RE: 6100 LV issues

I'm a little confused by the argument. If the claim is: "I want to keep my
monitor original, as designed. Therefore I don't want to put in the LV2000
board" then you cannot replace Q100/101 or it's related circuitry with any
upgrade component or subsystem modification. Which means that all you have
allowed yourself to do is to replace any part that fails with the same type
part. If you open yourself to "modifying the board for better performance"
then there is no intrinsic difference between cutting a trace and/or using
beefier transistors than there is to making a daughter card that plugs in to
the deflection board that simply replaces a few components and similarly
provides increased longevity.

I think the reality is that the design of the low voltage power supply for
the WG6100, the HV transformer on the Amplifone, and _fires_ from G08's were
the root cause of vector monitors having such a bad reputation in the
amusement community. These items required constant attention relative to
their raster monitor brothers. Keeping them in their original state is
certainly not impossible - just time consuming. You can certainly continue
to replace the failed components with the originals if that is your goal.
Some people enjoy the maintenance, but enjoy playing the games even more.
Somewhere you will find that balance that describes your interest in the
hobby, and that will help you decide what to do. If you'll look forward to
the next time you power up your Tempest and have a dead screen (and be happy
about it because of the repair job you now have) then going with original
parts is great. If you have that sinking feeling in your stomach every time
you power it up wondering "will this be the big one?" :-) then you probably
want to go with upgrading the parts. I'm not making a value judgement here
- I love the repair work. It gives me a good reason to have all sorts of
cool parts and diagnostic electronic equipment in my workshop. Maybe it
even gives meaning to my existence! But - I'm not looking for doing the
_same_ repairs over and over again, so I opt for the upgrade. I just wish
there was a cure all for my Black Knight pinball, then my machines would all
work in harmony. (There is some law that at least one machine must be hosed
at any time. It's usually BK) I've found that by fixing the monitors with
excellent components the first time keeps them running and minimizes repeat
repair efforts. That let's me _play_ Star Wars for 5 minutes in an
otherwise busy day. :-)

Good luck figuring out what you'd like to do.

Regards,
Joel-

> >
> > Again, I'm interested to see what everyone has to say about the
recurring
> > Q100/101 faulure in a 6100.
> >
> > Thanks
> > -Brian
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Received on Fri Feb 8 06:54:14 2002