Replacing the Tube in My Tempest Monitor

Watersgate

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I thought I'd just share my "newbie" experience replacing the tube in my Tempest vector monitor. I bought a cocktail Tempest a few months back from a KLOVer and it was working and in really decent cosmetic shape. But I still consider it a "project" and basically want to get it to an "almost new" condition.

The most glaring issue with it (to me) was that it had some phosphor burn in the middle of the screen:

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It was honestly hard to see behind the smoked plexi, but on some screens it would slightly interfere with the game image. Here's an example with the test screen, you can see a couple of dots in the middle:

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So I set out on finding a replacement for it. There's lots of info out on the interweb about WG6100 monitors, but the basic quest was to find a 19VLUP22 tube to replace the existing tube. I could have replaced the whole monitor...but that seemed like overkill. So after a few weeks of searching I found another KLOVer who had a 19VLUP22 NOS tube for sale...I paid a pretty hefty price for it ($300), but I thought it was fair for what was essentially a "new" condition monitor. Shipping was a hassle, but long story short it arrived a couple of weeks later in perfect shape.

The next step was to install it. I was worried it would be hard to install and "converge" etc. But it wasn't! Between the original WG6100 manual and the "Wells-Gardner 6100 Vector Monitor FAQ and Guide" that I downloaded from the internet, it was really a breeze.

First, I bought a WG6100 extension cable (8 feet long). That's a must. I got it from revisionx.com, it arrived quickly and was well made.

Then, I unplugged the machine, unplugged and removed the monitor, and put the monitor on a nearby workbench. There are lots of guides on how to discharge a monitor safely. I follow the precautions and it was no problem. BTW it didn't "spark" or anything like that. Easy enough.

Then I removed the anode, pulled off the neckboard, and unplugged the 5-pin connector on the deflection PCB. I unscrewed the four screws that held the tube in place, pulled out the tube, and then installed the new tube following the previously mentioned steps in reverse order.

After installing the new tube I connected the monitor to the game using the extension cable, plugged the game in, and fired it up. Before doing that, though, I double checked that the anode was plugged in – I've read horror stories about missing that step.

You can see that the picture looked pretty good without even doing any adjustments yet (the clear plastic protective film was still on the tube in this pic):

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But I wanted to get it as good as possible so I went through the entire adjustment procedure described in the WG6100 manual and the FAQ Guide. It generally consists of moving and tightening the yoke to get consistent green, red and blue cross hatch patterns, and then adjusting the magnet rings to fine tune the purity and superimpose the red, blue and green lines of the cross hatch patterns. The WG manual says that you can also tweak the horizontal and vertical orientation of the yoke after that to adjust convergence at the outer edges of the picture, but I didn't do that, it seemed unnecessary because the picture was already looking good. Anyway, then you can adjust the bias and drive pots on the neck board to fine tune the tracking while displaying the seven groups of vertical lines – follow the directions and you'll know it when you see it, the groups of lines will be perfectly colored when properly adjusted.

You can also center and align the picture using the pots on the game PCB board, and you can adjust the brightness and focus of the picture using the controls on the monitor flyback. Once the picture was well adjusted I unplugged the game and the extension cable, and dropped the monitor back into the table:

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Fired up the game and the new monitor looks great:

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So, if you're thinking about replacing a tube in your monitor, I can honestly say it's not that hard. Hopefully with some maintenance and care this new tube will last another 30+ years!
 
Yeah, there's lots of life left in your old tube. Bet you can make a chunk of that $300 back by selling it.
 
Thanks all. Yes, I am willing to sell the old tube. Somebody has already expressed interest but it's not sold yet. The challenge, as always, is the shipping. It's in San Diego so if somebody in the area is interested feel free to PM me. I can also bring it to AZ. I'm willing to ship, but based on my experience it will be expensive and there's always some risk of breakage.
 
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