STERN Spike II Games - Power Supply "Clicking" repeatably on Power On

[ToMMy]

Has anyone with a Stern Spike 2 game (Godzilla, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, etc.) encountered an issue with the Power Supply making a constant 'clicking' noise when turning the game on instead of a normal boot up? Maybe clicking 10 - 20 times or more before booting?
Apparently it's an issue only with some Spike II games, I'm trying to gauge how often (if ever) this happens.

A friend of mine had it happening with his Led Zeppelin when he acquired it last year and he approached me to look into it so I designed this rather simple plug-in device that installs between the Power Supply in the back box and the Power Distribution board. It essentially isolates the two so the Power Supply can charge the Distribution board on power-up without the capacitive load of the Distribution board interfering with the Switching Power Supply turning on.

The device installs in less than a minute and completely stops the clicking effect.



A made a few of these, so if anyone is interested in one drop me an email: tommy.pinball(at)gmail(dot)com
Brent

 

[Chris Bardon]

I remember reading about that on pinside a while back, but I haven't encountered that myself (yet). Sounds like an interesting fix though-is the issue that the power supply is switching off because the capacitors on the distribution board are too large? I'm not really that familiar with what the circuit there is doing.

 

[Steve Lennox]

I can't remember if its my Bond or my Foo's, but one of them clicks. its irritating.