NHL Open Ice monitor problem

CamsTyphoon

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Hey Guys, I need some guidance!

I have an NHL Open Ice game that recently developed a monitor problem. The past coulpe times it was played after approx 5-10 minutes the monitor goes blank but the game continues. I turned it on again yesterday and the game starts fine but it has no picture at all.
I'm still way to new to the arcade game to know where to start looking......I've done some searching and I'm still confused where to start.

I don't see any glowing on the neck at all.

The sticker on the monitor says it's an RCA A63ADT10X05

I can post pics if that will help at all.

Any advise, links?
 
Pics of your chassis might help...
Have you already ensured that proper voltage coming from your isolation transformer with a multimeter?
 
Pics of your chassis might help...
Have you already ensured that proper voltage coming from your isolation transformer with a multimeter?

I'll get some pics up today.
No I haven't, how do I do that? What should the voltage be?
FWIW I don't have a manual, it never came with one.
I guess I should have put the thread in the monitor section........dammit
 
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I'll get some pics up today.
No I haven't, how do I do that? What should the voltage be?
FWIW I don't have a manual, it never came with one.
I guess I should have put the thread in the monitor section........dammit

Usually the voltage is 100-120, but varies depending on the monitor. What you would want to do is test the two power leads on your isolation transformer going to your monitor with a multimeter. Could just be a blown fuse or fuses not making proper contact.
I searched online for an NHL Open Ice manual, but had no luck...

Maybe someone here has the same game and can be of better help, but again...I'd check the basics...check your fuses and ensure your monitor is getting power at the proper voltage. Even if a fuse "looks ok", it could still be blown or not making connectivity. The only way to know is test continuity and voltage with a meter.

Good luck getting it going :)
 
Yeah definitely post some pics of the monitor chassis. The letters and numbers you gave us are for the picture tube, but we need to see a pic of the circuit boards hooked up to it. Just a good overall view or two should be fine. I'll go ahead and guess it'll be a Wells Gardner K7000 series or maybe a U2000. Was the picture by chance darker on the left side of the screen before it went out? I had a problem like that with my NBA Jam and it only needed a cap kit done. Basically your monitor sounds like it's going into shutdown and that can be caused by bad caps and since it worked for a few minutes and then finally stopped all together, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what it is.
 
Here are some pics, do they show enough?

No, it wasn't darker on one side, but my 5 year old was playing at the time.

Yeah definitely post some pics of the monitor chassis. The letters and numbers you gave us are for the picture tube, but we need to see a pic of the circuit boards hooked up to it. Just a good overall view or two should be fine. I'll go ahead and guess it'll be a Wells Gardner K7000 series or maybe a U2000. Was the picture by chance darker on the left side of the screen before it went out? I had a problem like that with my NBA Jam and it only needed a cap kit done. Basically your monitor sounds like it's going into shutdown and that can be caused by bad caps and since it worked for a few minutes and then finally stopped all together, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what it is.
 

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Hmmm that definitely looks like a U2000 series. Personally I have only worked on one and that was just doing a cap kit when it was still working. One thing I did notice is your neck board has some spots that got pretty warm, which is common for those color transistors. I don't think that would cause it to totally shut down though. Maybe someone else with more experience on these can chime in, but just from working on other monitors, I wouldn't rule out bad cap(s) as causing it to shut down.
 
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I still haven't got this thing sorted out :(

It's a little over my head as I have never worked on monitors before. Any one else have any advise for me............Any of you Edmonton guys wanna help out?
 
I checked the dc voltage at the power supply and found 5.06v and 12.08v.
I had checked a utube vid and the dude said try to get it dead on, as soon as I touched the adjustment, the multimeter reading jumped like crazy and the game shut down.
I didn't want to do anymore damage(if I had done any already) so I unpluged the PS and bypassed the power pack assembly and plugged the transformer directly into the PS and tried to readjust it...........I cannot get it back to anywhere near 5v and 12v, when I get it to 5v the 12v wire says 10.14. When I try to get to 12v the highest I can get is 11.69 and the 5v wire says 5.64. When slowly turning it up the reading occasionally jumps to 12.xx then back to 11.6x or lower.
Also whenever I turn the adjustment even the tinyest bit to fast it shuts down, this can't be normal can it?

Was my power supply fine at 5.06v and 12.08v before I messed with it?
If not could that have been my problem with the monitor?
Do I now need a new power supply?

Please help, what's next?
 
I checked the dc voltage at the power supply and found 5.06v and 12.08v.
I had checked a utube vid and the dude said try to get it dead on, as soon as I touched the adjustment, the multimeter reading jumped like crazy and the game shut down.
I didn't want to do anymore damage(if I had done any already) so I unpluged the PS and bypassed the power pack assembly and plugged the transformer directly into the PS and tried to readjust it...........I cannot get it back to anywhere near 5v and 12v, when I get it to 5v the 12v wire says 10.14. When I try to get to 12v the highest I can get is 11.69 and the 5v wire says 5.64. When slowly turning it up the reading occasionally jumps to 12.xx then back to 11.6x or lower.
Also whenever I turn the adjustment even the tinyest bit to fast it shuts down, this can't be normal can it?
I'm not really sure what you said you did. You unplugged the PS... from what? The game board? Are you running it without a load? Is this a switching power supply? A switching power supply will not regulate properly without a load. Your "touched the adjustment and it went nuts" sounds like a bad/dirty control. With the power off, work it through it's range several times back and forth. Power the supply up with some kind of load on the 5v rail (I usually use a car taillight bulb) and adjust for 5v.

Was my power supply fine at 5.06v and 12.08v before I messed with it?
Yes. That's right where you want it to be.
If not could that have been my problem with the monitor?
No, the monitor is completely separate from the logic power supply, in the same way that your television set is completely separate from your VCR.

Do I now need a new power supply?

Probably not, but you need to do a little work on yours. Post some pictures of the power supply. In fact, post a picture of the inside back of the game.

-Ian
 
Yes I guess I was running it without a load. I didn't know any better :(
Let me try that again...I plugged the PS in directly from the transformer, bypassing the power pack assembly because I didn't want the game to turn on and damage the it running at the wrong voltage.
I just ran the adjustment knob though it's range a bunch of times with the power off, I will try again with your tail light bulb trick, how do I do that and do I keep the power pack assembly bypassed?
 

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Read off any of the paper labels down the left side of the main chassis.
This will help narrow down its identification. (there's a few model that use similar boards)

Is the fuse on the chassis still good?
Is there any "glow" inside the neck of the picture tube?
 

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There are no paper labels on the chassis, just these ones on the board. On the first page someone said it is a WG U2000.

The fuse apears to be good I will confirm that with my mm. No there is no neck glow.

I need to fix this new power supply problem I created before I can get back to the monitor issue though. To adjust the voltage with a load, do I just hook up a + and - to the neg and +12v and adjust the knob from there?
 

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I need to fix this new power supply problem I created before I can get back to the monitor issue though. To adjust the voltage with a load, do I just hook up a + and - to the neg and +12v and adjust the knob from there?

That type of supply should be able to be adjusted without a load, it's newer. Just hook your meter up to the +5v and ground, and adjust the knob until you can get a steady 5v without it jumping around. Make sure the control is good - you should be able to tap on it without the voltage going all over the place, and rotating the control should smoothly change the voltage. The knob controls the 5v output, but the 12v will be related - there is no control for the 12v rail. With no load, expect the 12v to be off - probably somewhat low. That's OK.

Once you have 5v dialed in, hook it up to the game boards, and fire it back up. Measure and readjust the 5v if necessary. Once the 5v is correct, check the 12v - it'll probably be within spec.

-Ian
 
There are no paper labels on the chassis, just these ones on the board.

That "board" is the "main chassis". ;)

On the first page someone said it is a WG U2000.

And now that is confirmed. My point was that there are at least four monitor models that use the same basic main chassis as yours.
The "WGM2520" label confirms that it is a Wells Gardner Monitor 25" U2000.

The fuse apears to be good I will confirm that with my mm. No there is no neck glow.

Ok, if the fuse on the monitor itself is good, I would start by seeing if there is about 120v AC on the two purple wires on that three pin connector that is plugged into the main chassis on the left side. If no power is there, check the fuse in the bottom of the cabinet that feeds the monitor. Looks like you have one of those weird wired Midway cabinets where nothing is truly isolated. So if your marquee light is coming on, then mostlikely the main fuse in the bottom is good too.
No there is no neck glow.
Somehow I missed that on your original post...duh. :p

I need to fix this new power supply problem I created before I can get back to the monitor issue though. To adjust the voltage with a load, do I just hook up a + and - to the neg and +12v and adjust the knob from there?

Just hook the game back up the way it was. Turn the adjustment counterclockwise to start with the voltage lower and go up from there. The adjustment knob only adjusts the 5v...the 12v volt will fluctuate according to where the 5v is, it is not adjustable by itself. So set the 5v just a bit over 5 and see if the game boots. Go up a tad more if need be. But if you get to around 5 1/2 v or so and the game is still not booting then something else is going on. (EDIT: RetroHacker beat me to all the power supply stuff)

Shoot me an e-mail and I can send you a .pdf copy of the Open Ice manual.
 

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That type of supply should be able to be adjusted without a load, it's newer. Just hook your meter up to the +5v and ground, and adjust the knob until you can get a steady 5v without it jumping around. Make sure the control is good - you should be able to tap on it without the voltage going all over the place, and rotating the control should smoothly change the voltage. The knob controls the 5v output, but the 12v will be related - there is no control for the 12v rail. With no load, expect the 12v to be off - probably somewhat low. That's OK.

Once you have 5v dialed in, hook it up to the game boards, and fire it back up. Measure and readjust the 5v if necessary. Once the 5v is correct, check the 12v - it'll probably be within spec.

-Ian
Awesome, that what I needed to know! Ok, I just did that, at 5.00v the 12v reads 11.92v is that ok? Now the game does boot up and the audio kicks in. Should I readjust it to split the diff between the 5 and 12v?
That "board" is the "main chassis".
Ahhhhh, gotcha ;)

Ok, if the fuse on the monitor itself is good, I would start by seeing if there is about 120v AC on the two purple wires on that three pin connector that is plugged into the main chassis on the left side. If no power is there, check the fuse in the bottom of the cabinet that feeds the monitor. Looks like you have one of those weird wired Midway cabinets where nothing is truly isolated. So if your marquee light is coming on, then mostlikely the main fuse in the bottom is good too.
I'll go test the fuse right now. Then the 120v AC just to be sure.

Edit: The fuse is good. For the 120v using the 2 outside pins/wires of the 3 pin connector I got readings from 119 to 121, good?

Shoot me an e-mail and I can send you a .pdf copy of the Open Ice manual.
I just found one online today and downloaded it!

Thanks so much guys, it's hard to figure this out on your own!
 
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Awesome, that what I needed to know! Ok, I just did that, at 5.00v the 12v reads 11.92v is that ok? Now the game does boot up and the audio kicks in. Should I readjust it to split the diff between the 5 and 12v?

You can if you want. It doesn't make that much difference. The most important voltage is the 5v. That's what all the logic chips run on. The 12v is primarily used for things like the audio amplifier. *Technically*, if you want to be really exact, then check the voltage at the game board, and adjust so you have 5v there. Remember, there will be slight losses due to the wiring harness and the edge connector, so when you have 5.00v at the power supply, then you'll lose a little to the harness, and it'll be slightly lower at the board. So, it's not uncommon to read the voltage at the power supply and have it be something like 5.1v

-Ian
 
You can if you want. It doesn't make that much difference. The most important voltage is the 5v. That's what all the logic chips run on. The 12v is primarily used for things like the audio amplifier. *Technically*, if you want to be really exact, then check the voltage at the game board, and adjust so you have 5v there. Remember, there will be slight losses due to the wiring harness and the edge connector, so when you have 5.00v at the power supply, then you'll lose a little to the harness, and it'll be slightly lower at the board. So, it's not uncommon to read the voltage at the power supply and have it be something like 5.1v

Ok perfect, see I'm learning alot today :) I'll re read it at the board later.

Now that the game is back up and playing blind I checked the fuse with my mm and it is good.
I checked the 120v using the 2 outside pins/wires of the 3 pin connector I got readings from 119 to 121, is that good?
 
Yes, all of your voltages are good.
Since the game is playing blind....time to dig into the monitor itself.

I'd start by looking over the neckboard very closely for broken solder joints.
The entire chassis should be checked for bad solder joints, but it will need pulled for that.
Get familiar with "discharge" procedures first though.

Does the monitor "tick" at all?
tick-tick-tick-tick

I'm trying to recall if the U2000 has the TP (test point) like the other similar chassis.
Look for a little "pin" or "post" sticking up with "TP202" labeled near it.
Measure the B+ voltage...which is DC voltage...set your meter to 200 volts or higher.
Positive on TP202, negative on the heatsink or anywhere suitable for ground.

Most likely though it's due for a complete capacitor kit.
 

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Yes, all of your voltages are good.
Since the game is playing blind....time to dig into the monitor itself.

I'd start by looking over the neckboard very closely for broken solder joints.
The entire chassis should be checked for bad solder joints, but it will need pulled for that.
Get familiar with "discharge" procedures first though.

Does the monitor "tick" at all?
tick-tick-tick-tick

I'm trying to recall if the U2000 has the TP (test point) like the other similar chassis.
Look for a little "pin" or "post" sticking up with "TP202" labeled near it.
Measure the B+ voltage...which is DC voltage...set your meter to 200 volts or higher.
Positive on TP202, negative on the heatsink or anywhere suitable for ground.

Most likely though it's due for a complete capacitor kit.

There is a spot on the neck board that looks like it's been really hot and or repaired in the past, I attached the pic.

No tick that I have heard yet, when the audio stops I'll have a listen and report back.

I did find the TP202, I took 2 readings and got 125.6 then 125.3, how's that?
 

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