Flourescent Tubes in Sega/Stern

[pinballheaven]

Last week my Twister arrived and when I connected it up to 240v the 120v Varistor blew and so did the flouro in the backbox. Thanks to Marty fixed the Varistor problem and game plays fine with no backglass light. When I took a tube out of my Austin Powers and put it in the Twister it blew that as well. So today I went to bunnings and purchased 2 new flouros and put one in AP first and all I got was a little bit of light at the ends and a big hum so I turned it off. I have not tried one in the Twister but looking at the wiring it runs up to the power box in the front of the machine.

Questions! If I put the new tube into the Twister will that be ok? What can I do with AP to get the light going again?

Any help would be appreciated it's driving me crazy!

Jeff

[Retropin]

Its an American machine yes??

Sounds like the flouro ballast is a 110V. not 240V.

The tube itself shouldnt matter.. it will be 18W, 36W etc... the ballast converts to this.


With the AP one... sounds like tube hadnt struck... with flouros, the ballast strikes both ends as anode and cathode, it then has to excite the argon inbetween so it can strike across the tube. The hum you hear is the ballast trying hard to strike the tube.
Either tube is duff or new starter required

[MartyJ]

I've being assisting Jeff via email on this..  I have a Harley Davidson which I'm working on at the same time which AFAIK should be identical as the Twister.

On the Harley, the black / white wires run from ballast (120v / 60Hz) through the headbox, to the cabinet transformer where a molex plug comes off a tap on the transformer (blue / blue) which is 120v A/C.

Jeff has described that the wires from the ballast in the headbox ran straight to the mains at the powerbox  / switch.

The machine is US.  I guess whilst running on the US power this wasn't an issue.

Maybe one of the other Twister owners (Pete aka Mr GORGAR) can check to see how his is setup. 

I suspect that the owner from the US maybe changed the power input for the ballast for some reason.

[necroscope]

My x-files runs the straight  into the cab and hooks up tomolex/ 2 blue wires on to the transformer.

[Caveoftreasures]

Having all the Sega Showcase or Sega Concave machines as i call them, i would be checking/replacing the starters. (shaped like any normal white little barrell shaped fluro starters)

Take them out n clean them, or just replace them altogether. Also when u put the new fluro in, jiggle the tube a little at each end as sometimes the contacts can be a little touchy. I note, that sometimes it can take 30 or 40 seconds for the fluro to light up. if it doesnt start straight away, give it another 20 or so seconds.

I would be having a serious look at how the power supply has been set up in the machine. it might be set at 220 volts, not 240 etc.

[MartyJ]

Having all the Sega Showcase or Sega Concave machines as i call them, i would be checking/replacing the starters. (shaped like any normal white little barrell shaped fluro starters)

Take them out n clean them, or just replace them altogether. Also when u put the new fluro in, jiggle the tube a little at each end as sometimes the contacts can be a little touchy. I note, that sometimes it can take 30 or 40 seconds for the fluro to light up. if it doesnt start straight away, give it another 20 or so seconds.

I would be having a serious look at how the power supply has been set up in the machine. it might be set at 220 volts, not 240 etc.

Brett,

From what Jeff has described I believe the transformer is jumpered correctly.

On your machines, I take it there is two wires (black & white) running from the ballast near the fluro tube, into the cab where a 2 pin molex connector connects a blue / blue from the transformer?
This should feed 120v to the ballast / fluro.
From what Jeff described, it appears that this was bypassed and the ballast was wired directly to the mains.

[Caveoftreasures]

give me 30 mins for the wife to get home, and take the 10 month old baby off my shoulder, and i will go to the twister machine and tell you straight away.  

its taken me a few hours to get junior asleep so i wont risk taking the backglass off one handed.lol

give me 30 mins and we can sort it out 4 sure  

[Caveoftreasures]

ok, my twister seems to be different to what u have described.

my fluro tube is wired to a large square copper wrapped rsistor of some decription. it is in the same position of what i have pictured with this link below, but it is different again.

the fluro wiring splits off to the top right corner of my headbox, with the red positive wire.
the square device, seems to be a fine red copper wired resistor/coil of some de******ion wound very tightly with copper wire. it obviously is designed to even out voltage i guess. my square thing is wrapped in a brown paper/cardboard from factory. it then is wired directly off to the main power supply, but it has this square thing between the fluro set up and the power supply, if that helps.

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=3976&picno=30445

the link above is from ipdb. similar to mine, wired the same , but my square thing is different.

[shansta]

That looks/sounds like the ballast for the light?

Does it have a voltage or a wattage written on it? (Most ones I seen have 18w or 36w and the voltage printed on them)

[Caveoftreasures]

no. nothing written on it.

also, the picture i gave doesnt show it properly, but both ends of the fluro, end up being wired to that copper situation.
although it looks like the black n white wires run directly off to the power supply, it doesnt. both ends run indirectly via the square copper thing in the top right corner, by a few plugs.

i can take a video tomorrow if jeff wants to clearly see how mine is wired, including the settings inside my main transformer.  

[shansta]

no. nothing written on it.

also, the picture i gave doesnt show it properly, but both ends of the fluro, end up being wired to that copper situation.
although it looks like the black n white wires run directly off to the power supply, it doesnt. both ends run indirectly via the square copper thing in the top right corner, by a few plugs.

Yeah - that's the fluro ballast - sounds like Jeff's machine has 240v going up it's arse instead of the 120 it was designed for...

Marty is already all over it  - but sounds like previous owner has hard wired the ballast to the mains? (Instead of running off the 120v supply from the tranny)

[beaky]

you can do 1 of 2 things
1: connect the wiring that goes to the fluro ballast to the correct output on thr transformer
or 2: replace the ballast with a 240V fluro ballast

I would also replace the starter.

[pinballheaven]

Thanks for all your help everyone it really is appreciated. Today I went and purchased a new ballast and a couple of starters. My only question is where is the ballast because the new one I purchased today looks nothing like anything I can see in the machine?? or am I missing something?? Is it in the backbox or cabinet? I know this must sound stupid to some but this is unchartered waters for me.

[beaky]

Thanks for all your help everyone it really is appreciated. Today I went and purchased a new ballast and a couple of starters. My only question is where is the ballast because the new one I purchased today looks nothing like anything I can see in the machine?? or am I missing something?? Is it in the backbox or cabinet? I know this must sound stupid to some but this is unchartered waters for me.

I have attached a pic of the fluro ballast in a sega starwars.
I hope its in the same place.
if its not just follow the wires comming from the fluro tube and it should go to a device with 2 wires attached.
1 wire goes to the fluro tube and the other goes to the power neutral (black wire)

F.Y.I. It should be a 13 watt ballast so you will need to replace it with a 13 watt 240v ballast

[pinballheaven]

Beaky, thanks mate and thanks again everyone!

Light is working perfectly after replacing Ballast and tube and starter!