Donkey Kong Marquee Light

[zackcat]

Ok, so here may be a dumb question... since DK is run on 100v, do you need a special sort of marquee light or will any of the standard ones run ok?

The entire light assembly was missing when I bought my unit and it would be nice to have that warm glow up top

 

[splattergatz]

the wall outlet should be 120 volts A/C. just tap into the the A/C when it comes into the cab (or after the fuse) and run 3 wires(power, neutral, ground) up to the marquee area and into a couple of ceramic light bulb sockets for a couple a 40 or 60 watt light bulbs. plenty bright!

 

[KenLayton]

just tap into the the A/C when it comes into the cab (or after the fuse) and run 3 wires(power, neutral, ground) up to the marquee area and into a couple of ceramic light bulb sockets for a couple a 40 or 60 watt light bulbs. plenty bright!

Are you crazy? That's too hot of bulbs!

A modern "under-the-counter" fluorescent light fixture can be bought for less than ten bucks at any hardware/discount store.

The original was operated on a 100 volt circuit. That's too low for a modern 120 volt fixture.

This is how I install these new fixtures:

Unplug the AC power cord of the game from the wall.

Take screws out of marquee mounting bracket and set aside the bracket.

Remove the marquee and set it aside.

Mount the new fixture and feed it's power cord through the hole in the wood.

Down on the bottom floor of the cabinet at the right side side (looking from the rear of the cabinet with the back door off) is a terminal block with a clear plastic cover over it. Carefully lift that cover up and off with the edge of a pocketknife.

On that terminal block are several terminals containing AC power (located electrically after the power switch). The two AC power wires from the new fixture are going to connect to two of the terminals of this strip.

Cut off the power plug at the very end of the new fixture's power cord. If the cord is a flat two wire style, seperate about three inches worth of the wire. Now strip a 1/4" worth of insulation from each of the two wires you just seperated and crimp on one red forked terminal on each wire.

The ribbed (or white or neutral) wire will connect to the "0V" terminal. The plain (or black or hot) wire will connect to the "120V" terminal.

Tighten the screws down snuggly on the terminal strip and press it's clear plastic cover back on.

Install the fluorescent tube in the new fixture and power on the cabinet. The bulb should light up.

If your new fixture came with a white plastic bulb diffuser on it right out of the package, throw that piece away. You won't need it.

Now if everything works ok, slide the marquee back in and fasten down the marquee retaining bracket.

Now sit back, grab a brewski, and admire your work!

 

[zackcat]

Wow, awesome instructions!

Any reason you shouldn't use the extra "free" plug in the outlet mounted on the internal bottom of the cab?
Initially, that seemed like the logical place...

 

[jimkirk]

That plug at the bottom of the cab just outputs 100volts. It is for the original sanyo monitor and the original marquee light fixture. Can't use for new light fixture.

Ken is the man to listen to,he knows what he is talking about.

 

[splattergatz]

couple a 40 or 60 watt light bulbs

thats whats in my mat mania, tutankham and double dragon
HERES A PICTURE

 

[7146aaron]

couple a 40 or 60 watt light bulbs

thats whats in my mat mania, tutankham and double dragon
HERES A PICTURE

Wow. That will turn your marquee yellow in no time.

 

[jow]

That plug at the bottom of the cab just outputs 100volts. It is for the original sanyo monitor and the original marquee light fixture. Can't use for new light fixture.

Ken is the man to listen to,he knows what he is talking about.

The plug at the bottom of the cabinet works for a new marquee light, but as discussed a bunch of times, you will be replacing it much more often than if you were to splice it in.

 

[zackcat]

Ya, I am going to do the splice in and think that is a perfect solution.

I was asking in terms of the original light, that there must have been a 100v version that just plugged into the outlet and wondered if they are still being sold or available.

Time to get my splicin' hands ready!

 

[gravitar]

if you want to keep it original, i've got this light assembly that came out of a DK.. I can send it to you for $15 shipped

 

[ScumBum]

Thanks KenLayton for the walk through on how to do this . I'm about to install a new light in my DK jr ,

 

[KenLayton]

That plug in the bottom of the cabinet outputs 100 volts AC plus the fact it's also connected across the 100 volt output of the monitor isolation transformer (a big no-no).

Operating a light fixture designed for 120 volt operation on 100 volts is not good and you'll actually shorten it's life by underpowering it. As the fluorescent bulb ages (even slightly) it'll have a harder and harder time starting because of the lower voltage. You see the fluorescent lamp starters are also designed for the 120 volt fixtures.

Every single Nintendo cabinet I have ever worked on over the past 25 years I have modified for 120 volt light fixtures and I've wired them all the same way as I outlined in the earlier post.

 

[zackcat]

if you want to keep it original, i've got this light assembly that came out of a DK.. I can send it to you for $15 shipped

Thanks for the offer!... but I think I am going to try the 120v procedure as Ken had described above.

 

[zackcat]

This is how I install these new fixtures:

Unplug the AC power cord of the game from the wall.

Take screws out of marquee mounting bracket and set aside the bracket.

Remove the marquee and set it aside.

Mount the new fixture and feed it's power cord through the hole in the wood.

Down on the bottom floor of the cabinet at the right side side (looking from the rear of the cabinet with the back door off) is a terminal block with a clear plastic cover over it. Carefully lift that cover up and off with the edge of a pocketknife.

On that terminal block are several terminals containing AC power (located electrically after the power switch). The two AC power wires from the new fixture are going to connect to two of the terminals of this strip.

Cut off the power plug at the very end of the new fixture's power cord. If the cord is a flat two wire style, seperate about three inches worth of the wire. Now strip a 1/4" worth of insulation from each of the two wires you just seperated and crimp on one red forked terminal on each wire.

The ribbed (or white or neutral) wire will connect to the "0V" terminal. The plain (or black or hot) wire will connect to the "120V" terminal.

Tighten the screws down snuggly on the terminal strip and press it's clear plastic cover back on.

Install the fluorescent tube in the new fixture and power on the cabinet. The bulb should light up.

If your new fixture came with a white plastic bulb diffuser on it right out of the package, throw that piece away. You won't need it.

Now if everything works ok, slide the marquee back in and fasten down the marquee retaining bracket.

Now sit back, grab a brewski, and admire your work!

Excellent instructions, Ken!
Everything went beautifully according to plan and I now have a fully functional marquee light on my DK.

This man knows what he is talking about!

 

[KenLayton]

Now grab a brewski, sit back and admire your work!

I've converted hundreds of those cabinets over the years to standard off-the-shelf hardware store 120 volt light fixtures. Sure makes it easy when the bulb finally burns out to simply buy one locally.

 

[arcadejunkie]

i realized lately that only 3 of my fully working games have working marquee lights. im going to have to make them a weekend project

 

[Brentradio]

i realized lately that only 3 of my fully working games have working marquee lights. im going to have to make them a weekend project

Makes a HUGE difference...

And once you are done, grab a brewski, sit back and admire your work!

 

[Level42]

I've done Ken's method in some of my cabs too. For people in Europe this method also gives the advantage of being able to use 230 VAC fixtures. As long as you splice them in after the power switch and main fuse, you're good to go.

The last lighting job I did was on my Missile Command cabaret and chose for a bit different approach: bought a "energy saving lamp" which is essentialy a fluorescent tube with starter and ballast all in one, and a regular "angled" normal bulb fixture. Mounted that at the spot where the normal bulb was and spliced the wiring in as usual. I'd only recommend this for smaller marquees like on cabarets, since of course the light source is a shorter tube and following the light is just a tad "centralized", but nothing terrible for a cabaret marquee. What I do like is that the bulb is only 11 watts, so the marquee is not overly bright. I find that some marquees are too bright with 18W regular fluorescent tubes.

This cost me a whopping €1,- for the lamp (€3,- for 3 bulbs at Ikea !) and €1,60 for the fixture. Cheapest solution I found so far.

Using incadescent light bulbs is not smart for a number of reasons:
- the heat is very bad for the marquee and possible other parts of the cab
- they don't last very long
- and the most important: they eat LOTS of power. Imagine two 60 Watts bulbs in your cab, that's 120W just for the marquee lighting. Complete waste of energy and money. It really starts to add up if you got a number of cabs equipped this way.

 

[ScumBum]

Thanks KenLayton for your Marquee Light install guide !

Check out the results ,

 

[ChompingQuarters]

if you want to keep it original, i've got this light assembly that came out of a DK.. I can send it to you for $15 shipped

You sure that's original? My dk Jr. has a nice "silver" one. My D2k has an under counter light but I swear, the plug looks like an original Dk plug so maybe they were also chrome/silver.