(Topic ID: 247813)

Bally Strikes and Spares rectifier heat issue

By TheWiz

4 years ago


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  • 13 posts
  • 6 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 4 years ago by TheWiz
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    #1 4 years ago

    I have a Strikes and Spares that I have completely gone through. Cleaned up, polished, all pins in connectors replaced, all boards gone through and bullet proofed and bench checked, all headers replaced. New after market rectifier board (NVRAM.weebley) installed. Everything plays great, the problem is that after a couple of hours of being turned on and buttoned up whenever a game is started it will reset. Seems like there is excessive heat from the rectifier board (bridges). If the backglass is left off it does not have the problem so checking voltages is difficult since the problem only occurs after it has been buttoned up.

    I have swapped in another cpu (Alteck), same issue. Swapped in another solenoid driver board, same issue, swapped in another transformer/rectifier Assy., same issue. If left on long enough all buttoned up the lights will start flickering, all the lights, controlled and GI. Once the backglass is taken off and the door opened after a couple of minutes it works fine. I removed half the GI lights from the light board. This Just allowed it to be okay longer by another hour or so before the problem occurs.

    Ant thoughts, tips on what to try? I am trying to figure out a good way to measure the current draw on the various circuits. First I will disconnect the playfield lights and see what that does. If no help I will disconnect the light board lights and see what that does.

    The only real pain with the the game is the lamp sockets. I have cleaned them up and checked them but many are loose and intermittent. Thinking maybe flaky sockets could be drawing more current than thay should causing the bridges to heat up more than the heat sinks can handle. I am going to rig up a small 12 vdc fan inside the head and see if that helps circulate the air enough to keep it going but that will just be an experiment, not a fix, something is certainly wrong with the game somewhere.

    #3 4 years ago

    Yes it does. It will sit in attract mode and look normal until the credit button is pushed, then reset. Once in awhile it will kick a ball out but as soon as a switch is made it resets. The flippers will still work but nothing else.

    The little fan did not help anything.

    #6 4 years ago

    Stat button is okay. The problem only occurs after several hours of being on and buttoned up. If the back glass is left off the problem does not happen so it is heat related.

    The lamp driver board was rebuilt with new headers and tested on the bench with test equipment and is okay. I unplugged J4 on the lamp driver and left the game on for 6 hours and did not have the problem. I plugged J4 back in and unplugged the connector for the head controlled lamps. It has been on for 2 hours now and no problem. I’ll leave it on another few hours and see. If no problem with that I will plug that connector back on and take off one of the playfield connectors to see what happens. Just feels like maybe bad lamp sockets pulling too much current and heating up the bridge more than it should but I need to narrow it down more. The rectifier board just gets way hotter than I am used to seeing. Once it gets so hot something is breaking down and causing problems.

    #7 4 years ago

    BTW - All the displays were cleaned, rebuilt and tested on the bench with test equipment and all checked out good. They look good with no burn spots so I will try those after I am done with the lamp driver.

    #9 4 years ago

    Of course, but first I want to make sure that there is not some some other problem causing it. These games ran for years without LEDs so there has to be an issue causing this.

    Unplugged One of the playfield connectors on the lamp driver and it was okay for 4 hours last night. I will cook it some more today and see, the try the other connector, just to see if there is a problem with just a set of lights or if it is just a matter of the number of lights.

    #12 4 years ago

    All new #47 lamp installed.

    The bridges get so hot I can’t really tell which one is getting the hottest.

    I dug out another lamp driver board from my parts bin and repaired it. Put it in the game with all the connectors hooked up, ran it for nearly 5 hours with no issues. Will let it run all day today and see what happens and keep an eye on the heat generated.

    #13 4 years ago

    Ran over 8 hours with the different lamp driver board with no problems. Not sure if I want to put the original back in to test. Perhaps I will just test it on the bench where it I’d easier to check current.

    Going to install LEDs for the insert lamps and call it done.

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