Should I power on games/boards to prolong their life?

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Should I power on games/boards to prolong their life?

No doubt this has been covered before but I searched and could not find a thread.

What I want to know is the best way to maximize the life of my games, their boards, capacitors, circuits and monitors.

Being an electronics noob (but learning) I have pondered is it better to power on games and leave them on for awhile every now and then? will this keep the capacitors in better condition? how often and for how long should I power them up? what components (if any) are effected by long unpowered storage?

I want to make a schedule to power games up to maximize their life as I have just installed a JROK board in my Defender and I don't want to leave the original boards sitting un powered for too long if that is bad for them. Also I'm so busy with this game and a Pinbot pinball I recently bought that my Asteroids cab has been neglected, I'm thinking I need a power on schedule for that also maybe?
 
I don't think you're going to get a definitive answer on this one, but at least from the stand point of monitors, they'll last longer off since you can't get burn-in on an unpowered tube.
 
Biggest stress on electronics is the power on moment. Electrolytic caps deteriorate with age irregardless of operating state, monitors basically have an on-time based life. If you want to safely store a game, protect it from dirt and moisture that may cause corrosion. That said, a controlled temperature environment is the best possible situation. I keep mine on X10 modules which keep them essentially unplugged when not in use. A power strip or wall switch is basically the same. If your storing boards, keep them safe from physical damage and static.

My best advice for what it's worth.
 
I've heard that caps deteriorate when left unpowered for a long time but I reckon it's a load of crap. Surely actually using them would make them wear out faster.
 
The correct answer is going to depend on your storage environment but personally I like to power them up on occasion if for nothing else than to make sure they still work! There are different theories about chips absorbing moisture and powering them on to keep them dried out.

Based on my own experience, I've had plenty of working games that didn't work after sitting for 4 or 5 years in a dry garage, Galaga and Star Wars being the most recent. Would it have made a difference if I'd powered them on every few months? Hard to say but I know what doesn't work- leaving them powered off for years!
 
I've heard that caps deteriorate when left unpowered for a long time but I reckon it's a load of crap. Surely actually using them would make them wear out faster.

Better research that one. New lytics can go bad and vent sitting on the shelf unused. I've seen it countless times. They last longer when used regularly and not exposed to heat....it keeps the oxide layer formed.
 
I've heard that caps deteriorate when left unpowered for a long time but I reckon it's a load of crap. Surely actually using them would make them wear out faster.
It's not a load of crap but it's also not simple to explain. The way an electrolytic capacitor is constructed, it will degrade over time when unpowered (see here). There is a shelf life, beyond which you would need a special process to meet the original ratings. In my opinion this is a minimal problem but it is true.

Also depends what you mean by using. Circuits where the voltage is constantly switching can be rough. Circuits where it's acting as bulk capacitance are no big deal.
 
ive wondered the same thing....

someone told me to play your pins 1 time a week no matter what to keep the switches clean???
how about that 1??? anyone school us on that 1?

im sure this will be a long thread ;)

helpers are always appreciated...

all i do know (as i was told) to put foil around the pcbs to prevent static even if they are in a bag??? but especially if not... is that also correct????
 
They need to be stored in an anti-static bag, not just any bag. It's hard to find bags that large however. Be careful with bags, if it's not metal lined or doesn't say it's an anti-static bag, then it's not and you'll do more harm pulling it in and out.

Tin foil just bugs me, it's not right. Someone has probably done the research on this, I should Google it.
 
ive wondered the same thing....

someone told me to play your pins 1 time a week no matter what to keep the switches clean???
how about that 1??? anyone school us on that 1?

EM pins must be played regularly otherwise the 5,000 switch contacts will oxidize, and you will be there with a matchbook cleaning them. ( if its a multiplayer game, play the max number of players the EM can handle)
 
ive wondered the same thing....

someone told me to play your pins 1 time a week no matter what to keep the switches clean???
how about that 1??? anyone school us on that 1?

Yes this is true. Playing them, even a little bit will help, the little "spark" (you don't always get a spark, but electricity is still flowing) keeps the contacts on the switches from "oxidizing". If they get too oxidized, they won't let electricity flow, and things stop working. This is a much bigger problem on EM pinballs where you have a bazillion switches, but SS machines will still suffer from it.
 
Plenty of good information here now thanks everyone.

I think my best strategies would be to power on all my games every few months and play. I should be doing this anyway to appreciate them.

Remember to NEVER power on and off to reset a crap start as this is unnecessary stress. I knew not to do that quickly, but didn't think about every power on being stress, so occasionally I did it with a 2 second pause.

Always remember to turn games off when not being played to maximize monitor life. Most of my games have good attract modes that are unlikely to cause burn, so sometimes I would leave them on awhile. Need to decide if turning them off for 30min while I eat then back on again is worth doing or just causing another restart stress. That might be getting a little pedantic ;)
 
Yeah, I wouldn't worry about a half hour type thing, obviously you want to minimize wear and tear, but a monitor is going to burn in no matter what, it will take longer the less time it spends on, but the little amount of time our games spend on anyways, its going to take a LONG time to really get anything to complain about.
 
I suspect that these things are like a car, the worst thing to do with them is to leave them set. The caps do like it better when they are working once in awhile. I have a few old ham radios that I turn on once a month and they work fine. One radio I forgot about and after 1 year or maybe two, I powered up and snap pow.
 
game life

im the owner of retrocade amusements and i have discovered theres a push pull issue ,ive found that running the games makes them last longer,ive also found running them craps out the capacitors.So what we do when we get a already working game is recap the machine 100 percent and then run it one day for an hour the next 3 the next 5 the next 7 then 10 then 24 hours to insure its stability works really well, ive only had one failure in this process with my xenon.
 
Well from first hand experience, I have 20 some odd games in my basement arcade. Life has been busy so I haven't had them on much lately. (some been as long as 6 months) I decided to do a really good New Years cleaning and turned them all on. Here is where I am at

1) Food Fight PS failed
2) The Simpsons, bad ROM chip
3) Q*Bert garbled graphics
4) Ms Pac-Man, text is all reversed and controls are backwards.
5) Star-Wars, the pot for the yoke needs de-oxing or replacing.

Non-Game related my Corona parrot neon Beer sign took awhile to come on LOL
The Pioneer SX-1250 stereo needs the volume de-ox'd.
And the Pioneer Laserdisc player is not flipping sides.
(Yea my basement is like walking back to the 80's)

The Q*bert graphics cleared up after running for awhile.
I am impressed all the vector monitors are working good.
 
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