FAB electronics Skee Ball Help needed.

[Adm927]

I have a Fab electronics skee ball machine that I’m looking for help? Need a schematic, possibly some troubleshooting help as well. If you have one or know about these please reply or contact me. Thanks! There was an old thread about them before but all the links are dead.

[Hydrolisk1792]

Very nice classic machine there.  What are some of the issues you are having with it?  I may be able to help you out a bit with your project.  I have 4 ICE skee ball machines of my own, a bit newer than the gem you have but all the same concept.

[Adm927]

It will not start a game. It had 2 blown fuses on one of the boards. I replaced them but that did it fix it. It seems to be in attract more but if I try to coin it up nothing happens. It also has no sound.

[Hydrolisk1792]

Okay, so go through some basic tests to get a game to start.  Bypass the coin switch temporarily with a piece of wire and see if you can get it to coin up.  If this works than you have a bad coin switch.  First thing you should do is investigate why the fuses were blown.  Make sure that you have all your power rails as close to factory as possible.  I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that you have at least 5V and 12VDC.  Anywhere from 4.9-5.1VDC is fine for proper operation and same thing with the 12V rail (11.9 - 12.1).  You can check this with a multi metre in DC test mode.  Be careful because you need to check this live!  On my machines the solenoid that releases the balls when money/token is inserted is 120VAC, yours may be different, I don't know.  Also, you can try bypassing the start button with a piece of wire, basically hot wire the button by attaching a piece of wire to one side of the switch and momentarily striking the other side of the switch with the other end, no worries, this should be low voltage and will not induce an electric shock.  If that starts the game after coin up then you have a bad start button.  We can worry about sound later, that may be a bit more involved.  What would really help you here is if you had a service manual with the schematics and test points.  Let me know how it goes.

[Adm927]

This game uses a beam type coin up method. When I manually break the beam I hear a click but nothing else happens. It does not release the balls etc. I have replaced the bad fuses and they are fine they have not gone bad again . The game over and alley ready lights are both on when I turn it on . But it never changes when I coin it up. Also I have no idea where the test points are for the voltages. It has 3 boards that slide into a rack so no access really. I’ll attach a picture.

[PL1]

It may not be the same model (different backglass), but this post has PDFs of a FAB Electronics skee ball manual.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,95603.msg1016321.html#msg1016321


Scott

[Hydrolisk1792]

Wow, that is a neat design.  Sucks for testing things out in circuit though.  So I'd assume that the card on the right side would be some sort of power delivery card, and the other two would be logic and sound?  Might be some dirty contacts where the cards slide into the rack system.  Try cleaning the contacts and see if the situation changes.  That is cool that it is an opto for the coin as that game looks very early 80s to me.  Have you looked at the forum that PL1 posted?

[Adm927]

I have looked at that post and I’m printing off copies of all that paperwork. I’m hoping that Neal sees this and gets back to me. His grandfather owned Fab. I sent him a PM.

[Hydrolisk1792]

Okay good.  I was skimming through that forum and saw that.  I hope that he can be more of help with your game.

[PL1]

Looking closer at the thread with the PDFs, there are pictures of the three PCBs.

Are your PCBs the same as those?








Scott

[Adm927]

I saw the pics. They look similar may be the same. I have not had a chance to compare them. I think they are the same. I would love to find another set .

[Hydrolisk1792]

From my understanding of what is on the other thread there is only one power rail on this machine?  12V?  That is unusual unless it uses all CMOS logic.  I also seen that it was built somewhere around 1990.  Looks a little older than that to me, but that is just me LOL.  You could try looking at the connections to the boards at the backplane and make sure all that is clean and no corrosion.  Then from there I  would attack the wiring just like the OP did on the other thread and see if you can get a game to start considering his machine had the same issue in the beginning.

[Adm927]

Update! I have it working. No sound but it starts a game and scores correctly. Counts balls and ends a game. I need a chip for the sound. Mine is toast. The picture of the boards from the other thread has dip switches on it for multiple sound options. Mine has a chip it only makes one sound. Unfortunately the numbers on the chip are almost gone and I can’t make it out. Posted it online hope someone can help.

[Hydrolisk1792]

That is great that you got it working now.  What was the issues with it not starting the game?  You can try soldering pins on to the chip just to see if that would work for the sound, I doubt it would but it is worth a shot.

[Adm927]

Just for grins I removed all the chips and cleaned all the legs and reinstalled. Bingo!!

[Hydrolisk1792]

Very nice!!  Glad you got your machine up and running!!  Well done