Just seeing if people think I'm crazy here. Lately, I've been noticing that the coils on one of my pins (which is brand new) seem just a tad weaker at times -- not all the time, just at times. I don't think anyone but me would notice because you would have to play a lot to tell the difference, but the flipper and VUK coils seem like (again, just at times) they don't have the same umph. This can even happen in the middle of a game. I noticed that this coincided with our use of the AC as the weather has gotten hotter. When the AC turns on and off, the lights in the house flash slightly, so I'm wondering if the somewhat weaker coils happen when the AC comes on, and when it is off, the coils are normal again. Since my pins are in the basement, and there is no AC down there, I can't tell directly if there is a correlation.

Anyway, am I crazy, or could this be a thing? If it is a thing, would buying a UPS help?

Yeah, I notice it on my WOZ where you can individually tune the power to each coil. I had them pretty tuned in, but something seems a bit off. I don't notice so much on my other two pins. I'll look into a UPS. Any recommendations?

This article seems like a good explanation of UPSs.

http://www.davidgoward.com/downloads/free-articles-tips/june-2012-articles/the-benefits-of-using-an-uninterruptible-power-supply/

Sounds like to get constant voltage, I would need to buy a high end one.

I don't think low voltage is the problem because I can adjust the individual coil power on WOZ. Rather, I think it is inconsistent voltage resulting, likely, from my AC. Right now, it is a very minor issue. I'll watch it and see if it gets worse as we hit summer. I don't want to spend a lot of money on a high end UPS only to have it not correct anything. And, if they only regulate voltage to +\- 5 volts, I would want to make sure the drop in voltage from the AC is over that tolerance before buying anything.

This is interesting, but I'm not sure what you mean. Can you explain more?

Got it. We do have a delay, but I don't think it is 10 minutes. I'll see if there is a setting.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind if I want to try it. I believe someone else recommended CyberPower.

Now that summer is in full swing, I decided to take some voltage measurements. Readings were taken at 2:00 pm on Sunday. When the AC was off, I got 120 volts from the outlet. When the AC was on, I got 119 volts. Just a slight difference. I don't think a UPS would help with that from reading the specs. I'm not sure if that small difference should even be noticeable, but it seems to be. I need to do other readings at other times of day. It could be there is a larger difference depending upon the time of day and what is going on with others in town.

WOZ. I'm not sure I can draw any conclusions from this one test. The pin was playing ok today. I think I'll keep randomly measuring voltage to see if there is any variation at different times.

So, I've been doing random measurements of the voltage and always getting 119+ or 120. And my game was playing fine. But, then, this morning, while playing WOZ, I had one of those instances where the throne room saucer just weakly kicked out the ball to limply go right down the drain instead of to the left flipper like it usually does. I quickly checked the voltage and measured 118 for the first time. Again, just one data point. But that seems to be the most direct correlation yet between voltage drop and game performance. I'm not sure if the AC kicked in at that time since I was in the basement, but there was definitely a dip in voltage. I might just have to live with this as I'm not sure a UPS will do anything for that small a dip. But it is interesting how a tiny dip can impact a game. WOZ does seem pretty sensitive to these things.

Thanks, but that's a pretty expensive diagnostic tool. It is just a minor and infrequent annoyance, so I'll probably just live with the uncertainty.

I'm not sure I understand this. I'm not that knowledgeable in this area. Can you explain? Thanks.

Really, really hot day today. Even my Star Trek Pro was feeling sluggish. Decided to take a reading from the outlet. I got 114-115 volts, my lowest measurement yet. So, that's a 5-5.5 volt difference from my highest measurement.

Actually, I was only getting a little drop from my AC. The big drop today must be due to the town. Everyone has their AC on. It is hot!

That looks really cool!

All of these automatic voltage regulators seem to operate at +/- 5% of 120 volts. I don't think that will help with the minor variations that I'm getting but which still seem to affect performance somewhat. I may get the thing Vid pointed out just to monitor and see if the draw on power is more than that.

Somewhat off topic, but could a drop in voltage affect the signal you get from your wifi router. Since the weather has gotten hot, it seems Netflix and other streaming services that I get through wifi have slowed down.

Never mind. I seem to have corrected the problem by unplugging my router and plugging it back in again.

Correlation does not always equal causation.

I needed a new surge protector so decided to try a UPS with AVR. I bought this:

https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP685AVR-G-685VA-390W-Compact/dp/B00095W91O/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1

And, yes, I got the cheapest UPS with AVR I could find.

Unfortunately, when I play WOZ, the thing beeps every time one of the magnets goes off. A beep means an overload. I'm not an expert in electronics, but really??!! It can't handle a pinball machine. The instructions (which I only read when I received the device) say don't plug vacuums, laser printers, copiers, etc. into it because those large electronic devices will cause an overload. I guess I have to return it. I probably should have paid attention to the specs more before I bought it, but I'm not sure I would have caught this. Feeling frustrated.

Yeah, I know. I knew I was being cheap on this. But, I wanted a decent surge protector and figured for $30, I could get that plus UPS. And, then, for $30 more, I could add voltage regulation. I knew it might not help with anything, but I figured it couldn't hurt. Since my issue is just a minor annoyance, why not try it? I didn't want to spend more. That said, I didn't expect it to beep loudly every time a magnet was used. That's now a major annoyance.