Star Tech Journal

STAR*TECH Journal
March 1987 [1D)
Hints & Tips For
Operators & Technicians (Part 1)
By
Sam Cross
Godwin Distriblting Co.
North Little a:>ck, Arkansas
'Ibis series of articles is a collection of
hints and tips for the operator and
technician for the Amusement and Game
Industry. I h:>pe you get sone good out of
this because I know I sure have benefitted
from sane of these things.
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technicians may scoff at this one,
but I have had nuch success using this
technique to cure those switches that
don't seem to operate all of the time.
Some
Have you ever rm into a switch on a
joystick, button, or a pinball that you
clean and adjust properly and it works
when you short the blades together (with
the blade of a pocket screwdriver or any
metal piece) but when you try to operate
it normally -it won't work consistently?
'!he type of switch I am talking about is a
widely used one -the type that has brass
or oopper inserts bradded into the blade
of the switches and the brads are the ones
that make the electrical contact. What
happens with a lot of these switches is
that the brads become loose and rotate
arot.md inside the blade and don't always
make good oontact.
'!he solution I have fot.md to this problem
is to solder the backside of the brads to
the blade of each switch. This insures
good electrical oontact between the brad •
and the blade of the switch. After you do
this you may have to clean the sides of
the switch that make contact once again
with a rough piece of paper, cardboard, or
a oornishing tool. (See figure 1 to see
what I mean.) If the switch uses spade lug
connectors these may be a potential
oontact problem as well. If so, solder
these if the switch is still giving a
problem.
~lltllR.E 1.
PmBS
Many times I receive games in the shop and
all they need is a fuse replaced. I tell
the customer this and they say that •they ~
looked at the fuses and they all looked
good. I must emi;nasize that fuses can look
good but actually be broken or melted
apart inside the metal ends of the fuse.
Others don't lend themselves very well to
visual inspection- they may be of the
canpletely white type where you can't see
the element inside or the element is womd
around a nylon support. 'lhese can be hard
to tell if·good.
The only sure way to check a fuse is OUT
OF THE HOLDER with a simple continuity
tester or an ohmneter. I eI1p1aBize OUT OF
THE HOLDER because if you use a continuity
tester or an ohmneter on the fuse in
circuit, it may find an alternate path and
yield a false impression of continuity
when the fuse may indeed be open.
Also, and this is as important as above,
if you find yourself replacing a fuse and
a short time later it blows again- let's
say 5 minutes to a half an h:>ur or more,
the fuse holder may be old and be offering
a slight moount of resistance which causes~
heat to build and melts the fuse open, not
because of an overcurrent condition but
because of the heat produced by the poor
oontact between the metal contact of the
fuse and fuse holder body.