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Sega New Astro City Color Issues?

Haydouken

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UPDATE:

Fixed power issues thanks to Nem’s wonderful guidance but now am encountering a brand new error: no red in the picture :///.

The control board works for all other settings but the pot for R GAIN is non responsive when moved.

I tried reconnecting the control board ribbon cable to the monitor to no change.

Anyone have any ideas ?



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Hey all,

SOS! Recently came into position of a New Astro City which is a dream come true and is in beautiful cosmetic condition.

What’s not been a dream though has been plugging it in only to find flickering marquee lights and a screen with a blue horizontal line/no games booting up.

The cabinet came from China which I believe has different power standards vs the USA where I’m located (220v vs 120v?) and I can tell was modified with a transformer (or step down converter?) as well as different wiring it seems than a typical JP/US wiring setup. I’m not an electrician by any means and already have messed around with some of the wires only to have the same effect each time of flickering lights and no screen (though i do hear the crackle of degausser when the tv turns on and off).

I know the power supply works because I’ve tested it on another Astro city I happened to have gotten recently in LA area wired traditionally.

Any ideas how to fix this or what’s going on? Some part of me feels like it would be easier to swap the wiring and disassemble to use the shell of this one on my other NAC but then I sacrifice one NAC :(.

MONITOR/LIGHTS ISSUE
WIRING CLOSE-UP

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A horizontal line across the screen sound like vertical collapse. So your chassis is the issue, not the power. If you're lucky, its something simple like not having the remote board plugged in all the way.
 
His issue is the transformer if it's plugged in like in the second pic. He needs to remove it and have wires go from the mains switch straight to the noise filter.
I thought that transformer might be the culprit as the seller I purchased from showcased it working flawlessly (but ofc something could have happened during shipping but hoping it’s not the case)!

The second pic is the current wiring.

Do you happen to have any guidance or can point me in the direction of which wires to move where?
 
Okay so now I understand the main switch vs noise filter.

So to be clear: in my horribly sketched “mock-up” I would literally just need to get wires that connect between the main switch and the noise filter? Would they need to be connected to the overall wire loom or are they just two independent wires connecting to each?
 

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Your pic is correct. You can pull the wires from your other NAC for testing. Or even easier, just swap the whole back plate. It's four torx screws and a three quick disconnects (IIRC).
 
Your pic is correct. You can pull the wires from your other NAC for testing. Or even easier, just swap the whole back plate. It's four torx screws and a three quick disconnects (IIRC).
Wow! It worked! Thank you so much!

Unfortunately I’ve encountered a new error: there seems to be no red in the monitor’s picture :/.

The RED GAIN pot is non-responsive as well. I tried reconnecting the ribbon cable from the monitor and control board—no change.

Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong now?

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It's a Yaton cab (isn't it?). There's bound to be some issues.

Since you have another NAC, you can swap parts between them. First make sure the issue lies with the monitor and not the harness. Connect your other working monitor to the cab to test that out. If and when the fault is with the monitor, swap the remote from your other NAC (if they both have MS9s). If issue persists, then it's either the chassis main board or neck board.

Very often with these China cabs you can fix things just by reflowing solder joints. These cabs have had a rough life. So if you can handle a soldering iron, you can do that. I would start with the neck board as I regularly see cracked joints on that.

Or you can send the chassis out for repair.

By the way, you have an auto-switching MS9. That's a nice bonus. Make sure you get the same MS9 back if you do send it for repair.
 
It's a Yaton cab (isn't it?). There's bound to be some issues.

Since you have another NAC, you can swap parts between them. First make sure the issue lies with the monitor and not the harness. Connect your other working monitor to the cab to test that out. If and when the fault is with the monitor, swap the remote from your other NAC (if they both have MS9s). If issue persists, then it's either the chassis main board or neck board.

Very often with these China cabs you can fix things just by reflowing solder joints. These cabs have had a rough life. So if you can handle a soldering iron, you can do that. I would start with the neck board as I regularly see cracked joints on that.

Or you can send the chassis out for repair.

By the way, you have an auto-switching MS9. That's a nice bonus. Make sure you get the same MS9 back if you do send it for repair.
Hmm I don’t think it was from Yaton actually—different guy BUT I do have some updates: I went ahead and swapped the monitors and now am using the working one but the second monitor that came with this unit is still having the same lack of RED color issue :(

I tried:
1. Reconnecting harnesses
2 adjusting all color pots on both the control board and chassis board
3. Tried a different Ribbon cable to the control board
4. Tried a different control board.

At this point I do think the issue is probably chassis or neck board related sadly. Nem, do you know who can fix these reliably? Also are there any tutorials or guides on how to remove the neck and chassis board as I will have to ship those separately I imagine for repairs :(?

Happy I at least have one working cab but sucks because this tube seems to be in great condition internally and cosmetically. Hope it’s just a matter of cold solder joints though still above my expertise in soldering. Appreciate any help you, or anyone else, can give!
 
Do you have a soldering iron? If not, you own cabs, buy a soldering iron. :D

First thing to check is the pins on the neck board. That's the little PCB on the back of the CRT tube. You can inspect the solder joints to look for cold ones, or just reflow them all, but it's a common spot for this issue. I fixed a "no blue" problem the same way with a monitor.

If you're not sure what I mean by reflow a solder joint read this:

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering/common-problems

To remove the neck board you just pull it off straight back from the CRT. It will slide off the pins connecting. Just pull straight, and reverse that to put it back on, to not bend the pins. Otherwise it's easy.
 
I’ll give it a shot! I do have a soldering iron. Found some videos showcasing how to remove the chassis and neck board so it should be doable from here. Will report any developments
 
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