Big Ben
Williams, 1975About 80% of the time when I get one of the letters at the top or the button above them the machine takes away one of my lives. It only happens when the 1000 light in the second picture is on. If you get the light up to 2000 or anything else past 1000 you can get the letters and button without losing lives. Anyone know what I can do?
"lives"?
Any rate, I love paginated schematics ... but I think you might have a short in the lights. Check B-I-G and the "Bonus" 1000 switches.
Quoted from currieddog:"lives"?
Any rate, I love paginated schematics ... but I think you might have a short in the lights. Check B-I-G and the "Bonus" 1000 switches.
Sorry I meant it takes away my balls when I don't actually lose them.
You'll want to check the circuit that sends power to the ball count reset solenoid. This might be an issue with a mis-adjusted score motor switch. Check the following switches:
Score motor switch 2A - green/black wire and orange/red wire
Game relay switch - black/white wire and orange/red wire
Extra ball relay switch - yellow/brown wire and green/black wire
Ball index relay switch - grey/green wire and yellow/brown wire
Outhole relay switch - yellow wire and grey/green wire
Make sure these switches are clean and adjusted properly...
Quoted from currieddog:Any rate, I love paginated schematics
I happen to have a much better copy of the schematics, if needed. They've been submitted to IPDB, but they haven't been posted yet.
Orange peel might not be bad on the flippers ... 
Yeah Coyote, if you could post that it would be nice. Thanks!
Quoted from Coyote:I happen to have a much better copy of the schematics, if needed. They've been submitted to IPDB, but they haven't been posted yet.
Yeah, the current copy of the schematic on IPDB is definitely an eye strainer...
Quoted from Coyote:Sorry for the delay, guys.
Here - knock yourselves out. It's large.
Nice, Coyote Thanks!
Quoted from BigBen1975:About 80% of the time when I get one of the letters at the top or the button above them the machine takes away one of my lives.
Do you mean that the ball in play advances by one? If so, that means that the "Ball Count Unit Step Up" solenoid (at 10E on the schematic) fired. Can you verify that?
Do all three B-I-G letters cause the problem? Their relays (14C on the schematic) all share a yellow-brown wire from the 5000 point relay.
If it happens when you hit the top Advance button does it also happen when you hit the 5 rollover switches? (I don't know where they are.) The schematic for the Advance relay at 15E shows that the top Advance button and rollover switches should all fire the Advance relay. If they don't all have the problem that might be interesting.
Quoted from BigBen1975:It only happens when the 1000 light in the second picture is on.
That means that the Advance Unit is in the 2nd position (according to the schematic at 6A).
These items are all unrelated to the ball count as far as I can see so it seems likely that there's a short. Figuring out where it is will be hard without knowing where these things are relative to each other in the game. But if you can eliminate some of the possibilities that might help narrow down where the short is. It might also help to trigger the fault with the lights off to see if you can see a spark anywhere through a switch or wires touching, etc.
/Mark
Quoted from MarkG:Do you mean that the ball in play advances by one? If so, that means that the "Ball Count Unit Step Up" solenoid (at 10E on the schematic) fired. Can you verify that?
For the record, this game counts balls *down*. "Balls Left" starts at 5 (or 3), and drops one.
Quoted from Coyote:For the record, this game counts balls *down*. "Balls Left" starts at 5 (or 3), and drops one.
Thanks for the clarification. What I'm trying to understand is whether the ball count unit is resetting or just taking a step since they're different coils.
Quoted from MarkG:Thanks for the clarification. What I'm trying to understand is whether the ball count unit is resetting or just taking a step since they're different coils.
I never replied to this, and don't know if @OP was able to fix his issue, but will note - in big Ben, the ball stepper doesn't have a 'reset' - one coil steps up, one coil steps down.
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Springfield, MA
Saskatoon, SK
