My Air hockey doesn't power up anymore? Need Help

[roastedrick]

My dynamo air hockey doesn't power up any more. could it be the circuit board, the blower? I check the fuses and they are fine. My score stop working a few months back. That's my 2nd problem. What should I be looking for? Any suggestions? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Robert_fay]

Do you have power going to the Blower?
I am assuming this has a built in power supply that you checked the fuses on? Did you check input and output voltages?
For the scoreboard are all the connectors secure. Is there is a signal going from the control board to the Scoreboard. Likely just power to a 7-segment display?

 

[roastedrick]

I didn't check. I'm not that handy. I just checked the fuses thus far. I did have a meter. How do I test those things? What do I keep the voltmeter on? Thanks. I appreciate your help.

 

[shrtrnd]

Take the fuse out of it's holder (otherwise you'll by reading the fuse and all of the circuitry beyond it if you try to read the fuse while it's still installed). Put your meter on the 'Ohms' reading function. If you touch the leads of your meter to each other, the meter will change from 'overload', which is infinite resistance, to somewhere close to zero ohms,
which means no resistance. (Just a check so you understand how the meter works in the 'ohms' mode).
Touch each lead of your meter to each side of the fuse. You'll read a very small resistance, but that resistance
should be close to zero ohms, which indicates a good fuse. If you still read 'overload', infinite resistance, when you
touch the meter lead probes to each side of the fuse (metal tabs on the ends of the fuse), then your fuse if blown.

 

[roastedrick]

The fuses are good. Thx

 

[Robert_fay]

So somewhere on your table you have a power supply similar to this. 3 lines are your input and 2 are your output. Do you have 110 coming in? Do you have power coming out? Start here!

 

[roastedrick]

Is this it? I added a couple of pics. Is this it, or is it closer to the middle of the table by the blower?

 

[shrtrnd]

I think we're a little hesitant about directing you in troubleshooting this because you're 'not that handy', and we worry about telling you how to troubleshoot in following voltage paths. Do you know anybody who works on electrical items that might be able to help you out with this?

 

[shrtrnd]

It's a lot easier to troubleshoot when somewhere is right there, physically inspecting the components, and able to trace the voltage paths. If you have a friend who has some experience troubleshooting electronics, maybe he could tell you what you've got, and if he can't figure it out, someone here can offer advice about what to check.

 

[roastedrick]

My brother in law agreed to help. He is an electrician. Can you please tell us what to look for, and what to test? I would be greatly appreciated. I'm lost without my air hockey table. Please and thank you.

 

[Robert_fay]

My brother in law agreed to help. He is an electrician. Can you please tell us what to look for, and what to test? I would be greatly appreciated. I'm lost without my air hockey table. Please and thank you.

Start here you should have line voltage. Make its nothing to play with though. Make sure you have power to and through your fuses and on both sides of your filter.


Next check your blower. Do you have power at your blower. If not work backwards and see if there is a seperate power supply for your blower. Check power in and power out. Is the power supply putting out enough power to meet the specs for the blower. The blower will probably have a label that explains power. If your brother is an electrician he should be able to trackdown the issue fairly easy.

 

[roastedrick]

awesome, thanks for the advice. he will be coming over in 2 days. also maybe this would help.... When I did have power to the machine, the power would shut off after a few minutes. So I would unplug it and plug it back in, and then it would be good again. Sometimes I got 2 minutes before it shut off, then other times I got 10 minutes.

 

[shrtrnd]

'Everything'? The blower AND the display?
Or just some things that you noticed?
If you have a problem with the display board itself (the printed circuit board), your brother-in-law may not be able to help with that, ....but the first thing to check is the power supply voltages to everything, he should be able to trace that pretty easily to see if you're losing power, or if you have a problem with your circuit board.
Like Robert_fay asked: Does everything stop, (including the blower)? It could be something simple like a loose connector, as he mentioned. Or a burned component that your brother-in-law will notice when he looks at the wiring.
If all of the wiring checks-out, and if your brother-in-law determines the printed circuit board itself has a fault, we can
probably help with that later.
First things first though, let us know what your brother-in-law says after he looks at your air hockey table.