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I have a Bluebird Video Slot and the small glass on the door does not light up. It did when I first got the machine but it started to only work sometimes and then eventually it quit all together. I figured it needed a bulb so I put in a new one but that did not help. I then traced the wires back to the ballast and then from the ballast back to the 110volt source. The 110 volts comes from a distribution unit on the bottom against the back wall. It has 3 110volt computer type outlets on it plus several white molex type connectors. 1 of the computer connectors is switched and 
appears to go to a computer style power supply on the bottom under the BV box. The other 2 outlets are live all the time. The White Molex connectors has 1 connector that is live all the time and appears to go up to the Top Box and Power the Top Glass. The rest of the connectors are switched and one of these appears to power the front light. The problem is all of the switched outlets on this distribution unit appear to have the White Wire ABOVE GROUND potential. If I take my meter and measure the voltage from the chassis ground to the black wire on any of the switched outlets I measure 60-70 volts and if I measure from Chassis Ground to the white wire Im getting 40-50 volts. If I measure from black to white I get 120-125 volts. The Computer style power supply doesn't seem to care but the front light wont run like this. The unswitched outlets
seem to measure fine. The white and green are both at ground and the black is 120 volts. Any ideas where the problem is ???
All the power seems to come from a unit in the bottom right rear corner of the cabinet. I suspect this is where the problem is.

Captain Hook

Bump

This isn't my category, but it's generally bad netiquette to bump a thread that's less than 24 hours old, and it's really unnecessary when it was already the most recent thread in the category.   :71-

Not many of us have Bluebirds to tinker with, so it may take a day or two before someone who has one has the opportunity to see this thread and hopefully help you with the issue you're experiencing with the light on the front door.  :89-

Presently w/power on while checking with a multimeter...how many volts go to the lamps' socket
and what should be the rating of the lamp that goes in there?
Has this socket worked before
and are there any shorts in the wiring harness?
Maybe it's just a bad socket contact?

I already explained this.
Read message #1

Captain Hook

Oh...I thought you were talking about behind the ballasts.
I was suggesting that you check the lamps' socket.
Have you swapped ballasts and power supplies with known good components?
Maybe yours is junk?

Everything there seems fine. The switched outlets are screwey. There are 3 power wires coming out of the ballasts. The green is at ground potential the white is ABOVE GROUND by 40-50 volts and the black is above ground by 60-70 volts.

I would think that the ground and neutral would be the same.

It seems the white has lost its ground and its getting voltage coming back through something else.

Captain Hook

Well after some more investigation I have decided that the ballast has to be bad. The machine

has 4 ballast's in it now and 3 are the same and 1 is different. Unfortunately the odd one is the one thats bad.

The front door light is only 6 watts and the top box light is 15 watts. All the ballast's have a Black-White-Green

primary wires. The (3) 15 Watts one's have (2) Reds & (2) Blues on the Secondary but the (1) 6 Watt Ballast

has (1)-Red (1)-Blue  (1)-Yellow & (1) Black Wire.

Where can I get one???

Thanks again

Captain Hook

I'd get on the horn and try phoning all the NLG vendors listed up on top of the homepage.
                                                             
                                           or/and


Place a WTB ad for your wants in the "Classifieds" section of NLG.

I was able to plug into an Unused Ballast in the machine and I got the light working.

Thanks for all the help.

You can close out this thread.

Captain Hook