Power Drift - Does it require a cabinet fan?

bbhq

New member
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Derby, United Kingdom
Hi, hoping I might get some advice on this.

I recently bought an upright Power Drift - works great - previous owner thought the monitor needed capping but turned out it was nothing that couldn't be sorted with the monitor pots so I got lucky there. Anyway, it has a 240volt (its a UK machine) fan bolted to the inside of the cabinet (it doesn't actually have a hole in the side, so its just circulating the air in the cab) which blows air over the game PCB's, which sit on a shelf in the cabinet.

This fan is (was) incredibly noisey - and really annoying. I say was, because when I was working on the machine the other night I wired it up incorrectly and killed it (thats what you get for working on these things when tired... Earth wire is NOT brown - doh!) But now its an absolute pleasure to run the cab without the fan - and the noise that thing was making.

So my question for anyone else with a Power Drift, do you run your cab with/without a fan blowing air over the PCB? Does it really need it? The obvious answer is that it wouldn't have one if it didn't need it, but after half an hour or so of playing (which is about as long as its ever on for) the cpus/chips on the top layer of the PCB don't even get warm to the touch (can't really tell about the bottom layer). Furthermore the only other picture of the internals on a Powerdrift that I managd to find, whilst difficult to make out didn't look like it had a fan - making me wonder if all machines even had them - and whether its needed.

Any advice/experiences from fellow Power Drift owners would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
 
Well probably at least partly answering my own question here. Found a better copy of the manual and it looks from the parts list like PowerDrift should have a fan.

However it also looks like the PCB's should be in a rather solid and poorly ventilated cage which the fan blows over. For whatever reasons my cab doesn't have a cage - not sure what the downsides of that are, but I think its safe to assume my PCB's are a lot better ventilated as a result.

Still not sure whether to try and get a replacement fan (and noise), leave it as is, or since I don't have the cage blocking the airflow rig up something lower voltage/noise (like a PC fan). Obivously don't want to kill my boards, but if they're cool anyway does it matter? Will heat only cause instability?

Would still be great to get an opinion from someone else (particularly any powerdrift owners out there) who have encountered the noise & fan vs silence & no fan dilemma and their thoughts.

Thanks
 
I have a UK PD upright and it sure has the fan. I don't really mind it though. If you hear the fan, you simply didn't crank up the sound volume enough ;)

Seriously, did you also check the RAMs ? These are at risk when becoming too hot.
The fan sound isn't really bothering me too much (compared to the steering shaker noise it's nothing....

I've never even opened my PD (it works great) yet but I'm pretty sure my stuff is in the cage still. I wouldn't take any risks with these old electronics. Try to find a more silent fan I'd say.

And no heat will not only cause instability. Heat can destroy parts over time (decrease it's life-span) and I personally would want to keep it working as much as possible.

Maybe the pics you saw were from a sit-down version ?
 
Thanks for getting back to me. Think you've just confirmed what the nagging in my head is telling me - fix the fan. Maybe after 22years its time for a new one anyway - I'm sure it shouldn't have been making as much noise as it was - I think my leaf blower is quieter, sure didn't sound like 45db to me...

Will pick up a replacement this weekend. Hoping its just the fan (or a fuse) and nothing more complicated to fix - compared to my nice and easy to follow/maintain MK4 & NBA Showtime cabs the electrics in my Power Drift scare the hell out of me :)
 
Back
Top Bottom