RE: Wintron Amplifone HV Transformers

I have installed two of the replacement WinTron units. They have worked
well so far. I installed one into my Star Wars in 98, and another in my ESB
early last year. They have not had a lot of hours on them, (just home use!)
but so far, so good.

Installation is quite easy. Just make sure you understand the color code
for the wires. I do not know if WinTron is providing the correct wiring
diagram at this time. I don't have the corrected pinout on hand, but it's
commonly available, and any number of us can help you find it if you need
it.

The screw that attaches the WinTron to the HV board has a larger diameter
than what it is replacing. You'll want to drill out that hole before
putting everything together to avoid any last minute frustration when you
try to assemble things.

All in all, it's a very straight forward repair.

Has your original HV unit blown, or are you replacing this for good measure?
If the original unit has blown, I urge you to take the time to go through
the HV board part by part to make sure everything else is in good working
order. I'd replace the BU406D without even thinking about it. It wouldn't
hurt to replace the voltage regulators and use new insulators with heat sink
compound. Replacing the caps wouldn't hurt anything either. You just want
to make sure that the board will work when you put the new HV unit into
place so that you don't destroy your new transformer. Checking and
replacing the other components will help with the board's longevity.

Oh yes, last piece of advice ... make sure the brightness control is put
somewhere in the 0 - 50% range before powering up the board. It would be
terrible to have the brightness too high and burn a spot in your monitor.
The other point is that if you have the brightness too low, when you power
it all up, you may see *nothing*! If you have the brightness somewhere shy
of the middle position, at least you'll see something on the display if all
goes well. When I first installed my WinTron in my Star Wars, I powered
things up and I had no image. After panicking for few seconds, (I'm
thinking, "Turn off the power ... Turn OFF the power!") I adjusted the
brightness, and viola, the image appeared. Phew! :-)

Good luck, and may the force be with you.

Joel-

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Langley [mailto:robotron@ntlworld.com]
> Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 10:15 AM
> To: Vector List
> Subject: VECTOR: Wintron Amplifone HV Transformers
>
>
> Hi all ...
>
> Well it seems likely that I'll be needing a new Amplifone HV
> transformer
> soon as part of the restoration of my Cockpit star wars. I
> was wondering
> what experience people on the list have with installing/using these?
>
> I'm also looking for any useful guides to bulletproofing the HV,
> Deflection, ARII and game boards to ensure that the game runs
> as trouble
> free as possible for a number of years once restored.
>
> Just for the record I live in the UK and I'm a bit of a
> newbie to XY games
> though I've had quite a lot of experience repairing raster
> games (Williams
> in particular).
>
> Thanks in advance for any info ....
>
>
> Dave Langley
> www.robotron-2084.co.uk
>
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Received on Thu Feb 22 12:11:26 2001