The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Arcade Collecting => Miscellaneous Arcade Talk => Topic started by: JoyMonkey on March 04, 2005, 05:28:51 pm
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To avoid electrocuting my friends, should I ground my metal control panels?
If so, is this the correct method of wiring it:
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Yes.
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Thought so. None of my friends like electrocution, oddly enough.
Actually, my monitor uses a 3 prong plug, so I don't think it's AS dangerous as having a 2 prong ungrounded monitor. But still, better safe than sorry, eh?
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I have a story for you that you might enjoy.
When I was a rookie tech, I was rewiring a Street Fighter II's AC on location at the Minneapolis Airport. I wired the ground to the field ground thinking "what's the difference?"
Well, the wall plug had taken some abuse and was missing the field ground prong. Whenever anyone tried playing the game, they received mild electrical shocks through the CP. It was like this for a week before someone called the shop to complain about the machine "biting" them.
I repaired it and explained what happened to my boss. He looked at me for a second and just shook his head.
Today I think it's kind of funny. But I used to be extremely... uh, "anal" I guess I could call it about my job, as I was trying to "prove myself" because of my inexperience. What a stupid, stupid mistake. Hah.
APf
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APFelon,
Are you saying that what's been said above is wrong, or not?
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It doesn't hurt to do that, and every arcade machine I ever saw had a ground comming off the metal panel.
It protects it from things you might not expect, like a mouse eating through a wire or some totally unforseen incident.
It costs like $.05 and takes 3 minutes.
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APFelon,
Are you saying that what's been said above is wrong, or not?
Heh, nope. Grounding the panel is standard procedure. Wiring 110 VAC up to the FG is uncommon. My mistake was actually giving people shocks.
APf
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I don't understand where this 110VAC is coming from in order to bite people? is the metal panel touching the tube frame or something? I can't for the life of me figure out how an isolated metal panel would shock people unless it was wired to do so... ???
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Grounding the panel is standard procedure. Wiring 110 VAC up to the FG is uncommon.
How do you normally ground the panel then? Do you use the ground connection from the power supply?
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I have three arcade machines all of which have metal control panels, none of which are grounded.
I don't understand where this 110VAC is coming from in order to bite people? is the metal panel touching the tube frame or something? I can't for the life of me figure out how an isolated metal panel would shock people unless it was wired to do so...
That's a good question. ???
-S
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I'm sorry, I thought I was clear.
I wired the 110 through the FG as a lazy "shortcut", thus electrifying the panel, the coin door, and everything else that the FG wire ran to.
So, when a customer touched the panel, they got a shock.
You have 3 wires running in to a game through the line cord: A black, a white, and a green. Typically, the power runs trough the black and the white, with the green as kind of a "catch all" for static and the like. That's why it runs to various metal components throughout the game (the panel, the marquee light housing, the coin door, the monitor mounting frame). I ran 110 through this green wire and it electrified all of it. So when someone touched the panel (or the coin door, monitor mounting frame, marquee light housing, etc) they would receive a shock.
I clearly suck at telling stories, so never mind. :P
APf
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Your diagram is fine.
All of the green wire runs to the ground, you don't have to ground it separately.
Shocks can be caused from lots of things, like static or a malfunction, or a frayed wire.
Grounding the CP (every metal control panel I have was grounded) is fine.
Sometimes the ground is just on the metal frame around the CP. It's just a wire. It can go to the FG.
It makes the risk of shock 0.