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Well, my pinball mojo returns with a bang (& some smoke) and not really the way I wanted.

AlanJ

AlanJ

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Joined
Dec 27, 2017
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Leeds, West Yorkshire
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Alan
Well, my pinball mojo has returned. But not quite as I imagined. Fixing rather than playing.

First league meet of the year and a horrendous day in terms of machine failures. Worst being fathom that smoked a sling shot coil during practice, then refused to serve ball 3 when 2 were locked.

Games that have never had a problem ever, like the superbly refurbed Centaur I bought a few years ago, decided to play up on the day - both flippers losing power at the same time intermittently???

Worse still was my playing performance, including the world record low-score of just over 6M on GZ after 4 balls. That's never going to be beaten!

So, learn the lessons: 1. don't leave machines off and unplayed for weeks on end - they don't like it. 2. Practice & play more pinball - esp GZ on hard settings !

Pinball repairs:
  • fathom burnt coil on rh sling
  • lock 2 balls and third doesn’t come out.
  • centaur flippers both die. suspect a ground return issue somewhere?
  • 8 ball deluxe- left rollover sw needs adjusting, and left flipper went loose (DD fixed on day).
  • mmr. replace or repair castle sw
  • tz - coil to open flip gate on top rail stopped working – problem happened last year, and reseating driver connector sorted – so check there first - re-pin?
  • special force. switch above pf ball lock not registering or stuck closed. – lock 2nd ball without knocking down drop target and balls get stuck
  • Black knight flippers died
  • Capt Fantastic – left flipper died

The good news was it was great to see 43 people competing, good mix of familiar faces and a number of newbies too. Thanks to @DAD for organising and running the comp and speedy results last night.

Now, where's my tool box.........
 
AlanJ said:
Well, my pinball mojo has returned. But not quite as I imagined. Fixing rather than playing.
Click to expand...
Great news!
AlanJ said:
So, learn the lessons: 1. don't leave machines off and unplayed for weeks on end - they don't like it. 2. Practice & play more pinball - esp GZ on hard settings !
Click to expand...
So very true!
AlanJ said:
Pinball repairs:
  • lock 2 balls and third doesn’t come out.
Click to expand...
That's probably caused by the third drop target not registering when it's down (could be a wire off or just a switch adjustment). Upper drop targets are a bugger to get at so it'll probably be that one. I found that the playfield needed to be lifted on to the second support bracket and you can't do it on your own as the playfield is so heavy thanks to all the drop mechanisms on it.
 
AlanJ said:
So, learn the lessons: 1. don't leave machines off and unplayed for weeks on end - they don't like it. 2. Practice & play more pinball - esp GZ on hard settings !
Click to expand...

Noob here, hello!

How frequently would you recommend switching a machine on for assuming it's stored in a home?

I've come from owning many CRT arcade machines, anything passed 2 weeks and you're asking for trouble, I assumed Pinball, especially newer ones may have been slightly more robust?
 
They are and aren’t more robust, turn them on after 6 months and they’re fine time after time, and another time they’ll start playing up with ghost faults that you chase and resolve but never know how.
 
I'm not sure whether to cheer the return of your pinball mojo 🥳 or commiserate you on the breakdown of the pins😢

If it helps any, we had pins develop faults during our league meet, despite us playing regularly:
  • TNA got a ball stuck on the Cliffy (despite the mylar 'ramp') and the tilt bob went mad with so many adults walking on nearby floorboards.
  • Fish Tales spawned (three) faults, and;
  • The flippers on AFM died a week later.
 
AlanJ said:
Well, my pinball mojo has returned. But not quite as I imagined. Fixing rather than playing.

First league meet of the year and a horrendous day in terms of machine failures. Worst being fathom that smoked a sling shot coil during practice, then refused to serve ball 3 when 2 were locked.

Games that have never had a problem ever, like the superbly refurbed Centaur I bought a few years ago, decided to play up on the day - both flippers losing power at the same time intermittently???

Worse still was my playing performance, including the world record low-score of just over 6M on GZ after 4 balls. That's never going to be beaten!

So, learn the lessons: 1. don't leave machines off and unplayed for weeks on end - they don't like it. 2. Practice & play more pinball - esp GZ on hard settings !

Pinball repairs:
  • fathom burnt coil on rh sling
  • lock 2 balls and third doesn’t come out.
  • centaur flippers both die. suspect a ground return issue somewhere?
  • 8 ball deluxe- left rollover sw needs adjusting, and left flipper went loose (DD fixed on day).
  • mmr. replace or repair castle sw
  • tz - coil to open flip gate on top rail stopped working – problem happened last year, and reseating driver connector sorted – so check there first - re-pin?
  • special force. switch above pf ball lock not registering or stuck closed. – lock 2nd ball without knocking down drop target and balls get stuck
  • Black knight flippers died
  • Capt Fantastic – left flipper died

The good news was it was great to see 43 people competing, good mix of familiar faces and a number of newbies too. Thanks to @DAD for organising and running the comp and speedy results last night.

Now, where's my tool box.........
Click to expand...
It was still a great day Alan, plenty of remaining machines to play 👍
 
Update after 9 hrs so far of fixing:
  • fathom burnt coil on rh sling - i don’t know what caused the initial failure, the 2 sling switches are ok and work as intended, So i guess the drive transistor just shorted, that locked on the coil which then melted its insulation and became dead short. that then blew out the drive transistor completely and blew a fuse in the game.
IMG_7817.jpegIMG_7815.jpegm
Replaced all the parts and it’s working fine again.

Also noticed a broken fuse lug which I’d temp fixed a while ago with a croc clip, so replaced that too.
IMG_7818.jpeg
  • lock 2 balls and third doesn’t come out. - I’ve not been able to recreate this fault although I saw it happen several times yesterday. Tested the 4 trough switches and the drop target switches. all seem ok. Need to test more…..

  • centaur flippers both die. suspect a ground return issue somewhere? The fault is caused by a connector issue between the mpu and the sdb board. I reseated header to sdb and the problem has disappeared. I need to repin the header otherwise the issue will return.

  • 8 ball deluxe- left rollover sw needs adjusting, and left flipper went loose (DD fixed on day). Spent ages adjusting the sw. it now triggers a lot more often than it did yesterday, but still not 100%, esp on fast moving balls. might try adding a cap

  • mmr. replace or repair castle sw. this castle switch has been a recurring problem on my MMr, the first issue was caused by a missing screw on the microswitch which i sorted a while ago, so i was flummoxed by this issue reoccurring. I assumed the switch had failed but it transpires that there was an intermittent broken wire to the switch. the break was inside the shrink wrap insulation that covered the end of the wire and the switch lug. I removed the covering and re soldered the wire. castle and ball lock now 100% ok again.

  • tz - coil to open flip gate on top rail stopped working – problem happened last year, and reseating driver connector sorted – so check there first - re-pin?
I checked J130 which switches this coil. all wires making good contact. switched game on and it’s all fine. I’ll replace the IDC header with a crimped version to make it a much more reliable connection.
  • special force. switch above pf ball lock not registering or stuck closed. – lock 2nd ball without knocking down drop target and balls get stuck
This game has never had this issue since i’ve had it, but i moved it to a new location yesterday morning. I think that moved a switch slightly. I found the switch and cleaned the contacts and adjusted the leaf gap. Problem solved.
  • Black knight flippers died
I never saw this problem yesterday. Had the game on for 10 hours and have played a load of games and there is no issue so far. I wonder if someone reported flippers faulty because they were using the magnasave buttons instead of the flipper buttons???
  • Capt Fantastic – left flipper died
Flipper pawl has fractured.
IMG_7819.jpegIMG_7820.jpeg

Will replace and that will fix the problem.
 
Great work, Alan.

The left flipper on Captain Fantastic broke whilst I was playing it in practice. One moment it was playing fine and the next it wasn't. So blame me for that one! Great that it is an easy fix though.

I played Black Knight in practice session with Kai and as we were playing it we noticed the flippers were getting weaker and weaker. At the start of our game we could make the shots to the upper playfield (with a good shot, left flipper up furthest right ramp being easiest), but by the end of our 2 player game it was impossible to reach the upper playfield at all. Definite flipper fade. Maybe constant pounding during league session created loads of heat and made them give up?

And whilst you have your mojo back, it would be good for you to have a look at the Right flipper on Special Force. At your summer meet it was near impossible to make the left ramp and it was the same in practice yesterday - even Andy was complaining in the Summer!

Thanks for a great day's pinball - despite the breakdowns and my brother placing higher in the rankings than I did :(

Paul
 
Hi Alan on black knight when me and Tim played the flippers would lose complete power for a second randomly during play.

Thank you for yesterday was a great day your gamesroom is amazing! as chris said if some machines didnt go down we would of been there all night 🤣

Ste
 
FinalFight said:
Hi Alan on black knight when me and Tim played the flippers would lose complete power for a second randomly during play.

Thank you for yesterday was a great day your gamesroom is amazing! as chris said if some machines didnt go down we would of been there all night 🤣

Ste
Click to expand...
Aha cheers. i can’t recreate it at all but I’ll look at the flipper activation circuit/relay as it’s probably that. appreciate the feedback thanks.
 
Asiapinball said:
Ron you may be onto something there. I think it worked OK when the lower lock was done first but not the other way around.
Click to expand...
Tested all this out this am on both single and multi player games. Locking in different orders, on different balls, lock one by 1 player, other by the next player, then reverse the order etc. Whatever I do I cannot re-create the issue.
I think it might have been one of the trough switches, but cannot be sure now. They all work fine in sw test.
I'll have to host another event - it's sure to turn up again then! :p :D
 
Only other thing I can think of, was it later in the day when the game had been played a lot and was hotter. Not sure how this would make a difference to switches tbh but other than that, sounds like it fixed itself.......good game is Fathom :thumbs:
 
ronsplooter said:
Only other thing I can think of, was it later in the day when the game had been played a lot and was hotter. Not sure how this would make a difference to switches tbh but other than that, sounds like it fixed itself.......good game is Fathom :thumbs:
Click to expand...
it was 1/2 way through the session. i’ve had it on all day and its just fine now.
 
Asiapinball said:
it would be good for you to have a look at the Right flipper on Special Force. At your summer meet it was near impossible to make the left ramp
Click to expand...

It didn't take long from the game being new for that situation to arise; maybe an earlier case of similar problems with, for example, Taxi, Star Trek Next Gen or Dirty Harry.
 
For SF there wasn't one, I'm afraid. Punters had to live with it, even refurbishing the flipper was outside the operators plans. Occasionally, catching a fast-moving ball just right made the ramp successfully.
 
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I suppose my question should have been what should the operators' fix have been? A bit naive of me to expect the average 1980s operator to upgrade a coil for a better players experience.
 
Asiapinball said:
I suppose my question should have been what should the operators' fix have been? A bit naive of me to expect the average 1980s operator to upgrade a coil for a better players experience.
Click to expand...

Operator fix would likely be nothing, flipper still works and if it still takes money in why would they bother as it could shorten the game time and increase possible revenue.
 
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