New Space Duel Warm Up Monitor Issue

docquest

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Just Acquired a decent looking Space Duel this weekend. This is my first video game in along time (had a stargate and a dragons lair way back in the day). I've always loved vector games and wanted something that me and the kids could play with simultaneous players. It played great when I picked it up. Now that I got it home and have spent more time with it I'm seeming a fairly repeatable problem.

After about 20-30 minutes after turning on the monitor goes blank. The game is still playing just no monitor display. I did some poking around the forums here and I see lots of posts about machines that are blind but nothing on machines that only go blind after they've warmed up. When it goes blind it looks like there is still a glow on the neck and the spot killer LED is not lit.

Another interesting clue is that when the machine is up and running with the display on, if I turn it off and then on again the monitor will be blind immediately upon re-powering. If I turn off the machine I have to leave it off for 5-10 minutes before I can turn it on again and have the monitor be live.

Anyone seen this type of behavior before or have an idea about what could be causing it? Should I just buy one of those cap kit and install them?

Thanks
 
Sounds like a classic case of cold solder joints. Could be something else, but that would be my first guess. I'd pull the monitor boards and inspect/reflow the header pins.
 
I had this issue with my space duel about 4 years ago, and maxstang (local guy and klover) came and fixed it for me. I know he spent a ton of hours on it. I knew nothing about monitors then. Try shooting a pm to him, he may remember what it was.

I agree cold solder joints is the first thing I'd be looking at as well at this point if you are looking to get active on it right away.
 
I would check all connections. It could be a lot of things, as others mentioned cold solder is a possibility and would be the easiest solution other than a loose connection or dirty edge connector on the PCB. It could also be the Low Voltage section on the deflection board, which is a common place of failure on these monitors. There is usually some signs in the LV section of burning but not always. You can either replace the items in the LV section or bypass it with an LV2000 lite kit. Also check the fuses for signs of corrosion.

Re: Cap kits...there are two different ones for this monitor - the regular kit of mostly caps and the deluxe kit which replaces a lot more including the transistors and everything in the low voltage section. I have done the deluxe kit and it was a lot of work but my monitor was rock solid after that.
 
As you have no city listed in your profile... this is your one reply from Mongo:

The problem is most likely on the HV board since you don't get the spot killer. Do you still hear "chatter" when it goes blank? Which HV board do you have? There is a protection circuit on some of them with a manual adjustment. Your board may have drifted enough out of spec that you need a cap kit or simply to re-adjust the cutoff value.
 
As you have no city listed in your profile... this is your one reply from Mongo:

The problem is most likely on the HV board since you don't get the spot killer. Do you still hear "chatter" when it goes blank? Which HV board do you have? There is a protection circuit on some of them with a manual adjustment. Your board may have drifted enough out of spec that you need a cap kit or simply to re-adjust the cutoff value.


This is my first vector game so please pardon ignorance, what is "chatter"? Is this the a noise it makes when its running normally and I should listen to see if its still there after the picture goes out? Or is it a noice to look fro when something is not working properly?

I just discovered the 6100 FAQ and will be going through that next. Assuming I have the HV board with the overload protection circuit, I would look for a lit or unlit LED to know if that crcuit was tripped or not?
 
Spotkiller is a LED on the right hand side of the deflection board, right near the back of the board (closest to you) and it will be lit up if there is no vector signal coming in. It shuts the monitor down to protect it from burning the tube with a non-moving beam.

The "chatter" Mongo mentioned is just that....a chattery noise that the monitor will make. Ticking kinda.

If you are unsure of the quality of the header pin joints, snap a good clear photo (boards out of the cab) and post em up so we can help figure it out.
 
Or a problem with the monitor itself

Andrew

Spotkiller is a LED on the right hand side of the deflection board, right near the back of the board (closest to you) and it will be lit up if there is no vector signal coming in. It shuts the monitor down to protect it from burning the tube with a non-moving beam.

The "chatter" Mongo mentioned is just that....a chattery noise that the monitor will make. Ticking kinda.

If you are unsure of the quality of the header pin joints, snap a good clear photo (boards out of the cab) and post em up so we can help figure it out.
 
Unplug the game PCB from the harness and then turn on the game. You should see a red LED on the exposed board of the monitor... that's the spot killer. You will hear no chatter.

Turn off the game, plug the game PCB back in and listen again while you do have a picture... that's chatter caused by the magnetic coils of the monitor yoke deflecting the electron beam around the screen to draw stuff.

The HV board is the other, smaller board inside the aluminum cube on the left side of the monitor chassis (looking from the rear). If you have the 'P329' labeled version of the HV board it has the overvoltage protection circuit Mongo mentioned. It prevents X-rays from being shot out through the front of the picture tube by overcharged electron guns. If that circuit kicks in there's another red LED that will light on the HV board.

Beware, the HV stands for high voltage... enough to kill
 
Thanks for all the suggestions and help. Without forums like this it would make the hobby much more frustrating when a pin/vid has an issue.

Looks like I have chatter when the monitor goes blind and I also noticed the red LED come on on the HV board. So after 20-30 minutes of warmup time something is triggering the HV prtoection circuit to kick in.

So at this point I should try and adjust the sensitivity pot for that circuit? I wouldn't want to adjust it so much so that it allows the voltage to get too high though. So it will really emit X-rays at some point?

Looks like I'll need to remove the monitor to get at that circuit. As long as I'm going to remove the monitor I might as well take the board out and reflow the main connectors on it and do the cap kit for that board. Discharging the monitor should be fun. I'll make sure the kids are standing by with 911 pre-dialed on the phone just in case.
 
Resolder all the connectors on the HV and deflection bd.. Check all the solder pads on the flyback too. When the board gets hot, the joints can expand and lose connection. I had one doing this.. I never actually found the cause but after pulling the boards, reseating, etc, it worked fine.
 
I forgot to follow up on this.

Reflowing the solder connections fixed the monitor going out after being on for 20 minutes or more.

Thanks for all the tips and advice from those who responded. It was a big help.
 
I forgot to follow up on this.

Reflowing the solder connections fixed the monitor going out after being on for 20 minutes or more.

Thanks for all the tips and advice from those who responded. It was a big help.

Awesome, good to hear it. It's always nice when the fix is that easy.
 
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