To Touch, or Not to Touch? That is the Question...

PhoenixStar

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To Touch, or Not to Touch? That is the Question...

I consider myself more of an arcade player than I do a repair techie. Of course when you own 8 games in good working order, your luck will run out eventually, and you'll be forced to fix something.
Anyways, I have always been terrified of being a victim of a monitor zap. I was hoping someone could take the time to take an actual picture of the rear of a monitor, and with photoshop clearly label arrows pointing to what's ok to touch while monitor is on/off, what's risky to touch or has potential to zap on/off (via bad ground etc), and definitely do not touch while monitor is on/off. This of course assuming the monitor has not been discharged.
Everytime I acquire a game, I give it a good scrub, lightly vacuum the monitor and it's components on the rear with a plastic hose & brush, and every time I hold my breath and count my chickens.
Also, to settle the story, I was told a monitor cant kill you if you get zapped, because even though it's a painful voltage shock, the amps are not high enough to kill. Is this true, even when the monitor is powered on?
Hopefully this thread could help monitor newbies like myself from being fried. Thanks.
 
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If your monitor works and is on, you can touch pots if they are easy to reach. Otherwise, invest in a long plastic screwdriver. Other than that, get more repair experience before touching anything else with it on.

If your monitor works and is off, you can touch anything but the anode cup until you discharge the tube.

If your monitor doesn't work, there are some chassis models that can bite you even when off - like the big filter cap on a G07 (which will hurt more than if you forget to discharge the tube)...
 
Btw - I've been zapped by a bad flyback when on - 20000+ volts - and haven't died (yet). But it DID hurt!

BUT - if you have a heart condition (even undiagnosed), it COULD be possible to cause a problem that may result in death...
 
If your monitor works and is on, you can touch pots if they are easy to reach. Otherwise, invest in a long plastic screwdriver. Other than that, get more repair experience before touching anything else with it on.

If your monitor works and is off, you can touch anything but the anode cup until you discharge the tube.

If your monitor doesn't work, there are some chassis models that can bite you even when off - like the big filter cap on a G07 (which will hurt more than if you forget to discharge the tube)...

I had to resurrect this thread. I just saw another thread in the feedback section where a member had a monitor fall out of the cabinet because it wasnt screwed in. It probably wouldve happened to me to because I wouldnt have put my fingers anywhere near the monitor out of fear of being zapped, therefore I wouldnt have checked for something like that.

Which leads me to ask a follow up.....

1) If the monitor is on, is everything off limits, could pots be improperly grounded, or close enough to the pot connection where a spark could arc to your fingers?

2) If the monitor is off, can you touch anything whether the game is plugged in or not (minus the anode cup)? Does the anode cup backfeed any voltage posing a shock risk to any other component?
 
What it comes down to is two things

1. You're going to get the shit shocked out of you anyways. I do about 3 times a week.

2. It's not going to kill you.

Once you understand those two things, it changes the way you work on them :)

A spark could ark to your fingers from anywhere, but lightning could also hit you.
 
Also, to settle the story, I was told a monitor cant kill you if you get zapped, because even though it's a painful voltage shock, the amps are not high enough to kill. Is this true, even when the monitor is powered on?

It's not the Shock that will kill you, it's the shit you fly into when jumping back :eek: :D

It will definitely ruin your day and could cause physical damage. Whether that is permanent or not, depends on how bad the shock is.
 
Tube swapping presents challenges too. Newer ish tubes have a lot more punch it seems. I had a tube i pulled from a zenith, discharged it twice, and while moving it accidently rubbed the anode hole. It still had a shitload of charge. The tube was a loss.
 
The most dangerous part of a yoke is where the wires are actually connected to the metal tabs at the top. That's actually the only place that the wires aren't shielded... you can grab the plastic or rubber parts of the yoke and not get shocked, and you can also grab the exposed wires, although I never do just for safety's sake... the wires are shielded (if they weren't, they'd just short to each other, notice there's hundreds of winds laying on top of each other), but if something was nicked a little or something you could get shocked.

Main thing with that is, like mentioned above, if you get shocked by the yoke, you're going to instinctively pull your hand back really fast, and probably break the neck of the tube when you hit the neckboard. Just touching the plastic or rubber parts though you should be fine. Yokes don't arc or anything.

As for what it feels like to get zapped, it basically feels like it does when you stick your finger in a wall socket, it's about the same.

I got shocked by a live 4600 flyback (touched the bottom of it... whoops) that was turned on, that was the worst I ever felt, actually made my arm hurt.
 
That was my biggest fear diving into repairs as well.

I had virtually no knowledge of electronics what-so-ever, but arcades are just so friggin' awesome it has inspired me to learn :D

I just got my first ZAP tonight from that big G07 cap mentioned earlier....YOWZA!
 
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