Stop Buttons Flashing - Power is Off!

[gwarzin]

Anyone seen this before?

On my Giga Fever, which has been turned of for several hours, the 3 stop buttons flash about once every 30 seconds. The machine is plugged into an outlet strip which is turned off.

[gwarzin]

Found the cause. I'm switching all the power strips on and off with X10 appliance modules. These can either be turned on with X10 commands or by switching whatever is plugged into them off and back on. To see that off/on toggle they must allow a very small current to flow at all times. Must be a capacitor in the Giga Fever power supply that is charging up.

Strange that this doesn't happen on any of my other machines, even ones by the same manufacturer.

[Tulsa]

I would think that possibly your x-10 module is faulty. It should be blocking any ambient voltage. The module itself is plugged in and has current to it and the signal is sent to either turn it on or off over the electrical lines. It shouldn't be allowing any of this current to pass through though. If a capcitor had stored voltage enough to do this, after three house it should have bled this voltage off.

[gwarzin]

At first I also thought it was the module. So I swapped modules with one attached to a different pachislo. The problem remained with the Giga Fever.

The reason I suspect a low level sensing current is that, unlike the lamp modules, the appliance modules contain a relay. So it is either on or off with little chance for accidental leakage. However, the module does sense when you physically turn the connected device off and back on. So there MUST be some kind of very low level current flow present when the X10 module is off - otherwise the x10 module would have no way of responding to your action of manually turning the device off and back on.

So my speculation is that a capacitor in the Giga Fever power supply is slowly charging up from this sensing current. When it gets to a high enough level (after about 30 seconds) it is has enough of a charge to activate the stop button lights, which then discharges the capacitor. And the cycle begins again.

[gwarzin]

Found the answer, thanks to Google. There is a small DC current present to do the sensing. To get the DC they just use use a diode, so the DC is "lumpy." There is a transformer in the Giga Fever. Since this lumpy DC signal is changing in level it looks like AC to the transformer. So a current is generated at the transformer's secondary.

I can eliminate this problem by cutting the diode. But then I wouldn't be able to manual turn on this bank of pachislos by clicking the power strip off and on. The only way to turn them on would be with an X10 signal.

Isn't the Internet wonderful - you can find the answer to almost anything.

[arbycoffee]

Gary, while you are looking in goole, find where I can be young and good looking again, pleaseÂ… OK truth Good looking for the first time.

But I like the clapper bestÂ… Clap UpÂ…Â… Clap DownÂ…Â… Clap UpÂ…Â…
The wife does Too!

[slotter]

HEY! That looks like an X-10 controller in your Avatar's hand! :-P :-P :lol:

[TANK]

TAKE A METER AND RUN FROM YOUR NEUTRAL (white) TO GROUND. YOU MAY HAVE A BACKFEED VOLTAGE FROM SOME OTHER FAULTY LOAD ON THIS SAME CIRCUIT THAT IS PASSING VOLTAGE ,BUT NOT ENOUGH TO TRIP YOUR BREAKER. I HAVE BEEN BIT BY NEUTRALS BEFORE!!!!

[gwarzin]

Gary, while you are looking in goole, find where I can be young and good looking again, pleaseÂ… OK truth Good looking for the first time.

I tried www.inyourdreams.com but nothing came up.

[PALADIN]

If "lumpy" DC is your problem, splice in a capacitor from the line to ground as a filter to remove the lumps.