The Pinball Diaries (what did you do today?)
- Thread starter brewmanager
- Start date
Luckydogg420
Member
Grauwulf
Member
Chris Bardon said:Also remembered that putting something down under where you're soldering coils is a good idea. Dripping solder on carpet is probably a bad thing
Doesn't matter as much if you're single.
Was supposed to go work on a Haunted House tonight, but the owner never called me back, so I worked on one of my own machines for a change. Repaired the absolutely *cooked* GI connectors and headers at the power supply on my Space Shuttle and added the additional fuses for the bridges in the backbox. I also picked up the SWEP1 cabinet that I am going to re-decal for my RFM project.
Just haven't been feeling it for pinball lately. Adam's pin brawl helped bring me back, but I don't know why I'm less motivated towards the hobby lately.
I guess the fact that I pretty much have my dream 4 machines doesn't hurt - the hunt was definitely part of the thrill...
I guess the fact that I pretty much have my dream 4 machines doesn't hurt - the hunt was definitely part of the thrill...
brewmanager said:
Missed you, BM! Wondered where you got to. Leave it to some good ol' fashioned pinball playin' to bring you back!
So last night tried to tie up a few lose ends on my JM and had to remove the Data Matrix mechanism to replace a few burnt out bulbs. Had to remove the center ramp and a felt bolts to gain access. I was thinking what a pain it was to remove so installed some LEDs since they wouldn't affect game play and last longer too. I also noticed the spot light for the glove was out but changing the bulb didn't fix it so rung out all the fuses in the head and found the bad apple. I recently picked up this Dolphin made by Schleich to replace the plastic on the left side shown here:
I couldn't get it to sit the way I wanted and it also didn't look quite right because the dolphin plastic was covering up some stuff like light sockets and support posts. I might go to Michael's and see if I can get some thin blue transparent plastic material to form and cover the area up and also give the impression that the dolphin is still in the water and not floating in the air.
Anyways, now onto something a bit more embarrassing last night with my Indianapolis 500. I haven't actually played the game in a few weeks and planning to start my pf swap in the next few weeks as I received all the parts I needed to do the pop bumpers from Marco. So I played a few games and wanted to try some of the strategies that Bowen mentioned in the recent tutorial he made on Oct 23 on PAPA.tv. It's excellent and look forward to him creating more for other games I have or enjoy playing.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JJ58ZBaBxo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
So after a few games I get a credit dot so I finished my last game and then check out what the TEST REPORT says and it was an issue with L.FLIPPER EOS SWITCH. So I go into the switch edge test mode and see if I can get it to engage manually but nothing. I check all the wires to both EOS switches and everything looked good. I found it odd that I was not able to manually engage the right flipper EOS but if I closed the coin door which restored power to all the coils and hit the right flipper button I would see "an EOS switch" engaged on the DMD.
So I sent Menace (Doug) a quick text around 11pm asking for some help or pointers before I start replacing stuff. He thought it was odd that I was not able to manually engage the EOS switch on the right flipper it was outside of the switch matrix. He suspected it could be PCB related and told me get my DMM and see if I could ring out the wires to the J906 connector on the Fliptronics board in the head. Then I realized there is an upper flipper so I moved the flipper bat by hand and saw an EOS switch engaged on the DMD and mentioned this to Doug. He said then you must have a break in the chain so sure enough I found this :FP:
So when I had closed the coin door earlier and hit the right flipper button I was seeing the upper right flipper EOS switch engaged and not the lower right flipper ...
I got my iron out and soldered the broken wire back and all was good again! Crisis averted and good thing Menace bills by the minute :lol: Thanks again Doug!
I couldn't get it to sit the way I wanted and it also didn't look quite right because the dolphin plastic was covering up some stuff like light sockets and support posts. I might go to Michael's and see if I can get some thin blue transparent plastic material to form and cover the area up and also give the impression that the dolphin is still in the water and not floating in the air.
Anyways, now onto something a bit more embarrassing last night with my Indianapolis 500. I haven't actually played the game in a few weeks and planning to start my pf swap in the next few weeks as I received all the parts I needed to do the pop bumpers from Marco. So I played a few games and wanted to try some of the strategies that Bowen mentioned in the recent tutorial he made on Oct 23 on PAPA.tv. It's excellent and look forward to him creating more for other games I have or enjoy playing.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JJ58ZBaBxo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
So after a few games I get a credit dot so I finished my last game and then check out what the TEST REPORT says and it was an issue with L.FLIPPER EOS SWITCH. So I go into the switch edge test mode and see if I can get it to engage manually but nothing. I check all the wires to both EOS switches and everything looked good. I found it odd that I was not able to manually engage the right flipper EOS but if I closed the coin door which restored power to all the coils and hit the right flipper button I would see "an EOS switch" engaged on the DMD.
So I sent Menace (Doug) a quick text around 11pm asking for some help or pointers before I start replacing stuff. He thought it was odd that I was not able to manually engage the EOS switch on the right flipper it was outside of the switch matrix. He suspected it could be PCB related and told me get my DMM and see if I could ring out the wires to the J906 connector on the Fliptronics board in the head. Then I realized there is an upper flipper so I moved the flipper bat by hand and saw an EOS switch engaged on the DMD and mentioned this to Doug. He said then you must have a break in the chain so sure enough I found this :FP:
So when I had closed the coin door earlier and hit the right flipper button I was seeing the upper right flipper EOS switch engaged and not the lower right flipper ...
I got my iron out and soldered the broken wire back and all was good again! Crisis averted and good thing Menace bills by the minute :lol: Thanks again Doug!
bstock
Active Member
mwong168 said:
If you're just figuring this out now, I would suggest holding off on the playfield swap for a little while... :lol:
I'm only kidding of course, but I can definitely see how this could cause some confusion during the troubleshooting when you're caught up in the moment. One of those things that you realize as soon as you take a step back and look at the big picture. DOH!
Good find, nice easy fix, killed some time, mission accomplished.
bstock said:
Yeah, I was more focused on the left flipper and lower right flipper next to it. It didn't clue into me what when I was hitting the right flipper button that it also engaged the upper right flipper as well. Anyways, glad it only took 5 minutes worth of text exchanges with Menace and a simple fix otherwise I would tossed and turned going to bed last night.
Good thing my cell# is unlisted, or I could get flooded with texts for tech help. Hmmm... maybe a 1-900 number is in order? :lol:
D
D
Grauwulf
Member
Makes me glad I have said unlisted number. Too bad I can be bought........
Another little bit spent working on boards from my spares stash, in to WMS SYS3-6 stuff today, diagnosing a dead 6A MPU board.
Another little bit spent working on boards from my spares stash, in to WMS SYS3-6 stuff today, diagnosing a dead 6A MPU board.
Luckydogg420
Member
Menace said:
Sometimes all you need is to speak to an expert for a couple min to point you in the right direction. Better then $100/hr to have someone come look at the machine.
Luckydogg420 said:
Damn, I'm cheap as I only charge $50/hr.
(although house calls are a $100 min for the first hour to cover travel)D
DRANO
Super Member
Menace said:Damn, I'm cheap as I only charge $50/hr.
D
Okay, so when are you coming over?
I got some RD boards for you to fix and a pesky sound issue on a BH I bought from some sheister :lol:
scylla
Member
Two projects successfully completed earlier this week:
1) Solder Congo to fix speaker problem.
2) Remove solder drippings off MM glass (by-product of first project).
1) Solder Congo to fix speaker problem.
2) Remove solder drippings off MM glass (by-product of first project).
Grauwulf
Member
Put the MPU back in a client's Pinbot and still had switch issues with it, finally found an under PF fuse holder touching one of the switches it was next to. Luckily didn't fry anything before I found it. Unfortunately while I was standing there chatting with the owner, one of the backbox bridges shorted and melted the wiring. If you have a Williams SYS 3-11 machine (up to Fire!), make sure you add the fuses to the unfused backbox bridges! If we hadn't been standing right there, there's a good chance the machine could have caught fire.
Repair #2 was installing a new DMD and drop targets in the same client's Striker Extreme. Almost a perfect repair except the drop target reset plunger tip broke off when taking it apart. :FP:
Further inspection of the broken part showed it had been cracked most of the way through for a while. Thanks Stern! :evil:
Repair #2 was installing a new DMD and drop targets in the same client's Striker Extreme. Almost a perfect repair except the drop target reset plunger tip broke off when taking it apart. :FP:
Further inspection of the broken part showed it had been cracked most of the way through for a while. Thanks Stern! :evil:
Seriously good thing you were there when Pinbot went into meltdown! Stupid design flaw with unfused bridges.
I had Ancientgames stop by my place last night with a case of Mill St. Organic and a DCS sound board that had a bad cabinet speaker output. These boards are prone to failing TDA2003 amps and sure enough, replacing the cabinet speaker channel amp fixed the issue.
D
I had Ancientgames stop by my place last night with a case of Mill St. Organic and a DCS sound board that had a bad cabinet speaker output. These boards are prone to failing TDA2003 amps and sure enough, replacing the cabinet speaker channel amp fixed the issue.
D
Happy Halloween, everyone! I'm giving out solenoids instead of candy this year...in an effort to promote the hobby.
Grauwulf
Member
Menace said:
Tell me about it!
I went back today and repaired the damaged wiring, shorted bridge and installed fuse holders. Rest of my time was spent getting his back glass to fit properly with the foam rings with his new Pinscore displays, and adjusting the insert board so the displays lined up properly. Stick a fork in this one, it's done!
Attachments
Last night was Halloween so I figured good time to get some work done in the garage so I could hear the door bell. Decided to tackle a problem with the right flipper on my baby pacman shorting. Turned it on and... Nothing. Sigh. All boards have correct flashes, I hear the start up broken pacman sound but no game. I can see the colour bar test and communication test on the monitor just no game. Unplugged it and said screw it.
Ended up installing new leg levelers on my rescue 911 and cleaning up the legs a bit because the old ones were rusted on pretty good to the point I couldn't adjust the pitch.
I guess that's the beauty of having 5 or 6 projects in the go at the same time. When you want to throw a hammer at one you can just walk away and work on another.
Sent from my Nexus 4
Ended up installing new leg levelers on my rescue 911 and cleaning up the legs a bit because the old ones were rusted on pretty good to the point I couldn't adjust the pitch.
I guess that's the beauty of having 5 or 6 projects in the go at the same time. When you want to throw a hammer at one you can just walk away and work on another.
Sent from my Nexus 4