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Fish tales test/diagnostic problem

T

tiltagain

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Cheadle Hulme
I recently acquired a very nice Fish Tales.
It is set on free play and everything is working. However I cannot enter the diagnostics.
I have looked at J205 connector on the CPU. The schematic shows the ground at pin 11, but on my Fish Tales the black wire is connected to pin 10. Is that right?
Also, if I open the front door while playing a game, the game does not stop. So is the safety door switch faulty?
I am thinking of removing the batteries in order to bring the pinball machine to factory reset, but I am worried I will not be able to add credit to the pinball machine.
Any thought?
Thank you
 

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Hello, going by the Cpu board schematic, J205 for the Direct Switches has pin 10 as 'Key', i.e. the pin is missing from the header connector on the board (indicated by the asterisk symbol on the drawing), and the plug connector should have slot 10 blocked. So it 'looks' as if the Black ground wire has ended up 1 pin out. By that, it should be in slot 11. A better method to move it over may be to depress the tiny retaining barb holding the metal pin into the housing and pull the wire and connecting pin out together, rather than transferring it from one connecting pin to another. You could practice on the empty pin in slot 11. For the paired wire & connector, you'd also need to wrangle the wire past its retaining barbs in the plastic housing.

However, the listings of board pinouts and wire colours at the back of game manuals do show Black in Pin 10, connecting to the Coin Door Interface board in the cabinet, at its J1, pin 15. From there, it also connects to J3, pin 3, still Black wire, the ground connection for the door. And that might offer a ground through the braid in the cabinet. Check through the circuit. But the explanatory drawing for Direct Switch circuits specifically shows the ground returning to Cpu board, J205, pin 11. The wires in your machine look slightly frayed in the picture.

I don't see why the game should stop if the door's opened; Fish Tales is too early for the u.k spec. to have a safety switch on the door, shutting off the solenoid and flashlamp power.

The door does need to be open to get into diagnostics, with the switch (No. 2,2,) that it does have showing as Open, but a warning would appear 'Door Must Be Open To Use Buttons' if it was seen as still closed.

Returning it to factory settings would probably have been a bad idea, as the coin switches wouldn't have worked either.
 
Last edited:
Jay Walker said:
Hello, going by the Cpu board schematic, J205 for the Direct Switches has pin 10 as 'Key', i.e. the pin is missing from the header connector on the board (indicated by the asterisk symbol on the drawing), and the plug connector should have slot 10 blocked. So it looks as if the Black ground wire has ended up 1 pin out. It should be in slot 11. A better method to move it over may be to depress the tiny retaining barb holding the metal pin into the housing and pull the wire and connecting pin out together, rather than transferring it from one connecting pin to another. You could practice on the empty pin in slot 11. For the paired wire & connector, you'd also need to wrangle the wire past its retaining barbs in the plastic housing.

I don't see why the game should stop if the door's opened; Fish Tales is too early for the u.k spec. to have a safety switch on the door, shutting off the solenoid and flashlamp power.

The door does need to be open to get into diagnostics, with the switch (No. 2,2,) that it does have showing as Open, but a warning would appear 'Door Must Be Open To Use Buttons' if it was seen as still closed.

Returning it to factory settings would probably have been a bad idea, as the coin switches wouldn't have worked either.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the info.
Still puzzled as the seller told me he reseated all the high scores just the day before selling the pinball machine!!!!
Will keep you informed.
Thank you
 
What does the inside of the coin door look like? Mechs in place or just wires bundled in a loop?
 
Thank you,
Wiring is correct, but schematic shows a different wiring!! I will take the CPU out tomorrow and check connections at the back. CPU do not show any sign of battery corrosion.
 
Is there any corrosion on the CPU at all (a la battery alkali) ??

EDIT : haha! I wrote that 20 mins ago and went for food. Came back and hit "send"... only to see you had already put it above :D
 
As a firm believer in making sure the basic stuff is covered as it's often the simplest thing that goes wrong first..

Are you happy you have continuity form the switch back to the board? I ask not only to rule this out, but the ground wire coming from the other side of the switch bank maybe isn't in the original position? Mine all flow down the right hand side. So maybe its been moved/reattached.

Also check your switch is working whilst you have the multimeter out.

Just an easy 2min check either way and then rule it out.
 
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