Star Wars power supply issues?? W/ video

shertz

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My Star Wars seems to experiencing PS problems. The monitor tends to flicker, the audio is sometimes distorted, the florescent light will not completely come on. The Amp monitor has been rebuilt. Sometimes the pcb will either reset on its self or shut down all together. I linked a youtube video to check out. Any help is greatly appreciated.

http://youtu.be/F5W3geEamOQ
 
The marquee bulb could be either a bad starter, or bulb.

You need to measure the ac volts across the big blue to determine if you are getting ac voltage past it. Ie it's not filtering properly. If there is to much ac that will definitely cause problems. Ideally you want less than .05 AC volts.

Then check other things such as the connectors going to the game, all your other voltages etc.
 
Big Blue cap is always a good place to start on these old Atari games... I always replace them, inexpensive... Bob Roberts has these:

http://www.therealbobroberts.net/parts.html#atari

Edge connectors and filterboards also can cause problems if they aren't making proper contact. You can get a soft "Ruby Red" eraser and lightly clean the board contacts. Check to be sure that edge connector pins are not bent and are making proper contact.
 
You say the Amp monitor is rebuild.
Did you replace the H-size and V-size pots on the deflection board ?

If not, those pots go bad, replace them. It looks like the V-size pot is bad.

And then probably the starter or the tube for the marquee problem.

Big Blue's don't go bad often, I've still to find a bad one....
 
Thanks for the help guys. I'll order the big blue from bob. Does bob also sell the pots too? This SW is HUO so nothing has been touched except the amp monitor being rebuilt and spaeth's SW multi kit. I figured it would be the big blue or the AR to go bad. I'm going to plug in a WG monitor to see if I still get the same results.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I'll order the big blue from bob. Does bob also sell the pots too? This SW is HUO so nothing has been touched except the amp monitor being rebuilt and spaeth's SW multi kit. I figured it would be the big blue or the AR to go bad. I'm going to plug in a WG monitor to see if I still get the same results.

That's a good idea, do hook up the degauss coil....I thought it wouldn't be necessary and got a nice puff of smoke from the PTC (but it didn't damage for some strange reason).

Yes, Bob has the pots, look for the long-legged one's they're easier to install.
r76r79.jpg
 
Thanks for the help guys. I'll order the big blue from bob. Does bob also sell the pots too? This SW is HUO so nothing has been touched except the amp monitor being rebuilt and spaeth's SW multi kit. I figured it would be the big blue or the AR to go bad. I'm going to plug in a WG monitor to see if I still get the same results.

My original Tempest board did this a bit several years back...it turned out to be so simple...just one of the positioning pots on the board. All I needed to do was turn them back and forth a few times (with the game off just to be safe), and then adjust them back to get the picture all lined up nicely and that was it...it was fine after wards.

You could also try just cleaning the pots with some contact cleaner and also reflowing the solder to them.

Bob probably sells the pots...look up their size in the manual and go to his "Pots" page to ID the ones you want. Or you can just ask him directly...he might know off of the top of his head :) .

He does sell a Tempest board pot replacement kit...some of those pots may be the same.

Also try cleaning the edge connector as suggested, and I would just replace Big Blue and rebuild the AR board since both are cheap enough and easy to do, and once done, they should help keep the game happy for that much longer. I've done this for pretty much all of my Ataris (along with monitor rebuilds and the LV2000 kits if applicable and new flybacks for both of my amps) and they seem to stay happy for the most part...had everything on for the recent Halloween party with no problems at all :D .

Jon
 
Replaced big blue and adjusted pots. At first I thought it was fixed but now it looks worse. I havent replaced any pots or rebuild the ARII. The fun continues....
 
I've seen similar video effects with a loose pin in the connector between the deflection board and the wiring harness. My SW uses a WG K6100 if it makes a difference. I'm not familiar with the Amplifone set up.
 
HAHA I never doubted you. I'm not a tech wiz so I alway take the simple solution first. Of course with my luck that hardly ever fixes the problem :-/

;) Sorry man, I was a bit in a bad mood yesterday...

The thing is when the pots are worn, they have a "sweet spot" where they are really bad.
Moving them a bit can indeed solve it temporarily but that's just more for seeing if the pots are the cause.

Replacing the pots is not the easiest solder job by the way.

Also: it's not guaranteed that this is the problem, Jimjaycee's suggestion is also a possible cause. The WG and Amplifone hook up the same way. I've also seen pins "coming up" from the connector, so worth checking too.
 
;) Sorry man, I was a bit in a bad mood yesterday...

The thing is when the pots are worn, they have a "sweet spot" where they are really bad.
Moving them a bit can indeed solve it temporarily but that's just more for seeing if the pots are the cause.

Replacing the pots is not the easiest solder job by the way.

Also: it's not guaranteed that this is the problem, Jimjaycee's suggestion is also a possible cause. The WG and Amplifone hook up the same way. I've also seen pins "coming up" from the connector, so worth checking too.

Yeah, I'm going to have to poke around there some more **sigh** If anything, I think the next step is to have the ARII rebuilt. Who does those?
 
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