Rolling on the floor in agony: Your experiences being shocked.

da66en

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Rolling on the floor in agony: Your experiences being shocked.

I am a newbie to arcade cabinet ownership, and haven't worked on my chassis/monitor yet. One thing I have heard is that if you work on chassis/monitors enough then you will get shocked.

So, what are your experiences getting shocked?

While a newbie to arcade cabinet ownership, I do have some electronics experience. The closest I have to a serious shock was when I was reading line ac voltage using a DMM, and the terminal slipped and shorted line to neutral - a buzzing sound, a big flash, a pretty big scare, and blew out the tip of the DMM.
 
Always keep a bag of microwave pop corn in your pocket just in case so when you wake up from being shock you have something to eat. Smiles.

Being shocked is never pleasant. Always wear shoes, long selves ( No metal buttons ) and Long pants when working on anything high voltage.

My personal experience has been buzzing, pain and bit of numbness after the fact. The numbness did go away in about 15 minutes.

My friend has serious electrical burns in one arm due to being around one of those huge step down transformer that was sitting on the ground. He was a kid when that happen. His Left hand open and closes by the muscle they took from his leg. Lots of skin grafts on that arm.
 
I think the first time it happened I got a little numbness in my hand for a few minutes. One time I got a bite mark like toasted skin (not bad at all really, pinhead sized).

These days I usually just keep going like nothing happened.

But all my shocks were from G07s which AFAIK is about as mild as it gets. And these days due to my job I've been hit with high amp 220VAC a few times which is worse IMO. Haven't been hit with 3-phase yet, but I'm guessing when I do there is a high chance my collection will be up for sale soon after. X_X
 
My old neon Coors sign just about knocked me on my butt once! Left a small burn spot on my finger too!
 
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Just wear a jump suit with stainless steel threads weaved into the garment, and you'll never be shocked again ;).

Never been shocked throughout my arcade repairs *knock on wood*

Edit: I have been shocked quite a few times on other stuff though... worst I had was from a disposable camera... that bastard hurt and made my forearm numb for a few minutes.
 
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If you're careful, and know what you are doing, you won't get shocked.

So many people go to overkill lengths, like taping a long PVC pipe to a screwdriver to discharge a monitor, or wearing rubber gloves...

Basic safety and common sense is all you need. You don't need a long sleeve shirt, but you should probably be wearing shoes. Pants are a good idea, but not because of HV. It's because falling solder splashes hurt.

Discharge picture tubes before disconnecting the anode. Discharge large capacitors before working on stuff. Unplug things before working on them wherever possible. When working on a live chassis, pay attention. All common sense stuff. Get in the habit of being careful. It's easy to get going and forget to do something.

I've been bitten a few times over the years. Honestly, when it comes to the HV present in a monitor, the danger of jerking your hand away and hitting something sharp is probably greater than anything else. Yeah, it hurts, but it's not enough to kill you. There was that ONE time I forgot to discharge a monitor and went to unhook it, zapped me pretty good. Enough to make my arm feel weird for a half hour. No burns or anything, just some mild cursing.

I've been shocked by *other* things too, like the time a guy at a previous job miswired a 240v/50A circuit so the housing of the equipment was live, or when working on 120v power wiring and some idiot turned the breaker back on (lock out tag out is there for a reason. Too bad that place didn't have locks. Duct tape and signs aren't good enough for some morons). I think the most painful shock I ever got was when I was doing some work on the telephone wiring, and was crimping some wires together with an uninsulated metal tool, and the phone rang. The ring voltage is only like 48v, but it's a low frequency, and it really does something to your muscles. That hurt a hell of a lot worse than getting zapped by a charged picture tube.

Pay attention. Understand what you are doing, and what kind of voltages you are working with. But don't be deathly afraid of it. Just respect it, and don't lick it.

-Ian
 
It hasn't killed any of us yet.

Being aware of the shock hazard is the main thing. Don't work on energized circuits unless you have to. Be careful making adjustments to powered equipment, especially if you have fat, apelike hands.

K
 
Just like with anything, you need to think. I work on cars and of course I would never jack a car up on soft ground or gravel, but people do and get hurt. Never get under them without a jack stand, but people do that too!

I work on 50,000 lb military vehicles for work. Safety first, the metal on these trucks has no idea you are a fragile human being. Metal always wins!

In my case I got shocked by my neon sign decades ago and it was my own dumb fault! You learn quickly after that!
 
First time I pulled a go-7 with a blown fuse I kept getting zapped but I wouldn't drop it. I couldn't get. It to my bench fast enough!!!!!!!lol
 
So, what are your experiences getting shocked?

My experiences have varied from a little tingle, to a pinpoint burn and a jolt that really pissed me off. Nothing ever made me roll on the floor in agony. I'll take a bit of electrical shock in lieu of a kidney stone any day.

Monitors (like guns) aren't to be feared. Educate yourself, use common sense, use proper equipment, be careful, and you'll be fine.
 
a guy at a previous job miswired a 240v/50A circuit so the housing of the equipment was live

Someone did that to a light fixture in the shop area here at work. Saw a coworker on a scissors lift drop down to his knees and a guy at the bottom lower him down. That sucks.

or when working on 120v power wiring and some idiot turned the breaker back on
I was wiring a check fixture, hooking the 120v in to the 24v power supply. An idiot took the bare cable frum the other side, put a plug on it, and thought he should plug it in to test it, without saying anything to those of us working on it. I got a pretty good hit from that one as i was holding the wire in my hand as i was unscrewing the terminals on the power supply. Needless to say, he no longer works here.


Yup shocks arnt fun. Im just glad that I havnt been hit by anything real high amperage. Ive worked on 600v industrial circuits and such, but have always insisted on good lockouts (even if i had to take the fuse from the panel and walk away with it). Still lucky enough to have never been popped by a monitor though :)
 
I think the most painful shock I ever got was when I was doing some work on the telephone wiring, and was crimping some wires together with an uninsulated metal tool, and the phone rang. The ring voltage is only like 48v, but it's a low frequency, and it really does something to your muscles. That hurt a hell of a lot worse than getting zapped by a charged picture tube.

Heh, that's like the phone practical jokes people play, only this time it was true ;)
 
A friend of mine's grandfather worked on dynamos back before any worker-safety laws (when they still called generators "dynamos"). One time he was doing maintenance on a running system (I kid you not), and had the sucker arc through his arm. His arm was bent, and it exited through his elbow. It actually took a small piece of his elbow bone with it. :eek: But he lived to do more work on running industrial generators. (As he said, during the Great Depression you did whatever you were ordered to do.)

Compared to that, monitors are nothing.... :p


(Oh, and when I say maintenance, iirc, he was repacking bearings or something equally ludicrous for a running machine.)
 
I think the most painful shock I ever got was when I was doing some work on the telephone wiring, and was crimping some wires together with an uninsulated metal tool, and the phone rang. The ring voltage is only like 48v, but it's a low frequency, and it really does something to your muscles. That hurt a hell of a lot worse than getting zapped by a charged picture tube.

Ring voltage sucks! I've just had it hit a finger, and that's bad enough. Bleh!
 
I remember when I was a young boy, I would unwrap a wire hanger and stick it in the electrical socket. I found that sticking it in one side did nothing, sticking it in the other side would get you a jolt, but you could still pull it out, and sticking it in both sides would flip the breaker in the kitchen.

No joke.
 
If the monitor is unplugged then the shock is not going to do you any harm, it will hurt and it may scare the crap out of you but biggest risks are secondary, i.e.if you are carrying the tube when it bites you and you end up dropping it, or you yank your hand out in fright and catch it on the chassis. Blood and PCBs are not a good mix.
 
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I've been shocked a few times... all of them eye opening to say the least.

One non-arcade related was when I was installing a new light fixture in the basement of our home a couple months after we moved in. I found the circuit that cut the power to that line and flipped it off. What I didn't realize is that whomever did some electrical work in the basement to add some lights prior to us moving in decided to run the positive lines from another circuit and bridge them with the positive line on the circuit I had turned off. So even though the light didn't work because the line running through the switch was turned off there was still juice running in that junction box because of this other circuit still being flipped on. Got a bit of a jolt from taht one but it was more of the humming in my head kind of reaction than anything else. Everything just seemed kinda muted for the next hour or so.

I've also taken a couple shots from monitors. One while reaching around back to adjust a color pot but not paying attention to where I was reaching. That hurt. The other was on a 27" monitor I had discharged (a couple times) and pulled from a game to recap. It was on it's side and my leg brushed against the anode hole while I walked past it and whatever lingering charge was in there left my leg tingling for awhile.

Each time something like that happens it just reminds me that I really need to go slower, be more careful and not let that happen again. Don't want to kill myself doing something stupid and obviously preventable.
 
Shame that the guys who didn't survive won't post here ;)

Seriously....I've heard a story form my uncle who had seen the scene where two guys had done something VERY wrong with REALLY high power. (Talking 10's of kV's here with HUGE amperage).

There was nothing left of them except some small pools where they had made their last steps....and their cloths and bones...

What happens is that every cell in your body starts cooking VERY quickly and explode. Thus all the water comes out....

So far the happy story :) This sort of thing can't happen with HV from a tube and not even from a regular 110V or 230V power line.

That is not to say it can't hurt or be lethal (the mains voltage).

My worst one was touching the life and neutral wire under power with my thumb, the "contacts' being about 1 cm. apart. Because I touched both at the same time, the earth-leak protection didn't kick in (after all the current was going in AND out through my thumb).
It was pretty hard to release it. I had two black spots on my thumb for weeks and it hurt like a burn wound for days.

Touching the life wire only (if you have no earth-leak protection) is not much fun either. It feels like a "heavy" shock, you can _feel_ the power and even the frequency.
Although 110V is a lower voltage than 230V, the higher frequency (60 vs. 50 Hz.) compensates that for sure...

HV was not so long ago, tried measuring it using an old meter with HV probe...turned out it wasn't a good idea. It bit me. The effect is definitely different from mains shocks.
It's more "tingly" and seems to "search" the outer skin of your body. Not nice to feel either, but I "prefer" it over mains shocks, because there is no REAL power behind a monitor HV. The voltage is high, but there is no power to push a large current.
Mains current has lots of power behind it...

My uncle has been repairing TV's for most part of his life and got bitten often. He still is a very healthy guy :)
 
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