Physical Object A 3-dimensional artifact. Notes Any relevant information about this object which is not otherwise included in the record. Repair notes from Carl Claunch: Vectrex #1 Powered up, heard music and could tell that the game was reacting to button pushes, but screen had only a short horizontal line approximately in the middle of the screen. Brightened and darkened in time with variations in sound. Opened unit and visually inspected. No sign of failed components. No bulges or leaking of capacitors. Begin verifying power levels and signal integrity. Discovered that the main logic board voltages were about half the proper values. Focused on power supply. Discovered that the on-off switch, which is on the back of the volume control and activated by rotating the volume to its most counter-clockwise position, was not closing one of the two contacts. The first part of the power supply generates center tapped AC (12V across the ends), always on when the console is plugged in. The switch on the volume control is a DPST, connecting both of the 12V AC wires to the remainder of the power supply circuitry when the console is turned on. With one of the two wires not connecting, we had only half-cycle AC to the rest of the power supply which caused it to produce voltages only half the normal level. I spent a week looking for a good replacement part. It combines multiple specifications in one part, all of which must match: · Diameter of the shaft which the user turns to control volume · Shape of the shaft, in this case a flat section to match a D shaped hole in the knob · Length of the shaft sticking out of the control (note this can be fixed by cutting a longer shaft to size as long as the flat section extends down past the cut line) · Resistance of the control when fully off (10K ohms) · Profile or taper of the resistance (this is a logarithmic or audio taper) · Anchoring lug that fits in a hole in the panel to keep the control from rotation when knob turned against the stops (left, right, both or none) · Type of leads to which wiring is connected or that fit into the printed circuit board (PCB) · Spacing and angle of the leads on the control (as this has to fit into holes in the PCB) I was not able to find the right combination of characteristics anywhere. I disassembled the console and desoldered the control from the PCB. I disassembled the switch on the back of the existing control to see if it could be cleaned or repaired. It is not possible to do this, given the way it is constructed. Most potentiometers extend the shaft out of the first control, allowing for double pots to be build sharing the shaft and also used for switches stacked on the controls. This, however, does not use that method. The potentiometer has a small window off-axis to the shaft, through which the switch can extend a plastic pin that will be pushed as the pot moves in and out of its most counter-clockwise position. This is unusual enough that a replacement switch back would need to use exactly this method. I looked to see if I could find a DPST switch from another control, regardless of the attributes of the potentiometer part, that could be removed from the new control and installed on the existing 10K audio taper control. Because of the unusual activation method, this was ultimately futile as well. I decided that the least intrusive repair, given unavailability of an exact replacement for the control+switch, was to use the potentiometer part of the control, but directly wire the 12V AC to the rest of the power supply. The console would be on whenever 120V main power was applied. I installed a small on-off switch on the power cable, the kind that are used on some lamps, which lets the user turn the console on and without removing the plug from an outlet. The power cord is a very standard part and could be replaced with an exact match if the museum wishes to remove the new switch or we find an exact replacement for the volume control/switch part. I checked out the rest of the circuitry and adjustments then tested the game for a while with its built in Mine Storm game. It was performing as designed, thus this machine is deemed repaired and will go back to the museum for demonstrations. Carl Claunch 2-3-2015 Returned to museum, Used at South Bay Buttin Mashers, 2/28/15, and Board Match, 3/4/15. Unit is dim in a bright light setting but works well otherwise. jh 3/25/2015 Entered by/date The person who entered the information and the date in mm/dd/yyyy format, jh 2/28/15 Repository Location where item is housed. Write "Box ..." Ask about non-boxed items. PUM8 Condition Brief description of item's condition, including notes on damage and wear. Pick a letter value from below. Adding + or - is ok. Skip a line and describe. A Excellent (Means new, there's no such thing as A+) B Good, may be exhibited as it (after cleaning) C Fair, may need extensive cleaning or have other problems. Recommended for display if there are no alternatives and item is important. D Poor. Display only if of extreme importance and rarity. Item is probably kept only for historical record. B Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Vectrex Console Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context PUM 2014.052.001 SN 0044004 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Anonymous Subject The topic of the resource Video Game console Description An account of the resource Black self-contained unit for playing vector-based video games. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource General Consumer Electronics Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Milton Bradley Language A language of the resource en