IJ Faults - Suggestions Welcome!

[Steve]

I'm going to list the various faults I'm getting with my IJ to use as a reference for future use.

Geoff (Calimori) kindly spent a full day here diagnosing and trying different solutions, and managed to clear up a few issues. One ribbon cable had been plugged in (by me) upside down and once that was found the ground errors went away. Unfortunately the machine still has a number of problems and my head is spinning trying to work out what is going on.

Rather than attempt to fix everything in one go, I'm going to look at each problem separately to see if anyone has got any suggestions for a fix.

Issue 1: When I run a test of the flippers, 2 of the 3 pop bumpers (left and right) fire in unison with the flipper?!

Can anyone think of a reason why this would happen?

 

[Moonraker]

A few thoughts... either it's wired up incorrectly, or a connector plug is on the wrong socket or you have a short.

 

[Lippy427]

More common with slingshots - but have you checked that the contacts are set correctly i.e. is there enough of a gap? If not, the vibration from the flipper can be enough to make the contact.

 

[Steve]

More common with slingshots - but have you checked that the contacts are set correctly i.e. is there enough of a gap? If not, the vibration from the flipper can be enough to make the contact.

Yes we adjusted the gap so it's quite wide. I can't imagine it can be vibration. I think it's like Moonraker says - I've wired something up wrong. I'll check the connectors again tonight, but most of them are keyed so I'm pretty sure they are all in the right place?

 

[Moonraker]

Some connectors are actually links and don't belong on a PCB but get pushed on coz they're connectors...! It took me ages to figure that one out on my first machine, thankfully JD manual has a page showing which header pins had a connector for it...

 

[Steve]

I bought one of the circuit breakers from 1stop pinball as suggested by Dan and tried it tonight. On switching on, the circuit breaker blew, and also blew fuse 115 as well!

I've also noticed none of the lights on the main playfield light pcb are working?

Had a Eureka moment this morning when I found a connector in the wrong place! Moved it, held my breath, switched on.........still the same!

Now it's saying 'Pinball Missing'

 

[Steve]

A bit more investigating and I found that if I remove J107 and switch on, fuse F105 doesn't blow? So I need to work out what J107 feeds.

Also found this info:

"F105: usually 3 amp slo-blo. After bridge BR3. Used for 50 volt high power solenoids 1 to 8. A shorted or locked-on coil can cause this fuse to blow".

I now need to find out how to tell if a coil is "shorted or locked on now"...

 

[Moonraker]

find out by measuring the coil resistance with a multimeter. Should be 4 ohms or more. Less would most likely to be your problem area. Only 8 coils to check then...

 

[Steve]

Had a visit from Andy N today and it's all sorted and working perfectly!

Andy's methodical way of fault-finding worked a treat and he found several shorted transistors, one incorrectly wired coil, and a couple of shorted diodes.

Thanks Andy, it now plays as good as it looks!

 

[Rus121]

Good to hear you finally got it sorted, but we need pics! lots of luurrvely pics! (i may cry when i see them, however....).

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Had a visit from Andy N today and it's all sorted and working perfectly!

Andy's methodical way of fault-finding worked a treat and he found several shorted transistors, one incorrectly wired coil, and a couple of shorted diodes.

Thanks Andy, it now plays as good as it looks!

The first law of pinball maintenance .........Time spent by keen enthusiasts (us lot) chasing problems/googling/multimetering/scratching head is indirectly proportional to time spent by The Legend actually fixing

 

[Steve]

Good to hear you finally got it sorted, but we need pics! lots of luurrvely pics! (i may cry when i see them, however....).

Here's a couple just for you Russ, at least you know she went to a good home!