Tempest Monitor Issues

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

I really need some help here... My Tempest Monitor quit working so I
installed the LV2000 hopping it would fix it. Well, now I am totally
lost. When I turn on the game, one of the LED's (the one on the one
near the black wire) on the LV2000 come on and stay on. The other one
does nothing. When you turn off the game, the first LED goes out and
then the other one comes on and stays on until the power drains off.
(so does the LED on the board) If I leave it on for a min, I get some
orange glowing in the bottom corner of the screen but nothing else. ( I
have not left it on for more than a min. if that.) I also noticed that
I got no response from the game at all, so I disconnected the monitor
from the connector and tried it again, the game runs, I can hear it. I
have checked and re installed the LV2000, looks correct so If anyone
has any experience with this I would really appreciate any help you
could offer. Thanks.

-Dave

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Try unplugging all of the chassis mounted transistors and see if both LED's
light up on the LV2000. If so turn the game off and plug the 3 connectors
back in one at a time. Turn the game back on and see if the LED is still
lit. If so move on, if not one or both of those transistors is bad. You
might also want to unplug the connector that supplies the HV cage with
voltage just to be sure you don't fry something in the HV cage while your at
it.

That LED is out because of the over current circuit on the LV2000 shutting
that particular voltage down. From your description it sounds like the +26
is the one that's shutting off so your problem lies within one of the 3716's
for sure.

Matt

"dbpbandit" <davep@premierbev.com> wrote in message
news:1115666528.335113.189400@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>I really need some help here... My Tempest Monitor quit working so I
> installed the LV2000 hopping it would fix it. Well, now I am totally
> lost. When I turn on the game, one of the LED's (the one on the one
> near the black wire) on the LV2000 come on and stay on. The other one
> does nothing. When you turn off the game, the first LED goes out and
> then the other one comes on and stays on until the power drains off.
> (so does the LED on the board) If I leave it on for a min, I get some
> orange glowing in the bottom corner of the screen but nothing else. ( I
> have not left it on for more than a min. if that.) I also noticed that
> I got no response from the game at all, so I disconnected the monitor
> from the connector and tried it again, the game runs, I can hear it. I
> have checked and re installed the LV2000, looks correct so If anyone
> has any experience with this I would really appreciate any help you
> could offer. Thanks.
>
> -Dave
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

> I really need some help here... My Tempest Monitor quit working so I
> installed the LV2000 hopping it would fix it. Well, now I am totally
> lost. When I turn on the game, one of the LED's (the one on the one
> near the black wire) on the LV2000 come on and stay on. The other one


That LED is called the spot killer, it comes on in response to a lack
of horizontal or vertical deflection and prevents your tube from
getting burned.

1. Did you do a full cap kit in addition to the LV2000? (If not, get
one now and install it.)
2. If you did, did you replace the 4 diodes in the bridge rectifier
section with the ones from the kit? (If so, put the originals back or
buy better replacements - the ones that ship in most 6100 cap kits are
far too weak and will die in minutes.)
3. When you did the cap kit, did you test all 3 leads on all 6 chassis
transistors for continuity to the chassis before powering up? It is
very easy to mistakenly short one which will kill it.
4. Are you 100% sure your boardset is good? I had one once that lost
a voltage regulator on the PCB which caused the monitor to go into spot
killer mode.

Finally, if you haven't already read the FAQ on the Wells Gardner 6100,
Google for it and read it. It is full of *very* helpful info.

Other 6100 failures I've seen:
- Degauss coil shorting against chassis which burned out parts on
poweron (took a while to find this one, I ended up just unplugging it)
- Cracked HV transformer (unlikely in your case)
- Broken leg on the Y-Size pot on the Tempest PCB

One more thing to try, when you're in spot killer like this...try
turning up the SCREEN pot **TEMPORARILY** and see what you get on the
screen. When I had the Y-Size pot problem, I noted that the game was
rendering but the vertical size was far too small. This trick helped
me find it, just try not to do it for more than a few seconds.

As always, protect yourself when working around powered monitors.

D

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

>> I really need some help here... My Tempest Monitor quit working so I
>> installed the LV2000 hopping it would fix it. Well, now I am totally
>> lost. When I turn on the game, one of the LED's (the one on the one
>> near the black wire) on the LV2000 come on and stay on. The other one

Argh...I didn't read closely enough to see that the LED problem was on
the LV2000 itself, sorry.

Anyway the tips I posted were some general-purpose 6100 tips.

D

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

What else did you do besides install the LV2000? Did you test the LV2000
before going "live" with it as described in the instructions? Sounds like 1
of the voltages is absent (the LEDs correspond to +/-26V, IIRC). I'd be
checking my voltages and work backwards.

--
-Steve P.

All messages are scanned with Norton Anti-Virus

"dbpbandit" <davep@premierbev.com> wrote in message
news:1115666528.335113.189400@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>I really need some help here... My Tempest Monitor quit working so I
> installed the LV2000 hopping it would fix it. Well, now I am totally
> lost. When I turn on the game, one of the LED's (the one on the one
> near the black wire) on the LV2000 come on and stay on. The other one
> does nothing. When you turn off the game, the first LED goes out and
> then the other one comes on and stays on until the power drains off.
> (so does the LED on the board) If I leave it on for a min, I get some
> orange glowing in the bottom corner of the screen but nothing else. ( I
> have not left it on for more than a min. if that.) I also noticed that
> I got no response from the game at all, so I disconnected the monitor
> from the connector and tried it again, the game runs, I can hear it. I
> have checked and re installed the LV2000, looks correct so If anyone
> has any experience with this I would really appreciate any help you
> could offer. Thanks.
>
> -Dave
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Wow, This is all great information and I will start troubleshooting
with it today, thanks, However - there is one thing that no one touched
on and that is the fact that when everything is plugged in and I turn
the game on, the game it'self does not work. In other words, prior to
installing the LV2000 you could play the game blind. Now if you turn
the game on, you get nothing coming from the game. If I unplug the main
connector to the monitor then the game works again. Hopefully with the
information you provided, this will help me determine the problem, I am
just concerned, would any of the issues you described, mess with my
board set? Does the spot killer cut power to the game board PCB also?
Thanks again for all of your help, I really appreciate it.

-Dave

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Progress, I think... I went home during lunch and tried one of the
suggestions. I unplugged the 3 transistors connectors and the HV.
Turned on the game and Bingo! - both led's on the lv2k came on and the
game is running. I started connecting them back one at a time and got
the same results until I plugged in the final one. The one that is
located closest to the LV2k seems to be the one causing the problem. So
one or both of those transistors are bad. Is there a way to check a
transistor? I called a local electronics place and they are about 19
bucks a piece, if I knew witch one was bad it would be a lot cheaper. I
am planning on getting one of the cap kits, do these transistors come
in the kit or are they extra?

-Dave

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

dbpbandit <davep@premierbev.com> wrote:
: Wow, This is all great information and I will start troubleshooting
: with it today, thanks, However - there is one thing that no one touched
: on and that is the fact that when everything is plugged in and I turn
: the game on, the game it'self does not work. In other words, prior to
: installing the LV2000 you could play the game blind. Now if you turn
: the game on, you get nothing coming from the game. If I unplug the main
: connector to the monitor then the game works again. Hopefully with the
: information you provided, this will help me determine the problem, I am
: just concerned, would any of the issues you described, mess with my
: board set? Does the spot killer cut power to the game board PCB also?
: Thanks again for all of your help, I really appreciate it.

If you got one of tha later rev LV2000's with all the surface mount diodes,
a blown-short diode could be your problem. I've seen that on at least
4-5 boards I've repaired for other people. Why they chose to use low-power
surface mount parts as protection diodes instead of nice beefy through-hole
parts, I don't know.

If you disconnect the power trransistors that attach to the LV2k, you
can at least see whether it's working or not. If you get both LEDs and
the correct voltages with the trannies disconnected, I'd suspect a
blown power transistor.

--
Mark Spaeth mspaeth@mtl.mit.edu
50 Vassar St., #38.265 mspaeth@mit.edu
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 452-2354 http://rgvac.978.org/~mspaeth

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Dave,

You can ALL the deflection transistors AND a cap kit as well for about
the same price as the ONE trans you priced.. I actually think the kit
is less?

And for the bad news.. if your impatient and don't wanna wait for the
cap kit, you'll be spending the 38 bucks anyways as they *should* be
replaced in pairs. You could still have problems elsewhere in the
circuit too. SO get the cheaper cap kit that includes several of those
transistors so you have an affordable way out if you blow two in
testing.

- Matt

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

OK, Thanks for the info. Now, Which kit is the best one? I'm waiting on
a price from Happ Controls, they have a kit for this monitor. If I go
with the ones like Bob Roberts has, which kit do I need? I have seen
mention of a basic kit and then some other additions to that kit? Also,
do these kits come with some kind of instructions? I can remove and
replace parts all day but I'm not a pro, don't know If I can correctly
identify all of the parts with their replacement.

-Dave

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

I recommend Bob's standard 6100 kit. If you opt for the "deluxe" one,
do NOT install the 4 bridge rectifier diodes.

D

On 2005-05-10 19:18:30 -0500, "dbpbandit" <davep@premierbev.com> said:

> OK, Thanks for the info. Now, Which kit is the best one? I'm waiting on
> a price from Happ Controls, they have a kit for this monitor. If I go
> with the ones like Bob Roberts has, which kit do I need? I have seen
> mention of a basic kit and then some other additions to that kit? Also,
> do these kits come with some kind of instructions? I can remove and
> replace parts all day but I'm not a pro, don't know If I can correctly
> identify all of the parts with their replacement.
> -Dave

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

It seems really strange to me that Bob hasn't replaced
these "weak" bridge rectifier diodes with the "correct"
ones. Anyone know the reason, other than maybe him
trying to keep the costs of the cap kit down? Also,
does anyone sell the cap kit with the correct ones
included?

I have a WG6102 (yes, the later generation that has a
lot of the fixes installed from the factory) and I'd
like to do a cap kit on it. It works, but wiggles
(the cover IS on the HV cage) and hasn't been capped
in who knows how many years. My hesitation is so many
things were changed on the WG6102 that I'm nervous
about getting the correct, current, up-to-date,
"full-proof" parts.

Scott C.

Derek Stutsman wrote:
> I recommend Bob's standard 6100 kit. If you opt for the "deluxe" one,
> do NOT install the 4 bridge rectifier diodes.
>
> D
>
> On 2005-05-10 19:18:30 -0500, "dbpbandit" <davep@premierbev.com> said:
>
>> OK, Thanks for the info. Now, Which kit is the best one? I'm waiting on
>> a price from Happ Controls, they have a kit for this monitor. If I go
>> with the ones like Bob Roberts has, which kit do I need? I have seen
>> mention of a basic kit and then some other additions to that kit? Also,
>> do these kits come with some kind of instructions? I can remove and
>> replace parts all day but I'm not a pro, don't know If I can correctly
>> identify all of the parts with their replacement.
>> -Dave
>
>
>