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Blast City monitor (MS-2931) not turning on

mmmmaerk said:
Is it reasonable to look for a replacement tube? I assume they cost a ton to ship. This entire Blast endeavor has been a disaster :S
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Just start looking for 27" TV's in your area. Keep the yoke and rings off of this one, and put it on a new tube that is the same size/curvature. Take note of the tube number, open TV's, read the tube number to make sure they're the same size/curvature. No sense wasting money shipping a tube.

Blast is a rough starting cab. But make it through this and you'll be more experienced than 90% of folks!
 
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It is reasonable. Be on the look out for 27” tvs. Also curious if they bothered replacing the flyback or just did a cap?
 
The caps on the daughter board for the high voltage look original. I believe there was a theory that those caps being out of spec can cause the chassis to toast up the tube.
 
There's a few arcade monitors I found that can be suitable replacements for this Blast. The Sanwa PM1745 has the perfect curvature for a drop in unit, you can find this tube or the MS9 in most Sega Arcades (Think Daytona 2, Shooters, Racers) That can be a suitable replacement. The PM1745 has a perfect curvature and the MS9 is almost perfect curvature wise.

This is a huge bummer. I had a MS2931 blow up a tube too, it sucks.
 
rewrite said:
Blast is a rough starting cab. But make it through this and you'll be more experienced than 90% of folks!
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I've heard people say that before but now I'm learning why hahaha. I naively thought "Eh I had to mess around with the Versus enough, I'll be able to handle a Blast."
advans14 said:
Also curious if they bothered replacing the flyback or just did a cap?
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The flyback was replaced, it was recapped, and the goop was cleaned.

I'll be on the lookout for replacements. I'll do whatever I gotta do to get it running I guess, but I'm especially bummed because the main reason I got the Blast (and a Naomi) in the first place was for that high res goodness.
 
A lot of those semi curved Toshibas aren’t the best quality either. I’ve had better success dropping the yoke and chassis on a consumer tube. It’s just finding one. Blast tubes are semi curved as opposed to the full curve of the MS9, and getting the ms9 tube in a blast and the fitting of it is going to be another hurdle. You already paid for that 2931 to be serviced, I’d look around for semi curved 29/27 sets and go that route.

I really don’t recommend this cabinet for a first, but if you stick with it, you’ll be able to get a nice working cabinet.
 
I forgot that I have this 27 inch Trinitron in my garage. Aside from the size and curvature, what else is important to look out for?
 

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Trinitrons are not compatible with arcade monitors at all. (Aside from a small handful of extremely rare Sharp Image models that used a Trinitron tube from the factory)

Go to this website: tubular.atomized.org

Enter your tube number and get the specs of your tube. When you find another 27 inch TV, enter the tube number and make sure the specs match. Then you have a winner. Note that you'll still have to swap your yoke even if it's a match.
 
I think JVC D27 tubes are compatible but you’ll have to confirm specs.
 
in my experience JVC D27s are quite round and bulbous, and the tubes aren’t that great to begin with (low density, poor corner focus)
 
Yes, the corner focus isn’t great and the curvature might be way off. Might be worth exploring if OP can’t find a proper replacement.
 
I’ve had decent luck opening up 27 Toshibas with component. The one I used for my blast swap had different curvature and the mounting holes were slightly off but it still ended up working with some finesse. OP, if you want to look at what I went through with my blast, Link here.

This guy had some luck on random 27s, and I’ve found some of the same model numbers in random branded sets.
 
The JVC D-series ran for a long time. Some are very round, later ones use mostly Panasonic tubes that are actually too flat (but not true flat!) and will have a big gap in the middle.

My experience is that no consumer TV has the exact curvature that the Toshiba in the MS-2930 series uses, but you can find some that will at the very least get your cab up and running again. I've now picked up 4 tubes for my blast, here are my results so far:

Panasonic M68LWF088X (same as the late JVC D-series) - Too flat, big bezel gaps, I didn't go through setup on it. Leaving this for a future swap where bezels won't matter.
Orion A68KTB359X - Edge curvature is close but not perfect, 5mm corner gaps can be filled neatly with foam weather seal. Bulbous in the center, linearity issues. Mediocre line density.
Funai (Samsung?) A68QBT892X - Same close but not perfect edge curvature. Very similar to the Orion in every way.
Panasonic M68JUA128X - Latest pickup. Same edge curvature as the previous two, but less bulbous in the center while keeping the same edge curvature. Linearity and geometry are both much better. Less bright but way sharper.

The three I tried needed the rubber yoke stoppers removed and repositioned to adjust the yoke distance to fix purity and convergence. Definitely not a plug and play swap.
 
trashedcabs said:
My experience is that no consumer TV has the exact curvature that the Toshiba in the MS-2930 series uses, but you can find some that will at the very least get your cab up and running again.
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This has been my experience too. It seems like different brands tubes are slightly different even with same or similar model numbers.
 
I have found ones that physically drop in in terms of curvature and mounting distance, but they had bonded and thoroughly incompatible yokes or different deflection angles that made using a Blast yoke impractical.

To date I've never had a compromise-free "just worked" tube swap apart from an NEC XM29 going into a Blast, as it seems to just contain the same A68K**696X tube (though NEC branded).
 
While casually talking about CRTs the other day, my friend said he has a 27 inch JVC D series TV. I obviously got excited and told him I'd trade him my Trinitron for it. Even if it isn't perfect I'd just like to get this thing functional again. If I'm not happy with it I might try to sell the whole cab, but I assume it's easier to sell a cab with a not-so-great monitor rather than a totally busted one.

I'm not sure exactly what tube is in it yet but I'll figure that out ASAP.
 
Ms2934 just comes with exactly same tube/yoke of the 2930-31, the 2934 chassis is reliable, is VGA 31khz only but al least will never destroy the tube.
 
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That would be perfect since I was planning on running a Naomi in it, but I'll take whatever I can get.
 
If you back mount a D9200 with your Blast tube frame you get a near perfect fit and you retain 15khz & 31khz (get yourself a tri sync) and you're golden.
15khz can be a bit noisy but you just Turn up sound to compensate 🤷

Most USA (Bass fishing) Blast Cities came with a D9200 anyway.
 
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