I'd measure power to the bulb socket. Get an idea of what is wrong at least. Power, socket, or LED.

LTG : )

That sounds like a great job for my new Christmas present to myself multi-meter. I'll take some readings and post back.

That feed should be 12v AC, correct?

Does opening the coin door have any effect on the voltage of those sockets? I know it disables high voltage, but maybe those 12V feeds are different from the regular GI. Does the rest of the machine work properly?

You didn't have a multimeter??? I'm shocked.

I had a cheap Harbor Freight one that bit the dust. Wanted to go with something that seemed more durable and reliable. My biggest issue was always knowing where to insert the leads when I changed settings, but my new one actually flashes the correct ports when you change settings which is awesome for electrical novices like me.

Here is the meter I purchased: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SHLS639/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00

Here is the add-on cable set I bought to go with it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SD3L9HR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00

Along with the case to hold everything: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0823MGSJW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00

And here is a pic of my old one. It did the job while it lasted, but I'm loving my new one.
63759_W3 (resized).jpg

I'm only getting 4.2V to the sockets. I measured at both the sockets at the leads/wires that are plugged into the sockets.

Everything else appears to be working properly. Also, prior to the issue the LEDs were always at full brightness with the door opened or closed.

DC

LTG : )

Yeah, I figured that out when my meter reading kept bouncing all over the place.

Follow connections back to the source, with a meter, see where it drops. Weak connection, or power supply.

LTG : )

The two wires are yellow and yellow/white. I've tested them at the connector in the cab, and I still get the 4.2v. Tracing them to the backbox, it look like the two wires are on J3 pins 12 & 13 the AFM-SUB-CONTRLR. If I disconnect and reconnect the J3 connector then turn the pin on, the coin door lights flash full power but then go dim again. About to put a meter on the board to see what happens.

Okay, I decided to disconnect the connector inside the front left of the cabinet that includes the coin door lamp wires and runs to the back of the pin, up the backbox, and onto J3. When doing this, turning the pin on, and taking a reading at the connector, I'm receiving a solid 12v. When I plug the connector from that includes the door lamps back in, voltage goes back down to 4.2. I'm guessing there may be a short in the wiring somewhere between the lamp sockets and that connector or in a socket, so those are my next things to evaluate.

May want to test the bulbs themselves for a short. Ask me how I know.

Even with no bulbs installed, I’m still getting 4.2v.

Okay, how do you know?

Lol. It's a saying. But, since you asked...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flashers-have-constant-voltage-fuse-blowing

I am completely and utterly confused.

- I've tested with 6 different bulbs (2 original and 4 Comets) and get the same results

- I've tested both yellow and yellow/white for continuity, and all is good
- If I remove both bulbs, turn the pin on, and take a reading at both sockets or at the connector for the wiring harness, I get 12v
- If I add one or two bulbs, turn the pin on, they are dim, take a reading at the connector for the wiring harness, I get sub 11v
- After failure, I turn off pin, remove bulbs, take a reading, I usually get sub 11v and sometimes 12v
- If after low reading, I turn off the pin, remove J3 and reseat J3, turn pin on, take a reading, I get 12v
- If I turn the pin off after than insert 1 or 2 bulbs, turn the pin on, I get a bright flash then dim LEDs, take a reading, I get sub 11v

Ultimately, it seems like when the circuit is completed with a bulb it kills the voltage. I just replaced the sub power board just a few weeks ago, so really hoping its not that again. Guess I need to open a ticket.

I advanced it to the engineer.

LTG : )

Could someone help me with resetting the scores on my AFMr?
Just picked one up not long ago, but can’t seem to figure out a quick reset?
Thanks!

Correct. I have done this only when I have already had a lot of the playfield disassembled for a shop job.

RM

To reset to factory default - Press and hold Enter Test diagnostic button.

To lower defaults. Go to Settings. H.S.T.D. section. Lower them there. Then escape back to attract mode. Then press and hold Enter Test diagnostic button.

LTG : )

Thanks. I did submit a ticket with details, and you can PM me if you need name, email, reference number, etc. (or do you have access to the CGC support system?)

If they need anything they'll let you know.

Thank you.
LTG : )

Just unboxed my AFMr SE tonight. All set up, but the display does not turn on.

GI, lights, sounds, all work. Game starts and plays as I would expect.

I checked all the cables and they appear to be connected okay.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

The cables to the LCD and from it to the small board in the head. Reseat them, and push them in real tight, both ends.

LTG : )

Thanks. Turns out the power connector for the display wasn't seated on the pins. Everything works now!!

Ok....I wanted to see if I could come up with my own way of creating the glow martian eyes, using my existing aliens.

I already had some lighthouse led red pico smd lights, so I used those. Extremely small lights, but are still bright. The wires for these lights really are like thread.

So this is my first martian, and if I come up with a better way to do it when I make the other 3, I'll let you know.

Instead of drilling a hole in the eye, I took a needling pin and simply pushed it straight through the eye.

20200110_194156 (resized).jpg

This is completely reversible. When I took out the pin, the hole completely self healed and I couldn't tell where I even stuck the pin through.

Anyway, lighthouse puts a resistor on each led, so you need to remove it. You can either ->

1. cut away the shrink tubing, and desolder the line from the resistor.
or
2. Cut the red wire and later splice it back on.

I'm not sure which is easier. I actually did both.

20200110_195406 (resized).jpg

Then, I soldered the red/black lines to the needling pin.

20200110_211852 (resized).jpg

And then pulled all the wires through. Wasn't hard.

20200110_212104 (resized).jpg

At this point in the project...I was just going gung-ho for getting it done so I stopped taking pictures. But the rest was easy. Solder the resistor back onto the red wires. Then solder the red wires to additional wiring for length, and do the same for the black wires. I then attached a JST 2.0 female connector on the end, so I could connect it to a JST 2.0 male that I had on a wiring harness I made. (I think there are instructions for making one a few pages back).

Anyway....end result!

20200110_222559 (resized).jpg

Now that I know I can do it, I'll order some more PICO leds to finish up the aliens. If anybody has any suggestions, let me know.

Simple, straight forward, looks great!

Look good! Are those 12volt LEDs? what playfield lighting did you tie them too?

Also, I can't see in the picture, are the leads feeding down through the hole the alien post comes up through? If so, will the wires hold up to the bouncing?

So...I haven't done any wire cleaning to the setup yet. This was basically just a prototype. Though...I doubt I'll change much when I do the other 3 martians (I'm waiting for more pico LEDs to come in the mail now).

My current wiring has a jst 2.0 connector on it, and that won't fit through the hole in the playfield that the coil uses, but yes it does go through the hole in the plastic, then I just fed it behind a stand up target.

20200111_133750 (resized).jpg

I could put a shrink tube sheath around these small thread wires, which would protect them more, though as is they are basically invisible. I would need to make sure to hide a shrink tube sheathed wire more. Not really worried about the shaking. I just made sure the wires had enough slack for the movement. If the leds themselves stood up to the abuse of being pulled through the eye socket and the soder is in tact then I think the shaking is fine (its in rubber too which would probably help with the shock).

Here is a pic of the connector I'm using. Its just attached to standard GI lighting by the slings/outlanes.

20200111_134108 (resized).jpg

Huh...for the connector...mezel mods used to sell them for $5 ->
https://mezelmods.com/collections/diy/products/4-pin-100-idc-assembly

But...they don't sell them anymore? It looks like they are now $14? -> https://mezelmods.com/collections/power-adapters/products/mezel-mods-pinball-power-adapter?variant=5855409111069 Though they might have the additional attachment on the end,.....I guess they look like this now from mezel, to handle some of their other mods I guess that uses that other type of connector on the end ->

2020-01-11_1356 (resized).png

Anyway...the connector I made looks like this ->
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/attack-from-mars-remake-afmr-owners-club/page/153#post-5278178

So...to answer your other question, the pico leds from lighthouse handle a wide range of voltages. Its because they bundle the led with a built in resistor. ->
https://lighthouseleds.com/0402-pico-smd-wide-angle-12v-pre-wired-led-red-ultra-bright.html

They say it works from 9v to 18v, but also state they work at lower voltages. Which...they do! With a multimeter I measured the voltage to the GI as 5.7V.

Whats interesting....is that on the lighthouse led product page, they have a resistor chart for various voltages, and they recommend using a 200Ω resistor for 6V. However...the resistor that comes with the led (as long as I'm reading the resistor color code correctly), is a 1500Ω resistor, so these LEDS should handle even higher than 24V.

Anyway....these leds are still quite bright. I think the brightness isn't too bright, but if you make your own and you think they are still too bright, you could always use a cometpinball.com matrix brightness adjuster. OR....put in a bigger resistor, like...2000 or 2500Ω or something.

You can get a huge range of resistors from aliexpress for $2.50

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32816386187.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.3c207edcw7DmQ8

oh nevermind...get these instead
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32887567119.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.67ba708cTYU2nd&algo_pvid=0f9158d3-20be-4dcc-bac2-5ab2770c3211&algo_expid=0f9158d3-20be-4dcc-bac2-5ab2770c3211-7&btsid=3a516daf-ad15-4ab1-b869-339a1e78f0e4&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4,searchweb201603_53

They are metal-film resistors so the tolerance is 1% vs 5% for the carbon ones I linked to. But...whatever.

Did such a mod aswell, tied mine up to the solenoid of the Martian.
So it lights when the martian goes up, shuts down when going down.
(shrink tubed the wires, and routed via back to martiansupport bracket)

This thread gave me the inspiration
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/martian-led-eyes

I’m still not getting persistent launches from the shooter lane. I bent the metal ramp a little past the angle the bulletin CGC released (so it’s less angle and jump) but I still think the shooter is not hitting the ball straight all the time. When I think it’s dead on center of the ball several launches later it looks off. It’s like when the plunger returns it doesn’t always return in the same position and the next strike will be off center sending the ball flailing to a side. Why is that shooter assembly so touchy and what else can I do?

Is it loose?

My SE was like that. The micro usb to BB was sensitive with the lockdown tab bending it back. CGC and LTG got the ball rolling.

2800 plays, a good waxing and man, it is fast. Brand new again.

No the shooter is not loose. I’ll keep messing with the positioning to hopefully get a consistent center of ball hit. Just wondering if there is something wrong with my shooter assembly not retracting the plunger back to the same position every time?

Put a voltmeter on the bulb sockets; should be about 12v. I bet you're getting low voltage on them.

RM

Not the issue, as I'm working with CGC support. No conclusions yet, but possibly a bad board (just put a new one is less than 2 months ago). Basically, voltages are all correct until I insert a bulb in either coin door socket, at which point the voltage drops significantly at the coin door lamp only.

I thought I would show off my latest mod . . . do you see it? Here are pics with normal lighting and with my PinStadium UV lit.

It cost a whopping $0.70 at PBL for the fluorescent green post to replace the OEM red one: https://www.pinballlife.com/data-eastsegastern-narrow-plastic-post-1-116-tall.html

Note that the holes in the post are for #6 screws, so I did have to drill it out to fit the larger screw used in the game.
IMG_3292.JPGIMG_3294.JPG

Mr_Tantrum You should play your game at some point. It’s quite fun.

Indeed. Had my top score game this week, and my second best game (was 2 objectives away from ruling the universe).

Also, I just can’t help myself from customizing things to my liking. A couple of years ago when I bought my 370z I went through the same thing. It was the car I’ve always wanted, but still had to personalize it. One weekend when I was out in the garage working on it, my wife came out and asked what I was doing. I told her, and her response was, “ It’s not a pinball machine, you know?!”

ALTERNATE COIN DOOR REJECT LED BULB ALERT - DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID!

Okay, since I was the one that started the idea of new rejects and brighter LEDs, I felt obligated to let everyone know what I learned. If you've read my recent posts on the topic, I purchased some brighter 12V LED bulbs to replace the OEM ones in the coin door to illuminate my new "green" coin reject buttons. Soon after, my coin door bulbs were not illuminating properly, and even putting the old ones back in still resulted in ultra dim lighting. After working with CGC support, it has been determined that the newer bulbs drew too much current and caused a failure on the PIN-PCB-CONTRL2 board. Even though they were still 12V LED bulbs, the extra current required to power them somehow resulted in a component failure on the board that controls the 12V power to the coin door.

As a result of using these "non-approved" LEDs I've voided my warranty on my 60 day old board, and I am solely responsible for the cost to replace the board. Expensive lesson learned, and I don't want anyone else to follow my lead on this one. I'm accustomed to doing all sorts of lighting mods on my older games, so I never guessed this would have been an issue. Apparently, the new technology is less adaptable to these types of things and designed to more specific tolerances.

Wow, that is a disappointment,,,are their tolerances that tight and specific to cause this? How much, and where can you get the replacement PIN-PCB-CONTRL2 board, Planetary or direct from CGC?

Sorry to hear this, so you can never change those specific LED 12V bulbs at that coin door location? Doesn't seem right,,,,

Thanks for the update..

Planetary sells them, but I'm hoping that CGC can offer a more affordable out of warranty replacement option (still awaiting finalization for such).

I wondered about that.

LTG : )

That sounds like bull crap if they are voiding your warranty for that. You bought normal 12V led bulbs from a reputable pinball parts provider. Can we not change any bulb in any pinball machine as it will void warranties? The tolerances on amperage on the board should not have been so tight that you can't put in a different, reasonable led bulb without blowing a circuit board. That sounds like a design failure...not user error.

Its just bad luck.

Standard bulbs might have been ok.

Brighter/Super bright bulbs do draw a bit more current.

It should have held, but didn't.

CGC cant possibly anticipate all of the things that modders do.

Probably have to use auxiliary power for this type of mod.

Live and learn, move on.

No manufacturer can.

LTG : )

Lloyd,

I was thinking of adding some lighted flipper buttons to my MMr and AFMr.

I usually DIY these on WPC, Stern etc, but apparently I have to be more careful where I tap into power on the CGC games.

I can use 6v or 12v LED bulbs. Where is the recommended spot to tap into 6v or 12v power for these?

Thanks,

RussMyers

That was my first reaction but after I calmed down and thought about it, I was the one who changed something to be out of spec by introducing non-OEM parts. As frustrating as it might be, I took the risk and I am responsible by the letter of the law. Just wanted to share my story not as a complaint or pity party, rather, I didn't want my idea/action to cause the same problem for anyone else.

Is anything else effected by this? Seems like an expensive fix just to boost some dim coin slot leds.