So I am getting ready to hook up my thin film controller to my e-beam coating system so I hooked it up to make sure it still worked since I had not turned it on in years. Push the button. Pop sizzle. Uh-oh. Ended up being a tag tant cap on the main board. Easy fix, replaced it.
Or so I thought. The display on the crt is scrambled. Figured it was the crt board but after connecting a couple external displays as well as I had another logic board and verified my display is good. But I can see activity on the screen and make out some text. Unfortunately the other logic board is a newer Rev and does not have the extra options I need for the sequencer.
I put the scope on the composite output and it looked normal. Until I measured the period of the signal and found it’s refreshing at around 65hz instead of 60 which I verified with the other board.
The board runs off of an Intel 80188-12 and found the clock pins and looked at that signal and it is a total mess. Around 24Mhz but so much jitter. The cpu halves the frequency so I think it’s actually being overclocked a bit which is messing with the refresh rate. I noticed a small trim cap next to a crystal and played with that and it did effect the display and clock signal.
I managed to figure out the clock circuit a bit. It uses a 88.3354Mhz crystal to create a clock and then 74ac04 to square it up a bit and then a series of 74ac109s to act as clock dividers. The problem is the 88.3354Mhz signal is a mess. I check the signal at the quartz crystal and there appears to be nothing there. Heck, I pulled the thing out and it still boots so it seems to be getting that same crappy ~90mhz signal from somewhere, maybe the tank circuit for the oscillator. I compared it to the other board and the other one has a jittery signal on one crystal pin and a nice clean sine on the other. It has a circuit that is very similar.
Checking around that section it has a 8v reg which seems to be good and clean. That leaves the active components, the two MPS3563 transistor may be the problem? I need to find a cross and try replacing those. Could it be the crystal? This is not something I have messed around with before.