How much does room temperature affect PCBs?

It shouldn't really matter. I was playing my Video Trivia machine on my back porch for like an hour earlier today and it was 95 degrees out.

My house is really hot, currently at 84! Should I not turn on my games in this heat? Central air, soon, I hope.
 
I am a testament that heat and cold won't ruin these games (internally at least). I run my games in 40F all the way up to the 98F that it was today with no AC or heat. Now power supplies aren't perfect and can fluctuate a little bit that where if a game was on the edge it might not boot, but not enough to damage anything.
 
It gets quite hot in the local arcade that has around 50 machines. Doesn't seem to affect them a bit.



THe only real issue I see for really low temps is moisture/frost forming on the components.

My house is really hot, currently at 84! Should I not turn on my games in this heat? Central air, soon, I hope.
 
Low temps you have to worry about condensation frying parts. If your games are in the garage or something and it's winter time and really cold, you need to heat your arcade first. And by heating it up, I would heat it and get it to temp, the leave it at temp for a while. Long enough for any condensation on parts to evaporate. I have a bunch of games in my garage. I just don't play them in the winter.
 
It has been reported in several threads about playing games in the cold that tubes have been known to crack due to thermal expansion. The necks are a weak point and turning them on when it is very cold has been reported to cause neck failures.

I have not experienced this personally as it almost never gets that cold here in Houston.

I have had two monitors crack when the sun hit the faces of them early in the morning. I am presuming that they were still cool and the sun caused heating and uneven expansion. That really p*ssed me off. They were both really good touchscreen medium res monitors.

ken
 
I have a bunch of games in my garage. I just don't play them in the winter.

This is what I do as well. As soon as the temperature drops below 50 for the winter, the arcade is officially closed until spring.

Kind of sucks but makes it that much more fun once it warms back up :)
 
It has been reported in several threads about playing games in the cold that tubes have been known to crack due to thermal expansion. The necks are a weak point and turning them on when it is very cold has been reported to cause neck failures.

I have not experienced this personally as it almost never gets that cold here in Houston.

I have had two monitors crack when the sun hit the faces of them early in the morning. I am presuming that they were still cool and the sun caused heating and uneven expansion. That really p*ssed me off. They were both really good touchscreen medium res monitors.

ken

Hmm, I have never had a tube crack yet, and again I have some of the biggest extremes on temperatures with games on. I guess I can see the sun doing it with direct contact on a cool morning, but wow.
 
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