Vertical Width - Phoenix (Centuri)

derSturm

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Drove 100 miles and picked up a pretty nice (Centuri) Phoenix today for not a bad price. One of my true all-time favorites. I've been playing it like a kid since getting it home.

What strikes me most regarding its grade is its display. I swear it has the prettiest picture I have EVER seen on a machine its age. It appears to be all original, yet I have noted absolutely no burn-in. I swear that if I published a good pic of the screen, folks would think it was a MAME screenshot. It's so cool to be playing it while seeing it exactly as it appeared to me back in 1982. It's that good.

Except...

The only prob with the display is the vertical width. With the pot I can narrow it in to perfect but then the screen will hereafter vibrate ever so slightly, as if you're playing it in on a railcar going 60 mph down good smooth track. Widen it out ever so slightly and the display is as stable as the train station; only now you have sacrificed circa 8 to 10 pixels on either side.

I know that some of you guys will know exactly what needs be done. ;)
 
I'm pretty sure it's a Wells Gardner in there. Has a white sticker with a bunch of red Japanese radicals. I'll try to snap a pic when I get home.

How do these/you guys know one monitor from the next? Is there a database somewhere? Anywhere? I'm tempted to try and start one...
 
Now that's a sweet website! I keep seeing Bob Roberts' name around here; didn't know he had such a handy site. Thanks.
 
You're going to find that Phoenix always has display problems. The sync is positive on it, and it's hard to get the image centered right, or stretched right, or whatever. I've never had one where it lines up exactly how it's supposed to be, I think it just outputs a weird signal that's a little bit 'off' of what the monitor wants to receive.

Most of mine had G07's in them.
 
You're going to find that Phoenix always has display problems. The sync is positive on it, and it's hard to get the image centered right, or stretched right, or whatever. I've never had one where it lines up exactly how it's supposed to be, I think it just outputs a weird signal that's a little bit 'off' of what the monitor wants to receive.

Most of mine had G07's in them.

Phoenix outputs negative composite sync. If you're hooking it up to positive on the monitor then that would explain why it is a bit off....
The monitor that came in Phoenix (I don't recall the brand) were crap... and hopefully someone has already replaced it with a G07 or a WG.
I have a G07 (with the sync mod done) in my Phoenix, and I have the picture position just about perfect.
 
Hi Matt;
How do you have the sync hooked up to your Phoenix? I've owned 5 of them. All 5 had a G07 from the factory installed in them. I've also had two Pleiades, and both of them also had G07's from the factory installed in them.

All 7 had the video hooked up, from the factory, to the G07's positive sync connector (1 6 pin connector, as you know to hook up negative you need a seperate connector on a G07).
 
Hi Matt;
How do you have the sync hooked up to your Phoenix? I've owned 5 of them. All 5 had a G07 from the factory installed in them. I've also had two Pleiades, and both of them also had G07's from the factory installed in them.

All 7 had the video hooked up, from the factory, to the G07's positive sync connector (1 6 pin connector, as you know to hook up negative you need a seperate connector on a G07).

The unmolested Phoenix machines I've seen all had Toei monitors in them, which were crap. It would be difficult to find one now with a working Toei in it... and if you did find one it would look like shit and be burnt to hell.

The Phoenix I own now has a G07 in it (I assume not original... not nearly enough screen burn). When I got it the sync signal was fed to the positive on the monitor, and while you can get it to lock on, the image is shifted and there is tearing, both of which can not be adjusted out. I added the second connector so I could move the sync to the negative position on the G07. I was then able to adjust the picture perfectly. Make sure to do the sync mod so you can get all the curl out.

My guess is that the 6-pin connector was designed for the Toei monitor, and as people replaced that monitor with a G07, they just plugged the existing connector into the G07, and it worked (but not correctly).

You can also play a Phoenix board in a JAMMA rig with a simple adaptor. Further proof that the sync is negative.
 
Just checked the Phoenix manual, and there's a diagram showing a 6-pin Molex (one pin not used, probably intended for a H/V tie loop for monitors needing it) plugging into a 5-pin Toei connector for the monitor (COM, RED, GRN, BLU, SYNC). The Toei manual confirms that it is negative composite sync.

And also check out the note in the old Spies pinout: http://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/spies.cgi?action=url&type=pinout&page=Phoenix.txt

I imagine there are quite a few Phoenix machines out there with G07s that have the sync hooked up wrong....
 
Figured I'd chime in here, I just picked up a Phoenix yesterday, drilled the lock off the back today and found an unopened envelope stapled to the inside wall of the game. Pulled it off (how could I resist) and opened it up. Inside, I found a Phoenix service manual and a service and operations manual for a G07 monitor, which is also the monitor that was in the game. Looks like this one came with a factory G07..
 
Figured I'd chime in here, I just picked up a Phoenix yesterday, drilled the lock off the back today and found an unopened envelope stapled to the inside wall of the game. Pulled it off (how could I resist) and opened it up. Inside, I found a Phoenix service manual and a service and operations manual for a G07 monitor, which is also the monitor that was in the game. Looks like this one came with a factory G07..

It's quite likely they smartened up and switched to Electrohome. You don't see Centuri using Toei in games after that....
The real question is, did they hook the G07 up correctly?
 
According to info posted at centuri.net (which may or may not be accurate [centuri.net is apparently NOT associted with Centuri itself]) it was 1 of 3 monitors with which any given Centuri Phoenix left the factory: the TOEI and either of 2 Wells Gardners. (It may be notable to cite that this site proclaims that one of these 2 WG's was a vector model [?]). Anywho: I believe that my Phoenix holds a WG. This is NOT to say that my particular WG monitor is indigenous to my machine. All I know is that it looks GREAT except that I can't both hold it steady and complete, and that I'd like to know how to alleviate this shortcoming.
 
According to info posted at centuri.net (which may or may not be accurate [centuri.net is apparently NOT associted with Centuri itself]) it was 1 of 3 monitors with which any given Centuri Phoenix left the factory: the TOEI and either of 2 Wells Gardners. (It may be notable to cite that this site proclaims that one of these 2 WG's was a vector model [?]). Anywho: I believe that my Phoenix holds a WG. This is NOT to say that my particular WG monitor is indigenous to my machine. All I know is that it looks GREAT except that I can't both hold it steady and complete, and that I'd like to know how to alleviate this shortcoming.

Unfortunately, that site has quite a few inaccuracies. It was put together by one Centuri fan. It's always bugged me that the only PCB pic he shows for Time Pilot is a bootleg....
 
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