Pinball is shocking me

Fatality83

Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2011
Messages
854
Reaction score
24
Location
manchester, Pennsylvania
I noticed that when I touch my one pinball with bare skin and touch my other pinball with bare skin, that I get a slight jolt. I unplugged the one pinball and touched them both again and still got the shock, so I narrowed it down to my Baywatch pinball by sega. Any ideas what may cause this? It is not a good jolt, just barely enough to feel it.
 
Not sure about pinball machines, but check your 120V grounds. A floating ground can cause that in computers.
 
Check all grounding straps inside cabinet and make sure all connect to the main ground.
 
First thing to check is: does the AC line cord you plug into the outlet still have it's ground pin? Very often these broke off or were deliberately clipped off in the field when there were only 2-prong outlets available.

Where do you touch it that shock you?

Lockdown Bar? Legs? Coin Door? All of them?

That will help narrow down where the break(s) in the grounding is/are.

RussMyers
 
I'm going to guess you have a grounding problem too... as others have pointed out it is pretty common for a game to be missing it's ground prong. Even if all the grounds in the pin are connected together, it doesn't mean that much if they're not actually grounded!

Something interesting to try would be to use your meter and see how much voltage you have on the ground. Measure between the two pins and see what you get.

-Ian
 
Check all grounding straps inside cabinet and make sure all connect to the main ground.

All of them appear to be hooked up correctly.

"Where do you touch it that shock you?"

So far it seems like when I squeeze in between them I get shocked. I am touching the top side of the metal that holds the playfield glass in place.

I looked at the power cord. There only two prongs sticking out. The center round pin in missing and it is just a hole there.
 
All of them appear to be hooked up correctly.

"Where do you touch it that shock you?"

So far it seems like when I squeeze in between them I get shocked. I am touching the top side of the metal that holds the playfield glass in place.

I looked at the power cord. There only two prongs sticking out. The center round pin in missing and it is just a hole there.

You need to replace the cord end....the round pin is your ground pin.
 
All of them appear to be hooked up correctly.

I looked at the power cord. There only two prongs sticking out. The center round pin in missing and it is just a hole there.

These two statements are mutually exclusive. Fix the ground pin and test it with a meter.
 
I remember playing a few pinballs BITD and sometimes getting a shock off the side rails too.
 
You need to replace the cord end....the round pin is your ground pin.

Ok I will try and find information on how to replace the cord end. The cord appears to be in good shape so I will just cut the end off like you said.

"These two statements are mutually exclusive. Fix the ground pin and test it with a meter."

Can you please exlain to me how I can do this with the multi meter? Put one probe on the round pin and one on the other and turn the meter to A/C?
 
I remember playing a few pinballs BITD and sometimes getting a shock off the side rails too.

When I am only touching the BW game I am fine, it's just once I touch the BW and the game next to it which has metal side rails, I get a small shock. At first I thought, it was just the surface of the side rails was sharp or rugged and jabbing my skin. Than I got a little larger jolt but nothing crazy.
 
Ok I will try and find information on how to replace the cord end. The cord appears to be in good shape so I will just cut the end off like you said.
If the plug is missing the ground pin, then it's not really in good shape, is it? :)

Just cut the plug off and replace it. You can buy replacement plugs at the hardware store for a few bucks. All you need are scissors and a screwdriver. It's very simple. The black wire is hot, and goes to the brass screw in the plug, the neutral is white and goes to the silver screw, and the green wire is ground, and goes to the ground prong.


Can you please exlain to me how I can do this with the multi meter? Put one probe on the round pin and one on the other and turn the meter to A/C?

Fix the plug, then check continuity between the ground pin and the metal in the cabinet. It should all be grounded.

-Ian
 
When I am only touching the BW game I am fine, it's just once I touch the BW and the game next to it which has metal side rails, I get a small shock.

It's a relatively small potential difference so when you're standing there in shoes it can't ground itself. When you touch the other machine with bare skin it gets a ground path and uses it.

The tiny shock isn't a big hazard. But it is warning you that if you had a major short circuit, YOU would be the path to ground. Not good.
 
I looked at the power cord. There only two prongs sticking out. The center round pin in missing and it is just a hole there.

Lol, well that's probably your problem right there. Go to the electrical aisle at Lowes, home depot etc.. they sell plug ends that split open to allow connecting of cord wire. Install it.

I wouldn't even mess with a meter at this point. Replace the plug, if you no longer get shocked, problem solved.

When wiring up the new plug, green is ground, black is hot, white is neutral. Plug connections might even be color coded for you.
 
Thanks guys I will replace the plug end and see if that fixes it. It is more annoying than anything as I have been working alot on it lately and I have to squeeze into my pins to work on it and every time bare skins touches it I get a little jolt. I got a nice jolt on the lip the other day when my lip came in contact with the side rail, it was enough to make me jerk my head away. No I was not kissing it lol. You know the precarious positions you have to get into sometimes to reach things. I will replace the plug and report back if that fixes it or not. I will also check continuity using a meter once I replace the end. Don't see why people cut these ground prongs off. If I was an operator I would keep a collection of those 3 prong to 2 prong converters in my tool box. At least than the prong still stays there. Out of all my games, 5 so far, this is the first one that didn't have a ground prong.
 
Yep, missing ground pin on your plug = no where for ground to go inside your cab. You need to replace the line plug.

Also, you should test the outlet that you're using to make sure it's ACTUALLY grounded. I've found that in older homes, several outlets get changed to 3-prong, but the ground is never hooked up to anything.
 
Yep, missing ground pin on your plug = no where for ground to go inside your cab. You need to replace the line plug.

Also, you should test the outlet that you're using to make sure it's ACTUALLY grounded. I've found that in older homes, several outlets get changed to 3-prong, but the ground is never hooked up to anything.

That's a good thing to test. How can I test the outlet to see if it's grounded? I have a DMM.

Also do you think the lack of a ground prong would cause a low hum in the speakers while it's on? This was something else I wanted to check out.
 
That's a good thing to test. How can I test the outlet to see if it's grounded? I have a DMM.

Also do you think the lack of a ground prong would cause a low hum in the speakers while it's on? This was something else I wanted to check out.

A brand new 3-prong plug end will cost about 3 or 4 bucks at a hardware store. Takes about 10-15 min to cut the old one off, thread the housing (take the new plug end apart first) over the power cable, peel back the insulation, strip about an inch of insulation off all three wires, screw each wire down to the correct connection - Black to Brass, White to Silver, Green to Green, then push the cover back on and you're done (probably).

While you are at the hardware store, buy a wall socket tester - looks like a 3-prong plug with some Test LEDs embedded in the end. Costs about 5 bucks. Stick it in a wall socket and the lights tell you if it's wired and grounded correctly. Easy as pie.

RussMyers
 
Back
Top Bottom