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Data East Solid State Flipper weak hold. Ball knocks flipper down during play.

Andrew Hannay

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Sep 26, 2014
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Location
Berkshire
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andrewhannay
Hi All,
Thought I would post this here for general information regarding a problem I saw on my Data East Star Wars Flipper. This can happen on any Data East Solid state flipper that does NOT have an EOS switch. I think the EOS switch was re-introduced in later models. Anyway......
I noticed during play the flipper was easily knocked down by the ball as it hit it thus resulting in a ball drain. Also, on one occasion the flippers would flip up and down on their own while keeping the flipper button pressed.
The fault was traced to a low voltage coming into the flipper controller board. What should have been 16v AC across the two 8v AC inputs (grey and gry-grn wires or F2 and F4) on the board was less than 5v AC. This was also present on the Power Supply Board that generates the 5v DC so goodness knows how I was getting a reliable 5v to the other boards. I traced the fault to the 2 pin connector (3 pin housing but only 2 pins used) on the floor of the main cabinet the takes the 8V AC from the transformer and splits it to the flipper controller board and the Power supply board in the head. There is another connector coming directly from the Transformer too that will need checking.
Two wires feed into each terminal on the connector and those wires had come away from the terminal pin itself - The grey pair in my case. Pulling on the wires confirmed this so I had to strip them back, cut open the side of the connector and re-solder them both onto the back of the pin.
All working fine now.
 
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Yes, you did and it's great to see someone getting to the bottom of this old chestnut. I've played many DE games with this problem over the years. One person (who had a game for sale) tried to tell me that it's normal operation lfor DE machines.
 
Great stuff, I have this fault on my LW3. So I know where to start
If the voltage going to your Flipper control board is good (8v AC on each input or roughly 16v AC across both inputs) then the fault will be somewhere on your flipper control board which will be a little bit more involved. Most likely transistors at fault.
 
I have this issue on my tmnt too. But to be honest i am new to this so not 100% what to check. What’s the best way to check the voltage? Sorry if you have already explained, just explain like your explaining to an idiot [emoji23]. Very annoying as the flipper drop all the time if the ball hits with a slight bit of speed. I have a multi metre, not that I am 100% how to use it [emoji2357]. I also have a hook with works perfectly and obviously same solid state type flippers. So you can really notice after playing that. Makes the game nearly unplayable.


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