RFM Revenge From Mars: a handful of repairs & adjustments

[jasonbar]

Howdy-

I got my 2nd pinball machine, a Revenge From Mars, recently. It needs a bit of attention. Please let me know if you have any insight on the following issues:

1 - There is a #89 flasher bulb behind each rubber Martian on the sides (2 total). Those flasher bulbs were burned out. I replaced the left bulb twice & the right bulb once, and, while still in test mode, the machine keeps blowing out the brand new bulb after just a couple of flashes. All the rest of the bulbs & flashers on the machine behave. I'm using the same #89 bulbs on this RFM in other locations & my Junk Yard with no problem, so I think my set of bulbs is OK. #26 & #27 in the manual.

2 - During the solenoid tests, all solenoids work fine except the left flipper. "Left Flipper Power" works fine, but "Left Flipper Hold" is too weak to move the flipper--sometimes it budges a hair but it doesn't act the same as the "Right Flipper Hold" test. During gameplay, the left flipper seems to behave just fine. Should I be concerned? A sign of a coil going bad?

3 - The monitor looks *great*! I was trying to find setting information in the manual or on-line & couldn't. I got the vertical/horizontal size/position all tuned in, but I'm sure there's some proper setting procedure that is recommended for changing the brightness & contrast pots. I've seen similar procedures on other video games & such--something like "adjust contrast & brightness until 3 darkest bars on left blend in to background"...


Thanks,
-Jason

PS: In case you've got a weird feeling of deja vu, I'm cross-posting this to KLOV, BYOAC, & r.g.p. :]

[lilshawn]

1 - check your book and make sure you have the right bulb. it may be a higher voltage than the standard #89

2- sometimes the hold can make it move, sometimes it worn't. as long as it holds when you have the flipper up, it's fine.

3 - looks fine? good enough. you are going to be looking at the reflection in a piece of glass, a little contrast brightness either way isn't going to affect much.

[ChadTower]

I haven't been under the hood of RFM, but here's what I'd check

The mechs are pretty much all standard Williams stuff of the era.  Same light sockets, coils, banks, bumpers, etc as the WPC games.

[jasonbar]

Howdy-

Thanks for the helpful replies from RGP, KLOV, & BYOAC. It took a while to find time to work on this. Here's my current status. Any further help or comments appreciated!


#1 #89 Flashers at Left & Right Martians burn out after about 4 flashes in testing.
I found it difficult to measure the voltage, as it came in short bursts, but my latching multimeter seemed to be reading a max of 20VDC.
I followed wiring back to the 04-12329 power driver board & nothing seemed to be amiss.
The bulbs are indeed supposed to be #89. I'm using the same bulbs elsewhere in this RFM & in my Junk Yard w/ no problem.
The transistors for the Left & Right Martian flashers are Q68 & Q69, respectively.
I performed an experiment: swapping Q67 (Right Arch flasher's transistor, working fine, and Q68, Left Martian flasher, not working). Transistor removal was a bear for me & I had to repair a couple of traces & a plated through-hole before both components were once again installed correctly in the PCB. Now, *both* of these flashers exhibit the same behavior: that is, I now "broke" the Right Arch flasher, & the Left martian flasher remains "broken".
Oddly, when I replace the bulbs & let the game run, the flasher bulbs last for quite a while (minutes, hours), even though they blow after 4 blinks in test mode.
I ordered some replacement 20N10L transistors & will try swapping in fresh ones (more carefully than my previous work...).
If that doesn't do the trick, it looks as if replacements are pricey: http://ksarcade.net/pinball-2000-power-driver-board-04-12329.html & http://www.pinball.co/Products/25303-04-12329.aspx
Or, I can get the PCB repaired--does anybody have experience with these folks? http://webpages.charter.net/coinopcauldron/brepairs.html
(During Martian Attack Multiball, the right Martian doesn't bounce consistently, as the left Martian does, though they act the same as each other in test mode--perhaps another related power drive board issue?)


#2 Left Flipper Power Works But Not Hold
It turns out that a previous owner swapped out this coin for a similar, but not identical replacement: it should be FL1-11629 (blue paper) but the left flipper had a FL 11629-TYP 2 (orange paper) that said "WILLIAMS FL 11629-TYP2 ELEKTRONIK, Merkur Munzspiel" clearly a German product--this machine used to be in Germany. With the proper coil installed, the left flipper runs its test properly, like the right flipper.

#3 How to Adjust the Monitor?
I shouldn't have said "the monitor looks great!" I meant to say that it had no burn-in, had nice convergence, all 3 guns seem to be firing equally, etc. I tuned the monitor contrast & brightness to my liking. I went 1 step further & removed 4 bulbs from the black of the playfield, as those light up the hardware behind the reflected image, which somewhat ruins the 3D effect. It looks great!


New issue/question:


#4 Snap Crackle Pop!
There's an infrequent & relatively quiet crackle/pop (not quite like radio static, more like a tap) that comes from the speakers. It's somewhat random in frequency, it doesn't go away or get worse as the machine warms up. It happens during attract mode (when the game is quiet) & during gameplay. For some reason, during Mars Kneads Women, the popping is about 20x more frequent & kicks in as soon as that mode is announced and then goes back to occasional infrequent pops when that mode finishes. Any ideas? I reseated all connectors in the backbox. I might suspect

Thanks,
-Jason

[jasonbar]

Got a solution to #4!

Got a NOS SWEP1 playfield the other day & installed it 2 nights ago.

I played for a while 2  nights ago. Mild & quiet speaker crackle.

I played last night. After a game or 2, there was deafening speaker thundering static, even though I had the volume quite low. I cycled the power twice & the thunder returned after a minute or two both times.

I reseated the PRISM card & the thunder went away.


I also found this tidbit & performed the fix & the quiet crackle is entirely gone on my SWEP1 now too! I'll someday swap the RFM back in & hope that it too is quiet.

http://www.pinball2000.de/troubleshooting.htm#STATIC

I cut the cable ties & kept the translite out & the PC box forward & hanging down so that I could see & access the speaker cable bundle in question. While playing, I fussed with the bundle of wires, spreading them or moving them about until I had zero static. Then I buttoned up the game & am now enjoying perfect sound!

Thanks,
-Jason


PS--still haven't fixed #1 above. SWEP1 playfield coils are good, 1 GI bulb doesn't light (not a bad bulb), & 1 flasher doesn't flash (not a bad bulb). After I diagnose those 2 problems, I'll know if the RFM 3 flashers that burn out are due to a problem in the RFM playfield or in the power driver board.