Fixing my Tempest K6100

bongoben

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I had another thread started but it was a bit of a freak out as I had just picked up the Tempest and was concerned because the monitor was acting up. I wanted to start a new, more organized thread to document fixing this and to get pointers along the way.

So, the story goes that I picked up a Tempest about a week ago. It played great at the seller's house, loaded it up in the back of my van and got it home. When I powered it up after I got it home all I was getting was a vertical line up the middle of the monitor. I found that if I wiggled the top card edge connector that plugs into the game pcb I could get the full screen back. Got the monitor size/shape adjusted so it looked good but I was getting a some pincushioning in the top and bottom. But the game played so I left it as is.

I played a few games over the next couple days until two days ago when I played the game for about 20 minutes, went to find something in our basement storage and came back and played a game of Mario Bros. Sometime during my MB game the Tempest screen apparently went black. It still coined up and made game sounds and I could hear the monitor making "raster" sounds at the back of the cab though the spot killer LED is lit. In the past couple days I've done a lot of reading as this is my first vector monitor to work on. Alejandromad had previously worked on this chassis and installed new transistors and the LV2000.

I read on a K6100 flowchart (http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_VAtari7.html#VATARI_001) that the first thing I should try is turning up the brightness control on the HV pcb. I assume that is the "screen" knob on what I would call the flyback (although I've been told it's not actually a flyback on vector monitors). In doing that I found out that I now have a horizontal line running across the middle of the monitor. You can see the colors moving and changing in that line so something is still happening. The next step asks if I see a dot in the middle of the screen. I assume this indicates that the spot killer is active and has shut down everything except the Z-axis(?). Anyways, since I see a line instead of a dot I would think the answer to the "do you see a dot" question would be "no".

Before I go any further I am going to do 2 things.

1) I'm going to spend some times looking at the wire connectors at the pcb since previously that changed things on the monitor. It's possible I have a broken wire or a pin that isn't making good contact.

2) I'm going to pull the chassis and do a search for any cracked solder joints. I already looked over the game pcb and did not see anything suspicious.

I'll leave it at that and report back with what I find in the wire connector and/or deflection pcb solder joints. Unless someone has an idea of something else I should look at first.

Lots of writing... I'll leave it at that.
 
Well, we've been at my parents all day today but I had to run home to feed the dogs and let them out so I had about half an hour while they ate. Decided to start with the wire harness. I'm still getting the single line horizontally across the monitor.

The top wire harness I noticed two things. One of the pins (believe it was Video Gnd) on the "top" connector was bent in pretty far. I pulled that out, bent it out a bit and reinstalled it. Also noticed the bottom +5 Return line (pin Z) the wire was completely pulled out of the pin so I reinstalled that. I also noticed there were 2 of the female pins on the monitor connector that were getting pushed out so I pushed them back in. Aaaand, no change with the monitor. I did notice though that when I wiggled that top harness connector on the pcb that it switches between the horizontal line and a single spot on the monitor. So unfortunately it looks like the pins are definitely part of the issue. I must say I'm really not looking forward to going through every pin on this harness. I don't mind working on molex connectors but card edge connectors annoy me. It looks like the pins on the game pcb were touched up at one point and considering there are El Dorado tags on the pcb from the late 90's I'm guessing they did the work (were they around in the 90's?). So... first order of business is I need to order some more card edge connector pins as I realized I have two in my stash and that's it. I also need to spend some time with the chassis.
 
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The first thing you need to do is remove all old solder and re-flow all of the connector pins.
After that you need to look at the doide drops across all of the transistors. Confirm that all wires that are ment to attach to transistors have a good solder joints.
 
The first thing you need to do is remove all old solder and re-flow all of the connector pins.
After that you need to look at the doide drops across all of the transistors. Confirm that all wires that are ment to attach to transistors have a good solder joints.

Awesome... thank you thank you thank you. I'll do that. Pointers and recommendations are always appreciated.

The more I've been reading the more I am realizing that this is more than likely a pcb issue instead of a monitor issue. Could be the connector pins. Could be the wire harness connectors. Could be the pots. So I think, after I do what you just mentioned, I'm going to put the following order in to Bob Roberts:

Atari "Big Blue" Capacitor - $12.50
Atari Tempest PCB Replacement Pot Kit (8) - $12.00
Tempest PCB Cap Kit - $7.50
2x MC1495 (SG1495) - $9.00
22/44 Common on Bally/Midway games - $6.00
15/30 Common on Atari games - $5.00

The Big Blue I just feel like I should replace because who knows how old this one is. The PCB Pot Kit and PCB Cap Kit because it's worth the little bit of cash to make sure those aren't the issue. The MC1495's because I read that these will fix the pincushion problem. And the two wire harness connectors to re-pin the pcb connectors completely. If after doing what you mentioned and then (if that doesn't fix it) doing everything in this order from Bob Roberts I'm still having issues then I'll move on to ordering the repair kit for the monitor. Does this make sense?
 
Id get the 6100 cap kit with additional parts and an LV2000 and that should fix you up. Definatley reflow, or at least check all the header pins. Id bet you blew the LV section on the deflection board. Seems like the when the HV sections caps go bad it draws more juice then Q101/Q100 can handle. The harness connectors IMHO are alot of work, and Id only replace them if they are a continual problem, or if they are burnt. Big blue is an easy preventative maintenance item, although admittedly, I havent done it on any of mine that havent gone bad..;-)
 
Id get the 6100 cap kit with additional parts and an LV2000 and that should fix you up. Definatley reflow, or at least check all the header pins. Id bet you blew the LV section on the deflection board. Seems like the when the HV sections caps go bad it draws more juice then Q101/Q100 can handle. The harness connectors IMHO are alot of work, and Id only replace them if they are a continual problem, or if they are burnt. Big blue is an easy preventative maintenance item, although admittedly, I havent done it on any of mine that havent gone bad..;-)

The LV2000 was already installed awhile back by alejandromad.
 
Before shotgunning your game PCB, I'd try the monitor in another color vector game. You know anyone nearby who has one you can test your monitor in?

Maybe Chad Ellingson over at Buzzy's? I think he's got a Star Wars you could try your 6100 in.
 
Before shotgunning your game PCB, I'd try the monitor in another color vector game. You know anyone nearby who has one you can test your monitor in?

Maybe Chad Ellingson over at Buzzy's? I think he's got a Star Wars you could try your 6100 in.

Nope, Chad sold both of his Star Wars cabs a few weeks back. He hated working on the vector monitors :)

I know nobody in town with a vector game.
 
I've got my Star Wars, but that's a helluva hike for you. If you're in the area, though, I'd be happy to do some testing with you.
 
Before shotgunning your game PCB, I'd try the monitor in another color vector game. You know anyone nearby who has one you can test your monitor in?

Maybe Chad Ellingson over at Buzzy's? I think he's got a Star Wars you could try your 6100 in.

That monitor ran fine for 2 weeks in my BW.

The deflection transistors (all 6 of the 'bottlecap' transistors) were replaced for good measure and the LV was added.

Not impossible that the monitor has an issue but I wouldn't expect moving the PCB edge connector to EVER have resolved an issue that originated on the deflection pcb.

Just sayin'
 
Do you want to try another deflection PCB?
I'll send you a known working one (the one currently in my SW) to test with.

Thanks for the offer. Let me spend a little time on the game before I resort to having things shipped to me. I am with you in that I'm thinking there has to be something up with the game pcb and/or wire harness since wiggling the harness can change what I get on the monitor.
 
Issue #1 found. It's the pots on the game pcb. There is a broken leg on the "Y LIN" pot AND a broken leg on the "X BIP" pot. Time for a Bob Roberts order.
 
I also noticed that on one of the 8 position dip switch banks the plastic divider between 2 switches is broken off. It shouldn't be an issue that I could think of but I'd rather just fix it than have to deal with it later. Possibly a stupid question but will any old 8 position dip switch bank (i.e. this one: http://therealbobroberts.net/dip8.jpg) work on a Tempest pcb?
 
Well, tonight I pulled the game pcb and power supply unit. Cleaned up the power supply assembly and installed a new big blue. Replaced all the caps and pots on the game pcb as well as the new 8-bank dip switch unit to replace the broken one that was in there. Got all of that done, threw the pcb and power supply back into the game and now all I get is the spot killer. Per the flowchart I found it said to check the voltage at pin 5 of the P900 on the HV pcb. It's supposed to be at 180v, I'm only reading about 170v.

I think next up I'll reflow all of the header pins on the game/aux pcbs and double check my work on the caps and pots although I'm certain there were no issues there. I'll also check all of the solder joints at the transistors on the monitor frame but a quick glance at them looked like everything was fine.
 
This may be an over-simplification but it's my understanding that the "Spot killer" being on = no signals from the game PCB.

I suspect the player 1 and 2 start buttons are either not lit, or lit solid... the game cannot be coined or started... true?
 
This may be an over-simplification but it's my understanding that the "Spot killer" being on = no signals from the game PCB.

I suspect the player 1 and 2 start buttons are either not lit, or lit solid... the game cannot be coined or started... true?

I double checked all of my solder joints and touched everything up. Put the pcb back in the cab and fired it up again. Still just the single spot in the center and the spot killer light is on. Tried coining it up and to a game started so I know the pcb is working. I wiggled the wire harness connector at the pcb again and sure enough, I got the single horizontal line to come back and I can hear chatter in the monitor. The spot killer light is still lit on the chassis but I can see the colors moving around within that thin line. I think the next step is going to be repinning the wire harness. Something isn't making a good connection and even if that's not the entire cause of the issue it's a part of it.

I've got to keep my head up with this one. I hate when a game gives me hell like this... and I know I'm a lot closer to getting this going than some of you guys with project game. I just get frustrated really easily with the electronics side of this hobby. Anyone wanna trade an almost/used-to-be working Tempest in good shape for something else? :)
 
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This may be an over-simplification but it's my understanding that the "Spot killer" being on = no signals from the game PCB.

I suspect the player 1 and 2 start buttons are either not lit, or lit solid... the game cannot be coined or started... true?

Not trying to jack your thread, but I have a tempest in a very similar situation and have been following your progress before I placed an order with Bob R. for parts. :)

It started as an intermittent reset issue, where the game would simply reset after a little while. The time between resets got shorter until it would just constantly loop. I took out the board and the solder points on the interconnect headers was cracked in several places, so I removed and re-soldered both connectors. Put the board back in the machine and now nothing at all. Just the spot killer and the player 1 & 2 buttons are solid, as mentioned above.

I've since replaced both edge connectors on the harness with no change. My issue doesn't seem to be the same as yours as mine has nothing on the screen and isn't playing blind, but alejandromad seems to like he may have a clue to my next step.

Thanks
Chris
 
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