Hello from Finland

[godzilla43]

Thanks for the advice. It has not been probably ever been used. Maybe I open the FDX cover and also the PSU before I turn it up to see if there is any leaked capacitors.

[Potholepete]

good idea, they are the higher main voltage caps (mine were yellow in colour) and they all had small cracks in them. I had two PSU's fail because of them so I just brought a load of caps and replaced them all which was easy enough... it was harder getting the PSU out of the FDX!

[Dave]

just a quick note re the FDX. If it has not been powered up in a while don't be surprised if you get a fizz and a pop then a lot of nasty smells and the caps on the PSU fry. I have had to replace them all of the SDX/FDX PSU's I have.

Jim

Replacement described here :-

http://primrosebank.net/computers/mtx/r ... dx_psu.htm

[1024MAK]

Rifa X2 suppression capacitors going bang and releasing smelly smoke is rather common in Acorn BBC Micros and for various other computers and other electrical/electronic equipment. Including Sharp computers.

The Rifa type are well known for self destructing. They use paper in their construction. When (not if) moisture from the air gets in via cracks in the resin case, well, it does not end well...

It's recommended that these are replaced (preferably with metallized polyester film X2 capacitor types, which normally don't go bang) before powering up. That saves stinking the place out and having to clean up the mess that the exploding capacitor leaves on the board and over anything else in range!

Mark

[godzilla43]

I opened the FDX and even thou I did not take the PSU out I could see that all the components looked like this was built yesterday. So I power it up and it seems to be working but I cannot get picture. I have a old small LCD TV which has a VGA, RCA and I tried to connect the FDX in that via RCA but I did not get a picture.

So FDX don't have VGA but 9 pin CGA/EGA port? which even with a connector(9pin to VGA) will not work on that LCD?!? I would need a CRT monitor with multisync feature?!?

How about the other port that is not RCA?

Also did I connect the MTX to FDX in right way?

[Dave]

Video output information here

http://primrosebank.net/computers/mtx/mtx512_video.htm

Yes, the phono connector is Composite Video, monochrome output only though. Should work with a Composite Video connector on a TV/monitor
The 9 pin connector is CGA level signals but the pin-out is different (see above) and you would need a multisync monitor (or an adapter - again, see above) to use a VGA frequency monitor

Does the disk drive LED come on when you apply power to the FDX and MTX?

The ribbon cable on the bottom of the FDX is keyed and should only connect 1 way around.
Check that the red stripe on the cable is at pin 1 of the connector on the interface board inside the MTX

You can use the separate MTX power supply, but there should also be a short 5 pin cable that you can use to get MTX power from the FDX

regards
Dave

[godzilla43]

Yes the disk drive LED comes on. Picture in LCD just goes up and down. Is the signal from that RCA maybe 15khz and this LCD does not take that.
I now used only the FDX PSU to power both FDX and MTX.

[godzilla43]

I have a OSSC but I don't think can help because it only takes a RGB scart :/

[stephen_usher]

Even brand new RIFA smoke generators can go pop, so the ones in the FDX will go soon as it's not the number of hours which they run for which is it issue but their age.

You can replace them with modern polythene X2 capacitors and they'll be fine forever.

[Dave]

Yes the disk drive LED comes on. Picture in LCD just goes up and down. Is the signal from that RCA maybe 15khz and this LCD does not take that.
I now used only the FDX PSU to power both FDX and MTX.

Composite Video is 15kHz horizontal, the phono output **should** work with all TVs composite input but you should check your LCD TV/monitor specs

There are slight differences in the frequency between NTSC and PAL but they should not be big enough to matter

If the picture is "going up and down" it could be the vertical frequency, the FDX will be 50Hz, your TV may be 60 - but might be adjustable in the settings?