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New to Pinball Info and looking for direction.

Yes i am doing it. But does the gold stripe go at the top?

Okay so here is what happened after I replaced the resistor. ....... ..... . All voltages are correct including a 168.5v read on pin 8 of CN5. And........ . .the game is 100% working as it should including the displays.
I would like to thank everyone for their support on this thread and ESPECIALLY you Zaccaria Keith (the man). What a guy. I would like to send you a small token of my appreciation. If you wish to accept it just pm me . Thanks again. TOP MAN.
I'm just happy that another Zaccaria is out there working and that you stuck at it with things you weren't familiar with and hopefully learnt a few new things along the way. I'll willingly accept a beer if we get chance to meet at a show next year as a token of thanks. In the meantime enjoy your new machine as you've certainly worked for it!!
 
I'm just happy that another Zaccaria is out there working and that you stuck at it with things you weren't familiar with and hopefully learnt a few new things along the way. I'll willingly accept a beer if we get chance to meet at a show next year as a token of thanks. In the meantime enjoy your new machine as you've certainly worked for it!!
Keith I really feel as though I have achieved something and learned a lot. Rule number one is check voltages before connecting everything. Thanks again.
 
Yes i am doing it. But does the gold stripe go at the top?

Okay so here is what happened after I replaced the resistor. ....... ..... . All voltages are correct including a 168.5v read on pin 8 of CN5. And........ . .the game is 100% working as it should including the displays.
I would like to thank everyone for their support on this thread and ESPECIALLY you Zaccaria Keith (the man). What a guy. I would like to send you a small token of my appreciation. If you wish to accept it just pm me . Thanks again. TOP MAN.

HURRAY!!! Great news!! And thanks again Keith!
 
Whichever way up looks prettiest - resistors are one of the few electronic components that cam be fitted either way round
Hi Keith. Quick question.
The pin is great to play and I am enjoying it a lot (my best score is 25 million and odd so still a long way to go) but every now and again it resets during a game. The displays and lights stay on but even more occasionally the displays go out for a second and come back on again.
I don't expect you to answer this now (you are probably still enjoying your holiday) but is it something on the board?
 
This can be a tricky fault to find as there are lots of things that can cause a game to reset. The most likely problem with the power board would be a bad connection somewhere on the 5V supply, but that supply was not affected by the issues that you had with that board. When I have seen this occurring during game play it has been due to the switch matrix getting shorted to ground due to missing or damaged insulators on the drop target switches. Try to see whether the problem occurs at the same time as a drop target drops or, more likely, is reset (i.e when they lift back up after they have all dropped, or between balls). I have taken some photos which I will post below showing the things to look for - apologies for the dirty/rusty state of the game but this is an unrestored example.

20200927_102731.jpg
This is a single drop target showing the insulator that should be present on the switch actuator

20200927_102736.jpg
If the black insulator is missing then the arm can short the switch leaf to ground when it drops. There is a paper insulator (grey) behind the switch leaf which should also prevent this shorting but they wear through leading to an intermittent short that then causes the game to reset only intermittently.
 
20200927_102930.jpg
The switches on the bottom of the drop targets that register the target dropping have a grey paper insulator to stop the switch leaf shorting to the metal body and grounding. This can get deformed and curl back like this.

20200927_102938.jpg
Then when the drop target is reset the switch leaf can momentarily short to ground and cause the game to reset.
 
20200927_102804.jpg
Flipper end of stroke switches also have an insulator on the actuator to prevent shorts

20200927_102833.jpg

If the insulator is missing it will short the switch to ground, although on a flipper that will normally blow a fuse rather than reset the game, so I don't think this will be your problem, but it is another example of the need for intact insulators on the switch actuators.
 
Keith this is really interesting stuff from my perspective. It is something I will check next weekend. Thanks for that.
 
UPDATE!
All insulators are intact. I re-seated the connectors by pulling them out then re-instating them and everything has been okay for about 4 hours. Fingers crossed.
I need to replace the new connectors on CN1 and CN5 with new old-style ones, if that sounds right. The ones with the guide spikes.
 
I wouldn't expect the connectors to be tarnished given how many times they have been unplugged over the last few weeks, but you might have a dry/cracked soldered joint on the back of one of the power board connectors then in which case the problem might go away for a while after they have been disturbed and then come back again when they settle down. If it happens again it would be worthwhile to inspect the joints on the back of the board where the connectors are soldered in - particularly CN1 and CN5 - and resolder any that look dodgy
 
I wouldn't expect the connectors to be tarnished given how many times they have been unplugged over the last few weeks, but you might have a dry/cracked soldered joint on the back of one of the power board connectors then in which case the problem might go away for a while after they have been disturbed and then come back again when they settle down. If it happens again it would be worthwhile to inspect the joints on the back of the board where the connectors are soldered in - particularly CN1 and CN5 - and resolder any that look dodgy
I will keep a close eye on it. Thanks.
 
I have some experience with flippers (learning the hard way) and I thought that I knew the difference between a mechanical problem and an electrical problem when it came to the flippers staying in the UP position, or rather, not returning or gradually returning to the lower position after playing a shot.
On this particular pin the flipper has been rebuilt (thank you Rob Zombie) and everything is new but the coils seemed slack in the bracket (probably from transit) and the flippers were not returning to the down position.
I tightened the brackets and everything was fine for a while then went back to doing what they were before.
Could this be a diode problem and should I replace them?
 
If they stay up then it is not likely to be a diode problem, and the diodes would have been replaced with the coils anyway (they come with them). It will be a mechanical issue with the flippers rubbing on the playfield, binding in the bushes, the plungers misaligned in the coils, weak springs or magnetised end stops. Originally these flippers had the wrong coils and no sleeves so it is possible that there are other wrong parts from before Rob had the machine. Can you post some photos of the flipper mechanisms in the stuck state?
 
Man, that machine did not like being moved! In terms of the flippers, I think it was just the coils themselves that got changed. That was a fair while ago though and never had any problems with them. Have the flipper posts come loose?
 
Man, that machine did not like being moved! In terms of the flippers, I think it was just the coils themselves that got changed. That was a fair while ago though and never had any problems with them. Have the flipper posts come loose?
I reseated them earlier and tightened them well. They seem to be okay atm. Everything seems new on them to be fair. I'll see how it goes tomorrow night and might think about adjusting the playfield clearance if they revert back.
 
It's not unusual for them to come loose once or twice after a rebuild. I don't like to overtighten things and risk snapping or bending something.
 
Now that my Pinball Champ is playing well, without issues I would like to make some adjustments to the gameplay. My instruction booklet is thorough but the instructions say that to adjust most of the gameplay features it requires information for the data programmer.
Is there are way around this?
 
Not sure where you are reading that from. There are a range of gameplay options that are all user programmable. See pages 22 - 27 in the attached manual. Basically you can step through the settings from 1 to 37 using the Advance switch inside the coin door and this will run the self-tests 1 - 5 and display the accounting totals 6 - 9 and then the gameplay settings 10 - 37 which are described in those pages and in the tables on pages 26-27.

If you want to change any of the settings the process of stepping through is similar but first you have to put the DIP switch SW4 on the CPU board into the ON position. You can then use the Advance switch to step through to the settings you want to change and use the Credit pushbutton on the front of the machine to step through the option numbers for the chosen setting number. If you go too high with the option number then keep pressing and it will scroll back round to the beginning again.

Once you have made the required changes then you must put SW4 back to the off position before attempting to play a game.
 

Attachments

  • Pinball_Champ_Manual.pdf
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Not sure where you are reading that from. There are a range of gameplay options that are all user programmable. See pages 22 - 27 in the attached manual. Basically you can step through the settings from 1 to 37 using the Advance switch inside the coin door and this will run the self-tests 1 - 5 and display the accounting totals 6 - 9 and then the gameplay settings 10 - 37 which are described in those pages and in the tables on pages 26-27.

If you want to change any of the settings the process of stepping through is similar but first you have to put the DIP switch SW4 on the CPU board into the ON position. You can then use the Advance switch to step through to the settings you want to change and use the Credit pushbutton on the front of the machine to step through the option numbers for the chosen setting number. If you go too high with the option number then keep pressing and it will scroll back round to the beginning again.

Once you have made the required changes then you must put SW4 back to the off position before attempting to play a game.
Ah right. Ive never touched a dip switch before.
 
20201003_173843.jpg
Normal running position is as shown. Slide the bottom switch to the right (ON) position to allow gameplay settings to be changed.
 
I hope there is an easy solution to this one.
I want to replace lamps at the top of the playfield. I thought it would be as simple as releasing the screw on the flipper bat (and the screws holding in the upper playfield) shaft and withdrawing the bat but it won't budge.
Do I need to release something else?
 
I hope there is an easy solution to this one.
I want to replace lamps at the top of the playfield. I thought it would be as simple as releasing the screw on the flipper bat (and the screws holding in the upper playfield) shaft and withdrawing the bat but it won't budge.
Do I need to release something else?
I have spotted a screw at the top of the flipper.
 
I have reset the playfield difficulty and it seems to have cancelled the free play setting. Have I done something wrong? How do I reset free play please?
 
I have reset the playfield difficulty and it seems to have cancelled the free play setting. Have I done something wrong? How do I reset free play please?
If the machine is actually fitted with David Gersic's Free Play ROMS then free play is enabled by setting option 30 to 1 (set to 0 for normal play). If it doesn't have Free Play ROMs then the usual workaround is to set the first replay score level to a low value such as 20k (10k is the lowest but sometimes that doesn't seem to work whereas 20k does) - to do this set programming option 22 to 2 and then options 23 and 24 for the normal replay levels
 
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