Post by jasonbar on May 22, 2014 0:05:15 GMT -5
My the monitor on my personal Vectrex, with a no-buzz mod & pause mod, started getting wonky. It's always had slightly wiggly vectors, but the vertical started wigging & bouncing & crunching, so I bit the bullet & got a cap kit: console5.com/store/vectrex-cap-kit.html
The last time I tried a Vectrex cap kit, from Zanen, I killed my Vectrex.
This time, success! (Despite having trouble flowing 32-year-old solder & accidentally installing a few backwards/pulling them/putting them back in correctly.) Solid, stable image! Still a hint of wiggle, but it looks sharp. Oddly, I think I managed to break my no-buzz mod in the process, but I'll leave it as is & not push my luck. :]
The kit came with some caps that had higher V ratings than specified on their wiki, which threw me off at first, but no problemo. Also, a couple of the negative terminal orientations on their wiki page were clocked 90 degrees from what was on my PCB, but if you pay attention to the PCB, you're good.
Tip 1: At first, I tried to do all the power board caps while the power board was still somewhat attached to the rest of the Vectrex, but I soon learned that I needed to desolder the non-connectorized wires on this PCB to do it correctly.
Tip 2: I had trouble removing the giant heat sink on the power board, so I sucked all the solder that I could reach on those 2 caps' 4 legs & then used a screwdriver to wiggle those caps back & forth until the legs fatigued & broke off. I then followed Console5's recommendation to install the new caps on the solder side of the PCB.
Tip 3: I didn't have to pull the logic PCB from its base to access its caps. Yay.
Tip 4: While you've got your Vectrex apart, do any other mods or cleaning that you might be considering. I put in a piece of cable TV coax cable where the unshielded PCB-to-PCB grounding wire was. I couldn't detect any resulting buzz decrease...perhaps because I had simultaneously disabled my little de-buzz circuit.
-Jason
The last time I tried a Vectrex cap kit, from Zanen, I killed my Vectrex.
This time, success! (Despite having trouble flowing 32-year-old solder & accidentally installing a few backwards/pulling them/putting them back in correctly.) Solid, stable image! Still a hint of wiggle, but it looks sharp. Oddly, I think I managed to break my no-buzz mod in the process, but I'll leave it as is & not push my luck. :]
The kit came with some caps that had higher V ratings than specified on their wiki, which threw me off at first, but no problemo. Also, a couple of the negative terminal orientations on their wiki page were clocked 90 degrees from what was on my PCB, but if you pay attention to the PCB, you're good.
Tip 1: At first, I tried to do all the power board caps while the power board was still somewhat attached to the rest of the Vectrex, but I soon learned that I needed to desolder the non-connectorized wires on this PCB to do it correctly.
Tip 2: I had trouble removing the giant heat sink on the power board, so I sucked all the solder that I could reach on those 2 caps' 4 legs & then used a screwdriver to wiggle those caps back & forth until the legs fatigued & broke off. I then followed Console5's recommendation to install the new caps on the solder side of the PCB.
Tip 3: I didn't have to pull the logic PCB from its base to access its caps. Yay.
Tip 4: While you've got your Vectrex apart, do any other mods or cleaning that you might be considering. I put in a piece of cable TV coax cable where the unshielded PCB-to-PCB grounding wire was. I couldn't detect any resulting buzz decrease...perhaps because I had simultaneously disabled my little de-buzz circuit.
-Jason