Why does our new Wells-Gardner K6100 deflection board require our Transistor Upgrade Kit?

#1 · February 9, 2022, 8:50 am

Quote from JG on February 9, 2022, 8:50 am
(Since our new Wells-Gardner 6100 XY Deflection Board requires our Transistor Upgrade Kit, we’re offering a discount when you buy them both together.)

Why did we do this?

Philosophical Answer

All of us at Alan-1 are owners and collectors of classic Atari games, just like you. We didn’t want to build something that will fail just as often as the originals, leaving us with burnt boards and another repair headache. We wouldn’t use them ourselves if we hadn’t tested them in our own games, on location as well as in our collections...and we wouldn’t sell anything to our fellow collectors and enthusiasts that we don’t use ourselves.

Technical Answer

The low-voltage regulation section of the Wells 6100 has been a known failure point for decades. It fails at least as often as the deflection amplifiers. Many attempts have been made to improve upon it. (We’ve even tried a few of our own.) But none of them fix the real problem, which is that it’s unnecessary to begin with.

The Wells V2000 and Electrohome GO5 don’t regulate the LV supply. The Amplifone doesn’t either. What do all these monitors have in common? The deflection rarely fails.

(Amplifone high voltage supplies fail – but that’s a different issue, and the cause is well-known to be a single poorly-manufactured transformer.)

However, simply removing the low-voltage regulation from the Wells doesn’t fix the problem by itself. The rest of the deflectiion circuit depends on seeing a regulated +-27V, and an unregulated ~32V is too much. (While it still usually shows a picture, the vectors are often shaky, and the chassis transistors sometimes blow.)

In contrast, our Transistor Upgrade Kit can handle the extra power and ripple with no problem at all. Vectors are rock solid – even better than stock – and it still barely gets warm. As a bonus, a Wells-Gardner with our upgrades can play Star Wars without any glitches. (A stock Wells often has trouble with the text scroll in attract mode, and with the Death Star explosion.)

Any questions? Please ask!

(Since our new Wells-Gardner 6100 XY Deflection Board requires our Transistor Upgrade Kit, we’re offering a discount when you buy them both together.)

Why did we do this?

Philosophical Answer

All of us at Alan-1 are owners and collectors of classic Atari games, just like you. We didn’t want to build something that will fail just as often as the originals, leaving us with burnt boards and another repair headache. We wouldn’t use them ourselves if we hadn’t tested them in our own games, on location as well as in our collections...and we wouldn’t sell anything to our fellow collectors and enthusiasts that we don’t use ourselves.

Technical Answer

The low-voltage regulation section of the Wells 6100 has been a known failure point for decades. It fails at least as often as the deflection amplifiers. Many attempts have been made to improve upon it. (We’ve even tried a few of our own.) But none of them fix the real problem, which is that it’s unnecessary to begin with.

The Wells V2000 and Electrohome GO5 don’t regulate the LV supply. The Amplifone doesn’t either. What do all these monitors have in common? The deflection rarely fails.

(Amplifone high voltage supplies fail – but that’s a different issue, and the cause is well-known to be a single poorly-manufactured transformer.)

However, simply removing the low-voltage regulation from the Wells doesn’t fix the problem by itself. The rest of the deflectiion circuit depends on seeing a regulated +-27V, and an unregulated ~32V is too much. (While it still usually shows a picture, the vectors are often shaky, and the chassis transistors sometimes blow.)

In contrast, our Transistor Upgrade Kit can handle the extra power and ripple with no problem at all. Vectors are rock solid – even better than stock – and it still barely gets warm. As a bonus, a Wells-Gardner with our upgrades can play Star Wars without any glitches. (A stock Wells often has trouble with the text scroll in attract mode, and with the Death Star explosion.)

Any questions? Please ask!