Anyone know of someone in Colorado who can repair a Vectrex?

[famicommander]

My Vectrex display has become too dim to see. I assume it needs the capacitors replaced but I haven't actually opened it up, nor do I plan to. I definitely don't want to ship this mini beast anywhere.

 

Can anyone recommend someone in the Denver area that knows what they're doing?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I'm assuming you have tried to adjust it with the brightness knob in the back of the vectrex to be sure? It could be caps and that doesn't hurt, but it could also be an indication of the small flyback itself. At least, that has been my experience with arcade monitors that start to go dim, is that Caps doesn't usually fix dimming...they can fix an image being overly bright, but not usually the other way around and it is usually due to the flyback.

[famicommander]

The brightness knob is all the way up.

 

And I am certainly not sure the caps are the problem. This is why I need someone that knows what they're doing to look at it. Anything more complicated than a save battery replacement or NES pin connector replacement is beyond my depth.

Edited January 25, 2018 by famicommander

[fiddlepaddle]

I have this same problem with one of my Vecs.

 

As an armchair observer of hardware fixes, I was curious what a "flyback" is. I googled and found this instruction for restoring arcade monitors, which was very interesting.

 

It also gives me confidence that if I was ever stranded on a desert island with all the tools and parts, I might be able to muddle through fixing my Vectrex. First estimate, though, is it would probably take me a few man-months.

 

And I KNOW I would be forced to repair things where I made some mistakes. And I would likely have to desolder and resolder a few things I put in backward or upside down or whatever.

 

In reality, I'll probably just resort to occasional emulation once my working Vec isn't anymore, or even more likely just reminisce.

 

Never did find out what a flyback actually is, though...

Edited January 26, 2018 by fiddlepaddle

[+-^CrossBow^-]

The flyback is the large cylinder or block like box that is attached to the thick wire off the "suction" cup from the tube. That wire is the anode wire and the flyback I believe has that name because of two theories:

 

1 - if you don't attach the other end of the wire to something, the wire will nearly whip around in all directions like a high pressure hose when it is powered up.

2 - this is where the high voltage that goes into the crt tube comes from. So if you were to get zapped by the high voltage coming off the flyback wire, you would "fly backwards".

 

Anyway, it is what charges up the tube to the high voltages needed to attract the electron beam. I've seen flybacks used in cheap tesla coils sometimes. So that should give you an idea on what they can do.

 

The problem with the vectrex is that I believe the flyback for it is proprietary and so you aren't likely to just find them on the new or used market. This is why I have a spare vectrex that has an excellent tube and flyback as a parts spare. The vectors on it are all screwed up when you power it on and it likely is one or more logic chips that have failed. But again, that veccy has a pretty busted up frame and generally just not in very good shape. But excellent for spares use!

[fiddlepaddle]

I see. So if the flyback is an analogue circuit, presumably, a person could build one from scratch, assuming the specs were known?

 

Or in theory (just fantasizing now) maybe a circuit could be designed that would input the vectrex control signals and output a rasterized image to a high-res flat screen, essentially emulating just the CRT?

[famicommander]

I found a game shop/arcade that works on arcade CRTs in Golden, CO. The guy is going to contact me with a time to set up a diagnostic on my Vectrex.

I'll report back if it works out.