Degauss problem or something else?

scottkeen

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In my other thread, I mentioned that I got one of my arcades working, turns out the monitor just needed focus adjustment.

Now wanting to move the arcade to inside the house from the garage, I laid it down and attached caster wheels to it. Never dropped it hard when I laid it down.

I brought it inside and plugged it in -- TERRIBLE! The colors on the left half of the screen are all off, particularly seem to be missing reds. Red objects have a gradient from yellow (incorrect) to orange (incorrect) to red (correct). It's really evident with the red girders in Donkey Kong.

Help! Is this a degaussing problem? Will it correct itself? Can I do something to fix it? Did I break this monitor?

BEFORE I moved the arcade

IMAG0292.jpg


AFTER I moved the arcade
Note the washed-out yellow-orange girders in the left side of the screen.

IMAG0308.jpg
 
yes it will slowly work its self out over time.
the monitor needs to set for 20-30 minutes between each power on so the thermistor cools down and activates the natural degauss circuit in the monitor.

but if you want to speed up the process use a degauss coil or wand.

if you don't have either use a corded electric drill ( NOT A CORDLESS DRILL)
and it will do the same thing. you may need to tale the monitor plexei out to get a better result.

start the wand/coil/drill and work in a circular motion around the face of the tube and slowly work your way away from the tube.

if it is not good enough repeat as needed.

Peace
Buffett
 
Thanks for the reply Buffett.

I found the thread about using a corded drill. What size drill bit do I need to have in it when I'm moving it around? (just kidding)

I tried the corded drill method, but it didn't have any permanent effect. I could see the colors changing (mostly to blue) as I moved the drill around. But it didn't make any permanent change. Maybe because I had the plexiglass on, I couldn't get close enough?

I have the arcade unplugged and per your suggestion will let it sit for 30 minutes before plugging it in. If that doesn't work, I'll let it sit overnight. And if that doesn't work, I'll go buy a degaussing coil (does Home Depot or Lowes carry this? We have very limited selection here in Kona Hawaii)

Thanks and aloha
 
if they don't and probably wont.

try with the plexei/glass off so you can get closer to the tube. and try again.
spin the drill all the way up and give it 4-15 circles as you pull it away still circling the drill.

or get a busted TV from off the street some where. and you can make your own degaussing coil. from the coil that the TV has in it.

its easy just cut the connector off the coil install a SPST switch on it with a 2 prong power cord. wrap the coil in on its self one time and electrical tape it together. plug it in and you have a home made degaussing coil.

flip the switch and give it a wirl. but don't leave it on too long it will get hot and melt the coil/plastic that holds the copper coil.

also try turing the game as you may have a strong earth or magnetic field futching with it from something in the wall messing it up.

hope this helps.

Peace
Buffett
 
Waited 30 mins. Still the same problem.

Removed glass and ran corded drill around it many times in circles. Still same problem.

I don't have a spare TV where I can grab a degaussing coil from.

I'm going to wait overnight now with it unplugged and try again in morning.

I'm getting worried that I broke something, but I really eased it down on it's back when I laid it down. If something is broken, would that explain the washed-out colors?
 
could but i don't think so. i have done that to my games many times wile working on them or moving them.
a good degauss sometimes 3-4 times is what it took.
move it to another part of the room and try again.

is it near the fuse panel or a speaker?? that will do it almost every time.

Peace
Buffett
 
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There is a Bose cube speaker in the ceiling, about 2 feet above the arcade. There is a ceiling fan about 4 feet from the arcade.

I've moved the arcade around a couple of times, and every time the colors change, from reds being washed out, to a green/gray background instead of black, to now there is a blue glow from the bottom right.

Getting frustrating. I started monkeying with the other POTS and now the colors are way, way off. I need some help getting things to back the way were.
 
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I have a Centipede machine that would do the same thing if I moved it around, and the problem was solved with a degaussing coil. I had tried the drill trick a few times with no luck, so I went ahead and bought a regular degaussing coil and fixed it in 5 seconds. Hopefully you can find a cheap one!
 
just center all the pots that will get you the best starting point. and usually it will look correct. that's what i do with all my monitors after a cap kit and 99.9% of them i never touched after that. they looked great.

yes you defiantly have some magnetic fields working on that monitor in the house. it may be that it will take a real coil to get it back looking correct.
after that don't move it. setting a monitor down on its side/back it will mess it up every time. so when you moved it that is what happened.

Peace
Buffett
 
just center all the pots that will get you the best starting point. and usually it will look correct. that's what i do with all my monitors after a cap kit and 99.9% of them i never touched after that. they looked great.

These are the "cut-off" and "drive" pots for Red Green Blue that we're talking about. I tried centering them and the colors are all whacked out. I've been messing with this for a couple of hours now, and I just can't get it right.

For starters, I don't know what "cut-off" and "drive" mean. I've tried searching and googling, but can't find any answers.

please help
 
just put all 5 pots in their center position and leave it. until you degauss it with a coil or wand. adjusting the pots will not help your problem.

the drive controls the intensity of the guns and the bios/cut-off pots are a smoothing kinda control it blends the colors together. at least it does that for me.

but till you degauss it it wont matter. set them and leave them for now.

Peace
Buffett
 
I may have more than just a degauss problem.

I put the 6 pots into center position (RGB cutoff and drive pots), and moved the cabinet away from the ceiling speaker and ceiling fan.

I turned the arcade on, and the colors were all good, degaussing cleared up -- great. But there was some bleeding of the red, so I went to turn down the red cutoff pot, I barely touched it, and all the colors went out of whack again. Anything red went to black.

I banged the side of the cabinet out of frustration, and you could see the colors shift to normal then back to out of whack. Something loose or cracked maybe?

Hitting the sack now, it's 3:15 am in Hawaii. Thanks for all your suggestions and help, and I hope you guys can continue to help me with this. I really want to get this arcade working.
 
i think it is the transistors on the neck board. they probably have cold solder joints. i would re-flow them as wile you have your iron hot.

another thing is did you re-flow the input header on the chassis they can get cold solder joints also.

Peace
Buffett
 
Had the same issue with my DK after moved a few times. Degaussing wand solved my problem. Now it looks mint!
 
Hey Scott,

That doesn't look like any sort of electronic or adjustment problem to me... it looks like it needs to be degaussed.

The built-in degaussing coil & circuit on a monitor only operates very briefly and very weakly each time the monitor is turned on from cold. This isn't going to cure itself in 30 mins or even overnight. It took the monitor in one of my cabinets perhaps a week of being turned on (from being cold) twice a day before it fully cleared up.

A degaussing coil or wand is a pretty specialized tool. They're hard to find on the mainland, so I'd expect them to be harder to come by on the Big Island. Unless you know other arcade game collectors, or TV repairmen, you'll likely need to order one online.

I made one by salvaging the coil out of a discarded CRT TV. I have to use it fast (a few of seconds before it heats up), but it works fine. I need to do what someone else mentioned, and wire a light bulb in series to limit the current...

Good luck. Unless your monitor took a jolt (which might have bent the metal screen inside it), degaussing should fix it.
 
I can say with a high-degree of certainty that there is some kind of force field in that corner of my house where I want to put the arcade which is causing the degaussing problem.

If I move the arcade to the hallway, there is no degaussing problem at all (I'm still having the red color problems mentioned in another thread, but I believe that's unrelated, a separate problem).

But if I move the arcade back to the corner, then the degaussing problem comes back immediately.

What's in that corner? Well, there's a Bose Acoustimass cube speaker mounted to the ceiling, about 1' above the arcade. There's a ceiling fan (doesn't matter if it's on or off, same effect) about 4' from the arcade. There's some low voltage A/V and ethernet cables running in the ceiling. The things wired into that same circuit include the ceiling fan, halogen ceiling lights, a rope light, a small microwave (not on, just plugged in), a mini refrigerator, an LCD HDTV, and that's it.

I highly suspect the ceiling fan. When I move the arcade to the hallway, about 10' away from the ceiling fan, there is no degaussing problem. However, I'm using a different circuit in the hallway, so the next test would be to run an extension cord from the corner outlet to the arcade in the hallway to eliminate the possibility that it's something on the electrical outlet circuit in the corner that's causing the degaussing problem.

If there is some kind of magnetic force field in that corner, will the arcade correct itself either eventually or be cleared up with a degaussing coil? Or will it always have this problem in that corner?
 
if it does it that bad i would not keep any game in that area with in 10 feet of it.

those kinds fields can damage a game beyond repair.
it could magnetize the metal in the game and it could possibly spread to other games near it.

don't risk it that's my advice.
games and parts are hard to find over there.

Peace
Buffett
 
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