WCS94 (Dogball)

[Deleted member 5505]

Received this today, couple of noticeable things I'd like help or clarification please as it's my first WPC game.

1. The ball motor is VERY loud, on Pinside most of the advice is to turn the volume up as people who've bought new motors still find them to be loud.
   Before I take apart and blindly start tightening and lubing parts, are there any common suggestions?
   
   
2. When a ball enters the shooter lane, I'm sure a solenoid or two are quick firing like it's doing an immediate ball search ? Surely that's not normal?
   
   
3. The dmd** appears to be a tri-colour effect, not seen one like this before having only swapped originals in other DE/Stern games for ColorDMD/Pin2DMD.
   At the conclusion of 1 game the screen went totally white except for one vertical line, while the game audio continued the end spiel stuff.
   
   
4. Pop bumpers aren't very sensitive at all (I'm assuming this will be spoon style? The manual doesn't show where the switch is positioned, just the playfield assembly)
   
   
5. Saucer rejects seem aplenty, the pitch is almost as steep as it can go. The flippers are nice and snappy though, which probably doesn't help with this.

There'll probably be more questions incoming. Thanks

EDIT**Appears to be a pinballsp DMDMK66

 

[Asiapinball]

1 motor is held on by 2 screws and taking it off enables grease to be put in gearbox. Didn't help much in mine but some say it works.

2. Shouldn't do that. Maybe switch matrix errors activating several switches at once.

4. Usual spoon.

5. Don't have issue with mine despite snappy flippers and steep.

 

[David_Vi]

Pop bumpers aren't very sensitive at all (I'm assuming this will be spoon style? The manual doesn't show where the switch is positioned, just the playfield assembly)

Check the spoon and switch stack are aligned so the skirts stick goes directly into the middle of the spoon.

Adjust the leaf switch so the gap is as small as possible without it getting set off by vibration nearby. So many games need the pops tweaking

When a ball enters the shooter lane, I'm sure a solenoid or two are quick firing like it's doing an immediate ball search ? Surely that's not normal?

Check the shooter lane switch is working when a ball is present..it could be ball searching because it can't see it. But it's more likely to be something else like @Asiapinball says if the coils are firing instantly.

Saucer rejects seem aplenty, the pitch is almost as steep as it can go. The flippers are nice and snappy though, which probably doesn't help with this.

Claire's Dogball is steep with flippers newly rebuilt and saucers work fine. They're not the kind of saucers you tend to aim for, at least I've never seen anyone aim for them (they're not worth much at all except the goal one)
The ball just finds them. If they've got cliffy protectors around them it can affect that.

A picture might help

 

[Deleted member 5505]

1. Totally stripped the motor back, and it seemed very clean like it was new fairly recently. No gear wear and already heavily lubricated, it is what it is I guess.
2. Need a 2nd opinion on this I still hear something like solenoid triggers when the ball is launched into the shooter lane, no switch errors as far as I can discern.
3. DMDMK66 appears to be sh1tshow from what I’ve read online, this was also powered inappropriately in this game so I switched with the colordmd from Tommy, and it looks superb Tommy doesn’t look too bad with the red white and blue palette as it suits the game.
4. Slightly better after a little tweaking tho still irritatingly unresponsive with a slow rolling ball, but have improved the sensitivity of the slingshots though.
5. No progress, balls seems to smash into them and bounce out.

 

[Moonraker]

Need a 2nd opinion on this I still hear something like solenoid triggers when the ball is launched into the shooter lane, no switch errors as far as I can discern.

You need to put the game in to switch test and see if it registers the ball when it's in the shooter lane.

No progress, balls seems to smash into them and bounce out.

It sounds like the metal ball stops behind the holes need adjusting, they've probably been bent out of shape by the number of balls hitting them over the years.

 

[Deleted member 5505]

You need to put the game in to switch test and see if it registers the ball when it's in the shooter lane

It does Also manually moved a ball along the trough for each to register, I’ve ordered the plastic shim from Retro David

It sounds like the metal ball stops behind the holes need adjusting, they've probably been bent out of shape by the number of balls hitting them over the years.

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 5505]

@mufcmufc very very kindly popped around earlier and worked his magic on all the above, and also resolved a couple of issues I’d not even noticed, legend

Thank you

 

[Asiapinball]

So what fixed the issues? For future reference.

 

[Deleted member 5505]

So what fixed the issues? For future reference.

More tweaking of the pop bumpers, washers on the underside of the playfield to lower the saucer level (also a missing screw and rubber) magnetised balls (changed to Polaris and the plastic trough shim) the Final Draw and TV LEDs had been wired backwards too which would have taken me a while to realise.

 

[Jay Walker]

With the bumpers, apart from the gap between the contacts, another thing is the stiffness of the longer contact blade (the one touching the plastic spoon blade). Too stiff, and a slow-moving ball won't be able to push the footplate down, while with it too loose vibration can allow the contacts to close. As David Vi says above, so many games needed them tweaked, even straight out of the shipping carton; however you rate Theatre of Magic, with those three bumpers so closely penned in only one visit was needed to complete the Straitjacket Escape after adjusting them.

 

[Asiapinball]

Regarding the saucers and from memory when I shopped out mine last year there was a clear plastic spacer on each of the saucers. Maybe yours were missing?

 

[Deleted member 5505]

Regarding the saucers and from memory when I shopped out mine last year there was a clear plastic spacer on each of the saucers. Maybe yours were missing?

Ohhh that would definitely make sense cheers