Reel glass light issue

[Yoeddy1]

Hey Guys,

Got a weird lighting issue.  Maybe it's simple, but I'll give you my troubleshooting steps.

The reel glass light flickered a bit and went out.  Game still plays fine.

First thought...change the bulb.  No dice.  Bulb works and was tested in top box.
Second thought...test another ballast.  Tested belly ballast and top box ballasts in reel glass ballast spot.  No dice. 
Third thought...test defective reel glass ballast in top box and belly.  No dice.  In fact, when the bad ballast is used in another location, the game won't start up...sorta flickers.

So the reel glass ballast is screwed...smells fried too.  However, a known working top box and belly ballast won't work in the reel glass location either.  What else could it be?

I also took off the reel glass light assembly and plugged it into the top box ballast.  Works fine.

Any help would be appreciated since I'm gonna need to order parts.

Again, the game is playing fine.

Thanks
Jason

[cowboygames]

First thing I'do is check the wiring feeding that fixture and use a meter to check the voltage on that part of the harness

[Yoeddy1]

Gotta pick up a new multimeter cowboy.  In the meantime, check out the photos below:

Photo 1 shows the cable that goes in from the wiring harness into the ballast.  It's got a small pcb on it.  None of the other ballast cables have this.  It needs to be there, but I'm wondering if that small component could have gone bad.  it disconnects from the cable connector per photo 2.

I'm assuming that the harness goes down to the door I/O pcb on the door.  This is the board that the VFD connects to and has two flickering green lights on it. 

Other than the ballast, the little pcb on the ballast connector, and the I/O board, is there anything else that you guys can think of?

I was hoping this would be just a ballast...no such luck..

Jason

[cowboygames]

I've had a couple of those on reel glass before, couldn't figure out why they were there so I threw them away. Then a while later I switched to LED lights and threw the ballasts away too...

[blueridgeslots]

Gotta pick up a new multimeter cowboy.  In the meantime, check out the photos below:

Photo 1 shows the cable that goes in from the wiring harness into the ballast.  It's got a small pcb on it.  None of the other ballast cables have this.  It needs to be there, but I'm wondering if that small component could have gone bad.  it disconnects from the cable connector per photo 2.

I'm assuming that the harness goes down to the door I/O pcb on the door.  This is the board that the VFD connects to and has two flickering green lights on it. 

Other than the ballast, the little pcb on the ballast connector, and the I/O board, is there anything else that you guys can think of?

I was hoping this would be just a ballast...no such luck..

Jason

It is a Fuse, it blew when your ballast shorted. Just remove it when you install a new Ballast or if your OCD requires you to have one then contact me, I carry them in my Van

[cowboygames]

Jim, why do they only fuse that particular light? Doesn't really look to be much of a drink spill risk

[Yoeddy1]

Gotta pick up a new multimeter cowboy.  In the meantime, check out the photos below:

Photo 1 shows the cable that goes in from the wiring harness into the ballast.  It's got a small pcb on it.  None of the other ballast cables have this.  It needs to be there, but I'm wondering if that small component could have gone bad.  it disconnects from the cable connector per photo 2.

I'm assuming that the harness goes down to the door I/O pcb on the door.  This is the board that the VFD connects to and has two flickering green lights on it.  

Other than the ballast, the little pcb on the ballast connector, and the I/O board, is there anything else that you guys can think of?

I was hoping this would be just a ballast...no such luck..

Jason

It is a Fuse, it blew when your ballast shorted. Just remove it when you install a new Ballast or if your OCD requires you to have one then contact me, I carry them in my Van

Just finished up...yep, that was it.  I cut all of the tape off of it to get to it, but I thought it would be easier to check that friggin thing before replacing an entire wire harness.  I'll shoot you a PM.

Thanks for the help gents!

Jason

[Yoeddy1]

Does that fuse protect something else in the line?  In other words, if the fuse is not connected and another ballast goes up in smoke later down the road, could another component in the machine get fried because the fuse wasn't there?

It must be there for some reason.

Jason

[Foster]

In a home environment I think you would be fine without it

My S2000 and a few others I have looked at does not have them
if the Ballast shorts the 25V to ground the Power Supply might go out but only if its short circuit /overload protection failed.