My Vectrex is slowly fading away...

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Archived from groups: rec.games.vectrex (More info?)

Hello everyone... I'm new to this forum. I'm just your average
Vectrex fan... and yes... my Vectrex seems to have a problem.

I bought a Vectrex off of ebay a few months ago and also got 7 games
with it (Star Castle, Web Wars, Star Trek, etc.). However, I am having
problems with the actual Vectrex system. At first, the thing worked
perfectly. I was zooming along in Vector lust! No problems at all.
Then while playing, I noticed that the entire picture/screen doubled
in size (everything on the picture doubled) and grew dimmer than
normal. Than it simply dissappeared. If I tap the side of the machine
or give it a good whack the picture returns to normal. (keep in
mind... when I say a little whack I mean just that... I don't abuse my
systems!!!!) Sometimes it'll stay like that for a looong time and
other times it will keep fading.

Any suggestions as to what is wrong with it? I know nothing about
monitors nor re-capping. This is one reason why I don't mess with
arcade games too much... I'm deathly afraid of the monitors. I will
be checking this forum more often... but would also like it if you can
email me your suggestions as well.
Also... I'm not sure of WHAT I can touch inside the Vectrex, that is
kind of limiting me. I'm afraid of getting shocked. I did check the
4 lines that connect the top board to the bottom board. They seem to
be okay.


eric_delee@yahoo.com

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Eric DeLee
 
G

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Archived from groups: rec.games.vectrex (More info?)

If you can 'whack' it and it goes back into shape look for a bad solder
joint in the video x./y output. And check the power supply also.

"EricDeLee" <eric_delee@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e059f506.0407250018.75721cd9@posting.google.com...
> Hello everyone... I'm new to this forum. I'm just your average
> Vectrex fan... and yes... my Vectrex seems to have a problem.
>
> I bought a Vectrex off of ebay a few months ago and also got 7 games
> with it (Star Castle, Web Wars, Star Trek, etc.). However, I am having
> problems with the actual Vectrex system. At first, the thing worked
> perfectly. I was zooming along in Vector lust! No problems at all.
> Then while playing, I noticed that the entire picture/screen doubled
> in size (everything on the picture doubled) and grew dimmer than
> normal. Than it simply dissappeared. If I tap the side of the machine
> or give it a good whack the picture returns to normal. (keep in
> mind... when I say a little whack I mean just that... I don't abuse my
> systems!!!!) Sometimes it'll stay like that for a looong time and
> other times it will keep fading.
>
> Any suggestions as to what is wrong with it? I know nothing about
> monitors nor re-capping. This is one reason why I don't mess with
> arcade games too much... I'm deathly afraid of the monitors. I will
> be checking this forum more often... but would also like it if you can
> email me your suggestions as well.
> Also... I'm not sure of WHAT I can touch inside the Vectrex, that is
> kind of limiting me. I'm afraid of getting shocked. I did check the
> 4 lines that connect the top board to the bottom board. They seem to
> be okay.
>
>
> eric_delee@yahoo.com
>
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
> Eric DeLee
 

Daniel

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Hello Eric,
I know you from the Atari Lynx community. How's things? I'm sorry to
hear about the Vec malfunctioning. I had a Vectrex which seemed to be
broken and I was really dissapointed about this. One day I said stuff
it and I unscrewed the screws from the back of the unit and looked
inside. It was dusty in there so I got a hair blow dryer and gave it a
few waves over the insides of the Vec.

Then I screwed the Vec back up together and turned it on. To my
surprise it worked! I don't know anything about electronics so someone
might advise you this is a bad thing to do but it worked for me. Make
sure the Vectrex is unplugged from the power socket before trying this
though. If someone thinks this will harm the Vectrex please write in.
But other than that you could give that ago.

Daniel.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: rec.games.vectrex (More info?)

Hello again...

I'll be taking this with me when I go back on military orders for the
next few weeks. I'll use a can of air and clean the thing out (even
though it looks pretty clean inside there, and I'll check for bad
connections again (or bad soldering spots). BTW... where is the X/Y
area you were telling me to check. The only thing I've really looked
at is the four cables that connect the boards together.

It is cool to see fellow Lynxers around the internet... it seems that
a lot of us wander into the same classic gaming sites!
 
G

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Archived from groups: rec.games.vectrex (More info?)

Just don't touch the yoke, the round thing attached to the monitor.
That's where death is.
 
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Guest
Archived from groups: rec.games.vectrex (More info?)

On 25 Jul 2004 01:18:10 -0700, eric_delee@yahoo.com (EricDeLee) wrote:


>
>Any suggestions as to what is wrong with it?

Cold solder joint. Most of the time it's very difficult to spot even
for experienced techs. Best bet is to learn how to solder and reflow
any solder joints that look suspect.
Another possibility would be one of the many adjustments pots. Find
each one, mark its location and crank it back and forth a few times
and then put it back in the original location. Better yet spray each
one with TV tuner cleaner before turning it.

Also do a search on how to install a cap kit. Eventhough your problem
has nothing to do with a capacitor, the sites will show you how to
discharge the monitor to avoid a nasty shock.
 
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Archived from groups: rec.games.vectrex (More info?)

On 26 Jul 2004 14:34:20 -0700, orion105@webtv.net (orion105) wrote:

>Just don't touch the yoke, the round thing attached to the monitor.
>That's where death is.

As long as the unit is unplugged there is no "death" or anything for
that matter at the yoke.

The place to be careful is at the anode (suction cup) and even near
the flyback. Painful ~15,000 volt shock possible even after the unit
has been unplugged a few days. On the bright side it's about as
deadly as getting zapped by a stun gun.
 
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Archived from groups: rec.games.vectrex (More info?)

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 23:28:38 -0500, in msg
<vvlbg0to4ok85icv9oj6kf9ns5eqk4o0bo@4ax.com>, Turbo-Torch
<vairxpert@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Another possibility would be one of the many adjustments pots. Find
>each one, mark its location and crank it back and forth a few times
>and then put it back in the original location. Better yet spray each
>one with TV tuner cleaner before turning it.

This struck me as funny! Not the suggestion, that's good advice. It's the "TV
tuner cleaner" reference.

Just where in a modern TV would you spray TV tuner cleaner to clean the TV's
tuner? Do they really still call it TV tuner cleaner? ;-)

-Zonn
--
Zonn Moore Remove the ".AOL" from the
Zektor, LLC email address to reply.
www.zektor.com
 

Pete

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Hi,

> Just don't touch the yoke, the round thing attached
>to the monitor. That's where death is.

Actually, there shouldn't be any dangerous voltages flowing through the yoke
at all, since the IC driving the deflection coils is driven from +9V and -9V
power rails! Therefore you cannot have a voltage greater than positive or
negative 9V with respect to ground across the coils.

The things to watch are 1) the voltages on the connector on the base of the
tube (there are voltages of up to 170V DC there - THAT is dangerous (in fact
it COULD KILL you!)), and 2) the 15kV or so fed to the anode of the picture
tube from the flyback transformer (via the cable terminating in the rubber
"tit" on the side of the tube).


With regard to point "2", even if you did come in contact with the 15kV
supply terminal with the unit switched on you'd actually probably do more
damage to the Vectrex than to yourself. The flyback transformer cannot
supply more than a few micro amps at 15kV and the voltage would collapse as
soon as you connected it to ground through your body....and you'd likely
burn out the transformer in the process....

That said, it's EXTREMELY dangerous to go fiddling around inside the Vectrex
with the power switched on, unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing!


BTW Don't just turn the power off using the switch on the front of the
unit - UNPLUG IT! For some reason GCE chose to put the power switch on the
low voltage side of the transformer....


TTFN - Pete.
 

Pete

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Hi,

> Cold solder joint. Most of the time it's very difficult
>to spot even for experienced techs....

Presumably you mean a "dry" joint?

It's not likely to be this since the unit has been operating OK for many
years and a dry joint usually would've shown up quite quickly (within the
first few months of the life of the unit).

It's considerably more likely that a solder joint somewhere (probably in a
region of the machine which gets quite hot) has fractured. This happens
because as the machine heats up, the legs of the various components expand
at a slightly different rate to that of the solder connecting them to the
PCB. Over a period of years the solder tends to come away from the leg.

From his description of the fault, that all is OK to start with and the
fault shows up after some while of play, I'd be willing to bet money that
that's what the problem is (in fact I've just had to fix one of my colour
monitors which had the exact same problem, due to a fractured joint).

>....Best bet is to learn how to solder and reflow any solder
>joints that look suspect.

Absolutely!

He could just look over the power/driver board (most likely where the fault
is) to try to find the problem joint. However, it's best to reflow ALL of
the solder joints on that board to prevent further, similar problems in the
near future.

I'd actually recommend resoldering the joints rather than just reflowing
them, that way you avoid the real possibility of creating dry joints due to
contamination on the surface of the existing solder (though dry joints are
usually fairly easy to spot since they look dull, rather than shiny, when
the solder cools).


>....Better yet spray each one with TV tuner cleaner before
>turning it.

Excellent advice.

DO NOT use "Electrolube" though, as this causes more problems than it
solves! It's great for cleaning switches etc, but when used in sockets or
pots the stuff attracts dust and other contaminants like there's no
tomorrow! :-(


TTFN - Pete.
 
G

Guest

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Archived from groups: rec.games.vectrex (More info?)

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 19:03:15 -0700, Zonn <news-zonn@zektor.AOL.com>
wrote:

>On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 23:28:38 -0500, in msg
><vvlbg0to4ok85icv9oj6kf9ns5eqk4o0bo@4ax.com>, Turbo-Torch
><vairxpert@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Another possibility would be one of the many adjustments pots. Find
>>each one, mark its location and crank it back and forth a few times
>>and then put it back in the original location. Better yet spray each
>>one with TV tuner cleaner before turning it.
>
>This struck me as funny! Not the suggestion, that's good advice. It's the "TV
>tuner cleaner" reference.
>
>Just where in a modern TV would you spray TV tuner cleaner to clean the TV's
>tuner? Do they really still call it TV tuner cleaner? ;-)

I believe Radio Shack still refers to it as COLOR TV Tuner cleaner and
I have no idea why :) It's been a while since I've been in there as I
despise the place with a passion but as of last year it was still on
the shelves.
I believe they also have the regular electrical contact cleaner which
would probably be better yet for the pots in the veccie.
If I had to guess the TV stuff probably has a lubricant in it since
the tuner is constantly being used. As Pete mentioned, something like
that would help collect dust.