big time confused over the control room issue with my jurassic park...need help

pudluther

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big time confused over the control room issue with my jurassic park...need help

sorry for starting a new thread on this, but i was afraid it would get buried in the other thread where i just bought the pins....


ok, so my control room is not working on my JP. after receiving advice from several posters here, i checked the diode on the switch...turns out it was completely severed. i replaced the diode, making sure solid connection was made and making sure the banded side of the diode was to the right as per instruction. still nothing.

so then we wound up testing the switch....the two similar switches that we knew were working (bunker and power shed) tested the same. the control room did nothing when tested with the multimeter.

since the control room is more important than the power shed (at least initially) and i knew the power shed switch worked, i went ahead and took the power shed switch over to the control room. still nothing. no control room function. tested the switch again once it was in place at the control room and it tested fine.

so....at this point....totally stumped. out of pure desperation, shorted the power shed switch to make sure it worked: it did. shorted the control room using same two wire positions and it still does not activate the control room modes/missions......it does do something though: it gives points. like 100K or so. and i made sure the control room was active via the rollover and power shed.




please help. i have no idea what to do next or where to even look.


thanks in advance for any help, fellas.....
 
am i missing a chip here on this board?


DSCN2004.jpg



DSCN2005.jpg




i have no idea if there's supposed to be something there by the battery case...geese, do you know? or anybody else? and if there is supposed to be something there, is that why my control room refuses to work? and if so, where do i get the chip and which one do i need?


thanks.
 
A more detailed exp on that empty socket:

Early revision Data East games used 2 smaller ROMS in tandem. Later models after they switched used a single larger rom, like on your Jurassic Park.


Anyways, are you saying that i you physically close the switch and measure across the switch contacts it doesn't work? Even after swapping it from the other location with a known good switch? I'm just trying to clarify your testing methods.

You need to check continuity for that switch all the way back to the source for both wires.
 
A more detailed exp on that empty socket:

Early revision Data East games used 2 smaller ROMS in tandem. Later models after they switched used a single larger rom, like on your Jurassic Park.


Anyways, are you saying that i you physically close the switch and measure across the switch contacts it doesn't work? Even after swapping it from the other location with a known good switch? I'm just trying to clarify your testing methods.

You need to check continuity for that switch all the way back to the source for both wires.



i'm a n00b, so my testing methods are primitive by board standards i'm sure. :)


but yeah, i wound up taking the switch completely out of the equation after everything else failed and shorting the two wires together to attempt to trigger the control room feature....and it didn't trigger it, but it DID give me around 100K points or so every time i touched the wires together. the same testing method (shorting the two wires) was done on the power shed just to make sure and it worked as normal.

so i'm guessing as well that checking for continuity all the way back is my next step....just haven't gotten up the courage to do that yet. it'll be my first time. :)

i guess before checking, i need to visually inspect the wires and see exactly where they go, correct? then test continuity along the entire run? and, assuming that at least one of the wires fails this check, then i start working my way backwards towards the switch? or no?



thanks for the reply and any additional advice/suggestions/taunts would be greatly appreciated.
 
Are you checking these switches in the diagnostic Switch test?



i haven't yet....didn't even think of it to be honest. i'm not very familiar at all with the diagnostics menu of a data east pin. these are my first two. i was testing open/closed with a multimeter.

how do you get there? and what do i look for when i finally make it?
 
Go here:

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1343

Download the JP manual here:

http://www.ipdb.org/files/1343/Data_East_1993_Jurassic_Park_Manual.pdf

The instructions to get into the various test modes are right in the manual

RussM


i haven't yet....didn't even think of it to be honest. i'm not very familiar at all with the diagnostics menu of a data east pin. these are my first two. i was testing open/closed with a multimeter.

how do you get there? and what do i look for when i finally make it?
 
Once you get the manual and go into the switch test check all the switches. Compare the results to the switch matrix, look for anything common like things in the same row and column.
Also follow the guides at pinrepair.com for the switch matrix.
 
I FINALLY FIXED MY JP, FELLAS!!!! WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! :)



i know it's not a big deal to you old timers, but this is really the first major issue i've repaired on one of my pins....took a lot of time and a LOT more testing than it should have (fix wound up being easier than i thought, but being inexperienced, i circled my elbow twice to get to my a-hole :) ), but i FINALLY did it!!!

i'm kinda pumped right now. go cocks...go pinball!!!! :)
 
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Excellent !! Wonderful to hear you found your switch issue. I just got a JP myself and it's awesome - love it.

Do you mind detailing your fix methods and results?

It can be a big help to others.

Thanks,

RM

I FINALLY FIXED MY JP, FELLAS!!!! WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! :)



i know it's not a big deal to you old timers, but this is really the first major issue i've repaired on one of my pins....took a lot of time and a LOT more testing than it should have (fix wound up being easier than i thought, but being inexperienced, i circled my elbow twice to get to my a-hole :) ), but i FINALLY did it!!!

i'm kinda pumped right now. go cocks...go pinball!!!! :)
 
Excellent !! Wonderful to hear you found your switch issue. I just got a JP myself and it's awesome - love it.

Do you mind detailing your fix methods and results?

It can be a big help to others.

Thanks,

RM



lol...well, the only thing i would be detailing would be my inexperience. :)




for those that didn't keep up with my JP repair trials and tribulations, a quick recap:

- the control room shot would not start any of the modes

- there's a switch and diode under the control room...the diode was broken (which is a common JP problem)

- replaced the diode and switch as both were bad

the above is all i NEEDED to do, as it fixed the problem...





...but totally not having a clue what i was doing, i made a few rookie mistakes, LOL.

i made the mistake of not testing the diode/switch in test mode and instead went straight to the game (assuming that it was fixed). well, it didn't work. i assumed (incorrectly) that i had another problem.

turns out, the only thing happening was the switch wasn't up high enough in the trough to register when the ball rolled over it. finally wised up, went to test mode, confirmed that it was working, and then figured out what the problem was.

so let this be a lesson to all the would be repairmen that are as dumb as me: test mode, test mode, test mode. :)
 
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