Re: Omega Race help - playing blind

Thank you Douglas.  I'll go hunt those down.  I did mis-type though....I meant to say that I do have neck glow.  But otherwise yeah, it sounds like I have issues on both.  Kinda figured.  I'm bummed to hear about the +12 being potentially damaging.  But glad I didn't go plug my other monitor into this game then!  It's a V2000 monitor by the way in case I forgot to mention that.

--- On Mon, 9/3/12, Douglas Gauck <douglas@gauck.com> wrote:

From: Douglas Gauck <douglas@gauck.com>
Subject: Re: VECTOR: Omega Race help - playing blind
To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
Date: Monday, September 3, 2012, 5:45 PM

I'm afraid it sounds as if you have a problem with your game board and monitor. Welcome to the Omega Race / vector game owners club!
No neck glow comes from the heater filament which gets around 6.3 volts AC from the main power brick of the game. Since you checked the fuses and tried it in Asteroids, that leaves the pins at P500 on the deflection board where the 6.3 volts exit on their way to the back of the tube as the likely suspects. Cold solder joints are the common culprit. The only other component is the 1.5 ohm 1 watt resistor R102 (in the corner opposite F102). Or a bad tube.
Spot killer is on because you should be getting voltage swings from the game board X & Y outputs on the order of 4 volts - measure using the AC setting of your meter - from the test points on the board. Constant 12v DC is 'bad'. I think Z out is between 0.5 and 1.5 volts (AC). I would check for -15, +5, +12 and +15 volts from the four voltage regulators on the Omega Race mother board, then replace the TL82 and TL81 op-amps and A8, B/C8 and A7, B/C7, then the 4016s at A6 and B6, and if you're unlucky the DACs at B5 and C6 since they're now hard to find and pricey.
If you fix your board I'd wager your monitor deflection board may still be unhappy if it was fed sustained improper voltage at its inputs. No chatter while in Asteroids, right? Get the B&W vector monitor FAQ and the G05 Service Manual from Atari (TM-151) for instructions on diagnosis and preventative maintenance.
-Douglas

On Sep 3, 2012, at 7:47 PM, John Huie wrote:
Update:

I should have tried this before asking that last question.  I plugged the monitor into my working Asteroids Deluxe game and it does the same thing there.  No neck glow.  Spot killer is on.  No sense that the HV is kicking in (no static on screen).  No chatter.

So something is hosed on my monitor.  Anyone have a troubleshooting flowchart that a newb like me can follow?

Thanks again guys!

John

--- On Mon, 9/3/12, John Huie <jehuie@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

From: John Huie <jehuie@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: VECTOR: Omega Race help - playing blind
To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
Date: Monday, September 3, 2012, 4:10 PM

I rescued an old Omega Race from an abandoned building and brought it home and (shockingly) found severe acid damage on the board.  Someone kindly sent me a nice clean board that was missing a few components so I swapped the parts from my other board to this one and now it is playing blind.

I've checked fuses and voltages and they are good.  I installed a cap kit in the monitor as well but still don't know for sure if the problem is the monitor or the game board.  The spot-killer light is on.  I also went through and resoldered all the connectors.

I just went and measured at the monitor connector between the "X Input" and "X ground" and I'm getting around 12 volts there.  Same thing between the "Y Input" and "Y ground" pins.

But between the "Z Input" and "Z ground" pins I'm getting a zero volts reading.  So it sounds like I have some kind of game board probelm if I'm understanding this right.  (I'm a newb but trying).

Any good tips on what to look for on the main game PCB?

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Received on Mon Sep 3 21:30:04 2012