ok...what the hell did i do to my TRON???

pudluther

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playing last night....something came up....had to hold down the left flipper button for approx 2 minutes.

when i released and continued playing the game, the upper left flipper no longer worked.




what the eff did i do? and how do i diagnose it? repair it?






dammit.
 
Fried the coil? Melted the plastic sleeve due to the heat? Beats me. See if you can move the flipper manually and inspect from under the pf.
 
Fried the coil? Melted the plastic sleeve due to the heat? Beats me. See if you can move the flipper manually and inspect from under the pf.


i was wondering about that too....i'll get under the playfield probably tomorrow or tues. too pissed that it happened to mess with it today.


are there any in-game diagnostic tests i can run to test it?
 
chances are the wire just came off the coil, on the one I had here, and the one a local OP had as well at a show, both had the same problem, the wire just falls off, hopefully its that :) as easy fix
 
if you got lucky you got it hot and desoldered the wire from the coil. If youre not so lucky you fried the coil or melted the plastic sleeve( does the flipper move manually?) or smoked a driver transistor, etc..

get the playfield up, inspect the wiring to the coil, check for manual movement, and report back.
 
if you got lucky you got it hot and desoldered the wire from the coil. If youre not so lucky you fried the coil or melted the plastic sleeve( does the flipper move manually?) or smoked a driver transistor, etc..

get the playfield up, inspect the wiring to the coil, check for manual movement, and report back.

Shouldn't a fuse blow before anything remotely close to this happens? Really no point having fuses at all if the machine can melt down before one blows.

Seems like a real lame thing to happen on a machine supposedly made to withstand public use. Hope it's an easy fix!
 
Yeah finding this a bit disturbing myself. I did basically the same thing with my Shuttle this morning. Was a bit worried but seemed to have no ill effect in my case. Got the parts handy just in case but still....dont want to waste a two month old coil LOL!
 
what weve learned:
dont hold your f*&^&ing flipper button in for 2 mins straight :D


lol. no kidding. :)



anybody know right offhand where the fuse would be if one were blown? i guess they're all in the backbox, right? i can find it from there.....just wanted to make sure there wasn't some obscure fuse hidden somewhere under the playfield.
 
lol. no kidding. :)



anybody know right offhand where the fuse would be if one were blown? i guess they're all in the backbox, right? i can find it from there.....just wanted to make sure there wasn't some obscure fuse hidden somewhere under the playfield.

It isn't a fuse if the left bottom flipper works but the left top doesn't. They are both on the same circuit I think.

First step is to move the flipper manully and see if it is binding up or if it moves freely and go from there. If you can't move it, the coil sleeve is probably melted.
GET IN THERE AND LOOK MAN!
 
Shouldn't a fuse blow before anything remotely close to this happens? Really no point having fuses at all if the machine can melt down before one blows.

Seems like a real lame thing to happen on a machine supposedly made to withstand public use. Hope it's an easy fix!

In cases like this, what typically happens (if the coil burned out or was locked on) is that the EOS switch was mis-adjusted. and the low-voltage part of the relay wasn't being energized instead of the high voltage part when the flipper was up. It's a good idea to routinely throw your pinball machine into switch test mode and check to make sure the EOS switch goes off when the flipper is up. It can be malfunctioning, but you might not notice it until a situation where you have to hold the flipper up for awhile.
 
thanks for the tips, fellas. moved the flipper manually and it wasn't bound in any way. popped the top and took a look at the plunger thingy and it looked fine.


looks like we found the problem....or at least one of them, as i don't have a new fuse to replace it with right this second:

2011-10-17_15-22-40_123.jpg



and fwiw, there's a fuse right there at the upper left flipper...just for future reference:


2011-10-17_15-22-57_634.jpg
 
That pic is too blurry so I can't see where the fuse would go. That is good to know there are fuses down there.
 
That pic is too blurry so I can't see where the fuse would go. That is good to know there are fuses down there.


yeah....i tried two and it wouldn't focus so i just said eff it. LOL.

it's directly across from the red insert.

anyway, my main point was just to let people know that there was a fuse under the playfield for the left upper flipper. also, two more fuses under playfield in between the right and left lower flippers.

again, just FYI as i don't know how many of us have looked under the hoods of our TRONs.
 
OK I see the fuse holder now. Thanks.
I do go under the hood on my pins. Just never had a fuse issues. Mostly opto, opto board, switches, etc.
I'm pretty good with going into the diag and looking at the active switches and figuring out from there.
 
A common Stern issue is bad flipper Transistor..... When the fuse is blowing, need to know the reason why -

Hopefully you replace it and it doesnt blow again (3 amp slo blo).

If its still blowing (or even now, before you chance another fuse), check the power (larger) board in the head, test transistors Q15, and the surrounding ones (Q15 controls the left flipper - forgot which one drives the right).

Buzzing on any one means they are shorted.
 
I wouldn't think holding the flipper down for "two minutes" should cause it to pop the fuse. I have the home ROM in my TZ and will occasionally pause the game with a ball captured on a flipper to go get another beer or shot. I think the max. the home ROM will allow it to hold is 15 minutes. I know this is on a B/W pin, not a Stern, but still that blown fuse doesn't seem right to me :(
 
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