Black Widow restoration thread

I'm so excited. LOL
This isn't your first Atari vector, so I assume you know what you're doing.

View attachment 855065
I wouldn't go THAT far, but after some years of trial and error I am getting somewhat better at it.

Controls are working in all four directions, leaf switches needed some cleaning and tweaking… but I'm not able to get diagonal motion on either stick, so they clearly need more TLC.

But I'm a lot closer to being done than I was this morning, so….
 
Anybody can point me towards suggestions for Wico leaf joystick tweaking, I'd be much obliged. Have a feeling I'll be making a lot of tiny adjustments with a needle nose here.

Never mind, I'm good.

Screen adjustments and overall re-assessment tomorrow, but it's looking pretty good right now.
 
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Okay, we're getting close. Monitor is close to being dialed in. There's a bit of convergence issue in the upper left corner; the tube had 4 convergence strips attached when I got it, a couple of them had fallen off over time and the others came loose when I washed the tube. Fortunately I had pictures, and re-attached them as best I could see where to, but I obviously missed at least one spot. Something that I can continue to fine-tune.

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Audio is off for a couple of sounds: fire and ownship killed. There's also a constant static/thrust sound on the main test screen (first screen pictured above) which shouldn't be there for Black Widow.

 
I assume you've swapped both Pokeys? All of the sounds are generated by the Pokeys, so they are the heart of the audio generation.

Also, make sure you have all of the correct components installed around the audio preamps next to the Pokeys (where the LM324's are.) This is the section that must be modified when you convert from BW to Gravitar and vice versa. But a missing or broken part there could cause some lost sounds. Here's a summary of the mods, so you can know if any missing parts are supposed to be missing or not:

Audio mod summary for converting Gravitar to BW:
- Change C27 from 1000pF to 100pF (increases Low Pass Filter bandwidth, to play higher sounds)
- Remove C28 (1000pF) (disables LPF, to play higher sounds)
- Remove C34 (0.22uF) (disables LPF, to play higher sounds)
- Change R46 from 10k to 22k (changes mixing of the two pokey audio outputs)

The static suggests the Pokeys aren't being controlled properly, assuming the Pokeys are both good. (Test them in another game if you can, and don't throw any away until you are sure they are bad.) I'd check the control traces to the Pokeys, making sure you don't have a broken trace. See the schematics.

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I assume you've swapped both Pokeys? All of the sounds are generated by the Pokeys, so they are the heart of the audio generation.

Also, make sure you have all of the correct components installed around the audio preamps next to the Pokeys (where the LM324's are.) This is the section that must be modified when you convert from BW to Gravitar and vice versa. But a missing or broken part there could cause some lost sounds. Here's a summary of the mods, so you can know if any missing parts are supposed to be missing or not:

Audio mod summary for converting Gravitar to BW:
- Change C27 from 1000pF to 100pF (increases Low Pass Filter bandwidth, to play higher sounds)
- Remove C28 (1000pF) (disables LPF, to play higher sounds)
- Remove C34 (0.22uF) (disables LPF, to play higher sounds)
- Change R46 from 10k to 22k (changes mixing of the two pokey audio outputs)

The static suggests the Pokeys aren't being controlled properly, assuming the Pokeys are both good. (Test them in another game if you can, and don't throw any away until you are sure they are bad.) I'd check the control traces to the Pokeys, making sure you don't have a broken trace. See the schematics.

View attachment 855213
Hmm.

Replacing the second POKEY (B3) with an NOS chip (first time I've used this one) does fix the in-game sounds, but the noise in the test screen is still present, and unlike with the original chip, self test is now throwing an error (P) for that POKEY slot.

So on the one hand, the game works. On the other, something may be hinkey with this replacement chip.
 
Only other outstanding issue, this distortion in the middle of the spiderweb.


Notable, the HV cage does not have a cover (that's how I found it).
 
Swap the Pokey chips with each other. You should not have any static sounds during test mode. This is a weird issue.

Also, try manually erasing the EAROM, in test mode. Erase scores and stats. The EAROM can mess with things, which I've seen when converting Gravitar to BW. (Some sounds in test mode won't be right if it isn't manually erased, and you can get EQP errors.) I have no idea why this happens, but it's repeatable. I supposed you could also try just removing the EAROM too, just as another test.

For the HV, all BW's have some wiggle and flicker in the picture. It's hard to see exactly how bad yours is from the video. But you can hide some of it by slightly detuning the focus, which will make the vectors a little fatter, but more smooth. When you have it perfectly sharp, and you don't have an HV cover, you can see the half-pixel of noise, basically between phosphor lines of the tube. But tweaking the focus a hair off of center will smooth it out.

Also, on the blue grid pic a few posts up, your X and Y linearity need to be tweaked. These adjust the size, but only for the outer 3" or so of the tube. You want to adjust XLIN and YLIN so the blue squares are the same size across both the horizontal and vertical directions of the tube. You can see in the pic that the outer squares are a little smaller than the ones in the middle, both vertically and horizontally. Note that you'll also probably need to dial the XSIZE and YSIZE down a little, to compensate for the overall size, after you adjust the linearity.
 
Swap the Pokey chips with each other. You should not have any static sounds during test mode. This is a weird issue.

Also, try manually erasing the EAROM, in test mode. Erase scores and stats. The EAROM can mess with things, which I've seen when converting Gravitar to BW. (Some sounds in test mode won't be right if it isn't manually erased, and you can get EQP errors.) I have no idea why this happens, but it's repeatable. I supposed you could also try just removing the EAROM too, just as another test.

For the HV, all BW's have some wiggle and flicker in the picture. It's hard to see exactly how bad yours is from the video. But you can hide some of it by slightly detuning the focus, which will make the vectors a little fatter, but more smooth. When you have it perfectly sharp, and you don't have an HV cover, you can see the half-pixel of noise, basically between phosphor lines of the tube. But tweaking the focus a hair off of center will smooth it out.

Also, on the blue grid pic a few posts up, your X and Y linearity need to be tweaked. These adjust the size, but only for the outer 3" or so of the tube. You want to adjust XLIN and YLIN so the blue squares are the same size across both the horizontal and vertical directions of the tube. You can see in the pic that the outer squares are a little smaller than the ones in the middle, both vertically and horizontally. Note that you'll also probably need to dial the XSIZE and YSIZE down a little, to compensate for the overall size, after you adjust the linearity.

Swapping the POKEYs, including trying a completely different working POKEY, still results in the static noise, which has been present the whole time I've tested this board (including with the original two failed POKEYs). I've zapped the EAROM several times, no change. I can try pulling the chip (why not?), but as you say, it's a weird issue. That said, the game performance appears to be and sounds fine.

Adjusting Focus was a perfect fix for the vector jitter. Problem resolved, thanks!

Blue grid adjustment, tomorrow. Thanks again...
 
Glad the focus fix worked.

There must be a stuck/broken/bad/shorted line going to one of the Pokeys or something. First step would be to figure out which Pokey is controlling that sound, which you can do by just removing each Pokey to isolate it. Then focus on toning lines out, and checking for shorts.

One thing would be to make sure a socket isn't bad. So tone out each pin (on the *parts* side, where each pin enters the package) to a trace on the board, or a connected pin of another chip, to make sure there isn't a broken pin under the socket. Also, test for shorts between adjacent pins, and the control traces (see schematic pic I posted earlier).

Also, for shits and giggles, sanity check all dips. Make sure that turning all dips on both banks on and off registers on the test screen. If not, that might give another clue.

Also, what does this board have for ROMs? Are they original/factory-stickered, or hand-burned? Do you have the ability to read them with a reader?
 
Glad the focus fix worked.

There must be a stuck/broken/bad/shorted line going to one of the Pokeys or something. First step would be to figure out which Pokey is controlling that sound, which you can do by just removing each Pokey to isolate it. Then focus on toning lines out, and checking for shorts.

One thing would be to make sure a socket isn't bad. So tone out each pin (on the *parts* side, where each pin enters the package) to a trace on the board, or a connected pin of another chip, to make sure there isn't a broken pin under the socket. Also, test for shorts between adjacent pins, and the control traces (see schematic pic I posted earlier).

Also, for shits and giggles, sanity check all dips. Make sure that turning all dips on both banks on and off registers on the test screen. If not, that might give another clue.

Also, what does this board have for ROMs? Are they original/factory-stickered, or hand-burned? Do you have the ability to read them with a reader?

It's a factory conversion. Has all the hallmarks you've noted previously, including the stickers on the ROM chips.
 
Do you have a burner? It might be worth manually verifying the ROMs, in this case, just as a sanity check.

I can give you the checksums if you don't have them.
 
I wouldn't go THAT far, but after some years of trial and error I am getting somewhat better at it.

Controls are working in all four directions, leaf switches needed some cleaning and tweaking… but I'm not able to get diagonal motion on either stick, so they clearly need more TLC.

But I'm a lot closer to being done than I was this morning, so….
Tweaking, not twerking, right?
 
Okay, we're getting close. Monitor is close to being dialed in. There's a bit of convergence issue in the upper left corner; the tube had 4 convergence strips attached when I got it, a couple of them had fallen off over time and the others came loose when I washed the tube. Fortunately I had pictures, and re-attached them as best I could see where to, but I obviously missed at least one spot. Something that I can continue to fine-tune.

View attachment 855200View attachment 855201View attachment 855202

Audio is off for a couple of sounds: fire and ownship killed. There's also a constant static/thrust sound on the main test screen (first screen pictured above) which shouldn't be there for Black Widow.

The static / thrust sound could be a bad 4016 switch. Check your 4016's in the signal path.
 
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