Pinbot solenoid issue

JC Arcade

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
2,598
Reaction score
58
Location
New Jersey
Recently picked up a Pinbot, my first pin. Everything was dandy and then the other day the ball wouldn't feed into the shooting lane after starting a game. I thought it might be a switch issue, but during the diagnostics, the switches checked out fine, but most of the solenoids didn't pulse during the coil test. Only the last six solenoids pulsed (#17 thru #22 as listed on page 27 of the manual). Solenoids #1 thru #21, with #3 being the ball trough feeder didn't do anything.

Aside from making sure the associated connections (1P11 and 1P12) are nice and tight, any idea what could be causing all those solenoids to not work?
 
Lets start with the easy stuff first Did you check the fuses?Did you check for any loose wires near the ball through?
-Mike
 
Blown fuse or a wire that daisy-chains power to the solenoids has become disconnected.

If a wire in the middle of that whole chain of solenoids is disconnected, would it cause all the solenoids to not work or just those after the disconnection?
 
If a wire in the middle of that whole chain of solenoids is disconnected, would it cause all the solenoids to not work or just those after the disconnection?

Just those after the disconnection.

There could also be other problems but the stuff I mentioned above are the most likely.
 
So I checked fuses (which were fine) and checked connections and fired it up and had the same problem. Went through diagnostics, same problem, but when I came out of diagnostics, everything was working. :)

Then I ran through diagnostics again, and sure enough, it passed the coil test 100%. Played a game, everything was fine. Put the backglass on, the playfield glass back on and started a game. Now it reboots everytime I hit the start button. The other odd thing is that I have two "adjust switch" messages that have been there from when the game was working fine. These messages still pop up, but instead of just the sound, the knocker fires about 3 times for each message.

:confused:
 
Did you find any loose wires or daisey-chained wires?

I did look and didn't see anything odd, but honestly, the underside of the playfield was pretty overwhelming (first time under the hood of a pin), so I'm not sure I was very thorough. Looked mostly by the ball feeder and flippers.
 
Those knocks when you start are a message that some switches are not working. My pinbot knocks 5 times. If you are not worried about high scores pull the batteries when it is off and replace (with new if you do not know the age). It will do that if a switch has not been activated over so many plays. It is a good diagnostic tool though. It should list the switches not working after the knocks.
 
What's weird is that I wasn't getting those knocks for the last 2 weeks (that's how long I've owned it), but I was getting the adjust messages with a "woo woo woo" sound effect instead. Now I get the knocking sounds which as you and the manual point out, is what I SHOULD be getting.
 
Man, I am so frustrated/confused over this. The machine was working tonight for about 3-4 games, and then it went right back to the original problem where half the solenoids are not working. Argh!!! Is it possible something is overheating?
 
first replace those batteries!, it will give you the adjust failure if the batteries are old, also is there any acid damage on the mpu? , try this , flip it on press the right button on the test panel , then press the left button , you may see au 70 or something all your doing to resetting to factory settings
 
Back
Top Bottom