f14 pinball help needed please

Djkus

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I purchased a joblot of old arcade machines yesterday, one of them was the f14 pinball machine.
It powers up, beeps... and the led display on the cpu board flashes between 0 and 7 really quick, if i press cpu reset, or play with the buttons attatched to the coin mech, it will reboot and work fine.. (apart from the display... only 1 works)

I checked the 5v line.. which is ..4.94V.. a little low but not enough for it to trip like this is it?

I measured the +100v and -100v lines going from psu to the display board.. they both appear to be present so the fault with the display.. i wonder if its related to the fail on power up?

Does anyone have any idea?
once i reset it, the game plays 100% bar the display..

my first pinball machine so im learning as i go ...
 
That is indeed low enough voltage to cause no boot.
Also, a game can boot but usually when you hit both flippers at the same time it'll reset. Get that to a solid +5V
 
5v line

I found a good guide that describes what parts to upgrade on the psu... do you have any idea what would cause the 5v to drop a little like that?

Also... according to the guide I should have got this on the power supply...

3J5 pin 1: ground
3J5 pin 3: -100 volts DC (or -90 volts if ZR2/ZR4 is a 1N4763)
3J5 pin 4: +100 volts DC (or +90 volts if ZR2/ZR4 is a 1N4763)
3J5 pin 6: +5 volts DC


I checked and checked again but pin 3 is not a - voltage on mine but + and pin 4 was the- voltage!

my display 3 works on the display board... (bottom left one), but other 3 dont... it looks like someone has replaced display 3 in the past as its been soldered by hand (badly).. othe r ones were not touched oddly enough.

hard to know what people have done since 1987 to it i guess.


any help much appreciated,

paul, belfast, n.ireland
 
yip, thats the web site i found tonight, its amazing but... confused me a lot with the 100v voltage lines.. how can mine be reversed? and yes.. my meter was defo probed correctly.. lol ive done that before..
 
yip, thats the web site i found tonight, its amazing but... confused me a lot with the 100v voltage lines.. how can mine be reversed? and yes.. my meter was defo probed correctly.. lol ive done that before..

Well, for starters you are smart enough to realize you don;t know what chuckle head may have done what to this machine. You're now finding things are wrong and with this guide you should be able to get her fixed up.
Since you're going to have to pull a couple pins out of the molex connector you night as well just buy a new connector for it and redo the entire thing. Those types of items are notorious for getting crispy and flaking out. Ensure your other connectors don;t need to be replaced before you place an order.
congrats on the pin BTW!
 
my first order was the ceramic 5w resistors on bottom of the pcb, r92? something like that.. a few of them had heated so much over the years that they had actually come off the board.. i was able to solder them back on.. but made no difference to the problems im having..
ive got new ones comming so ill replace all those..

and ive just made a list of parts ill need to replace in the psu to try and get the 5v line up a little..
 
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display fault

on another note.... i assume i have to buy one of these "new type" display boards for my machine and import it from usa to uk ?
one of my display lights up and works (display 3), but the other 3 dont..
 
Video of my CPU board problem

http://db.tt/ptqBALW
Comes on when powered up,shows "7" on led display on CPU board..then flashes quickly to 0/7.. I can play the pinball game by resetting board or pressing buttons in coon mach door a few times.

All voltage lines are present and seem ok.5v line is 4.98 from psu and 4.96 using 5v test point on CPU board..

Anyone seen this problem before? Resistors on bottom of CPI board get v v hot I've noticed..but are within spec
 
F-14 is a System 11A game

If you are seeing a "7" on the cpu, then that means the cpu in your F-14 is a System 11 board(no "A"). Sys11 is first generation and are found in games like High Speed or Grand Lizard.

There is no issue using a Sys11 board in a Sys11A game. There is other revisions(11B,11C) and some are interchangeable but I wont get into that.

Anyways, my point is that Sys11 boards use a small 7 segment LED display while Sys11A-11C use three LED's to display information(+5v,Diagnostics, and Blanking signal). When you use a System 11 board in a non Sys11 game(11A in your case) the 7 segment display will show garbage results.

My guess is that the game is booting up to "adjustment error" and you are just clearing it by resetting the board. I would replace the batteries on the board and have the coin door closed when you power the machine up. See if it boots straight into attract mode.

You can read more on the adjustment error on the pinrepair guide. Could also be a bad battery holder. hope that helps.
 
Very Happy

Grbgemen!! I thank you so much, although i had previously replaced the batteries on the cpu board i overlooked checking the voltages on the cpu board... i did tonight... obviously one of the lugs that grip the battery was gone as 3rd battery wasnt giving voltage out.. so i fixed it like this.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3437318/Photo Oct 28, 11 27 39 PM.jpg

Such a simple thing for me not to have checked!I spent all night removing the cpu board and resoldering possible dry joints and other previous repairs that must have happened over the years before I got it! doh! lol

I also removed the glass display that WORKED... and swapped it for another location to 100% be sure the data and voltage was getting to the display board... and yes.. swapping the glass display boards basically just showed me i only have 1 glass display working..

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3437318/Photo Oct 28, 11 27 19 PM.jpg

At least I can now order a replacement display board and know the data lines are going there ok..

It looks like I have the normal display board and not the early one with credit info... i think?


Anyway, thanks again for your help, I probably would have never checked that!

:) Paul
 
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