Card Whiz
Gottlieb, 1976My Card Whiz has just started randomly repeating ball one. If I play more than one game it progress though each ball as it should. Let it set for a bit and ball one repeats. It only repeats once. Any ideas on where I should start looking.
Thanks,
Phil
Apparently your ball 1 relay is not pulling in/staying pulled in. As soon as you score something it should pull in and stay energized. These coils are often burnt along with hold and game over. inspect and probably replace.
Of course if you dont score anything you'll get ball1 back.
Card whiz uses a latch/trip interlock relay for 1st ball instead of a standard relay that has to stay pulled in.
According to the schematic, the U relay (1st Ball) is an A-9740 AG. relay - so it's the kind that has to be energized to stay on. The locking circuit is shown highlighted in red in the snippet below:
Card Whiz U relay (resized).JPG
It's turned on by any of the green switches (L, M or N) and then locks itself on via the red circuit.
If you're having a problem with it holding (and your coil is OK as pinhead52 mentioned), you might start by checking the switches in the red circuit - the U switch, the AX switch or the Motor 1B switch. Makes sure the contacts are clean and gapped correctly.
Quoted from BleacherBum:My Card Whiz has just started randomly repeating ball one. If I play more than one game it progress though each ball as it should. Let it set for a bit and ball one repeats. It only repeats once. Any ideas on where I should start looking.
Thanks,
Phil
HowardR has fixed ever issue I have ever had on a LOT of EMs I have had over the years.
Nothing against the other posters, but he knows his shit.
Shoot him a PM and if you ever meet him in person pay his bar tab 
Thank you paulace for correcting me. I didn’t have the schematic in front of me, and assumed that the circuit was similar to the 1st ball relay in a target alpha I owned. So don’t assume without checking first. And yes HowardR does know his shit.
Thanks everyone for your input. Below is what I have observed and/or tested
Quoted from HowardR:Does ball 1 play twice in a row, or does the extra ball 1 occur after ball 5?
Ball one plays twice in row (not every game) and it only repeats once. After the second drain the ball count proceeds as expired ( 2-3-4-5-game over. The game ends after ball five (no extra ball). What is frustrating is the issues of the ball one count not advancing is that it does occur every game.
The game ends after ball five (no extra ball)
Quoted from pinhead52:Apparently your ball 1 relay is not pulling in/staying pulled in. As soon as you score something it should pull in and stay energized. These coils are often burnt along with hold and game over. inspect and probably replace.
Of course if you dont score anything you'll get ball1 back.
The coil test ok. I tested it with one tab unsolidered and it reads the same resistance as other 9740 coils. So I am assuming that the coil is ok.
I made sure that points were scored before ball drained
Quoted from pinballdaveh:Card whiz uses a latch/trip interlock relay for 1st ball instead of a standard relay that has to stay
The First Ball relays activates and energized (pulled in).
I cleaned the switches in mentioned in post #5 and tested them (even though the U relay is staying energized) and they all tested ok. I visually observed a leaf deflection when the relay is energized. I also tested with a DMM.
Quoted from BleacherBum:My Card Whiz has just started randomly repeating ball one. If I play more than one game it progress though each ball as it should. Let it set for a bit and ball one repeats. It only repeats once. Any ideas on where I should start looking.
Quoted from HowardR:Does ball 1 play twice in a row, or does the extra ball 1 occur after ball 5?
Quoted from BleacherBum:Ball one plays twice in row (not every game) and it only repeats once. After the second drain the ball count proceeds as expired ( 2-3-4-5-game over.
Does the Player unit stop in the same place before this happens, compared to when this is not going to happen? Because this is an intermittent problem, you may have to take a cellphone video and edit out the irrelevant parts to answer this question.
Intermittent problems can be difficult but persistence will pay off.
Hopefully this helps. If not let me know and I’ll try again.
*Ball One plays twice in a row, no extra ball after Ball Five
*The Player Unit stops after starting a game. (see picture label Ball One).
*Second picture shows the Player after advancing to Ball Two (see picture labeled Ball Two).
*When Ball One plays twice in a row the Player Unit does not move/advance. The Player Unit remains at the Ball One position. The Player Unit isn’t being energized.
*At the end of the second Ball One the player unit advances to the Ball Two position.
*Ball One is the only ball that ever plays twice in a row.
63896321-60C9-4AFF-B80A-2ED61F7DCB53 (resized).jpegCDA52CDC-E0A3-4DD4-91DE-F2BCEFE0C846 (resized).jpegThe shoe and the spring that rides on the rivets looks kind of rusted up or gunked up. Could that have anything to do with it?
Probably would not only have issues on ball 1 then. Or is the rivet for ball 1 position worn or dirty?
Just an observation from the pic
This is where I am at with this problem.
After taking multiple videos (thanks HowardR for the tip) I determined that when this problem occurred, the U relay was not engaging (ball one) after points were scored. So based on previous comments previous comments (thanks Paulace), I have been examining the switches mentioned in post # 5 & 6. I have been over them several times and have not yet found the culprit. I have also been cleaning contacts that appear dirty (thanks Homebrood).
This continues to be a challenge as the fault only happens once then the pin plays multiple correctly. To get the fault to reoccur, I have to let the pin set for a while then try again.
I’ll keep at it but, if anyone has any other suggestions as to the source of the problem please speak up.
“Never give up, never surrender!”
Phil
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