Star Wars Upright Amplifone Help Needed

m_mcgovern said:
Congratulations!

So what was done in going from your second-to-last picture to the last picture?
Click to expand...

I guess that in a sense ( no pun intended ) the problem still has the potential to exist. The difference was that I hip bumped the cabinet, and the picture turned out fine. I've clearly got a short to find still, but I'm just burned out on working on the game at the moment, so I'm taking at least the night off from Star Wars repair. You know, so I can sign on the internet and talk about Star Wars repair. :)

I looked at Radio Shack tonight and priced out some fans for the internals of the Star Wars. Just gotta decide if I want AC or DC and make sure there's a matching voltage in the cabinet available for whatever I buy. Leaning towards DC since they are large fans and are cheap (~$10).

I have a friend with a Star Wars with a WG, and the Amp absolutely blows it away. Hopefully with all of the rebuilt parts (HV, Deflection, AR II and Big Blue), this game will be happy for years to come.

Thanks again everyone!

Blaine
 
The picture is adjusted a little bit too wide, you need to see a bit more of the guns. Look for 4 blue dots in each corner of the screen during attract mode. These dots have to be about 2 cm. or so from the corners.

So....now it's time to rebuild the yoke ;)

And get a SW/ESB kit :)

Amplifone is bliss :)
 
It certainly is a bit wider than it should be. Funny, that issue was what got me into the mess with the interconnect board slipping off and me thinking the game board had died. I have looked and looked at the deflection board, but it definitely does not have XY adjustment pots on it. I will likely have to use the pots on the game board to adjust the width. I've also got to chase down that pesky short that causes the brightness to get jacked up. But for bye, it at least works, and I marvel at the great picture and fun game every time I turn it on.

Oh, and I'm on the "wish list" for the SW/ESB kit. :)
 
Can you post a picture of your deflection board ? If they're really not there I would add them anyway (like Amplifone did....but maybe yours were removed). It's a bit of a "mod" you have to solder the pots over some resistors. Not a hard thing to do though.
 
Hello again,

Seems like every time I think I've got this thing fixed, that damn brightness issue keeps cropping back up. This video is illustrative of what's going on, minus having adjusted the brightness all the way down on the pot:



I've checked the wires from the focus assembly and resecured the focus wire to the stump at the former pin on the neck. I've turned both the focus and brightness pots repeatedly but can't get it cleared up. Earlier today, I could get the picture to clear up by wiggling the back of the brightness pot, so I assumed that it was the issue. However, wiggling the back of the brightness pot now has no effect on the excessive brightness issue. It does allow me to adjust the brightness through all of the movement of the pot, but it won't adjust down enough to clear up the spot and retrace lines.

I'm considering trying the G07 focus assembly replacement, but I'm not convinced the focus assembly itself is the culprit.

What am I overlooking?

Thanks everyone!

Blaine

PS: will post a pic of the deflection board ASAP so that we can figure out the XY size adjustment issue. I didn't figure there was any reason to worry about that until I'm sure I'm not going to burn a (bigger) hole through the phosphor first.
 
Ok, showing about 2.2 mega ohms at the lowest brightness setting on the pot. Also showing 295 VDC at the lowest setting while powered on.

Anyone?

Thanks!
 

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Ok, got it figured out.

The stump where the focus pin broke is no longer making contact with the wire I put into place. It's so far back now that I can't get the focus wire connected any longer and can't even get a small blob of solder to attach to it.

I'm going to take the monitor (and maybe the entire game) to a TV/arcade repair shop run by a trusted friend. Hopefully he'll be able to repair or replace the pin, which should get the game straightened out.

As much as I'd like to, I can't hang this one on Atari. I broke the focus pin, so I'm on the hook for this one. :)

Thanks again to everyone that has been a contributor to helping me with the Star Wars. I hope you have the same satisfaction of knowing that it is still working and we (my hands and our collective minds) saved it from certain death in a warehouse. I'll post on this thread again when I get it back, hopefully repaired.
 
I'd love to be able to fix it at home, but it just won't seem to cooperate. I've attached a photo of the affected area. I've cut away the soft rubber and tried to solder to the stump, but nothing sticks. I've tried conductive glue, and even the foil trace pens, but nothing works.

Believe me, if there's anything that can be done prior to taking it in for service, I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks!
 

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I had that exact problem on a 25" Amplifone

I wrecked the tube by trying to silver solder to it. Don't use a flame what ever you do.

A heart breaking Psssssssssssssss sound ended my hopes

Can you try and crimp to it maybe?

You are close to the point of replacement I am sad to say (1%)
 
Fixed again! And... broke again.

Well, I sorted out the brightness issue. It had nothing to do with the pot. It was a short somewhere around the center area of the HV board. I reflowed any less than ideal solder points, and voila:



Also, I took some 12MP pictures of the neck, and found that there was a small amount of stump left for the focus pin. I ran the wire to it and electrical taped it into place. It ain't pretty, but the focus problem was solved.

After pushing the game into place, and marveling at how much fun it was going to be to play it, I went to coin it up. I noticed that one of the wires for a coin door light was removed. I reconnected it, and wham-o! The picture slowly faded away, and I've not seen a thing since.

REMINDER: because of the damage to the flyback from soldering in a cap backwards on the HV board, I've been pulling the 6.3v AC from the coin door.

I checked the same blue AC wire that was giving me 6.3v AC at the bottom of the cabinet. It now shows only about 4.1v AC. Also, whenever I hook up the tap wire from it to the WHT HTR wire contact point on the HV board, it cuts the AC voltage on the blue wire down to about 0.4v AC.

I've tried unplugging the coin door (to eliminate it as a short), but it doesn't change the status of this problem.

Also, I've tried reading the voltage at the F6 (bottom left) fuse, and it reads about the same as the blue wire - 4.1v AC.

Something must be shorted, but I'll be damned if I can figure out where. I just can't see how plugging a coin door lamp back in can create this unusual problem, especially since I unplugged the entire door to no avail.

Help! I keep getting it working for 20 minutes, and then I keep killing it!

Thanks,
Blaine
 
You're not in luck with this one !!

Great video though, I love how (I assume yours son) ducks away and "jumps up" at the fireballs in the trench.

Until this day, I STILL have the same feeling of ducking and avoiding the fire balls (for a weird reason only in the trench) and I actually DO move a bit like that :D

It shows how well done this game (and scene) really is... it's just a bunch of lines...but it really gives you the feeling of being there :D

If everything fails, you can always use a separate transformer that will deliver 6.3 vac for just the CRT.
 
Yeah, he's a cool kid. He gets so excited to play it when I can get it working.

I should also mention that I do have 6.3v AC going to the light bulbs at the coin door, even after all of the crap it's put me through from just trying to plug the light back in. I tried tapping into that, but it seems to short out there as well. It only reads 0.3v AC at the HTR WHT, or even at the source, once I try to tap into it, no matter if the HTR WHT is hooked up or not.

Any more ideas?
 
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In a sense, I think this is a cabinet wiring issue. It started when I plugged in the coin door lamp, and there just isn't enough voltage at the previous point to get the 6.3v. Even tapping the 6.3v directly from the light wire to the blue AC wire gets dropped down to the 4v of the blue wire, not up to the 6.3v of the lamp wire.

There just seems to be a short somewhere that can only have been caused by plugging in the lamp wire. The short is not in the coin door, or unplugging it would have solved the problem. Interestingly, unplugging the coin door did allow the voltage to increase from 4.1v AC to 4.3v AC. All fuses were also pulled, buzzed, tested good and replaced.

Other than the loss of glow in the neck, there are no other apparent I'll effects from this issue.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
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