vtk

i cannot remember if perhaps first you could loosen the 'key' (clamp) before attempting to move them, that might be worth trying

cool, i will remember that some of the lines are supposed to be bridged just a digital multimeter here yes, no scope hopefully i will try again and attempt your suggestions when i can (currently just trying to get better from heavy cold/flu)

hello maraakate thanks for the response unfortunately i did replace the socketed 6522 with a known working one during the last efforts to fix the vectrex, but the problem did not go away however, i wonder if the socket itself might be corroded or something like that, eg. dirty.. or poor contact/soldering i remember i did spray some electrical cleaner into the socket to help, but maybe still not clean enough (i should have checked continuity of each leg of chip to underside of pcb socket solder point).. and also check for shorts perhaps i should take a look at it again, thanks

or instead use isopropyl alcohol which would be an easier job because it evaporates away (so doesnt matter if you spray a little more than you should)

hi, so this never occurs when you play the inbuilt game minestorm instead of using a cartridge? it might be an idea to give the cartridge socket of your vectrex unit a clean also, instead of just cleaning the cartridge contacts to do this, (note: with the vectrex switched off) spray some (note: dont soak to the point of it starts dripping everywhere) electrical contact cleaner (such as the product called 'servisol super 10') onto the contacts of a cartridge, and then insert/remove the cartridge into your vectrex a few times. wait eg. half an hour and do this cleaning process again afterwards, wait an hour or two before using your vectrex again .. or instead just wait until next day (dont spray the electrical contact cleaner directly into the vectrex cartridge slot)

actually i noticed the white dot is in the upper right center of the screen i reseated the socketed chips, but that didnt help then i replaced all the socketed chips with known working ones, and that did not help either

hey again i have just noticed something ... there is a single dot in the middle of the screen, if i turn up the brightness knob, you can see it, sitting still in the middle of the screen, doing nothing

ah nuts i changed the DZ102 zener diode, and now i get these voltages at the J204 power connector: -4.97v +4.83v -13.15 but... the vectrex is still dead (nothing on screen, no game sounds.. but neck glow at the crt tube). i notice there is a noticeable hum/buzz sound now though when plugged in/switched on (coming from the speaker or transformer.... unsure which) if anybody has any ideas of what to check next please let me know (i'm not sure where to go next, eg. the logic board, the power board..? thanks )

hi again i just had a bit of a go with it all and now taking a break i noticed one of the diodes (D107) was bad so i changed that, and i changed cap C120 (i have not checked other nearby caps yet) then measuring again, i now get -12.65v on the -13v rail... i still have the same problem of the vectrex not booting up/black screen does anyone know, is -12.65v too low for the vectrex to start up?

thanks ok, im wondering perhaps i should follow what this person did: http://int03.co.uk/blog/2016/01/31/vectrex-repair-black-screen-no-vector/

Hi Guys, I have a vectrex unit here which is not powering up It is a very clean unit (no dust or dirt inside), it looks like whatever the problem with it is, it happened early in its life, and then the vectrex has been stored since then first checked fuses (in main plug and also internal vectrex fuse) = OK so what happens is, when i plug in the vectrex to the mains, there is the normal hum sound from the transformer if i use the vectrex power/volume switch to turn on the unit, the vectrex does not power up, instead the screen stays black. the system does not boot up, there is no game audio sounds. there is neck glow on the crt tube. coming out from the speaker, there is some audio: a quiet 'crackle' (dust in pot) sound if i rotate the volume knob up and down. i checked volts going in and out of the vectrex power/volume switch, and read the same value going in and then out of the switch (it read 20v using my multimeter at the switch), so i believe the power switch is ok when i first opened up the vectrex to inspect, i noticed that the socketed chip IC207 (the 6522 VIA I/O control device) was not in the socket correctly (it had not been pushed into the socket correctly on one side, and therefore not making correct contact) .. so i have pushed this chip back into the socket (but have not determined yet if this chip is faulty) ok so after having a quick visual look around the pcb's for poor solder joints, i powered on the vectrex and tested the voltages at the power cable (J204) going from the power pcb to the logic pcb here i got the readings: yellow wire -5v = -4.97v green wire GND = OK orange wire +5v = +4.83v red wire -13v = approx 1.5v to 2v (the readings jump around a little) i checked that the J204 connector was ok, and then i decided to test the -13v with the J204 connector now unplugged from the logic board. with the J204 connector unplugged, the -13v line then measured: -8v i'm not really sure what to do next.. should i be looking at the IC207 chip, or looking at the -13v area of the power supply if anyone has some suggestions for how to proceed or which components to test / areas to look at, please let me know, thanks!

hi again, if you were asking me directly, im afraid i could not give advice here as i only really know the basics (things like testing some voltages, soldering, testing some components like caps and resistors, etc) i did manage to perform the audio debuzz mod (cable), which was good to do (a little stressful but... ok overall )

congrats, nice to know by the way you say 'plastic', but the actual more correct (official) thing to use there is called a 'mica pad' (i dont know if plastic is good for the long term? and hopefully yours is not too thick, because it might over-reduce heat getting through) ... thermal paste is also a good idea..on both sides of the mica pad (and be careful of the old thermal paste.. i think i read that the original vectrex paste might be toxic after 30 years! perhaps a joke though, i dont know )

unfortunately i cannot remember, if you do determine what is causing your squeal please let us know here, as i would be interested to know, thanks (and best of luck)

hi, perhaps you can temporarily remove your new audio preamp to check that is not related to the new squeal sound you have ... to do this if i remember correctly, you can cut the input and output wires which are leading to your small preamp circuit board, and then join those two wires together, (so as to override the preamp circuit board). i have a bad memory but i think when i performed the audio preamp circuit board on my vectrex some time ago, i may have had squeal also. in the end, personally i decided to remove and abandon the audio preamp circuit board, and just stick with installing the 'shielded buzz reduction (ground) cable' instead ... but also, along with that cable, i placed a resistor around 2k (not 1k) in value, in the position shown in the picture below. this gave me a much better useable sweep of the vectrex volume pot (before using that resistor, i was noticing that the upper range of the volume knob was way too loud (annoying/ear piercing), so i wanted to remove that). so now with a 2k resistor in place, when the volume knob is at maximum it is 'quite loud', but no longer 'crazy annoying loud' and doesnt rattle (distort) the speaker anymore. .. also, adding that resistor has reduced some noise/buzz (because it has removed some of the gain/volume.... which is ok with me as i didnt want all of that volume i would never use anyway....) regarding the suction cup, you should be able to just give it a bit of a final adjust by pushing it down onto the tube (hand squeezing around the middle-rear of the suction cup) and moving it around a little (ensuring that both legs are properly inside the hole in the tube of course)

thanks vectrexroli for the video, and ..... .... OMG VECTOR PATROL LOOKS INCREDIBLE !!!

i am wondering, is your existing cable (you used with C64) literally 'just a cable', - as the PL2303HX cable is not just a cable but also some electronic circuitry (chipset) built into the usb plug housing

im not sure about windows 98, perhaps you might have trouble with that (but im not an expert) hopefully Richard can offer advice, i expect he would reply to you soon i believe these cables below are suitable (but again, perhaps only windows xp or newer) http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=TTL+PL2303HX+cable you would only use the GND, TXD and RXD pins, you would not use the VCC (5v) pin (because the vecmulti is already powered by the vectrex console)

i've noticed that too, my vectrex makes a hum sound even when powered off but plugged into the mains maybe something like this would be a solution: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191566877282

if you dont like the idea of removing a circuit board from the vectrex, most of the (socketed) chips can be removed ok without needing to dis-assemble the vectrex parts the AY-3-8912 soundchip is a little tricky to remove, but it's possible, and i can do it ok now as i did it a few times and now it's easy (a little tricky the first time if not had practice) i just use a set of tweezers, which i bend the legs at the end so that it can be used to grip the chip, so i can pull them off (see pics) (but perhaps a more professional tool to remove chips can be purchased from eg. ebay)

Vectrex Friends, The test results are here ..... and the news is good... i put the AY-3-8912A sound chip (mine is the Taiwan Motorola 'microchip' version, pictured below) into my Hong Kong model vectrex, and tried it out with some various sound/music tests; i used the TEST CART sound test, and also had a go of the game 'Minestorm' , and then finally tried the game 'Thrust' (which plays some Rob Hubbard converted chip music with lots of varying effects/sounds/noise playing). I encountered no problems. Everything sounded exactly the same as when using my regular original GI (General Instruments) AY-3-8912 sound chip (pictured below). one more thing... i remember reading that the vectrex sound chip is also used regarding the joystick controllers (Input/Output), so i also tested (using the TEST CART) both of the joystick ports, with 2 controllers plugged in at the same time. there were no problems here. both of the controllers functioned as normal/correctly. so that's good news then, you can just buy the cheaper more available AY-3-8912A sound chip for your vectrex (well, at least it's ok with the Hong Kong model vectrex). Hopefully it will also be ok for the other vectrex model versions (such as the 'made in taiwan' vectrex models, etc). .. and that's that. (unless anyone wants me to do any more tests...? if so, let me know) .....

hello guys, yes i agree i think because the AY-3-8912A is very cheap on ebay, it is worth trying this with the vectrex so i will purchase one of these now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252201432390 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291496696829 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171819960455 when it arrives and i try it, i will report back here to let you know if it works out ok

hello all, i was having a look around ebay for a replacement AY-3-8912 sound chip for the vectrex, and noticed on ebay that the AY-3-8912A revision of the chip is more readily available, and very cheap in price compared to the earlier AY-3-8912 revision but i read somewhere that the AY-3-8912A revision of the chip may not work in the vectrex (perhaps somebody here could confirm?) i found the pinouts for the AY-3-8912, and the AY-3-8912A revision, and it 'appears' that the only difference is with PIN 2, see diagram below: i tried to find some information online regarding PIN 2, and noticed elsewhere that some people were discussing about lifting PIN 2 so that it is not used/connected, but also other people were suggesting to connect it to +5v or to GROUND .... but anyway there was not really a final solution or outcome/resolution to the discussion i found a 'data manual' online regarding the AY-3-8912, link here: http://f.rdw.se/AY-3-8910-datasheet.pdf and i notice on the 13th page down, it states: "The Test Pin is for GI (General Instruments Company) test purposes only, and should be left open (and not used as tie points)" hmm, so does anyone have any advice regarding this.. could the AY-3-8912A work in the vectrex, or must we stick with the AY-3-8912?

i like that idea about laminating regarding your YASI/Protector scan question, perhaps also ask over at this forum link below, as there are many vectrex users there: http://vectorgaming.proboards.com/board/20 ps. perhaps something interesting here: http://vectorgaming.proboards.com/thread/1122/overlay-scans

hey sorry to hear that news i'm not sure what i would suggest next, perhaps you could consider sending it to someone for a good look at/service, but then unfortunately the cost of repairs could add up if it has multiple issues or perhaps try to sell it (for spares/repairs), there would be interest on ebay i expect just the vectrex gamepad/controller sells well on ebay, perhaps around £30-£50 depending on condition then with the funds from selling the faulty vectrex and the controller, this could go towards purchasing a working vectrex on ebay or if you are quite keen to continue to try to get your vectrex working again perhaps the white noise issue, is a problem with the AY-3-8910 sound chip you could remove that sound chip from its socket (spray using servisol super 10 spray where the legs meet the socket first though, before trying to remove the chip, as i imagine it's quite stiff in the socket by now), give the socket a clean with servisol super 10 spray (and the legs of the chip itself) if the sound chip does turn out to be faulty there are replacement AY-3-8910 on ebay for approx. £5 (must buy AY-3-8910 not AY-3-8910A) regarding the crt sparking, im afraid i dont have any suggestions regarding that, as i would consider myself to be quite average regarding repairs/servicing, but not an expert unfortunately