Williams EM first start up

[nrh_racing]

Thanks for the info. I was to scared to pull apart the unit  I don't know if there all the same but mine has two fingers. The bonus lights would not all light up and I traced that to the contacts of one of those fingers, sanded all the points that one touched and now all lights work. Would the other finger be for scoring, I cleaned it up but maybe that needs some more cleaning, just didn't know if I was in the right area

[nrh_racing]

Need another hand
After painting my pin, removing complete top reel board as one, left the bottom board in, i keep blowing a fuse.

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=1458

It keeps blowing the 15amp fuse that is on the brown wire, bottom left of wiring diagram. I traced it to the credit reel, if i open the switch (no credit in the machine) and turn machine on everything lights up as normal. As soon as i add credits it closes this switch and the fuse begins to glow slowly, blowing about 5-10 seconds later. I thought one of the wires were touching the earth on the back board lights but i cant seem to find another out of the ordinary, i have had the machine on its side so i thought maybe a screw or washer may have fallen and bridging a wire, cant seem to see anything. Something i did notice is i thought the extra globes that it lights between the 5-10 seconds of the fuse blowing are brighter, maybe somethings giving it more voltage?
Any ideas?

[Retropin]

You definately have a short... can be a bugger to track down anmd mjany fuses can be lost trying to find it.
I use a 15A trip switch from Jaycar for this sort of thing... each time it shorts you just push the button.

If some of the lamps are brighter, then this is ,your best clue... trace the power line to these through until you find the fault. 15A is for the headbox only... you should only need to look here unless something is across thre Jones plugs.  Make sure you dont have a loose staple etc

Williams EM games have one major flaw in their design and this maybe worth checking out.

When you lift up the PF the loom of wire rubs against the transformer housing... when PF is down its also on the transformer housing. This wears away the cotton insulation over time and it only takes one tiny bit to wear and touch something and you have a very hard to find short

[nrh_racing]

Thanks so much at least its narrowed down to the headbox, i will get one of those trip switches and start tracing the power wire back. It was the globe for "player 1" i seen so i will focus on that wiring.

[nrh_racing]

Ok i worked out a bit more, i didnt get a chance to get the switch you talked about just went through a few more fuses 

Traced it to one of the plug that plug into the headbox, the one with about 10 wires in it. I can plug all the rest in and the headbox background lights all as normal. As soon as i plug the plug in they all dull, only the background lights and if i push the start button it resets and the main motor just continues to turn.
I worked out which wire in that plug made it dull, that went to the credit unit (brown wire white tracer), tracing into the bottom box ( white with red tracer) to the credit relay.

I have stripped the top reel board and of the box and had a real good look over it, can't work it out. I'm sure it's only something simple as it worked well before hand, thought i was careful removing everything but obviously not

[nrh_racing]

Really need help before i burn this pinball

When i turn it on and push the reset button it all resets and the reset motor continues to turn and it also counts all the bonus counter up then if i do that a couple of times to try and source the fault if blows the step down transformer fuse?
Could this be a short in the pinball transformer? I'm at a loss, is there tech at the ballarat area i'm willing to pay because i'm over it 

[Retropin]

Mate... sometimes you have to walk away from a game for a few days to clear your head. Its very easy to tell yourself its one thing and even though youve checked this, the fault persists.. this is when you need to take a step back and more often than not the solution comes to you once your brain has had a breather.

Bonus count unit.. the  stepper in the headbox yes?

At start up, the whole game goes into reset mode... every switch on this reset has to be aligned for it to actually reset... stop and then give a game.

If all scores are resetting etc and its the bonus count unit that continues to turn then chances are that it has not found its ZERO point and so it turns and turns until it finds it.
 Did you pull this apart to clean?
Are you 100% sure you have it in the correct position when it was put back together again.
Is the tension correct so wipers make good contact?

There is also an adjustment on these for the spider wipers.. you can loosen the screws slightly and turn the rivetted plate 10mm either way... make sure the spider wiper is dead on a single contact and not inbetween 2.. its easily done.. also make sure that all leaf switches on this unit make and break properly using a DMM.. sight isnt enough.

The fuse on the step down... what size is the stepdown? Sounds like its too small or just about up to par... should always have approx 1/3rd extra power for anything like this.
 Whats happening is that the score motor is turning and coils are firing all the time its continually running... this draws quite a bit of current which puts stress on the stepdown warming it up and so it overrides and shuts itself off.
2A is more than enough for an EM stepdown so long as the game is operational...... after all not everything is working at once. If everything were to fire/turn etc at the same time then it pulls a current spike and its too much power for the step down.
Same principal is in your house.. you can run multi socket power boards from all wall sockets, but if you have everything plugged in and running then you will trip your power supply... all these things assume that you wont use everything at once.

This is a different fault to before with the bright lamps.. did this get sorted??
Also.. these issues only appeared after you pulled the game apart to repaint yes?


...just trying to eliminate/ narrow down things for you... every fresh mind helps...

[nrh_racing]

The blowing the fuse on the step down makes total sense to what your saying as its lighting up the bonus lights aswell as everything else so i think your on the money there.
I didn't strip the bonus unit (in the main box) although i think i may of sanded all the points before putting it back together meaning i could of put something out of adjustment. I think it's still diming the lights but i can't get it to the point where i was before, like it's got worse.

If the bonus unit isnt adjusted right could it earth the lights dim, meaning it could be the bonus unit from the start?

[nrh_racing]

and yes working 100% before i prettied it up, should of left it shitty

[Retropin]

Whats your voltage ACROSS a dull lamp?

[nrh_racing]

about 3.5 - 4 volts

[Retropin]

OK.. sounds like you have either a bad connection or have a stray voltage riding up the ground.

get an alligator clip and attach it to the 0V point on the transformer.. then measure the ground to the dull lamps.. it should read 0V ( no potential difference)... my guess is thats its reading 4 - 6v which means you have a lamp voltage from another source shorting the the ground on the dull lamps

[nrh_racing]

Ok, will have a good look at the bonus unit adjustment then measure the volt as you said,
Im sure it will be something little and stupid as i found with problems i have had in the past one little thing snow balls on these machines and makes it look like something really big.

[Retropin]

LOl- ALL problems are little and stupid... Finding them is the hard part! LOL

[nrh_racing]

True, i have had fun finding all the other teething problems but this one is doing my head in, two weeks now without playing a pin