Tempest Cocktail No 5 Volts DC

72Demon

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Hello, I have a Tempest Cocktail I purchased not working. It did have the fuse at F5 popped when I got it. I have since replaced it. I am not getting 5 volts at the Tempest PCB, leds are off. Fans turn on, I have neck glow, the monitor chassis's red lcd light is on. No lights on the player 1 or 2 start buttons. I tried swapping the A035435-02 ARII with the A035435-04 ARII in my working Food Fight. Did not help. I have tried researching Tempest issues online, and followed some troubleshooting flowcharts. I even tested the power brick by using Jimjaycee's Youtube video. I think the issue is with the power brick since I am not getting the 11-15 volts DC from pins 1,2,3 at the 15 pin connector. It is only putting out around .07 volts. The rest of the AC voltages checked out good (pins 6,7,8,9,10,11,13).

Is there anything else I should check? Is there something else causing this? Can I fix the Power Brick if it is the problem? I know the power brick in my Food Fight has different power outputs, any other games that have compatable power bricks? This is my only vector machine, so I am guessing not.

So far my research did not pull up this issue, any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I have included pics just in case some one sees something I dont.
Thanks for reading my post.
 

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Never dealt with these machines personally, but people always say bad DC out of the power brick usually means a failed Big Blue. However, I would think you'd then get a low reading, not 0. I'd check the wiring between the ARII and the transformer in the power brick. Continuity test is your friend.

-E- You checked ALL the fuses on the powerbrick itself, right? Don't eyeball -- actually meter them.
 
Never dealt with these machines personally, but people always say bad DC out of the power brick usually means a failed Big Blue. However, I would think you'd then get a low reading, not 0. I'd check the wiring between the ARII and the transformer in the power brick. Continuity test is your friend.

-E- You checked ALL the fuses on the powerbrick itself, right? Don't eyeball -- actually meter them.

+1 on metering them. When you do that, make sure to test on the base of the fuse holder, NOT on the fuse itself! I Tempest that spent the last few years in a barn was not putting out 10.3. We were troubleshooting the power brick when it started working. Turns out the fuses and holders were slightly corroded from mouse piss. Reseating the fuses fixed the problem.

I know some people replace Big Blue by default. I would not replace it unless you measure AC ripple or bad with an ESR meter. Why spend the $20 until you verify that it needs to be replaced?
 
I have reseated the fuses. Can you tell me what readings/values I should look for at each fuse?

With the power OFF, check for continuity on each fuse (ohms at or near zero). Remember to measure on the fuse holder! This includes resistance for corrosion between fuse and holder.

If they are all good, turn ON the power and set your voltmeter to AC. Measure between 10.3VDC and ground and report back that number.
 
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MajorHavoc:

I know I checked the fuses for continuity, but dont recall if I tested at the fuse holders, I will try that too. Regarding the fuse readings of 10.3 VDC, will that be for all four fuses? They all should be 10.3 VDC? Not sure sure if I understand, test it with the multimeter on AC and test between 10.3 VDC and ground? Where exactly do you want me to put the test leads? Am I testing between the fuses and ground?

Thanks for helping.
 
MajorHavoc:

I know I checked the fuses for continuity, but dont recall if I tested at the fuse holders, I will try that too. Regarding the fuse readings of 10.3 VDC, will that be for all four fuses? They all should be 10.3 VDC? Not sure sure if I understand, test it with the multimeter on AC and test between 10.3 VDC and ground? Where exactly do you want me to put the test leads? Am I testing between the fuses and ground?

Thanks for helping.

That will tell you if there is an ac ripple in there and if a cap is bad. This is a common practice to see if a filter cap is bad (like the Big Blue of happiness). You should not see ac voltage there but if you do, something is rotting in Denmark.

Test at the output of the ar board and put one lead (black) to ground some where and probe with the red lead. You should be good if you set meter to 20v.

I found some useful info for that game for you. Look it over good before testing.

http://andysarcade.de/tempest.html

EDIT:
You may have seen this but I decided to put it here anyway.....

http://www.elektronforge.com/AdjustAtariPS.htm
 
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Thanks for the input. I had actually gone over the AndyArcade site for help. I was unable to locate anything similar to my problem. One of the links for Troubleshooting Tempest Machine sends you to learn Sexy Mandarin on youtube, not bad, but not too helpful for whats wrong with my Tempest :)

Ok, lets see if I understand correctly - I am testing the red line out of the ARII to see if it shows A/C current leaking thru it, when it should have 10.3 VDC? Is this the same red wires going to the Tempest PCB?
 
Thanks for the input. I had actually gone over the AndyArcade site for help. I was unable to locate anything similar to my problem. One of the links for Troubleshooting Tempest Machine sends you to learn Sexy Mandarin on youtube, not bad, but not too helpful for whats wrong with my Tempest :)

Ok, lets see if I understand correctly - I am testing the red line out of the ARII to see if it shows A/C current leaking thru it, when it should have 10.3 VDC? Is this the same red wires going to the Tempest PCB?

Can you please post a pic of the ar board so I can help you much better. I am not exactly sure of which ar board you have. If I can see a pic of it I will know for sure.

It is most probable that you regulator is bad if there is nothing one the +5 or a part is shorted.

Check that 10.3 vdc for ac and there should not be much of any.

Check the regulator with an ohms test (power off and disconnected) to make certain that is not the fault.

Power problems are very easy to find and fix, you just follow the voltages until it stops. Starts at the power plug in the wall outlet and goes through some switches and maybe a fuse or breaker. To a transformer and some kind of rectifier and then regulators and filter caps to output or a filter board.

I'll look over the schematics latter tomorrow and let you know where to check if someone more knowledgeable doesn't chime in sooner.

Please post a close up pic of that ar board.

Here is some basic info on testing the regulator but I think that on is in a to casing.

http://www.mrvfone.com.au/sega/7805.htm
 
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Thank you for your help.

Ok, I think I got the original problem working. I took apart the power brick and cleaned up the orange wires going to the bottom of Big Blue. I cleaned all connections to the fuse box following the orange wires. Now it powers up and can play. Just now the picture kind of drifts, the maze is not centered, and if you are not playing, it seems like the monitor cuts off and you see the white light in the center before it goes blank. If you start a new game it comes back up again, but is still off center, where the lines do not match up good, and you and the bad guys are not centered on the maze.

I guess I need to research the monitor now. If anyone has seen that before could you point me in the right direction.
 

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Thank you for your help.

Ok, I think I got the original problem working. I took apart the power brick and cleaned up the orange wires going to the bottom of Big Blue. I cleaned all connections to the fuse box following the orange wires. Now it powers up and can play. Just now the picture kind of drifts, the maze is not centered, and if you are not playing, it seems like the monitor cuts off and you see the white light in the center before it goes blank. If you start a new game it comes back up again, but is still off center, where the lines do not match up good, and you and the bad guys are not centered on the maze.

I guess I need to research the monitor now. If anyone has seen that before could you point me in the right direction.

That doesn't sound like monitor to me. I think you have board issues, or maybe a voltage that's off.
 
You are probably right, I made a new posting in the monitor repair section regarding this issue, and have not gotten any replies. Here are more pictures of what it is doing. I did try adjusting the lines using the pots on the pcb but could not get the grids lined up in all sections of the test screen. Spot killer comes on when the screen sometimes drifts off to the right during attract mode or sometimes when you try to go to the test menu. Most of the time it will come back on when you credit up and start a game. This is my first and only Vector game so I have been trying to read up on them, but I am stumped on what is causing this.
 

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I'm not a vector guy, but I'd guess that the circuitry that produces the actual X/Y signals is in trouble. I wish I could be more specific but I don't know vector hardware at all.
 
I have gone thru the test procedure, and tired to make adjustments to the test screens, it only worked on some of them. The others, did not make a difference adjusting the pots on the Tempest PCB. I can not get it into the Test Menu everytime. Usually it will go into spot killer and the screens shuts off. Not sure, but it seems like during attact mode, the screen veers off to the right and it goes into spot killer/shut off. When playing the game it will work (with off centered grids/characters) untill the game ends then it may go into spot killer/shut off for the monitor.

I did not get any rom errors for the self test. Here are some pics of the test screens:
 

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It appears that one (or more) of your adjustment pots are bad. This is a common failure on Atari vectors.

Some versions of the vector monitor will kick in the spot killer if not a lot of vectors are drawn on one half of the monitor. Atari "fixed" this in one version of Tempest by drawing the "Atari copyright XXXX" at the bottom of the screen to make more vectors on the bottom half of the screen.
 
The adjustment pots did adjust the screen, but none of them adjusted the area that needs to be adjusted. Each adjustment pot did adjust a different area, so I believe they are working (I could be wrong though). I did find alot of cold solder and some that looked cracked on the interconnect area on the large PCB. The smaller PCB looks like it had already been soldered there. I resoldered today, and need to hook it all back up and see if that made any difference.
 
I installed the pcb that I soldered the interconnect connections. It is still going into spot killer /screen shut off. It really seems like it does not have vertical hold or something. Now when you play, the picture will go either to the right or left and then the spot killer comes on. It takes a little while then it will come back on again, but do the same thing and go to spot killer. It does not stay on for very long now. It is actually happening so fast I can not tell if the grids are correct or not, since the picture does not stay still.

Does the WG6100 have a vertical hold adjustment? Any ideas on what to check? After it was doing this, I did try adjusting the pots on the PCB again. No help. Could not get it to show a picture in test mode either.
 
No vertical hold adjustment.

I am not sure what to check next. I was thinking voltages were off (+15, -15) but then a picture you posted does not jive with that.

Next time you actually see something on the screen, shoot a video.
 
If the spot killer is lit on the deflection board, chances are you have bad output from the main Tempest board. This is going to require you to get it repaired. It sounds like you have attempted the obvious fixes and it might be at a chip level. You might want to PM Talon2000 and see if he is taking repairs. Whatever you do, don't attempt something you aren't able to fix competently.
 
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