Yet Another Star Wars issue..I'm completely out of ideas

[MonsterBash]

Yet Another Star Wars issue..I'm completely out of ideas

Take a look at the video below...

Notice the planet is almost cut in half when zooming in..

And the towers are all jack up when they start to 'grow'

In the upper right hand corner where the wave number is reported the actual number is on top of the 'W' in wave

I really can't figure this one out...the shopping list of stuff I've done to trouble shoot is quite extensiveness.

All these had zero change
1. Monitor:
A. Adjusted the monitor as per the FAQ. B+ = 180v

B. When I adjust the BIP on the BIP screen the 'x' screen is way off but..the game play is probably the best. If I line up the 'Xs' I get a bunch of vectors that are no longer connected and the BIP screen is way off
C. Completely rebuild the monitor including chassis mounted transistors and flyback
D. Pulled the monitor from my tempest (complete including chassis and tube)

2. Power Stuff:

A. Rebuilt the brick including new Big Blue
B. Tried 2 other bricks from working games
c. Tried 2 other ARIIs from working games
D. Voltage at board is 5.15
F. New power plug with earth ground

3. Main Board(s) (hardness is plugged directly into the PCBs):

A. Clean edge connectors and re-seat all removable chips
B. Re-flow pins
C. Tried the complete PCB from my cockpit (cockpit has an AMP issue that's getting fixed)

4. Harness:

A. Made sure edge connector at the PCB was solid. I pushed each individual pin onto the board through the connector
B. Same with the 15 pin monitor
C. 'Wiggling' wires as the connection points did nothing

Everything above had zero effect on the game. It's almost like I have 2 games doing the exact same thing. I think my next move is to take the one monitor to the garage which the power brick, ARII and boardset and install them in the cockpit. There is one screen in the test area that I have no idea what it's for and it looks nothing like what the manual shows...I also have a pic of that..it's the red screen below.

If you look at the angle of the 'red' picture...it the exact same location that the planet is screw up and and when the death start explodes (watch the video right in the beginning and compare it to the red test screen and pause it at the 3~4 second mark). The explosion also has an issue there where the vectors are no longer attached. Also ALL the death start in the start screen look this was also..kinda cut in half with mis-aligned vectors

 

[jonathan1138]

So youve ruled out the PCB right (swapping the PCB in and out of the cockpit, issue happening on your Upright?). I guess if your Cockpits amplifone wasnt out you could tell for certain that this is a monitor issue for sure (by playing both boards there and not seeing the issue hopefully).

On my cockpit / amplifone, the screen started to "jag" or jump around - almost like that but not exactly - more to the outside, and not tied to one image like the towers.

I also have an upright to work with (for a few more weeks), and was going to start working on it tonight - focusing on what i think is probably a bad pot. No matter what i am probably just going to send the boards to ArcRevival to ensure them forever!

So, if you are certain its a Monitor (Wg6100 i assume?) issue - i would look at pots too. Flaky pots can cause the screen to jump around or so i am told.

 

[MonsterBash]

So far I've ruled out..

The complete monitor (same results with my Tempest monitor)
The board set (same result with the cockpit board set)
The power brick (Same result with my Tempest AND cockpit brick)
The ARII (same results with the ARII from both Tempest and the cockpit).

I've also went to some extreme with the POT and the monitor adjustment hoping I could get the problem to at least move. In other words I purposely sized the X and Y as small as they would go..then off the screen. I moved the LIN from one extreme to the other.

I center the BIP on the 'X' screen which gave me about a 2" fan on the BIP test screen

Obviously I had other issue when I tried this stuff..but nothing effect the tower drawing or the Death Star cut in half issue

So youve ruled out the PCB right (swapping the PCB in and out of the cockpit, issue happening on your Upright?). I guess if your Cockpits amplifone wasnt out you could tell for certain that this is a monitor issue for sure (by playing both boards there and not seeing the issue hopefully).

On my cockpit / amplifone, the screen started to "jag" or jump around - almost like that but not exactly - more to the outside, and not tied to one image like the towers.

I also have an upright to work with (for a few more weeks), and was going to start working on it tonight - focusing on what i think is probably a bad pot. No matter what i am probably just going to send the boards to ArcRevival to ensure them forever!

So, if you are certain its a Monitor (Wg6100 i assume?) issue - i would look at pots too. Flaky pots can cause the screen to jump around or so i am told.

 

[FrizzleFried]

All that is left is the harness itself... right?

 

[jonathan1138]

Wow you have done alot. Hang in there!

Ok so the only "Constant" is the harness - so everythings been replaced (temporary to test) except for that (which would be a pain to remove from the upright, and you probably dont have another one).

When do you expect the Cockpit back up and running? That would help to narrow it down even more (hopefully the cockpit doesnt have the problem).

I am by no means an expert, just trying to provide some leads - what about checking resistance on the harness? Especially surrounding the monitor connections. I know youve cleaned the edges but what about measuring the pins themselves? I am sure you are using different interconnect boards / no EMI filter too (i heard those filters can cause problems as they are another point of failure).

Also when you say youve used the monitor from the Tempest - so you took out the UR monitor and put your Tempest monitor in the UR and got the same results right? (if so, you have gone to great lengths to capture this thing).

 

[MonsterBash]

That's what I'm thinking unless someone has another idea.

I also tried unplugging the marque light from the power brick, and even the yoke (after I started a game) think there might be a 'short' somewhere

The Tempest 6100, org boardset, power brick and ARII are going in the garage to the cockpit 'hopefully' tomorrow

All that is left is the harness itself... right?

 

[MonsterBash]

My tempest has a board issue i haven't look into yet (holy shit are these vectors a PITA) thus I can't put the SW 6100 in the Tempest.

The cockpit has a amp focus issue that was discuses in another thread..those boards are going to be getting looked at.

I ain't given up but with summer finally arriving in the Buffalo area..the time just isn't there to keep messing with them. Thus when I get some time I like to have a lot of idea lined up.

Yup.. just the hardness unless someone else can come up with a brain storm..

I have NO idea how I could have handled this without 2 games..I would probably be looking at a board issue that doesn't exist

Wow you have done alot. Hang in there!

Ok so the only "Constant" is the harness - so everythings been replaced (temporary to test) except for that (which would be a pain to remove from the upright, and you probably dont have another one).

When do you expect the Cockpit back up and running? That would help to narrow it down even more (hopefully the cockpit doesnt have the problem).

I am by no means an expert, just trying to provide some leads - what about checking resistance on the harness? Especially surrounding the monitor connections. I know youve cleaned the edges but what about measuring the pins themselves? I am sure you are using different interconnect boards / no EMI filter too (i heard those filters can cause problems as they are another point of failure).

Also when you say youve used the monitor from the Tempest - so you took out the UR monitor and put your Tempest monitor in the UR and got the same results right? (if so, you have gone to great lengths to capture this thing).

 

[MajorHavoc]

That looks like a board problem to me. Although it is unlikely, it is possible that you have the same/similar problem with BOTH boardsets.

But based on what you have tried so far, my bet would be on low/bad voltages on the boardset due to voltage drop or degraded edge connecters. Have you measured all the voltages on all 3 boards as far from the edge connecters as possible?

There have been threads about jumping +5 and GND straight to the PCBs to get less voltage drop across the edge connecter.

 

[omegaman]

I agree with majorhavoc. Take a look at the DACs, you will see a small maroon coloured ceramic capacitor near the output side of each DAC. Make sure one of the legs hasn't snapped, it's a common problem, worth a shot.