Help! Unsure of Wire Connections on Takao Spiderman 3

[JACKSJE4]

I received a call yesterday from a new Pachinko enthusiast in New York who recently bought a Takao Spiderman 3 machine. He says it works and plays fine, and he is really enjoying it, however he is noticing that while he is holding the shooter knob to shoot the balls up into the play field, he feels a slight tingling sensation in his hand and arm (over and above the joy and excitement of playing the game! ). It has him concerned. I fired up the only modern machine in my collection (Star Wars) and played it for a bit, but I didn't notice the feeling/sensation he was describing. Has anyone else felt a tingling feeling while holding the shooter knob on a modern machine?

He also says that there is a green wire on the back of the machine that isn't connected to anything, and he wasn't sure if it should be. He sent me the two pictures below, one of the green wire in question, and the other of a metal plate nearby that has another, but similar wire attached. I am not experienced enough in the modern machines to safely provide advice on such matters, so I thought it might be best to pose these questions to the PachiTalk community and see if there is anyone from here that would be willing to make contact with this new addict and help him make sure his machine is wired correctly and is safe to play. He doesn't have a computer or internet connection (other than on his smart phone), so that is why I am posting his questions for him.

Please shoot me a PM if you can spare some time to help this new enthusiast out, and I will put you in touch with him. He has several additional questions about the machine that he would love to pose to a Modern machine expert, but his priority is to make sure the machine is safe to use and find out where that green wire should connect to.

Thanks!

~Jeff

[Drunkenclam]

Sounds like he's being electrocuted. I'd make sure he hasn't connected the green wire(earth/ground)Or any of the green wires to the power supply. Apart from that. Not sure. Don't have that machine or frame. Will try to look later when on the computer and not smartphone

[Skydanz]

I have that green wire on some of my moderns and I believe it is to be connected to an external ground. I have noticed that my Spidey 3 shooter knob tingled as well. At first I thought it was supposed to do that and was actually kinda cool (spidey sense), but after connecting the green to ground, it stopped tingling. I vote no tingle in the interest of safety. Can anyone translate the little tag on the green wire?

[JACKSJE4]

Can anyone translate the little tag on the green wire?

Here is a bigger image:

Pachi1.jpg

[Drunkenclam]

it says アース

Ｅａｒｔｈ　

[JACKSJE4]

it says アース

Ｅａｒｔｈ　

(VERY) roughly translated, I would understand that to mean "ground".

Would anyone disagree?

[Skydanz]

earth=ground Finding an actual external ground is not as easy as it may sound. Just tapping into a piece of metal is not grounding something unless the metal is truly "grounded".
Option 1 is tap the ground plug of the household wiring. Not necessarily the safest thing to do if inexperienced with electrical or have small children around.
Option 2 is to make your own ground with a copper stake driven in the earth and run a wire to a bus bar. All machines can then be connected to this one point.
Option 3 (and maybe the easiest) is to run a wire to an existing grounded fixture or appliance and attaching to its metal frame.

[JACKSJE4]

Thanks for the ideas and assistance!! I forwarded the information you provided to the person and am waiting to hear his results. I will post back as soon as I know what the result is.

[daverob]

Same bloke has been in contact with me, and have offered him some advice directly via email/text message, but the time zone differences has made this quite a difficult conversation to carry out.

My advice for this is summarised below...

The green wire is used to ground/earth the top hopper of the pachinko machine (which is made of a slightly conductive plastic), this allows any static charge that may have built up on the balls while they have been in the parlours ball handling system to be dissipated. You don't need to connect it to anything, but if you have a three pin power plug and cord, you can connect it to the earth/ground wire.

As far as getting a tingle from touching the machine, this should not be possible as there is no direct power or earth connection to any parts of a pachinko machine. The 24V transformer should effectively isolate the entire machine from the power grid, so all electrical connections and wiring in the pachinko machine will be floating and won't be able to give a shock.

If the tingle, is just a quick shock when first touching the machine, then it's probably just a static build up on either the machine or yourself, and can be safely ignored. If you want to reduce this, then connect the green wire to a suitable ground point, check to see if your carpeting is causing static, and stop wearing your wife's frilly knickers.

If the tingle is continuous and doesn't go away after holding the shooter knob for a second or two, then it's potentially more serious and should be investigated further (if only to prove that it isn't a dangerous fault).

There are a couple of possible failures that could lead to a 'slight tingle' type shock. Firstly on the pachinko machine itself if the 24V transformer has failed or is incorrectly wired so that the 24V secondary winding is no longer isolated from the 120V line power. If this has happened, I'd consider the machine to be very dangerous and the transformer should be replaced immediately.

Secondly (and this one depends on how the pachinko's transformer and ground connection has been wired), if there is another appliance with an electrical fault or a fault with the electrical wiring in the house, then you could get a shock which originates elsewhere being earthed out via the pachinko machine. Easiest way to check this is to take the pachinko machine somewhere else and see if you still feel a tingle when it's plugged in at a different location. Be aware that the fault may lie in an extension lead or power strip, so to narrow down the fault don't use the same ones in different locations!

If you get the same tingle with the machine in a different location, then get the machine checked by a qualified electrician. This sort of fault should be picked up with a standard portable appliance test (PAT), but if the transformer is incorrectly wired, then the fault may not show up on a normal 'leakage' test. Over this side of the pond everything that is used in a commercial setting or any second user goods sold by a business to a customer should have had a test like this to prove that it is safe to use, I'm not sure of the regulations in the States, but I'd expect that there's something similar.

[Drunkenclam]

sometimes I'm glad we have 3 pin plugs in the UK. All my machines and transformers are earthed

[daverob]

It seems that either Jeff is either very quickly and efficiently forwarding our replies directly to this person, or that they are reading PachiTalk themselves, as shortly after my post above, I received an email directly from the owner of this machine objecting to the 'rather poor excuse for a'/'uniquely British'* (*delete as applicable ) sense of humour in my post above, and offering what appears to be a personal insult to me in reply.

Needless to say I offered an apology for any misunderstanding and/or offence caused, but at this point I will be 'gracefully bowing out of this thread'/'throwing my toys out of the pram'/'taking my ball home with me'* (again delete as appropriate ) and offering no more advice on this subject in this thread. If anyone else has a similar issue and would like advice from a long time pachinko collector and qualified electrical engineer, then please open a separate post rather than adding to this one.

[JACKSJE4]

That's really unfortunate that this person made a personal attack on any member here. I have not yet forwarded your response to this thread, so that indicates to me that he does indeed have access to the internet, is following the thread, and should be capable of posting his own issue rather than taking advantage of my good nature to do it for him. I sent him Skydanz post above which I felt should fully address his issue, however it seems that he may be "fishing" for a different solution that may or may not exist.

I would like to thank everyone who provided assistance and insight with this issue, however I am going to close this thread and allow the machine owner to join PachiTalk and make his own posts regarding his machine from this point forward.

~Jeff