Re: Tempest Troubles...

Re: VECTOR: Tempest Troubles...My tempest has an amplfone monitor in it, but I know that if the potentiometers are not set correctly (i.e.. the vectors go way off the screen) the spot killer will go on. Perhaps you need to verify that 1) you aren't missing any potentiometers or none are broken and 2) turn the x/y size and x/y center to the bare minimum and then if you get the screen to come up - go into the self test and bring up the test pattern and fix your dimensions.

Does anyone know if you can actually damage the deflection board by cranking the output potentiometers all the way to the max on the motherboard? I usually do test the output signals first with an oscilloscope before hooking up a monitor to it. It's handy to have if you are serious about collecting Vector games.

Matt
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: John Robertson
  To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
  Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 3:08 PM
  Subject: Re: VECTOR: Tempest Troubles...

  Well, I missed it - sorry ;-)

  If you unplug the yoke then you can use a voltmeter to see if the monitor is working properly. Do NOT unplug and transistors!!! Unplugging the yoke removes the load from the output transistors and thus they are unlikely to be able to self destruct even if one is shorted.

  It you next put the game into self test, then hook your voltmeter negative to the monitor chassis you can now turn the game on. Check the X and Y outputs on the motherboard. They should show roughly 0VDC or about 2 - 5VAC (lower than 5VAC is likely - going from memory here). If that is the case, then the monitor YOKE pins should also show about 0VDC and roughly 10 times the PCB outputs on the AC scale (at a guess - I'll test later this afternoon on a Tempest we are firing up for the first time in 25 years - from the time travel warehouse (last Tempest though and it's sold).

  Hope that gives some guidance.

  Oh, and DO use the voltage regulator upgrade LV2000 kit! Well worth the tiny investment!
  http://www.geocities.com/jeffhendrix67/lv2000/
  I use them in every Tempest that passes through the shop!
  That, resolder the MOLEX pins on the monitor PCB, replace the HV caps with 105C ones, and a solid common connection between the MPU, Power Supply and Monitor makes the machines almost invulnerable.

  John :-#)#

  At 5:54 PM -0400 6/9/06, Al Warner wrote:
    So I take it that this was a tough question...

    Al Warner wrote:

      Hey Everyone,

      I have been trying to restore a Tempest for a friend of mine and I've hit a barrier. I have 2 boardsets. One was described as working and the other was dead. The machine that one set of the boards were in must have spent some time outside because the cabinet looked it. I took the monitor and wiring out and put it into a nicer cabinet. The monitor was capped with a Zanen kit and tested fine in my Tempest.

      I hooked up the first PCB set and it ran but there were math board problems (missing things, etc). Then I hooked up the second board set and it smoked the Low Voltage. I replaced the Low Voltage section with an LV-2000 (older kit type) and it was good to go. I tested it with the first boardset and it looked like before. Then I moved the smaller board from the other set to the "Mostly Working" set and it came up and looked fine.

      I left it running for 15 minutes and brought my Wife down to see it. While we were watching it, the vectors turned to blobs on the screen and the spot killer started kicking off and on. I moved the monitor over to my working Tempest and it was fine.

      Now I'm back to the board that blew out the monitor. I looked at the pots to adjust the monitor and one of them (the Y-LIN) was missing the adjustment knob. The part that is soldered to the PCB is still there, but the part you turn is missing. Could this have been what blew out the LV on the monitor?

      I don't have an Oscilloscope, is there a way to test whether the the board would damage the monitor again?

      Thanks,

      -Al-

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