made some progress on the Coke machine tonight.

vintagegamer

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Tonight after my wife got home from her job, I was able to maneuver our recently-acquired Coke machine into its location in the Garcade.

I got the thing powered back up the other night, but none of the lights were working. I used my multimeter and wasn't getting any readings at all.

This week I've been trying to interpret schematics and learn the differences between these machines and arcade cabs, and then suddenly it hit me: all the recent work I've been doing that involved my multimeter was in DC current.. So, out of habit, I had my multimeter set to DC. For the top light alone on the Coke machine, it's AC!!! I flipped the multimeter over to AC and VOILA, a beautiful reading of 124 volts pops up on the wire going to the fluorescent assy in the top!

I'd already replaced the starter in it earlier in the week so, once again on the AC setting, I touched the inside of the fluorescent assy where the bulb hooks in and.. VOLTAGE YET AGAIN! SONOFABITCH! I hauled ass up to Home Depot and picked up a bulb, came home and popped it in and... after a brief humming noise, the COCA COLA light on the top was once again lit and ready to start serving its patrons!

I need now to troubleshoot the bulbs that light up the beverage selectors, but now I'm wondering again if those too are AC and not DC. Either way, it was a good night in the Garcade!
 
Tonight after my wife got home from her job, I was able to maneuver our recently-acquired Coke machine into its location in the Garcade.

I got the thing powered back up the other night, but none of the lights were working. I used my multimeter and wasn't getting any readings at all.

This week I've been trying to interpret schematics and learn the differences between these machines and arcade cabs, and then suddenly it hit me: all the recent work I've been doing that involved my multimeter was in DC current.. So, out of habit, I had my multimeter set to DC. For the top light alone on the Coke machine, it's AC!!! I flipped the multimeter over to AC and VOILA, a beautiful reading of 124 volts pops up on the wire going to the fluorescent assy in the top!

I'd already replaced the starter in it earlier in the week so, once again on the AC setting, I touched the inside of the fluorescent assy where the bulb hooks in and.. VOLTAGE YET AGAIN! SONOFABITCH! I hauled ass up to Home Depot and picked up a bulb, came home and popped it in and... after a brief humming noise, the COCA COLA light on the top was once again lit and ready to start serving its patrons!

I need now to troubleshoot the bulbs that light up the beverage selectors, but now I'm wondering again if those too are AC and not DC. Either way, it was a good night in the Garcade!

I alway enjoy reading your posts but you need some pics, let's see this Coca Cola machine.
 
Thanks Braido. I will repost the original image from when the unit came home, but I didn't get to take any pics last night. I will shoot some today.
 

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the bulbs that light up the selections only come on when the selection is sold out ,it should glow orange Ron

I wondered about that Ron, but it looked like there were more than 5 bulbs under the panel. I'll have to look again today.
 
Here she is in the dark! I also used some Novus on the scratches on the front of the panel and it did a great job of removing and/or hiding them!

This is a great project. I checked today and it's even getting cold inside. I'm hoping to get a thermometer from Walmart sometime to determine the true temp in there.
 

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