Brag on a Tempest

[SuperGunGuru]

Sorry guys, but I have to do a little bragging tonight. I scored a complete Tempest for only $50 from my local arcade! I actually was looking at their 6 player X-Men and when I was talking to the manager about it, I happend to mention how they had a Tempest at one time. He thought it was already taken by someone who knows the owner, but when we went into the backroom, it was still there. I made a low offer of $50 on it and got the call from the manager today that the owner said yes! I went and picked it up with the help of a friend tonight. We had to replace the power cord and reconnect a wire on the fuse block. Upon testing it out the game plays blind, the tube has neck glow, but no picture. The icing on the cake is that I found 1 complete repair kit and 1 partly used repair kit for the monitor inside the cabinet! :D

[frodo2968]

Nice :)

[Flack]

Good find! A Tempest cab is always a good investment, whether it's for playing or for reselling.

Remember kids, it never hurts to ask what's for sale!

[chadtower]

WOW. I would pay a LOT MORE than that for a complete dead Tempest... does yours work?

[SuperGunGuru]

WOW. I would pay a LOT MORE than that for a complete dead Tempest... does yours work?


Yeah I was lucky to get it for that price. I guess in hindsight I took a chance by making a really low offer. Apparently the owner's buddy became interested in the X-Men after he knew about my offer on the games. I'm still shocked he let a complete Tempmest go for this much.

It plays blind and I had my buddy watching the insides for smoke and he says the tube has neck glow, but it took a little longer than I would have thought for it to heater to start up. Luckily another buddy of mine is really good with his XY monitors......in fact he's got the nickname "Dr XY."

[chadtower]

Awesome. I envy that find and I envy few finds.

Just don't call your friend Dr KY.

[SuperGunGuru]

Awesome. I envy that find and I envy few finds.

Just don't call your friend Dr KY.

LOL

[chadtower]

Keep us updated on how it goes. I have an Asteroids Deluxe I'm bringing back to life currently, and have a Space Fury monitor coming in the mail today that I'm going to be working on shortly.

[SuperGunGuru]

I checked out the repair kits that were inside the game a little more today. The one kit I'm going to assume is complete since the other one is only partically used. The partically used kit still has all 6 transistors in it! @_@ It sure looks like the tech they had working on this machine didn't know what he was doing. I've been reading up on the WG6100 monitor and it sounds like this kit I'll be installing should bring the monitor back to life. Anyone here ever work with this monitor and have good success with the get well kits for them?

[DogP]

I've fixed a WG 6100, much friendlier than the Electrohome G08. First, definately read this doc: http://www.ionpool.net/arcade/tech/6100_faq.pdf , next figure out what you do and don't have. Do you get the spot killer LED, do you hear deflection, do you have high voltage, etc. The problem with mine was two transistors had failed in the HV cage, so I had no high voltage, but everything else seemed to be working fine. I just visually looked at everything and noticed two slightly cracked transistors, and replaced them with ones from the Zanen get well kit. Good luck :) .

DogP

[SuperGunGuru]

Thanksf or the link. :) The spot killer isn't on, and I believe the monitor has deflection. I had my buddy watching for any smoke and at the ready to shut the game down while I was watching the front. He said the monitor was making noise, so hopefully that's a good sign. I haven't messed with it since Thursday night since another friend of mine warned me I could damage the PCB by running the game with the monitor not working (basically the load from the PCB might have no where to go and damage the PCB's vector section). I'm confident I can handle installing the get well kit. I've done cap kits, but I know this get well kit has more stuff to it.

[chadtower]

Thanksf or the link. :) The spot killer isn't on, and I believe the monitor has deflection. I had my buddy watching for any smoke and at the ready to shut the game down while I was watching the front. He said the monitor was making noise, so hopefully that's a good sign. I haven't messed with it since Thursday night since another friend of mine warned me I could damage the PCB by running the game with the monitor not working (basically the load from the PCB might have no where to go and damage the PCB's vector section). I'm confident I can handle installing the get well kit. I've done cap kits, but I know this get well kit has more stuff to it.

Actually, it's more the other way around. If you run the monitor without a reasonable signal, you could hose the monitor. Definitely make sure the X/Y section of the game PCB is working properly. You can do that by using a multimeter, one lead on a test lead (there are X, Y, and Z) and the other lead on the ground test lead.

Basically, since you just got this thing, first thing you should test over anything else is the power supply. Odds are that the two transformers are fine, those rarely die, but that the big blue cap is toast. Those dry out commonly and cause a lot of problems. I always replace that big blue cap when I first get an old Atari cab. If you don't have known good power, testing the other things is crapshoot at best and even if you get it working it could kill itself again in short order.

[SuperGunGuru]

I thought I'd post an update on Tempest. I ordered some parts from Bob and they arrived last Wedensday. Tonight the game received a new Big Blue and a new bridge rectifier. I'm having a friend of mine come over tomorrow evening and we're gonna install the complete rebuild kit that was inside the game. The monitor is also getting brand new sockets for the transistors. A quick recap of what we know. The game plays blind, the spot killer is not lit,, tube has neck glow and you can hear the monitor's deflection chatter. The HV is also heard when you power it up. The screen is still blank however. I've been having the worst luck getting ahold my friend that's really good with the XY monitors since he's been so busy. I'd rather try and deal with this myself while I hvae time and that way I'll also learn something. I've installed cab kits before and other components so I should be good to go. I'm hopefull that with what signs of life my monitor has shown, this kit will bring it back.

[chadtower]

You really should test the X/Y/Z outputs on the game board before going much further. For all you know the biggest problem lies there.

[SuperGunGuru]

You really should test the X/Y/Z outputs on the game board before going much further. For all you know the biggest problem lies there.
We did test the X and Y outputs. Both of those gave us a fluctuating voltage. Isn't that a good sign that the pcb is putting out a signal?

[SuperGunGuru]

Me and my buddy Josh (pictured below) worked on Tempest tonight. We were prepairing to install some parts for the monitor when I remembered to check the brightness level and see if I can at least get the dot in the center of the screen. I got more than the dot......

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/misc/tempestworks.JPG

http://www.msu.edu/~miekkawi/misc/joshtempest.JPG

8-) Amazing that the tech at this arcade didn't realize what the problem was. I hadn't messed with it much since I had it due to a lack of time, but it was very surprising that the brightness being turned down was the only problem.

[MarioAllStar2600]

Wow! That's an awsome find..... I would love a tempest. Congrats on the find and have fun with it.