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A burnt-out board in a Kansas City arcade taught me to always check the power supply first

I was fixing a 90s pinball machine that kept resetting, and I spent a full day tracing logic chips. The owner mentioned it only happened during peak hours, so I finally metered the wall outlet. It was dropping to 105 volts when the neon signs kicked on. I swapped the machine's old linear supply for a modern switching unit, and it's been solid for a year. How many of you test line voltage before you even open a device?

3 comments

3 Comments

king.lisa26d agoProlific Poster

My uncle had a similar thing with his old jukebox. It would just cut out every Saturday night when his whole block was running air conditioners. He replaced the main board twice before someone finally checked the voltage at the wall. It was like 108 volts under load. I mean, it makes total sense now, but you just don't think about the power coming in being the problem. You always assume it's something inside the machine that's broken.

victor_barnes4826d ago

Sounds like my whole life is a voltage drop.

bettykim10d ago

Ever notice how brownouts make clocks run slow?