Arcade Monitor backup plan. How to future proof my Mission Control cabinet??

[Pixelhugger]

Man. Long time since I've been here. SO. MANY. MEMORIES.

Quick question for the monitor experts here:

If my Betson Multisync (27" Kortek KT-2914) were to "die" in the distant future, is a full cap kit all that would be needed to fix most problems or are there other significant points of failure to consider?

Monitor was bought new, has been babied and used infrequently over the last 12 years- maybe 100-200 hours of use? It's still running beautifully with CRT emudriver. I am looking for a backup plan to allow me to restore my own cabinet in the event that an interchangeable monitor becomes impossible to find years down the road.

As a fallback I've been keeping a WG D9200 in my garage in the event my Betson were to die. I no longer have space for the WG and would love to replace its role as a backup plan with a much easier to store cap kit and any other collection of parts that could be used to resurrect my Betson in the worst case scenario.

What say the monitor gurus?? What parts/kits should I buy as an insurance policy or should I hold onto the WG?

[Zebidee]

Welcome back!

Cap kits are nothing like insurance. Sure, replace the electrolytic caps every 20 years or so, seems sensible, what could go wrong? Truth is, There are a bunch of things that can go wrong, regardless of whether you've replace caps or not.

Most of the electrolytic caps will be perfectly fine anyway - you end up changing 20-30 caps where only 1 or 2 are actually a little tired, and probably not the ones you're most concerned about. Wasteful, wastes your time too.

Cap-kitters also massively discount the chance that they do something wrong while replacing the caps - like putting one in backwards (they are polarised)! The chances of something happening are higher if you are relatively inexperienced in electronic repairs, which cap-kitters usually are.

I've personally replaced an awful lot of caps, not as "kits" as such, but just replacing potentially dodgy caps, and twice I've put them in backwards *despite* being super careful. Each time has resulted in more complicated repairs as other parts blow.

So NO, cap kits are NOT INSURANCE, and I advise against it as a general practice. Inspect periodically, replace caps as needed.

So, what else can you do?
- Buy yourself a decent ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) meter which you can use to identify potentially dodgy caps WITHOUT REMOVING THEM FROM THE BOARD. Much more sensible. Costs around $80+, better ESR meters might be $120+.
- Learn how to use the ESR meter, and also learn to use a normal digital multimeter (these DMMs are cheap, from $10 to $200, depending on how deep your pockets are).
- Learn monitor repair basics for yourself. Practice first on something less important. You'll probably end up with even more junk in your garage though.
- Take up religion, donate, and pray to your god that nothing bad happens.
- You could find backup flyback transformers for your monitors - they can fail for no reason and, over time, flybacks can become unobtainium. Much easier to keep a spare flyback than a spare WG monitor.
- Find a "local" repairer - the best ones allow you to mail the chassis to them (no CRT), so anywhere in the same country will probably do.

That last point is probably the most important and pragmatic, unless you plan on becoming a CRT repair expert yourself. A good repairer will know all the common brands and likely have compatible suitable tubes on-hand in their workshop. If you still want to capkit the monitor, get them to do it for you (they will already have all the caps).

What about me? What did I do about this dilemma? I've spent the last 12 years or more actively learning electronics and monitor repair because I love this hobby, have a bunch of CRTs, and there are no great local repairers. I feel like I'm finally getting out of noob status, but a long way to go. I mostly enjoy it, but it is not for everyone.

[Pixelhugger]

Thanks for the thorough response! Lots to think about.