Smart strip or smart games?

jonathan1138

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Hi - something interesting i think. I replaced my radio shack, floor mounted Power strip for a Belken Smart strip today - its on remote control.... So, plug in all the games to this strip, one wall mounted remote to turn them all on. Cool. Better than the floor / dont trip radio shack model.

I have Paperboy, Star Wars, Tempest and Gauntlet running on the same power strip (while i was behind the games today putting in the powerstrip, i thought to myself this smells like Atari - it did smell like Atari - really).


When i first hooked it up and powered it on using the new strip - Paperboy had no sound, Tempest clicked more than it should and the screen was dim, Gauntlet 2 was without sound (then it came back) and the screen was flickering madly. Star wars help up nicely....

My guess was that all of the games were starved of power on the new strip. If this is the case, i am glad i have a LV2000 on the Tempest (protects vs. 5 volt drops) (Star wars is Amplifone).

I immediately pictured myself re routing for the old strip and ditching the new one. But, after a turn off / on, the games are operating ok.......

So, do the games adjust to the new power source (smart games) or does the strip adjust somehow (they do call it smart strip)? Or is it just a fluke incident?

Just an oddity that has me intrigued.....
 
When powering on multiple games at once the draw can drop line voltage temporarily. Since most games initialize during the initial seconds of applying power what you saw were games that did not initialize properly. I have seen this on Gottleib machines quite often.

If you continue to power on all games simultaneously you should expect these "hiccups" on occassion from your machines. This is why so many people use power strips that allow for powering on games individually.
 
I have probably the same Belkin strip and I have seen this twice. What I have done is leave a couple of them off, and turn them on manually. This helps alleviate the initial power draw just enough that I have not had any issues. It only takes a few extra seconds and there are always a couple games that have switches that are easily accessed.

ken
 
Seems to be a short term issue (games not getting power - switch off / on resolves it) - can that cause any longer term issue for the boards? Any damage potential for leaving it as is?
 
Just FYI,

My arcade is in my man cave, aka my garage space under my house. My house here in Charleston is up a level, on concrete stilts. I added a circuit to the area, and placed multiple outlets on switches, therefore we flip two wall switches and all the games and pins come on. It's basically wired directly to the circuit box, so I have had no low power issues. They all come on and boot up as they should. It took me a day of wiring, and maybe 100 bucks, but is safer and way easier to turn them all on, neater wires too. I had a video at the end of my Maverick pinball repair thread with the arcade and you can see the switches and outlets I added, just to give you an idea.
 
I have 5 Belkin conserves, the power strips with remote control. I wired the basement with 5 ~ 20 amp circuit breakers, so each Belkin conserve is coming from a separate circuit breaker. I have about 8 games on each Belkin conserve.

I have yet to have a power on issue where the games do not properly boot up. I have same games, with Paperboy, Star Wars and Tempest with many others. I'm thinking you just had some temporary hiccup, either that or it wasn't the Belkin but other devices, lights, etc already on your circuit breaker sucking some of that juice.
 
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