What have I gotten myself into??? Cap hellllllp?

Disclaimer: Any dirt on the board is a combination between Nicotine and fried dog hair.

NOTE: All pictures are bigger if you just click on them.

I told my in-laws during the New Years weekend I'd try to fix their TV for them. Ah, smart Jon. I have a 32", 7 year old TV sitting upside down on a card table in my garage. Where my car should be. That was 3-4 weeks ago. Kids suck the time out of you. Putting a heater in an uninsulated garage when it's 20 degrees out - that takes the oomph out of you. Finally got into it this weekend when it hit 60F out.

Anyway... symptoms were that it started snapping to a horizontal line, then now it's down to just the power supply "clicking".

So, I got it open, reflowed what I could get to on the neckboard. (On the left)

No help. So, I decided maybe I could reflow the main board. But, I had to take it out. Took me a bit, and here's my reward... I think it's a slightly bulged cap. This one's big. Almost 2 inches high. It's in the powersupply section.




On the right side, there are two parallel traces coming down to some leads pointing up and then down (about 1/3 of the way down, under the "+" by the words "HOT\COLD")). That's where the big cap goes through.

Here's the detail on it. The "flashes" of brown are nicotine stains I haven't cleaned yet. But, on the left (the very left of the white line down the center), is where I think the capacitor "goo" is.Even worse, on the lower left side of the shot above, there is even more "goo". (I can't find the cap this would have come from. None of the others look even slightly "bulgy".)

So, this is where I'm at. I have never seen a blown cap before. I assume this is what it looks like, but I'm not sure. I don't even know if fixing a cap would fix the TV. Or, even where I'd buy the cap kit.

What have I gotten myself into? LOL *sigh*

Where have I been?

Okay, so, it's been a while since I've posted. When I've been in the basement, I've been working on rearranging my game room. I got the entertainment center and the 31" Gateway Destination monitor moved with only one (near) Achille's tendon severing fall. I've gotten all my games moved, and finally, have gotten the rubber tile back down in the corner where my daughter's Cardboard Castle is going to go.

Phew.

Got the farthest I've ever gotten in Jail Break last night before litter duty. "Only" scored 110,000 (not my high), but got past the ships on Scene 3 and into the town. Dang, now I gotta learn the pattern for the SUV's on a part I've only been to once. Grrrreat.

On my pinball, I've been having some monster first balls lately. Racking up a 10 ball bonus, and clearing them, and starting over. (On Top Score, the backglass animation gimmick is a loading up of a bowling ball for each bonus point. The one rule of the game variation wise is, once you've loaded up 10 balls, you then go for the "bonus" hole to score them and start collecting more bonus points.) But, for some reason, ball 2 and ball 3 like to drain on me, so I've gotten 30k on the first ball, and then 5 k on the 2nd and 3rd. No where near a high score.

I'm beginning to wonder if the new spot I put the machine in is slower than the other. I haven't leveled it yet, but when I checked, it seemed to be right as is. Hmmm.

The other cool thing is that I've finally scored a Tiger Heli PCB. Sure, it's not JAMMA. And Sure, I don't have a cabinet for it. BUT, it's a minor Holy Grail of mine, and it was only $20 shipped. I used to play the heck out of Tiger Heli both in the Aladdin's Castle in Minot, ND as a kid, and on the Nintendo when I was in college. I even used a flight stick for it on the Nintendo. So, I'm happy.

I'm thinking about putting an Ultimarc Magstick 4/8 way onto my Lock n' Chase once I've done the cap kit, and using it for vertical 8 ways, not just 4 ways.

Next blog - my fun "project".