TECH: Bally & Stern Displays dim

Rich in FL

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Hi Everyone, I'm going through a box of Bally and Stern 6 digit displays I picked up and am fixing them. Two of them have a problem that has me scratching my head. On one of the Bally and one of the Stern displays all the digits work, they are all dim though. I know they are getting the proper voltage because the other displays I plug in work fine. Any help in figuring out this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, --Rich
 
It has been my experience that the headers are probably bad. Replace the headers and they should look like brand new when powered up.
 
Are you testing all of the displays in the same position on the game? If the headers are causing it you should see the displays get brighter when you wiggle the connector with the display on. Just don't electrocute yourself. 190VDC probably wouldn't feel too nice.
 
Are you testing all of the displays in the same position on the game? If the headers are causing it you should see the displays get brighter when you wiggle the connector with the display on. Just don't electrocute yourself. 190VDC probably wouldn't feel too nice.

It doesn't feel real good.:eek:

Wiggling is a good idea, but doesn't always show you what you want to see. Getting zapped kind of sucks too, but it is an eye opener.:rolleyes:
 
It doesn't feel real good.:eek:

Wiggling is a good idea, but doesn't always show you what you want to see. Getting zapped kind of sucks too, but it is an eye opener.:rolleyes:

Yeah... throwing parts at the game without troubleshooting is definitely the way to go ;)
 
Yeah... throwing parts at the game without troubleshooting is definitely the way to go ;)

Wow, you are a bit cranky today. :D Display headers are a known point of failure for Bally / Stern displays. Replacing the header costs about $1, and takes about 5 minutes on the outside.

Wiggle test is always worth a shot, not to mention swapping locations of identical displays.
 
I'm not trying to break your balls. You know I hate guessing ;)

I am with you there, but you must admit that roughly 95% of the time replacing those headers will fix the issue.

I have gotten to the point, that I just replace them as a preventive measure on displays that are new to me.

I have a Xenon donor machine, and the remnants of another Xenon donor machine. All 10 displays had issues, and wiggle test worked great until I got a little careless.:eek: Each display header that I have replaced so far has resulted in a very nice crisp and clear display.

I also had some issues with the infinity lights and the lamp expander board. Replacing the headers on the lamp expander board resulted in all of the infinity lights working correctly as they should.
 
These games are full of bad connectors. That's no secret. They're reaching the point of Gottlieb system 1 games where you just replace every connector in the game. If we were talking about preventative maintenance on Bally/Stern games I could give a laundry list of what I think should be done. Repair of individual components is a different topic all together and that's what we're discussing here. That requires troubleshooting, 95% or not.
 
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Well, replacing the headers did the trick. The Bally is now 100%. However, the Stern 6 digit display is now experiencing a different problem. All the digits come on nice and bright at first, but within a minute or two the middle two digits start to fade from the top down. It looks really weird, almost like a candle light starting to flicker out. What the ??????
 
Of course the other option is the display is tired and needs a new tube ...around a $50 purchase.
 
Well, replacing the headers did the trick. The Bally is now 100%. However, the Stern 6 digit display is now experiencing a different problem. All the digits come on nice and bright at first, but within a minute or two the middle two digits start to fade from the top down. It looks really weird, almost like a candle light starting to flicker out. What the ??????

I would look at the individual segment section in the scat and start testing components.

Just think yourself lucky. The next 18 are sure to only need the header :p

:D
 
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