Alberta Mata Hari

DillonFoulds

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Mata Hari Restore

I know of at least one person here that was hoping to snatch up the Mata Hari that went up on Kijiji this week. Just figured I'd let you all know I managed to pick it up this afternoon. ;) My first pin!!

The back glass is mint, and a brief look over the boards I saw no burn marks or anything that stood out. The paint is rough, but nothing that can't be fixed.

Got it all moved in to it's new home, put the legs on it, and plugged it in annnnnddd....

Nothing... crap... is the outlet maybe not working? Outlet works... did I plug it in wrong? no... Is there maybe a power switch hidden? AH-HAH! Here's one on the bottom of the cab! Flip the switch and VOILA! We have lights on! ! ... ! .......

...But no flippers, doesn't coin up, etc. etc. Removed the lockbar, slid out the glass, lifted the playfield to see if there was maybe something else I could turn on? Got a call from Burt6666, he gave me a couple pointers and things to check for (thanks again!).

Now begins my journey! I'll post some pictures hopefully tonight, but maybe tomorrow.
 
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Just kidding...great score !!! I'd love a Mata Hari.I tried to e-mail that guy but never got a reply.I'll help out all I can,if I can't do it,there are plenty of smarter guys than me here that can help.
 
Dug through the machine a bit more last night. Found full schematics and a service tech book, I figure these ought to help me a fair amount. Also apparently they needed some repairs done on the chimes back in 1986. :)

It's an SS, non-inscribed dagger. Serial number 12192 :D

The front right of the cabinet is splitting apart a bit, and there's some surface scrapes on the body of the cab, and the head as well. I haven't tried to clean it up at all yet, but in time I will. Also the owner had a Free Credit button added to the machine. If i decide to redo the outside of the cab, i may consider removing that and bondo'ing the hole.

Machine still only lights up, but doesn't coin up, no flipper action, can't get into any test modes. :( Checked all the fuses, they looked fine. Multimetered for continuity, and they all check out. There's a green LED on a board. Looks like it's supposed to blink 7 times when the MPU (i think that's the name of it) performs a self test, with diagnostics along the way for each blink. But the light doesn't blink, it just stays on! :( I'm gonna check the voltage @ the test points by the fuses this afternoon. Anyone else have any suggestions?

Edit: Here's a quick link to my google photos. 50 Pictures Inside.
 
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BAHAHAHA!! Guy buys one pin and he's giving us the "secret to winning". hehe

Secret to winning in Alberta: Lindsey is not looking right now ;)

I kid... I kid...

I'm semi local. If you need your boards fixed I can help you out.

Haha thanks Lindsey ;) Dean's mentioned you a couple times, I've been telling him next time I'm up there, he should drag me over to your place, and give you a chance to brag about your pins little bit.

Apparently it was a secret, no one else thought to pick up a damn phone! :p
 
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Haha thanks Lindsey ;) Dean's mentioned you a couple times, I've been telling him next time I'm up there, he should drag me over to your place, and give you a chance to brag about your pins little bit.

Apparently it was a secret, no one else thought to pick up a damn phone! :p

Let me know if you're visiting Dean. Sounds like time for another Bally MPU repair clinic.
 
Checked my fuses tonight. Decided i needed a better shot of my Rectifier board.
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Waitaminute... what are these wires running off the test points?
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Oh, how nice, J1 is all torched up, and the wires are spliced in and connected to the test points!
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No worries, connections look stable enough, but let's take them off while we're testing voltages, just to be sure our rectifier is isolated.

Expected voltages (metered):
# TP1 = 6.4v (5.9v)
# TP2 = 150v-195v (145v)
# TP3 = 11v-16v (11v)
# TP4 = 7.5vAC (6.7vAC)
# TP5 = 47v (44v)

How do these sound to you guys? They are all (barring TP3) lower than expected. What are the tolerances like on these older machines?
 
How do these sound to you guys? They are all (barring TP3) lower than expected. What are the tolerances like on these older machines?

They look close enough to me. What does the MPU look like? Corrosion?

I would test the voltages coming out of the regulator board next. If Everything checks out I would pull the MPU and work on it out of the machine. You said the LED is locking on solid, right? This can be caused by a low, missing or unstable voltage at the MPU but it's more likely some other problem like corrosion, bad sockets, oxidized IC legs, etc...

There are a bunch of preventative maintenance items you'll want to do like rebuild your rectifier board but you can probably skip a lot of that stuff and get the game basically working then see what you really need to deal with to make the machine reliable.

That style of rectifier board is burned/hacked more often than not. Soldering the wires to the test points actually works quite well. I'm not condoning it but it will work just fine until you can replace the connectors.
 
Day 3 of the pinball experiment. Pulled the MPU and i'm snooping for some corrosion. Looks like the MPU has had some work on it already. There's white wire soldered in between some chips...
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More snooping around the board and i found THIS! Right beside the battery!
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A bit of corrosion on that capacitor and diode. I may end up taking the board in to my local electronics shop and seeing if they have any replacement parts for the ceramic capacitor and the diode beside it.

Okay, moving on... most everything else looks okay. There is some parts that look like a green foil over the traces is lifting but, but none of it appears to have any impact on continuity.

Time to pull out and reseat all the socketed ICs. I pulled them all out and gave the legs a brief scraping to shiney them up, hoping that would solve some potential conductivity issues. Noticed Pin 21 on U9 is missing!
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Not sure if that's standard or not, but it's the way it is. Continuity still checks out between the IC leg and the bottom of the PCB. Oddly enough though, there's no continuity between the legs when the cpu is removed...

Any suggestions?
 
MPU IC 6800. U9 is the CPU.

And yeah, I got full schematics, the user manual and a nice hefty book called "Repair Procedures - Module and Component Replacement". The last book has been a huge help in understanding this process so far, but there's still a few things i don't understand in it, such as when it says test Reset (overlined). I could only imagine it's supposed to mean with a logic probe, Reset (pin 39 or 40) should be testing high?
 
BOOOYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

Removed the battery, cleaned up the corroded capacitor, and replaced the 2 diodes with brand new 4148's, hooked up the MPU in the head with the rectifier AAAAAAAANNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD......

BLINKING LEDs, CHIMES, FLASHING LIGHTS, FIRING SOLENOIDS!!!
 
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Not only did i get all 7 flashes, I played a round! All solenoids are all firing, pop bumpers are all popping, chimes are all going! Looks like it's fully functional now. Time to replace bulbs, and then figure out the scoring lights. I'll post pictures of those up in a couple minutes (after i play another round).
 
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