Both flipper buttons not working on Fish Tales

[Sgt GrizZ]

When this has happened before, it’s been due to a power surge on turn on blowing both fuses (any ideas how to stop that?).

This isn’t normal

In all my years of pin ownership never really had that happen with Williams 90s games.

 

[VeeMonroe]

This isn’t normal

In all my years of pin ownership never really had that happen with Williams 90s games.

As per the other thread (update on our flipper problem), there’s been some nifty rewiring from the 12V supply at some point:

Help with unfixable Fish Tales flipper problem needed please

The latest step in the saga of our unfixable Fish Tales flipper onto (links to previous posts here): https://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/both-flipper-buttons-not-working-on-fish-tales.51634/ https://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/fish-tales-long-term-project.51258/ The manual...

www.pinballinfo.com

We only have one original Williams circuit board in the pin, which - going by the condition of the playfield - is because it got very damp (with mildew) at some point. Everything else is Rottendog.

I wasn’t doing the bulk of the testing this afternoon, but it looks like someone has wired the 12V supplies off the CPU board to the playfield in an indiscriminate way, which isn’t a problem when the pin is working, but is a problem when you’re trying to fault find.

 

[Jay Walker]

When this has happened before, it’s been due to a power surge on turn on blowing both fuses (any ideas how to stop that?)

Williams' solution for a power surge when switching on was to add a 'thermistor' in series with the mains live input. This limits inrush current for a moment, and then reduces once the transformer has built up its magnetic field. Though the symptom driving the change was the fuse for the mains input, rather than any other.

As I see the 12v Unreg supply, it's produced on the driver board, from that fuse-protected bridge rectifier, and appears at the three outlets J116, 7 & 8. One each for backbox, cabinet and playfield. The uptake from the three headers can indeed be chaotic, especially after field 'repairs'. The flipper opto boards have their ground return (for both the transmitter l.e.d's and the photo-transistors) connected back through the board header pins, and then routed to the Fliptronic II board, using Orange wire. According to the diagrams Pgs. 3-18/19 of the manual, anyway. When you found a lack of 12v at the opto boards, was it measured against the Orange wire, or a different ground?