Main > Monitor/Video Forum
Before buying a Wells-Gardner monitor, read about their problems
2600:
Ken,
Looking at the schematic and parts list it appears to be a Serial EEPROM, 24C02. They specifically list KS24C02, but I forget what manufacturer is KS.
ST and I'm sure other manufacturers offer a Write Protect version of the chip. When Pin 7 pulled is high it disables writes. Might be worth it to get a few of versions of those chips and put a toggle on the pin to see if it helps. That way you can set it to disable writes after you configure the monitor, which I am currently assuming is the only time it writes a value. I also assume the chip is getting erased during start up and the 5V line hasn't settled.
Level42:
Happ has WG monitors on sale right now (are they clearing out ?) They're even cheaper than the Vision-Pro's right now.
http://happcontrols.com/monthlyspec/a1207.pdf
Is the K7000 series as bad as described above ? I can get any Happ products through Suzo's head-office here so I might be tempted.....
[Edit] Weird that these still require an isolation transformer ! Pretty old-fashioned !
pacmandude:
Thanks for bringing this to everybody's attention. I was recently looking to purchase a monitor and noticed those. Luckily, I did quite a bit of research and noticed the wide variances in quality between users. I ended up buying another brand.
That company should be ashamed! :angry:
Mrjamma:
In regards to the Serial EEPROM...
I had a Wells Gardner 27D9200 (in a Golden Tee 2005) that you could adjust the on-screen menu parameters, namely the screen width and position, and then if you powered the game down and back up, the monitor would forget whatever it was that you had adjusted before.
Not too big a deal, but the golf game's picture would be shifted too far to one side for the player's liking.
It wasnt obvious at first because you would adjust the monitor, and all would be well then you would leave the location. The next day they would call and say "Hey the golf game's picture was all shifted over too far"
Replacing the Serial EEPROM fixed the problem as this is where the monitor writes its adjustment parameters to. It's little pea brain if you will ...LOL
halfmachine:
Just a quick note on the D9200 EEPROM problems:
Like others I have run into situations where the EEPROM data gets corrupted resulting in usually a dark screen/dim picture. It's a EEPROM "corrupt data" problem if the screen is dim BUT the OSD displays displays fine.
I usually replace the EEPROM with a new one, programmed with data from a D9200 that displays OK. However, it may not be necessary to replace with a programmed EEPROM (maybe a completely blank one will load default settings?) but I have never tried this - D9200s are problematic enough without any help from me!
The retarded thing is that the original EEPROM (IC103) is soldered, not socketed. I usually install a socket as well.
My speculation is that either power glitches or static (ESD) causes the contents of the EEPROM to be corrupted.
However the generic "el cheapo" non branded EEPROMs that WG seems to use could very well be the cause. I have had good results replacing these with non-generic chips, which has severely reduced instances of EEPROM corruption. (So much so that I haven't needed to resort to plan B, which is installing a switch to disable EEPROM writes during normal operation).
Anyway, I just want to echo the original theme that the WG D9200 monitors are pretty crappy in terms of reliability and too damn complex in terms of parts. Yes, tri-res is cool but not if it's going to be more unreliable than a >20 year old K 4900 series (which for my money was the MOST reliable WG monitor model ever - I don't think I've every seen a voltage reg or flyback failure on one of these!).
The most recent monitors the company I work for purchased were Makvision 24.8" Tri-Res. While these seem to be nice we'll see how these hold up in the long term. I was rather disappointed that there was no schematic in the box tho (manual yes, but it didn't have a schematic).
Kevin.
~HalfMachine~