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AFM tinkering & repairs.

vib_ribbon

vib_ribbon

Registered
Joined
Sep 7, 2012
Messages
145
Location
Romford, Essex
I bought a AFM a couple of months ago from a forum member, super grateful.

Finally started tinkering with it. A few things I knew about already and some I discovered along the way.

Firstly, the damage on the Stroke of Luck area. There's already a protector installed, but I guess it was installed after the damage. I looked at the one from Cliffy and the different design meant it would not only protect the hole but hide the fix as well, so went ahead and bought that. I didn't wanna do any sanding so I bought some cheap epoxy putty that I could just mould into shape and cut when it starts curing. Cliffy = £37.40, Putty = £2.87

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Looks good now.

I noticed the Bally logo doesn't pop out. Did a search and found someone remedying this with adhesive tin foil for model cars. I didn't wanna spend a tenner on it so I bought some alternative chrome tape which is thicker for £2.99. Results look decent.

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Next. I noticed the backglass looks a bit dim. On inspection 2 strings of bulbs weren't getting power. Checked fuses and continuity but they seem okay. A closer look I realised that someone must have previously changed the connectors as they look completely different to the others surrounding it. Checking each pin against the online manual tells me that the outputs do not match the original factory pinouts. Instead of taking everything down to figure out why I decided to simply move the pins on the connector to match those on the board and we have power to all 3 strings again. (changed some dead bulbs too at no cost thanks to a forum member spares donation a while back.)

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To Do:

1/ The left flipper sometimes doesn't stay up when the button is held. It would flick up a couple of times on 1 button press.

2/ Sometimes the ball takes 5 or 6 attempts before it gets ejected by the Stroke of Luck. Most of the time it's okay though so need to investigate.
 
Hello,

The flipper tending to 'chatter' like that is most likely to be caused by the secondary winding of the coil being intermittently faulty. The solid-state 'Fliptronic II' drive circuits used in this game operate the primary power winding again if the flipper drops, but only once. Have a close look at the thinner of the two windings on the coil.
 
Thanks for the advice, I need it cos I'm new to pinball.

Would it be possible to swap the coil between the left and right flippers to see if the problem transfers? Then we can narrow the problem down to the coil?

I'll take a closer look first anyhow. Thanks again. (I'll see if I can catch it on video too).


Jay Walker said:
Hello,

The flipper tending to 'chatter' like that is most likely to be caused by the secondary winding of the coil being intermittently faulty. The solid-state 'Fliptronic II' drive circuits used in this game operate the primary power winding again if the flipper drops, but only once. Have a close look at the thinner of the two windings on the coil.
Click to expand...
 
Yes, if the coil is the cause of it, the chatter would then occur on the right. You may find that the secondary fails altogether while soldering.
 
finally, i have time to take a look at the remaining problems which have since deteriorated so much they happen pretty much all the time.

the first one is the left flipper chattering when the button is held.

i switched the 2 coils so left is on the right and right on the left, but the problem remains on the left hand side! so i guess that eliminates the fault being with the coil?

see video attached.

i don't think it's mechanical cos the parts moves freely when i move them with my hands.

does anyone have any pointers before i do anything daft? thanks!
 

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some progress.

after doing some cleaning of switches, making sure the EOS switches on both sides have the same travel on them etc... there was no change.

then i had a bright idea. what if i extended the wiring so the wires on the right hand side powered the left flipper and vice versa?

with that set up, it confirms that the left flipper works perfectly with power from the right hand side.

just to double check, i wired the left hand wires to power the right flipper and while it didn't chatter, it would not hold. (not sure what that means).

i think i need to retrace the wires back to the board and see what's happening there. maybe a component is dying and needs replacing.

i wonder if it's the same thing that's making the Stroke of Luck coil not firing neither? that would be handy if 1 thing fixes both.

cheers!
 
sorry, perhaps really stupid question.

i've started looking at the schematics and i see that there's upper and lower flipper coils. is that just a different way of saying high power and low power, cos there are only 2 flippers in the game. i'm well confused.

Screen Shot 2019-08-01 at 21.43.07 copy.jpg






 
oh thank you for clearing that up. it's good to know i'm blind rather than crazy. =)

i've not come across that chart while i'm reading up on other people's repair logs. looks very useful. i will pull the board out and change some of the transistors and cross reference between the schematics and the above.

thanks again.
 
So I went ahead and desoldered position Q89 (dunno why the new chart reads Q69 cos it's definitely Q89).

Does anyone have spares of these that I can buy a few from before I order some online? Thought someone might have a 100 in their possession when bulk buying?

It's a TIP102.

Thanks!

NB: I'm good. just ordered some from RS.

IMG_20190802_144506.jpg
 
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Neat job on the clean removal, for interest you could measure if that TIP102 reports bad (not 100% as a bad can read good!), procedure described here "Testing Transistors";
http://www.pinrepair.com/begin/#howdmm

Good spot on the Tech Sheet I'll let him know, don't fully trust documentation!
 
first, good news.

after changing the transistor at Q89, the flipper was fixed. not only that, the stroke of luck coil was also fixed. it has never kicked the ball out with such force.

now the bad news.

i turned the game off to put the glass back on, and plugged the connectors back together in the backglass. then i turned the game back on, and .......... nothing. well, not nothing; the saucer's LEDs are on and i can hear the speakers hissing ever so slightly, but nothing else. nothing on the DMD and no "ping" of the start up sequence.

i hope it's something obvious. i went back and reseated some connectors and still the same. i will look at it some more after i step away for a bit.

help me! :eek:
 
call off the dogs, the game has decided to fix itself.

after checking the fuses and taking the batteries out and putting them back in. i left the machine idle for a bit and then it just fixed itself.

was it thinking? whether it should work or not? =)

thanks again everyone.

so to conclude...

changing Q89 fixed the left flipper that would not hold (it chatters) and the stroke of luck which started off being weak, but over time it stopped working all together.

hope that'd help someone out in the future.
 
@vib_ribbon - there is no way that replacing one transistor repaired two faults. The stroke of luck is a different transistor.

You could of had a bad connection somewhere, or a dry solder joint on something. Also check the coil itself along with the other ones on the same fuse line as the main positive voltage daisy chain one to the other.

It is worth going over the main board and looking closely at the connectors on the back edge of the board. Also do not be afraid to give these connectors a tiny wiggle and see if you can see anything wrong on the other side.

The thing you have to watch on WPC games (or WPC95 games) is that you seat the ribbon cables correctly.

Anyhow - glad you got the flipper fixed.
 
maybe reseating the cables fixed that one, but it was an odd one because the stroke of luck just gradually got weaker and weaker over time until it would just not kick the ball out after the 10th attempt. then it just died. now, it's like brand new.

i daren't touch it now. i'd be happy once i've cleared things away and moved the table back into position that it still works.
 
Been playing the game and for the first time since buying it, I think I can say it's playing as it should, really enjoying it.

There is 1 other thing which is just aesthetic. I don't know why my flying saucer has a clear dome instead of a green one.

IMG_20190809_114034.jpg

I don't want to spend £20+ for this. Anyone got any ideas? Maybe I could shrink/ mold some green cellophane into it?

=)
 
So in today's episode of "Sorry, but I'm not paying XXX for that"...

Sorry, but I'm not paying £20odd £30 for a green UFO dome. :) For some reason the one on mine is clear/ slightly frosted.

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On closer inspection, the dome is just cellotaped to the saucer, so I just took it off.

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I decided to buy a transparent green spray that's meant for crafting. People normally buy this to spray on their model cars etc. It cost £5.75 from eBay, that's more acceptable.

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Looks alright in situ.

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Does it have the same effect? It's pretty good. Without it side by side with the real thing it's hard to tell. I'm happy.

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At last. I dont have anything else to do on it, everything's playing as it should afaik. I'm still rubbish at it though but at least there's nothing to blame but myself now.
 

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Monkeyboypaul said:
Agreed ^

Maybe stick a green bulb/LED flasher in there to make it that little bit more green?

AFM - stone cold classic.
Click to expand...

Did this with ours last week. Used a green bendy LED flasher as the standard flasher we had caused some obvious shadowing when it fired (as it is orientated towards the BB when plugged in). With the bendy flasher, I angled it directly upwards. Much better.
 
i took your advice and changed the bulb out for a green one before i pushed the machine back into place.

how do i make the bulb bendy? is it a standalone bulb or is it an adapter?
 
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