection. Now, something is shorting to ground and I can't figure out what for the life of me.

Update #2:

I just installed new new marquee LED lights. As it turns out automotive LED strips work fantastic and come all set to run on a 12V line. I used these, but they're all over eBay. I hot glued them to the middle of the lighting area. So for less than $4 I now have a silent, brighter, lower power marquee light setup.

Also on the monitor front I got it working again, but the purity rings were so old they crumbled apart when I tried to adjust them. Original problems are gone, just now reds are washed out on the left third of the screen (still an improvement). I'll probably wind up doing a tube swap when I come across a suitable 13" tube.

love it! looking good dude

good work - i'd like to eventually do some work on my monitor but don't really know enough about that stuff yet. The picture is actually pretty good and I don't have problems with streaking or colors really and no burn - but it's just not as bright as I'd like it. Esp on backgrounds that are very light / white. Unsure if a cap kit will fix it or if it's a tube issue.

valgalder said:

good work - i'd like to eventually do some work on my monitor but don't really know enough about that stuff yet. The picture is actually pretty good and I don't have problems with streaking or colors really and no burn - but it's just not as bright as I'd like it. Esp on backgrounds that are very light / white. Unsure if a cap kit will fix it or if it's a tube issue.

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Have you played around with the adjustment pots on the back of the monitor? At least on my monitor you can adjust that with a combination of brightness, contrast, and screen.

Yep - played around with that a bit but if I turn brightness too high is just kinda flickers - I got it set good enough for now but just something to look into and get ideas if it gets worse.

Could you post a side pic and one that's got a person in it for scale?

FA-MAS said:

Could you post a side pic and one that's got a person in it for scale?

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man that is so fucking cool. I bet they cant make stuff like that anymore cause of activist rights groups for "little people" or someshit.

Mike26 said:

man that is so fucking cool. I bet they cant make stuff like that anymore cause of activist rights groups for "little people" or someshit.

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Lol thats awesome ! i learn something new every time i browse this site. Had no idea they made mini cabinets like that.