Vectrex misalignment -- normal?

[Garwor]

The title sort of spells it out. I've had my Vectrex for a few years now and love it. I've started to get a bit more "collecty" about the whole thing and began looking into maintenance, etc. The fact is, if I somehow lost it, it exploded, etc... it may take years to get a new one.

 

My alignment is off, but not too bad. A bit off center, even less of a horizonal issue. With some overlays you don't notice, but with stuff like Solar Quest, the dot in the center is definitely off. My question is -- is this pretty normal? Are a lot of Vectrex systems like this?

 

I'm not tech-ignorant and understand the procedure for altering the alignment, but frankly I'm scared of doing so because I've not got a lot of room for trial and error. I guess I'm just wondering whether or not a Vectrex that goes out of alignment like this *needs* to be repair, perhaps to avoid future loss of alignment.

 

I don't know what I'd do without this thing, haha.

 

Thanks a lot.

[fiddlepaddle]

I've seen several over the years with slight misalignment problems, and generally those people were content to live with it.

 

It seems the Vectrex is not so good at staying forever stable... I bought one new, and a second-hand back up a few years later. Recently, the second one has faded to the point where it's unusable. My original model still works well, but I expect it to "go bad" at some point.

 

I know some suggest replacing all the caps, and apparently one can make adjustments and mods with the proper software and soldering skills, but I've never even opened mine up, what with warnings about high voltage, and accidentally getting a pot screwed up so it doesn't work at all.

 

I've always loved the Vectrex, but have started looking at it as more of a curiosity and conversation piece. Especially as lately the emulation is better, and eventually should be virtually indistinguishable in game play.

[R.Cade]

I've recapped mine thought it was still "shaky" but everyone else's seems to be that way also.

I think they just aren't a precision display/design. They were only supposed to be toys.

[Garwor]

There's a set of voltage offset pots that affect the alignment, but common sense seems to dictate that you'll eventually run out of rope and should instead adjust the magnet rings. I just don't even want to put my hands on it without talking to someone who has done this a fair number of times. Hearing that this is fairly common, considering their age, is good news to me -- an abnormality would be more suggestive of a need to correct the issue.

 

Hopefully I'll grow old and die before it degenerates too far. I'm no stranger to emulation, but for my eyes and hands nothing beats the real thing when it comes to this machine in particular.

 

Thanks a lot for the responses!

[vtk]

dont worry u will be safe doing the adjustments because all you do is switch off the mains power between each adjustment u do. simple.

 

it will take longer but at least there wont be power on when u are doing the adjustments.

 

information to centre (move) the screen is shown in the link below: (see the piccy with the red arrows) (you can also resize (stretch/shrink) the screen using some small pots inside on the circuit board)

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/219152-vectrex-screen-centering-help/

 

so power off... remove back casing of the vectrex. turn one of the tabs on back of the neck a little bit. get your hands out of there and then power on, check if you turned the tab the right way, and enough.

if not, turn off power, adjust it again.. and so on.. start with one tab first (eg. horizontal) and when happy, do the second tab (vertical)

[+madman]

The "you will kill yourself" myths are largely over blown on the Internet. If you use plastic tools to make adjustments while the power is on, you are fine. As long as you're not touching any bare circuity it's no different than using externally accessible adjustment knobs back in the CRT days.

[iesposta]

The "you will kill yourself" myths are largely over blown on the Internet. If you use plastic tools to make adjustments while the power is on, you are fine. As long as you're not touching any bare circuity it's no different than using externally accessible adjustment knobs back in the CRT days.

 

I agree, somewhat. However it is really simple to take a normal screwdriver and an oversized flat screwdriver or I happen to use what looks like a long screwdriver with a 1" wide chisel end.

Holding the plastic or rubber end, slide the big flat screwdriver under the crt rubber cup, and touch the metal wire(s) that clip it to the crt glass. With the other screwdriver, hold the plastic end, and short the big metal screwdriver with the metal of the smaller screwdriver to the ground strap that runs around the tube. By the third time of doing this, you'll find it simple and confident everything is safe.

If just unplugged, you will get a tiny spark. If unplugged for a minute, I don't see or hear any spark, which is odd as it is written that CRT's will hold a charge unless there is circuitry to self discharge.

 

Using plastic adjustments tools with only one hand while the power is on is fine, just keep track to keep away from touching any metal. The one hand thing is that should you get zapped, as long as it doesn't go across your heart, it will just be a painful shock. If you use 2 hands you will get shocked across your heart, worst case scenario.

 

Really the 2 pots on the Power Board, and the CRT stem rings should make the fix.

The test cart ROM is best for really getting a good result.

And even though the pot at the back center of the CPU board does change the alignment, the manual warns not to use that to fix centering. If you do it will cause edge-of-screen vectors to misalign or other bad things.

[Turbo-Torch]

Don't touch the CRT centering rings. Unless someone dropped the unit or you're replacing the CRT, there is no reason to go near them.

If you can no longer get an acceptable picture by adjusting the pots, then you need to recap it. Simple as that. All new capacitors and good for another 30 years. Furthermore, trashed caps will just get worse and worse making any adjustments pointless.