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Shocking development!

Davey D

Davey D

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Joined
Aug 4, 2014
Messages
612
Location
Grimsby, UK
Last night i had 2x pins powered up; myBK2k and IJ4. i happened to lean over and my forearm touched the side rails on both and i noticed a sharp tingling. Tried touching 1 hand on each and dont notice anything. Tried again with just my forearm touching across both and definitely getting a shock.

i stuck my mutlimeter on both and its showing 110vac between the machines.

Next i measured between a copper pipe for the water supply (will be tied into earth point) and the IJ4 and got nothing, then tried the same with Bk2k to the copper water pipes and was getting 110v, so definitely something going on with that pin and an earth leakage somewhere.

Where should i be looking on the machine? presuming the power cable, and the PSU?

Both machines are plugged into the same 4 gang extension into the same wall socket.
 
I had exactly this too. Myriad of possible causes. Bk2k is not earthing. The problem probably due to the continuity of connection between your side rails and your home's earth

Check continuity and resistance between the metal external parts of your game and the earth pin of the plug. On my fish tales, this resistance is about 0.4 ohms. This will tell you if the game itself has a bad earth. If the game has a bad earth, you need to check plug wiring, inspect power cable for damage all the way from inside the plug to termination inside the cab (cable often kinked where it enters the cab). Check continuity of the earthing strip inside the cab

With me, my games were ok. I actually had a bad earth in the double wall socket itself. One side was fine, the other intermittent. SO I Replaced my wall socket. Problem solved

So your game may actually be ok. Then you would then need to check your extension lead (every earth point to the earth pin of the plug), and your wall socket too
 
my troubles were also caused by my house wiring and not by the pins, but it was a long journey to confirm this. to check your machine is properly earthed, see if you have continuity between the earth pin on the plug (the top of of the triangle) and the lockdown bar. if not, then trace it bit by bit from the earth pin backwards. i have previously bought machines that had no earth at all, those things were deathtraps so nowadays i replace the power cord on anything that i'm not sure about (definitely on anything imported).

i bought this to check my house sockets - just plug it in everywhere and it says if there is a wiring fault - in my case it told me i had neutral/live reversed in an entire spur of 6 double-sockets. helped by this forum among others, i turned off power at the mains, opened each socket showing this fault, traced it to the mistake, and fixed it. this had been there since before we moved into our house back in 2004.
socket tester.JPG

once you know your sockets are definitely good, you can also use a thing that detects if any power is leaking due to a faulty electrical device and seals it off within 40ms if it does. this thing is now installed on my marine fishtank as these are notorious for being just enormous batteries - saltwater is extremely conductive - and when the underwater pumps fail, they can accumulate a big charge. i added a tungsten earth probe to the tank, and this 'RCD' thing acts to trip just this socket if it detects trouble, much faster than the house circuit breaker. i also use one on my generator.
device tester.JPG
 
The fact they're onto the same 4-gang suggests definitely something to do with the earth on the BK2K.

As suggested above you need to check continuity between the metal parts on the Pin and the earth terminal on the plug.

Part of the reason I did the full cabinet swap on my R&B was because a segment of the earthing braid was missing and because the rotolock wasn't present the earth wasn't extended up into the backbox either. This came to light when I was trying to troubleshoot some issues; I was measuring the voltage on a relay but my meter wasn't getting any reading at all. It was only when I used the ground point on the CPU PCB that I realised what the issue was.
 
All fixed!

It was crappy wiring in the plug. The strain relief wasn't clamping the wire so had no doubt been pulling the wire in the plug. The live wire was loose in the terminal and there was a split in the earth wire.
Chopped around 50mm off and refitted plug. Tested it to other pin and water supply pipe. All good :)
 
Davey D said:
All fixed!

It was crappy wiring in the plug. The strain relief wasn't clamping the wire so had no doubt been pulling the wire in the plug. The live wire was loose in the terminal and there was a split in the earth wire.
Chopped around 50mm off and refitted plug. Tested it to other pin and water supply pipe. All good :)
Click to expand...

Good Stuff! Death Averted :thumbs:
 
Could be a new feature on pinballs where if you hit the wrong target you get a zap, like those games where you guide a hoop over a wire form from start to end without touching it else you get shocked
 
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