Fish Tales left flipper not holding

jrivelli

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On my fish tales game the right flipper is just fine. The left flipper will hit fine, but if you hold in the button the flipper itself will not stay up.

The little metal flap on the coil is broken off on one of the 3 posts on the left flipper I noticed so I just soldered it to the metal ring. Could this be it? Ill get a picture up in a bit in case that helps.
 
yeah, that could be it. the low voltage part isn't working, so it's either the connection or the diode.
 
And here is the attachment...

So, totally slipped my mind. No diode at all, yikes.

Any local stores like radioshit...err radio shack carry these?
 

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yep - the shack carries diodes. G-P-E sells them cheaper, but if you don't want to wait for shipping just go to the shack (and they're not that expensive anyway, so...).
 
Last dumb question here. Which diode do I need? I have the manual and could thumb through it, but any tips?
 
anything that has a number like 1N400x or 1N540x. the difference between 400x and 540x is a current rating of 1A vs. 3A - either is fine. the value of the x is the voltage rating - anything should be fine (the most common is 1N4001, which is rated at 50 V, the others are all higher voltages).
 
I snagged a couple packs of the 1N4001 diodes at the shack, put them in the same way as the right flipper (which is working) and now the left flipper doesn't work at all.

I attached a pic, any thoughts on how I did this incorrectly?
 

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the one on the left is in backwards. at least compared to what is in my whirlwind, funhouse, and addams. on mine, the silver band is to the right on both sides, like the one on the right for you.
 
1N4001 is fine for switches and lamps. Too low a voltage for flippers.

You need a 1N4004 or 1N4007.

LTG :)
 
Always nice to look at a thread like this, go "Hey, I know the answer to that!" and then confirm you DO actually have the right answer because someone else beat you too it. :)
 
Hey thanks everyone! Ill run to the shack now and snag a 1N4007.

To clarify, there is a correct way to put them in? In terms of being backwards
 
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Also, the shack only had 1n4004 and 1n4005, so i got both. Id assume 1n4005 is gonna be best in this case
 
Hey thanks everyone! Ill run to the shack now and snag a 1N4007.

To clarify, there is a correct way to put them in? In terms of being backwards

Yes, the silver band helps you know which way it goes. Compare to your other flipper coil to learn which way.

LTG :)
 
Yes, the silver band helps you know which way it goes. Compare to your other flipper coil to learn which way.

LTG :)

Yup yup!

Put on the 1n4005 as it was the biggest i could get tonight. The flipper works, however it does the double pulse and then doesn't stay up still, which I think is a low voltage issue to that flipper.

At this point, from the picture, I'd guess possibly because the orange wire low voltage terminal is broken off? I did re-soldered to the metal circle, so seems like it should work, but I'm unsure.

Best way to test?
 
Quick bump on this one since I get off work soon and want to work on it :p
 
Good temp repair. Hoping you got it to work. I would recommend you go ahead and order a full replacement for the coil. These coils take a lot of abuse. If you didn't desolder and feed everything through the holes in the arms, my guess is that it will not last more then 6 months. Lots of places on line to buy coils.
 
It is all fed through the holes and was desoldered, however still doing the jitter and not holding up.

May need to snag a coil from marco
 
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Get The new coil first and see if that fixes it. If it doesn't the next thing to look at is the fliptropics board. Around 1992 or so, flippers went from basic switches directly controlled by the flipper buttons to being driven from a board. It is the top left board in the pinball head. My guess is it is still the coil itself.
 
Highly doubtful on that coil at this point.

I took off the fliptronics board and low and behold the trace for the left flipper was burnt up and transistor a bit fried. Sent it off with a buddy here locally to replace that for me since I'm no pro and getting those traces back going.

Hope this does it. I'm fairly confident it shall! woo hoo!
 
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