CV blowing GI fuses

[Chris Bardon]

So I just finished putting CV back together after a shop, but now it's blowing GI fuses. It was working fine for a couple of games, and then I turned it on again and noticed that the left strand was out. Checked the connectors-not burnt. Reseated-no change. Checked the fuse-blown. I didn't have a spare, so I replaced it with a different GI fuse (the backbox). Turned the game on, and now the left side was on, but the right side was off. Sure enough-another blown fuse. Thought it might be coincidence, so I moved the second backbox fuse to the right side, and now all the PF GI would come on and last through a game.

Got a couple of spare fuses from the source (way too expensive, but I wanted to get this working), put them in, and all the GI worked for about 15 minutes. Then the left strand went out again. Tried putting one of the new fuses in that slot (since I'd replaced it with one of the old ones), and now the brand new fuse that's in that slot has blown. Obviously, this means that something is up-one fuse blowing after moving a game could be straightforward, two could be coincidence, but now there has to be an issue somewhere in the GI. The question is...what? Any other suggestions for trying to narrow down where the problem is? Most references to GI problems are with burnt connectors. Off to search through the pinrepair guides, but thought I'd post in case someone had a suggestion that might not be covered in there. Strange thing is that it doesn't blow right away when I turn the game on, so it's some combination of things that's blowing the circuit.

 

[Chris Bardon]

OK, looking through the guides, it suggests looking for a short in the strand (which I suppose I'll try to do), although what doesn't make sense is that if it's a socket shorted out, then how would it be blowing fuses on two different GI strands?

On a related note, does anyone have any spare 4a fuses that'll fit a WPC95 machine? I have a bunch of the WPC sized ones, but I didn't realize that the WPC95 fuses were smaller. I've never had to change one on one of those games. You can get them at the source, but it's 5 bucks for a 2 pack. 65 cents from PBL though...

 

[luch]

Chris if you come on Monday to topl I'll let you go thru my bag of fuses , have a lot , bring a sample . mike

 

[Vengeance]

I would check each bulb, could be that a lead is touching something it shouldn't like a flasher maybe or coil and when it fires it blows the gi string

When the gi is on, check the tests and see if it will dim

Perhaps a transistor is locked on for the gi and that could be why its not blowing right away

Also head to sayal and pickup a circuit breaker and use that and save yourself some money on fuses

 

[Chris Bardon]

Yeah, I think I'll start by checking out that one strand and see what happens. I've actually got a 3a breaker, and a 5a one, just not a 4, so I suppose it's off to Sayal.

 

[Vengeance]

you can use the 3amp one, breakers its actually better to under fuse since it takes a bit more I find for them to blow then an actual fuse

 

[dos.reboot]

Did you replace any GI bulbs? If so, the spring in one of the spring loaded sockets may be stuck in the down position not making contact?? Just spit balling here.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Yeah, I did swap out a few burnt out bulbs. Good point on the 3a breaker too, although I was wondering whether that would be too low for the load of a full strand. I suppose I could measure what one of the good circuits is drawing first and see how close to the limit it is.

 

[Chris Bardon]

OK, I think I've got it fixed now. The 3a breaker worked like a champ, and saved me maybe 15 fuses in the process. It turned out that the right GI strand blew anytime the lock post got pulled down. No wire damage that I could see, and no wires touching something they shouldn't (even under vibration, which I checked). What did seem to work was reseating the 2 pin molex that was on this coil, and pulling it away from the rest of the bundle. What was also strange is that at a couple of points I could see the GI dim when this coil fired (when it didn't blow the breaker)-is it possible that something else is going on here that's causing problems with the circuit?

Anyway, going to leave it for now and see if it happens again, but I played a couple of games on it without anything blowing, so that's a good sign.