mikemolang
Member
Hi,
I recently bought an 1974 Electra UFO Chase video game. I gave it a good cleaning, reseated the connectors, and checked the fuses (none were blow). When I finally powered it on I was able to play the game blind, but there was no video.
My first level of troubleshooting revealed that the wires that carried the video signal from the main board to the monitor were disconnected. I connected them, got a garbled image on the screen, and proceeded to adjust the monitor's horizontal and vertical pots. I was able to get a very distorted and ghosted image on screen, but far from playable.
I then hooked up a known good video source to the monitor to determine if the problem was in the video source or the monitor. With very little effort I was able to use the same adjustment knobs and get a very reasonable image on the monitor. Thus, the problem seems to be in the video source.
I reattached the game's video source to the monitor and without changing the pots, the image on screen is attached. NOTE: This is a B&W game and monitor. The blue color, planets, and stars are all the result of a film overlay, not the video image. You can also watch a video of the monitor by searching for "Elektra UFO Chase Video Problem" on YouTube.
So, now I need to figure out where the video source is coming up short. I have the manual and schematics, but video is very new to me. (I am an electromechanical guy).
Any thoughts?
Best,
Mike
I recently bought an 1974 Electra UFO Chase video game. I gave it a good cleaning, reseated the connectors, and checked the fuses (none were blow). When I finally powered it on I was able to play the game blind, but there was no video.
My first level of troubleshooting revealed that the wires that carried the video signal from the main board to the monitor were disconnected. I connected them, got a garbled image on the screen, and proceeded to adjust the monitor's horizontal and vertical pots. I was able to get a very distorted and ghosted image on screen, but far from playable.
I then hooked up a known good video source to the monitor to determine if the problem was in the video source or the monitor. With very little effort I was able to use the same adjustment knobs and get a very reasonable image on the monitor. Thus, the problem seems to be in the video source.
I reattached the game's video source to the monitor and without changing the pots, the image on screen is attached. NOTE: This is a B&W game and monitor. The blue color, planets, and stars are all the result of a film overlay, not the video image. You can also watch a video of the monitor by searching for "Elektra UFO Chase Video Problem" on YouTube.
So, now I need to figure out where the video source is coming up short. I have the manual and schematics, but video is very new to me. (I am an electromechanical guy).
Any thoughts?
Best,
Mike


