Dodgy DMD??

[DanLewell]

moved my LW3 from my house to a mate's house earlier.

Set it up and tested it and the display was a little bit garbled in the corner, so turned it of and removed and reset the ribbon cables a couple of times.

Turned it back on and the DMD flashed brightly then went blank. Now it's not really coming on at all but occasionally It looks like it's trying to work but not properly, as per the video.

I'm scratching my head now though. What should I try next?

 

[Sounduser]

Cant be much help. My lw3 some times has an n or a u after free play. Or sometimes free play doesn't show at all.

 

[darren_ross]

I'd still say it's the ribbon cables. Give the pins a clean with dry cloth and reseat.

 

[chris b]

try it in another game
test the voltages too it also

 

[astyy]

Also try re-seating the inline molex connector in the base of the cab after the transformer.

 

[DanLewell]

Cool, I'll give those ago tomorrow and report back.

Are there test points on the DMD board to test voltages? or am I checking output voltages from Power board?

 

[DanLewell]

I didnt get to try anything. My mate did exactly the same as me and reseated the cables a few times, and its now working perfectly again.

I guess that means the cables or connectors are on their way out. Is it worth replacing cables or just leave it alone?

 

[darren_ross]

Could just be a bad contact onto the pins. I'd say it was fine. Often happens when you move them around. They really don't like it.

 

[Sutol]

Brought back memories when i hadn't got a clue about pinball machines.
It was left in the corner of my garage for 4 years.Thats the dmd when i turned it back on.
Used wet n dry sandpaper on the pins and it was back to normal.Then it was the driver board to fix due to the resets.

 

[ronsplooter]

Dan @DanLewell buy yourself a fibreglass pen off Amazon and use that to clean the header pins. Once you've done that give the connector a wiggle when the games on and see if you can make the DMD go crap again. If you can then you probably want to replace the connector and/or reflow the solder on the back of the header pins

 

[DanLewell]

Dan @DanLewell buy yourself a fibreglass pen off Amazon and use that to clean the header pins. Once you've done that give the connector a wiggle when the games on and see if you can make the DMD go crap again. If you can then you probably want to replace the connector and/or reflow the solder on the back of the header pins

Cheers Chris, I'll give that a go.