Picked up a Battlezone

[VectorCollector]

Have you identified your monitor and read the associated manual for it?
In particular take note of the linearity control. (I assume the RedZone has X/Y size pots? Might want to tweak them).

 

[Lumonic]

Yeah, its the 19V2000, original manual came with the cabinet.

Oh, I did basically all adjustments with the redzone pots. It has two pots for each axis, size and offset. Which are a total pain to tweak not being able to see the crt and they really should have had either 5 or 10 turn trimmers on this thing. That may still happen.

 

[VectorCollector]

Does the RedZone have TEST MODE? Must have - see vid. Put on the BZ cross-hatch and verify the orientation of the lines. Correct by adjusting the linearity pot on the deflection board. I've never seen a V2000 with that much curvature. LOL

 

[Lumonic]

Does the RedZone have TEST MODE? Must have - see vid. Put on the BZ cross-hatch and verify the orientation of the lines. Correct by adjusting the linearity pot on the deflection board. I've never seen a V2000 with that much curvature. LOL

Yeah. It does and it's a mess. Linearity pots don't do much even after deoxit.

 

[Lumonic]

Replaced the fluorescent lights with LEDs today. The light for the backdrop was a mix of a 365nm light strip to light up the fluorescent parts and a 18" led fluorescent retrofit lamp. I covered most of the visible lamp up with some cloth wiring harness tap to dim it down. Im planning on rewiring the marquee and coin lights to stay on all the time so I can have the cab lit without while its not being played. I'll he Ujust add a tiny 5v switcher for the coin lamps.

The UV lamps I am using (only using one of the pair) from amazon, these are actually 365nm, not 395 like a lit of UV lamps sold: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9YRZP1T
Fluorescent lamp retrofits: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJ26RN9V
Also found some nice black carriage head bolts. Completely smooth heads. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDCND8S6

 

[Atari The Jedi]

This was really the first technically second game that got me back into the hobby. At the time nobody wanted it because not everyone really liked to work on vector monitors. So I was more than happy to get it. Just really makes an arcade feel like an arcade

 

[Lumonic]

Vector monitors are pretty simple, I cant imagine what the big deal would be. They are actually pretty similar to electron microscopes.

 

[Lumonic]

Went ahead and ordered new linear, cont, bright, and hv trimmers from arcadepartsandrepair. Also went ahead and ordered a couple of the VDRs. Those could also be a part of the geometry issues I am seeing.

Trying to find some sliders or casters to put under the cab. Where I am putting it there are hardwood floors so making it slide would be nice.

 

[Lumonic]

I laid it on its back to look at the feet situation and found there were two feet in the step. One was all bent up. No feet under the cabinet. 3 of the four tee nuts were intact. The fourth was ripped out with some of the plywood around it. I had some two part wood filler epoxy putty and mixed up some of that and pressed it into the broken out area. Flattened it all out with a piece of metal with silicone applied as a release and smoothed it out. I pushed a hole though where the tee nuts goes through. When it cured a bit I drilled out the epoxy to about .030 under the diameter of the boss of the tee nut and tap it in place. Hopefully it holds. Wouldn't trust it with a caster but flat feet should be fine.

 

[Lumonic]

The gels arrived today so I cut them up and applied to the back of the matte board surround. I used 3M 300LSE around the perimeter and to joint them together. It's basically just a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive.

 

[TastyBoogerz]

Looks really good! I'm in the midst of sourcing or making monitor overlay bezels for my Battlezone (and Omega Race). Would you mind sharing a template or dimensions for yours?

 

[Lumonic]

Here is the dxf i made and used for my laser cutter.

 

[TastyBoogerz]

Thanks!! And I just might need to add a laser cutter to my arsenal of tools (that I hope get some use someday).

 

[Lumonic]

Thanks!! And I just might need to add a laser cutter to my arsenal of tools (that I hope get some use someday).

I built my own a couple years ago. It will cut thin stainless and steel sheet. Very useful.

 

[BobLangelius]

How thin? (Thick) How many watts? Co2?

 

[Lumonic]

I've cut 16ga without issue. 150w Coherent Gem series CO2 laser. Putting out close to 200w. Pulsed output so peaks hit almost 700w. Video from before I added the active focus I designed.

 

[BobLangelius]

Impressive!!

 

[Lumonic]

Got the sockets and other parts today. Spent about an hour and replaced all the ROM sockets, CPU socket, whatever that 16 pin IC was and socketed all the RAM. 428 joints later it was done. Put everything back together and popped in the original ROM. Now it's watchdogging. That's new, spotkiller flickers. OK, try pulling the watchdog disable low and no difference. So I install my freshly burned roms and Woo! I hear vector chatter. Look at the screen and it's alive.

I tried to play a game and no sound. I know the audio amp works since I have been playing it with my redzone. Trace it down to the LM324 at K5, signal in, nothing out. So I need to order a couple.

 

[Lumonic]

Got my replacement instruction sticker. Looks nice.

Decided to check the crt voltage. 8kv and dropped to 6kv as I watched. Took the thermal camera and looked at the HV diode in the cage and it's a bit toasty. Going to need to rework that when the rest of the parts come in.

 

[VectorCollector]

The low HV explains your zoomed-in monitor screen. Eh. (Common issue).