Baby Pacman Lamp/Solenoid Driver fix

Dokert

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The wife says, "Hey let's take Baby pac to the 2012 NW Pinball and Arcade Show." So, I am getting Baby Pac ready and it has dead feature lamps again. Non-working feature lamps is on my top 5 list for things that piss me off.

Baby Pac's are notorious for having non-working feature lamps because Bally used a 2N5060 to drive 2 lamps each. They should have used MCR106-1's like they did in other pinball machines.

e2a965fa.jpg


I just upgraded all 30 transistors to MCR106-6's with ease. The legs are not in the same order as the 2N5060, but they are long enough to reach without touching.

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Cool info. My wife and I have both wanted a Baby Pac, but keep holding off on it due to the reliability issues with it, and I hate working on vids. :p
 
NICE! I replaced the 5060s often while tracking down bad diodes. Eventually I just started clipping them and soldering new ones onto the dead ones clipped legs.
 
I have a bunch of 5061 I want to try and see if they hold up better. Its a little beefier than the 5060. Still rated at 800ma but is 60v instead of 30v. Life expectancy probably wont be much different than the 5060 but I got a great deal on a batch of them so I figured I would try them. I have a ton of Bally lamp driver bds to go through.
 
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This thread is old as hell, but I just picked up a Baby Pac and I will soon order 30 of these from GPE. Thanks for the info!
-Kyros
 
This thread is old as hell, but I just picked up a Baby Pac and I will soon order 30 of these from GPE. Thanks for the info!
-Kyros

It may be old but I am in the middle of bringing my Baby Pac back to life and finally got everything working on the video side. Last night I started finding the problems with the solenoids and lights. Parts ordered. This thread was half of exactly what I needed.
 
Great post. Thanks Dokert. Looks like I've got some parts to order...

And to everyone else, how has this worked out for you all? Are your lights more reliable since switching to this part?
 
Great post. Thanks Dokert. Looks like I've got some parts to order...

And to everyone else, how has this worked out for you all? Are your lights more reliable since switching to this part?

I have not had issues with the ones I've replaced. So I think these are great stable alternatives to the originals.
 
The wife says, "Hey let's take Baby pac to the 2012 NW Pinball and Arcade Show." So, I am getting Baby Pac ready and it has dead feature lamps again. Non-working feature lamps is on my top 5 list for things that piss me off.

Baby Pac's are notorious for having non-working feature lamps because Bally used a 2N5060 to drive 2 lamps each. They should have used MCR106-1's like they did in other pinball machines.

e2a965fa.jpg


I just upgraded all 30 transistors to MCR106-6's with ease. The legs are not in the same order as the 2N5060, but they are long enough to reach without touching.

6116d95a.jpg


f31a6b38.jpg

I know each SCR corresponds to 2 lamps on the playfield. I'm noticing a pattern with my Baby Pac's issues. For each SCR, one of their bulbs is out, while the other one works. Any idea what the possible culprit might be? Is it the SCR, or could it be something else.

I've already checked the diodes and sockets for each lamp and they all tested ok. I'm wondering if the SCR is the issue or if it could be the connector.

Thanks guys. i've found this thread to be very useful. Any additional help would be much appreciated.
 
Is there an easy way to test the transistors before replacing?

I'm sure it is probably best just to replace all...but would feel easier knowing that my problem with the lamps is the failure of a few of these before I start replacing them all. :eek:
 
Is there an easy way to test the transistors before replacing?

I'm sure it is probably best just to replace all...but would feel easier knowing that my problem with the lamps is the failure of a few of these before I start replacing them all. :eek:

pretty sure you need to pull them to test. might as well upgrade while you have them out.
 
The feature lamps in Baby Pac are driven off a center-tapped AC source from the transformer. There are two purple wires that come off the transformer to a connector. On the other side of that connector is a blue wire (0A) and a grey wire (0B). Each one of those goes through a 10A fuse on the playfield and then to the playfield lights. The 0A blue wire feed lights the Fruits "U", right inside lane, tunnel first "N", right spinner arrow, etc. The 0B grey wire feed lights the Fruits "F", fruits "T", tunnel "T", tunnel "E", etc. These alternate with the AC feed. If all the lamps on say the 0A side are working and none of the lamps on the 0B side are working then you have to suspect the fuse connected between the grey wires (middle fuse in the photo).

As for upgrading, I personally am not a fan unless a lamp driver blows. Bally used a combination of MCR-106s and 2N5060s on their lamp driver boards in their standard pinball machines, usually hooking single lamps to the 2N5060 and felt they could get away with using the 2N5060s in Baby Pac because technically it never drives two lamps simultaneously. I've never had an issue with my Baby Pac lamps and believe all the lamp SCRs are original to the machine. But if I ever have a 2N5060 blow I would replace it with a MCR-106.

If you want to test the SCRs in circuit the procedure can be found on Pinwiki:

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bally/Stern#Testing_Lamp_Driver_SCRs

viperrwk
 

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WOW!:thrasher:You Rock!

And thanks for explaining the theory of it all...that really helps.
I believe I have 9-10 random lights off, but this really inspires me to spend the time to check out all that you have suggested. I haven't even noticed those fuses (and I was searching for every fuse just the other night for a different issue).

Thanks!
 
Is there an easy way to test the transistors before replacing?

I'm sure it is probably best just to replace all...but would feel easier knowing that my problem with the lamps is the failure of a few of these before I start replacing them all. :eek:

pretty sure you need to pull them to test. might as well upgrade while you have them out.

2N5060's can be tested on board using diode function of your meter. The whole reason for this upgrade is that 2N5060's cannot reliably drive 2 lamps. Bally knew this and used them anyway. MCR106's can reliably drive 2 lamps. Another valid option is to replace all lamps with LEDs. Dok
 
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