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Author Topic: Discharged My First Monitor Today  (Read 2167 times)

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FrizzleFried

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Discharged My First Monitor Today
« on: October 25, 2006, 02:33:08 am »
Yup...I discharged my first monitor today.  It's an Electrohome G07 manufacturered in January of 1980.   ...and I have to say...DAMN WAS I FRIGGIN' SCARED AS HELL!   I haven't been that damn frightened of something in years...so I do what any newb with half a brain does...I researched.   After studying up on what I am supposed to do to discharge,  and the consequences of my actions should I do things wrong...I decided to give it a go.

I build a device to ground the anode by soldering a couple aligator clips on each end of a strip of extension chord I cut up.   First I grounded one end to the chassis, then I connected the other end to a long flat head screw driver.  After putting on a rubber glove and standing on a rolled up piece of carpet I stood there...friggin hands shaking like some wimp (i'm 6'4")...I was ---Bad words, bad words, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when saint censors you?--- (pardon me) PETRIFIED!!!  Over and over in my head I told myself that I followed all the safety precautions.  Cabinet unplugged...check....rubber soled shoes...check...rubber handled screw driver...check...solid connection between the screw driver and the chassis...check. Still I was scared as hell.  Telling myself to have faith,  and with left hand in pocket, I slid the screw driver under the rubber "suction cup" shaped cover...slowly...slowly...

>tink<

THAT'S IT!  >tink<

Not even >SNAP!< .... >tink<

The moment was so anti-climatic it's funny.  What really was hilarious was that 10 minutes later I came in the house with my friends...feeling embarassed about how scared I was (and how vocal about how scared I was)...when I went to go turn on the light >SNAP!< I got a nasty static shock!!! Everyone busted out in laughter.    The static shock was a good 10x louder than the >tink< I got when I discharged....

I dunno...had to be there...I still can't believe how scared I was...just respect the safety precautions.
Visit my arcade blog at: www.idahogaragecade.com (Updated 10-28-21)

Kevin Mullins

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Re: Discharged My First Monitor Today
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2006, 08:54:53 am »
>tink<

THAT'S IT!  >tink<

Not even >SNAP!< .... >tink<

The moment was so anti-climatic it's funny. 

Had the Monitor recently been "ON" ?
Try that..... ;)
Not a technician . . . . just a DIY'er.

FrizzleFried

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Re: Discharged My First Monitor Today
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2006, 09:01:35 am »
It was on about 8 to 10 hours before I discharged...

Maybe next time I will try to discharge immediately after playing!


NOT!

Visit my arcade blog at: www.idahogaragecade.com (Updated 10-28-21)

Lilwolf

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Re: Discharged My First Monitor Today
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2006, 02:22:29 pm »
I had the same reaction when I did mine the first time

I was sitting in rubber boots, standing on a plastic chair with oven gloves (and I think a cowboy hat... cant' remember) and my wife just laughed at me...


gamenut

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Re: Discharged My First Monitor Today
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2006, 10:35:07 pm »
Thats funny ;D
But not sure i would try as i'm scared to death of electricity :-\

AlanS17

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Re: Discharged My First Monitor Today
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2006, 11:52:40 pm »
You think that's scary? Try rotating the image. While the thing is powered on, you to have the loosen the ring on the back, GRAB IT, and rotate it!  :dizzy:


8way

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Re: Discharged My First Monitor Today
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2006, 07:56:52 am »
You think that's scary? Try rotating the image. While the thing is powered on, you to have the loosen the ring on the back, GRAB IT, and rotate it!  :dizzy:

Yes I have to agree with that one. Was adjusting a yoke just the other day, first I was using my right hand then I switch two use my left hand not thinking I had my wedding band on and I actually felt my hand start twitching like it was having some muscle spasms. Luckily I pulled out in time before anything serious happened. Note to others no metallic jewelry wile playing inside powered monitors.  ;D

spacies

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Re: Discharged My First Monitor Today
« Reply #7 on: October 31, 2006, 05:22:21 pm »
LOL. great story.
Reminds me of when I was a discharge 'virgin'.

I guess at the end of the day you can never be too careful.
When you have done it a few times you tend to relax a bit buts that when you get careless, trust me.

I have had 3 electric shocks from arcade machines.

1st one: Had removed PC monitor from case. While trying to figure out why I had no power to the monitor I realized the cord wasn't in properly so I went to push it in and not paying attention I touched the monitors PCB and kapowww! A nice 240v shaker.

2nd: While reaching inside a machine to undo the catch to open the lid, kapoww! The catch was really tight and when it popped open my arm slipped and 240v into the elbow was nice. Suspect: still to be apprenhended.

3rd: This was the best to date. Had built a cocktail MAME machine and the video card kept losing the drivers so I purchased a new one and was installing that. The PC was off but still plugged in (doh) and I was fiddling around to trying to secure the card into the AGP slot. KAPPOOWWW (note the capital letters)  I have know idea what I touched (Suspect: caps on the mobo) but dam is was a beauty. I ended up with a light burn across both my forearms which is where the electricity was exiting against the steel band around the picture tube. While I was being electrocuted it was kind of a surreal experience. I knew what was happening and it didn't really hurt, but I was at the mercy of the arcade gods to release me from the PCs death grip so I can build more machines. Thankfully they let me carry on doing this. When I jelly walked inside and told my partner, she just laughed. Wasn't really funny though  :banghead:

Lesson learnt: UNPLUG EVERYTHING and look out for capacitors on your mobo too. :dizzy:

BTW, the video card still worked, which was good.   ;D
« Last Edit: October 31, 2006, 05:25:59 pm by spacies »