Arcade Repair Tips - Safely Discharge An Arcade Monitor 

Nice. Two points are important. Keep one hand in your pocket whenever you discharge anything. Seriously. That simple electrician/EE rule can save your life. Second, discharge the secondary winding of any fist size or larger transformer and short the leads of any thumb size or larger capacitor. The audio circuits in some of these machines carry +/- 30-60 V amplifiers and who knows how big the storage caps on the power supplies are. Amazing amounts of juice are stored in those power supply (hence the discharging transformers) or audio amps (hence the large caps). In today's world where super capacitors are replacing batteries as stand-by/backup power to save the state of the game during brown outs or large in-rushes, you can get killed by a capacitor that looks like a small battery.

I'm glad to find this channel, i just started working with classics so to know this is important so thank you 💀🤙

@CreativeGraham While we usually don't check for continuity between our screwdriver and monitor frame, it's a good double check and definitely recommended if you're not sure if your screwdriver is properly grounded. Also, you might not hear a pop from your monitor the first time but we still encourage you to do it twice as a matter of safety.

thanks man. that was an easy and quick tutorial, much appreciated. I am recovering a flyback from a large old TV set. wanted to be safe, and that was easy

good video, one time I got a shock off the tube, the set was unplugged. these tubes can hold a charge for some time. it made me jump around, but it wasn't all that bad. It was a fairly big jolt, but it won't hurt you unless you have a weak heart. I also saw my teacher get hit by the full high voltage from a set when it was on, he really jumped. but he was not hurt. But always be cautious and follow the safety rules to be sure.

Thanks for the video. I'm looking into servicing an NEC XM29 monitor in the near future and this was the first concern that popped into my head. I already know how bad 120Vrms feels, I'd rather not find out what 15kV feels like.

Nice video, and make sure not to scratch up the monitor with the screw driver, and you shouldn't ever touch the monitor neck board when it's on or off. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I discharge it again after I'm done working on one and putting it back in. Thanks for the videos!

@UpNorthLiving2011 Sounds like you're having issues in the power supply section of your monitor chassis. Check the power going to the monitor to make sure it's correct. Also, it could also be a shorted wire somewhere. Might want to do a visual inspection to see if you can find any exposed wires.

Good video but another good idea is to put your free hand in your pocket to reduce the risk off shock and reduce the chance of sending the voltage through your heart.

hey! great videos - thanks for that ;) one question about the discharging: can I get sure that it actually worked? without getting shocked I mean ;)

Just wanted to say thanks for mentioning that the discharge should be done several times. It's scary, the levels of charge that can build up on these things, merely sitting there unplugged! BTW, I often work with antique guitar amps now. Many of them have non-polarized plugs, and it's very easy (in fact a 50/50 chance) to make the chassis a live component. I've found that possibility out the hard way, a couple of times. Do you ever see arcade machines with this design problem?

Great safety tip well explained. THANKS!!!!

GREAT super safety tip - excellent !

i have a question. where are discharged the monitor volts? if the arcade has its only floor discharge to the gound unplugged....? (of course with the arcade plugged in it woludn't work) but so, di you use another ground discharge? maybe a ground terminal to one leg of the cabinet? thank you for the videos and your answer ;)

Just for the record, discharging it to the chaises is not good. When you unpluged it you lost your ground. You just send it back into the components. I use a long wire to the ground pin on an AC outlet that I check to make sure its grounded.

I have learnt it the hard way

Instructions unclear! Did this from my pool and now I'm in orbit! Help!

I used my multi-meter to check continuity directly between my screw dirver and chassis, when I had the clip on the right side of the chasis I got no reading, when I moved it over the left side I got a beep. I then proceeded to dis-charge and had no problems. Is it a good idea to use the multi-meter to check that the clip is on the chasis properlly? I didn't hear a pop either, but the monitor had been off for a couple days.

I was going to grab the red wire with it plugged in and I graduated from ITT in electronics. DERP.

if you leave it unplugged overnight, do you still have to discharge the moniter??

Excelente, thaks!!!

And can I then remove the anode by hand - after discharging twice?

scorpius26, You could always use a high voltage probe instead of a screwdriver but if you are careful to listen for the popping and repeat this process multiple times you can be about 99% sure that your monitor is discharged. If you have done these steps and your monitor still has a charge it would be minimal at best. Thanks for watching and good luck with all your future projects.

ok i watched the video then i read the comments and low and behold wow very important tips made by youtube people that was not brought up in video 1 being discharging back into machine seems wrong and 2nd always keep your other hand in pocket or you could reap a shock

@ryoaska1 I know what you mean, those HIGH VOLTAGE stickers scare the shit out of me!

please help....I have a NASCAR sit down game and the it was working fine and then i moved it to my warehouse and now it has lil dots on the screen can you help me and tell me what to look for ? any help would be great

Its 240 volts on the fly back transformer

It's probably worth pointing out that some monitors can be damaged this way. I wouldn't recommend messing with it unless you fully understand what you're doing.

What does this do to fix it?

Does anyone know if time alone will discharge the monitor? My cabinet has been unplugged for over a week as I await some time to work on it. I wonder if there's a safe amount of time and the CRT will slowly discharge on its own?

help.....i have a monitor that works fine for about 3 min. then it goes crazy blink goes off ...please help. what can i do??

i should have watched this this morning! i did it the wrong way:(

this killed me

This video may also be known as "How not to die"

This tip is also known as How not to die by television.

"Take these precautions..." Yep, but you aren't wearing rubber gloves LOL

Man this is going to be a rush.

i wish i watched this 30 minutes ago. just fucked my monitor

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.