Space Invaders 19V1001 issues

nomore25s

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Okay, so I am finally going to tackle this SI problem. I have 2 boardsets both of which do the same thing and they were repaired/verified by elektron forge as now working.

The monitor comes up bright and crisp and then eventually fades and loses lines of pixels. Game continues to play fine.

I am guessing here that the monitor needs at the very least a cap kit. I got worried when I opened it up and the anode? wire and flyback have some grease? on them. Does this mean its dying? Should I just clean it off?

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated. I don't want to just retro-fit a color monitor, I'd like to fix this one if possible.

Thanks
 

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Anyone?

No help? :(

Anyway, next question. Everyone always says this monitor is just a TV - so I can look at the connector coming in. There are 3 pins for power and 2 for signal.

Will someone tell me what I can do with the signal? Can I just connect it to a video-in on a TV (the yellow connector)?
 
Will someone tell me what I can do with the signal? Can I just connect it to a video-in on a TV (the yellow connector)?

Yes. It's regular composite video.

The symptoms you describe do sound like the monitor is failing when it's warmed up. If so, then a recap would definitely be in order. You can go the other way too, and connect something (like a Nintendo) to the Space Invaders monitor.

-Ian
 
Yes. It's regular composite video.

The symptoms you describe do sound like the monitor is failing when it's warmed up. If so, then a recap would definitely be in order. You can go the other way too, and connect something (like a Nintendo) to the Space Invaders monitor.

-Ian

Great - thats what I was looking for! This way I can definitively nail it down to a monitor issue.

Any ideas about the grease? all over the flyback/anode wire?
 
Any ideas about the grease? all over the flyback/anode wire?

Don't worry about that. It's normal on older monitors and TV's. It's not grease, it's something else. I think it's actually the plasticizer leaching out of the plastic insulation. Brake parts cleaner will remove it, but it's not hurting anything (just gooey and annoying).

-Ian
 
Don't worry about that. It's normal on older monitors and TV's. It's not grease, it's something else. I think it's actually the plasticizer leaching out of the plastic insulation. Brake parts cleaner will remove it, but it's not hurting anything (just gooey and annoying).

-Ian

Great, thanks again. I just didn't want to go through the problem of capping this thing (my success rate on capkit installs isn't very good so far) and then have someone say "well you should have known it wouldn't work because of the fluid leaking", or some such.

Thanks - time to put together an order for Bob R!
 
Progress, optimism....

Okay, well I started tearing down my SI cabinet and pulled the monitor chassis. The cabinet cleaned up very nicely (see Magic Eraser thread).

Anyway, I'm waiting on my capkit from Bob R - Flag Day setting shipping back, oh well.

Anyway - I started looking at the harness and there are 3 power leads and two others, so I wired up a connector and with some alligator clips hooked it up to my old bench monitor and a nice clean/crisp picture! If it runs like that for a while I am feeling very optimistic (not that my capkit success % is very good).

Here is a picture!
 

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Installed Bob R. capkit last night. Going to re-install the chassis in the cabinet today - hopefully this will bring this monitor back to full strength!

There were two capacitors that were higher in both voltage and capacitance that what was installed. Oh well, I trust that Bob's built enough kits that they're right.
 
Well, its in and appears I didn't screw anything up. It seemed a little unstable at the beginning, but seems to have stablized. I guess I'll let it run for a bit before coining up.
 
Back to fail....

Hmmm, well I power cycled and when it came back up it doesn't appear to want to sync. I've adjusted the two knobs on the front of the chassis. The picture (what pieces I can see) are still bright, so the capkit seems to have solved that.

Any ideas on what parts could be causing this? The game will output fine to my Commodore monitor, so its not a board issue.
 

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Hmmm, well I power cycled and when it came back up it doesn't appear to want to sync. I've adjusted the two knobs on the front of the chassis. The picture (what pieces I can see) are still bright, so the capkit seems to have solved that.

Any ideas on what parts could be causing this? The game will output fine to my Commodore monitor, so its not a board issue.

Mine did this and unplugging all the cables and reconnecting did it.
 
Hmmm, well I power cycled and when it came back up it doesn't appear to want to sync. I've adjusted the two knobs on the front of the chassis. The picture (what pieces I can see) are still bright, so the capkit seems to have solved that.

Any ideas on what parts could be causing this? The game will output fine to my Commodore monitor, so its not a board issue.

There should be four knobs on the front: brightness, contrast, vertical hold, and horizontal hold (or frequency, I can't remember what they call it). Try adjusting the horizontal pot.

Edward
 
There should be four knobs on the front: brightness, contrast, vertical hold, and horizontal hold (or frequency, I can't remember what they call it). Try adjusting the horizontal pot.

Edward

Yes, 4 knobs (adjusted the brightness and contrast after getting the chassis recapped and it looked good). Then after a power cycle the sync appears as you see in the picture. I've tried slowly adjusting the v-hold and h-hold and appear to get close, but never do get the picture to sync.
 
Yes, 4 knobs (adjusted the brightness and contrast after getting the chassis recapped and it looked good). Then after a power cycle the sync appears as you see in the picture. I've tried slowly adjusting the v-hold and h-hold and appear to get close, but never do get the picture to sync.

Two things to try first....separate the two boards and put them back together. Next check the power connector.....it's the one that connects to the larger of the two boards. Your power and video signal enters through this connector. Make sure none of the wires are pulling out. After this, you could try tweeking the horizontal oscillator. This is where stuff gets a little tricky. You'll need a plastic hex tool. It's a little square box looking thing on the chassis. Inside the "box" is a ferrite slug.....with the hex tool, you move the slug in/out of the magnetic field.

Also, make sure the board is seated good on all the "fingers".

Edward
 
It's definitely not a board problem, since he says that it works fine on the Commodore monitor. I'd look for bad solder joints around the horizontal hold control, and check the control itself.

-Ian
 
Two things to try first....separate the two boards and put them back together. Next check the power connector.....it's the one that connects to the larger of the two boards. Your power and video signal enters through this connector. Make sure none of the wires are pulling out. After this, you could try tweeking the horizontal oscillator. This is where stuff gets a little tricky. You'll need a plastic hex tool. It's a little square box looking thing on the chassis. Inside the "box" is a ferrite slug.....with the hex tool, you move the slug in/out of the magnetic field.

Also, make sure the board is seated good on all the "fingers".

Edward

Hmmm, where can I get a plastic hex tool?

To add confusion, I go downstairs and power it up and it sync fine. I thought I'd adjust the v-hold and h-hold to make a mental note of where they were and after I moved the h-hold it again won't sync. Power cycle didn't help.

Thanks
 
Hmmm, where can I get a plastic hex tool?

To add confusion, I go downstairs and power it up and it sync fine. I thought I'd adjust the v-hold and h-hold to make a mental note of where they were and after I moved the h-hold it again won't sync. Power cycle didn't help.

Thanks

Stop messing with the v-hold until you get the h-hold fixed :)
Set the v-hold to it's center....and hands off.

Did you reseat the boards and check the connector? Since your sync is coming and going.....I wouldn't mess with the horizontal frequency just yet. It's basically the same as the h-hold, but with A LOT more range. The h-hold pot could be going bad. You could try spraying some contact cleaner into it (if this fixes it, it's usually just temporary....time to replace the pot).

Regarding hex adjustment tools....there's a handful of sizes (I don't recall what size the V1000 series uses). Most come in "assortment" packs. Bob Roberts sells some good ones.

http://www.therealbobroberts.net/bobskit.jpg

Edward
 
The h-hold pot could be going bad. You could try spraying some contact cleaner into it (if this fixes it, it's usually just temporary....time to replace the pot).
....
Edward

Ok, I scavenged a h-hold pot from another chassis (I also cleaned it). I can get it to sync "most of the time". Some times I have to power cycle. I guess this other one could be failing as well?

Does Bob R. sells these POTs?

Thanks
 
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