(Topic ID: 283242)

Bally Fireball Home Edition - General Illumination not working -again!

By Mcgettigan1

3 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 6 posts
  • 3 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 3 years ago by northvibe
  • No one calls this topic a favorite

You

Linked Games

#1 3 years ago

Hi all, I posted a message exactly one year ago today and now the problem is back. I have a Bally Fireball Home Edition pinball machine (Series I / 606-1000). It works great but the “general illumination” lights all went out again yesterday. These are the lights under the plastic shields around the outside of the playfield and the pop bumper lights which are powered directly from the transformer - no drivers involved and there is not a specific fuse for the GI lights. All “switched lights” (A-D, 1-3, Bonus, Free Ball, etc.) work. When this happened a year ago, it was simply a bad connection at the connector under the playfield (2 green wires). This fix did not work today so assuming the connector was the problem, I installed a new connector but the GI lights did not come on. I am getting 5.1 volts (manual calls for 5.25 volts) at the connector feed when apart but when connected, the voltage disappears.

With the connector apart in order to bypass the feed wires from the machine transformer, I attached an 8 volt external transformer to the GI light circuit and the lights came on but only very, very faintly and the circuit read 1.5 volts.

What would cause 8 volts to drop to 1.5 volts? I assume that the 5.1 volts being supplied by the machine transformer is being drained completely resulting in no GI lights and no volt reading.

I only know enough about electricity to get myself in trouble, so please dumb down any advice for me : ) Thanks in advance for your help and patience.

Ed

#2 3 years ago

If directly off the transformer does that make the GI AC?

Almost sounds like it’s grounded out somewhere on the circuit

#3 3 years ago

Yes, the 5 volts supplied by the machine transformer for the GI lights is AC.

#4 3 years ago

The circuit for the GI lights on series 1 machines goes from the transformer to an 8 amp fuse to the smaller connector on the power supply board. That smaller connector is the ac power going INTO the board for the GI lights. The power OUTPUT to the GI lights is the larger connector on the power supply board.

Always check the female part of the connectors for burning on the power supply board. Now pull the power supply board out and inspect the backside of it for bad solder joints at the male header connector pins and tarnishing of those pins. The series 1 power supply boards are well known for burning up connectors for the lighting just like their big brother early Bally solid state machines like Star Trek, Mata Hari, Dolly Parton, etc.

Here's a video of a guy fixing the problem on a Fireball which was equipped with a series 2 power supply board. It's similar to your problem.

#5 3 years ago

It’s fixed! Turns out that the connector from the power supply board to the GI wasn’t making good contact. Thanks for your replies!

#6 3 years ago
Quoted from Mcgettigan1:

It’s fixed! Turns out that the connector from the power supply board to the GI wasn’t making good contact. Thanks for your replies!

Thanks for posting your solution.

Quoted from KenLayton:

The circuit for the GI lights on series 1 machines goes from the transformer to an 8 amp fuse to the smaller connector on the power supply board. That smaller connector is the ac power going INTO the board for the GI lights. The power OUTPUT to the GI lights is the larger connector on the power supply board.
Always check the female part of the connectors for burning on the power supply board. Now pull the power supply board out and inspect the backside of it for bad solder joints at the male header connector pins and tarnishing of those pins. The series 1 power supply boards are well known for burning up connectors for the lighting just like their big brother early Bally solid state machines like Star Trek, Mata Hari, Dolly Parton, etc.
Here's a video of a guy fixing the problem on a Fireball which was equipped with a series 2 power supply board. It's similar to your problem.

Ken Thanks for being into these unique games! You have a vast knowledge of the uncommon ones! I love it!

Promoted items from the Pinside Marketplace
$ 22.50
Magazines/books
Pinball Magazine
Magazines/books
From: $ 16.95
Apparel - Unisex
ULEKstore
Unisex
From: $ 1.35
Lighting - Led
Pinballrom
Led
Hey modders!
Your shop name here

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bally-fireball-home-edition-general-illumination-not-working-again and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.