Williams Hot Tip (EM)

[delarge]

Good luck Adam always wondered what you'd look like with permed hair lol


Peter

Thanks, Peter. I can always count on you in these intense pinball situations to lighten the mood. Now that is a real hot tip! Lighten....hot tip. Get it?
 

[delarge]

Haven't let this beat me. Going to focus on the switches tonight. Will also follow the Williams startup sequence found online:

"When the start button is pressed, the credit unit is decremented. This
is done through the credit unit zero position switch and the 2nd coin
relay (and the ball count zero position switch).
The end of stroke (EOS) switch on the credit unit decrement coil will
energize the coin relay.
The coin relay will trip the game over relay.
The coin relay will energize the reset relay. The score motor will run.
The reset relay will energize the ball count unit reset, through the
score motor.
The reset relay energizes the 2nd coin relay latch and game over relay
latch coils.
The reset relay will energize the score reset relays, through the score
motor.
The score reel reset relays will zero the score reels, through the score
motor. The score motor will continue to activate the score reset relays
until all the score reels reach the zero position.
The reset relay activates the bonus unit coil until the bonus unit zero
position switch is activated.
When the bonus relay drops out, the outhole relay is energized through a
different bonus unit zero switch and score motor switch.
The outhole relay will run the score motor. The bonus unit will step up
once. The ball will be kicked to the shooter lane."

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.games.pinball/aPWKCw3N1_I

Cheers!
Adam.

[Pintoxicated]

You have fun with that won't you.

[delarge]

You have fun with that won't you.

Thanks for your supportive words, Blair! I'll forgive you though. The pinball care package was much appreciated yesterday despite Peter's jokes about two men alone in a garage.

Went out for dinner tonight and couldn't help myself. Back into the machine. Was focusing on the Game Over Relay and Reset Relay tonight. The Game Over Relay looked ok and then I moved to the Reset Relay.....somebody over time has wound a very thin piece of wire in the middle piece of the switch closest to the player at the front of the machine. It was dangling in the bottom of the cabinet now. I decided to move it back and make contact so that both piece of metal would touch. I turned the machine on and with credits on the reel, I hit the start button. BAMMO! The machine fired into action and then the motor run. This was the first time the start button had worked for me. It kept going, so I turned the machine off. I noticed that the disc has worn off the switch.

Another small EM victory!

Cheers!
Adam.

[Pintoxicated]

Sounds like you are doing a good job with it mate.  Good on you for having a crack at it.

[Crashramp]

Nice work Adam those EM's are complicated things.  Just be careful not to end up like this guy. 

[delarge]

Will try not to turn myself into the dude from Ancient Aliens with the crazy hair!

What happens if the contact has worn off a leaf switch? Is there a fix or does the switch need to be replaced completely? At the moment, have only found a relay switch in stock at Marco's.

Cheers!
Adam.

[Retropin]

You need to replace the leaf and it needs to be the correct size. Myself or one of the guys will be able to help you out there. As a temporary fix though... get a few strands of wires and push through the hole where the contact button was. Then twist together on the end of the leaf switch and solder the tip so wire and leaf switch are one.
This will make the leaf switch operational again so you can continue working on the game and sort out anymore faults while waiting for a proper replacement to arrive in the post

[riverinapinball]

Nice read,
Well done Adam sounds
Like your making real progress with it.

i have a williams em in my garage which i havent touched. Too many projects. I may get your advise once i am ready to do something with it.

Good luck with the fix.

[delarge]

Thanks, Retropin. Hopefully I'll get time after work tonight to work on Hot Tip again.

Dan, would be happy to drive out and check out the EM when you start work on it. By that time I should have more understanding of the operation of an EM. It's been a slow process getting my head around it, but it's been rewarding me each day which is good.

Cheers!
Adam.

[riverinapinball]

Thanks for the offer Adam.

There is always something to learn with pinball machines. Never a dull moment thats for sure.

I think to myself sometimes, "Rocket Science would be easier!"

[delarge]

Another busy night tonight, but managed to squeeze in a bit of time with Hot Tip. Focused on the Reset Relay and tried to wrap the wire around the switch leaf closest to the far right of the picture (yellow wires). It seems like the disc should be making contact at rest. When the wire was attached, I pressed the start button and the machine jumped into action and changed from "Game Over" on the backglass to "1". It did not shoot out the ball. I'm guessing this did not occur as when the coil was activated, the switch was out of alignment somewhat and couldn't make contact with the disc it was pulling against (if this all makes sense?).

Can anyone please tell me the best way of replacing or working on these switches? Is it a case of unscrewing the whole relay from the base of the cabinet? Also wondering where the best place would be to replace these switches?

Cheers!
Adam.

pictured: Williams Hot Tip (EM) Reset Relay switches.

[Retropin]

The wire wrap how I said it will work on the shorter leafs.. the longer ones have to have it going round one side.

The logic relays are a bit difficult to work on... if its in the middle somewhere then you have to unscrew from the base. The leaf you need to replace should be unsoldered already.
The whole thing pulls apart once the side screws holding them together are undone.. You have to be VERY careful here as all the Bakelite insulators may come apart and fall off... if this happens its a real bugger getting them all back again.

So keep the whole stack together with some narrow masking tape.. wrap around once on the Bakelite insulators.. then with a scalpel cut the tape where you need to break the stack... this allows the stack to split where you want it and keeps the 2 halves together.. you might have to prise apart with a blade.. sometimes these things can be tough to split. Inside the mounting holes there MIGHT be a long white nylon insulator to prevent the screw from touching any of the insides of the switches... if this is the case it can be real hard to split them and you have to separate the Bakelite stacks from the insulator... make sure you keep the order they are in... lose this and you have a real headache on your hands... more than likely though you will have lots of brown insulator tubes.
Once you've done all this, you can slot you new switch in... put the stack back together and screw back in place.. make sure the screws that hold the stack are nice and tight... solder your new switch and away you go.
Or.. you can keep the wire and solder job in place if it seems too difficult.. no harm done here and its nothing I haven't done myself. I have several hundred leaf switches here but did I have the exact one for a GTB I own?? Nope and the solder tab had snapped off right at the Bakelite insulator. So the wire to this leaf switch is soldered to the very edge of the leaf.. game works 100% and although not the best solution, its the best I could do at the time. After a while the fix becomes permanent because it worked well.

[delarge]

Ok, mammoth night on Hot Tip. So very very tired...

I focused on the Reset Relay tonight and the idea of soldering anything on that leaf switch or even wrapping wire around it seemed hard. I unscrewed the relay and even then, it didn't move far due to all the wiring soldered on to each switch. I screwed it back in and thought that the only possible solution was getting a brand new switch.

I left the machine for about half an hour and come back again. I decided to slightly bend the leaf back into place. After a few tries, it seemed straighter than it had been. I turned all the power back on and fired up the machine. This time, the start button worked without the piece of wire. Hooray!

In four days, I have got the credit unit working and now the start button. I was happy, but also disappointed that the ball still did not kick out into the shooter lane. I spent the next few hours reading and going back and forth to the machine. I noticed that the player unit is badly gummed up from what looks like hardened grease. I started to try and figure out how to pull that apart, but the task was too big, so I had to abandon that for tonight.

I did some more experimenting on the Reset Relay switches and decided to get my trusty bit of wire and put it around a suspect switch that didn't look like it was making solid contact. I fired the game up, but it still acted as normal and nothing different happened. I removed the wire once again.

It was time for bed, so I decided to lower the playfield. I turned the machine on and pressed start. It ticked over from Game Over to "1". I flicked the ball out with my finger and this time, the flippers worked and I was able to have a bash at the game. The chimes also worked and now the score reel is working. When the ball drains, nothing happens. I turned the machine off and on and this time it goes to Game Over without me having to flick the relay switch by hand. When a game is started, the score reel also tries to reset. It takes a few presses of the start button to fully reset to zero though.

This machine has a heap more work to do on it, but I'm guessing it has more life in it than it has seen in many years. I now have to work out why the outhole isn't ejecting the ball. It feels so close!

Cheers!
Adam.

[Retropin]

Are you sure that the switch on the ball kick out is making contact when the ball is in place?