Arcade Collecting > Pinball
Pinball 2000 Tech Problem: Power Driver Board Damaged?
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: jasonbar on May 05, 2013, 01:41:06 am ---Aside #1--yup, I clearly blew both transistors with which I tried to drive a coil "backwards". Aside #2 on fuses: when I was having fuses blow, I was using fuses of slightly different specs (It's supposed to have 250V 4A slow blow, but on hand at the time I had only 250V 3A slow blow & 250V 4A fast blow. Apparently, these different fuses lead to immediate problems--can't even do a little troubleshooting with them!)
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There are two approaches to take here. Either buy 20 of the fuse in question when troubleshooting or buy a circuit breaker that fits the specs. The circuit breaker can be very very useful but I tend to only do that with slow blows. The breakers don't always trip as fast as a fast blow fuse would burn.
--- Quote --- Culprit found!
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I would swap the coil. Even if you didn't destroy the coil you may have substantially reduced its lifespan.
--- Quote ---4 - I removed the faulty coil, couldn't manage a clean desolder of the magnet wire or diode, so I snipped 1 diode leg & tested the diode--bad diode. I didn't have any other replacement matching diodes. I checked resistance of the coil: about 4.6 ohm. I'd rather not hack up the other matching good coil in the game, so I don't have a comparison value to see if the coil has an issue, but that resistance seems reasonable.
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Jump the diode and take the measurement.
--- Quote ---6 - ...which brings us to the flashers. Yes, lilshawn, they're #89 bulbs in RFM's Right Arch, Left Martian, & Right Martian. BUT!!! Those same transistors & connectors on the power board drive 3 back panel flashers on SWEP1 that have never blown at all. That's the weird part. I'll still try out the voltage test at the bulb socket to see what it's reading. I can also trace these 3 flashers' wires back to the connectors at the back of the playfield to make sure that there's nothing hinky along the way.
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Sounds like you have a wiring break. Check continuity on the common ground line for all of those lights. Check to each other in series and then from the last light to the driver board connector.
jasonbar:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on May 05, 2013, 09:53:58 am ---
--- Quote from: jasonbar on May 05, 2013, 01:41:06 am ---6 - ...which brings us to the flashers. Yes, lilshawn, they're #89 bulbs in RFM's Right Arch, Left Martian, & Right Martian. BUT!!! Those same transistors & connectors on the power board drive 3 back panel flashers on SWEP1 that have never blown at all. That's the weird part. I'll still try out the voltage test at the bulb socket to see what it's reading. I can also trace these 3 flashers' wires back to the connectors at the back of the playfield to make sure that there's nothing hinky along the way.
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Sounds like you have a wiring break. Check continuity on the common ground line for all of those lights. Check to each other in series and then from the last light to the driver board connector.
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Spent some time on this last night & think I found the culprit. Flashers worked for about a minute w/ no burnouts, which is better than they've been in a long time.
a - Continuity along the red/white common wire to all 7 flashers is good, all the way to the harness connector at the power board.
b - With all 7 flasher bulbs removed, there were no shorts within any of the 7 bayonets. Ergo, wiring appears to be good. I did a quick solder reflow on 6 of the 7 flasher bayonets just in case there was an intermittent cracked solder joint issue. (Right popper flasher socket is not exposed for quick & easy access.)
c - I installed each flasher 1 at a time & tested. All were good. (There are 4 #89 flashers whose bayonets have to be removed & then screwed back into the playfield wood to change the bulb. There are 3 #609 flasher bulbs that can be popped in & out w/out disturbing their socket).
d - I then screwed each of the 4 #89 bayonets back to the pf, testing after each screw-in, figuring that there might be interference or a short to a piece of metal or something, no problems. All's good!
(The previous owner denied any knowledge of these flasher problems, &, indeed, these flashers worked fine for a short while after I got the game.) Here's what I noticed, which I think is the issue. The 2 tabs on the bayonets are free to spin around. If both tabs are lined up with each other & even slightly bent, then they can short. Also, the flasher connector tabs for the right arch are *right* next to the playfield bent steel tubing base & can easily touch it. If my memory serves me correctly, ditto for the left Martian flasher bayonet tabs, which can touch a neighboring piece of metal.
A previous owner had put a bit of heat shrink tube on the 2 solder tabs of the right Martian flasher's bayonet to prevent them from shorting to each other or anything else. Because my wires were already soldered, I opted for a bit of electrical tape on both tabs on the remaining 3 #89 bayonets. I ran the machine for a minute or so with the flashers a-flashing, & there were zero problems. This makes sense--I'm sure that a little jostle or bump or transport of the machine could swing these solder tabs around to short to each other or a neighbor & cause bulb burnouts. Seems reasonable.
So, are these #89 bayonet tabs supposed to spin around freely??!?! I threw 4 new replacements on my current Pinball Life order (only $1.25 ea) to have on hand if I want to swap them out altogether & dress the wires more cleanly.
Thanks for reading along--I hope that my ramblings will be of use to somebody, possibly my future self who will need to go back & troubleshoot again sometime down the road!
-Jason
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: jasonbar on May 06, 2013, 12:07:55 pm ---So, are these #89 bayonet tabs supposed to spin around freely??!?! I threw 4 new replacements on my current Pinball Life order (only $1.25 ea) to have on hand if I want to swap them out altogether & dress the wires more cleanly.
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Can't remember ever going into my RFM and poking at those sockets. I'm going to go out on a sturdy limb and say no, though.
It's pretty common to have some of the smaller parts need replacement for one reason or another. A good thing to check now, while you're in there, is the microswitches on the outer orbit shots. That era Williams game tends to wear those to the point that they don't register fast enough for a speedy ball. They work in test, they work with your finger, but when the ball goes over it at 88mph it doesn't register at all. Check the switches on both right and left Jet orbit shots for this. That's the sort of thing that never shows up on diagnostics but does negatively affect gameplay.
All three Williams DMD games I have owned had this issue and my RFM did too.
jasonbar:
Oh my, I've already gone in & replaced tons of microswitches in this RFM. Yah, many didn't register at all, & many didn't register in gameplay but did in test mode.
I've got a handful more microswitches in stock, but I think that my switches are all behaving now, last time I checked.
Thanks yet again for reading & chiming in. My Pinball Life order should ship out today. I'll report after fixing the Auto Plunge coil & swapping the not-quite-the-same-but-seems-to-work Bottom jet coil. For the sake of science, I'll try the current spinny flasher bayonets as-is & see how they behave--I'll swap for fresh ones as needed. (And I'll see if the new ones are spinny or not--that would be good to know...)
-Jason
ChadTower:
Sweet!
I learned eventually that you can order a ton of the bare switch and move the armature from the old switch to the new. Not sure if that is ever put out there as common knowledge. Up until I realized that I was buying specific part numbers and paying a lot more per switch.
Thankfully my SWE1 playfield didn't need a damn thing done to it. It had about 150 plays on it when I traded for it. :cheers:
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