Help Replacing the monitor in my Williams Stargate

[quanlee]

I purchased a Kortek 19" Monitor from Betson Imperial, just got it.... now what do I do with it? I have no idea how to install it.  I know I need to discharge the old one. Should I just search for instructions, or do you have some words of wisdom? I can remove that hunk of junk on the bottom of my cab now, right? The isolation transformer? Any info you have would be great.

Lee,

Tell me a couple of things about what was included with your monior...

1. Does it have an AC power cord?
2. What is the connector type?

You really don't like that old power supply do ya??? seems like you're dying to get it out of there...

I would reccomend not removing anything... simply because its worth more if you ever decide to sell it, to keep all the original stuff in tact.

If you can take a pic of the monitor chassis... (the pcb board part)...

We'll get you set up right quick

Jim

I will take pictures tonight and attach them to this topic.

[RetroACTIVE]

It should just be a drop in replacement... the only thing need be done is re-route the AC power to non-isolated AC since iso-former is not necessary with new replacement.

 

[quanlee]

Regarding getting the ISO transformer out of my cabinet, yes, anything I can do to make it lighter is a bonus. I'm not so concerned about keeping it original, particularly if it's no longer needed. Who would want it in there, if it's not being used?

[RetroACTIVE]

Regarding getting the ISO transformer out of my cabinet, yes, anything I can do to make it lighter is a bonus. I'm not so concerned about keeping it original, particularly if it's no longer needed. Who would want it in there, if it's not being used?

Its certainly up to you... it's a matter of personal preference as to the collectible/authenticity of these classic machines.

If you do remove the power supply and iso-former, you will not have any coin door lamps and your lock-out coil will not function anymore.... depending upon how important these things are you will have to make a few other changes.

Also, I believe the marquee light is connected to the isolated side of the transformer, that will need to be rewired as well.

 

[quanlee]

Its certainly up to you... it's a matter of personal preference as to the collectible/authenticity of these classic machines.

If you do remove the power supply and iso-former, you will not have any coin door lamps and your lock-out coil will not function anymore.... depending upon how important these things are you will have to make a few other changes.

Also, I believe the marquee light is connected to the isolated side of the transformer, that will need to be rewired as well.

 

Hmm... now that I think about it, my marquee and my coin door lights don't work anyway. Is there anyway I could power them off the new power supply? Can I just tap into one of the wires?

In my Ms Pacman/mame, I replaced the marquee light with a simple tube fixture from lowes (low tech  ), and just plugged it into a plug strip inside the cabinet.

[RetroACTIVE]

Hmm... now that I think about it, my marquee and my coin door lights don't work anyway. Is there anyway I
could power them off the new power supply? Can I just tap into one of the wires?

In my Ms Pacman/mame, I replaced the marquee light with a simple tube fixture from lowes (low tech  ), and just plugged it into a plug strip inside the cabinet.

You certainly can power your marquee light by tapping off of the AC wires... and using a simple fixture from lowes is perfectly acceptable and very common.

If you want coin door lamps again, you could wire 12VDC over to them and swap them out with LEDs as well!

[RayB]

Ken Layton can correct me if I am wrong : There is NO HARM in keeping the ISO in there! Just install the new monitor and don't worry about removing or rewiring anything except the video connector (assuming it doesn't match your new connector).

[RetroACTIVE]

Ken Layton can correct me if I am wrong : There is NO HARM in keeping the ISO in there! Just install the new monitor and don't worry about removing or rewiring anything except the video connector (assuming it doesn't match your new connector).

I believe you are right... I wasn't 100% sure... but seems to me no harm as well.

[SirPeale]

Absolutely not.  Keep the ISO in there.  Does no harm at all. 

What was wrong with the old monitor?

I haven't worked on a Stargate before, but if it's anything like the other Williams classic cabinets, isn't it shelf mount?  I'm hoping that your new monitor is as well!

And you do NOT have to discharge the old monitor to pull it from the cab.

[RetroACTIVE]

Absolutely not.  Keep the ISO in there.  Does no harm at all. 

What was wrong with the old monitor?

I haven't worked on a Stargate before, but if it's anything like the other Williams classic cabinets, isn't it shelf mount?  I'm hoping that your new monitor is as well!

And you do NOT have to discharge the old monitor to pull it from the cab.

I believe he wanted a new monitor since the current has heavy Ms. Pac burn and was having the picture collapse from time to time... and really wasn't very interested in fixing it.

He has the correct shelf mount replacement.

[SirPeale]

Ah, thanks for the info.

What kind of chassis is the old one?  I might be interested in it.

[RetroACTIVE]

Ah, thanks for the info.

What kind of chassis is the old one?  I might be interested in it.

think WG k46XX... he made mention of 'cards' in the monitor chassis in previous e-mails.

[quanlee]

Wow... I took a chance last night, tried installing the monitor myself, no big deal. It had the same connections as the old one, and mounted exactly like the old one. I ended up connecting the power to the existing power coming from the ISO transformer. At some point, I'll prolly remove that sucker, since it's no longer needed.

I took pictures, I'll post them as soon as I can. It looks great.

[SirPeale]

You may as well leave it.  It acts as an additional layer of protection, even if it's not needed.  Plus the wiring is already there, it works, don't screw with it. 

[RetroACTIVE]

Wow... I took a chance last night, tried installing the monitor myself, no big deal. It had the same connections as the old one, and mounted exactly like the old one. I ended up connecting the power to the existing power coming from the ISO transformer. At some point, I'll prolly remove that sucker, since it's no longer needed.

I took pictures, I'll post them as soon as I can. It looks great.

Awesome!  Now your Stargate is as good as new!

You may as well leave it.  It acts as an additional layer of protection, even if it's not needed.  Plus the wiring is already there, it works, don't screw with it. 

...along those same lines... about the wiring... your AC is looped in and out of the 15 pin molex connector that is attached to the transformer assembly... these lines go to and from the interlock and main power switch... it's not as simple as just removing it... you will need to deal with the connector, and reroute the ac appropriately... I say too much work for pretty much zero benefit...

 

[quanlee]

Wow... I took a chance last night, tried installing the monitor myself, no big deal. It had the same connections as the old one, and mounted exactly like the old one. I ended up connecting the power to the existing power coming from the ISO transformer. At some point, I'll prolly remove that sucker, since it's no longer needed.

I took pictures, I'll post them as soon as I can. It looks great.

Awesome!  Now your Stargate is as good as new!

You may as well leave it.  It acts as an additional layer of protection, even if it's not needed.  Plus the wiring is already there, it works, don't screw with it. 

...along those same lines... about the wiring... your AC is looped in and out of the 15 pin molex connector that is attached to the transformer assembly... these lines go to and from the interlock and main power switch... it's not as simple as just removing it... you will need to deal with the connector, and reroute the ac appropriately... I say too much work for pretty much zero benefit...

 

Yeah, sounds like I should just leave it be. I'm now working on the marquee and coin door lights.

I took off the marquee last night to get to the bulb, and to my surprise, there was a nice mouse nest up there, complete with fiberglass insulation and shredded cardboard (and droppings!!). It wasn't occupied, and the material wasn't from my house, so I'm thinking it was there from the games original location.

I left the bulb at home, anyone know what size that is??

[RetroACTIVE]

Pretty sure Stargate uses the same stubby florescent lamp that Defender used....

I changed out my Defender marquee light for a newer one that uses the more common 18" 15W lamp.

Bob has a nice little page:

http://homearcade.org/BBBB/fixture.html

[SirPeale]

Are you interested in parting with your old chassis? 

[quanlee]

Are you interested in parting with your old chassis? 

Absolutely. I also have another monitor that I'm not using that I took out of my Ms Pacman. They both pretty much look the same, but I haven't compared them in great detail.

[SirPeale]

Are you interested in parting with your old chassis? 

Absolutely. I also have another monitor that I'm not using that I took out of my Ms Pacman. They both pretty much look the same, but I haven't compared them in great detail.

PM sent.

[quanlee]

Awesome!  Now your Stargate is as good as new!

Not quite... now I want to clean up the controls. My buttons are in bad shape, and my joystick is pretty loose. I've been kicking around the idea of replacing the buttons with modern micro switch type, but don't like the idea of loosing the button speed. I found some replacement leaf style button parts (plastic top portion) on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260197026844

Who else has these?

What can I do about my loose/sloppy joystick, other than replacing it with a microswitch type?

[RetroACTIVE]

Awesome!  Now your Stargate is as good as new!

Not quite... now I want to clean up the controls. My buttons are in bad shape, and my joystick is pretty loose. I've been kicking around the idea of replacing the buttons with modern micro switch type, but don't like the idea of loosing the button speed. I found some replacement leaf style button parts (plastic top portion) on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260197026844

Who else has these?

What can I do about my loose/sloppy joystick, other than replacing it with a microswitch type?

Bob Roberts sells these (long leafs and holders)... but be aware... they are not going to fit perfectly without you carving out some of the back of your panel... original williams panels had leafs mounted directly on the wood with short leaf push buttons.. these don't work perfectly as a replacement.

I would keep your leaf switches... just invest in new buttons (Bob also has a good assortment).

There is also no direct replacement for the two way... there is a rebuild kit... arcadeshop.com offers it... its expensive but does work nice.

[RetroACTIVE]

wait a minute... is your panel wood or metal?  I had a Defender moment.

[quanlee]

wait a minute... is your panel wood or metal?  I had a Defender moment.

It's wood, and yes it has the leafs attached to the back of the panel. I have one button that isn't even attached to the panel, it lifts right out, the backing must have fell off at some point, but it still works. The button above from ebay would only be used to replace the button only, not the leaf.

[RetroACTIVE]

It's wood, and yes it has the leafs attached to the back of the panel. I have one button that isn't even attached to the panel, it lifts right out, the backing must have fell off at some point, but it still works. The button above from ebay would only be used to replace the button only, not the leaf.

Ok... so you definitely need short leaf buttons... not long ones as shown in that e-bay link you posted.  Bob has good prices and assortment of short leaf buttons... there are others though.

[quanlee]

Ok... here are the pics.

Old Monitor


I connected the new monitor outside the cabinet to make sure it worked before installing it.


I removed a couple bolts, the monitor shelf slid out, and I removed the old monitor.


I bolted the new monitor on the shelf, slid it back in. I connected the power from the ISO transformer, and the video feed from the main board. The connectors were identical to the original monitor.


I had to adjust the horizontal and vertical position and size, as well as the brightness and contrast.  It looks as good as new now. My wife says "is that what it looked like back when you were a kid??? YES!




Much easier than I thought it would be.

[RetroACTIVE]

Nice 

[RayB]

Purple mountains? Shouldn't they be red?

I think that although the video connector "fit" the same, the color wires might need swapping.

[RetroACTIVE]

Purple mountains? Shouldn't they be red?

I think that although the video connector "fit" the same, the color wires might need swapping.

Stargate landscape (calling a line "landscape" is stretching it a bit... ) changes color... unlike Defender.

[quanlee]

Purple mountains? Shouldn't they be red?

I think that although the video connector "fit" the same, the color wires might need swapping.

Stargate landscape (calling a line "landscape" is stretching it a bit... ) changes color... unlike Defender.

Speaking of defender... how might I mod my Stargate to play Defender as an option?

[RetroACTIVE]

Purple mountains? Shouldn't they be red?

I think that although the video connector "fit" the same, the color wires might need swapping.

Stargate landscape (calling a line "landscape" is stretching it a bit... ) changes color... unlike Defender.

Speaking of defender... how might I mod my Stargate to play Defender as an option?

Defender uses different ROM and CPU boards than those of Stargate or Joust/Robotron... so there  is not an easy conversion...

If you can get a hold of the williams multigame kit that used to be offered by www.multigame.com (no longer) you would need to get an empty ROM board from Joust/Robotron, reconfigure your sound board and then you could play both Defender and Stargate on the same hardware using the kit.  Fortunately for you your Stargate CPU is a later version which is compatible with Joust/Robotron hardware (required for the multigame kit)

Other than that... there are not any other options out there today....