Star Tech Journal

Issue: 1983-December - Vol 5 Issue 10

27
STAR*TECH JOURNAL/DECEMBER 1983
Troubleshooting E/ectrohome and Wells Gardner Monitors (Part I) continued from page 26.
4. NORMAL B+ VOLTAGE
Here everything seems to be working properly and the B+ checks good. The
high voltage and filament are at the CRT, yet there is no raster (lit screen).
First try turning up the brightness control. On Electrohome use the screen
control. Wells Gardner has a black level control (VR201) located on the
interface board. To bring up the brightness on Wells Gardner, rotate this
control clockwise. Increase the brightness on the monitor.
With the front of the screen still dark, measure the voltage at pin 7 of the
CRT socket. The voltage is normally between four hundred and fifty and five
hundred volts DC ( depending upon where the screen control is set). If the
voltage measures zero or very low, turn off the monitor. Remove the
neckboard from the picture tube and examine it for a bad connection. Look
for either a bad trace, poor solder joint or possible crack in the board.
With the neckboard disconnected from the tube, situate the board so it' s
free from shorting to the chassis or anything else. Power up the monitor.
Check the voltage once again at pin seven; if the voltage returns to normal,
the picture tube may be defective. If the voltage is still low or zero, further
troubleshooting is needed.
CRT PCB COMPONENT LAYOUT
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Absence of the six volts AC to pins nine and ten - work back towards it
supply. On the Wells Gardner neckboard a one-ohm resistor (R422) is in
series with the filament voltage on the neckboard. Electrohome's filament
voltage goes directly (via wires) to pins nine and ten of the CRT socket.
So, on Electrohome, trace back to pins four and five of the flyback
transformer. Here the voltage should measure about six volts AC. If not,
unplug the monitor and disconnect the neckboard from the tube. Measure for
continuity across the flyback pins four and five. If open, replace.
On the Wells Gardner, filament voltage gets to the neckboard by
connector J402, pins one and three. With no voltage at these pins, unplug
monitor and J402 from the neckboard Check for continuity at these two
pins of the connector J402. An open winding indicates a necessary flyback
replacement.
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The assembly device is a variable voltage divider. No input voltage to the
assembly would be a problem with either the wiring or the flyback
transformer itself. If the voltage is present, but there is no output, a new
control assembly might be needed.
5. NO RASTER OR FILAMENT HAS HIGH VOLTAGE
The three cathodes inside the CRT emit electrons as the cathodes are heated
up by the filaments (also called heaters). There is one filament for each
cathode. In the picture tube, there are three filaments all together. The
filaments are connected in parallel with each other. If only one or two
filaments light up, the tube is bad. If none of the filaments light and the
filament voltage reaches the heater pins on the neck board, either the socket
is not making a good connection to the CRT pins or the filament is open.
To check the filament voltage on the neckboard, measure pins nine and
ten of the CRT socket. These should be the two top pins of the tube. This is
an AC voltage and should measure around four to six volts. Voltage present
indicates no continuity between the heater pins on the socket to the filament.
Unplug the monitor, and disconnect the neckboard from the tube. With
an ohmmeter, check for an open filament by measuring pins nine and ten of
the CRT. Replace the tube if the filaments test open.
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Wells Gardner PC Neckboard
The Wells Gardner screen control (VR406) wiper should measure about
four hundred seventy-five volts DC. The voltage supplied to the control
arrives to the neckboard by a wire from the main monitor PC board
Connector J401 pin three brings on eight hundred ninety volts DC to the
neckboard. A series resistor (R4 l 9) is connected between pin three of J401
and the screen control. Missing the 890 volts to pin three would lead one to
check the diode (X607) on the main board, the flyback, or a poor
connection.
Electrohome has the screen control mounted on the main monitor board
bracket. It is a black assembly located by the flyback transformer. The
assembly has two white adjustment controls. Top control is for the focus,
bottom adjusts the screen.
The assembly itself has four connections. The input voltage from the
flyback feeds into the assembly at one point. This voltage is well up in the
several thousands. Then another connection is held to ground. Two outputs
(which are the wipers of the focus and the screen control) are the last
connecting points.

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Continued on next page.
28
STAR*TECH JOURNAL/DECEMBER 1983
Troubleshooting E/ectrohome and Wells Gardner Monitors (Part I) continued from page 27.
6. NO RASTER OR HIGH VOLTAGE, HAS FILAMENT
Since both the filament and high voltage are taken off the flyback windings,
missing one of these two voltages tells us the input signal is good to the
flyback. However, that particular section of the transformer may be bad to
prevent high high voltage.
The high voltage lead which connects to the picture tube comes directly
off the fly back. The secondary windings of the transformer for filament and
high voltage are separate from each other. The focus and screen voltage
come off the same winding as the high voltage. Test whether these voltages
are present ( focus measures with a high voltage probe). If not, suspect the
transformer. With voltages present, unplug power to monitor and discharge
high voltage from the second anode of the CRT to ground.
Disconnect the second anode cap from the CRT and place the cap by
itself so it won't short to anything. Be cautious, this voltage is normally about
25,000 volts DC. Power up the monitor. If you hear it snapping, crackling,
arcing or hissing, tum off the monitor. The high voltage is present, but the
CRT is defective. If no arcing sounds can be heard when the monitor is
powered up, measure the second anode cap with a high voltage probe. High
voltage is present, suspect the CRT - if it is missing, it can possibly be a
defective flyback transformer.
High Voltage Limiter (Protection) Circuit
The HVL circuit, also known more commonly as the high voltage limiter, is
a protection circuit Federal regulations require all manufacturers to provide
a way to protect individuals from receiving X-radiation, which can be
emitted from the monitor by excessive high voltage.
CONDITION
Raster, B+ High
Normally, as the B+ rises, so does the high voltage. To prevent
excessive high voltage, a protection circuit is added to the monitor which
samples the B+ voltage. The protection circuit acts as a triggering circuit, so
that when the B+ reaches a certain increased amount, the HVL is activated,
thus allowing no high voltage to the picture tube.
This symptom was mentioned earlier as no raster, no filament, no high
voltage and finding that the B+ measured too high.
An activated HVL circuit (higher than normal B+) can be caused
basically by one of three areas: the power regulator, protection, or horizontal
circuits. To narrow down the problem, tum off the monitor and disconnect
the triggering device. On Electrohome this would be the collector of X701 .
Wells Gardner is the collector of the transistor TR353.
After the collector lead has been disconnected from the rest of the board
circuitry, power up the monitor. At this point, the screen will show one of
two conditions: a raster (lit screen) or no raster. If a no raster condition is
seen, verify the no raster l>Y turning up the brightness control.
Obtaining a raster, measure the B+ at the emitter of the power regulator
transistor (Electrohome X04, Wells GardnerTR502). Normal B+ voltage
on the Electrohome monitor is 120vdc. Wells Gardner is 127vdc.
Normal B+ with a raster - the problem will be in the protection circuit.
B+ still high with raster indicates the problem is in the power regulator
circuit. No raster condition - the problem will be definitely in the horizontal
section.
Refer to the chart below for a breakdown of conditions and suspected
components.
ELECTROHOME
WELLS GARDNER
Raster, B+ Normal
D905, X902,
X901,X04
X701, D-701
X501, TR501,
TR502
TR353, TR354
No Raster
IC501
TR351
No Raster
X501, T501
TR352, T602
No Raster
X01, T502
TR601, T701
FUNCTION
Regulator
Circuit
Protection
Circuit
Horizontal
Oscillator
Horizontal
Driver
Horizontal
Circuit
Remember to reconnect disabled triggering component when finished (collector of X701 or TR353) .
*
ATARI
COIN VIDEO CUSTOMER SERVICE NEW LOCATIONS
Atari Coin Video Customer Service Centers in California and New Jersey have moved. Please note their new locations:
CALIFORNIA
735A Sycamore Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
408/943-1120
800/538-1530 Toll Free
NEW JERSEY
22A World's Fair Drive
Somerset, NJ 08873
201/469-5993
800/526-3849 Toll Free
*
BALLY MIDWAY
MS. PAC-MAN SPEED-UP MOD
By Jake C. Leonard, Richmond, VA
REJUVENATE MS. PAC-MAN!! You will need a good
quality SPDT micro switch attached to the front panel. Lift pin
11 at 8C, run a jumper from the lifted pin to the common lug.
Attach a wire to pin 2 at 9C (leave pin 2 in the circuit). Run
this wire to the N .C. lug. Attach a wire to pin 12 of the V. RAM board.
Run this wire to the N.O. lug. Any time you flip the switch, the game
will run about twice as fast.

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