When you get a new machine home ALWAY CHECK THE FUSES!

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7

#1 5 years ago

OP

DAD

uncivil_engineer

Pinside member

9y 91,550 2,012

Well I learned a hard lesson this weekend. I swapped out the power board in my system 11 Millionaire machine on Friday to test a power board I picked up off eBay. After I played a few games, and let it run a few hours, I was satisfied the board worked. So I went ahead and pulled the board out and put the original power supply back in. What I didn’t realize at the time was the fact that the high voltage plug was missing the key plug, and I installed it one pin off...

I turned on the machine and a hell of a lot of smoke game out of my display board. I noticed it right away, and quickly turned it off, but I was too late, the damage was done. I had sent -100 volt down the 100 volt line. I checked over my power board and discovered the high voltage fuse that should have been a 0.25 amp fuse was actually a 3 amp fuse! This explained the ample amount of smoke that was released when I turned it on.

So I spent my shop time this weekend getting my Millionaire back up and running. Luckily I had most of the parts on hand. In the end the repair toll was quite heavy and included two 6021s (both U41 and U51 that drive the display segments), Five TC4050 hex buffers (donated temporary from my GL) and most painfully three UDM7180As I’ve been saving for a rainy day. I had to replace pretty much every chip involved with the display segment drivers.

I think a lot of this damage may have been avoidable if the proper fuse had been in my power supply. So now my SOP when I get a new game will be to check every fuse against the manual.

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#2 5 years ago

???

KenLayton

In Memoriam

Olympia, WA

12y 83,400 5,965

You never know what previous owners have put in for fuses.

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#3 5 years ago

ZAC

zacaj

RPC

Rochester, NY

11y 158K 10,385 85 122 1

any key your connectors!

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#4 5 years ago

BIL

dothedoo

Pinside member

12y 106K 7,265

Solid advice and only takes a couple of minutes.

I would add... measure the resistance of all coils. Another couple minutes well spent making sure none are shorted.

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#5 5 years ago

EDE

Ericpinballfan

Mod Magic!

8y 166K 10,434 7 1

Yup, rule #1.
Always check the fuses in any game that comes home!
Recently found a 10 amp in a 3 amp position.

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#6 5 years ago

LKD

Luckydogg420

Pinside member

Kitchener, ON

11y 115K 5,860 14

Yup, I've found slow blow fuses in where fast blow belong.

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#7 5 years ago

JAS

Sinistarrett

Pinside member

Freeport, FL

8y 81,850 1,623 3 12

You never know what people will do. I bought a Space Invaders pin once that had a rolled up piece of tinfoil in place of a fuse.

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#8 5 years ago

JMR

pinballplusMN

Pinball Plus Inc.

11y 84,800 2,588

Ive seen a 25 amp fuse in the 2.5 amp position on williams games many times by mistake as the paper fuse chart in the back is hard to read and appears to say 25 amp.

The good news is the fuse will last forever in that spot without blowing. The boards and coils not so much

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#9 5 years ago

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ForceFlow

Pinside Moderator

9y 238K 31,333 268 14

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Post-Purchase_Checklist

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#10 5 years ago

ESA

stangbat

KC Pins

13y 86,900 3,111 19

Of all the games I've purchased that aren't NIB, only one had all the correct fuses in it. It was The Getaway that was owned by, or worked on at some point by a local guy that knows what he is doing (he's also an EE). So that's probably why it had all the right fuses in it.

I had a Bride of Pinbot that I went through every fuse and they were all correct. I was ready to declare it the first game used game I'd ever purchased that had all the right fuses in it. I then realized I hadn't checked the main line fuse. Checked it...wrong! So the streak continued a while longer.