Zitruskeks

The Red Paint is probably red alkyd paint to prevent arcing due to humid air condensing in that area on the flass etc. Next time, round over the corners of your screw driver that you use for discharging. Or use a High Voltage probe with usually can flex a bit. And/or just repaint with Red Alkyd. Same goes for the Aquadag, the graphite based conductive paint. I damaged it on my Vectrex when I had the tube in the shower (as this paint is water based), panicked a bit and then found that this can be bought in spray or paintbrush applied form nearly anywhere. Opted for a spray (used Kontakt Chemie GRAPHIT 33 76009-AA) and there isnt even a seam left to see, also it works perfectly. I also recapped my 1084 (Philips, Mono, EU PAL) with a slightly adapted cap list based on the 1084-S list from Console5 (only the main filter caps are different due to 220V vs 110V and the audio board of the mono one is different, obviously, and mine is the one with no sharpness control at the front, so 2 caps arent installed in that area, too.. I can upload some pics later. Still waiting for the low ESR bipolar cap though, so i didn't perform the smoke test yet

Bummer. Don't use Facebook, ans also don't want to use a fake account as I want NOTHING to do with this.. <insert swearword of your choice>

You plan on releasing the gerbers?

Thanks for sharing! And also thanks for proposing to send me a new shell! But the curvature is not severe and I think i can print me a new one.

My AgaCart has warped a bit too while being in the Storage, it was said the stl files for the printed parts was relased somewhere? I'd like to print me a new one on my Prusa.

I have a Vecadapt and did play with some of my Genesis Controllers and yes, the Button Layout isn't optimal. On my first try with the NG-Controller I went further on my first live in Scamble than ever before.

I built one, too, loosely from that tutorial/idea. In Contrast, I used spindle trimmers glued on the board, bent the outer legs of the pots upwards connected to there and I also drilled some holes (red circles in the image) to help route the cabling on the different sides of the pcb. Thus, I found it quite easy to assemble everything back into the case without cutting things from the case, and you can reach the spindle trimmers without removing the PCB from the case.

Some of the 72 in 1 carts don't work with later (usually non-buzz) Vextrex models due to a different bios. At least that's what i've been reading here and there. Dont know if 2023598 is already in the non buzz region, mine is a european 3108xxx model and it is one. If there are no red bodge wires on the board, its a non buzz. Still, on my Veccy some retroelectronik boards with roms that I burned work flawlessly. So might be the cart socket.

The Power board should align quite good without the need to bend or "place" it before putting the case back together. Usually, it sits in plastic guide rails that keep it pointed to the right position. Sure there is flex in the board and especially with the HV Transformer it will move, though. The sound, no image problem could be broken solder joints on the cables that connect the two boards, or even a simple problem with the on/off switch. Its switches 2 circuits, so if one of the internal switches is stuck (which is often the case due to gumming up of the grease in the switch this may be the result.

Got mine yesterday, wasn't able to test it yet, as I am not near my Lynx, but I have to say te card looks sexy. Nice 3D Print quality, too! Thanks!

Wasn't really able to film the wobble with my phone. Did you have any luck in the meantime?

I'd like to buy one. Please add me to the list. Thanks!

Got mine, too! Thanks Richard!

I see what you mean, as said, i'll video my vectrex later this week. I also leveled the DAC offset with an oscilloscope to be as close to 0 volt as it can be, its a bit different on the later vectrex board, as there are now two seperate OP amp ICs instead of the dual one in the standard versions, but I have 0volt on both outputs.

To some extend I have the same issue, fully recapped late non buzz Vectrex, and especially the Focus and Distortion Test is very wobbly, too. Not that much like in your vid maybe and there is no wobbly vector in the integrator test like on your video. I can make a short vid at the end of the coming week, as I am not near my Vectrex atm. Can't really make a comparison to how she behaved before recapping, as I didn't have the test cart then and only brought her up for a short test of minestorm after an initial visual inspection. For me, its especially visible in the test cart and with spinball. Scamble and Minestorm feel ok-ish. I have checked and re-adjusted the HV, was sitting around 5.8KV - will do a fine tune again but i think it might not be the reason for the wobbles. Integrator Caps maybe? Yours is a buzzing Vectrex, so probably still the styrofoam caps on the integrator? Mine has the red foil (?) caps so i left them in place. Or maybe the wobbling of the whole image on the distortion test is normal?! Did you tune the DAC offset yet? EDIT: if i watch this video i see quite the same "wobblyness" as i expecience with my vectrex. So this might actually be normal, but on yours it is way worse.

I'd like to be added to the pre-order queue for a cased version, too. Thanks.

Basically, yes. Of course a NOS has always the benefit of a NOS, like no usual wear and tear. But even if you get a nos console now, at least check and make sure the caps in it are not known for physical leaking. If its really just for long time storage then some caps can be left in to be replaced just before whenever the console shall be used again. In these cases, a recapping now would be not as beneficial, as the new caps will age, too. Probably better than the old ones, but they will still age. So if you are 100% sure you just want to store something for the next 30 years than replacing a cap that "just" will silently die and not damage anything else physically by doing so can just stay until the machine will be switched on again. But some caps just HAVE to go NOW. They are eating your boards away, and they do it for some years already. Just compare it to the really old stuff, like old tube gear, like radios or oscilloscopes. If you get one now, you DON'T turn it on without checking and often replacing at least some of the caps regardless of well used or NOS. If you do, you can and most probably will kill components as certain types of caps are known to leak DC and act like a resistor.

Electrolytic Caps can also dry out over time, even when not used. This changes the characteristics of a cap, even if no visible leakage (actual wet material oozing out) occurs, then begin to electrical leak - which means that they begin to conduct DC, too, changing them to behave more and more like resistors, shorting out circuits. So even having new old stock units just sit in the shelf will in no way help. I had an C64 bought back in the days when they where on clearance on one of the big german mail order houses as a spare for my old one, and it just sat in darkness for all these years and some of the caps where gone as I tested it this summer. Actually the colour ram was gone, too. It might even died the moment I tested the system - on a newly built "Greisis" PSU. My Amiga 600 also had really nice looking caps (some of the better eBay scores, just one tiny slightly dull solder point was to be seen on the audio caps where they stared leaking a bit) and it was dead until I recapped it with new high quality SMD electrolytics (did not wanted to go the ceramic way). Here is a thread of a NOS Amiga 1200 not working (probably the caps, too). Especially the caps of some systems like the Amiga 600, 1200 and CD32, the ones in the Sega Game Gear etc are time bombs. Regardless of well used machines or shelf queens. They HAVE to be replaced now to avoid serious board damage. The caps of the Vectrex don't seem to be as prone to physical leakage, but nonetheless to electrical leakage. So a shelf queen Vectrex is in far less danger of destroying itself by etching its board traces away, but it might need a recap to become fully functional, with non warping vectors and all. All in all personally I would not spent the extra money for (near) NOS systems just to hope the caps behave nicely, as they won't. Just time alone will kill them electrically, and some of them are prone to kill your boards as they puke out their innards, too. I fully recapped my Vectrex (late EU non buzz model). It was working and didn't have obvious problems (as warping vectors etc) but now I can be assured that the chances of a bad cap killing it is drastically lowered and everything behaves like intended. I know there a very different opinions of not changing caps until you see a problem, but regarding to electrolytics, I like the shotgun approach. I see one, I change one. Costs me some cents and a Minute. And as some systems can run without caps (as Amigas can) waiting for an actual sign can mean waiting too long.

Great Info! Thanks. Then I probably won't bent them pins. A thorough cleaning with contact cleaner (Teslanol T6 Tuner Spray, not the ultra agressive stuff) and some IPA have solved any contact isses for now anyway.

That's what I thought, but then, the engineers could have forseen such a problem and put the 5 Volt opposite to an unused pin, or 2 5 volts vice versa so that shorting them would do nothing.

If I would bend the pins of a genesis cartridge slot to restore their springyness and some pins they would actually touch the oppisite pin after that, and then I would accidentallypower on the genesis without a cartridge inserted - would it hurt the genesis? Sorry for the lot of "ifs" but especially the slot type with the slotted pins (like this one http://www.8-bitcentral.com/images/miscellaneous/genesisClassic/cartSlot.jpg) has very little space between opposite pins so theoretically there could be a short with no card in it.

Vectrex? Check CX-80? Check Cartdrige PCB? Check Some old Eproms? Check Eprommer? Check I totally have to try these hacked games!

My advise would be: don't be so specific in the beginning. Solely Targeting a 40 year old gaming system and the aging guys and gals that even happen to remember this thing sounds not a great plan to me. So in broad terms: you are an art guy and gaming aficionado. I dont know if you can write better than you paint or if you are a good modeller or anything. But look where you art skills and games and a broad or rich audience to sell goods or services to meet and try to find a place there. Ever thought about researching art in gaming in a scientific way? Maybe you can find a university to work in this field. Either way, you are saying you have the passion but lack the knowledge on atari and soldering, so you should focus on the stuff you know: the art side. A job that you have the knowledge and profession for and that has at least something to do with your passion. It will probably have nothing to do with atari or the vcs.

The vectrexs troubleshooting guide (https://console5.com/techwiki/images/f/f8/Vectrex-Troubleshooting_Guide.pdf) lists these points under "Poorn lettering Display, i. e. , Tilt & size": Adjust DAC offset Adjust Integrator Offset If you have a buzzing vectrex you might also want to replace the styrofoam caps on the integrator part.

Answering my own question: I inspected the board and compared it with the old vectrex layout. While the old one uses a MC34002 Dual Op-Amp on IC 304, the non buzz versions uses two single op-amp packages MC34001 on locations IC 304 and 306. While on the MCMC34002 the output of one of the op-amps is on Pin1, for the single package MC34001 the output of the Op-Amp is on Pin 6! So I measured Pin6 of IC304 and low and behold: a slight voltage above 0 Volts that reacts to input of R302.