Hi folks.

A few years back I bought a couple NEC 6PGs from a guy in Kingston. Don't exactly remember his name but I think he was well known around here. Anyhow... One of the units was a 6PG+, and that was the unit I decided to use for the past number of years, keeping the 6PG in storage if I needed spare parts or I wore out the guns. Therefore I never powered on the 6PG because the + wasn't giving me any problems.

Anyhow fast forward to now and I've gone digital (converged my HT and Gaming room into a finished basement) and the digital form factor is just so much more convienent (allowing me to install a riser with low ceilings and such).

So I decided to sell my units.

Friend of my pointed out a WTB post elsewhere, I responded. I expected the guy to want to buy all of it, but he was mainly just interested in the base 6PG. So I told him I had never powered it up but I had no reason to believe it wouldn't work as well was my PG+ has for all these years. So I would set it up roughly and he could come by and if he was happy, pick it up.

Anyhow the point is.. the PG has problems.

1) The guns shut off during the demo (no clicks or buzzes or anything.. just like someone hit picture-mute). I chalked this up to vista having an HDCP issue, so I tried my 360 as a source. But the guns weren't displaying an image. (no Error Code displayed on the rear, just 00). However, the PJ was syncing... though interestingly, it would only loose it's sync (audible) if I disconnected the Green (RGBHV) cable. Swapping the H or V did not change the PJ sync pitch. I figured something must have happened to cause it to sync on green. So I tried to manually select the input (blindly) and low and behold after doing so, the PJ was throwing up a green-only message (only visible through the lens) that there was some issue with the list (text was backwards, of course). So I pushed some of the number buttons (inputs) and hit end and BAM, guns a blazin'. *phew* Crisis averted.. or so I thought. PJ was fine for at least an hour while I helped show the guy mechanical setup and then convergence. Everything else seemed good, though pincushioning (#2) was off a bit. Anyhow the guy decided to buy it, we loaded it up and he took it home.

Got a call the next day and he was having issues with the guns blanking. I told him to post here, see what people thought and get back to me. Next day he calls and says it's all good and that it appears taking the unit off a cheap powerbar was the culprit, which I could maybe see (W or AMP draw) though it would appear now it's just a coincidence since he's got the problem again.

2) The other issue is on the rough setup we did, there was still a bit of vertical pinched pincushioning in the image. But the throw distance wasn't setup properly, we were projecting up (I was perpindicular on my PG+), and the base PG doesn't seem to have U/D/L/R individual adjustments. Anyhow I figured if there was a fault it would be wavy (leaky capacitor), or would drift, or simply not be adjustable at all. I suggested maybe there were manual adjustments on the unit itself, not having the service manual (which I sold to him) I couldn't look into it but maxed at 100 in one direction it wasn't quite enough to straighten out the top and bottom (though apparently he got his left and right sides straight) so the chance of there being a pot somewhere seemed logical to me. Now I have no idea if he's checked for one, he's been directly emailing Curt... now I guess (I don't have the emails, so I don't know how he reported the issue and how specifically Curt responded)but Curt thinks the pincushioning may be a faulty board and may be the deflection board. But without knowing how the purchaser described his problems, I'm inclined right now to ignore "may be" and "possibly".

Anyhow i've offered the guy a number of options, including returing the unit for his money back.

I don't know which direction he'll go, he's not too DIY inclined (preferred me to explain convergence than read the service manual), but either way I suspect there is an issue that needs addressing here. But what could be causing these issues? What should I look for, and would any potentially failing components be swappable from the 6PG+, or is the best I can really do there is move the better base 6PG tubes to the 6PG+ chassis?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

-Taylor

Taylor,
I would first re seat all the card cage boards. This could be a system board or just the wrong entry for what was in the projector before.

Do a fresh signal entry putting it up towards the top of the input list for RGB. It will look at that spot first for a match. Depending on what was stored before after you get the signal entry in turn on the AKB from the info menu and see if all three tubes are lit then.

After the signal entry hit the info again and see if it says SEP for sync. This will be both H and V sync. If it says COMP then its using the H/V composite sync (combined). If it says sync on green then both syncs have a problem.

Might try the video input also to see if that is working. If you loose a color select AKB (kelvin) and see if it corrects. When asked select temporary for the RGB entry incase the default isn't usable. Doug

1) Yes, selling to a hands off guy is a bad idea, I've done that a few times in the past. Asking for trouble, cause you never know if it's user error or a set problem.

2) Pincushion- could be a bad convergence board or he's got the C board connectors reversed for the Vertical.

3) Int pix- I've had a bad deflection board cause int/ HV, a bad HV board or a bad video board cause an int no pix. And hte system board. Or a bunch of things non set related, like a bad cable, etc.

Keep in mind too that this set is now about 14 years old. if the set was in storage or even if not, there's now failures due to age in these sets. I am finding a few more parts on various boards that need to be changed in all of the older sets, but that's the case with all makes and models.

Doug:

Actually reseating those boards was the first thing I did when it was acting up during the demo.

Also I believe the Signal Entry list was blank when I first turned it on. But there may have been something there.

Now what would "both Syncs have a problem" indicate? The picture is completely stable when it's firing. It's VGA-RGBHV out of a laptop (and then a XBOX360). No Sync-On-Green there right?

As for the Video Input. My understanding is that most base 6PG's did not have a video input board. So even though the SVideo and Composite BNC connection is there, it actually isn't connected to anything internally. I think that is the case here too as pushing the input buttons didn't appear to actually switch any inputs (we tried a DVD player via SVIDEO when it acted up the first time too).

Curt:

Yeah I'm not sure it's so much that the guy is hands-off, but maybe lacks the confidence or inclination to self-learn. He knows you (as he's been emailing you) and is aware of the board here. But alas, no post here.

Interesting you mention "reversed" because I was noticing that moving left and right when performing other convergence adjustments the motion seemed to be the opposite of what I remember/expected from the 6PG+. I just chalked it up to model discrepancies. But even if this is reversed (which it's seeming very likely) wouldn't that simply mean that -100 would be the same as +100? or would bias/balancing and such change as a result?

Also again I want to be clear that there is no change in the sound the PJ makes (the whine) when the guns are blasting or not. Or when they were on and then went off on their on. It's literally like it was switched into Picture Mute. (and the raster is good and center and not firing off the tube face or anything like that.. no excessive heat (not much heat at all actally).. it all just sounds great. No smells, no clicks. No dust..the PJ is really very clean. Was stored in good cool but not dry or humid conditions (while I've had it), so I'm expecting the problems to be a straight forward fix, but, of course, it could simply just be a fail(ing) part.. jostled during it's moves from home to home, vehicle to vehicle...

Anyhow just to be sure (and because I don't have the set in front of me to check model/part#'s).. I can put PG-6000 tubes into a PG-6100 (PG+) right?

Thanks gentlemen.

Tubes do interchange except on the PG6-9200 that uses the P16's

Im thinking it may be the signal entry and your hitting on memory that wasnt intended for the signal running and being sent to it now. If something is off and it can down a tube until kelvin is hit.

One other thing is how the signal is being sent and even if he has it sending component to RGB. Many things to think about. Doug

Doug:
Thanks for the clarification on swapping tubes.

He's returning the unit tonight (even after I offered him my well operational 6PG+ with a few thousand hours still on the tubes for nothing (just to avoid another project), but I guess he's gun shy now. *shrug* Oh well.

Anyhow I know the first failure was VGA-RGBHV with my own hardware (laptop). I believe he was trying the same.

Anyhow when I have the unit back in front of me I'll look into both of your guys suggestions.

Much appeciated.

-Taylor

Laptops that have a fixed panel will sometimes be a problem setting the VGA output port for crt timings.
Most laptops have a F command to shut off the panel and allow the proper VGA to be set / sent when you toggle between on, off and both displays. Most of the time the cable needs to be connected first to grab termination.

They are not the source to be using when trying to troubleshoot signal properties or trying to confirm the projector is working right. When first booting up it will usually run a different freq until fully booted so the start up freq its sending can be confusing the projector if there is no signal entry for them.

If you get the actual RGBHV signal entered it should show the proper sync / freq on the info menu. Try shutting off the actual laptop screen before turning on the projector

If the signal entry list is blank scroll forward to the 50's lines and see if you have any in those locations. If not then it glitched or all data was wiped off. I have seen that happen before for no reason and is system board related.

Dont send component to the RGBHV connections, they need to be transcoded to VGA first. Also look to see if you have a video decoder in the other projector. Its under the metal cover at the rear slot. Use a magnetic screwdriver and don't drop the screws. Doug