Tech Star Wars cockpit - 25" amplifone monitor

waltgman

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Tech Star Wars cockpit - 25" amplifone monitor

Powered the game up today, played a couple games, and in the middle of a game, the screen suddenly seemed to lose about 90 percent of it's brighness.

All I could see on the screen, were my own shots and the return fire from the tie fighters.

If I power the game down and turn it on after about 15 minutes, the game plays normally again, but loses brightness again in about 5 minutes.

Any thoughts on where I should start troubleshooting?
 
What's the state of your monitor's HV board (and deflection board for that matter)? Have they even been rebuilt? If you still have the red HV unit, they are notorious for failure but fortunately replacements are available (http://www.cinelabs.com/amp/)

See the color vector monitor FAQ for details on troubleshooting, repair and preventative maintenance. It (and lots of other great info and links) can be found via dezbaz's web site (http://www.dsbelec.iinet.net.au/amplifoneDB_Backup.htm)

Several people here (including me) can do the rebuilds and upgrades to your HV and deflection boards which will insure your precious monitor stays healthy and reliable.

There's a chance it could be a problem with the game boards. Do the other objects disappear and the shots stay the same brightness, or are the shots dimmed?
 
Powered the game up today, played a couple games, and in the middle of a game, the screen suddenly seemed to lose about 90 percent of it's brighness.

All I could see on the screen, were my own shots and the return fire from the tie fighters.

If I power the game down and turn it on after about 15 minutes, the game plays normally again, but loses brightness again in about 5 minutes.

Any thoughts on where I should start troubleshooting?

After discharging the monitor (So you survive), I would check the focus block first
Brightness comes directly from there, could be a near broken wire.

The wires from the top down are: HV, Focus, Brightness, reference

Slide the brightness and Focus boots back and have a look, often all but 1 or 2 wire strands break due to years of flexing

If the wires are good, I would look at rebuilding / modding etc as Douglas said :)
 
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Thanks for the tips. I will get more details on whether or not I have the original flyback etc and will go from there

Thanks again!
 
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