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(Topic ID: 333843)

Superman blowing GI 10 amp fuse

By jetmechinnc

1 year ago

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8 posts
5 Pinsiders participating
Latest reply 1 year ago by jetmechinnc
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Superman Atari, 1979

#1 1 year ago

JAS

I was checking out my friends Superman and noted all the GI lights are out. Blown F6 10 amp slow blow. Disconnected connector J45, powered on game with circuit breaker in place and backbox lights work , no blown fuse. Hooked up j45 and after a bit, blown fuse. Any suggestions? All seems well with light sockets etc. thought maybe the GI lights had something in th sockets shorting them out but no. Little stumped. I thought the bridge rectifiers could be bad, but per the wiring diagram, at least I think after looking at it in my phone, they don’t affect that circuit. Am I wrong?

Any help in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

#2 1 year ago

JPD

Dayhuff

Pinside member

Battle Creek, MI

11y 126K 6,353 79 11

Had this exact same problem on my Superman 10-12 years ago. It would blow the fuse, and it just started doing it out of the clear blue one day for no rhyme or reason. I put a breaker in it and all was fine and that's the way I've left it all these years with never an issue.

John

#3 1 year ago

GWD

gradient9

Pinside member

Indianola, IA

11y 33,800 129 4

OP
Quoted from jetmechinnc:
I was checking out my friends Superman and noted all the GI lights are out. Blown F6 10 amp slow blow. Disconnected connector J45, powered on game with circuit breaker in place and backbox lights work , no blown fuse. Hooked up j45 and after a bit, blown fuse. Any suggestions? All seems well with light sockets etc. thought maybe the GI lights had something in th sockets shorting them out but no. Little stumped. I thought the bridge rectifiers could be bad, but per the wiring diagram, at least I think after looking at it in my phone, they don’t affect that circuit. Am I wrong?
Any help in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

I had a similar problem when I first got my Superman and I swapped all bulbs for #44s. After troubleshooting, apparently enough #44 bulbs pulled too much power over time and would blow the fuse. I switched to LEDs and no issues since.

#4 1 year ago

MAZ

zerbam

Pinside+ Frequent

Holland, MI

12y 77,550 1,289 8

mine would blow the fuse after leaving it on for a while......fixed it by replacing most of the GI with comets Retro LED'S........problem solved

#5 1 year ago

JWK

sparky672

Pinside member

Manhattan, IL

11y 55,050 1,730 1

OP
Quoted from jetmechinnc:
Blown F6 10 amp slow blow. Disconnected connector J45, powered on game with circuit breaker in place and backbox lights work , no blown fuse. Hooked up j45 and after a bit, blown fuse. Any suggestions?

If you're blowing a 10-amp fuse, it's probably not your bulbs - why would all suddenly each draw more current? They'd be brighter too. That is a lot of current and some component is going bad or there could be an intermittent short someplace.

Some of the 10 amp current is going through J45 and some is going to the backbox. Just because you don't get a blow when J45 is disconnected, does not mean the issue is on J45 branch. It's possible disconnecting J45 may drop the current a little bit, just enough under 10 amps so nothing blows. In other words, there could still be something wrong in the backbox drawing more current than normal (then add the normal J45 current) to exceed the fuse.

My suggestion is to get the schematic and start doing some methodical troubleshooting. Use a clamp-on current meter and check various parts of the circuit branches to see which one is drawing the most current. Use an IR thermometer to see if any specific boards or components are running hot.

#6 1 year ago

JAS

jetmechinnc

Pinside+ Frequent

7y 80,050 1,140 30

Well I did take out all the bulbs from
The playfield ,not the backbox, and the fuse still blew with all connectors in place.

With the playfield Bulbs installed, all are dim on the playfield/ backbox for 1-3 seconds before fuse blows so there is a considerable amp draw.

With just the backbox plugged in, bulbs working. They are lit as bright as I would expect.

My friend bought this game this way. Not a pinball guy. Didn’t even know there were supposed to be lights lit in the playfield. (Added a plug in strip in the backbox so his grandkids would see Superman and plugged it into the service outlet). Former owner never mentioned it.

#7 1 year ago

JWK

sparky672

Pinside member

Manhattan, IL

11y 55,050 1,730 1

OP
Quoted from jetmechinnc:
... I did take out all the bulbs from The playfield ... and the fuse still blew with all connectors in place.

Yep!

OP
Quoted from jetmechinnc:
...all are dim on the playfield/ backbox for 1-3 seconds before fuse blows so there is a considerable amp draw.

10 amps is considerable and, without fuse protection, can easily burn down the game.

If you and your friend want to fix it, it's going to take some time, equipment, and additional troubleshooting. Obtain schematics and a current meter. At the very least, with a set of schematics, you can disconnect various branch circuits to help isolate the fault.

It's tedious and time consuming, but you can also do a thorough visual inspection of the playfield looking for obvious faults, like broken insulation, burn marks, stray strands of wire, etc.

However, IMO, this is not going to be easily solved without schematics and methodical troubleshooting techniques.

1 week later

#8 1 year ago

JAS

jetmechinnc

Pinside+ Frequent

7y 80,050 1,140 30

Ok, got to spend a little more time on my friends Superman today (kinda sucks he is 40 minutes from me) and took voltage readings from the test points on the power supply with all but the J45 connected and a circuit breaker in place of the 10amp slow blow. Also downloaded the manuals of IPDB which is nice.

At test point 6.3 VAC (hi and low) Top test point measured 2.1 VAC bottom test point measured 3.4 VAC. Not correct
At test point 7VDC, I was reading 11.6VDC. Not correct. Could this be an issue with the bridge rectifier BR2 coming in on P40?
At test point 50 VDC, I was reading 53.4 VDC Seems correct
At 12 VDC, I was reading 12.4 VDC Seems correct
At 5VDC, I was reading 5.1 VDC. Seems correct

I did find Q6 and Q7 shorted on the PCB board as well (not sure if this could be causing the fuse to blow, but they control the M and lower right special. Per the manual/pinwiki, they can be replaced with TIP107 or TIP107G. Didn't have them so will have to place these on order, only had TIP127 and it seems there is a higher amp rating for the TIP107.

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