Asteroids Deluxe cocktail almost plays blind. Help

[wolfeel]

SOLVED - Asteroids Deluxe cocktail almost plays blind. Help - SOLVED

This is what I got: Asteroids Deluxe with an Electrohome GO5805 (bought on ebay as rebuilt and working to replace my WG). The monitor has neck glow, no spot killer and when I coin up and play will display only the "bullets" when you fire. It does display the "bullets" in all the quadrants. Will display the "bullets" when the enemy ship comes to attack you. The shields will also display when used. It was displaying my ship and the enemies but both went away, now just "bullets". Rebuilt the power supply board. Makes me think it is a PCB problem. On the board in the video section I did replace capacitors C72 and C73 (they looked like could be bad). Tested the 5V at the board and set it to 5.07 VDC. The 40V input at pin 8 at the high voltage connection meters 35.8 VDC, 90V supply at pin 5 measured 87.5 VDC. Did try to see if more would display in test mode but screen was just blank. PCB problem??? Can anyone help me diag the problem?

SOLVED: I found one of the wires on the HV unit going to the HV pcb board was broken. I ended up soldering it back together and that fixed the problem.

 

[vctrcollectr]

Re: Asteroids Deluxe cocktail almost plays blind. Help

Try turning up the brightness a little.

 

[vctrcollectr]

Re: Asteroids Deluxe cocktail almost plays blind. Help

The bullets and shield are brighter,so you should see them first on a dim screen.

 

[wolfeel]

Re: Asteroids Deluxe cocktail almost plays blind. Help

I did and the "bullets" just got brighter. Even tried to play with contrast at same time and no change.

 

[wolfeel]

Re: Asteroids Deluxe cocktail almost plays blind. Help

Also, I can move my ship around and destroy and run into asteroids but the ships and asteroids will not display.

 

[road.runner]

Re: Asteroids Deluxe cocktail almost plays blind. Help

could be an issue with the Asteroids board.

Can you borrow a known working board ? or test yours in a working machine ? Any chance you have an oscilloscope to play on ?

 

[wolfeel]

Re: Asteroids Deluxe cocktail almost plays blind. Help

Yeah I think it is a board problem, no other machine or board to test with, and no scope.

 

[EthanB]

Did you try re-seating the chips? I don't know if that's a good idea with a board that old, however. <shrug>

 

[wolfeel]

I tried just pressing them down to seat them better (no change) but did not pull them out. Perhaps I will pull and re-seat tomorrow.

 

[orion3311]

I think mine did the same thing - are you turning up the flyback or the brightness/contrast on the board?

I would agree with someone else I think you have something still turned down.

 

[wolfeel]

I was playing with the brightness and contrast on the monitor chassis (there are no controls on the board other than X and Y gain which I also played with when "bullets" were on screen).

 

[road.runner]

you could pull the ROMs, clean the pins with a pencil eraser and carefully reinsert them....doubt this can be the problem...sounds more like something in the vector logic.

I've found that sometimes the ROMs are "happier" when they are not fully inserted (they make better contact)

 

[road.runner]

correct - there are no other adjustments on an Asteroids

 

[orion3311]

Maybe cold solder points on tube socket?

 

[8-Bit]

I think your tube is fine. First off check all the connectors, especially that large edge connector. Make sure all those pins are getting continuity (I place my multi meter on the exposed circuit on the board itself and test beyond the connector itself to do this)

That will be your simplest fix. Then if that checks out I would tend to think it's a problem with one of those ROMs, either not seated or it's damaged. I'd also check the board for cracks using a continuity check.

 

[orion3311]

I mentioned that since I've seen cold solder points on tube sockets produce a dim picture (heater pins).

 

[wolfeel]

So here is what I have done so far... I bought a "tested and working" board on eBay and plugged it in, same thing happens (just can see "bullets" and nothing else). I did notice that when I play with the Y-gain I can get the spot killer LED to come on. In fact the Y-gain is working like a potentiometer and I can control the brightness of the spot killer from off to full bright. Makes me think something is wrong with the monitor or power supply board. Any Help???

On a positive note: I did get a dead Space Invaders that I bought at the Sacramento Super Auction fully working! I would really like to play Asteroids though...HELP!!!

 

[Jlannoo]

When my AD was fading out while playing, reflowing the solder on a connector on the deflection board fixed it. I knew this cause when I would move that connector the screen would brighten back up. Might just be seeing the bullets because they are so much brighter then everything else and your picture is dim.

 

[orion3311]

What he said. I just got my own Asteroids cocktail today. Same monitor. Was playing blind. Got into it and found no neck glow. One fuse on the power brick was blown - replaced that, still nothing. Yanked the deflection board and found it had one blown fuse, one of the high-wattage resistors was nearly falling off the board due to heat, and EVERY header connector had cold solder points. I even found cold solder points on the fuse holder for the blown fuse!! Reflowed all pins on all header connectors - went through and resoldered the fuse holder and any other questionable points, removed, cleaned, and reinstalled the high wattage resistors - replaced the 5a sb fuse, and wala...picture!!

Then I found $3.75 worth of quarters jammed into the coin accepter...bonus!!!

 

[wolfeel]

I pulled the deflection board out to get a closer look. All the solders on the back look good. Metered may parts and looked good. Since I tried two diff PCB boards and I am getting the same problem the cause must be in: Power Supply, power supply board, monitor or wires/plugs. Checking the voltage on the power supply/audio board and all outputs are good (power brick must be good), leaves me with monitor issue. When you re-flow solder joints are you just heating up the solder and letting it re-puddle or are you actually sucking and replacing all the solder?