How to bring up a 6100 color vector monitor (A PDF guide)

Andy, did you ever put in the suggestions, fixes, tweaks, etc. you mentioned in this thread? I'd like to see an updated copy as I have more K610x to go through, just in case you have any checks/steps I don't normally go through. This is especially true since most of my K6100 are later gens.

Scott C.
 
Andy, did you ever put in the suggestions, fixes, tweaks, etc. you mentioned in this thread? I'd like to see an updated copy as I have more K610x to go through, just in case you have any checks/steps I don't normally go through. This is especially true since most of my K6100 are later gens.

Scott C.

No, not yet. But I actually have been thinking about it lately, as it's been a while, and I do have a list of maybe a dozen edits and additions I could add. But it's all relatively minor stuff.

There's nothing really wrong with what's in there (aside from a couple of typos.) There's one spot where I say there's 5 fuses, when it's actually four. And I said P500 in one place, when it should be P900. But other than that what's in there is still good enough to get most people up and running.

The differences in board revs really doesn't affect anything. I did consider adding a section for setting the HV overvoltage pot on the later rev HV's, but that's already in the 6100 manual. (Or you can just turn the pot all the way to the left, which basically disables the feature, and makes it into an older rev HV.) But that's about it.
 
Curious one, probably tron guy being a clown. I am testing all frame-mounted xsistors the way andrewb indicates. One this one only, on the right side of the frame, I don't get the proper readings.

The other 5 I do.

Every wire has continuity to the red connector.

I have tried 3 different new 3792s all won't give me the diode good test. (In circuit) out of circuit they all test good. Worth noting the black lead on blue wire, red on the 2 other wires is the test for 3792s. It works for the others. 3716s red lead on the green wire, black on the other 2.

I am even just doing diode test on the actual unit, bypassing the wires, no dice.

Oddly, if I put the black lead on the white wire of this xsistor and red lead on blue, And the purple, it tests properly. So either the xsistor is installed upside down, or the xsistor holder is wired incorrectly? This holder was changed previously.

I cant get into my 6100s right now to check.

Ha another quick look makes me think they reversed blue and white wires on the holder.

Another edit: by golly that was it. The last clown to work on this installed the new xsistor holder incorrectly.

Andrews's guide saves another one. Using this process saved me hours and hours and many blown parts.
 

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Curious one, probably tron guy being a clown. I am testing all frame-mounted xsistors the way andrewb indicates. One this one only, on the right side of the frame, I don't get the proper readings.

The other 5 I do.

Every wire has continuity to the red connector.

I have tried 3 different new 3792s all won't give me the diode good test. (In circuit) out of circuit they all test good. Worth noting the black lead on blue wire, red on the 2 other wires is the test for 3792s. It works for the others. 3716s red lead on the green wire, black on the other 2.

I am even just doing diode test on the actual unit, bypassing the wires, no dice.

Oddly, if I put the black lead on the white wire of this xsistor and red lead on blue, And the purple, it tests properly. So either the xsistor is installed upside down, or the xsistor holder is wired incorrectly? This holder was changed previously.

I cant get into my 6100s right now to check.

Ha another quick look makes me think they reversed blue and white wires on the holder.

Another edit: by golly that was it. The last clown to work on this installed the new xsistor holder incorrectly.

Andrews's guide saves another one. Using this process saved me hours and hours and many blown parts.


Glad you figured it out!

And this is a perfect example of why you don't want to replace parts when you can just keep/fix/clean the original ones. I say it all the time here, any time you touch an iron to something, you run the risk of screwing it up and not noticing (and/or causing a headache for the next guy).

Nice work.
 
So after getting a partial 6100, I decided to search cuz I knew somebody had said some goodies and of course it turned out to be andrewb. Thinking metaphorically raising a 6100 If it's like pulling a ship that's run aground, then mine is at the same depths olas the Titanic. I have to raise it ever so slowly in order to prevent it from having some catastrophic failure. I will say if I had that really back up the train and basically just clean the entire monitor especially the board has before I got it it had been sitting outside for not too long but it looked like I had pulled it from the bottom of the ocean. I'm going to try to take this entire PDF and all the related posts very seriously. I mean I've worked on plenty of monitors but it's been a long long time since I've worked on a vector and I've never truly worked on a color vector
 
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@andrewb have you thought about adding things to check if anything doesn't come up properly?

Specifically, I lost +26v on my Tempest (faint image in lower right corner). My LV2000 tests fine as long as I haven't hooked anything extra up, but when I add neck plus bottlecaps, the LED goes out after a moment and the +26v drops to 0. Bottlecaps test fine with your diode checks but I've seen comments that sometimes they'll test fine that way, but fail under load. I'm thinking my next step is to find out if I can only hook up one connector at a time to the deflection board to narrow in on the problem. Not sure yet if that's safe to do.

Back to my question: wondering if you might consider adding steps for finding whatever is causing the LV2000 to turn off one of the voltages.
 
FWIW - had one virtually identical to this a couple of months ago and it ended up being a cold solder joint on Pin 1 of Plug P100 - supplying the 33.8V to Q102.

Moral of the story - check for cold solder joints on the headers.

1728873851721.png
 
FWIW - had one virtually identical to this a couple of months ago and it ended up being a cold solder joint on Pin 1 of Plug P100 - supplying the 33.8V to Q102.

Moral of the story - check for cold solder joints on the headers.

View attachment 774794

You nailed it, buddy! At first I didn't spot the cold solder joint there, but I found one on pin one of P600. Thought I had it, but no change. Was thinking about reflowing all header pins, but then I spent more time looking and saw one on P100 pin 1 finally.

Tempest is back! And as an aside, I looooove the sound of 6100 chatter. So beautiful!
 
@andrewb have you thought about adding things to check if anything doesn't come up properly?

I considered it, but decided against it.

The primary use case of the guide (and what motivated its creation) is people installing refurbed boards they've gotten from me. So from the guide's perspective, the boards are assumed to be good. The doc is really meant to verify the rest of the system (frame transistors/sockets/wiring, as well as the game board's XY outputs), i.e., all of the other parts of the system that can have issues and result in monitor damage, that are NOT the monitor boards. If people do run into issues during installation with the guide, I prefer they PM me, and I'll walk them though it.

The guide can also be used somewhat as a diagnostic tool (as you've done), which can give you info about where to look when things aren't right. But it was never meant to be a repair guide.

I've thought about writing a more comprehensive repair doc, but it would end up being a small book. If people are looking for repair info, there's plenty already written in threads here. And folks can always ask, as you did. Every case can be different, so I'd rather troubleshoot case by case, as these monitors are not very forgiving to 'messing around' as a troubleshooting strategy.

Ultimately a lot of issues come down to bad connections, broken traces, cracked solder joints, and other things that are ultimately more mechanical than electrical. (Though those mechanical issues will often result in strings of blown components, many of which you often can't see.)

You actually were lucky in this case that it was something simple that didn't result in more damage, as a cracked joint or broken trace on the wrong header pin will often rail that deflection amp, and take out frame transistors and other stuff, including sometimes the LV board. But some bad connections can be benign and not cause a cascade of other damage, as was the case here.

Anyway, glad others jumped in. That's what this place is about. :)
 
I considered it, but decided against it.

The primary use case of the guide (and what motivated its creation) is people installing refurbed boards they've gotten from me. So from the guide's perspective, the boards are assumed to be good. The doc is really meant to verify the rest of the system (frame transistors/sockets/wiring, as well as the game board's XY outputs), i.e., all of the other parts of the system that can have issues and result in monitor damage, that are NOT the monitor boards. If people do run into issues during installation with the guide, I prefer they PM me, and I'll walk them though it.

The guide can also be used somewhat as a diagnostic tool (as you've done), which can give you info about where to look when things aren't right. But it was never meant to be a repair guide.

I've thought about writing a more comprehensive repair doc, but it would end up being a small book. If people are looking for repair info, there's plenty already written in threads here. And folks can always ask, as you did. Every case can be different, so I'd rather troubleshoot case by case, as these monitors are not very forgiving to 'messing around' as a troubleshooting strategy.

Ultimately a lot of issues come down to bad connections, broken traces, cracked solder joints, and other things that are ultimately more mechanical than electrical. (Though those mechanical issues will often result in strings of blown components, many of which you often can't see.)

You actually were lucky in this case that it was something simple that didn't result in more damage, as a cracked joint or broken trace on the wrong header pin will often rail that deflection amp, and take out frame transistors and other stuff, including sometimes the LV board. But some bad connections can be benign and not cause a cascade of other damage, as was the case here.

Anyway, glad others jumped in. That's what this place is about. :)
the context of how it's titled "how to bring up" suddenly makes a lot more sense now LOL

it does have a lot of useful diagnostic information though. I combined your words and the B&W vector FAQ along with better testing procedures to fix these better. you probably think I'm a complete idiot with all the inquiries I've sent your way over the years.
 
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