Bally Night Rider 43V Solenoid Bus Question

Picked up a Bally solid state Night Rider project game at the York show. After re-pinning the connectors, installing different boards, it will start. However I'm missing the 43V to all the PF solenoids. The J1 on the rectifier normally carries the solenoid bus to the PF. This game only has 4 wires on the J1. There isn't a PF fuse holder either. The factory schematic isn't helpful, it shows 5 wires on the J1. Looked at other Night Rider's that were for sale on Pinside and saw a picture of the rectifier board which also only had 4 wires. Does anyone know what pin on the rectifier board is carrying the 43V to the PF solenoids?

#2 5 years ago

DAV

wayout440

Pinside member

Berea, OH

11y 113K 11,264 3 12

The factory schematic shows 4 buss wires on J1, but it is an 8 pin connector. There is a key position and two empty spares. Measure from pin 2 (ground) to pin 6. This is where you should have +43VDC solenoid voltage.
Screenshot_2018-10-15-18-50-30.png

#3 5 years ago

TPD

tomdrum

Quoted from wayout440:
The factory schematic shows 4 buss wires on J1, but it is an 8 pin connector. There is a key position and two empty spares. Measure from pin 2 (ground) to pin 6. This is where you should have +43VDC solenoid voltage.
[quoted image]

The schematic is wrong. It shows 5 total wires on the J1. There is only 4. Pin 6 does have 43V on mine however there isn't a wire connected to it. I've looked at other Night Rider's and they're wired the same.

DSCN3524 (resized).JPG

#4 5 years ago

BIL

dothedoo

Pinside member

12y 106K 7,265

The schematic is not wrong other than there is no ground wire on the playfield (pin 2).

You have your connector reversed. The red wire is pin 1. Three positions over from the red wire should be the key. The last three wires should be pins 6, 7 and 8.

Don't quote me on the wire colors, the schematics don't show the color codes, so you'll have to trace where the wires go to verify the colors. For instance, the wire that runs to a coil lug with the banded end of the diode is probably yellow, which would be pin 6 on your plug if you flipped it. The schematics say pin 6 is solenoid buss, so that would match.

#5 5 years ago

TPD

tomdrum

Quoted from dothedoo:
The schematic is not wrong other than there is no ground wire on the playfield (pin 2).
You have your connector reversed. The red wire is pin 1. Three positions over from the red wire should be the key. The last three wires should be pins 6, 7 and 8.
Don't quote me on the wire colors, the schematics don't show the color codes, so you'll have to trace where the wires go to verify the colors. For instance, the wire that runs to a coil lug with the banded end of the diode is probably yellow, which would be pin 6 on your plug if you flipped it. The schematics say pin 6 is solenoid buss, so that would match.

You are correct! I am using a vertical mount rectifier board in this game till I get a new rectifier board for the transformer that came with it which is horizontally mounted. On the horizontal rectifier board the pins are numbered right to left. On vertical they are numbered left to right. Hence the mix-up. I moved the key plug and flipped the connector and the game works now. Thanks!

#6 5 years ago

AMR

BigAl56

Pinside+ Frequent

Palatine, IL

7y 64,800 1,655

Night Rider was an early SS game and some of the documentation is off. If you pull the Mata Hari schematics you will find the wiring almost identical. You can go off of that game for your wire colors and pinnouts. There was a service bulletin that went out after NR that advised adding the playfield coil fuse. If yours has not been modified it's a good idea to do so. You want to wire the playfield so that the 43v goes to the flippers then to the fuse holder with the rest of the coils pulling 43v off the fuse holder.

#7 5 years ago

TPD

tomdrum