FAQ - Where do I hook-up the wire for the common terminals of my microswitches?
With an influx of newbies to the collecting world come some of the most basic questions that we all take for granted.
The answer should be self-evident on my Help Page
here:
Basically, you run a ground line from your edge connector ground & loop all
the commons into it & then back to your starting point, attaching it to an
adjacent ground position in the edge connector, so that if one connection to
ground fails the other will keep the integrity of the ground circuit. You
can also terminate your loop for each line that you run since it would be
obvious as to the location of an open ground line by the area in which your
switches do not function. For example, I always run a separate ground line
for each of the following areas...
in the video bundle, the coin door bundle, player 1 bundle, player 2 bundle
and for the speaker...so any switches used for player 1 controls are in a
loop of their own from the first switch to the last switch & back to the
start point on the first switch. If any one ground loop breaks it will still make contact in the opposite direction & if all switches fail in that loop I know
it is between my first switch & the edge connector... the only lone common
ground wire & easily identified by the junction of 3 black ground wires - in
from PCB, start of ground loop & the closing ground loop wire. A *lasso*
arrangement, so to speak.