(Topic ID: 80973)

RFM....landing soon in Gecko's gameroom! EDIT: Landed safely!

By NJGecko

10 years ago


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Topic Stats

  • 88 posts
  • 30 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 10 years ago by ignusfast
  • Topic is favorited by 3 Pinsiders

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There are 88 posts in this topic. You are on page 2 of 2.
#51 10 years ago

You can make a grounding tool out of wire, two alligator clips and a screw driver. Then you can discharge the problem areas.

Edited to expand on "problem areas". Main thing is the anode under the black suction cup on the back of the glass tube. Connect one alligator clip to the frame, then the other clip to a screw driver and slide under the rubber to discharge the anode. You will hear a pop, then its discharged. I used to do this a couple of times to make sure its done.

#52 10 years ago
Quoted from NJGecko:

Man I'm almost scared to touch this thing. Very unhealthy fear of CRTs!

I agree... be careful with it!

#53 10 years ago

hi nj, go to arcade repair tips.com.there are vids on discharging a monitor and repairing chassis. g.l. joe

#54 10 years ago
Quoted from NJGecko:

Man I'm almost scared to touch this thing. Very unhealthy fear of CRTs!

I suggest you go on the KLOV forums and recruit the help of a video game collector in your area. Beer and $50 will likely get your monitor working again.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com

#55 10 years ago
Quoted from mattosborn:

Beer and $50 will likely get your monitor working again.

I like the way you think....

#56 10 years ago

I am a video game guy as well, so the monitor being bad is not an issue for me. Luckily i have tons of parts. I have both RFM and SWEp1, On the RFM i swapped a new crt i had sitting around. Its a little work, but doable. I just removed the RFM monitor, removed the crt and chassis from the frame, then replaced my new crt and chassis onto the original RFM frame, game works and looks perfect.

On SWEp1, I was very lucky as well, I happened to have an NOS ducksan chassis that i got when i bought out a ton of parts from the leftover williams inventory, and that go the game up perfectly

If the CRT scares you, find a local KLOV guy like someone else suggested, have them remove the chassis and you can send the chassis to http://www.arcadecup.com/ for repair, then just put it back in

#57 10 years ago
Quoted from Whysnow:

which make/model LCD did you use?

Whoever did the upgrade on mine put a Suzo-HAPP arcade LCD in it. It's seriously fantastic looking.

#58 10 years ago

Poking around on KLOV hoping.

I just feel like shipping it would be dangerous and also probably pricey, no?

#59 10 years ago

You can send just the circuit board - not the entire monitor chassis including picture tube.

#60 10 years ago
Quoted from tamoore:

Whoever did the upgrade on mine put a Suzo-HAPP arcade LCD in it. It's seriously fantastic looking.

Interesting. I briefly considered them, but they were 2-3x the price of most computer monitors.

Glad to hear it looks awesome…do you have the 19" or 22"?

#61 10 years ago

When I get a few minutes I'm going to poke around a bit on it and see what I can come up with.....

#62 10 years ago
Quoted from snaroff:

Interesting. I briefly considered them, but they were 2-3x the price of most computer monitors.
Glad to hear it looks awesome…do you have the 19" or 22"?

The 19", but all the shots still line up quite nicely. There is a bit of image clipping on the pennies during the Lincoln battle, but that's really the only thing I notice any anomaly on...

#63 10 years ago

I used a Dell 19" 4:3 and it fitted perfectly. Take a look at my thread on fitting one

Kev

#64 10 years ago

So a quick update....
I poked around and saw that the fuse was blown. Replaced it and it immediately blew again.

Ordered a cap kit, new flyback, and a few other parts.

This was definitely a lot more complicated to take apart then I first thought. First time really working on a monitor. Read up a lot and discharged it properly, but to get the chassis out without pulling out the glass it was a lot of figuring stuff out!

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#65 10 years ago

New flyback in...that wasn't too bad!

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#66 10 years ago

So...um, do we see what the problem may also be here? Ordered one of these. Guess I need to wait for it before I put this bad boy back together. Also replacing Q801.

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#67 10 years ago

Wow!

I am really impressed with your just "read it and give it a shot" attitude! I am certain I would be nowhere near that confident!

Chris

#68 10 years ago

It's how I learn! I also figure worst case if I totally hose it, I can put in an LCD anyway...for a few hours of work and $30 worth of parts, what's to lose?

#69 10 years ago

Nice. Yeah working on CRTs isn't too bad. Having a healthy fear of voltage is good but once you have a vector (I have a Tempest), you get used to working on em! Excited to see if this brings your picture bck

#70 10 years ago

Well swapped in the new parts, and closer, but still not quite there. Board makes ticking noised like it's trying to fire up the CRT but doesn't quite make it.

Thinking I'm just going to LCD it and make it work!

#71 10 years ago
Quoted from NJGecko:

Well swapped in the new parts, and closer, but still not quite there. Board makes ticking noised like it's trying to fire up the CRT but doesn't quite make it.
Thinking I'm just going to LCD it and make it work!

Sounds to me like high voltage shutdown.

But my monitor is totally dead!:

Then you probably don't need just a cap kit - although now is as good as any to install one. Search out information on your specific monitor, this will help you repair it. Check the fuses on the chassis - usually failure of one of these is the result of some other, more serious failure elsewhere. You probably have a shorted semiconductor, blown flyback, or something else. See listing of incredibly common monitor failures, in a post below.

What's this B+ I keep hearing about?:

B+ is the name given to the main power supply voltage in a monitor. It's name goes way back to battery operated radios, and the origin isn't important here - but remember that it's the main DC power supply voltage. It's exact voltage varies from monitor to monitor - you'll have to check the manual for your monitor to find out what it should be, but it's usually around 120v. For the Sanyo 20EZ, it's 108v. For the Electrohome G07, it's 120v. For the WG6100, it's 180v. This voltage is adjustable on many monitors, but not on others (WG4900, for one).

So... how does this B+ supply work, anyway?:

Glad you asked (even though I know you didn't). For a usual color raster monitor: Isolated AC enters the monitor chassis from the isolation transformer. This is 120vAC (100vAC for the Sanyo). It goes through the main chassis fuse, and occasionally a line filter. From there, it gets rectified by four big diodes, and turned into DC. This DC is then gets filtered by a big capacitor (usually 680uf at 200v or similar, it's the biggest one on the chassis). After that, it usually goes through a fuse, then into a transistor based circuit containing the voltage regulator transistor and a large ceramic resistor. At the output of this circuit, there is usually a marked test point - or you can just test at the output side of that resistor.

And I test it... how?:

Set your meter to DC volts. Put the black lead on the metal frame of the chassis, and the red lead to the B+ test point for your monitor. This test point may be a labelled point on the board, or it may be one side of the large ceramic resistor - check your monitor manual. If your monitor has an adjustable B+, dial it in using the control. It's important that the B+ be set correctly. Running it too high will result in a picture that's too large, and could cause the monitor to go into shutdown to prevent the HV from going high enough to generate X-rays through the picture tube. Too low can cause a small picture, waves of distortion in the screen, or image instability.

http://antelopearcade.com/forum/yaf_postst6_Basic-monitor-information---how-to-ask-good-questions--Read-this-first.aspx

#72 10 years ago

Thanks. I just don't know if its worth keeping chasing this thing down, you know?

#73 10 years ago

So I was ready to go pick up an LCD when I stumbled on someone selling a "tested" 7302 chassis for $30. What the heck...I ordered it, and gave it a very good looking over when it came tonight. Definitely had some work done on it. But what the heck...swapped everything out...

And it's alive!

Running 1.1, so gotta update....

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#74 10 years ago

Guess I found out its last location!

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#75 10 years ago

And, err...I guess I need to swap a few bulbs when I shop it...

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#76 10 years ago

Not the side of the monitor I want to see again!

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#77 10 years ago

Oh, and I got the fluorescent working too...

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#78 10 years ago

How's the Creature doing?

#79 10 years ago

Congrats man!!!!

Glad to see the CRT alive. Great work!

Does it have LED's? If so, you will always get lamp errors. Just a heads up.

That would be the hard part for me (the monitor). The rest should be smooth sailing for you! Let me know if you need any playfield photos. my RFM playfield is out of the cabinet now, so it's super easy to get pics.

Chris

#80 10 years ago
Quoted from spfxted:

How's the Creature doing?

All better...you just smoked the knocker somehow

Man, that sounds very wrong....

#81 10 years ago

Yes, yes it does....

#82 10 years ago
Quoted from SilverUnicorn:

Congrats man!!!!
Glad to see the CRT alive. Great work!
Does it have LED's? If so, you will always get lamp errors. Just a heads up.
That would be the hard part for me (the monitor). The rest should be smooth sailing for you! Let me know if you need any playfield photos. my RFM playfield is out of the cabinet now, so it's super easy to get pics.
Chris

Thanks Chris. I just ordered up the VGA amplifier. One issue I have is that the image on the CRT seems skewed to the left and very off centered. I adjusted it as much as I could through the controls, but not quite centered. Is that by design?

And no...the bulb errors are all from bad bulbs. I don't think any were ever changed in this machine. Ever. Ever.

#83 10 years ago

lol! I am glad you didn't get jobbed on this deal. Did the pf clean up good? Hopefully not too scratched up from all that terribad neglect. The monitor adjustments can be a bitch depending on the work the last dude did to the chassis. Is it me or does it have a red tinge to it? Try adjusting the red gun down, get the color patch/cross hatch up and try your best to adjust without electrocuting yourself!

#84 10 years ago
Quoted from Nemesis:

lol! I am glad you didn't get jobbed on this deal. Did the pf clean up good? Hopefully not too scratched up from all that terribad neglect. The monitor adjustments can be a bitch depending on the work the last dude did to the chassis. Is it me or does it have a red tinge to it? Try adjusting the red gun down, get the color patch/cross hatch up and try your best to adjust without electrocuting yourself!

The last guy never touched the game. Like when I pulled the computer out to get the monitor chassis out it still had the factory zip ties holding it in! Playfield is going to clean up nicely, but I haven't touched it much.

The monitor needs some adjustments definitely, but trying to get it aligned is my challenge.

Also just ordered the ultimarc video amp for it and Rob is going to get me set up with a loaner pub card to get the software updated....

#86 10 years ago
Quoted from NJGecko:

Thanks Chris. I just ordered up the VGA amplifier. One issue I have is that the image on the CRT seems skewed to the left and very off centered. I adjusted it as much as I could through the controls, but not quite centered. Is that by design?
And no...the bulb errors are all from bad bulbs. I don't think any were ever changed in this machine. Ever. Ever.

on my SWE1 had same issue,it was off center and would only go one direction and i couldn't center it. i found a pdf manual on the monitor and reading through there is a switch on the monitor chassis that reverses the direction of the adjustment pot. that fixed it for me. if memory serves me correct on the 2nd pic you posted of your chassis, towards the top of the board there is a black push type switch. above it it says sw301-positive-negative. power off the machine and push the switch, power back on and try it. my machine is being redone at jay richardsons or i would go and open it up and take pics, but that worked for me!

#87 10 years ago

Great job, Gecko!! You're knocking this bad boy out, and it's always cool to see another pinhead taking the challenge head on. I'll be honest; I would have been nervous with this one, but you're making awesome progress! Keep us updated!!! I so want a RFM for one of my next 3 machines - luckyyyyyyyy!!!!

#88 10 years ago

I would go LED under the playfield to both bulletproof it a little and to lower heat under the inserts. You need the anti-strobing, anti-ghosting LEDs, though. It looks really nice afterward!

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