Instruction manual

The Game Machines :
This is the most critical link in the chain. I have seen a steady decline in the quality of the interior wiring of
the cabinets over the last 10 years, and some of the short cuts that are being done are down right dangerous.
1) Power Cords
EVERY power cord should have the 3 prong intact.
rd
2) Ground Continuity
That ground should test for continuity from the lug on the power cord to the case of the power
supply, the frame of the monitor, and it should be connected to EVERY metal surface that a
player can come into contact with, PERIOD. Anything less is dangerous and leaves your game
susceptible to electrical noise.
3) Ground bonding
On the old CRT monitors the Earth ground and the DC ground got coupled together via the
RGB/SYNC connection. With the advent of LCD monitors, this is no longer the case. So, your
DC ground is fairly isolated and I can’t vouch for how well the current power supplies are
handling excessive noise, voltage, or currents on the DC ground in respect to the AC ground. I
would suggest that a 10 - 100 Ohm resistor be placed from the DC ground to the Earth ground as
close to the power supply as possible. You can even bond one of the DC ground wires to a screw
on the power supply case if it is grounded.
4) All CRT (non-LCD) monitors must have isolation
If your CRT monitor didn’t have an Earth ground running to it, it might have been because whom
ever made the game took the ultimate short cut. They left out the isolation transformer and just
made sure there were no Earth grounds running to anything in the cabinet. This is an extremely
dangerous situation and must be tested for and corrected before anything else. If you have a
game with a CRT monitor in it, it is cheap insurance to just add an isolation transformer if you
don’t see one in the machine. You can test for it by checking for continuity from the line cord
prongs to the monitor AC input. There should be no continuity between them. The nice thing is,
if you run a ground to the chassis and there is an isolation problem, it will just blow the fuse on
the monitor instead of frying all the network boards.
5) Power Supply Voltage
The Gaggle PCB should be run from 4.90 - 5.10VDC w/ < 100mV of ripple.
If you have a board set that needs to run higher than 5.10, we have small switcher supplies that
will let you run the Gaggle PCB from the +12VDC lines by regulating it down to 5VDC.
The Fledgling board is a lot more liberal in its’ power demands. It will work from 4.5 - 5.5VDC
with no problems. If you have a machine acting funny, the power is the first thing you should
test.
6) Strain Reliefs
The CAT5 network cables should be long enough that they don’t get tugged when you jockey a
machine around to move it or work on it. Every set of cables should have a hold down strain
relief so if the wires do get pulled they are not breaking off the network jacks.
The Location :
The location wiring is as much a part of the network wiring as the CAT5 cable is.
1) Wall Sockets
Every wall socket should be tested with your wall outlet tester. If there is an open ground in the
wall outlet, the only place for stray voltages/currents to go is down the network wire.
2) Vermin control
Rodents LOVE to chew on network wires. I have seen wires on floors, in ceilings, and inside of
walls that have been chewed completely through by mice. Test your cables if they are hidden, or
out of the way, and you are having network resets or data errors.
3) The machines should not share a circuit with any big current or noisy loads.
If the machines are sharing a power circuit with refrigeration equipment, fluorescent lighting, or
some other big load, you can have issues. Remember these aren’t just games, they are computer
systems.
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