I'm about to rebuild my first Wells Gardner 6100 - any tips?

smalltownguy2

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I'm about to rebuild my first Wells Gardner 6100 - any tips?

Title says it all - I'm going to undertake rebuilding the 6100 in my Star Wars cab.

I know that there are differing opinions on to what extent some modifications be made in rebuilding these. Bob Roberts has a few articles and opinions on this too. 'Low voltage mods' and such.

What's everyone's opinion here? Just do caps? Replace all transistors too? Meter everything and only replace what's necessary? Shotgun the works?

Curious to hear what some of you vector guys have to say. I'd like to bulletproof this monitor correctly, the first time.
 
For a Star Wars, a normal "full rebuild" will probably be fine. LV upgrades are nice to make it a bit more worry-free, but are more important in Tempest's...
 
I just rebuilt three 6100s. I think it's worth the money and effort to shotgun it, slowly and carefully of course. I used the Bob Roberts $40 kit . I referred to the K6100 FAQ and the K6100 Manual. I did the "big blue" caps at the same time. It might be my imagination, but Tempest seemed a lot less jittery after I did that.

One rebuilt 6100 chassis is still failing, even after the rebuild. However, now it's failing without making smoke - an improvement. When I'm done fixing that I'll actually have a spare k6100 chassis!
 
Crap - I was desoldering ZD101 (labeled R105 on my board) and it fell out of my hand.

Of course I didn't take pictures of this deflection board before I started. Can someone please tell me which way the diode gets installed?
 
Found a pic online - figured it out.

She works!!

Now it's time for a few adjustments.

The cabinet on this Star Wars needs a new bottom, so I'll be working on that the next few days.
 
A question for all of you 6100 owners out there with Star Wars cabs - the harness that plugs into my 6100 is REALLY tight, more so than I feel comfortable with. I'd like build an extension using mating molex connectors and some spare wire I have laying around. Does anyone know what the molex part numbers are for the connectors for a Wells Gardner 19K6102? I assume they use standard terminal pins which I have a ton of, but I need to purchase connectors.

I suppose I could cut and splice more wire into the harness coming from the game or the mointor, but I prefer to keep the wiring on both ends stock if I can. I have the proper tools to crimp a new harness, I just need to locate a set of mating plugs to make it.
 
Mouser 538-50-84-1150 (male) & 538-50-84-2150 (female)

Did you try taking the monitor's connector out of the bracket? That'll give you a couple inches.
 
Mouser 538-50-84-1150 (male) & 538-50-84-2150 (female)

Did you try taking the monitor's connector out of the bracket? That'll give you a couple inches.

It's already out of the bracket. I'd like to get it back into the bracket if I could - it will take the strain off the board-mounted wires. I'm just playing with fire here leaving tension on these wires. Eventually some of the solder connections are going to break and cause issues.

Thanks for the Mouser links, I appreciate it.
 
I thought about the LV2000 kit, but considering this machine may not see much play AND that it's Star Wars (not Tempest) I think I can get away with the stock setup in the voltage section.

The chassis has a case mounted 12v fan blowing on it already to keep it cool.

Working great as-is now, so I'm not going to fix something that ain't broke.
 
A question for all of you 6100 owners out there with Star Wars cabs - the harness that plugs into my 6100 is REALLY tight, more so than I feel comfortable with. I'd like build an extension using mating molex connectors and some spare wire I have laying around. Does anyone know what the molex part numbers are for the connectors for a Wells Gardner 19K6102? I assume they use standard terminal pins which I have a ton of, but I need to purchase connectors.

I suppose I could cut and splice more wire into the harness coming from the game or the mointor, but I prefer to keep the wiring on both ends stock if I can. I have the proper tools to crimp a new harness, I just need to locate a set of mating plugs to make it.

Someone out there was selling pre-wired extensions for just this purpose. Hmmm....I'll take a look to see if I can find it. Or maybe someone else will remember.

Edit: Ah, found it. It was Spaeth. Don't know if he still has them or not. He's not been hanging out on here quite as much as he used to....
 
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Someone out there was selling pre-wired extensions for just this purpose. Hmmm....I'll take a look to see if I can find it. Or maybe someone else will remember.

Edit: Ah, found it. It was Spaeth. Don't know if he still has them or not. He's not been hanging out on here quite as much as he used to....

I'll send him a PM. Thanks!
 
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