Creature From the Black Lagoon - blowing flash lamp (F111) fuse while playing

[swinks]

Hi All
My Bally Creature has a flash lamp problem. I bought it 5 months ago and was aware a few of the flash lamps were missing etc. I finally got a chance to put some replacements in and then realised there were close to 30 on the playfield and backbox so checked them all - still no lights. (I am not that experienced in electronics so just tried to understand the logic of it and discovered the F111 fuse was blown. I replaced the fuse and lights powered up - so stoked but not for long. During test mode the lights did there thing and no heat running through the fuse. Then played a game and had the backbox open and saw the fuse glow and pop around the time that the ball comes out of the popper after going in the snackbar. I did this 3 times but game length varied and frequency of the snackbar visits had varying results on the fuse sometimes a while or extremely short.
Does anyone have any ideas of where I could start looking.
Cheers
Swinks

ps beginner on the forum thing, your help would be much appreciated.

[Retropin]

First up... make sure its the correct value fuse.
Secondly make sure you have the correct type of fuse... my guess is that for a flash lamp the fuse may well be a Slow Blow required... standard fuse wouldnt last long at all.
But i dont have the game system.. someone who does will probably chime in.

Welcome to the forum BTW   

[swinks]

Cheers for your comments Retropin:

Manual specs 5 amp slow blow and thats what I have been using.
Thanks for the Welcome.

Cheers
Swinks

[pinnies4me]

F111 is for the secondary flashers I think, try unplugging J107 and see if it persists. Could be a bad bulb or shorted socket, taking them out of the circuit first can eliminate them, or point to them if it doesn't blow while they are disconnected.

PS - Game OFF when plugging/unplugging the connector

[Strangeways]

F111 is for the secondary flashers I think, try unplugging J107 and see if it persists. Could be a bad bulb or shorted socket, taking them out of the circuit first can eliminate them, or point to them if it doesn't blow while they are disconnected.

PS - Game OFF when plugging/unplugging the connector

+1

If the fuse blows with the J107 connector removed, then it will be the driver board - more specifically the Bridge Rectifier BR4

[swinks]

I removed the J107 plug and started a game, though only got one ball play as there are 3 other wires (purples) on the J107 that must link to the ball collection tray. If you turn off and start again it says pinball missing so I had to turn off and reconnect the J107 plug.
I checked the fuse at this stage before powering up and all was good.
Then when I turned on the ball collection tray kicked the ball over and the fuse burnt out instantly on this action. I did this twice.

Do you think I have a problem at the BR4 or a short under the playfield? Confusing thing is before I played with the J107 plug and a few hours ago I could start a game and get a few minutes up to 10 minutes of play and the test for flash lamps works fine.

I thought I would retry the last scenario with the balls all in there correct locations, new fuse, with J107 plug in and fired up - now the fuse blows straight away on fire up - does this mean a definite issue with the BR4?

Any clues would be much appreciated.

[pinnies4me]

Could it be the ball serve coil (or diode)? Not sure if this will work (can't recall the switch set up on CFTBL) - game off, place one ball in serve lane - if there's a detector switch there all will be fine and you can start a game and shoot that ball. If the fuse is good until the next (or further) ball is served, it might be the coil/diode.

[Strangeways]

J107 provides the high voltage to several solenoids - one being the trough.

I think Nick might be on to something. The game passes self test until a game is started, then the ball is served and the fuse blows. "One ball" might mean the "solenoid 04" fires and then blows F111.

To prove this - put the game into test mode / solenoid test and test each solenoid. The fuse should be fine for individual solenoids 01 - Top Right Popper, 02 - Left Subway Enter, Flasher, 03 - Lower right popper, 04 - trough - THIS is when we may expect the fuse to blow.

We can isolate the problem to a particular coil or flasher. I expect either a coil / coil diode or driver transistor.

[swinks]

Hi guys
thanks for your help in day one. I had a quick look through the coin door and there is a broken wire hanging by one strand on the ball kick out coil with the wire going very close to the bracket. I am not sure that this is it but will attend to it this arvo and get some more fuses and check under the playfield more for anything obvious.
Will post results tonight.
thanks for the support.

[SPURR]

Are you sure this didnt cause it.

[swinks]

She would have definitely distracted me......

[swinks]

Hi guys

The problem is solved and thanks all the helpful guys that pointed me in the right direction.

Plug J107 gives power to the flash lamp circuit and the purple wires from the same plug feed power to all the solenoids (except the flippers) under the playfield. I inspected under the playfield and the solenoid that kicks the ball out into the plunger lane had a damaged wire from getting caught on the plunger when the playfield is lifted out. the damaged wire was hanging by one strand and possibly either shorting on to the frame or the solenoid was shorting within itself.

Anyway had a spare (as I have been collecting some playfields for spares) and fitted a replacement and a new F111 fuse. I ran the flasher test - all good and then ran the solenoid test - all good.

Then played a good 30 minute session with no blown fuses, let it sit for a while then another 15 minute session. No blown fuses and for the first time have played the game with flashers - love the strobing movie ones on both left and right side.

Again thanks everyone for your help.

Cheers

[pinnies4me]

Glad we could help - it's a game that really makes great use of its flashers, in fact, one of the great DMD's IMO.

[Strangeways]

Was a simple fix in the end - Well Done ! 

I really enjoy playing CTFBL.