Question About Centipede Power Supply Assembly

[Pop Culture Portal]

I'm in the process of gutting an upright Centipede that was converted to a Ring King and then to a Magic Sword. I'm trying to put it back to a Centipede and I'm sorting through the wire mess that I've found inside the cabinet. Still in the cabinet is the entire power supply assembly for the Centipede.

It looks like everything is OK, but I know that doesn't mean much. I have plans on replacing everything on the assembly, including the Big Blue.

Now here are my questions. The transformer on the assembly is rusty, but not too rusty, or at least I don't think. I've looked through Bob Roberts' webpage and can't find a transformer to order. Does anyone know of a place to buy one?

Also, is there any other way to test this assembly, other than hooking it up to another Centipede to see if it actually works or if I even need to bother trying to find a replacement for the rusty transformer?

[DogP]

Those rarely go bad... if you're not blowing any fuses, the only thing you really need to worry about is the big blue. If you're blowing fuses, unhook everything and plug it in again... if it still blows fuses, replace the rectifier(s).

The transformer itself CAN go bad, but hardly ever does... if you know how to use a multimeter, just plug it in and (carefully) check the voltage at the outputs... you'll need to find the pinouts from a manual, but that's not hard.

DogP

[Pop Culture Portal]

I was hoping someone would let me know they rarely went bad. :D

Forgive my stupid follow-up question, but the power supply actually has no power going to it...nor any fuses...we're talking bare minimum on this thing. No monitor in the Centipede, no CPB...the cabinet might as well have been empty. And there's no power cord coming from the supply. I removed it because it had been cut in two. So, can I just test the transformer with the multimeter, or does it need to have power/electricity going to it?

[DogP]

Yeah, you can test the transformer without power... won't give you a 100% reading, but should be good enough. If you test the resistance across the two input terminals with a multimeter, you should get a low ohm reading (not exactly sure what, but since it's just a spool of wire, I'd assume a few ohms). Test the same thing across the two output terminals. Assuming the wire is the same guage on both the input and output, and also that it's a 1:1 transformer, your readings should be the same or very close.

If either of them read open, then that coil is bad... if either read a lot lower resistance than the other, it's possible that the coil is shorted and also bad. But like I said, it's very rare to find a bad isolation transformer unless the thing was really abused (and even then I'd still be surprized :P ).

DogP

[Pop Culture Portal]

That's a big help! Thank You! :D