Pinbot stranded! Taxi problem :(

Syngefinger

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I finally received my new rubber set for the new Taxi machine I've recently purchased. I replaced a few bulbs that were burned out under the upper lane dividers and ramps. Everything looks nice and plays nice and fast after the Novus 2 cleaning and 3 layers of wax.

Now however, all 3 of the pop bumpers are inoperative. Upon start-up it prompts me to push the advance button to enter test mode. It says check Switch 17, Switch 19 and Switch 21, which I know are the pop bumper switches. Also the pop bumper lights are off where as before they were all lit up and 2 of the 3 pop bumpers were operating.

Could it be as simple as a bad fuse? If not what is my next step to checking these switches?
Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

Steve
 
While examining the boards behind the backglass I noticed a plug hanging loose. (Picture attached). I assumed that it would plug into the socket labeled J9 right near it, but the socket has 4 prongs and a space and 2 prongs. While the plug has 3 holes, a filled hole, a space and 2 holes. Any ideas as to where this plug belongs? I don't see any more empty sockets nearby. It must serve some purpose.
 

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Are there any labels on the connector?

well i think you are effed for owning games. You must have gremlins messing with your wiring it will be impossible to keep them running. Might as well send that taxi my way.
 
It could be that somebody replaced the connector over the years with the wrong one. I've had to do that a time or two over the years. Do you have a manual for the game? That'd be a big help first of all.
Secondly, put the machine into switch test and work your way through from there. See if the machine even detects the switch closure. If it does, and the poppers don't pop, then you're not getting voltage to the solenoids. That could be a blown fuse. If the machine isn't even registering the switches, then trace it back from there. I would guess it would be a bad/broken ground wire, since usually that would be looped to more than one thing at a time.
Check your switch matrix (usually posted somewhere inside the machine, or in the manual) and see what other switches are on the same line as the poppers, and make sure those are working. Try to isolate the problem to one thing or another before you try and fix it. Makes life a lot easier, rather than trying to fix multiple things at the same time.
Start with that, and see what you can do from there.
 
I finally received my new rubber set for the new Taxi machine I've recently purchased. I replaced a few bulbs that were burned out under the upper lane dividers and ramps. Everything looks nice and plays nice and fast after the Novus 2 cleaning and 3 layers of wax.

Now however, all 3 of the pop bumpers are inoperative. Upon start-up it prompts me to push the advance button to enter test mode. It says check Switch 17, Switch 19 and Switch 21, which I know are the pop bumper switches. Also the pop bumper lights are off where as before they were all lit up and 2 of the 3 pop bumpers were operating.

Could it be as simple as a bad fuse? If not what is my next step to checking these switches?
Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

Steve

Does your game have the Taxi sign sitting on top of the backbox? I just bought a Taxi and I have a plug like you're describing but I'm missing the topper sign. I was just assuming that's where it goes.
 
No, I don't have the white Taxi topper sign on top. Good thing too because in my low Michigan basement it'd never fit anyway. That might make sense what you're saying about the connector, as everything seems to be in working order without it plugged in.

We replaced the fuse for the pop bumpers and 2 of the 3 are now working again. We've traced the upper left pop bumper that's still inoperative and found that a repair was done on the CPU board at one time. It appears that the repair is somehow causing the run to go to ground and blows the fuse when the wiring is connected. I've been trying to located part numbers for the transistors in the upper left pop bumper loop, but haven't be able to locate it in my copies of the schematics. I can post a picture later tonight if that'll help identify them.
 
You need to go over the schematics, and check the wiring diagrams for that connector. It will tell you what each pin is, what color each wire is, and where each wire is coming/going. The key matching is probably a good sign. I wouldn't be surprised to see if the 1st pin on the 4 pin side is empty anyways.
 
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