Has anyone re-cap'ed a Vectrex?

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iainjh

iainjh

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one of my new years resolutions (again!) - is to finally get round to re-cap'ing my vectrex.

I see there's a kit available in the usa for $15, and obviously the parts are available here, its just that there's a lot of them to change, about 25!

http://console5.com/wiki/Vectrex#Capacitor_List

questions for the vectrex owners here:

-has anyone here changed the caps in theirs?

-any problems in doing that; any adjustments necessary afterwards?

-if I dont do it, will the resulting damage when they do leak ruin it... do i have a choice?

- was it easy or a ***** to do?

any helpful advice or suggestions welcome! :)
 
it looks easy enough , i can do it for you if you dont want to.

what makes you think the radial caps are leaking ?

mike
 
Looks like basic through hole stuff, assuming you have a desoldering station it would take 15 minutes at most.
 
It'd take me about a week :)!

Ta for replies

Mike, I have no reason to believe they are leaking.. It all works well, the pictures mostly straight too

I'm just thinking ahead before they do leak! Thanks for the kind offer, ill have a think !

I assume replacement / modern capacitors do not ever leak...or do they?
 
They all leak eventually but modern ones will last you another 30 or 40 years ... ;-)
 
I've got to do that to my Vec...
When I first power it up, it takes quite a while to start, which I'm told is usually CAPs..

Thanx for that link, lots of good info too...

I don't have a desolder station, but I just got a new rework station and I have a solder sucker and some wick if needed...

I've had pretty good luck desoldering caps and resistors when I've tried.

Just (last night) desoldered a Pokey chip from an Atari 7800 cart.
I didn't destroy the Pokey (tested after it was removed), but I have some work to do on my process... :-)
I've seen people on youtube but I'm having issues trying to "quickly" go from soldering iron to solder sucker AND getting the solder sucker flush to the board.
I think maybe I'm trying to do it too quickly...

I had really good luck lining up the solder sucker on the pin side first, and then heating the pin on the other side of the board, but I assume that's not a good way to do it (might damage the chip??) as I haven't seen anyone else do that...

But there's lots of time to practice.. ;-)

desiv
 
I'd go with the kit myself, mainly as it will be a one off and you know you will get the correct values. Not only that but you tend to have to buy these things in multiples if you do it yourself so it will probably cost a bit more financially if you source them yourself.
 
Just remember to discharge the CRT when fiddling with a Vectrex!

Better safe than sorry. I have never dared to do this myself yet, but when I do it will be with triple caution. The voltage stored can be lethal.
 
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