RE: Atari Big Blue(s)?

The problem you're having is that _Tron_ was made by a different company
than Atari. Atari used a single "big blue" capacitor in the linear power
supply chassis in the bottom of the cabinet, and it's impossible to miss.
:) You'll see it inside Atari classics such as _Asteroids_, _Asteroids
Deluxe_, _Centipede_, etc.

_Tron_ was made by Bally/Midway, and they did things a little differently.
Recently I worked on a _Tron_ that had a big filter capacitor problem, but
instead of using just one big capacitor, they use at least two. I know at
least one of these was bad; it was somewhat hard to see by just looking into
the cabinet. IIRC, it was inside an open-frame linear filter that had a
couple of chassis-mounted fuse holders. The big symptom is wavy video in
the monitor! If you see a big "hum bar" in the picture or if the picture
seems to be doing the hula, chances are very good that there's ripple in the
+5 volt line and that's usually caused by a bad filter capacitor (one of the
BIG ones.)

I'd say you'd be well advised to replace the big filter capacitors you have,
as they do pretty much the same job Atari's "Big Blue" does, and after 20
years, I'd say they're on their last legs anyway. You might also want to
consider replacing all of the fuses inside the game while you're at it. A
fuse can open up all by itself, without any outside help, because of just
normal wear and tear; metal fatigue can make the fuse element separate...
or, more common, the mechanical/electrical connection of the fuse element
inside the end of the metal fuse cap can twist apart or just plain break...
and this won't be visible with just a casual glance! You gotta measure it
with an ohmmeter.

_Tron_, right? Replace those crappy ceramic ribbon cables in the
motherboard stack, too, with good-quality real ribbon cables. That'll cure
a LOT of headaches! :)

End of line.
Matt J. McCullar

*******************************************

The part that confussles me when I look into my cab is that I don't
appear to have one. What I do have are big blue caps, two of 'em about
the size of a fist, in the filter ass'y part of the power system. Is
this pair, taken together, considered as Big Blue, or is there also a
third cap that is Big Blue? If the pair is not the Big Blue mentioned,
do they also need replacement, considering they fit the bill for
possible victims: big, blue and old?

(I will be working on getting a camera for making some of this easier in
the future...I hope.)
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Received on Tue Oct 2 19:55:13 2007