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Power on Pins

Kenny Taylor

Kenny Taylor

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Jul 27, 2015
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Was just wondering how these Pins handle the different power output in different countries. America & Europe 110 volt to our 240.. 50hrtz and 60hrtz.. Does the transformer step it all down to 12 volts..
 
80's Ballys use input jumper wires on the connector J1 to the transformer to select voltage - see Table A bottom left of schematic below. Several different voltages are used on the other side to run the machine, see the TP1-5 below for some examples.

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Depends on the machine really. On old ballys you just reposition a few pins on the plug going into the psu board for example

You might also have to replace the varistor depending on its range.
Sterns have software to detect the frequency and disables the machine if its not in its intended country although there are hacks to circumvent this

Is it for a particular machine or just a general question ?
 
Bride of Pinbot is in fact an early WPC game, one of the three produced with alpha-numeric displays. AFAIR, with that era WMS games the input voltage selection is done with jumper wires in a connector for the transformer. Again AFAIR, later games with the 'universal' power box at front right of the cabinet (incorporating the main switch) had a connector on top where a jumper block was plugged in to select the input voltage.
 
The Wpc hardware has a visual check for the input voltage, using Led's 2 & 3 on the driver board. According to the information about the boards' Led's in the manual, without the feature lamps running, i.e. after going into test, one should be lit and the other not if the input voltage is right. There's advice to 'Go down on transformer tap' (adjust to 'low line' conditions) if neither is lit. How reliable this actually is, I've no knowledge. I'd have thought following that advice could give someone quite a nasty shock.

Re. the 'popping' sound; I'm not sure whether or not it's related to the input voltage.
 
My pins all work. But on occasion I get a loud popping noise. The Pop doesn't interfere with the actual game..it continues as normal. very strange. I've spoken to a few folk and I'm leaning towards a problem with power from the supplier. Earths are good. I'm in a new build property..Thoughts?
 
Probably a nightmare to achieve if it's intermittant, but this thread could do with a video. All my pins make a strange noise when I turn them on. Not a 'pop' but just the sound of electrical stuff coming to life through the speakers. But your 'pop' comes from the power-supply? And if so are you sure it comes from the power-supply?

EDIT: does this popping happen when you are playing the game, or when you turn on power?
 
You get a very slight pop when you turn it on. This happens with most kit.. What's bothering me is when I'm playing the game. Maybe just once a nite it's pops quite loudly. sounds like it's coming from the main body. Now I've bought surge protector plugs which hasn't made much a difference. Maybe it's not as loud as before though.lol. Problem is when it happens I jump but my girlfriend ****s herself..lol
 
Kenny Taylor said:
You get a very slight pop when you turn it on. This happens with most kit.. What's bothering me is when I'm playing the game. Maybe just once a nite it's pops quite loudly. sounds like it's coming from the main body. Now I've bought surge protector plugs which hasn't made much a difference. Maybe it's not as loud as before though.lol. Problem is when it happens I jump but my girlfriend ****s herself..lol
Click to expand...

Does this happen on all machines?? If you have more than one switched on, does it happen on all of them at the same time??
 
TBH it tends to happen at the end of a game or between balls. More so if you've been hitting every bonus possible..maybe 80% of the time that is...thing is some nites I'll play and it doesn't happen. Last nite I played for around 30mins and it happened at 22:22 & 22:26..circuit is not overloaded as I've everything more or less switched off and only one pin running..
 
Has someone got a clip of a knocker in action. I thought it only went off at extra balls or free games !!

+ I'm pretty crap at most of my pins. Only got on the leaderboard a couple of times and that was with my scared stiff..
 
If it's doing it after a game randomly (I'll guess 10% of games ;)) and when you're smashing a decent score during multiball (hitting the replay award scores) then it sounds like the knocker to me.
It sounds like........... Err............ A loud knock :p
Seriously though I reckon that's it. Try it in coil test and you'll hear it
 
Kenny. It was designed to attract the attention of the player in a noisy arcade who had just walked away not realising he had won a free game.
 
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Occam's Razor (https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor - reading the first paragraph is enough). Basically, the simplest explanation is nearly always right :) There was a post recently with someone checking bulb voltages, turned out to be a blown bulb. Best thing to do is just post the original symptom on here, and someone will spot it :):)
 
Spandangler said:
Kenny. It was designed to attract the attention of the player in a noisy arcade who had just walked away not realising he had won a free game.
Click to expand...

And to scare the bejesus out of people:p. We need some Halloween smilies to help me get my point across @Paul :)
 
Forgot to mention that last nite while testing the knocker a screw fell out of the head unit at the very top of my Scared Stiff. Took a while to find where on earth it had come from..lol
 
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