And there was (black) light...

Thanks to Todd at TNT and the good folks of RGVAC the "smokin" mystery is
solved. It appears I had a bad ballast on the cp blacklight fixture. That
is a particularly nastly affair as it got hot enough to melt some insulation
on one of the nearby wires. It also blew the bulb and fried the fuse
pictured below. Todd mentioned that his folks always replace ballasts in
thier games when they shop them and I am a believer. For the mere price of
$4.99 at Home Depot, I think it is well worth the piece of mind.

Of related interest, while searching for answers I stumbled on another RGVAC
post that dealt with the OEM specs for the various Tron flourescent bulbs.
I always assumed they were all white with the exception of the cp blacklight
fixture. Turns out the lower marquee is also intended to have a blacklight,
though a different kind than the upper. Something called a BLW, "Black
Light White?" The post stated that this was brighter than a normal
blacklight, but was not used on the upper cp light as the BLW emits
dangerous UV rays.

============================================
2. (Classicade) Bret Pehrson
Jul 10 2003, 3:22 pm

Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting
From: "(Classicade) Bret Pehrson"
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 13:22:16 -0700
Local: Thurs, Jul 10 2003 3:22 pm
Subject: Re: So I'm watching Starcade yeterday...

OEM is:

Marquee: std. white fluorescent

Backdrop: std. white fluorescent

Upper control panel: black light black (BLB) fluorescent

Lower control panel: black light white (BLW) fluorescent

The BLW is brighter, but is not safe/recommended for direct viewing (can UV
burn your eyes); the BLB bulb is darker, but safe for direct viewing.
Therefore, it is safe/suitable to substitute the BLW w/ a BLB, but not the
other way around.

============================================

Cool. You know I gotta get that!