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Roadshow Shaker Red's Eyes issue

Jonwolf

Jonwolf

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Apr 4, 2016
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Wolverhampton
Hello all,

I bought a Roadshow from David Dutton at NLP (thank you sir - a gentleman) and it plays very nicely. Red's eyes don't work (known issue when purchased) and I'm looking to sort it. David reckons it's a transistor issue - nothing in test report. New machine to me so any advice would be welcomed.
Thanks in advance


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When I bought my funhouse, Rudys eyes didn't work. Upon stripping it I found the wires off the coils. So resoldered them, turned it on and they coils immediately smoked. So the transistors had gone. I replaced those and replaced with new coils in and it's been sound ever since. Another common fail point on the heads, is the eyes wide / close plunger snaps. Readily availabe part from pinball heaven.

The head is relatively straight forward to dissemble and get your head round (no pun intended) and whilst it's out of the game it's worth going over it with a fine tooth comb and getting it all tickety boo.
 
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Look in the manual and find the transistor(s) that ground the eye-moving coil(s). Test them with a meter. Report back.
 
Thanks chaps - got something to work with now. Will report [emoji106]


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Ok, let's forget red's eyes for the moment. A New issue has arisen. Start game and the Machine resets as soon as I hit the left flipper. This one is new to me - never known this one before.


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The reset is possibly the dreaded wpc 5v issue. Very common. Usually triggered when you fire multiple flippers on 3 and 4 flipper games at once. As roadshow has 3x left flippers, I would look here first

Check the 5v here, tp2 to see what you have to start with. Make sure you use a good, clean ground point, and use this for all readings ...

image.jpg

Then see what voltage the mpu board is getting by using the exposed solder at the top of this copper coil as a tp...

image.jpg

There is some inevitable voltage drop, like 0.01 to 0.03v but more than this suggests dodgy connectors

When you fire multiple flippers there is a drop in the 5v power to the mpu board. If your power supply is weak to start with the drop is too great and the game auto resets. This is often down to dirty/ heat tarnished connectors. Remove, clean (electrical contact cleaner and/ or extremely fine wet and dry paper) then reseat j114 and j210

This might do it, if you are lucky. When I did this it reduced the voltage drop on my tz from 0.07 to 0.02 and cured it. Been bulletproof since, withstood league play

Allow a young child to play the game, as they usually blast the flippers like Somme machine gunners, to see whether this has cured it

If not you are into reflowing solder on these pins on these, possibly replacing the pins, replacing the two connectors

Now the problem could be elsewhere, but this is usually it

image.jpg
 
I have a funhouse so have a rudy which is the same as the heads in your game

These heads are notorious for faults, but all the relevant parts are available, these heads are fixable.

Before you dismantle the head, take lots of photos of everything. This head is one of the trickier things in pinball to dismantle and rebuild, but has simple building blocks and just requires patience. Write down the order you dismantle things, as there is an order to putting this thing back together. If at all possible, do not remove the eyeballs or dismantle the left right eyeball link pin (looks like a big metal staple) as this is a pig of a job to reverse.

Your problem could be .....

Dead tranny, so do a volt meter check on the relevant coil when in head test to see whether it is getting the volts
Dead coil, per above
Continuity from the board to the solenoid (unlikely)
Broken plastic links (all available new)
Gunked up solenoid sleeves, these solenoids are very weak so may not move if dirty. Use ipa, solvol autosol to clean them thoroughly

And the worst of all, incorrect plunger alignment. These plungers only move a few mm, there is very little magnetic force to move them as the coils are so weak. You may need to adjust the coil brackets so everything moves smoothly with minimum friction

The worst thing about the plunger alignment is that over time they move. I hadn't played my funhouse for about two months. @strobey and @Dunc were coming over for a few games. So i tested them all out beforehand. Rudy's eyes failed to open. So i had to realign one of the plungers. Nasty little job, but fixed now and the game withstood two days at nlp without issue
 
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DRD said:
The reset is possibly the dreaded wpc 5v issue. Very common. Usually triggered when you fire multiple flippers on 3 and 4 flipper games at once. As roadshow has 3x left flippers, I would look here first


If not you are into reflowing solder on these pins on these, possibly replacing the pins, replacing the two connectors

Now the problem could be elsewhere, but this is usually it

View attachment 37274
Click to expand...

Voltage readings were 4.95 and 4.94 respectively. Lightly cleaned the pins with wet and dry. Readings were 4.97 and 4.94.
Start game - issue has gone !
You sir, are a legend - thanks, thanks and thanks again [emoji108]






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cooldan said:
Hmmmmm. 4.95 wouldn't have reset the game. I wonder what it was.
Click to expand...

Oh hell, that suggests it might come back. Cleaning and reseating the connectors worked so it surely must have had something to do with the problem.

Next is to fix red's eyes. Gonna give it a break for a week and then I'll get on with it


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Change the connector bit that is attached to the loom. Search this forum for wpc resets. It's been discussed at length.
 
Ok chaps - time to look at Reds eye problem.
I have identified the transistors for her eyes
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Now they need testing. I'm gonna need a crash course in this. Set my DMM as so and then test their legs?
uploads.tapatalk_cdn.com_20161023_b4848e79501681b2348e34a216bcbed3.jpg



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Ok, let's leave reds eyes (again) cos now I have another issue!
LED6 and LED7 are faulty (checked with a camera) - so is it just a case of replacing them ?
uploads.tapatalk_cdn.com_20161023_ca063a2669da1acd84c6e0b7b6578d54.jpg
uploads.tapatalk_cdn.com_20161023_d387c1c9f84cc0fb74365403284046c7.jpg
My soldering skills are not up to the job - is it worth replacing or do I buy a new board ?

Thanks in advance
 
I used camera on my phone to see if the leds were working - it shows up very well using a camera.
Got the idea from this guy:


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It is a cost thing. See what andy at Mania would charge to fix it

The optos themselves are dirt cheap. Very quick job to replace them
 
Thanks - I'll check the voltage to them and if that's ok then I'll talk to Andy


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Get back to fixing the eyes. These Optos aren't used as its only a four ball game. There's no wiring to this generic board on this game.
 
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Spandangler you are in good company. Phil Palmer from pinball heaven is probably still laughing/having nightmares about my efforts


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Opto issue fixed. Turns out that the trough solenoid had a loose wire and it want the Optos anyway. I'm slowly ironing out the faults on this machine - another issue discovered - the shaker motor has stopped working in game or in test.
A visual check reveals nowt. I have reseated the connectors including J122 - nothing doing.
Where to go next ?


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Note to self: don't pull connector from J107 and replace it in J106 which has one less pin than J107, causing the shaker motor to stop working [emoji849]. At least it's sorted.


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