Tank II

[ChadTower]

I did miss that... I'll give it a shot at some point.  I have freeze spray on the shelf.

Thanks!

[ChadTower]

Ordered a set of replacement caps for the multican in in the power supply.  Bob Roberts helped me with a lot of advice on how to go about replacing that NLA part.  I ordered the parts from him, though I could have tossed them into the Mouser order I'm writing up, since he helped me out with no guarantee of an order.

His plan is to use four slightly higher capacitance caps, mounted to a perf board off to the side, with a harness run to where the original was.  This will be the first time I've done anything like that. 

[Level42]

I like this.....really old school.

[ChadTower]

I just hope I'm not doing all this for a monitor that isn't coming back to life.

[Level42]

I just hope I'm not doing all this for a monitor that isn't coming back to life.

That's the risk of this hobby.

So far I waisted an entire day on the WG4500 (re-capping etc) that was in my Galaxian, and don't get me started about the G07 that was in my Centipede. Everybody says it's a great monitor to repair, well, I think it was an ancient design when it was released....sorry if I hurt someone's feelings here.

Anyway, I got the Amplifone running and boy was it worth it......

The really bad thing is that B/W CRT's are as good as extinct here. You can still get security monitors in B/W but only small sizes.

[ChadTower]

I hear that on the CRT.  I've been putting out Freecycle feelers but so far have only come up with a 7" TV.  That isn't good enough.

Since it's just a composite connection, though... if worse comes to worst, I should be able to use a color TV with composite input, yes?  I'd have to redo all of the other stuff that comes in through the monitor harness (everything goes through it, sadly) for that route, though.

[Level42]

Yes. But a color TV displaying a BW picture is never the same as a real BW CRT.
A BW CRT is sharper to begin with. And the "color" of the pospor will never be the same. That is not even starting about convergence problems that can really screw a BW picture on a color CRT.....

Wish I could have some more encouraging words my friend....I really do :S

[ChadTower]

I'll just have to hope that I can get better results from the tube rejuvinator once I recap it.  The main discharge cap has to be 30+ years old now.

[ChadTower]

I'm trying to order up a cap kit for the game PCBs now... but the damn 8000uF caps I need are more than $17 each at Mouser!  Ack.

They are $37 each, min order of ten, at Digikey.   

[whammoed]

I'm trying to order up a cap kit for the game PCBs now... but the damn 8000uF caps I need are more than $17 each at Mouser!  Ack.

They are $37 each, min order of ten, at Digikey.   

Yikes.  Is this a game you plan on keeping in your collection?

[ChadTower]

Not sure yet, for now I'm restoring it because I promised Peale I would when he helped me get it.

I think I'm going to pass on replacing those caps until I have gone to a little effort to see how good they are.  I'll try Fozzy's trick on them.

[ChadTower]

Making the order... the web page didn't like my shipping instructions so I had to omit them:

Don't put luncheon meat in the box.  Or scorpions.  If you must put scorpions, may as well put the luncheon meat, so that the scorpions aren't starving and irritable when I open the box.

Sticklers.

[ChadTower]

Took the joysticks apart tonight and ran them through the dishwasher... got 90% of the dirt off.  The rest can probably stay as it's all in nonvisible places.  The handles are good and shiny again now.  These things are built like Tanks.  It was a ---smurfette--- to get them off the CP and taken apart. 

[Level42]

Pics !!

[ChadTower]

I'm going to post before and after pics of the CP, I think, but not pics of everything all disassembled and such.  The camera I'm using is 7.1mp.  Takes a bit of time to get the pics cropped, shrunken, resolution changed for web use... with the amount of time I have over the next couple of weeks, I can either make strong progress with key pics or make weak progress with great pics of it.

[Level42]

I'm going to post before and after pics of the CP, I think, but not pics of everything all disassembled and such.  The camera I'm using is 7.1mp.  Takes a bit of time to get the pics cropped, shrunken, resolution changed for web use... with the amount of time I have over the next couple of weeks, I can either make strong progress with key pics or make weak progress with great pics of it.

You need a Mac

[ChadTower]

A Mac wouldn't make that process any easier.  A 7.1mp photo is a 7.1mp photo.  Still have to crop and reduce for the web.

[whammoed]

A Mac wouldn't make that process any easier.  A 7.1mp photo is a 7.1mp photo.  Still have to crop and reduce for the web.

Don't know what kind of camera you have, but mine can easily be set to take other resolutions...like 640x480
I usually set it this way when taking pics to share here...saves time

[Level42]

And that's where you are wrong.

I put my memory card in my cardreader.
iPhoto starts and imports the pictures.
I give a name to group the pictures.
I select Webgalary and they're published on my .Mac
Now I just have to drag and drop the pictures from one Safari (browser) showing my webgalary to my BYOAC forum reply.

Ready. No cropping, no resizing, no resolution change.

Yes a Mac _does_ make the process easier

(B.t.w., the Getaway is in )

[ChadTower]

No control, no optimzation.  I come from a graphics background... I prefer to get the best results rather than the least amount of effort.  I could do a one click publish on a PC too but don't want that. 

Not cropping... who wants to see the whole wall when the subject is one part on a desktop?  What kind of a world is that?   

Getaway is a good game.  I love the steel motorized loop, though I wish it served some actual game purpose.

[Level42]

Are you saying my pictures look bad Chad ?
 
 

[ChadTower]

Dirty CP.  Actually pretty good for having been in storage for 15+ years.

[leapinlew]

Yes a Mac _does_ make the process easier

Geez... I put the memory card in, change the resolution on all my images to make them web ready and upload to BYOAC. Chad - here is the easiest/quickest tool to re-size your pictures for BYOAC. Highlight all your pics and do them all at once. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx Grab the picture resizer.

Cropping is still cropping though... that takes a while. I just take properly sized pictures the first time. 

Projects looking good.

[ChadTower]

I take my web pics from the high res photos I take for reference purposes.  When I take something apart, I can't always put it back together that same day, so I use photos from all sorts of angles when I can't remember exactly how to get it back together.  Can't tell you how many times that has saved ---my bottom--- working on pins.  The ability to zoom clearly all the way in to the individual screws is very useful.

The reason it takes a while (and that's a relative "while") is that once you have the pic cropped to just the subject, the dimensions of the photo are now custom.  To get a good web resolution at that point it is best to manually decide how far to reduce size and quality in order to get it to an acceptable ~125k at the highest quality possible.  If you want to get a pair of good matching shots like the two CP shots above, from two different files, the only way to do that is hands on with an image editor.  Then you take those pics, upload them into the "NOT A PROJECT" thread, wait for the upload, grab the URL, come back here and use the img tags... I know I don't have to do all that but I like doing it except when time gets crunched and it starts affecting actual progress on the game.  I have been considering lately setting up a Photoshop batch macro since most of them end up roughly reduced to 35% size and about 70 quality rating in the end.

[danny_galaga]

just do what youve been doing. you dont have to submit the pics to a magazine, just give us the odd one like the CP. that will keep us happy and content (",)

[CheffoJeffo]

I just hope I'm not doing all this for a monitor that isn't coming back to life.

My Atari Football project is like that ... needs the trackballs rebuilt, PS rebuilt and I'm iffy about the board, but could get one from Mark Spaeth, but I KNOW the monitor is in need of repair and am not sure if I'll be able to repair ...

[RayB]

My Atari Football project is like that ... needs the trackballs rebuilt, PS rebuilt and I'm iffy about the board, but could get one from Mark Spaeth, but I KNOW the monitor is in need of repair and am not sure if I'll be able to repair ...

Do what I do.. pour fistfuls of money into fixing up cosmetics and other stuff, and you'll have yourself the nicest looking non-playable cocktail in town!

<insert photo of cocktail table with small stack of paper under bottom corner here>

[ChadTower]

My Atari Football project is like that ... needs the trackballs rebuilt, PS rebuilt and I'm iffy about the board, but could get one from Mark Spaeth, but I KNOW the monitor is in need of repair and am not sure if I'll be able to repair ...

Well, if I got this chassis working, you can definitely get yours working.  I'm not exactly Randy Fromm.    

The Mouser order came in last night, and I started working on recapping the tube rejuvinator, but then a family member showed up to visit so I had to stop.  Maybe tonight I can get that capped and give it another shot at the tube.

I figure that this cab could use any composite TV if necessary, even color.  That would require some rewiring, though, as it routes board power, audio and maybe even CP wiring through one connector that goes through the monitor chassis.  If I have to go that route it would be useful as a learning experience for me as wiring is one of my weaker skills - I work on existing games, I don't build new ones.

[paigeoliver]

This might sound silly, but I have owned a few black and white games and I always thought the ancient semi-wonky monitors they all had added a little character to them.

Too bad yours doesn't have a 23" monitor, those things are a dime a dozen it seems (all those Sprint 2's with burned up boards left a lot of the 23" monitors floating around). I think I still have a few good ones in my basement (I know I have six monitors down there, but I don't have any real games to use them in anymore).

[CheffoJeffo]

Too bad yours doesn't have a 23" monitor, those things are a dime a dozen it seems (all those Sprint 2's with burned up boards left a lot of the 23" monitors floating around). I think I still have a few good ones in my basement (I know I have six monitors down there, but I don't have any real games to use them in anymore).

* CheffoJeffo needs to schedule a roadtrip to grab up some 23" BW Atari monitors

[ChadTower]

This might sound silly, but I have owned a few black and white games and I always thought the ancient semi-wonky monitors they all had added a little character to them.

I agree... I don't care about the wicked screen burn.  The tube is way too dim to be useful, sadly.  That pic I took is under optimal conditions with the screen turned up really far.  It is misleading how dim the picture really was. 

Too bad yours doesn't have a 23" monitor, those things are a dime a dozen it seems (all those Sprint 2's with burned up boards left a lot of the 23" monitors floating around). I think I still have a few good ones in my basement (I know I have six monitors down there, but I don't have any real games to use them in anymore).

I thought about trying to put a 23" tube in there if I found one.  Tank II is a cabaret.  The inside is only 25".  I don't think I could physically fit a 23" tube.  I would definitely like to avoid going with another chassis, though.  The way this one routes everything else through the chassis connector means I'll have to reverse engineer and reroute everything else if I have to use a standard TV or something.

[ChadTower]

I finished recapping the rejuvinator... no real difference in results.  I double checked and I may have before been using the wrong socket for this tube.  I got the right one this time.  Now it passes G1 shorts but has terrible Emission results - a sign of a tube without much life left.  I tried rejuvination and it made no difference.

In adjusting it to get the best picture, I have noticed that the only adjustment pot that seems to get no response is Brightness.  I wonder if that is because there is nothing left or because the pot is bad... I'll have to look into that pot later.  At this point I'm frustrated enough with the damn monitor that I'm tempted to scrap it for now and see if I can get the boards working.

I think I'm going to spend some time tonight with Randy Fromm's monitor video as well.

[Fozzy The Bear]

At this point I'm frustrated enough with the damn monitor that I'm tempted to scrap it for now and see if I can get the boards working.

Chad, it's just occurred to me that you may not have as bad a monitor as you think.......

You've been driving it with a video signal that's designed for a TV set, or VCR or the output of a domestic DVD player yes??...

If that's the case, then part of your problem is an impedance missmatch between the signal you're putting in and the signal the monitor is expecting. The signal out of the game boards will be much higher and will drive it harder on the whites, giving you the image you're after (theoretically).

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[ChadTower]

That had occurred to me as a possibility but I didn't know where to go about looking for info on it.  Thanks for pointing it out.  Maybe I'll put it back in the game tomorrow and see what I can get firing up the boards.

[ChadTower]

Got the CP back together... pics coming, it's really clean.

I put the monitor back in and fired the game up... nothing.  Possibly some retrace lines on the monitor, hard to tell with all that burn.

I pulled the boards and noticed on the left board one of the edge contacts is burned pretty bad and has been bypassed with a jumper straight from the trace up past the connector and to the wire.  It looks like a ground contact.  The edge contact just to the right of that one isn't all that great either but it not bypassed.  These are the only two damaged ones I can see.  I followed the right trace and it leads down to a couple of diodes and a large resistor.  The back behind them is toast.  No burned traces, but they're raised a little, and has the usual black halo.  Pics coming of that too.  I'll pull those components and test them to see if that is black from a current failure or from the previous one that looks like it was half-ass repaired.

What's the best way to restore a burned edge contact pad?  I haven't done that yet.  I had to cut the jumper to pull the board so clearly that solution isn't good.

[ChadTower]

BTW, I'd like to meet the people who thought this soldered on paper interconnect ribbon cables were a good idea and kick them until we all cry.

[Fozzy The Bear]

BTW, I'd like to meet the people who thought this soldered on paper interconnect ribbon cables were a good idea and kick them until we all cry.

Yeah!! I took a "Gunsmoke" cab apart once that had those.... They're a devil to keep in one piece. You may find that the failure to fire up is a result of those damned inventions of Beelzebub. I hate them too.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[ChadTower]

These ones eyeball pretty well, so hopefully with careful handling I can leave them alone.  If not all hell may break loose.  Or I'll just have someone else fix it.   

Ordered a couple of edge rebuild kits.  Should only need one but I always order a spare unless the parts are expensive.

[paigeoliver]

I checked my basement, it looks like I have 5 19" color monitors and no black and white ones. I guess I sold or gave them all away.

Too bad yours doesn't have a 23" monitor, those things are a dime a dozen it seems (all those Sprint 2's with burned up boards left a lot of the 23" monitors floating around). I think I still have a few good ones in my basement (I know I have six monitors down there, but I don't have any real games to use them in anymore).

* CheffoJeffo needs to schedule a roadtrip to grab up some 23" BW Atari monitors

[Level42]

We apologize for any inconvenience on the delay while we are waiting for Chad to crop and upload his pictures....