Can't seem to get the red out of the picture

GoldenAge

Well-known member

Donor 2011
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
1,070
Reaction score
41
Location
Vancouver, Washington
Hi,

I have a Turbo Out Run (convert from Out Run) that I picked up recently. I'm not sure which monitor is in there, I've never really worked on them at all, so I'm not sure how to identify it. It does appear to be the original unit, the diagram for the pots on the inside wall of the cabinet does match the physical layout of the pots on the monitor.

The monitor has a very red-tinge to it. I've adjusted all the pots on the chassis and the neckboard as well as the 2 on the flyback (picture and contrast I think they're labelled), and no matter what I do, I can't get it to stop tending towards a red tinge. I have the 2 red pots turned nearly all the way down, if I put them up at all the screen just washes out with red. It looks nearly ok, but when I go to another game and come back to it I can tell right away it's too red, the whites are more of a pink, and the colors that are supposed to be red (like the car) are not really vibrant, I think because there's not as profound a level of contrast due to the other colors also having red in them. I've spent a lot of time patiently adjusting all the color pots, trying different starting points, etc, I always get it back to where it is now, which is as good as I can go. I found a good video someone linked to for adjusting color, it was very helpful, but again, I just can't get it quite right. Too much red!!

Is this something that might be remedied with doing a cap kit? I've not done one yet, but if this problem is likely to be fixed by that, then I will make this one my first attempt.

Or is it possible the monitor is just "gone"?

Or is there some other thing that might be to blame for this? Or something with the blue and green that might be relatively deficient?

Any advice as to direction would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Ryan
 
test the tube with a rejuver, most likely you have a shorted gun

For this scenario - you can also disconnect the video input plug, turn up the brightness until you get a white screen, then see if it looks red tinted.

And it helps if you mention the monitor model when asking for help...
 
I don't have access to a rejuvinator, I thought I'd pick one up, but... Wow, they're not cheap!

I'll update once I have worked out what model the monitor is, I'll also see if the screen looks red with the inputs disconnected as suggested.

Thanks,
Ryan
 
I watched this series on youtube, it was very insightful, at least for me, who's never even considered this stuff prior to today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5yNKiEtYos

Based on what I picked up from watching the guy use his rejuvinator, my symptoms do appear to be a problem in the green gun. I also checked on ebay and saw a few B&K units for a much more reasonable price than the brand-new ones I found on my initial search. I will still do the check to make sure the game board isn't causing the issue, but now I'm thinking it might be good to have one of these devices... Or keep paying local techs who, to be honest, really don't want to work on games from the '80s and let me know this by charging crazy amounts for doing work they obviously take no pride in at all, which is becoming increasingly insubstainable as the number of games in my collection continues to multiply.
 
Well, live and learn... I managed to find a nice balance and got the picture looking just about the way it should, albeit a little darker than it could be. What I was doing wrong before was that I was starting my color adjustments with the red pots, turning them up as far as I could without bleeding the colors (going from left to right on the pots on the neckboard), this invariably led to having too much red and not enough green. This time I put everything back to center and started with the green and brought everything up a little at a time versus one color all the way up, then the next, etc... Total difference in results, that's for sure, the test pattern looks great, the game itself looks great, it looks the only real problem with the monitor is me not knowing how to adjust it. I guess there's a bit of technique involved in manipulating the color settings... I learned something, in any case.

I just ordered a cap kit for the monitor (which is a K7300 series), this will be my first time doing that, hopefully that'll make it a little brighter, but if not, it's definitely playable and not unpleasant to look at as is.

Thanks very much for all the responses.
 
Back
Top Bottom