Trying to replace the varistor on my machine. My varistor blew up because I didn't have the machine hooked up to a surge protector like an idiot. I corrected this blunder and tried to solder in a new varistor. I've never soldered before and it seemed quite tricky. The machine works fine. Is there a way to tell if it's installed correctly?
Quoted from Dayhuff:Holy crap it's been years but I don't think there is a wrong way but I could be wrong.
John
You are correct there is no wrong way to install typical varistors. Testing them installed is not typically done. So if the machine is working you are good.
Quoted from thekaiser82:You are correct there is no wrong way to install typical varistors. Testing them installed is not typically done. So if the machine is working you are good.
My only concern is if you remove the varistor completely, won't the machine still work but be at significant risk in the event of a power surge?
I must say, my soldering skills were not great and I probably used way too much solder.
Quoted from rdonahue87:My only concern is if you remove the varistor completely, won't the machine still work but be at significant risk in the event of a power surge?
Yes.
Quoted from rdonahue87:I must say, my soldering skills were not great and I probably used way too much solder.
Practice makes perfect.
LTG : )
Quoted from rdonahue87:My only concern is if you remove the varistor completely, won't the machine still work but be at significant risk in the event of a power surge?
I must say, my soldering skills were not great and I probably used way too much solder.
The bummer is there isn’t a great way to test it while installed. Measuring voltage across it won’t tell you anything since it is in parallel in the circuit.
Quoted from thekaiser82:The bummer is there isn’t a great way to test it while installed. Measuring voltage across it won’t tell you anything since it is in parallel in the circuit.
Yeah that's my concern. I'm guessing it's installed wrong then.
Quoted from rdonahue87:Trying to replace the varistor on my machine. My varistor blew up because I didn't have the machine hooked up to a surge protector like an idiot. I corrected this blunder and tried to solder in a new varistor. I've never soldered before and it seemed quite tricky. The machine works fine. Is there a way to tell if it's installed correctly?
Nothing idiotic with that, don’t be too critical of yourself. Your varistor is your surge protector and happy to know it did its job. And hey you learned a new skill. Some would argue you don’t need to plug your pins into a power strip, others may say you shouldn’t even due to potential voltage drop and game resets (i presume anyway). I do, but based on the outlet logistics in my gameroom currently lol.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-do-i-know-if-i-installed-the-varistor-correctly and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Battle Creek, MI
Ottawa, ON
