The Star Wars (Atari) repair and maintenance topic

[Belike]

Cool, some equivalents are available here, they will be good for testing.
Never thought, that I will ever try to fix a vector monitor.

[level42]

Vectors are easy.....rasters are much harder.

[Laszo]

I can get replacements...(See my "equivalents" thread) but at this moment there is some discussion on KLOV about those replacing transistors causing some small issues on the picture.

It has to do with the "parasitic capacitance" of the transistors....this is a specification not often listed on datasheets but could have quite some influence.

In fact, I'm about to replace one of the transistors on my original Amplifone deflection board with an original 2N3716 to see if the picture will improve.
I think the only "big" issue is that when SW shows a lot of text you'll see some "squiggles" in the short vectors that make up the text.

I have always rendered this as something common on color vectors on SW machines because I can't remember seeing one without them....

On my Amplifone deflection board I have still 3 transistors that have been there from the factory (all RCA and production date are very close to SW's production year) but one has been replaced with another one. So, I'll put a 2N3716 in there to see if there's any improvement.

If not, I can get plenty of replacements or indicate them for you so you can source them locally.

That's interesting, if you can make some pictures or video..... If possible to capture this effect.

[Belike]

Some further rookie questions :

I have to replace the burned R711 and 712 resistors.
On Dezbaz's parts list page, the 711 is a 10R ±5%,1/4W, is it this one?:
http://www.hqelektronika.hu/product/res_10r_0_25w

The 712 is a 3R3±5%,1/2W, I didn't find this value here, just a bit higher or lower and they are 1%:
http://www.hqelektronika.hu/product/res_3r3_0_4w
http://www.hqelektronika.hu/product/res_3r3_0_4w
Can I use these?

[level42]

Yes to all.

The 1% tolerance is because those are metal film resistors which are more precise and overall better quality than carbon film resistors. They are more expensive though...

More Watts is always OK, it just means it can handle more power, it's always OK to go higher on wattage but not lower when it comes to resistors.

About the values: 3R3 means 3,3 Ohms Resistor.

Checked values with schematics => OK.

[Belike]

Thanks André, so it is like in the case of capacitors, you can go higher in volts/watts.
I bought all the parts, just have to put them together.

[level42]

Exactly Béla !

I just fixed the last issue on your deflection board....the flickering Spot killer LED bothered me, so I asked around at KLOV and the Vector list and two replies pointed towards the caps in that circuit. The FAQ already mentions it's a good idea to replace the caps with higher values (they did it in later production too) so I replaced C801,802,803 and 804 with 1uF 50V electrolytic types and just gave it a test-run: BINGO ! No more flickering LED

It should be in the post tomorrow so you can replace that burnt one my friend

[Belike]

Thanks for spending your time/energy to make it perfect Mr. Vector Master.

[Belike]

Meanwhile, I replaced all burned parts, fired up the monitor, unfortunately no picture at all, only "background brightness".
I've read, that this could be a bad transistor.
There is no visual burning this time, but there is a smell again.
I desoldered Q703 (mpsu57 transistor) and tested it, seems like it is broken.
I made some research on the net about the known equivalents, the only available part is BC516 here.
Can you confirm, that it is a good replacement for MPSU 57?
http://www.hqelektronika.hu/product/bc516
There is also one for MPSU07:
http://www.hqelektronika.hu/product/bc516

[level42]

Since I'll have to send the board in a moment I'll throw in two MPSU56s for you Béla !

Although I haven't tested them in a 6100 I did test them in an Amplifone board and they work just fine.
 They are slightly less specced than the 57's but the values that they have to handle on both the Amplifone and 6100 are way within the margins so IMHO they are safe to use.

[Belike]

Zillion thanks.

[level42]

It's on it's way but the mail man just walked out with the cart at the post "office" so it will be leaving tomorrow....

My jaw fell on the floor when the lady mentioned the price: €18,50 !!!!!!

I said, miss....this has to go to Hungary, that is in Europe, not the US !!!

She said Hungary is "Zone 2" in Europe and hence more expensive than closer countries....

It is completely INSANE how shipping prices have EXPLODED the last few years. Just 3 or 4 years ago I'd ship something that size and weight to the US for that amount of money !!!! 

I'll e-mail the details my friend...

[level42]

Some pics from your board Béla:

The brand new LV2000 mini, quite an improvement over the one that was on there...



The new fuse holders:


with neat protective caps over them



...and the new caps....

[Belike]

Yeah, shipping prices became insane from this side also in the past year.
Never saw a fuse holder with that cap, looks great.
Can't wait to install it to the ESB cab and fire it up.
Thanks André!

[Belike]

received the package last week from André with some extra transistors.




Long story short, I installed the board and fried it with some bad transistors in the metal frame of the tube.
Fortunately I could replace some burned resistors and the guilty chassis transistors, half of the screen came back.
With the help of Dezbaz, André and some nice guys on KLOV, we could figure out, that the brand new transistor I installed was broken, it still looks fine with the multimeter, just stopped working.
Threw in another one and everything works fine here.
Next step, the Mark Spaeth ESB kit resets itself time to time, it could be a bad connection between the kit and pcb, but I'm not sure if it is not the bigger edge connector on the main pcb, when I touch that, it resets the game and it absolutely does not hold tight.
I will put my simple Star Wars pcb to this cab and we will see what happens.........