Author Topic: Star Wars - fully working! (Read 61669 times)

Spyridon · « **Reply #200 on:** August 20, 2009, 10:24:18 pm »

Update on this. Had all four of the chips replaced with new ones. When I powered up, the spot killer was blinking very rapidly. The screen was trying to draw a picture and would flash what looked to be one of the x-wing parts that fires the shots but it was in the wrong spot. Did that for a few minutes and now the spot killer is on full with nothing on the screen.

I measured the x and y outs and they are both outputting the correct values. There was definitely a problem with the chip, but now that it's fixed I still have problems? Guess it's time to refocus on the monitor.

Suggestions on what to try next?

Level42 · « **Reply #201 on:** August 23, 2009, 02:19:13 pm »

Test mode.

Spyridon · « **Reply #202 on:** August 27, 2009, 08:57:40 pm »

The game works!!!!

I borrowed an oscilliscope from someone at work today. I wanted to determine if the board was the problem or the monitor. I remembered Level42 doing this in his Star Wars thread.

First, I hooked up my Asteroids Deluxe board to make sure I had the scope configured correctly. I quickly had asteroids flying all over the scope. (pretty cool)

I then hooked it up to Star Wars and tried it out. All I got was a big spot in the center. Okay, I can see why the spot killer would be on! I now know that I still have a board problem and not a monitor problem. I still had the new AVG chip that I had tried out earlier with no success. I hadn't tried it since I replaced the Amps so I pulled the board out a swapped the new chip in. Plugged the board back in and BINGO...We've got Star Wars!!!!

End result is I had two problems with the board. Bad TLO82 Amp and a bad AVG chip.

Spyridon · « **Reply #203 on:** August 27, 2009, 09:01:41 pm »

Game works but I'm still having issues. Game starts out fine with a nice crisp picture, but then starts to get blurry as you play. By the time you reach the second level, everything is really blurry and barely playable. Eventually, the monitor screen just goes black.

Occassionaly, hitting the side of the cab brings the montor back on (but not everytime). (yeah, I got frustrated and tried that approach)

This problem was present since I got the game. I originally thought it was the loose neckboard, but that doesn't seem to be it. B+ measued 179V when the monitor was working, but dropped to a nominal number when nothing on the screen.

Any ideas on what would cause this?

Level42 · « **Reply #204 on:** August 28, 2009, 04:23:54 am »

Hah, so at least I was right about the amp

Tough one that the AVG was also bad.... and now the monitor problem.....you're not actually really lucky with this SW my friend....

Now you have a working board-set we can move back to the WG6100. I forgot what monitor was in there,but I could say you should rewind to the first pages of this thread for lot's of WG6100 tips.

First: >>> check the solderings of the connectors on the deflection board !!! <<<
The fact that you can "bring it back to life" by hitting the poor cab is indicating bad contacts/solderings. And it's the very thing I've experienced with the one WG6100 I've worked on so far that especially the connectors on the deflection board have often very bad solderings or the tracks are cracked right near the soldering pads.

Rewind to here for pics etc.:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90963.msg957058#msg957058

By the way, no need to test the transistors anymore. The fact that it can run fine tells you that the transistors themselves are fine. (Transistors don't go good-bad-good, they are either good or bad and if bad stay bad.

So, the hunt for bad solderings and poor connections is open. Did you install a LV6100 or LV2000 already by the way ? I'd advice you to do that. Plus of course the regular cap-kit.

Keep on it, you'll get it fixed, you've already tackled the really hard part (the PCB set).

Oh, and of course you should download this:
http://www.ultrathegame.com/tempest/6100_faq.pdf
and read it. Then read it again. Not _everything_ in there is neccesary or "the truth". There are so many mod suggestions that it puzzles me and so I ignored them, but I did to the Zener diode mod to protect the inputs.

Spyridon · « **Reply #205 on:** August 28, 2009, 08:41:23 am »

Yeah, it feels good to actually know that the board works and I can focus on the monitor.

The monitor has the LV6100 mod in it already. It's recently been capped as well. I'll start with reflowing the solder connections as that seems to have a high probability of being the problem.

I've got a copy of the WG Vector Monitor Guide and will be reading through it (again)

Level42 · « **Reply #206 on:** August 28, 2009, 09:11:47 am »

Sounds good, you're really close. I've been puzzling for a long time before I figured out it was actually the board itself acting up when I was working on that WG.

I much (very much) prefer the Amplifone.

Be sure to do a continuity check on the soldering of all pins on the connectors and to where the PCB tracks leads to. This way you can check for any PCB track breaks.

Spyridon · « **Reply #207 on:** August 28, 2009, 10:21:03 am »

Having the o-scope was really handy. I quickly was able to determine that the problem was the board and not the monitor. I guess having a spare 6100 (or a tempest

) would have helped as well.

By the way, Asteroids looks really cool on an o-scope!

Level42 · « **Reply #208 on:** August 28, 2009, 02:50:35 pm »

or better, movie !!

Spyridon · « **Reply #209 on:** August 28, 2009, 03:37:34 pm »

Quote from: Level42 on August 28, 2009, 02:50:35 pm

or better, movie !!

I don't have a good video camera, but I did film it with my Blackberry. Youtube is giving me a problem and won't let me create an account. As soon as I figure that out, I will post it.

Spyridon · « **Reply #210 on:** August 28, 2009, 08:16:13 pm »

Here are some videos. (poor quality is due to using my Blackberry to film these)

Star Wars board problems. This is why the spot killer was on:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YsaU6LyZs[/youtube]

Asteroids Deluxe on the scope:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHTuKq4f6I[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-_hyPE8KVg[/youtube]

Level42 · « **Reply #211 on:** August 29, 2009, 03:10:55 am »

Quality is no that bad really. That was fun to watch !

Yeah, it's clear to see the function of the spot killer !

Spyridon · « **Reply #212 on:** August 30, 2009, 05:33:43 pm »

Last week was a good week. Not only did I get the board working, but I also won a contest that David over at Ram Controls ran. You had to pick a number between 1 and 5000. Closest to his number wins a Premium Star Wars Yoke rebuilt kit. Well my guess was within 7 of his number so I won the kit

I already hat the standard kit, but was planning on upgrading. The yoke really needs this as it doesn't sit in the center and during the game, you have to turn the yoke about 30 degrees to line it up with center.

Level42 · « **Reply #213 on:** August 31, 2009, 04:35:10 am »

Must have been 4242

My advice for anyone that starts work on a SW yoke: get the full kit.

I didn't and now I still have to get the metal parts because of a broken bolt that I had to drill out, plus the center pin of the left-right shaft was bent. These yokes have been (ab)used over 25 years plus, once you're working on it anyway, get everything brand new. Personaly I want to get the yoke ready and never have to open it up again for anything....it's not exactly the most easy control to work on.

Spyridon · « **Reply #214 on:** November 22, 2009, 05:34:04 pm »

Quote from: Spyridon on August 27, 2009, 09:01:41 pm

Game works but I'm still having issues. Game starts out fine with a nice crisp picture, but then starts to get blurry as you play. By the time you reach the second level, everything is really blurry and barely playable.

Finally got some time to take a look at this. I removed the HV cage to look at the wire going to the focus pot. The wire broke right off when I moved it. I crimped on a new connector and the game played perfectly. No more blurry picture after the first level.

Now for the first time since this game arrived, I can finally play a complete game

Next up: yoke rebuild. (it really needs it)

ChadTower · « **Reply #215 on:** November 23, 2009, 09:35:06 am »

Level42 · « **Reply #216 on:** November 23, 2009, 12:50:02 pm »

Gearing up for Yoke rebuild too. Superully took all my SW metal parts (plus more) to bring it to "his" powdercoater which does great work at great prices (a lot more interesting price than I've seen here).
When the powder coating is done, it's finally time to re-assemble the yoke and the cab....

ckong · « **Reply #217 on:** January 10, 2010, 04:25:00 pm »

Just read this thread today for the first time, and it's very interesting with al the detailed technical information. Best part is that a few people who are located all over the world, are able to virtually work together and tackle a problem with success.

Spyridon · « **Reply #218 on:** February 27, 2010, 08:11:50 pm »

A couple months ago, I purchased an non-working Star Wars board that had Mark Spaeth's ESB kit installed on it (Thaks to our very own FrizzleFried for the board and kit

). Well today, I finally got around to transferring the kit to my board. It was more complicated than I expected, but really nothing more than pulling socketed chips and adding in the kit.

It works!

I just need to get a momentary switch to be able to swap the games (right now I can touch the bare wires together to switch). Never played ESB before, but it does have some cool sounds clips from the movies.

I then plugged in the bad board to see what the issues are. I'd like to repair this and sell it to get my money back. I should be able to sell the working board for at least what I paid for the board and ESB kit.

The game plays with all sounds correct, but has some graphics glitches. No errors are detected during the self test.

Here is what it looks like:

Any thoughts on what to look at?

Level42 · « **Reply #219 on:** February 28, 2010, 12:29:49 pm »

Judging on the first screen, could this be the rare "Warp Speed" version

It looks kinda cool the way that the ships seem to "warp" around.....never seen this behaviour before. Maybe the people on the vectorlist can help ?

Does it go through the tests normally ?

Spyridon · « **Reply #220 on:** February 28, 2010, 12:34:59 pm »

Here are some photos of the 3 components of the multi-kit

Sound board connection:

AVG board connection:

CPU board connection:

While swapping the kit from one board set to anther

I noticed a few things that were different on my board.

First, the interconnect card that connects the three boards together on mine isn't original. It is one of Clay Cowgils reproductions

Second, and this one seems odd, on the board I pulled the kit from, there is a test tab and "HALT" screened onto the board. Mine does not have this:

Spyridon · « **Reply #221 on:** February 28, 2010, 12:35:52 pm »

Quote from: Level42 on February 28, 2010, 12:29:49 pm

Does it go through the tests normally ?

Yes, all tests are fine. Also, I swapped AVG chips and no change.

Level42 · « **Reply #222 on:** February 28, 2010, 02:29:01 pm »

Looks like you got the first MS kit. I have no clue what the problem can be...sorry.

RayB · « **Reply #223 on:** February 28, 2010, 05:35:28 pm »

How much would you sell the working board for?

Spyridon · « **Reply #224 on:** February 28, 2010, 07:02:35 pm »

Quote from: RayB on February 28, 2010, 05:35:28 pm

How much would you sell the working board for?

The working board is the one in my game (now with ESB kit) and not for sale. The non-working one will be for sale, but I'd like to get it working first.

Level42 · « **Reply #225 on:** March 01, 2010, 01:37:15 am »

My advice: keep a back-up board-set.

I've got back-up parts for almost anything: PCB set (a working set for less than 18 Euro's !

), a free (cannibalized but restorable) HV board, 2 deflection boards that also need to be restored, an extra HVT and hell I even have a spare Amplifone yoke. Of course some vector RAMs, BD509D's etc.
I'd still love to replace the CRT and keep the original as spare....but the costs are a big issue.....and I'm not sure if I can get it as sweetly converged as the original is now...

RayB · « **Reply #226 on:** March 01, 2010, 08:24:41 pm »

Quote from: Spyridon on February 28, 2010, 07:02:35 pm

Quote from: RayB on February 28, 2010, 05:35:28 pm
How much would you sell the working board for?

The working board is the one in my game (now with ESB kit) and not for sale. The non-working one will be for sale, but I'd like to get it working first.

Let me rephrase my question then: How much would you sell the REPAIRED board for? (I need mine fixed or just replaced with working)


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