April 1987 [5)
STAR*TECH Journal
-
Hints & Tips For Operators
& Technicians (Part 2)
By
Sam Cross
Godwin Distributing Co.
North Little Rock, Arkansas
'Ibis series of articles is a collection of
hints and tips for the operator and
technician in the Amusement and Game
Industry. I hope you get sorre good out of
this because, I know, I sure have
benefitted from sorre of these things.
Last Issue: Maintenance of blade switches
and properly testing fuses.
Ibi To Tell If A Flooresoent Lanp Ballast
Is Shorted.
Ever replaced a fluorescent lamp and when
you turn the lamp fixture on, the lamp
emits a bright flash then goes out again?
If so, then you might have a shorted
ballast, the unit which provides a high
starting voltage for the lamp to get
.
arted. It is the thing which looks like
a transformer but is actually only one
winding of wire.
1le, ~ \f\S '9)c,J\J ~
-..,e.~ ,~ ~\st:lt-ce,
ojf\h eaa'!o\k~C()
e ~ O"d.
~C[C&=7
fl\A~,i\"S
L for e the
resistance reading I am giving you is
type of ballast that runs 14, 15,
or 20 watt lamp:;. A good ballast will have
a straight resistance of 25 ohms or
slightly more. cne of 10 or fewer ohms
than this should be highly suspect of
causing short lamp life and one of ten
ohms or less should absolutely be
replaced!
A good way to not waste a bulb to find out
if the ballast is shorted is to take the
burned out lamp out of the socket and
check to see if the pins on either end are
continuous with each other (see figure 2).
If one end or both are not continuous, you
should check the ballast resistance to see
if it is at or near 25 ohms.
Also, when replacing a lamp it is a good
idea to replace the starter with an
equivalent new starter because an old
starter can wear out a bulb quick if it
doesn't get it started in just a few trys.
Tradewest IKARI WARRIORS
Joystick Replacement
By
Todd Erickson
Sunroit Amuserrent
St. Paul, Minnesota
Recently I waited about 3 weeks for a
joystick for my IKARI WARRIORS by
Trade-west. This seems to be an excessive
amount of time to me. (I hesitated to buy
the game when it was first released
because of the joystick).
Control Marketing Inc. has just released a
rotary joystick for the game industry. The
cost will be about half of the cost of the
Tradewest OEM joystick. The product is
similar to their original joystick with
the addition of a grayhill rotary switch.
Control Marketing can be reached at
312/593-6130 in Illinois.
'roP GUNNER kit instructions (by Konami)
stated that it must be used with a rotary
joystick. It was shipped with Wico 8-ways.
I will be installing the new Control
Marketing joystick on my game. I expect to
see a big increase in earnings.
My