Vectrex buttons

Evilcactuar

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Donor 2012
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Just figured I'd throw this out there. I have a vectrex that's been sitting for a while, the picture was pretty jittery, and the joystick works, but none of the buttons do. On either port, with 2 different controllers. I'm installing a cap kit, and I figured i'd look while I was in there and see a lifted trace or some other obvious issue with a ground or something. Nada. I'm probably going to do the cap kit, clean all the dust out of it, and see if it starts magically working. After that doesn't work, I'll dig up a schematic and run a trace for a new ground. Anyone have any other suggestions? could this be an ic? The boards look pretty much brand new (but a little dusty), and i'm inexperienced with pcb repair, so I figured I'd throw it out there on the off chance someone here was really familiar with the vectrex.
 
Broken Vectrex's have bad mojo that will infect the rest of your collection. You should send it to me ASAP in order to avoid this. I will have ancient mystic's ready to bless it before its arrival and will properly isolate it on my shelf.

Realistically, check the contacts under the buttons. Those tend to get dusty and dont make good connection :)
 
Everything seems to be working after the cap kit. That was my first cap kit, and I wouldn't recommend it as a starter cap kit. what a PIA. I'll see if everything continues to work after the burn in.
 
The display is totally stable now. It was not the funnest thing i've ever done. If you're really good at clearing out solder, or have a desoldering station, YMMV. I found a great resource that has a cap layout, tips, etc. http://console5.com/wiki/Vectrex#Capacitor_Replacement_-_Large_Cap_Warning
I bought my kit from BR, but he doesn't include the 2 caps under the heatsink, so mine didn't get those. console 5's kit includes them, and they sell the quiet vectrex preamp mod for like $4. I'd do that while you've got it open. My understanding is that if you remove the heatsink, you'll need thermal paste to put it back on. It's really not that bad except for the cluster of big caps that are all touching each other. A few of those only have the 1/8" long leads, and the traces are on the top of the board, so if you lift off the little through rings on the bottom of the board (I lifted one of those), you'll have to solder under the top of the cap, which is not fun. That cap took me like 20 minutes. Also, have some 110 female spades available, I needed 4 of them since my monitor was soldered directly to the board, and I didn't want to solder it back in If I could avoid it. I also put a m/f blade on the soldered ground between the boards. And, i'm sure this was a N00B mistake, I thought I had done something wrong because when it came on the first time, i had the graphics, a a dot in the middle, and lines around my text. I thought it was broken for a second, then I turned the contrast down and it was all good.
 
I just removed the CPO on a Vec controller I just received to clean up stubborn buttons and it worked out great. The contacts just needed cleaning.

However, you need to be very careful heating up and lifting the CPO to access the 5 screws as it is easily marred. I thought I was being careful and still left marks and lumpy areas from lumped glue underneath.

Oh well, I can play Armor Attack with my kids now.
 
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