Dead DMD?

[Sam C]

Hey guys,

Just want to check this is actually the DMD that has died on me and not something deeper. Merrily playing away on BSD tonight and the DMD goes out mid game. Turn it off, reseat connectors. Turn it back on, still dead. I can see one "dot" on the dot matrix that is very dimly lit and the rest of it is totally out. Likely I will go round the fuses on Sunday and check those to make sure it isn't one of those that has gone but given the fact that one dot seems very dimly lit (bottom row, in the centre) it seems the display might have died. Wondered if anyone could tell from those symptoms if that is indeed the issue, ideally don't want to be looking at £120!

Cheers,

 

[Poibug]

you need to measure the voltages to be sure and be careful as high DC voltage present


poi

ps if you can get a new dmd for £120 say where!!

 

[Poibug]

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#Testing_DMD_Controller_Power

 

[Sam C]

Thanks man will give that a go sunday when I have a moment. A friend has also kindly offered a spare DMD so I can make sure it is deffo the DMD that has gone.

Also I think the £120 was probably a bit generous haha! Will have to hunt around if I need a replacement.

 

[Poibug]

check the voltages first dude

ya don't wanna blow up a good dmd ( like I did)

 

[Sam C]

check the voltages first dude

ya don't wanna blow up a good dmd ( like I did)

Willdo, I have a multimeter and game manual at the ready

 

[Poibug]

Bear in mind if not under load they will be higher.
Pinballmania sell rebuild hv kits

 

[Sam C]

Well after a couple of minutes of poking around today I found the problem on the DMD controller board:



Looks like it's been having a bit of a burnup!

 

[Carl Spiby]

That's quite impressive, no smell of burning when it died?

 

[Sam C]

Pretty sure there was but it seemed to go very quickly so I didn't notice it at the time Still glad its this rather than a dead DMD which is a much cheaper fix

 

[cooldan]

aaaaaaahh, now i know who you are, @Archyta5 as we met on Saturday at the thing and we just became FB friends - you did *really* well dude, third out of 52 i think!

so in my head now when i read your posts, i won't think 'Archie' but instead Sam

 

[Sam C]

Haha yup that's me! It was good to meet you on Saturday and put a face to the name, also the avatar that always catches my eye

 

[Sonny_Jim]

Well after a couple of minutes of poking around today I found the problem on the DMD controller board:

Classic burn on the HV section, should be easily repairable by someone who knows how to handle the hot end of a soldering iron.

That's quite impressive, no smell of burning when it died?

Nah they take ages to get like this, gotta remember the boards were only designed to 3-4 years.

 

[elrikos]

@pinballmania sells a kit of the components for the HV section. Very reasonably priced. Experience on here tends to suggest replacing all the components in the HV section at once, as the failure of one component can stress others and cause them to fail.

 

[Sam C]

@pinballmania sells a kit of the components for the HV section. Very reasonably priced. Experience on here tends to suggest replacing all the components in the HV section at once, as the failure of one component can stress others and cause them to fail.

Thanks for the advice, I know a local chap though who is cheap as chips for repairs so I will be sending it off to him tomorrow. I do acknowledge that Andy is the man however so when I get a bit more confident with board repairs I will certainly be tapping him up for things.