Last Nights Pick Up

dieseldogpi

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Picked up a semi working Last Action Hero last night. Playfield is in good shape, very little wear, only around the kick out holes so cliffy's should cover that. Very dirty. Wiring is a nightmare, whoever had it last tried to hack in a Williams transformer, I don't know if it was done correctly, so that will be the first part of this I tackle (creating another thread for this). DMD doesn't work, but other than that, everything seems ok. Some sort of after market coin door was put in that I will want to change. Picked it up relatively cheap and I was looking for a project, hopefully this one isn't as annoying as the Mr and Mrs Pacman. We will see.

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I like Cheeze It's too!!!!

Looking forward to "watching" your new project bloom!
 
I feel like if you DON'T love Cheeze Its, there has to be something wrong with you.

And yes, the transformer wiring is the scary part. I would like to disconnect and start from scratch with this part, tha'ts even if a Williams transformer can be safely put into a data east machine. If anyone has any info on this, please let me know.
 
That's a nice looking game, wish I could find a project LAH around here. Looks like you'll be having a lot of fun getting that one going again. :)
 
I own a LAH as well. That game is a mechanical nightmare.
FIRST THING ENSURE PROPER FUSES ARE USED
Here's what I would bet money on that you'l find.


If all some or all magnets don't work or blows fuse F9 or fuses on magnet power board:
Disconnect the aux driver board found mounted underneath the pf.
Manually engage the switch in front of the ripper coil. If F9 blows
don't automatically replace the TIP122, pre driver or coil for that
matter. Meter out the associated TIP36C @ Q1 on the PPB board and then
meter out the 2n4401 pre driver @Q7 and TIP122 @ Q13. Typically when
the coil locks on it blows F9 fuse on the PPB board so fast no damage
to the coil (or aforemetioned parts) occurs. Chances are that if the
TIP122 and pre driver check out good, it's simply the fuse and TIP36C
that needs to be replaced. I was pissed to find out I replaced the
"normal" components for nothing.
Replace fuse and test RIPPER coil again. If the fuse doesn't blow then
reconnect your magnet aux driver board. Keep playing (invoke as many M-
BALLs as you can.) If F9 EVENTUALLY blows ONLY when having the aux
driver board installed then use the capacitor fix mentioned above. If
the fuse DOES blow (immediately when RIPPER coil activated) then most
likely you'll find that the TIP122 transistor and pre driver are
damaged, replace TIP122 @ Q13 with a more robust TIP102 and replace
the pre driver (2n4401) @ Q7, Ohm out your RIPPER coil. If it falls
under spec (which this particular coils spec is 3.8) cut one leg of
the diode off and re-check it. If it meters out at ~3.8 replace the
diode on the coil. If it still meters under install a new coil.


Magnet controller board under PF most if not all of the 3 fuses will be blown. If the person you just bought it from just dropped in new fuses you'll get a handful of games in and POOF. Magnets no longer work and the RIPPER coil won't fire. You'll find 2 fuses on the power board (I think F5 and F9) will be blown as well. You can unhook the magnet power board and have the ripper coil work consistently or you can REBUILD the magnet board with 3 new with IRL540 MosFETs not to mention you need to add a .22uf capacitor across the clock signal and ground on the ICL chip on the magnet power board (known as auxillary power board).

The crane is typically maladjusted. If the crane likes to start and go off for no apparent reason you need to loosn the allen head screw on the side of crane and ensure the crane is pressing against the switch on the lock ball ramp. You'll also need to ensure it properly touched the switch at the otherside that stops the crane. It'll take some farting around with to get it right.

The 555 bulb that faces the crane will keep blowing because the jolt it takes from the VUK kicking the ball up to the return rail. Get an LED light for that to eliminate that issue.

Lastly if you run into issues with the ball taking a long time to get pushed into the shooter lane, on the end of the ball trough there's a tube wrapped diode and that connection likes to come loose. So instead of the ball feeding automatically into the shooter lane it's almost like the game performs a ball search. Trough switches typically need adjusted as well.

Drop targets - terrible design. Too short and causes ball hangups. I went with the larger diameter ones that sit a touch higher but I had to grind them thinner and it didn;t stop ball hangups. It's irritating as hell.

LAH is an AWESOME game and one of the best bang for the buck machines but tweaking it to make everything work is a complete bitch. I hope my misery helps someone out in the future.
 
I have a serious Love Hate relationship with Gottlieb pins. I love them and I think they are the best brand for game play, art, theme. I hate them for being a tech pain in the ass and unfortunately not much in the aftermarket. Good luck with last Action Hero it's a really fun pin.
 
Hmm; any chance it's a re-import? That might explain why the coin door was swapped out, and perhaps why the transformer was as well - may have been set for 220, and somebody plugged it in without changing the configuration? Don't remember if that would smoke the transformer...

Inside definitely dirty, but playfield looks pretty good in that picture.
 
I own a LAH as well. That game is a mechanical nightmare.
FIRST THING ENSURE PROPER FUSES ARE USED
Here's what I would bet money on that you'l find.


If all some or all magnets don't work or blows fuse F9 or fuses on magnet power board:
Disconnect the aux driver board found mounted underneath the pf.
Manually engage the switch in front of the ripper coil. If F9 blows
don't automatically replace the TIP122, pre driver or coil for that
matter. Meter out the associated TIP36C @ Q1 on the PPB board and then
meter out the 2n4401 pre driver @Q7 and TIP122 @ Q13. Typically when
the coil locks on it blows F9 fuse on the PPB board so fast no damage
to the coil (or aforemetioned parts) occurs. Chances are that if the
TIP122 and pre driver check out good, it's simply the fuse and TIP36C
that needs to be replaced. I was pissed to find out I replaced the
"normal" components for nothing.
Replace fuse and test RIPPER coil again. If the fuse doesn't blow then
reconnect your magnet aux driver board. Keep playing (invoke as many M-
BALLs as you can.) If F9 EVENTUALLY blows ONLY when having the aux
driver board installed then use the capacitor fix mentioned above. If
the fuse DOES blow (immediately when RIPPER coil activated) then most
likely you'll find that the TIP122 transistor and pre driver are
damaged, replace TIP122 @ Q13 with a more robust TIP102 and replace
the pre driver (2n4401) @ Q7, Ohm out your RIPPER coil. If it falls
under spec (which this particular coils spec is 3.8) cut one leg of
the diode off and re-check it. If it meters out at ~3.8 replace the
diode on the coil. If it still meters under install a new coil.


Magnet controller board under PF most if not all of the 3 fuses will be blown. If the person you just bought it from just dropped in new fuses you'll get a handful of games in and POOF. Magnets no longer work and the RIPPER coil won't fire. You'll find 2 fuses on the power board (I think F5 and F9) will be blown as well. You can unhook the magnet power board and have the ripper coil work consistently or you can REBUILD the magnet board with 3 new with IRL540 MosFETs not to mention you need to add a .22uf capacitor across the clock signal and ground on the ICL chip on the magnet power board (known as auxillary power board).

I replaced my magnet controller board with a new one from Great Lakes Modular, and it worked for a while but again is blowing fuse F9. I tried activating the Ripper coil with magents unplugged and it tested fine after 50 or so tries so I don't think it's the Ripper. I checked the fuse holder for F9 and it seems in great condition.

The only thing that's worked for me in the past was pulling the fuse from the middle magnet under the playfield and only using the 2 outside magnets, then the fuse won't blow. The reason for getting the new controller board was to have 3 magnets going again, which I thought I had done, bummer, but I'm not giving up. Maybe my magnets are too old and draw too much current?

I will agree the game takes a lot of tweaking to get things working right but it's still a great game to play and very satisfying when you do have it running well.

*Edit: I have gone back to 2 magnets and it works fine this way, still a good magnet effect but I would like to know if anyone has any suggestions.
 
Last edited:
Hmm; any chance it's a re-import? That might explain why the coin door was swapped out, and perhaps why the transformer was as well - may have been set for 220, and somebody plugged it in without changing the configuration? Don't remember if that would smoke the transformer...

Inside definitely dirty, but playfield looks pretty good in that picture.

Bingo!
.........
 
Plugging 120 into a 220 would mean low voltage - the game wouldn't boot, and the smoke wouldn't come out.

Ways to get the smoke to come out of a transformer:
Short secondary leads together - POOF! (Fast smoke due to pulling infinite power)
Pull too much load through it (similar to above, it gets hot, hotter, hottest, and then smoke.)
Exceed the insulation rating with too much voltage (blows through, the winding shorts, and poof)

Remember, a transformer is a pretty "dumb" part. It takes voltage and reduces it in most cases. So, if my tap is 35 volts at 220 vac, and I drop to 120 vac input, I get around 18 volts. Get it?
 
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