tempest monitor just died

kerri369

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i previously posted about a tempest monitor that wasnt centered. the screen died in the middle of playing it. now it plays blind all red lights on the monitor chassis and on the pcb board are consistantly lit, have sound and the neck is glowing fuses seem good. before the imaged died i did have a problem with the images jumping. am i screwed?
 
i previously posted about a tempest monitor that wasnt centered. the screen died in the middle of playing it. now it plays blind all red lights on the monitor chassis and on the pcb board are consistantly lit, have sound and the neck is glowing fuses seem good. before the imaged died i did have a problem with the images jumping. am i screwed?

not screwed it's fixable although I'm not 100% sure that you have a monitor problem. Could also be a board issue by your description.
 
get the monitor rebuilt first, then if that doesn't fix it, rebuild the power brick...
 
I do it. Chad at www.arcadecup.com does it. You're close to Mark Spaeth (sorta), but I don't know if he'd want to do it or not. I'm sure there are quite a few other members here that would do it.

Just depends on how fast you want it done, and how much you want to spend...
 
A very important point needs to be made about vector games that I don't see mentioned enough. There are 3 critical parts to a working vector game.
(1) Good reliable power AC/DC
(2) Completely rebuilt monitor with upgrades
(3) Most importantly, a good reliable working game board

#1 is the easiest thing to do. Rebuild the ARII board and power brick. Test for correct voltages using a DMM at the PCB not on the AR board. Replace BigBlue onthe power brick and date it with a sharpie so the next guy knows it has been replaced recently. Replace the fuse block on the power brick and put new crimp connectors on any burned/darkened connectors on the power brick. Clean/replace fueses and make sure they are the correct values
(2) If you have a vector monitor and it has not been recently rebuilt or updated, you are basically flirting with imminent failure. There is a TON of information available on the WG6100 and the FAQ has many good tutorials/upgrade hints that I consider almost mandatory. I highly recommend the LV upgrade with either Spaeth's or Hendrix's design. Be sure to do a cap kit on the Deflection board and resolder the multiple cold solder joints. Rebuild the HV section with a cap kit and replace a few resistors. Remove and clean and reinstall the transistor with new heat compound on the side of the HV cage. Pull clean and reinstall the bottle cap transistors on the frame of the monitor to aid in heat dissipation.
#3 the most important. If your game board is flaky, it will kill your monitor and give you tremendous frustration as you chase a phantom on the monitor that doesn't exist. It is in reality on your game board. Tempest boards are known for their crummy pots in teh vector section that are subjected to abuse. I highly recommend replacing these and upgrading them with better quality pots. Check the output voltage of the Tempest boards at the X-out and Y-out section BEFORE hooking up your monitor. If out of tolerance, you will blow transistors on your monitor. You have got to have good voltages out of the PCB in order to make a good picture ON the monitor. Typically the DACs, Analog multipliers and OpAmps fail on those board sets along with many other issues. Have your board checked thoroughly before hooking it up to your monitor. Yes, a Tempest game can play blind AND be putting out bad voltages. Don't assume that because you hear the game playing that you can hook up the monitor willy nilly. I have been meaning to get a tutorial put together on this but a serious lack of spare time along with a recent sinus infection (Hi Dave, feel your pain!) has sidetracked me tremendously. Still playing catchup on several other things before I get around to this. Headed to the garage in a few minutes to work on 2 more Tempests. I shall attempt to document my progress as I trouble shoot.

Good luck
 
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