DE Starwars deathstar and drop targets

[Strangeways]

I mentioned the Relay earlier on ;

"The Death Star is operated by a motor. From memory, the motor is powered by a relay which develops dry joints over time. I'd be following the the motor wiring to see which relay is responsible."

Very common problem. If you have a soldering iron, reflow and restest ?

[Crashramp]

 I'm in Albury so we're not exactly inundated with pinball technicans unfortunatly, but I have tracked a guy down this morning who maybe able to help me out. He does pinball repairs and he knew the game, so sounds positive at the moment. Thanks everybody who's kindly offered me help and advice over the last few days. I'll let you know how it goes. 

[Pintoxicated]

G'Day Adam.  Good to see another Albury member on the forum.  You will have to pop over for a chin wag and a few games one day. 

Cheers,
Blair

[Crashramp]

Thanks Blair, as per reply PM sounds good.
Cheers

[Crashramp]

A huge thank you to Pintoxicated (Blair) for all his help, putting himself out on Saturday (also big thanks to his mate Zane also there on Saturday)    and tonight to help me out with my pinball problems. Blair managed to get the targets working again (blown transistor as suggested by members) as well as the death star (faulty wire connection) working perfectly. Also checked over the under playfield and back glass lighting. Your a legend!  @@*Also thanks to other members who offered suggestions.  @@*Great to have everything working! 
 Cheers
Adam

[Steevsee]

Nice to hear it's all working again. 

What a great community we have here at AP!

[ktm450]

Nice work guys 

[Strangeways]

Great work guys 

That's what this site is all about - helping each other.

[Pintoxicated]

Always good to see a grown man smile like a kid on Christmas morning. 

Glad I could help, meet another local enthusiast and nice bloke at the same time.

Enjoy the machine Adam, hopefully there won't be too many other issues for a while.

[Pintoxicated]

Unfortunately Adam's machine has ended up at my place with more issues.  Most I can or have sorted out but the deathstar door has died again.  At first it seemed to be a connector issue under the playfield.  The door started working without fault after a bit of a tinker.  That lasted a week or two but the door is now DEAD.  I have re-pinned the connector, re-flowed the solder joints on the relay board as well as replacing the diode on the relay board.

There is a small cap on the two yellow wires going directly to the motor.  Does anyone know whether this cap is essential to the operation of the motor i.e. would replacing it possibly solve the problem?

I would really like to get this machine up and running 100% for Adam.  He paid top dollar for a machine that did and still does have some significant issues.  His first machine is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare for him.  At the moment I am leaning towards a dead motor for the deathstar door.  Can anyone think of anything else I can try or test to come up with a permanent fix?

I re-built the power supply board today to hopefully resolve the problem of random resets.  I am also trying to sort out an intermittent sound problem where the sound drops out every now and again.  Also looks like the machine is going to need a new DMD as well due to out-gassing.

[delarge]

Hey Blair,
if you need me to look at anything on my Star Wars machine tomorrow, give me a holler.

Regards,
the other other Adam (the original and best).
 

[Crashramp]

Hi all,

 As you can see from Blair's message above I'm still having a few issues here with my DE Star Wars. Blair has been extremly genorous with his time helping me out with getting this machine up and going again though some are proving a little more difficult than others. If anyone has ideas or theory's with regards to the Death Star door, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Cheers
Adam 2.0 (the new and improved version) 

[Strangeways]

Unfortunately Adam's machine has ended up at my place with more issues.  Most I can or have sorted out but the deathstar door has died again.  At first it seemed to be a connector issue under the playfield.  The door started working without fault after a bit of a tinker.  That lasted a week or two but the door is now DEAD.  I have re-pinned the connector, re-flowed the solder joints on the relay board as well as replacing the diode on the relay board.

There is a small cap on the two yellow wires going directly to the motor.  Does anyone know whether this cap is essential to the operation of the motor i.e. would replacing it possibly solve the problem?

I would really like to get this machine up and running 100% for Adam.  He paid top dollar for a machine that did and still does have some significant issues.  His first machine is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare for him.  At the moment I am leaning towards a dead motor for the deathstar door.  Can anyone think of anything else I can try or test to come up with a permanent fix?

I re-built the power supply board today to hopefully resolve the problem of random resets.  I am also trying to sort out an intermittent sound problem where the sound drops out every now and again.  Also looks like the machine is going to need a new DMD as well due to out-gassing.

I think the motor will still work without the capacitor. Is there any voltage going to the motor during test ?

Sound drop outs - How often does this happen ? Can you swap the speaker as a test ?

I don;t like these multiple issues on a machine, especially when sold to a new hobbyist. If this was bought from a dealer I'd be looking at claiming warranty. Certainly was not sold as working ?

[Pintoxicated]

Unfortunately Adam's machine has ended up at my place with more issues.  Most I can or have sorted out but the deathstar door has died again.  At first it seemed to be a connector issue under the playfield.  The door started working without fault after a bit of a tinker.  That lasted a week or two but the door is now DEAD.  I have re-pinned the connector, re-flowed the solder joints on the relay board as well as replacing the diode on the relay board.

There is a small cap on the two yellow wires going directly to the motor.  Does anyone know whether this cap is essential to the operation of the motor i.e. would replacing it possibly solve the problem?

I would really like to get this machine up and running 100% for Adam.  He paid top dollar for a machine that did and still does have some significant issues.  His first machine is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare for him.  At the moment I am leaning towards a dead motor for the deathstar door.  Can anyone think of anything else I can try or test to come up with a permanent fix?

I re-built the power supply board today to hopefully resolve the problem of random resets.  I am also trying to sort out an intermittent sound problem where the sound drops out every now and again.  Also looks like the machine is going to need a new DMD as well due to out-gassing.

I think the motor will still work without the capacitor. Is there any voltage going to the motor during test ?

Sound drop outs - How often does this happen ? Can you swap the speaker as a test ?

I don;t like these multiple issues on a machine, especially when sold to a new hobbyist. If this was bought from a dealer I'd be looking at claiming warranty. Certainly was not sold as working ?

Nino, that is the saddest part of all this.  The machine was sold as a fully working machine to my understanding.  The seller has refused to speak to the buyer any more and has not replied to my email that I sent him a few days ago.  Mate in all honesty you would cringe if you saw some of the things that were not addressed on this machine.  If it had of been sold as a project then fair enough but it wasn't and a new guy to the hobby has been taken for a ride it would seem.

Sound issues are sorted - loose grounding wire from the speaker to the backbox.  I had to put a new display in it as well, the one supplied with the machine was in the early to mid stages of outgassing.

As it stands at the moment, it is just the deathstar door that is not working.  I have tried swapping relay boards without success and also re-flowed the joints on the relay board for the door.  I am not sure if there is anything on a board that controls that door only as everything else seems to be working OK.  It is leading me to think the motor is dead.  I put the DMM on the connector that attaches to the motor and from memory it had 29V there.

Thanks......

[Crashramp]

Big thanks to Blair (Pintoxicated) again.     He's spent the last four hours here working on my machine. Changed over the Death star door target motor as well as the death star motor (both where completely cactus) and worked on a number of other problems requiring attention. Almost there now and the machines starting to play great.