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gzsfrk

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  • Custom Status
    EvilAvatar.com
  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Murfreesboro, TN
  • Interests
    Vintage toys from the 70s & 80s, retrogaming, modern gaming, slot cars,
  • Currently Playing
    Skyrim, Rayman: Origins, MAME4droid + iCade, Contra: Hard Corps, SMS light gun games, SNES SuperScope games, NES light gun games, Rockin' Kats, and too many others to list.
  • Playing Next
    Want to finally crack the seal on L.A. Noire that's been sitting on my games shelf for 6 months now.

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  1. Very cool. Cant wait till this is available to purchase.
  2. Awesome! Put me down for 1. My MV's screen barely registers any more; was hoping a project like this would come along.
  3. Has it already been fixed? (Ribbon cable heat fix, etc.)
  4. Yeah, go ahead and post pics as well as a video of it running if possible. Might be interested.
  5. CC's art is hanging all over my man cave. Never bought anything from him that I wasn't wowed by. (Have 2 more on the way from him now, in fact.)
  6. Post a picture of the Suspensed box. There were two versions, and the difference in value is significant.
  7. WilsonCat sold me a white JP Saturn at a great price. The package arrived super fast, and everything was packed professionally and got here in perfect condition. Hope he puts more stuff up for sale so I can buy from him again. Super great guy to deal with. Thanks man!
  8. One more quick update: Left it off for an hour or so, then when I decided to turn it back on one last time for the night, the dot was back and looking about the same brightness as before (which is to say, not very bright at all; but it WAS visible, at least). Not sure if that's helpful information, but there you go.
  9. Apologize for the tardy update; been busy with life (kids, Easter, et. al.). So I notice that the more I mess around with this Vectrex, the weaker and weaker the little white dot gets. It's actually to the point now that I can't even make it out any more. I also should have mentioned before that, when my friend first tried this unit, the games played, but he said they looked faint, even with the brightness turned all the way up. I also will mention that there is absolutely NO buzzing coming from the system when it's on. In fact, the only evidence I can now detect that the unit is on (short of using the multimeter) is that there is very faint scratching noise when adjusting the volume. But even that is weaker than it was when I first started working on this. Is it possible that the power supply is going bad, and that there isn't enough amperage being supplied to the display? I seem to recall reading somewhere that the logic board won't execute the code if it doesn't detect that the display is functional. (But that could have just been forum tripe.) Any ideas? If the PS is going bad, would it be a safe bet to assume that replacing the caps would be my best shot at fixing it? Thanks to all for the replies so far! Definitely don't want to see this clean little unit lost to posterity.
  10. As they say on Pawn Stars, you can't expect other people to pay for your sentimental attachment. My advice would be, if you get an offer anywhere near $150, take it. That's the high end of what you can expect for an Action Set. A good condition Deluxe Set can pull $250, and a Power Set maybe $200. But Action Sets fall firmly in the $100-$150 range, original baggies or not. Good luck with the sale!
  11. I understand the price for the custom ones; not my thing, but at least I know there's demand for that kind of thing from the hipster electronica scene. But plain jane OGBs? Seems like a tough sell at that price to me, quality refurb work or not.
  12. Who on earth pays $50 for a vanilla DMG-01? Even damn Play'n'Trade sells tested ones for $25, and with a 30 day guarantee, no less.
  13. For what it's worth, I met Ax in person to do a trade once, and I could immediately tell the struggles with his health were legitimate. That's been a couple years ago now, so if his condition has only deteriorated, then it doesn't surprise me at all that he keeps away from the computer.
  14. So a friend picked up a Vectrex with a few games recently while on vacation. Worked great when he tested it at the seller's house. Placed the system in his trunk, drove home from Florida (we're in Tennessee), and then tried playing with it again once he got home. Only this time, it wouldn't come up. When he turned the power knob, the only indication that it was getting power at all was a bit of static when adjusting the volume knob. That initially led me to believe that it was something to do with the vibration or possible jarring in the trunk on the ride home that might have caused it to stop working. So he gave it to me to take a go at fixing it since I have at least basic electronic repair skills. I did a bit of research and went through all the basic repairs: popped open the case, discharged the tube, pulled, polished, and reseated all the removable ICs, re-flowed the 4 power pins coming in from the power board to the logic board, cleaned the power pins, checked the voltages coming into the logic board (got all good readings of -5, +5, and -13 reading from the PCB), and just did some general cleanup of the 30 years of crud that had accumulated on the board and in the case. Still no dice. I wanted to see if the monitor was lighting up at all, so I turned off all the lights in my office, then fired up the Vectrex. Sure enough, after turning it on and waiting 10-15 seconds, I gradually saw a little white dot rising from the bottom of the screen and coming to a stop a bit northeast of center. When I turned off the power, the white dot illuminated a bit brighter for a split-second, then immediately went away (rather than slowly fading out like my working Vectrex does at power-down). That behavior makes me think it's most likely to be a capacitor problem, but I wanted to check here with the experts before making any assumptions and dropping money on a cap kit that may be either unnecessary or futile. Of course, I don't know if that would necessarily explain why the BIOS (or whatever) doesn't still fire up and play the little musical ditty on startup. My own uninformed theory is that, even though the voltages are reading good, it's possible that bad capacitors on the power board are not supplying the amperage that the logic board or tube needs. Ok! Now that my own highly-amateur insights are done with: Any advice on how to proceed? Other places to check for voltages that might help? Maybe there are pics I could take and share that would assist with the diagnosis? I'm determined to resuscitate this glorious little black box, but I need some nudges in what is presumed to be the right direction. Thanks in advance!
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