Vector Monitor troubleshooting (beyond XY faq)

avidgeek

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G05-802 in an Asteroids Deluxe which plays blind. Red light on monitor chassis is on, heaters are glowing, but no picture. I believe I hear the vector monitor "grinding" sound consistent with a working xy monitor.

Tested another 802, this one has the red light on the chassis but the heater comes up, then fades aways. I'm thinking this one is a bad flyback.

Just throwing it out there. I have NOT done a cap kit yet or replaced big blue.
 
Have you checked whether the chassis mounted transistors are shorted to ground? What about the fuses? Have you checked those? Also you may want to reflow the solder around each header on the deflection and HV board. Cold solder joints seem to be common problems on these monitors.

Kent
 
I'll also add...the heater voltage on those Atari black & white vectors comes straight from the transformer assembly. It's the same voltage line that juices the coin door lights. If the heater is coming and going.....are the coin door lights also coming and going? If so, check the fuse block and the transformer assembly connector.

Edward
 
G05-802 in an Asteroids Deluxe which plays blind. Red light on monitor chassis is on, heaters are glowing, but no picture. I believe I hear the vector monitor "grinding" sound consistent with a working xy monitor.

Tested another 802, this one has the red light on the chassis but the heater comes up, then fades aways. I'm thinking this one is a bad flyback.

Just throwing it out there. I have NOT done a cap kit yet or replaced big blue.

If you've got spot killer, but hear chatter, you probably have only 1 axis of deflection... crank up the brightness and you can see which axis is happy.
 
Good lord does it ever end??!?!

Resolder all molex pins, check all fuses on deflection board as well as power brick, and check R100 and R101 (two big ceramic resistors).

For the one with the heater going dead - Do the above first, as well as I'd check the power brick fuses (and clean them up), and also check the molex going to the monitor for any pins that may be slipping out.
 
Big Blue ain't so Blue anymore, he is now Black.
With "Big Blue" written on Him......LOL

this is at least true for Bob Robert's "Big Blue" caps.
I purchased two just last week.
 

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Original Atari caps were blue. Many new ones are also blue but many are black instead.

As for the heater coming and going, the heater on these crt's will always glow very brightly for a few seconds when first powered up and then fade to a very soft orange that you may only be able to seen under very dim room lighting. This is also true for the Vectorbeam and Cinematronics B&W vector games because they all use the same crt type.
 
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