fcjim
Well-known member
Hi, and thanks in advance! I am working on my current project, a Battlezone. It seems like this game in general has a lot of gremlins, but unlike many of the BZs I've been reading about, I got lucky because after a quick repair to the power cord mine fired right up. I've been doing a lot of searching and reading about it but haven't stumbled across discussion of my particular problems... sorry if I missed the answer to my questions somewhere.
I've been doing mainly cosmetic and control panel work to it, and I haven't done any of the usually-recommended BZ stuff to the electrical bits (reflowing interconnect, replace edge connectors, cap kit, etc) because like I said it's mostly working, and for the moment I'm taking a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach. So the answer to the "what have you done already" question is "pretty much nothing."
I have three questions I'd love to get some feedback on. First, there is a pot on the AR board which I believe is to adjust +5v. There are at least three 5+ test points on the main board, and one more on the smaller auxiliary board. If I adjust it to +5.00 at the closest test point (the one near the edge connector) on the main board, it reads low at the aux board, and if it's set to +5.00 at the aux board it's about +5.25 on the main board. I'm thinking I should set it to +5.00 at the aux board (the furthest test point from the power source that I can find), but I'm worried that would be too high at the main board. What's the correct way to measure and set this voltage? Is it normal for this voltage to differ that much at different points, or does that tell me there's an issue with the AR board?
The second problem is with the monitor, which I have virtually no experience with at all. In the test grid, I can't seem to get it aligned using the XBIP and YBIP pots on the PCB (see photo). When I use the pots to line it up on the top and one side, it's out of alignment on the bottom and the other side, and vice versa. I've messed slightly with the little metal tabs on the yoke, these move the entire image around but they don't seem to affect this issue. When I plugged this monitor into my Asteroids Deluxe, the test screen looked fine and everything lined up perfectly, which I tend to think eliminates the monitor itself as the source of the problem... but that means I have no idea what IS causing it. The monitor is a G05-802.
The other issue with the monitor is that during gameplay it pulsates, especially noticeable in the upper corner where the score and extra tanks are displayed. It seems to kind of come and go depending on where the enemy tank is, sometimes the pulsing is prominent and other times it's minimal. I did try to get a video of this but it didn't come out very good, I can try again later to get a better one if just saying "pulsate" isn't enough to go on, which I figure it probably isn't.
Any help or suggestions on these questions would be appreciated. Thanks!
I've been doing mainly cosmetic and control panel work to it, and I haven't done any of the usually-recommended BZ stuff to the electrical bits (reflowing interconnect, replace edge connectors, cap kit, etc) because like I said it's mostly working, and for the moment I'm taking a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach. So the answer to the "what have you done already" question is "pretty much nothing."
I have three questions I'd love to get some feedback on. First, there is a pot on the AR board which I believe is to adjust +5v. There are at least three 5+ test points on the main board, and one more on the smaller auxiliary board. If I adjust it to +5.00 at the closest test point (the one near the edge connector) on the main board, it reads low at the aux board, and if it's set to +5.00 at the aux board it's about +5.25 on the main board. I'm thinking I should set it to +5.00 at the aux board (the furthest test point from the power source that I can find), but I'm worried that would be too high at the main board. What's the correct way to measure and set this voltage? Is it normal for this voltage to differ that much at different points, or does that tell me there's an issue with the AR board?
The second problem is with the monitor, which I have virtually no experience with at all. In the test grid, I can't seem to get it aligned using the XBIP and YBIP pots on the PCB (see photo). When I use the pots to line it up on the top and one side, it's out of alignment on the bottom and the other side, and vice versa. I've messed slightly with the little metal tabs on the yoke, these move the entire image around but they don't seem to affect this issue. When I plugged this monitor into my Asteroids Deluxe, the test screen looked fine and everything lined up perfectly, which I tend to think eliminates the monitor itself as the source of the problem... but that means I have no idea what IS causing it. The monitor is a G05-802.
The other issue with the monitor is that during gameplay it pulsates, especially noticeable in the upper corner where the score and extra tanks are displayed. It seems to kind of come and go depending on where the enemy tank is, sometimes the pulsing is prominent and other times it's minimal. I did try to get a video of this but it didn't come out very good, I can try again later to get a better one if just saying "pulsate" isn't enough to go on, which I figure it probably isn't.
Any help or suggestions on these questions would be appreciated. Thanks!

