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Pinball/Arcade - Interference/Magnetic Field

Andypc

Andypc

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1 10 Years
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Oct 24, 2015
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London, UK
I am limited for space so had to put my Blast City Arcade Machine next to a Pinball machine. The right side of the Blast City is close to the back of my Theatre of Magic. Unfortunately as soon as I turn on the Pinball machine the picture on the Blast City is wobbling all over the place and the colours distorted. The interference / magnetic field is clearly being caused by the Pinball machine because as soon as I turn it off and degauss the CRT screen, it's fine again. Is there any way to solve this without me having to completely rethink my layout.
 
TOM has a conventional "E-I" style iron core transformer and will emit EMF regardless. There is next to nothing you can do to change that except to perhaps unbolt the mains transformer and rotate it 45°. This will have the effect of changing the direction of the strongest magnetic field - not sure if that would be enough of a change though?

Zero guarantee this will work but it would be the only thing I can think of suggesting.

Chuck that crap old CRT and fit an LCD is the next option..

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I remember seeing a post somewhere who had this issue too, think they ended up just moving them further apart in the end.
 
Homepin said:
Chuck that crap old CRT and fit an LCD is the next option.
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That's like telling you to chuck your crap old Pinball machine and get a Virtual Pinball. 😆

Tom has the transformer right at the back and it is noisy compared to the transformers in my other pins. Just wondering if swapping it with a different pinball machine that has the transformer situated in the middle rather than the back will be enough to solve the problem.
 
Andypc said:
Tom has the transformer right at the back and it is noisy compared to the transformers in my other pins. Just wondering if swapping it with a different pinball machine that has the transformer situated in the middle rather than the back will be enough to solve the problem.
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Moving it will change the emitted magnetic field for sure - turning it 45 degrees will change the direction of the field so yes, moving it will certainly 'change' things - - - for better? That's unknown.
 

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Try putting another pinball machine there instead, maybe it will radiate less.

Put some metal sheet in-between.

Sell me your TOM 😁
 
It's frustrating as I just had new garage doors fitted to enable me to fit it in. Hopefully trying another Pinball with a centre mounted transformer will solve the problem. Just ordered a EMF Meter to see if I can work out exactly what's going on.20210709_094756.jpg
 
Have you tried the silver foil as suggested? Or some sheet metal inside the pin cab?

Don't waste money on a ponzi meter it won't tell you anything you don't already know.
 
Unfortunately the foil hat didn't make any difference. 😅 I tried several sheets of foil behind the pinball, where the transformer is bolted to the back and it made no difference. Had a look at my other machines and Indiana Jones has the transformer near the front of the machine, so will try swapping the machines round next week. I have read several posts on Pinside about people removing the metal plate from behind the transformer on their TOM as doing so stops the transformer noise. Does anyone know if this is safe to do or the purpose of the metal plate?
 
Andypc said:
Unfortunately the foil hat didn't make any difference. 😅 I tried several sheets of foil behind the pinball, where the transformer is bolted to the back and it made no difference. Had a look at my other machines and Indiana Jones has the transformer near the front of the machine, so will try swapping the machines round next week. I have read several posts on Pinside about people removing the metal plate from behind the transformer on their TOM as doing so stops the transformer noise. Does anyone know if this is safe to do or the purpose of the metal plate?
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Have removed the plate many times on noisy games. Never had an issue. This is nothing to do with the problem you posted.
 
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