Tempest help

Nethawk86

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Donor 2016, 2020
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Ok, so I just did a complete rebuild with Johns arcade caps for my tempest as when I adjusted the hv board knob to reduce the size of my picture, I fried a couple caps. Since I did a rebuild I put in the lv2000 kit as well. I put it all together and fired up and fried my r29. Pulled apart and cleaned edge connector and replaced r29. Plugged back in and it works, but now my image is mirrored and line(y) as shown below. I haven't adjusted anything yet and am not exactly sure how to. What did I do wrong?
d3b54c302506f1855403d603af289f15.jpg
66dcec00ccde0c8aebf41707c5734867.jpg
 
Reversing the yoke wires will fix the symptom, but I suspect that's not the root cause of the problem.

There are two inputs on the game board labeled (in the schematics) XINV and YINV, which are used to flip the axes for cocktail use (and potentially in cases where the game is used in a mirrored cab, which other vector boards use). They are inputs on the board, but they are looped back through the harness to pins J and K on the main PCB. These are output pins, which are driven by the LS174 at N9.

Check the loopback wires on the harness for these pins. I'm not sure if one broke, if that would cause the image to flip, or vice versa (i.e., is the default flipped or not flipped, and which way does the LS174 drive it, I'm not sure), but there could an issue there.

Just for kicks, check test mode and make sure you aren't getting any errors.

Also the dual-image look of the picture looks like a convergence problem, but it's hard to say if it might not be related to the flipping. It's definitely suspect.

Did you move, bump, or adjust the yoke at all when you were working on it? Or did any of the convergence strips fall out? (They're the thin white plastic strips stuck to the tube, on some monitors.)
 
Reversing the yoke wires will fix the symptom, but I suspect that's not the root cause of the problem.

There are two inputs on the game board labeled (in the schematics) XINV and YINV, which are used to flip the axes for cocktail use (and potentially in cases where the game is used in a mirrored cab, which other vector boards use). They are inputs on the board, but they are looped back through the harness to pins J and K on the main PCB. These are output pins, which are driven by the LS174 at N9.

Check the loopback wires on the harness for these pins. I'm not sure if one broke, if that would cause the image to flip, or vice versa (i.e., is the default flipped or not flipped, and which way does the LS174 drive it, I'm not sure), but there could an issue there.

Just for kicks, check test mode and make sure you aren't getting any errors.

Also the dual-image look of the picture looks like a convergence problem, but it's hard to say if it might not be related to the flipping. It's definitely suspect.

Did you move, bump, or adjust the yoke at all when you were working on it? Or did any of the convergence strips fall out? (They're the thin white plastic strips stuck to the tube, on some monitors.)
I'll look at the harness. It was fine before with no issues, but since I did the lv2000 and full rebuild kit, this happened. I didn't knock the yoke and the strips are all there so yeah, maybe it's linked to the image flip....
 
Ok, got the mirror image fixed. It was the J connector in the harness. However the image is still kinda double but only on the blue text over. Could this be a voltage issue? Also the screen is a small bit jittery still. The double image doesn't seem to show up on the green or blue text. Just the red and white and the text behind it is the blue...
89bc136233fdc0455a2a97db3deec99b.jpg
 
Look at the red text all over the screen. Does the blue show up behind it all over the screen? If so, your convergence is off and needs a slight adjustment. Mark all your convergence rings with a Sharpie by making a straight line across all of them. Find the convergence instructions in the manual and find the red and blue rings move them slowly to attempt to adjust the picture. Having a mirror helps
 
Look at the red text all over the screen. Does the blue show up behind it all over the screen? If so, your convergence is off and needs a slight adjustment. Mark all your convergence rings with a Sharpie by making a straight line across all of them. Find the convergence instructions in the manual and find the red and blue rings move them slowly to attempt to adjust the picture. Having a mirror helps
Will try this, thanks! I was thinking the yoke was somehow bumped....didn't think about the rings.
 
I'm gonna redo my harness as I keep frying my r29 but I get it to work every once in a while. I got my TPG in for the convergence adjustments. It starts to reset on me every now and then which didn't happen before the rebuild, I'm chalking that up to the harness as well. Do I go here for the new harness I need?

https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=CECM30

Or is there any recommendations?
 
What TPG are you referring to?

Regarding the harness, you can tone out each ground and +5V line between the board and AR, to figure out which one(s) aren't making contact. Also, get or make an extraction tool, remove the +5V and ground pins from the connectors, clean them with acetone on a Q-tip, and gently bend the pins out to restore some of their tension, before you put them back in.

That's usually enough to take care of intermittent connections. Repinning the entire edge connector is overkill, unnecessary, and expensive, as most of the connections are low current, and don't wear out. It's only the high current power and ground pins that heat up and lose their tension over time.

Also, get a fiberglass scratch brush on ebay, and a can of DeOxit, and clean the fingers on the PCB edge connectors. Be sure to do both sides of both connectors. Burnish them with the brush till they're bright, wipe off the residue with Goof Off or 100% acetone on a Q-tip, then treat them with some DeOxit. That'll remove all corrosion, and make them like new.
 
What TPG are you referring to?

Regarding the harness, you can tone out each ground and +5V line between the board and AR, to figure out which one(s) aren't making contact. Also, get or make an extraction tool, remove the +5V and ground pins from the connectors, clean them with acetone on a Q-tip, and gently bend the pins out to restore some of their tension, before you put them back in.

That's usually enough to take care of intermittent connections. Repinning the entire edge connector is overkill, unnecessary, and expensive, as most of the connections are low current, and don't wear out. It's only the high current power and ground pins that heat up and lose their tension over time.

Also, get a fiberglass scratch brush on ebay, and a can of DeOxit, and clean the fingers on the PCB edge connectors. Be sure to do both sides of both connectors. Burnish them with the brush till they're bright, wipe off the residue with Goof Off or 100% acetone on a Q-tip, then treat them with some DeOxit. That'll remove all corrosion, and make them like new.
I got the craft mech TPG on here. I took your advice about using my dremel with the steel brush wheel.
 
I got the craft mech TPG on here. I took your advice about using my dremel with the steel brush wheel.



Crafty's TPG is a raster pattern generator. It can't be used with vectors. (Still a great tool though, if you work on raster monitors. I have one and love it.)

However you can just use the test patterns in the Tempest PCB's test mode to do convergence on a vector.
 
Crafty's TPG is a raster pattern generator. It can't be used with vectors. (Still a great tool though, if you work on raster monitors. I have one and love it.)

However you can just use the test patterns in the Tempest PCB's test mode to do convergence on a vector.
Huh, didn't know tempest had a convergence pattern. That's awesome! I'll do the harness like you suggested before I touch anything else...besides soldering in another r29 lol....
 
There are two types of harness connectors I have seen in Space Duel and Tempest. One style is pure sh*t. It looks like a rolled pin when viewing into the opening vs the split pin spring style contact of the other version. Bob Roberts used to sell replacements. Don't know where you can get them now. They are drying up. If you have the rolled pin version, you need to replace it. You will have nothing but trouble.
 
There are two types of harness connectors I have seen in Space Duel and Tempest. One style is pure sh*t. It looks like a rolled pin when viewing into the opening vs the split pin spring style contact of the other version. Bob Roberts used to sell replacements. Don't know where you can get them now. They are drying up. If you have the rolled pin version, you need to replace it. You will have nothing but trouble.



This is interesting. I'd love to see pics.
 
I think I have cut all the "bad " ones out of my harnesses. I shall see if I can find one. I may, and that's a big "may" have kept one for just that reason. I know I helped a friend replace one of his on his Tempest about a year ago.
 
I think I have cut all the "bad " ones out of my harnesses. I shall see if I can find one. I may, and that's a big "may" have kept one for just that reason. I know I helped a friend replace one of his on his Tempest about a year ago.

Is this the good/decent one?
 

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Ok, got the mirror image fixed. It was the J connector in the harness. However the image is still kinda double but only on the blue text over. Could this be a voltage issue? Also the screen is a small bit jittery still. The double image doesn't seem to show up on the green or blue text. Just the red and white and the text behind it is the blue...

Hi Nethawk86, I'm wondering if you can comment some more on how your Tempest image became mirrored, and exactly how you fixed it.

I'm looking into reversing mine on purpose for use in a mirrored cabinet. Thanks!
 
Hi Nethawk86, I'm wondering if you can comment some more on how your Tempest image became mirrored, and exactly how you fixed it.

I'm looking into reversing mine on purpose for use in a mirrored cabinet. Thanks!
You should be able to flip it by swapping two of the four "RGB" wires going from the deflection board to the yoke. I did it by accident when I first set up my XY Kit monitor.

Which two, that I'm not sure about for the 6100 board, but I feel safe in guessing somebody (probably several somebodies) here will know.

Cool project, BTW. I've always thought Tempest would be a good candidate for a mirrored setup with a deep-space background.
 
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