kencinder
New member
I originally posted looking for some pics for help, no longer needed...I spent the time tracing things.
Here is my repair log, if anyone can help with my remaining issues so I can work them out faster, it'd be much appreciated.
Here is my repair log, if anyone can help with my remaining issues so I can work them out faster, it'd be much appreciated.
Middle Earth Repair Log said:So I picked up this Middle Earth from Kevin(Ottogd) last Friday, and it was in need of a fair bit of work...but I think I'm at a point now where FIXING my games is far more entertaining than playing them is, and the price was right.
When I got it, beyond the playfield having some significant wear around the pop bumpers and a bit around nearly every insert\rollover switch, there were numerous issues.
There were THREE fuses in the game that were blown and wrapped with cigarette pack tinfoil(OMFG...), 2 of which were in the solenoid daughterboard. I'm surprised things weren't destroyed on those lines.
[*]Upper Right Flipper Not Working - Aside from the wires not being connected(For obvious reasons I'd learn), 1 wire was damaged, as was the diode across the coil. Surprisingly the coil was fine, I fixed the wire and replaced the diode and voila...working flipper. FIXED
[*]Left Drop Target Bank - Targets would not score correctly, but bank would reset just fine. A simple wiring issue and it was working fine. FIXED
[*]Pop Bumpers not working - This seemed to be tied to the outhole, after playing with the wiring there, they would work. Any other combination of wiring at the outhole switch, and odd behaviour occurs. 1: They don't work at all 2: The left pop bumper also activates the Right Slingshot - FIXED
[*]Right Drop Target Bank - Targets would score correctly, bank would not reset and with all targets down it would just score batshit insane on all switches.
Well duh, with no coil there...of course not. Previous owner had already put a Williams 23-900 coil on the left bank, and it was working perfectly, so why mess with a good thing? I had a few, and I stole a proper length linkage from a DE flipper assembly. The main board was also missing the driver transistor for this, I replaced with a TIP102...suitable, and more than enough to handle the slight increase in current from the 23-900 coil(Not a perfect match for the Atari coil, but close, draws a little more a 23-1200 would probably be perfect). FIXED
[*]Both Slingshots not working - I quickly narrowed this down in test mode, to being the switches. The coils both fire fine, but I noticed prior that they not only weren't causing the coils to fire, they weren't scoring either. FIXED - 74145 chip on switch matrix replaced
[*]Outhole Not working - I thought maybe the coil was done in, I couldn't get it to work. I think it's a switch issue somewhere on the board, I got it to work on starting of a new game with some wire swapping on the switch, but it won't register a drained ball. FIXED - 74145 chip on switch matrix replaced
[*]2 Rollover Switches in Left Outlanes not working - I think this is related to the Slingshot issue, I haven't looked into it further. The swtiches themselves are fine however. FIXED - 74145 chip on switch matrix replaced
[*]3 Red Standup Targets in Upper Left of PF not working - Again I think this is related to the Slingshot issue, but I know nothing other than the switches themselves are fine as of now. FIXED - 74145 chip on switch matrix replaced
I'm not sure where the fear of Atari pins comes from, with my work done so far and my examination of not only the board(s) but the manual and schematics(albeit a pain to read), I find the whole system far simpler than anything else in the same era I've worked on or even looked at. The 1 board design is sure better than the interconnected failure prone BS that can be found in other pins for sure, just from a design and failure standpoint. Not to mention the daughterboard for fused solenoids on the solenoid section edge connector. There's a fuse for EACH solenoid between the driver transistor and the coil.
Maybe it's just the fact that the other manufacturers are more common and there's more knowledge on hand out there, but if you've worked on other games in ANY SS timeframe, you have nothing to fear here. Trace wires, make good use of your multimeter...and it's not as hard as you might think going into it.
So now I have these switch issues to fix, and the PF to fix up so it at least doesn't mess with ball movement, and the game will be working 100%. I'll update this as I get the remainder worked out.
Last edited: