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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: 16bitcatholic on March 31, 2014, 12:25:52 pm

Title: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: 16bitcatholic on March 31, 2014, 12:25:52 pm: This might be more frustration talking than anything else. :angry: :timebomb:

The ground wiring is such a long and tedious process on a four player cocktail cab. As someone who knows nothing about electronics, I ask: why? What happens if I just say, screw the grounding, they're just a bunch of buttons?

If anyone can give me a good solid answer (I read online that you should ground, but for the purposes of an arcade I have yet to find out the exact reason, unless its like every other electronic process that I don't fully comprehend), then this wouldn't be as annoying. But oh these f-ing ground wires. I already missed one deadline to have it ready for friends coming over to play, don't want to miss this upcoming weekend either.

Thanks for any help/letting me vent.
Title: Re: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: menace on March 31, 2014, 12:32:54 pm: Do you mean grounding the buttons or grounding the cabinet metal bits to earth? If you mean grounding the buttons, its cause they won't work unless you do. They run on DC voltage and need a complete circuit to register a open/close state.

If you mean grounding the metal bits on the cabinet--that's for safety so if electricity runs astray it has a path back to the breaker and can register as a fault and trip. No trip means it lies in wait, waiting for a ground source (i.e. you) so it can return, killing you and your buddies in the process.
Title: Re: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: 16bitcatholic on March 31, 2014, 12:41:30 pm: The buttons. It's an all wood cabinet. Thank you for explaining that to me. Much appreciated.
Title: Re: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: PL1 on March 31, 2014, 12:52:39 pm: Quote from: 16bitcatholic on March 31, 2014, 12:25:52 pm
The ground wiring is such a long and tedious process on a four player cocktail cab.

Buy pre-fab daisy-chain ground wires FTW.

IMHO it's not worth the effort to measure/cut/strip/crimp every segment unless you're into the hyper-OCD wiring pr0n thing -- which you obviously aren't.

You can cut/splice the prefab daisy chain to customize it as desired with a lot less effort. ;D

Scott
Title: Re: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: spoot on March 31, 2014, 01:43:45 pm: Gotta give a path for the juice.
Title: Re: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: DaOld Man on March 31, 2014, 02:18:16 pm: Also, if you have any exposed metal (coin door ETC) you should ground to safely route any static discharge to ground. Static charges can destroyed keyboard emulators (such as key wiz).
I know this from experience.
Title: Re: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: jdbailey1206 on March 31, 2014, 02:52:38 pm: I agree with DaOldMan. The electric current that we use 9/10 may not be harmful to us but all it takes is the correct jolt to our unprotected products and you end up paying for all your components again because you didnt want to run one wire. I know running the ground wire is tedious but like PL1 said there are products that make it less of a hassle.
Title: Re: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: ChadTower on March 31, 2014, 03:48:26 pm: Four player cocktail?

How many buttons are we talking about here?
Title: Re: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: Nephasth on March 31, 2014, 08:16:30 pm: Quote from: ChadTower on March 31, 2014, 03:48:26 pm

Four player cocktail?

How many buttons are we talking about here?

At least 72.
Title: Re: Grounding, what is it good for.
Post by: lilshawn on April 04, 2014, 05:37:52 pm: does every player SERIOUSLY need 12 buttons?

4 for joystick 1 start 1 coin and 12 player buttons?

...

x4

:dunno

i'm going to need some pictures of this.