Tucson, AZ
The right side GI lights (47's) on our Paragon are running too bright, and the result is that bulbs have a pretty short life span.
What is the best way to isolate and fix the problem?
(Topic ID: 104415)
Sana'a
Laval, QC
Quoted from vid1900:Get your meter out and see what the voltage is at the sockets.
Pretty much at 6.38 to 6.42 across the board.
I continue to have the same GI bulbs burn out faster than is normal. Typically starting at the top right and moving down one bulb at a time.
I notice that when the right flipper button is pressed the GI lights dim and stay dim, whereas with the left side it is a quick dim but comes right back up to the same brightness even when the button is held.
One other possibly related item is that the upper right flipper is exceptionally weak most of the time, but occasionally it has more snap than usual.
Weak flippers is unrelated.
See how your transformer is tapped. If it set to 120v, change it to 110v.
Bally indeed runs their GI hot at full 6.3v. WMS games you see GI voltage in the 5v range and the bulbs last longer.
The incandescent bulbs on the market right now are pretty poor quality. I have a bunch burning out after 2 years in a minimally used kings of steel.
There should be a chart by the transformer. I think it requires jumpers in a square plug if I remember right.
Quoted from EEE:I notice that when the right flipper button is pressed the GI lights dim and stay dim, whereas with the left side it is a quick dim but comes right back up to the same brightness even when the button is held.
I would check the right flipper and make sure the EOS switch is opening. You should only notice a flicker in the GI when the button is pressed.
Quoted from dothedoo:I would check the right flipper and make sure the EOS switch is opening. You should only notice a flicker in the GI when the button is pressed.
Will do, thanks for the suggestion.
Well one minor detail that I omitted is that it is a paragon playfield re-wired to work in an embryon cabinet, which uses an AS-3071-2 transformer as part of the AS-2877-6 power transformer module. Wiring is a little bit different unfortunately.
Sorry not to have mentioned that earlier.
Mine is set properly at 115 VAC which is the lowest setting. 120 is the next step up.
One more data point. When the machine is left on bulbs continue to burn out over the course of an hour.
In attract mode and at the beginning of a game the voltage reads 6.55 at all of the GI sockets that I tested (8 or so).
When the left flipper button is pressed and held it momentarily drops to 6.53 and then returns immediately to 6.55.
When the right flipper button is pressed and held they all drop to 6.10 and stay that low.
I suspect that this demonstrates a different issue, but even when not in play the bulbs will slowly burn out, one by one.
It even fried a couple of LEDs that I put in just as a test, and in about the same amount of time.
Quoted from EEE:When the machine is left on bulbs continue to burn out over the course of an hour.
Have you considered turning the game off when you are done playing it?
That shows the EOS switch for the one flipper is probably not cutting high power off. Fix that before your traces on the driver board act like a fuse.
A test of the power supply board revealed that I have a problem.
TP1 - should be 6.5vdc.....tested at 7.18vdc
TP2 - should be 230.0vdc.....tested at 235.0vdc
TP3 - should be 11.7vdc.....tested at 15.3vdc
TP4 - should be 6.5vac.....tested at 6.7 vac
TP5 - should be 43.0vdc.....tested at 43.6vdc
** edited for TP4 comment below from craigmack **
No
Quoted from EEE:A test of the power supply board revealed that I have a problem.
TP1 - should be 6.5vdc.....tested at 7.18vdc
TP2 - should be 230.0vdc.....tested at 235.0vdc
TP3 - should be 11.7vdc.....tested at 15.3vdc
TP4 - should be 6.5vdc.....tested at 0.026vdc
TP5 - should be 43.0vdc.....tested at 43.6vdc
That is all fine, however you need to measure TP4 as AC not DC.
Boards and sockets all spec.... A very mysterious mystery. There has to be a spike in there somewhere. A short in the wiring harness perhaps?
Quoted from dothedoo:I would check the right flipper and make sure the EOS switch is opening. You should only notice a flicker in the GI when the button is pressed.
It turns out that the upper right flipper had an incorrect end of stroke switch. It was a later style that was stiffer than the original so although it would open at initial contact with the pawl, it would not stay open.
Replaced it with the proper one and the GI bulbs don't stay dim beyond the initial flicker.
Thanks dothedoo and barakandl !
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