Asteroids cocktail...where to begin?

endrien

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Doesn't play blind, hissing/buzzing from speakers(Not monitor), Monitor neck DOES glow. Led on game board flickers sometimes. Where should I start? I'm thinking power supply or fuses.
 
1. Verify all of your connectors are seated properly.
2. Check all of your fuses with a meter.
3. Verify the voltages coming off of your A/R I
 
Not for thisa one - vectors are a completely different animal to a standard raster game. Special power supplies and and the monitors are completely different other than having a board and a picture tube. For example, your typical vector monitor needs two 30v lines from the power brick, and a 6v line for the pic tube heater, so you can have a completely dead monitor with neck glow on a vector.

That said - they're fairly easy to fix in my opinion. As long as the board works the AR board is easy to repair/rebuild and the vectors, save for some common problems are also fairly easy to ressurrect.

In your case, start with the power brick, make sure the game is unplugged, and pull each fuse on the power brick and clean up the ends. (dollar store scotchbrite and alcohol).

Inspect the AR with a flashlight for now - just see if you see anything blown/burnt.

Then move onto the monitor - yank the deflection board. There's several molex plugs on there since the monitor is modular - resolder ALL PINS on ALL molex plugs. Its really not that many and most of them will have bad/broken connections. From there, check the fuses on the monitor board - you may find one or two blown ones - the bad molex plugs cause it. Just replace any blown fuses. Look at the two big rectangle resistors on the monitor board. If one looks like it got extremely hot or baked the board - you may need to check those. If you have a bad one, you can actually pull them off and replace them with heavy wire - its a known fix.

Lastly, pull the connector off the main board, and clean it up with one of those pink pencil erasers you can get at staples or whatever local office/school supply store you can get to. You'll be surprised to see how much black crap comes off of it ;-)

Lastly, plug it back in and make sure you kill that @#$#@$#@ space ship for me :)
 
Not for thisa one - vectors are a completely different animal to a standard raster game. Special power supplies and and the monitors are completely different other than having a board and a picture tube. For example, your typical vector monitor needs two 30v lines from the power brick, and a 6v line for the pic tube heater, so you can have a completely dead monitor with neck glow on a vector.

That said - they're fairly easy to fix in my opinion. As long as the board works the AR board is easy to repair/rebuild and the vectors, save for some common problems are also fairly easy to ressurrect.

In your case, start with the power brick, make sure the game is unplugged, and pull each fuse on the power brick and clean up the ends. (dollar store scotchbrite and alcohol).

Inspect the AR with a flashlight for now - just see if you see anything blown/burnt.

Then move onto the monitor - yank the deflection board. There's several molex plugs on there since the monitor is modular - resolder ALL PINS on ALL molex plugs. Its really not that many and most of them will have bad/broken connections. From there, check the fuses on the monitor board - you may find one or two blown ones - the bad molex plugs cause it. Just replace any blown fuses. Look at the two big rectangle resistors on the monitor board. If one looks like it got extremely hot or baked the board - you may need to check those. If you have a bad one, you can actually pull them off and replace them with heavy wire - its a known fix.

Lastly, pull the connector off the main board, and clean it up with one of those pink pencil erasers you can get at staples or whatever local office/school supply store you can get to. You'll be surprised to see how much black crap comes off of it ;-)

Lastly, plug it back in and make sure you kill that @#$#@$#@ space ship for me :)

Thanks, I'll try all this.
Also a bit of a noob question...but what does "AR" mean?
 
Also for the state of Arkansas.... Sorry I had to say it. Unplug the monitor at the connector going to the wire harness and try and start by playing the game blind first. Check you power and voltages first as mentioned but leave the monitor for last...You don't want that spot killer on that monitor for prolonged use and fry that out too.
 
Also for the state of Arkansas.... Sorry I had to say it. Unplug the monitor at the connector going to the wire harness and try and start by playing the game blind first. Check you power and voltages first as mentioned but leave the monitor for last...You don't want that spot killer on that monitor for prolonged use and fry that out too.

So just unplug the monitor from the asteroids harness and it won't damage it?
 
Game doesn't appear to play blind, just getting noise from speakers(Not game noise).
 
Remove connector J7 (9 pin connector) from A/R I
Meter set to DC 20vdc range
Black lead to P7 pin 1, 4
Red lead to P7 pin 5, 6

Report readings
 
Remove connector J7 (9 pin connector) from A/R I
Meter set to DC 20vdc range
Black lead to P7 pin 1, 4
Red lead to P7 pin 5, 6

Report readings

Before I go about doing this, do vector monitors hold a charge? I didn't see an anode cup when I looked.
 
Leave the monitor alone, doubtful it will have a charge. Just follow Dokert's steps and leave the monitor unplugged and look at that last in the diagnostic steps.
 
So I pulled out the AR board and it "Looks" fine, I can't test it till I get my tools back(Left them at another house haha).

I also saw an empty board connector, should something be connected to it?


2w747lc.jpg

nns9yx.jpg

30igrdd.jpg



This is currently the only game board connector wired up
10h51r4.jpg
 
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