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Stern Meteor driver board firing 2 solenoids at once


Ryza

Question

Ok, next up is Meteor which i've had for a almost a year and never gotten working properly!

When i got it, the slingshots where not wired properly which i eventually fixed....but it still has issues!

 

 

The issue is when the M-E-T-E-O-R drops are all down it resets the bank but also resets drop bank 3. When all drops are down on 3, it resets METEOR drops

 

The same with 1 and 2. Either one that goes down will reset the other.

 

I swapped out the MPU board with an ALTEK board. the exact same issues happened but the sound was also ****ed.

 

I swapped the Solanoid driver board out with one that was in another machine that needs fixing, its a BALLY board and not Stern.

The issues don't happen at all with the other board. but some other small issues happen with the other board even though it is seemingl fine in the other machines.

 

 

The Stern board that is in there has some burnt tracks that seem to have been fixed 'OK'. im not an expert on how clean they should be.

 

 

Attached is a picture of the board hacks and a video of the machine in solanoid test which you can see double resets.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Original board in test

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Altek board gameplay

 

 

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Whilst the 74L154 chips do go bad, usually it's just bad connections on J4. Replace the molex header and pins is always a good tactic if skills and parts permit. This fixes most "wrong solenoid firing" issues in my experience. You should also do the molex on the other end too (CPU board). (Dodgy quick fix is to hit the molex up with DeOxit to try and track down the bad connection).

 

BUT... you open saying "2 solenoids at once". If it really is 2 at once, then the 74L154 is my main suspect. The circuit is designed so that only one solenoid can fire at a time.

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I've repined almost all connectors a while ago. But I ran outvof connectors and it was 6 months ago and I stupidly can't remember which ones I've done.

 

 

If the other board doesnt have the same issue then it's probably not the pins right?

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Unless it is the pins on the board.......reflowing solder can be your friend.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Screw you Doug, too fast for me :)

 

awww lol :) .you're right though ...the 100 header pins on a bally board can look innocent and be screwy as well as the connector pins

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Actually there are no burnt tracks around the yellow and orange wires. Had he just joined them for no reason and that's why maybe 2 signals are going through?

 

This is exactly what the problem is ^^^

 

The orange wire is connecting the drive circuit to transistors Q4 and Q5 together which:

Q4 activates the left lower "111" drop target bank reset

Q5 activates the left upper "222" drop target bank reset

 

The yellow wire is connecting the drive circuit to transistors Q12 and Q13 together which:

Q12 activates the "METEOR" drop target bank reset

Q13 activates the right "333" drop target bank reset

 

Must have been someones idea of a "rule feature enhancement".

Remove both those jumper wires.

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Sweet, a rule enhancement...:blink:

 

These are "enhancements" I would strongly recommend on all Bally and Stern SS machines especially the C26 tied to ground and the test point 1 tied to test point 3...

 

Read though this Vid guide...

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ec0fk9vgy0wvysc/AAClNJcDdQodj6idRK1lBtbza?preview=bally-driver-board-repair-v1.1.pdf

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This is exactly what the problem is ^^^

 

The orange wire is connecting the drive circuit to transistors Q4 and Q5 together which:

Q4 activates the left lower "111" drop target bank reset

Q5 activates the left upper "222" drop target bank reset

 

The yellow wire is connecting the drive circuit to transistors Q12 and Q13 together which:

Q12 activates the "METEOR" drop target bank reset

Q13 activates the right "333" drop target bank reset

 

Must have been someones idea of a "rule feature enhancement".

Remove both those jumper wires.

Fixed.

Crazy. Why would someone do this!

 

Cool to play the game "properly" now

Still got some random switchs firing on their own. Which would be unrelated.

 

And something I have done in the last 24 gours has made all of the displays go pretty funky. They are kind of flashing.... You can still see the score but very faintly. I've reset all the cables but that doesn't seem to do anything.

 

Will tackle that tomorrow

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And something I have done in the last 24 gours has made all of the displays go pretty funky. They are kind of flashing.... You can still see the score but very faintly. I've reset all the cables but that doesn't seem to do anything.

 

Will tackle that tomorrow

 

Measure the DC voltage at TP4 on the solenoid driver board. If you get around 170VDC (should be around 230VDC), suspect a bad connection at the high voltage capacitor C26 on the solenoid driver board (SDB). Then measure the voltage across that capacitor. If you get near zero volts that will confirm a bad connection. Check the solder joints on that cap and make sure you have good connectivity at connector J3 pin 3 (white wire) on the SDB which is the ground return for that capacitor. While you're there do the ground redundancy mod for C26 as mentioned in Vid1900's repair guide linked by @Autosteve above.

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Measure the DC voltage at TP4 on the solenoid driver board. If you get around 170VDC (should be around 230VDC), suspect a bad connection at the high voltage capacitor C26 on the solenoid driver board (SDB). Then measure the voltage across that capacitor. If you get near zero volts that will confirm a bad connection. Check the solder joints on that cap and make sure you have good connectivity at connector J3 pin 3 (white wire) on the SDB which is the ground return for that capacitor. While you're there do the ground redundancy mod for C26 as mentioned in Vid1900's repair guide linked by @Autosteve above.

 

Thanks

It measured 235v

and across c26 is was the same voltage.

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And something I have done in the last 24 gours has made all of the displays go pretty funky. They are kind of flashing.... You can still see the score but very faintly. I've reset all the cables but that doesn't seem to do anything.

 

What exactly were you toying with before it happened?

 

Are the correct numbers/scores being displayed or is it random junk?

 

Have you got a picture or better yet, a video showing the issue?

 

If you have a logic probe, check that the blanking signal on one of the displays (pin 10) has activity.

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I was just swapping boards around

 

Did you swap a board in that's causing this? If yes, which one has changed?

 

You're getting incorrect numbers flickering on player 4 and sometimes player 3. Have you disconnected all displays bar one to determine if a particular display is shorting the data/control signals to the other displays?

 

Another thing I would try is disconnect J4 from the lamp driver board and both J2 and J3 from the MPU board which are playfield and cabinet switch harnesses respectively.

The display/number select signals are shared with the lamp select and switch strobes so isolate the lamp board and switches off those signal buses.

 

By the way some of the displays especially the Ballys you've got will have a glow beneath each digit. Are the glows flickering or are they steady?

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I would repin the connector and header pins of j1 on mpu if yiu haven't yet. Also inspect wires going to displays for signs or verdigris. It's a green liquidy looking gunge that oozes out of the wires. I had one wire (brown) on quicksilver that had it and ended up rewiring that part of the loom as it was tight the way through.

 

It's prob also worth checking the top right connector on the power driver board from memory.

 

Sent from my ALP-L29 using Tapatalk

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