Squallrs & Nicomainza present...
Hello everyone, welcome to Game Them Up
Today's video will be in a new format,
we will try a VLOG type video.
I thought it would be interesting for some
to see the work being done in my game room.
I'll show you what I am
working on at the moment
This is a Sega Blast City
that has convergence issues like most do
So, what is convergence
(or convergence issues)?
It's when the three colors:
 red, green and blue are not aligned.
Which results in a blurry effect
when not too pronounced
or when severe, we can see
the 3 individual colors separately.
I'll show you what
it looks like in game.
You will see,
it is not pretty.
So, it is actually not a focus issue.
You can see here,
In the bottom left corner
you can clearly see the 3 colors separating
where they should form
a single line as above.
And here on the text, you can
also see an offset of the 3 colors.
which is quite pronounced.
Then on the top left corner
we observe the same issue but less
pronounced, which we will need to remedy.
I'll show you from close up.
There, it is pretty clear.
You can see the line that
should be white but isn't.
And on the bottom,
it's just terrible.
On the other side, it's as
it should though, no issue
So, what should we do to fix this?
Well..
So the tube is out as you can see.
Now we are going to
play with the yoke.
So the yoke is this.
I'll set this up the best I can.
It is this with the copper winding.
As you can see, on this side there is a
strip with Permalloy (convergence strip).
which reaches inside the yoke,
There's one under as well.
Here, two are missing,
over time, and with heat.
they might break or fall off which
causes the convergence issues.
Mind you, from factory, convergence was
usually badly tuned on Blast City cabs.
I've never seen a Blast
with perfect convergence
The Blasts with good convergence
have been well tuned afterward.
So here we remove the anode cap.
Be careful, I could have showed you
first how to discharge the tube
This can be done with a screwdriver
connected with a wire to the chassis' ground.
then touch the center of this hole with the tip of
the screwdriver in order to discharge the tube.
(If you have not done this before, there are plenty of
videos and web pages available detailing the process)
Here I aim removing this
PCB called the neck board
Because now we have to
remove the yoke completely.
Why? Simply because Permalloy
pieces must have been lost inside.
I've already unscrewed these two clamps.
So if I don't remove the loose pieces.
I won't start off on a clean
base when adding new strips.
When removing the rings,
pay close attention to the orientation.
There will be paint marks on them.
Be very careful to not break the
tube's neck, that would be game over.
The yoke is glued on the tube,
I am using a box cutter
to cut the glue
and be able to remove it.
It should now come off easily.
I forgot to remove the deflection
cables from the chassis.
Usually, there is a build up of
Permalloy residue inside the yoke.
which screws up the convergence,
so we need to clean it all off.
Here we can see a Permalloy
piece stuck to the tube.
Now removing the glue,
that's due to the heat.
You can scrub it, as it is glass.
There's nothing left inside.
Let's put the yoke back.
One thing to show
before I put it back...
On this side, these are strips I previously
put there myself to tweak convergence.
Left side is OK so let's
work the right side.
I set the yoke back...
All good now.
Now the rings
careful
All good, let's screw the clamps back in,
not too much, just to hold it.
Glass is fragile... It doesn't
move anymore, all good.
Not too much, since we still need to move it to stick it
flush to the tube, which is important. Again, not too tight
Once in place we will glue it in around the
3 corners because the 4th is hard to access.
And now we turn the monitor back
on to do the actual tweaking.
I went to get a few things: A hot glue gun,
to secure the yoke and convergence strips.
First we'll clean the back of the
tube with Windex and paper towel.
This is to clean the dust and
grime to ensure the glue sticks.
I already had cleaned it a while ago
but there is still dust coming off.
Dry it a little.
We can tweak the picture with the yoke in another way.
Yoke position affects
the picture rotation
I you have a digital chassis
and the picture is not straight.
It is possible that your yoke moved, for instance
during transport, it happened to me before
You just need to unscrew the clamp
and adjust the yoke position
The picture will rotate along with the yoke.
Let's get in front of the screen
and start adjusting the convergence.
Lets get close.
Now we take our convergence strips, You can buy them
off eBay or neoarcadia.
Or even make them yourself,
there are good tutorials online.
You'll see here how much effect
the strips have on the issue
We can already see the difference.
Move the strips slowly to find
the best possible position.
Getting there.
Go slowly until you find the right spot.
Not bad right here, getting close.
Be careful, sometimes it is best
to leave "good enough" alone.
This looks pretty good.
I'll have a look from another angle
because I can't see much from here.
Not easy with the camera,
I'll stick it on and come back.
Here you go, much better than earlier.
I stuck it on here.
The strips are self-adhesive but I always add glue
to secure them so they don't fall off over time.
Now that we're good, let's
put hot glue on it.
Good, don't need a ton of it.
Let's do the bottom one.
Just confirming it has
not moved, no all good.
The bottom one is going to be a challenge!
Not a pretty sight.
Let's go.
Already a lot better.
Not bad but this corner has
seriously bad convergence.
Not sure if 1 strip will
be enough, might need 2.
The text is not bad but on the
line you can see blue and red.
Seems like a second one on the
side could give better results.
I'll do it off camera and
show you the results.
Here you can see it is a lot better.
Here's where I put the second
strip, let's put hot glue on it.
I did not mention this before but you need
to be super careful as the monitor is ON.
Be very careful where
you put your fingers.
Avoid this whole area, and here too.
Slide the strip behind the yoke and keep an eye on the
monitor to see the effect the position of the strip has.
We have a total of 4.
Let's start the game.
Not bad at all.
It was a quick video on a whim, didn't
get too much into the details of it.
If you like this format, hit like so I know
it's worth it to make more videos of this kind.
It is a little rushed but it shows
you what I usually work on.
That's it, catch you later.
