I have two minty Barco 1200's. One is up and running, one has a bad controller board. I swapped controller boards and fired up the non-working 1200. It seems to fire up normally, other than I don't think I'm getting the "static" sound it should make when the power is turned on. I'm not getting any picture. Tubes are not lighting up at all. The controller and board LEDs seem to be indicating everything's ok. The exception is a red LED inside the EHT board (you can see it thru a hole in the heatsink), which stays constantly on.

Also, It sometimes has a high pitched whine. (caps?) This mainly happens for a short period after changing sources.

This is a real clean PJ with 3.4K hours and perfect tubes. The only concern is when I acquired the PJ, the screws that secure all 3 neck boards were loose, and one was unplugged. I would think that maybe someone had been scavenging parts off of it, but it's completely intact. So, I guess someone has been working on it. The thought of that is almost as worrisome as the thought of me working on it. :D

Any suggestions?

bump

EHT led is on, NO high voltage within the set.

the Scream could well be the quad, and that could well also be the problem.

Just guessing though.......

Yeah it could be the quad. You are sure you are using the right EHT?
I've heard screaming when using a newer EHT with older Splitter and Quad.

double post...

Thanks guys! I have checked all the removable boards by installing them one at a time in the working 1200. That's how I know that controller board was bad. I also had to replace the vertical board (bought one from Person99). The Quad and EHT boards worked in my other 1200. The EHT board is the original board (has matching serial number). As far as I know all parts are original.

What else could I check?

Hmm. Well if you have swapped out all the boards and they test fine in your other 1200 then it doesn't leave that much left?

Did you test the HV-splitter in your other 1200 as well?

I only tested the plug-in boards. I didn't test anything else. I'm looking at the layout on Curt's site. When you said quad I assumed you meant the quad decoder board. After further study it seems you probably meant the quadrupler. I haven't checked that or the HV-splitter. I'll do that now.

The PJ has been unplugged for 24 hours. Nothing would still be holding a charge, right?

Yes we both meant the quadrupler.

Right, you are quite safe to fiddle around with it.
My money is on the quadrupler then.

Hey guys, well I finally got time to work on the 1200. I changed the Quad last night and the HV splitter today. No luck. Still no "tube crackle" (I don't what you call it) when I turn the PJ on, and the red LED on the EHT board is still on. Any other ideas?

Have you tried disconnecting the tubes one at a time and turning it on. A short in a tube will cause this. If that is it, unplugging the shorted tube will allow the other two to come on.

Dave, disconnecting what on the tube? Everything? Let me know and I'll give it a try.

I think of the 1200, you only need to disconnect the lead from the splitter. If the focus block has only 1 red lead going into it and 3 rubber caps with no leads, this is the case.

Just disconnect the lead from the splitter and fire it up. If nothing changes, plug it back in and go to the next one.

Dave

I disconnected one lead, fired the PJ up--nothing. Plugged it back up and disconnected a different lead, fired the PJ up--tube crackle! No red LED on the EHT board! However, I wasn't getting a picture. While trying to get the service menu to to display, it starts rapid fire arcing (I can't see anything--that's what it sounds like) somewhere towards the front of the PJ. I frantically hit the Standby button but it won't shut off. As I reach for the AC cord, it finally shuts down. I turn it back on, no tube crackle and the red LED is back on. I can also smell the dreaded "burnt electronics" smell. I don't see anything that's burnt, but definitely can smell it. :(

Thats probably why the other guy ahead of you had unhooked the neck boards. He was probably trying to figure out how to get high voltage too. Sounds like one of your crts is shorted to me. The crt could be shorting directly from the bell to ground or it could also be shorting from the guns to ground. I would look for any broken glass first. The crt in question would be the one with the red lead you disconnected where you finally got high voltage (crackle).

Bob,

I'm giving up for the moment. When you smell stuff burning, you're going backwards instead of forwards. :D

I had pulled the controller board, vertical board, quad and HV-splitter from my working 1200 to try to get the non-working 1200 going. I decided I should see if I toasted any of these parts and if my good 1200 would still work. I had forgot to put the original quad back in the good 1200, and at first I wasn't getting HV. So I put the known-to-be-good quad in and I finally got a picture (after 2 or 3 tries :confused: ).

But now the picture is slightly bouncing up and down like a ping pong ball--a problem I originally had when I first acquired the PJs. Turned out to be a bad V-board. I had robbed the V-board out of the bad PJ to fix the good PJ. I put the good V-board back in the bad PJ when trying to fix it. It seems the bad PJ screwed it up. :( I have another V-board I got from Person99. It works but the geometry may be screwed up more than can be fixed. I'll see if I can dial it in tomorrow (I've had enough failure for today :D ).

I had geometry problems with the good 1200 when I acquired it. It was due to a bad controller board. Stole the controller board out of the bad 1200 to fix it. Had to put it back in the bad 1200 to work on it. This is why the geometry problems I'm having now worry me. I hope the bad PJ didn't F up my only working controller board! :(

I hope you can follow all of that. I certainly can't! :D

PS: Can I safely test the tubes in my good 1200? I don't want to risk damaging it any further.

Phil,
Do you remember which red lead you unplugged that got you the high voltage right before you smelled the smoke? If so, trace that red lead back to whichever crt anode it went to and then visually inspect the glass for any cracks, flaws, or other failures. Sometimes if you look inside the neck of a crt with failed vacume you might see dust particles too. Just a hairline crack can cause the high voltage to short to ground. If you happen to have an ohm meter you could also try to measure any resistance between anode and ground. If it is not infinity on all ranges you definately have a problem.

Unless you are pretty confident which crt is bad, I would not test any of them on the working machine. At best, a shorted crt is going to fault out the safety circuits and at worse you are going to smell more smoke or burn out something in the anode path.

Bob,

Sorry for the VERY late reply. Work got really busy and I had to drop working on the 1200.

The green tube is definitely the bad tube.

I've decided to sell the broken 1200 as a parts machine for the other minty 1200 I have, so I'm not going to mess with the broken 1200 anymore. Thanks for the help!

My new problem. I need to center the rasters (actually picture) on the tube faces of my good 1200. They're way off, more off than can be corrected with the center adjustment. I'm told that there is an internal adjustment pot for this purpose. Can someone point me in the right direction?

My new problem. I need to center the rasters (actually picture) on the tube faces of my good 1200. They're way off, more off than can be corrected with the center adjustment. I'm told that there is an internal adjustment pot for this purpose. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Is the green off, or just the blue and red?

Dave,

I'm not sure. I haven't fired it up in a couple of months. I was going to work on it tonight. Do they not each have their own adjustment?

Dave,

I'm not sure. I haven't fired it up in a couple of months. I was going to work on it tonight. Do they not each have their own adjustment?

red and blue have h and v position pots. red and blue also have v height pots. All three have raster width coils.

Green better be close enough to do electronically, I or board may need repair.

I'll see if I can pop by tomorrow night.

Dave

Oh, if you want to work on it tonight, I'll email you the location of all the pots I mentioned.

You're always welcome at my home! But I feel like I've been taking advantage of your helpful nature lately (Dave has helped me a LOT with my Barcos). You can come by tomorrow and critique my work if you like. Dinner's on me.