Bally’s Hotdoggin Solenoid Issues

Hey All. Brand spakin pinball newbie. Starting the hobby with a Bally’s Hotdoggin.

Issue - Only the Knocker Coil Fires.

Background - Turned the game on after sitting for some time and to my surprise it work. After playing for a few, shut it down, only to come back to a machine with a blown F4 on the rectifier. Isolated the issue down to J3 on the SDB. When unplugged, no longer blowing F4. After hearing a speaker hum, I decided to take it a step further and unplug the speaker wire (2 wire connector). Plugged in J3 and now I get the 7 flashes.

Note, In the process of troubleshooting blown fuse, I attached a missing ground strap to the backboard and saw a ton of the 330 ohm resistors smoke. All read fine but will be replaced.

Current State 1-
Test mode into solenoid test and the only coils firing are the knocker and coin lock.

Any ideas on what’s wrong? I saw in a thread to alligator clip SBD ground to transistor. Not sure what this truly tests, but only the knocker and coin lock fired.

Any and all help appreciated.

#2 5 years ago

TPR

frunch

Pinside member

Check the fuse located under the playfield. It's usually near the flippers. I believe it's a 1-amp slow blow fuse. If it's blown, you won't get power to any of the playfield coils. If you do find it blown, check all coils under the playfield with a multimeter for resistance. If none of them are burned up or have less than 2 ohms resistance, replace fuse and turn game on. Watch/listen for any coils locking on (activating and staying activated) when you turn on the game. If fuse doesn't blow, you may be able to start/play a game.

Most classic Bally pins need attention to the male and female connectors at the rectifier board, mpu, sdb, etc. You'll probably want to address that stuff sooner than later, as connector problems can lead to weird, sometimes intermittent problems.

Good luck!

#3 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Thanks for the reply. I did check the fuse under the playfield, it’s intact. Any ideas?

On a side note, I will be replacing all connectors and rectifier board for longevity purposes.

#4 5 years ago

TPR

frunch

Pinside member

Did you pull the fuse out and test it with a meter? Just want to be sure--sometimes a fuse can *look* good but indeed be blown.

If the fuse is definitely good, I'd imagine you aren't getting power to the playfield coils...which may be a connector issue.

#5 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Playfield fuse has continuity. Any other ideas? Thanks all

#6 5 years ago

TPR

frunch

Pinside member

Can you post some pics of the rectifier board? I think it's worth taking a closer look at the connectors there. The coil voltage is obviously reaching the cabinet, but not the playfield. The connector J1 on the rectifier board is the voltage supply to the playfield-you could try reseating the connector there and see if that gets you anywhere. But before trying that, I'd pull the connector, and get a close look at the male and female pins. Any of them burnt? If you have replacement pins, I'd go ahead and re-pin the female connector if possible. Ultimately, if the connectors are original, I'd re-flow the solder to the male pins for J1 (or if you're like me, re-flow/replace all three connectors and be done with it).

One other thing: is the mpu original? If so, is there battery corrosion on it?

#7 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Thanks for continuing to help with this.

The female end of J3 for the rectifier has quite a bit of burn marks on it. Attached is a pic of the rectifier board along with the female connector. Perhaps it’s time for me to drop in the replacement that I just bought?

As for the MPU, it’s original and thankfully the battery was in perfect condition, no leakage. I did snip it, will replace once I get the pin is functioning.

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#8 5 years ago

TPR

frunch

Pinside member

Nice! Yeah, I'd go ahead and install the new rectifier board. If you have female connector pins, it would be a good opportunity to re-pin those connectors while you're at it, too. I noticed in one of the pics that there's lots of electrical tape wrapped around the wiring to the connectors. I'd take the time to unwrap them and fix up any messiness there too. One of those tape jobs might be masking a bad splice or something that could be contributing to the issues your having...

At very least, this should ensure you've got good voltages from the transformer and rectifiers to the sdb. Hopefully doing all that will fix the problem, but if not the sdb will probably be the next place to start checking voltages and connectors etc.

Good luck!

#9 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Thanks, will replace the rectifier board and see what happens.

Regarding SBD, I have a component order with some TIP102s transistors and 303 ohm resistors and molex components coming in this week. Planning to replace those components on the SDB, particularly because I smoked at least 15 of those resistors (again, resistance is fine though) and perhaps did some damage to the transistors?

With respect to voltages, I did find that +5 wasn’t making it to all test points on the SBD, so I ran a temporary alligator clip jumper. Will solder that on per several recommendations I’ve seen.

#10 5 years ago

TPR

frunch

Pinside member

Sounds good!

Hard to say what would have caused all those resistors to start smoking like that. I'd recommend testing voltages at the new rectifier's test points before hooking up the connectors, just to be sure all the voltages are correct.

#11 5 years ago

AMR

BigAl56

Pinside+ Frequent

Since the knocker is working your PS is putting out 43v.
Take out the volt meter and make sure you have 43v DC at the yellow wire side of the playfield coils. If not work backwards to the PS connection. Your 43v is open somewhere.

#12 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Thanks BigAl. To measure the DC voltage, red lead to yellow wire and black lead to the cabinets metal braid ground wire?

Thanks

#13 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Big Al, you’re right. Getting -2.7 at the yellow wire. Tested the working solenoid and getting 40.3. Now, I just need to figure out where trace this back to.

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#14 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Tested positive for continuity between a yellow wire on playfield solenoid and the j5 connector on the solenoid driver all pins on the female connector.

I then tried an experiment, tell me if it meant nothing. Attached black lead to ground on solenoid driver and red lead to J5 Pin 15 male connector (left slingshot) and got a reading of -.002 Vdc. Does this mean anything?

#15 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Ah, I get it, I need to check J1 pin 6 on the PS. Will do and report back

#16 5 years ago

AMR

BigAl56

Pinside+ Frequent

You should download the schematics to help trace the wiring. The 43v comes from J1-6 on the power supply. Here is the route back from the coils...
43v on the yellow wire to the fuse holder on the playfield. Comes off the fuse holder as a Brown wire to all the flippers then to the power supply J1-6.
I do not reccomend testing by continuity. To many ways a meter can be fooled. Measure for 43 v at both sides of the fuse holder then at J1-6.
My moneys on a bad fuse holder, and I just won $1.60 on the Preakness!

#17 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Thank so much for the detailed response. Will test tonight and report back. As for the schematic, got it.

Again, thanks so much.

#18 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Good news I found the open connection. Traced the brown wire from J1-6 on the rectifier board and found that it appears to go to a solenoid before reaching the fuse. It was detached from the solenoid. Reconnected and immediately blew F4 on the rectifier. Any ideas?

#19 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

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#20 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

I noticed that when J3 is unplugged from the solenoid driver board, F4 doesn’t blow.

#21 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Yeaaaaaaaaah!!! Found it!! Burnt coil!!!! Yeah buddy, cut and wires and we’Re in business! Thanks so much to all of you.

Any recommendations on where to purchase the coil? Thanks again

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#22 5 years ago

WOT

Atari_Daze

Spd

Houston, TX

7y 141K 10,052 7

Marco specialties or pinballlife.com
That's where I usually get mine.

#23 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Thanks!

#24 5 years ago

AMR

BigAl56

Pinside+ Frequent

Check the playfield fuse. It should be a 1A SB fuse and it should have blown before F4.

#25 5 years ago

???

DynamoHumm

Pinside member

Machine is playing just fine without the one coil. Discovered that the 43v hits a solenoid way before the fuse. I guess I should throw a fuse holder and 1amp slow blow in front of that first solenoid?

#26 5 years ago

AMR

BigAl56

Pinside+ Frequent