Grandstand TV Game 3000 Capacitor Replacement Guide

Parts from a TV Game 2000, the black-and-white model in the same case as the 3000; this is not a 3000. The SAMHWA 470 µF 16 V electrolytic burst inside the console and knocked the charred resistor beside it off the board. No photograph of the inside of a TV Game 3000 has been published.

The Grandstand TV Game 3000 (Adman Grandstand TV Game 3000) is a four-game colour Pong console made in Korea, dated about 1977 to 1979 by the Museum of Design in Plastics. It shares its case, base and control boxes with the black-and-white Grandstand TV Game 2000, but nobody has published a photograph of a 3000's board, its chip, a parts list or a schematic, so none of its capacitors is known. A TV Game 2000 in the same case has had an electrolytic burst inside it. What follows is everything published that bears on the 3000's capacitors, the 2000's findings labelled as the 2000's, and how to open a 3000, record its board and replace its parts.

Opening and care are on Grandstand TV Game 3000 General Maintenance; symptoms are on Grandstand TV Game 3000 Troubleshooting Guide.

What is known for the 3000

• The base label reads "POWER SUPPLY: 9V-DC (6xUM-2 BATTERY) OR AC ADAPTER 9V", and the base is moulded "POWER CONSUMPTION 360mWATT, 9V DC". At 9 V, 360 mW is a current of 40 mA.
• The museum's example came with a plug-in mains adaptor. A collector who bought another 3000 found it worked on fresh batteries, and notes that it "takes the usual 9V but has a different plug". No source gives the socket's polarity.
• Its panel carries a red, green and blue block beside the model name. A 1977 mail-order advertisement for a four-game "full colour" Grandstand TV game, whose model number cannot be read in the scan, describes the picture as a white ball, a green background, blue and yellow bats and red scores on any 625-line set, with sound effects when the ball is hit or bounces. A colour console needs a colour circuit that the black-and-white 2000 lacks; nothing about the 3000's has been published.
• No capacitor value, position or failure has been reported for a 3000.

The TV Game 2000, for comparison

Electrolytics on one photographed TV Game 2000 board (not a 3000)

Position on the 2000 board	Capacitance	Voltage	Notes
Burst part, near the left side of the board, left of the other large capacitor (owner's description)	470 µF	16 V	SAMHWA, lavender sleeve; exploded
Large lavender electrolytic at the left edge of the component side	Not legible	Not legible	Only "85°C" can be read
Three white electrolytics with silver tops, left of the CD4071BE	Not legible	Not legible	Printing faces away
Two small lavender electrolytics, lower left	Not legible	Not legible

From the owner's description and photographs of the 2000, examined at full size. The 2000's own guide is Grandstand TV Game 2000 Capacitor Replacement Guide.

The 2000's board is a Gamatic 7600 design built around a Texas Instruments TMS1965NL, a black-and-white chip. Whether the 3000 uses a version of that board with a colour circuit added, or a different board, is not known. Treat the table as a pointer to the kind of part to look for: a 470 µF 16 V electrolytic, the largest value known on that board, failed on the 2000, so check the largest electrolytics on a 3000 first.

Signs of trouble

• A capacitor that has burst. On the 2000 the burst one scattered its contents through the case, was hard to clean off and knocked a resistor off its pads, and that console no longer works. Look for fibrous or grey debris inside the case and on both sides of the board.
• Swollen tops, split sleeves, brown stains or electrolyte at the base of a capacitor.
• A picture that rolls, shows hum bars, or loses its colour, once the cells or adaptor and the television's tuning have been checked. See Grandstand TV Game 3000 Troubleshooting Guide and Capacitor Failure Symptoms.
• A wrong adaptor. The 2000's leaflet warns that only the Adman 2000 adaptor should be used, and the owner gives the 2000's socket as centre negative. An electrolytic connected across a reversed supply is put under reverse voltage, which electrolytics do not tolerate. Measure the 3000's socket against its battery terminals before using any adaptor.
• Leaked cells: see Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage.

Recording a 3000 board

No 3000 board has been described in public. When you open one:

1. Photograph both sides of the board and the inside of the upper case before touching anything.
2. Record the game chip's full marking and any marking on the board itself (the 2000's reads GAMATIC-7600 and WK-I HB on the solder side).
3. Record each electrolytic's position, capacitance, voltage, maker, size and stripe side. Turn parts gently to read printing that faces away.
4. Note any parts around a crystal or trimmer that the 2000 does not have: they are likely to be the colour circuit.
5. Test every part you take off the board on a capacitance or ESR meter and note the reading.

Opening and recapping

1. Release the battery cover by its two tabs marked OPEN and take out the six cells. Unplug the adaptor.
2. Turn the console over onto a soft cloth with the control boxes in their recesses. Remove the screws recessed in the four rubber feet. The museum's example has a small screw beside one corner, in the same place as one on the photographed 2000; check whether it also holds the base.
3. Lift the base slowly, watching for wires. On the 2000 the board stays in the upper half, screwed at its corners, with the RF modulator on a separate metal plate; the 3000 may differ.
4. If there is debris from a burst capacitor, clean all of it from both sides of the board and the case with isopropyl alcohol and a soft brush, and look for corroded tracks underneath.
5. Replace one capacitor at a time: read and record it, desolder it with a pump or braid, and fit a new part of the same capacitance and the same or higher voltage, rated 105 °C, with the same lead spacing and polarity. Where a part has burst and its value is lost, find the value from another 3000, never from a guess.
6. Look for resistors or other parts damaged by a burst capacitor, as happened on the 2000, and replace them with the value read from an identical board.
7. Refit the board, then the base, with the coiled control-box leads routed as before.

Recommended tools and parts

• Temperature-controlled soldering iron, desoldering pump or braid, flux, isopropyl alcohol and a soft brush.
• A multimeter and an ESR meter, or a capacitance meter, for the parts you take out.
• 105 °C radial electrolytics of current manufacture (Nichicon, Panasonic, Rubycon or similar) in the values your 3000 turns out to use.
• A current-limited 9 V bench supply, set to about 100 mA, with the polarity you measured on your own console. See also Recommended Tools.

Checks after recapping

After recapping a TV Game 3000

Check	Expected	Source
Supply at the socket or cells	9 V DC
Supply current	About 40 mA (360 mW at 9 V, from the base moulding)
Picture	Steady colour picture on a 625-line set; the 1977 advertisement describes a white ball, green background, blue and yellow bats and red scores
Sound	Effects when the ball is hit or bounces
Games and switches	Football, tennis, squash and practice on the GAME SELECTOR; SPEED, AUTO SERVE, ANGLE and BAT SIZE all change play

Related pages

• Grandstand TV Game 3000
• Grandstand TV Game 3000 General Maintenance
• Grandstand TV Game 3000 Troubleshooting Guide
• Grandstand TV Game 2000 Capacitor Replacement Guide, the black-and-white model in the same case