Star Wars vector - shrunk and skewed

pipcade

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My Star Wars works great except the display is shrunk and skewed a bit. Not sure which monitor it is - I have pics though - maybe someone can tell me?





I took a video of what the monitor is doing too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3ou0Z3HTww
Notice how far everything is from the sides and that some of the lines are skewed. I have had differing opinions on what is wrong:
1) monitor problem
2) PCB problem
3) monitor adjustment

I'm going to try and take my PCB over to a nearby collector's house to try in his SW to eliminate the PCB as the source of the problem. The monitor worked fine then I left it for like a year or so then when I fired it p I saw that. I haven't touched the controls to adjust since i figured it worked before and this indicates something wrong, not an adjustment.

Anyone recognize this problem or can suggest some things to check or replace (cap kit?).

Thanks!
 
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That is a WG6100. Clean it, Cap it, and put a LV2000 on the Low Voltage section. :)

You can try to adjust the problem out, but I am not familiar with the adjustments available for Star Wars. There are some pots on the the other Atari vectors for aligning the vectors. What does the cross hatch look like in test mode?

Edit: I might take back the "Cap it" comment. Looks like it might have been capped recently... dust missing where fingers were on the deflection PCB and the nice pretty light blue cap on the neckboard make me think it wasn't that long ago.
 
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That is a WG6100. Clean it, Cap it, and put a LV2000 on the Low Voltage section. :)

You can try to adjust the problem out, but I am not familiar with the adjustments available for Star Wars. There are some pots on the the other Atari vectors for aligning the vectors. What does the cross hatch look like in test mode?

Edit: I might take back the "Cap it" comment. Looks like it might have been capped recently... dust missing where fingers were on the deflection PCB and the nice pretty light blue cap on the neckboard make me think it wasn't that long ago.

Test mode - good idea - will do that tomorrow and take a pic of the cross hatch. So no cap kit? just LV2000?
 
Test mode - good idea - will do that tomorrow and take a pic of the cross hatch. So no cap kit? just LV2000?

Well take a look inside the HV cage to see if the caps are all new. The one on the neckboard looks like it is a newer cap kit. The LV2000 is a preventative suggestion so it doesn't need to be done for this issue. It is just to keep it running long term and most folks on here will tell you to do it. I would wait until your done with this issue though.

I would try to adjust the pots on the StarWars PCB first to see if you can adjust that out. Do you have a second vector game you could hook the monitor up too? Or do you have a Oscilloscope that you could use to test the StarWars PCB with?

Since it could be with your Monitor or the Game PCB, it is best to narrow it down before you go changing a bunch of stuff.

-VJ
 
Thanks for the advice -will take a look tomorrow. Comments inline below:

Well take a look inside the HV cage to see if the caps are all new.
ME: ok
The one on the neckboard looks like it is a newer cap kit. The LV2000 is a preventative suggestion so it doesn't need to be done for this issue. It is just to keep it running long term and most folks on here will tell you to do it. I would wait until your done with this issue though.

I would try to adjust the pots on the StarWars PCB first to see if you can adjust that out.
ME: ok - I was hesitant to do that since it worked fine previously and the ajustments hadn't been touched

Do you have a second vector game you could hook the monitor up too?
ME: nope. No other vectors

Or do you have a Oscilloscope that you could use to test the StarWars PCB with?
ME: nope - but I had thought about buying one :)

Since it could be with your Monitor or the Game PCB, it is best to narrow it down before you go changing a bunch of stuff.
ME: right. I'm going to try and take the PCB over to a friends house to test in his SW... guess I could take my monitor too - hadn't thought of that.

-VJ

Thanks again!
 
Thanks for the advice -will take a look tomorrow. Comments inline below:



Thanks again!

Just take your game board. If the game board works fine over there it is likely the monitor. Also, even though you have not messed with the POTs on the game board, they do go bad. Adjusting them might help fix it or help identify if the POTs are bad. Anyway, worth a shot since it is easy and free. :) You could probably wait to test the POTs until after you try your board in the other machine if you don't think it is them. Just keep in mind that moving the board between machines can cause you to need to adjust the POTs since they monitors, power, can vary between the cabinets.
 
That issue is most likely the monitors yoke is crooked. However other things to check would be the AVG chip (notorious for going bad) and on the video board there are tons of capacitors and a cold solder joint will also produce that affect.
 
That issue is most likely the monitors yoke is crooked. However other things to check would be the AVG chip (notorious for going bad) and on the video board there are tons of capacitors and a cold solder joint will also produce that affect.

It doesn't look like it would be the yoke. I can see it looking straight and against at least two wedges in the picture. Certainly something he could eyeball to see if the third wedge is in place on the bottom.
 
Did you ever figure out what the problem was? Did the boards work in the other machine?

I've got a cockpit with a 25" amplifone that just started doing the same thing. Only thing I've tried is swapping the AVG chip and that didn't change it.

I just got the amplifone chassis back from arcadecup, so I'm thinking it's on the boards, like maybe one of the op amps or something.

Any ideas?

Thanks
John
 
Nope - I never got to try it in another cab. it's still the same as it sits here. Was thinking of sending to arcadecup too.
 
Well don't bother sending the monitor to arcadecup. I tested mine with another known working vector monitor and it did the exact same thing. It's definitely a board problem. (And mine looks just like yours...exactly. So we're dealing with the same thing here).

Also, I tried putting in a known good AVG chip - that didn't solve it either. And it is not just an adjustment - so don't bother messing with the pots.

I'm going to try to track it down and once I do, I'll let you know what I find. If anyone else figures it out first, please tell us and save us the headache!!!

Thanks,
John
 
That issue is most likely the monitors yoke is crooked. However other things to check would be the AVG chip (notorious for going bad) and on the video board there are tons of capacitors and a cold solder joint will also produce that affect.

Geez man - I never watched the video - definently NOT a crooked yoke ;)

I would however recommend checking the video board. Specifially all the brown disc capacitors. I experienced something very similiar and after hours of staring at the damn boardset, figuring I had nothing left to lose I start wiggling every part on that board and low and behold I found one disc capacitor that had a cold solder joint.
 
I just fired mine up this morning and it just started doing the exact same thing yours is doing in your video. Is your's still skewed? My Deathstar looks like a deflated ball.
 
I would however recommend checking the video board. Specifially all the brown disc capacitors. I experienced something very similiar and after hours of staring at the damn boardset, figuring I had nothing left to lose I start wiggling every part on that board and low and behold I found one disc capacitor that had a cold solder joint.

Video board? on the main SW PCB I assume? or do you mean on the monitor (or elsewhere)?

Mine has Clay's ESB switcher kit installed. Not sure that I have tried it with ESB running. I need to try that. Anyone else seeing this problem with an ESB switcher installed?
 
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The SW Video PCB is what I speak of. Check every brown disc compacitor. FWIW I also have the Cowgill SW/ESB kit installed. Mine works perfectly other than doesn't save HS's. Bah - Clay never repsonded back to me on how to fix it either. Swapped out NVRAM chips and made zero difference.
 
Oscilloscope

Small update.... I tried test mode and saw pretty much the same behavior - I need to take a video of it for you guys to look at. I don't think this narrows it down to PCB or monitor though.

So - I was thinking of getting an oscilloscope. I know I can display the SW PCB output on the scope - can I also send a waveform out to the SW monitor? if so, it seems like I could test both the monitor and the PCB/cab and determine where the problem lies.

So, I know nothing about scopes - can anyone tell me what I need to make sure it has? Ebay has some near me (so no shipping) but I don't know jack about them or if they will serve my needs.

One is a TENMA 72 - 720
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkpar...e&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=7&_sc=1

and one is a Tektronix 7623A
http://cgi.ebay.com/Tektronix-7623A...ItemQQptZBI_Oscilloscopes?hash=item53dd7877b4

and one is a GOS-653G Dual Trace Oscilloscope
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkpar...e&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=7&_sc=1

are any of these good/bad?
 
Small update.... I tried test mode and saw pretty much the same behavior - I need to take a video of it for you guys to look at. I don't think this narrows it down to PCB or monitor though.

So - I was thinking of getting an oscilloscope. I know I can display the SW PCB output on the scope - can I also send a waveform out to the SW monitor? if so, it seems like I could test both the monitor and the PCB/cab and determine where the problem lies.

So, I know nothing about scopes - can anyone tell me what I need to make sure it has? Ebay has some near me (so no shipping) but I don't know jack about them or if they will serve my needs.

One is a TENMA 72 - 720
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkpar...e&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=7&_sc=1

and one is a Tektronix 7623A
http://cgi.ebay.com/Tektronix-7623A...ItemQQptZBI_Oscilloscopes?hash=item53dd7877b4

and one is a GOS-653G Dual Trace Oscilloscope
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkpar...e&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=7&_sc=1

are any of these good/bad?

The higher the Khz the better, try for a 20kHz or higher
Dual trace means it can display 2 patterns at the same time. So maybe that is not needed.

An oscilloscope is an XY Monitor, like the star wars monitor.

You clip your logic probe wherever you want on the PCBs and adjust the scale to read it on the little screen. (The alligator clip goes on Ground)

People have actually played the game on the little screen.

I paid $50.00 bucks for mine, no need to pay a fortune.

Once you get one, just come back here and follow up
 
I may have said it before, but I guarantee this problem is on the boards, not the monitor. I swapped game boards between two star wars games and the problem followed the boards.

No further update, just wanted to clarify. I haven't tried to trace it down yet but the brown disc capacitor thing sounds like a good place to start. I've seen them cause similar problems on other atari vector games.

John
 
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