How to converge a monitor

Glad to hear that you got it figured out. Sorry to hear that you got bitten.

Buy some of Bob's monitor adjustment tools on your next order. :)
 
Glad to hear that you got it figured out. Sorry to hear that you got bitten.

Buy some of Bob's monitor adjustment tools on your next order. :)

Will do, and I might need a new monitor now. :( Had my game running in the other room like I usually do, and I suddenly heard a loud screeching sound, almost like a record being scratched. I ran into the room and unplugged the power supply as i saw no picture on the screen and saw heavy arcing in the back of the flyback area/neck.

I am literally shaking right now. I might have just lost my perfectly adjusted monitor. :( :( :( :(
 
Will do, and I might need a new monitor now. :( Had my game running in the other room like I usually do, and I suddenly heard a loud screeching sound, almost like a record being scratched. I ran into the room and unplugged the power supply as i saw no picture on the screen and saw heavy arcing in the back of the flyback area/neck.

I am literally shaking right now. I might have just lost my perfectly adjusted monitor. :( :( :( :(

You may have a bad flyback. Or you may have damaged something when you got bitten earlier tonight. My best advice: shelve it for the night. Sleep on it. Tomorrow come back when you're not so shaken up and won't be prone to make mistakes when dealing with it.

That would be hard for me to do but it's good advice. :)
 
You may have a bad flyback. Or you may have damaged something when you got bitten earlier tonight. My best advice: shelve it for the night. Sleep on it. Tomorrow come back when you're not so shaken up and won't be prone to make mistakes when dealing with it.

That would be hard for me to do but it's good advice. :)

Haha. Thanks. Got to say, the adrenaline rush right now is keeping me awake. I ensured the tube was discharged (this chassis does a great job of discharging on its own, but in case i fried something I didn't want to risk it) and there were no sparks/crackles. I then took the monitor chassis out and inspected it. i don't see a single bulging/leaking/odd looking capacitor, or charred resistor, etc. The parts and solder side both look absolutely beautiful.

I then took a close look at the neck of the CRT Tube. i don't see any signs of damage there. no hairline cracks are visible, and the getter still looks silver. So I believe the tube is good.

I then tested the HOT and getting 0.490 on each side, so the HOT is good with no shorts. When I grabbed the flyback, however, i noticed that the C-shaped section of it that merges with the main tube body was VERY loose. When installing it, the center part was firm and tight. Now it's basically falling apart. So this new flyback i got was a dud and is now dead. Thankfully, I don't think anything else went with it. The fuse is still good, the HOT is still good, and I think if the flyback took out anything it would be the HOT.

It's now 3:40 AM, so i'm going to head to bed and do some more testing tomorrow and remove that flyback. Will order another one, but likely won't get it until the weekend, or early next week. At least it's super easy to install the flyback on these chassis. Will also get a chance to test the HOT out of circuit as I need to remove the bracket it's attached to and it soldered into the board in order to get the flyback out.

So right now, i think I'm good and still have a monitor to use. it's just the flyback I got was apparently a complete dud, and finally just crapped out on me.
 
Haha. Thanks. Got to say, the adrenaline rush right now is keeping me awake. I ensured the tube was discharged (this chassis does a great job of discharging on its own, but in case i fried something I didn't want to risk it) and there were no sparks/crackles. I then took the monitor chassis out and inspected it. i don't see a single bulging/leaking/odd looking capacitor, or charred resistor, etc. The parts and solder side both look absolutely beautiful.

I then took a close look at the neck of the CRT Tube. i don't see any signs of damage there. no hairline cracks are visible, and the getter still looks silver. So I believe the tube is good.

I then tested the HOT and getting 0.490 on each side, so the HOT is good with no shorts. When I grabbed the flyback, however, i noticed that the C-shaped section of it that merges with the main tube body was VERY loose. When installing it, the center part was firm and tight. Now it's basically falling apart. So this new flyback i got was a dud and is now dead. Thankfully, I don't think anything else went with it. The fuse is still good, the HOT is still good, and I think if the flyback took out anything it would be the HOT.

It's now 3:40 AM, so i'm going to head to bed and do some more testing tomorrow and remove that flyback. Will order another one, but likely won't get it until the weekend, or early next week. At least it's super easy to install the flyback on these chassis. Will also get a chance to test the HOT out of circuit as I need to remove the bracket it's attached to and it soldered into the board in order to get the flyback out.

So right now, i think I'm good and still have a monitor to use. it's just the flyback I got was apparently a complete dud, and finally just crapped out on me.

I'm curious as to where you got it from?
 
I got the flyback from Twisted Quarter. Again, I don't blame them or put any fault on them as there are just times where a part fails during mass production that isn't picked up until later.

Anyway, I tested everything on the board, and the only issue is indeed the flyback, so that's a huge relief.

Just wish it didn't go on me as i just got my blank EPROMs to upgrade the version on the game PCB and wanted to see the end result of my work. I was able to just play the game blind, however, and could hear it start up so at least i know it works. Heh.
 
I got the flyback from Twisted Quarter. Again, I don't blame them or put any fault on them as there are just times where a part fails during mass production that isn't picked up until later.

Anyway, I tested everything on the board, and the only issue is indeed the flyback, so that's a huge relief.

Just wish it didn't go on me as i just got my blank EPROMs to upgrade the version on the game PCB and wanted to see the end result of my work. I was able to just play the game blind, however, and could hear it start up so at least i know it works. Heh.

It's going to look beautiful when you're done. You just need to be patient a little while longer. :)
 
It's going to look beautiful when you're done. You just need to be patient a little while longer. :)

Many thanks. I'm taking a ton of pictures so that when the entire cabinet is done, I can put together a thread here in the restoration section so others can learn from my experience too. Just don't want to start it yet as when I do that, I tend to forget to update and then it all gets lost in the weeds.

The entire project seems very intimidating at first, but when you break it down, everything is just simple logic. On or off. Working or not working. If you simplify it like that and break it down into separate components, it's all easy. :)
 
I read this before I tried to converge the WG6100 monitor in my Tempest. It was very helpful to get an idea of what to do. I also printed several pages from the monitor manual that described the process in detail.

I've done this twice now and each time it was a pain though the 2nd time went much faster than the 1st. I thought I'd share my experience because its fresh and a little different that what has been described. I have no doubt there are guys who can do it better but what I describe below will work.

With the monitor off, I loosened the screw behind the rings. Be careful. If you accidentally tighten it you could crack the tube. If there is some kind of gunk on the rings to keep them from moving you'll have to remove it. I cut mine off with a razor until the rings would move.

Everyone knows there's a lot of current in these monitors. Unfortunately you need to do the rest while it's running. I wore rubber gloves which may or may not protect you from an HV zap but will definitely protect you from getting shocked by exposed parts you'll repeatedly bump into on the neck board. Just be careful. I tried to always keep one hand out of the back of the monitor so if I got zapped it didn't cross my chest.

Before you start converging, enter test mode and go to the grid screen. Pick any single color and adjust the focus control on the flyback of your 6100. It's possible to focus very finely such that lines are very thin. The manual says to adjust this to get the "optimum screen sharpness possible." I'm going to suggest that a super fine focus is not optimum.

When I got a really fine focus I could see the horizontal lines start to flicker in places. It looked bad. Your mileage may vary but I found that making the focus sharp and then dialing it back just a bit to make the lines thicker made the game look better and also made converging the monitor that much easier. It's your call but don't assume ultra-sharp is better. This is not a high definition monitor.

Having done that...There are 3 sets of rings involved in this. The first set of rings (closest to the front of the tube as you look at it from the back) is purity which insures a good, saturated color.

Per the manual, adjusting purity involves releasing the yoke and moving it forward and backward on the neck to get an ideal setting in the middle. Frankly, I didn't want to do it. I was worried I'd screw something up and not be able to get it back so I skipped this step knowing I could always come back to it later if need be. In some cases you may not be able to get a good result without this step but I was able to.

You can still adjust the purity with the rings even if you don't move the yoke. Just go to the grid screen of squares and (on Tempest) use the spinner to select the red grid. Now rotate the 1st set of rings gradually. What I noticed was that in certain positions the red grid began to look orange and sort of pale. That's not good. You want to rotate the rings until you have a good solid, saturated deep red color. Once you've got that (or if you already have it) you're done. Keep in mind that the drive controls for each color on the neck board also play a role in the color and may need adjustment.

Next I moved on to the 2nd set of rings in the middle. Turn the spinner to select the Red + Blue grid. The goal is to get them to overlap perfectly all across the screen and make purple.

The rings work pretty well to adjust the grids near the center of the screen but slightly less well at the very edges. Fixing the edges, esp. the corners, is called dynamic convergence and involves moving the yoke up and down or right and left adding convergence strips as needed. Just don't worry about the corners for now. Focus mostly on the middle as you work and don't panic if the top right won't quite line up.

According to the manual you should move the two tabs sticking out of the rings further apart or closer together to adjust the vertical convergence. You then rotate them together (at whatever fixed distance you've arrived at) to set the horizontal convergence.

In reality moving the tabs around either singly or together can move the grids both horizontally and vertically depending on where the tabs are at a given moment. I just started with one at 3 o'clock and one at 9 o'clock. I rotated them together at a fixed distance (180 degrees apart) until the center of the screen showed something close to overlap or perhaps even a vertical overlap but not a horizontal or vice versa.

When I got close I would try moving one of the tabs backward or forward a bit. If the result is better keep going. If worse, go back and try the other way or the other tab.

There is no shortcut. You just have to keep making finer adjustments until the bulk of the screen looks like purple overlapping lines.

Once you get a purple grid you've done the hardest part. Next you'll change to the screen that shows all 3 colors (using the spinner on Tempest). Now, if you're lucky, all the lines will already overlap and you'll see a nice white grid. But chances are the green grid is not lined up with the newly converged purple grid. So start working with the 3rd set of rings (closest to the neck board) to move the green grid relative to purple. Be careful not to bump or accidentally grab the rings you just finished working on (the middle ones). I did this a couple times and then you're back to working on the purple before returning to the white.

Again, I started with the rear tabs wherever they were and moved them around together (some fixed distance) until the green came closer to overlapping purple and making white. When it got closer I fine tuned with one tab at a time. You can do it the other way if you prefer. Eventually you'll get it to overlap nicely and produce white.

Once you've got it, switch the test screen off and check the game. If you're happy with the result, don't forget to tighten the screw behind the rings very carefully.
 
My rings came loose on the neck of my Sharp Image monitor and there was no effect on the picture. The colors were sharp and distinct as I move the rings around. The only thing I saw happen was the picture shift a bit as the rings were spread apart. I was hoping to resolve some focus issues along the top edge of the screen, but the rings didn't have any effect. I adjusted the fly back, but couldn't get it all focused sharply. Not sure what to do. I can live with it, but would have been nice to focus completely.
 
Does the voltage supplied to the monitor impact anything when converging? If I use my standalone ISO xformer for power, I have a choice of low or high (~110v or ~130v). If I use my Spy Hunter ISO power output, it'll be around ~122v.

Does this make any difference or is the B+ going to be at a constant level regardless of the AC input?
 
Went down the rabbit hole

Had a good afternoon off to resolve a long standing issue I had with my replacement tube for an MVS. You can still see the issue towards the left side of the screen with a little magenta peaking out where it's not aligned with the green gun. The issue wasn't there all the way the right but kind of in the center of left half so using convergence strips wasn't helpful.

Before, this was much more prominent and I tried to fix it for a couple hours by moving the rings around. I could never quite get it. If I eliminated it on that side it would be on the right hand side of the screen and so I was going back and forth for a while trying to figure this crap out. I started to mess around with the purity rings and that did help things out a bit but when I finally got it converged ok the screen was pushed too far up and I couldn't even get it right with a maxed out v-pos pot. This made me think the yoke wasn't aligned correctly.

Finally I figured it out by loosening the whole yoke and turning down the green all the way on a cross hatch. I could see much easier how the purity rings affected the screen position and that the yoke was unaligned. I removed the wedges from the yoke so it was droopy and I could see that over all it made the red and blue look like long "V" shapes. If I pushed the yoke up it would make the red and blue lines more parallel like "||". In some cases they wouldn't be parrallel until I adjusted the purity rings a bit.

Finally I got everything mostly parallel except for a slight area but it was almost perfect and I probably could get it perfect with some minor yoke movement but I don't want to go down the rabbit-hole again. This is livable and the corners are all converged even except for the very top left! To finish up I converged the red and blue without the green gun on and then turned the green gun on and everything was almost spot on. I the Green/Magenta rings were fine being together and facing straight up and no real adjustment was needed.

I guess the lessons learned were:
A. You have to be patient with this
B. Both the yoke and purity rings are very interrelated when figuring this out and it can really alter the geometry.
C. Cutting out green is a good way to isolate an issue so you're not trying to work with too much at one time.
 

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Thank you Mod from 2010 that took the time to write this up. I just used your instructions and the TPG to greatly improve the static convergence of a tube-swapped 4900 that someone sold me that had convergence issues.

I'd been putting this off for about 4 months because I didn't want to do it but it turned out to be not too bad. Good thing I marked the rings as you suggested; my 1st attempt didn't turn out too well but I nailed it on the 2nd.

The convergence isn't perfect but it's pretty good now. The 4900 still doesn't have the tack sharp picture that my G07 has but it's acceptable....
 
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Thank you OP! I finally improved the convergence on my Donkey Kong Junior after all these years. It's not perfect, but it's evened out and looks pretty good in a photo!

Wade
 

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Thank you OP! I finally improved the convergence on my Donkey Kong Junior after all these years. It's not perfect, but it's evened out and looks pretty good in a photo!

Wade

Wow, Wade, it's been forever since I've seen you around here. Good to see you and glad you tweaked your monitor's convergence!

I finally worked up the nerve and converged my G08 last year and it really helped a lot. It's not perfect but it's much better and I can live with that.
 
Wow, Wade, it's been forever since I've seen you around here. Good to see you and glad you tweaked your monitor's convergence!

I finally worked up the nerve and converged my G08 last year and it really helped a lot. It's not perfect but it's much better and I can live with that.

Thanks. I lurk off and on, search the for sale ads, look for tips on fixing issues as they come up, etc. Lately I've been checking in a few times a week. Just doing some minor tinkering here and there. :)

The Blue on my Mario Bros is a little off around the edges, so I might try it soon since the DK JR went pretty well. Annoying that there's no test pattern on Nintendo games!

Wade
 
Thanks. I lurk off and on, search the for sale ads, look for tips on fixing issues as they come up, etc. Lately I've been checking in a few times a week. Just doing some minor tinkering here and there. :)

The Blue on my Mario Bros is a little off around the edges, so I might try it soon since the DK JR went pretty well. Annoying that there's no test pattern on Nintendo games!

Wade

That's what you have the TPG for! :)
 
Thanks. I lurk off and on, search the for sale ads, look for tips on fixing issues as they come up, etc. Lately I've been checking in a few times a week. Just doing some minor tinkering here and there. :)

The Blue on my Mario Bros is a little off around the edges, so I might try it soon since the DK JR went pretty well. Annoying that there's no test pattern on Nintendo games!

Wade



Glad to hear that there was some Sanyo input here. My Donkey Kong is a bit off on the right side - the blue and the red. I may try to mess around with this, but I have other game coals in the fire right now.

It's been that way for some time, I can live with it, but now I know there might be a way to fix it, so it may be time to get in some more trouble :D
 
I've used this thread a lot over the years, it's been very useful

So the go7 in my Ms. Pac has a rotated screen, it's rotated probably 10 or 15 degrees. I understand that this is a yoke issue, and that I need to rotate it back so that the picture is straight again.

My question is will this mess up the convergence? It is beautifully converged as it is, and if rotating the yoke will mess with that, I won't do it, but I'd like to get it dialed in.
 
I have rotated yokes before a small amount without it messing things up. However....every monitor seems to be a tiny bit different.
Consider what bothers you more. Also, you know that the convergence can be fixed if you mess it up, but only tilting your head is going to fix that rotated screen :)

Make sure the wedges are really glued in there. Clean up the glass around them and add more hot glue. You don't want them moving. Get someone to help you so that you can focus on the yoke and you aren't trying to look at a mirror or something. Just loosen the clamp holding the yoke enough to twist it and give it a go. as long as you don't push/pull the yoke and you should at least be able to get it back to original position.

It's up to you if you want to mark out how far you should turn it (i.e. break out the protractor) beforehand. You may want to tweak it de-energized and turn it on to see your work. Really comes down to how comfortable you are with your hands in there, and that angle the monitor is mounted in a pac doesn't really help. A Williams game would be easy, but that mounting angle on Ms. Pac means you kinda have to be reaching up and in to get a good rotational angle. I would recommend removing from the monitor.

Maybe you have an extra monitor you can try it out on first?

How long has it been that way? Either someone thought that was good enough when they installed it, or it got bumped. Maybe your yoke clamp is already loose?

I've used this thread a lot over the years, it's been very useful

So the go7 in my Ms. Pac has a rotated screen, it's rotated probably 10 or 15 degrees. I understand that this is a yoke issue, and that I need to rotate it back so that the picture is straight again.

My question is will this mess up the convergence? It is beautifully converged as it is, and if rotating the yoke will mess with that, I won't do it, but I'd like to get it dialed in.
 
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