N00b here, literally smoked my WG k4600 on Joust

WiiKnee

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So, I picked up a known "not working" upright Joust cab a couple days ago and cracked it open. I found a blown fuse at the service outlet, so I replaced it, everything else looked pretty good. It definitely looks like this vid has been sitting dormant for at least a few years.

Thump! It fires up – all three LEDs on the power board come on, video pops up, all tests indicate ok. Initial tests – after adjusting the horizontal hold, quadrant IV on the monitor is very blurry, the rest looks good. After a few minutes, I get a RAM ERROR 31 (or was it ROM?). I shut it down.

I notice burnt connectors coming into the power supply board from the transformer, so I rebuild them and power up. Wow! Everything comes up perfect, monitor looks strong, new batteries are holding their charge. I leave it on and play a few games for about 20 minutes.

Next day, I am playing with my son, the picture is jumping just a tiny bit and did a quick horizontal roll. As my son plays, I slightly adjust the hold, while adjusting the picture shrinks and squishes dramatically then returns to normal. A few seconds later *crack* *snap* - picture goes out, heavy smoke billows from the off-pcb flyback. I immediately shut down. What an awful smell!

Monitor chassis is a WG K4600; I assume the flyback is shot. I have some experience rebuilding Electrohome G07 units, but this looks nasty. The touchy adjustment for the hold makes me think that the daughterboard on the chassis has some bad solder point, but could this have caused a failed flyback? Looking online, it looks difficult and expensive to replace a flyback on a k4600 and recap the whole thing. And even if I do replace the flyback (~$70!), what caused it to blow in the first place and will it happen again?

So, I wonder what my options are. Attempt a questionable and expensive repair myself, send the chassis away for a costly and lengthy repair or exercise other options? I don't know what my other options are, though (hence my post). Can I plug in a new or rebuilt chassis into the tube, other than the K4600? Can I buy a modern replacement monitor that is plug and play? I am pretty new to vids, so I need all the advice I can get!

Thanks!

Chuck
Grand Rapids, MI
 
That or get a known-working 4600 chassis from someone here. Despite their appearance the nice thing about 4600s is that they're very modular, but on that topic, yeah all the daughterboard plugs usually need to be resoldered.
 
I like my 4600 and from what I hear, the fly backs rarely go bad. That's why they are hard to find. A used one might be an option for you. Monitor cap kits are cheap for them.
 
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Yup Definately a great monitor and yeah the flys really dont go bad too often but they can. Try to find a parts chassis on Feefay or here and swap the flys.

Then I strongly suggest cleaning your chassis, recapping it completely and reflowing the solder joints on the card connectors.

These monitors have been great and produce really nice pics when working. It would'nt hurt either to have the tube Cleaned and balanced if you or a someone close has a rejuvenator.

Good luck..
 
Wow, thanks for all the great advice so far, guys - this makes me fail less gravely-ill about my recent acquisition :).

Ken - according to arcadecup website, Chad has two NOS flybacks for sale, but they are fetching $70 each, so that makes me a little nervous about picking one up and trying to do the repairs myself, out of fear that a recap, cleaning and resoldering on the daughterboards might still cause the new fly to fail. Since these flies are known to rarely fail, that makes me nervous about the cause of the failure and the potential for a new $70 fly to fail again.

If I were to purchase a new chassis from Alva Amusements, would that be compatible with my current tube and fit into my unmodified Joust cabinet? I do not know anything about swapping out one type of chassis for another.

And on that note, I guess if anyone is selling a known good k4600 chassis and flyback, I am interested :)

Chuck
 
If I were to purchase a new chassis from Alva Amusements, would that be compatible with my current tube and fit into my unmodified Joust cabinet? I do not know anything about swapping out one type of chassis for another.

Call them up and tell them what you have and they'll hook you up with a chassis that will be compatible with your tube/yoke. The price will be cheaper than what a refurbished 4600 chassis would cost you.
Then give away your old busted chassis to someone on here who has the time and inclination to rebuild it.
 
So I wrote to the fellows over at Alva and sent them a picture of my chassis/tube and I got this unfortunate response:

Looking at the picture , it looks to me that the sync. the game uses is positive sync. (that monitor has input for negative sync in a separated connector below the one you are using, so the sync you are using is positive because the game give that sync) unfortunately the chassis we sell use only negative sync so they will not work.

Hmmm, I think they carry the Wei-Ya M31 from what it looks like. The neg/pos sync is beyond me, any more advice?

Anybody know about this chassis from Twisted Quarter?

http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103&products_id=789
 

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Joust is positive sync, but it can be modified for neg comp sync on the cpu board.

$70 for a 30 year old fly, makes me wonder if Chad is smoking something funny.

4600 flys rarely fail, and you could probably find a used one fairly cheap.
 
I decided to quit being such a wussy and just go for the repair. I ordered the flyback from Chad and will pick up a cap kit, too. Hopefully, with new caps, reflowed solder on the daughterboards and a good cleaning, the new flyback will be just fine *crosses fingers*. Thanks for all the help, everyone! This is a great forum!

-Chuck
 
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