Star Wars - Blur at the Bottom

mcfreak

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I've run through the test mode, cleaned up the BIP page, re-aligned the X/Y, and followed the instructions for setting the RGB/Bias for the coloring. It seems that at the 1/4 of the bottom only during the Title Screen it gets blurry at the bottom. It also will completely freak out on scenes that have very bright effects, (Hit by the Ties, or the exploding Death Star). It seems to go out of focus and overscan badly. This unit has an Amplifone and already has the WinTron transformer installed before I got it. Is this a simple cap kit replacement that is needed?

Also the bottom corner seems to need degaussing and I know I have some work to do on the convergence.

Video Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-64_sOqRQ0&hd=1

Pictures Attached.
 

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I have the exact same issue in my Star Wars running an Amplifone recently rebuilt by Chad. I also went through the test mode and set the BIPs. I thought it may be a convergence issue as well, but not totally sure. It's most noticeable in the green text on the intro screen as the pics in the original post show. Any ideas?
 
Have you all adjusted your HV boards? There are two pots on the HV board for dialing in the frequency and level of the HV circuitry.

Get yourself a HV probe (40KV) and follow the amplifone manual for adjusting your HV level.
 
IIRC I read somewhere that on SW scrolling text, and the Scrolling Title the game programmers purposely over drove the monitors to get that fuzzy affect. They also do it with the Fireballs.

If you are having issues with more than those areas that might indicate a problem. Trying to locate the original write up of the focus driving.. Google Fu is failing me today.
 
Once you double check/adjust your HV board then move on to your deflection... If the HV is stable and adjusted properly this should fix focus issues (it does seem strange that it is only on the lower half... but the death star explosion and other fireball issues lead me to believe its more than just the lower half issue).

If you still have collapsing and problems similar then you also could have a deflection issue.
 
IIRC I read somewhere that on SW scrolling text, and the Scrolling Title the game programmers purposely over drove the monitors to get that fuzzy affect. They also do it with the Fireballs.

If you are having issues with more than those areas that might indicate a problem. Trying to locate the original write up of the focus driving.. Google Fu is failing me today.

I think my biggest concern is the overscan/out of focus moments on high brightness times. If you watch the video when you get hit it freaks and when the DS blows up it freaks (that is not the camera going out of focus but the monitor)
 
I think my biggest concern is the overscan/out of focus moments on high brightness times. If you watch the video when you get hit it freaks and when the DS blows up it freaks (that is not the camera going out of focus but the monitor)

This is what leads me to believe you also may have a deflection issue, (beyond just the focus problem).

Has your deflection board ever been recapped?
 
From an interview with one of the designers. The Defocus was brought about to help with the explosion, and they used it in several places. IE scrolling text fuzzy at the bottom, and clear as it scrolls. This is why those vector Mame LCD screen suck so bad. They can't duplicate a CRT look.


In order to have the Death Star explode the way we wanted it to, it wasn't enough to draw lots of concentric circles. We wanted to defocus the beam to fill it in. We briefly considered adding a vacuum tube to the monitor to control the Focus Voltage. Fortunately, the lead time for the part was too long. So what I did was to give the Vector Generator the ability to overdrive the monitor's color inputs. Overdriving the inputs causes the CRT to draw more current than it normally uses and drags down the High Voltage., which changes the normal ratio of Focus Grid voltage to Anode voltage, which defocuses the beam. This relationship is explained in The Secret Life of XY Monitors.
 
Has your deflection board ever been recapped?


I can only assume, I'll take pictures of the work performed tonight, it's obvious that more work than just replacing the WinTron. I've already ordered a full Cap kit for it from Bob which should be here tomorrow. I might run through that this weekend while I hunt for a good price on the probe.
 
You don't tecnically need a hv probe to do that. Sure, it's nice, but not strictly required. The B+ voltage and the anode voltage are very closely related. Use the HV adjustment knob to tune the B+ in, and the HV will be dead on.

EDIT: The above is referring to the 6100 - for some reason I thought that's the monitor you had in there. For the Amp, you do need a HV probe to get things dialed in right.

You did remember to clean the face of the picture tube, right?

-Ian
 
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From an interview with one of the designers. The Defocus was brought about to help with the explosion, and they used it in several places. IE scrolling text fuzzy at the bottom, and clear as it scrolls. This is why those vector Mame LCD screen suck so bad. They can't duplicate a CRT look.


In order to have the Death Star explode the way we wanted it to, it wasn't enough to draw lots of concentric circles. We wanted to defocus the beam to fill it in. We briefly considered adding a vacuum tube to the monitor to control the Focus Voltage. Fortunately, the lead time for the part was too long. So what I did was to give the Vector Generator the ability to overdrive the monitor's color inputs. Overdriving the inputs causes the CRT to draw more current than it normally uses and drags down the High Voltage., which changes the normal ratio of Focus Grid voltage to Anode voltage, which defocuses the beam. This relationship is explained in The Secret Life of XY Monitors.

Yep.. there should be some blurring with the fireballs and death star. However, I've seen with bum deflection boards the screen flips out with the death star explosion... it looses its geometry more than it should.
 
You don't tecnically need a hv probe to do that. Sure, it's nice, but not strictly required. The B+ voltage and the anode voltage are very closely related. Use the HV adjustment knob to tune the B+ in, and the HV will be dead on.

You did remember to clean the face of the picture tube, right?

-Ian

Funny, yeah that was the first thing I did and then all the adjustments. It seems to have a good picture all around minus the phosphorus spot burn that will eventually drive me insane in the middle. I don't understand how people live with those if they are larger than an eraser head...

What is the raster test screen supposed to look like? I think that is what it is called. Mine just looks red and out of focus. That might be a better picture to compare to others machines.
 
OK so I'm at work, and I've been waiting for the video to load for ever.. WOW. That's got some issues..
You should have seen it before the adjustments, the BIP screen was off the charts and the Deathstar looked like an egg... Obviously this is going to take some time to get right but I am still extremely grateful for the good trade I got.
 
The raster screen should look like red bounding box, with about a 3" high solid red bar that goes from either side in the middle.

raster.JPG
 
That's what mine looked like, so it's really just the focus issue then (the big issue). Cap Kit and or HV Freq and voltage adjustment.

After that, degauss and then try to converge blue.
 
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