Space Duel

I picked this up from a fellow KLOVer, DJDNS, after playing one at his house. I am a fan of Asteroids and this is more-or-less the same thing expect in color and with an extra, attached ship.

The cabinet was decent, it had casters put on which made moving this Atari cabinet a heck of a lot easier, and was playing blind. I do not have that much experience with vector monitors but decided to get a deluxe cap/repair kit from Bob Roberts and give it a shot.

After all was done I powered the game on and immediately had a fuse blow. I pulled the chassis and tested the recently replaced components and saw that the 6A20 diodes were shot. At the recommendation of DJDNS I sent the boards to a fellow KLOVer, mcandrewsoun, for diagnostics and repair. Below is his findings.

4700mf 50v cap was bad, and that was causing the 2 diodes & fuse to blow. The regulator on the -34v supply was also dead. The screen voltage wire (red wire on neckboard) needed to be re-soldered. I hooked it up to my frame and everything worked.

Could the 4700mf cap have been installed backwards at some point when the monitor was rebuilt? The only time Ive seen a new one do this is when it was installed backwards. It wasnt in backwards when it arrived, though. Also, check and re-check all your chassis transistors. Im thinking you may have a bad chassis transistor. Judging by which fuse was blown, I'd say its one of the 2 on the bottom panel.

While the boards were on their way back I checked the chassis-mounted transistors as instructed to discover that four were now testing bad. I replaced those transistors, reconnected the deflection and HV boards, crossed my fingers, and powered the game on. To my delight it powered up and displayed the game on the screen. Several monitor adjustments later and the game was good to go.

Pictures to come...