Another Arcade Collector's Day

[tymawrcymru]

Ever had one of those days ?

THIS MORNING ....

I thought I'd have a tidy up in the arcade room at my house.

Switched on the SPACE INVADERS - clearly developed a fault - crap on the screen - space ship constant audio

Took the board out and packaged it up to send off to be fixed (again)

Switched on a few other machines, all OK.

Switched on RED BARON, top half of the screen has collapsed - monitor broken - .... nnnooooo.

Switched on a few more .. all OK

Switched on GRAVITAR - space ship has disappeared - eh ? hang on ... no green output on the monitor --- just had this fixed - nnooooo!!

OK, I'll go and get the spare vector - just fixed (again) looking lovely when I put it in the attic a couple of weeks ago. - swapped the over .. waited for it to warm up ----- and waited ...

NNNNOOOOOO!OO!!O!!OO!OO!O!OOO!OO! - vertical line in the middle of the screen ----

AAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!

SELL THE LOT - THE BAG OF S**T - costing me a fortune aaahhh!!!

By lunchtime, I calmed down, re-entered the room and surveyed my rather nice collection ....

By this evening .... seriously contemplating buying some more machines ...

BUT where can I PUT THEM????

NOW ... LET ME SEE ... UM ....

 

[trm]

Hehehe. It's a hobby like no other

Edit: BTW, when you start fixing these get some repair logs up in Tech please

trm2011-06-04 18:16:32

 

[forcefulfil]

Red Baron,sounds like a deflection transistor (easy fix)
Gravitar=K6100 monitor,usually a bad contact on the tube(hence no green)mine does it a LOT

also make sure the K6100 have been modded & upgraded,there sooo unreliable imho

Aint arcades FUN

Phil

 

[tymawrcymru]

Hehehe. It's a hobby like no other

Edit: BTW, when you start fixing these get some repair logs up in Tech please

I wish I could fix them ..... thats the problem .... unfortunately ....

Though I have a very patient arcade tech. man that fixes monitors and power supplies (he is a very regular visitor) to my house.

Knows my wifes name, eats bacon butties and arrives any time, day or night.

Just rang me to say that he could be with me at about 7pm tonight to have a look ...

oh yes,but that was to sort out the dead monitor on TRON that gave up the ghost on Wednesday ...

ho hum ...

Time for a glass of wine ....

 

[tymawrcymru]

Red Baron,sounds like a deflection transistor (easy fix)
Gravitar=K6100 monitor,usually a bad contact on the tube(hence no green)mine does it a LOT

also make sure the K6100 have been modded & upgraded,there sooo unreliable imho

Aint arcades FUN

Phil

Thanks Phil ... appreciated

 

[guddler]

Don't rule out dirty or crappy connector on the red barons monitor. Could easily be as simple as that. Is it a cockpit?

My asteroids deluxe monitor used to do it all the time when I first got it. One day I thought enouGhs enough, removed the deflection PCB and put all new headers on and it never did it again. Quick, easy and cheap fix.

 

[Ravage]

Theres comes a point for everyone where (I hope) they deicde to invest in a half decent soldering iron, a solder sucker and starts havign a go at these things. I appreciate dont leap to pcb repairs, but take a deflection issue its a transistor screwed in with two feck off great solder blobs on the legs. Suck of the majority, unscrew, quickly heat each area and pull the transisitor away... Its a good place to start as any I reckon...

I must admit I dont really recall when I took the plunge, but its something of course I dont regret - its funny I was round a collectors yesterday critiscing someone elses soldering skills and made me realise all it takes is practise! But a 99p or unselling pcb or a scrapper and just practise! jjust dont buy a £4.99 soldering iron and £0.99 desolderer - Im a total fan of my desoldering handpump but theyre around a tenner a time - but wow, they work damned fine!!!

And screw modern PC saftey guidelines - 60/40 lead sodler all the way!!!!



On a side note- I hate those days like your talking about... but,at the end of the day, when you can actually "have a go" once you build some confidence - thats when this hobby bursts into a trully great thing!!!

PS: this is just a tip not a dead cert - practise on any old crap is the key and indeed if you can get someone to show you how they do it your already 20x more educated than trial and error
Ravage2011-06-05 01:07:46

 

[tymawrcymru]

Time to buy a soldering iron. ?

Thanks for the advice.

Should I buy a book about electronics or something ?

Dont really even know where to start ...

Any ideas?

 

[forcefulfil]

I started on monitors,As Rav said its better than attempting to try a pcb fix.
I think i can fairly easily now repair vector monitors-B+W & Colour even GO7,s

you need a good multimeter,and a decent soldering iron and wick/sucker.

then the manual for the monitor is i think better than the pdf.

read up how to test things,i.e. Resistors/transistors too.

If you post pics up here with the fault,some one will be able to point you in the direction,& if your willing to learn your laughin.

forcefulfil2011-06-05 10:56:35

 

[kingcraftwash]

Time to buy a soldering iron. ?

Thanks for the advice.

Should I buy a book about electronics or something ?

Dont really even know where to start ...

Any ideas?

I'd start on a Donkey Kong with a wobbly picture and intermittent sound problems.

Jest aside, take a look on Youtube for Randy Fromm's stuff. Good
basic CRT stuff on there, along with other arcade related guides.

http://www.youtube.com/user/randyfromm

Clearly you've got to put the time and effort in to get anything out, but as others' have said this is worthwhile.
superpacman19722011-06-05 13:55:37

 

[virtvic]

I have a DK JR with a wobbly picture in my front room at the moment - only on the rh side?

 

[DanP]

Gravitar=K6100 monitor,usually a bad contact on the tube(hence no green)mine does it a LOT

Agreed on this one. I've had similar in the past too. A quick fix is to (very carefully) bend out the contact pins on the neck connector. They use a kind of tension spring connection instead of a pin/socket like most other monitors do. These problems often occur when you move stuff about.

The way to fix it properly is a little tricky, you can replace the neck board connector with a conventional pin/socket one but you need to remove the plastic shroud on the tube (again VERY carefully). Not for the faint hearted or novice!

Dan