Alien Poker issue

[Moonveil]

Hey Everyone,

Got an issue with my Alien Poker and I haven't really learned the tricks for troubleshooting all that much on pins yet. I was adjusting the drop targets about a week ago and around the same time I started noticing that the blue 5x multiplier as well as the right most blue joker are lit pretty much as soon as you start a game up. They aren't as bright as when they hit a point where they are actually supposed to be lit so I can tell what's going on still and play the game but... Definitely something I want to fix. Anyone able to give me some pointers? I do have the wiring diagrams but could use a bit of direction on what I should look for when something like this pops up. Thanks!

 

[MrMikeman]

Regular bulbs or LEDs?

 

[BMHouze]

Leds

 

[Moonveil]

Like BMHouze said, it's LED. Nothing has changed in that regard though recently so, I'm guessing that in and of itself isn't the issue?

 

[MrMikeman]

Sounds like either LED ghosting or a shorted (or missing) diode on a insert lamp. You didn’t do anything to the lighting like add a led strip somewhere?

 

[Moonveil]

Nope, absolutely no change to the lightning from before when this wasn't an issue. I did take apart the drop target bank to adjust the sliders but that should be on a totally different circuit, no?

 

[BMHouze]

Maybe you loosened. Or partially grounded one of the wires to the GI in that area and that is causing the problem.
I stick to simple 1st

 

[MrMikeman]

Occam’s razor.. with all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.

Things were working 100% before you worked on the machine. After your repairs, things aren’t working properly. This means you did something to break it. Yes switches, coils, and lights are on different circuits. However, those drops are linked to all 3 circuits. Assume you did SOMETHING to the light circuit.

Step 1: look at light matrix to see if those 2 lights that are always on have something in common. YES! They are on row 4.

Step 2: is there any drop target light associated with row 4? YES. The 20(thousand) light which sits in front of the 10 of diamonds drop target.

Step 3: inspect light socket for that light as it’s most likely the source of the problem and shorted or diode is broken or something.

Step 4(if required): another light on that row is causing the issue. Find it.

 

[Moonveil]

Ok so I tried to educate myself a little bit better on lamp matrixes. The general gist I got from it is the columns are my positive and rows are the ground. The driver board runs the full matrix in individual pulses and that's why you don't get unwanted lighting of bulbs on shared rows/columns. The diode is to help prevent anything coming back during this. Am I barking up the right tree?

At the moment, the main culprit is the right joker (row 4 column 5) which stays at about 50% brightness when it should be off. the 5x (row 4 column 2) seems to be fine at least for now.

I tested the right jokers socket and all seems to be as it should. I'm not picking up any short on the diode.

The one other bulb on row 4 that I had some success in making it run incorrectly was 'advance royal flush' arrow shaped insert (row 4 column 4) This one has me a little confused. during the start of the game it stays off. If i trip some of the drop targets in the incorrect order, this arrow shaped insert blinks to let you know the lower left ace will bring the drop target bonus back up. it does this correctly. The part that I'm pretty sure is wrong though is if I trip that ace switch a bunch of times to get the drop target bonus back up to full, should this light not go off like it had been from the start? Instead it just stays lit (not blinking) and I'd say it's also around 50% brightness.

The other observation is that the only time the right joker turns off completely is during the game start sequence. During the sequence, coil 21 (drop target release) fires to bring all the targets down. During this the joker turns off for about 2 seconds and then goes back on once the 5 drop target reset coils do their sequence.

I'm still a little lost on this one as to how I should try and tackle it. I combed over the playfield looking for anything that might have gotten shorted etc when I had the drop targets apart but it looks fine. And why did the joker turn off only during the boot up? Could it be that drop target release coil is somehow related? (It's on the opposite side of the driver board and doesn't share a connector). Or am I overthinking any possible link that coil has with row 4 and it's just that the driver board cuts all power to the lamp matrix for that couple seconds during the game spool up?