Installing LED's on Gottlieb Pop Bumper boards

KenLayton

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The Gottlieb System 80 Pop Bumper Driver Boards were a great idea but lack any diagnostic aids like LED's. In this thread I will show you how to modify and install diagnostic LED's for indicating "+5 volts present" and "coil fired pulse". Any color LED's can be used, but I like to use green for indicating the +5 volts and yellow for indicating the coil fired pulse.

Parts needed per board:

1 Green Led, Jameco Electronics # 2125296 (9 cents each) or Radio Shack # 276-022 ($1.69 for a 2 pack)

1 Yellow Led, Jameco Electronics # 2125288 (9 cents each) or Radio Shack # 276-021 ($1.69 for a 2 pack)

1 Diode, type 1N4004, Radio Shack # 276-1103 ($1.19 for a 2 pack)

2 Resistors, 330 ohm, quarter watt, Radio Shack # 271-1315 ($1.19 for a 5 pack)

1 Length of insulated wire (small gauge like 22) about 2 inches long

The first step is to clean/dust off the board on both the component and the solder side. Now, looking at the attached pictures, you will be drilling a total of four 1/16" diameter holes spaced about 3 mm apart for the leads of the LED's to pass through. The red circled area on the solder side is where the holes are to be drilled. I use a Dremel battery operated tool with the smallest collet to hold the tiny drill bit. Be sure to use some sharp tool like an awl or ice pick to make a tiny indentation on your marked holes to keep the drill bit from wandering.
 

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Now for the wiring of the "+5 volt" LED:

Insert the green LED into the board from the top (component) side of the board with the flat side (it has the shorter of the two leads) facing the six pin connector. Slowly bend the leads down flat against the board and scrape the paint off the copper traces where the LED will be soldered. The lead from the flat side of the LED will solder directly to the trace in the photo. The other lead will get one lead of the 330 ohm, quarter watt resistors soldered to it. The other lead of the resistor will get soldered to the foil trace as shown in the picture.

Wiring of the "Fire" LED:

Insert the yellow LED into the board from the top (component) side of the board with the flat side (it has the shorter of the two leads) facing the six pin connector. Slowly bend the leads down flat against the circuit board and scrape the paint off the copper traces where these parts will be soldered. The lead of the flat side of the LED will get the short piece of insulated wire soldered to it. The other end of that wire will get soldered to the fat trace shown at the transistor. Now, two parts will get soldered together and connected to the yellow LED's other lead. One lead of a 330 ohm, quarter watt resistor will get soldered to the cathode (banded) end of the 1N4004 diode. The end of the resistor NOT connected to the diode will be soldered to the other lead of the yellow LED. The anode (non-banded) side of the diode will solder to the copper foil at the point indicated in the picture.

Operation of the LED's:

Any time the machine is turned on and the pop bumper driver board is plugged in, the green +5 volt LED should be lit. This shows that the board is getting power and does not necessarily mean the 5 volts is exact. Merely an indication that power is present on the board.

Whenever you push the skirt of the pop bumper or manually close the pop bumper spoon switch, the yellow LED will flash once. This indicates the pop bumper driver board has received the switch closure signal from the spoon switch and has turned on (fired) the transistor.
 

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Upgrades to components

There are also two things that should be performed to improve function & reliability:

Change the value of electrolytic capacitor C4 from 47 uf @ 10 volts to 100 uf @ 16 volts. Observe correct polarity since the board is not marked!

Add an electrolytic capacitor to where there was none before: Solder a 4.7 uf @ 16 volts to the six pin connector. The plus lead of the capacitor goes to pin 5 and the minus lead goes to pin 4. You'll see this capacitor in the earlier photo above.
 
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Replacing the transistor with a TIP102

The existing 2N5057 or 2N6059 transistor can be replaced with a TIP 102 which is so common on other manufacturer's pinball machines. Here is a picture of one I did. Note: this board also has the LED indicators installed.

You'll need to slowly bend the TIP102's leads way out very carefully to fit the existing holes where the old 2N6057 transistor was.
 

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Glad you liked my disgnostic LED mods for System 80 enough to place them here for people to use. You forgot to mention what happens when the flipper button is held in and what it tells you.

blownfuse
System 80, not just a job, it's an adventure
 
Glad you liked my disgnostic LED mods for System 80 enough to place them here for people to use. You forgot to mention what happens when the flipper button is held in and what it tells you.

blownfuse
System 80, not just a job, it's an adventure

To use a meme... "Cannot tell if serious..."

If you're serious and you originated the mod, then why not just SAY what it does?
 
Adding LEDs to +5V circuits as power indicators is not exactly rocket science. Pretty hard for anyone in the pinball community to claim they invented the concept.
 
Very true, on concept, not on application. Not that it really matters but if you look at the mod posted here and look at Clays guides for this diagnostic mod (where Ken got it from), you'll see that they are the same and that I have/had credit for the idea there.

blownfuse
System 80, not just a job, it's an adventure
 
I did not claim inventing anything. Adding LED's to the boards is a "nicety" that improves all of the boards (not just pop bumpers) in a System 80 machine. True, you don't need them, but it sure makes things easier when troubleshooting these machines.

The last time I looked today, the Gottlieb System 80 repair guides are still M.I.A. at the Marvin3m site and have been gone since early April. Here is a screenshot of it today. The System 80 repair guide is still gone from his website.
 

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Very true, on concept, not on application. Not that it really matters but if you look at the mod posted here and look at Clays guides for this diagnostic mod (where Ken got it from), you'll see that they are the same and that I have/had credit for the idea there.

blownfuse
System 80, not just a job, it's an adventure

Sure... if you were the first one to do it then congratulations on being old ;)

I kid... I kid...
 
Ouch! LOL, the truth can hurt. Just figured out that I've been around coin-op for more than 3/4's of my life. Been a player since '65, started collecting in '73, ran several coin-op routes from '83 to '99 and still collecting/playing to this day. It's been a fun ride and I've met a lot of people. Wouldn't trade it away either.

blownfuse
 
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