F14 Tomcat Owners Club Fans Also Welcome.

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Is this an accurate way to diagnose my tip 122 transistors?

Using this DMM?

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Yes, and if you are following the procedure above and are measuring 0.4 ohms, the transistor you are testing is shorted (bad!)

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All of these are showing "OL" im not sure what that means?

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All of these are showing a pretty similar reading.

holy crap... so im new to pinside, but not to pinball. my first machine was/is my f14 tomcat. from more than a dozen years or so ago... now recently just jumped back into it. and since finding pinside, have already bought three more pins. and ordered way too much stuff from pinballlife.com LOL (im sure they are tired of me already!)

anyway, have been reading this thread non stop for almost three days! (had foot surgery yesterday am, so finally finished the thread a bit ago!!)

incredible info here and on pinside in general. already sent some support money pinside's way. looking forward to having this place be my new hangout!!

Troy

OL means "overload" or "out of range", which is the meter's way of displaying an open circuit (near infinite resistance)
The transistors you are testing are set up to operate as electronic switches. With the game off, the ones that read OL are "off", and that is a good thing. The ones that are reading a very low resistance are essentially on, and that's not good. That will result in the coils they control being stuck on, and possibly damaged as well.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=dmm+how+to

Finally starting to make sense. Thanks Wayout, for being patient with me and teaching me the ropes of diagnosing my F14!

I'm going to spend a couple hours tonight really digging in deep on my issue. It's been tough spending any good length of time on this since my two year old wants to "help".

Tonight I pulled my CPU out of the machine and tested every one of the TIP122 transistors using this method.

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I used the diode setting on my DMM and the only TIP122 transistor to give me a reading outside of (.4 to .6) was Q81 transistor. It was way outside.

Just curious, what might cause a transistor to be "on" while all the connectors are plugged in? But test out correctly when my CPU is removed?

With the connector plugged in, you are reading a short elsewhere. Removing the connectors prior to taking the measurement would ensure that you are only reading the transistor output. To be fair, that is a detail that probably should have been included in the quick and dirty transistor testing instructions.

My F-14 is was missing cpu and display have both now but I am also missing the ribbon cable. Marco has what I think to be the right ones but want to clarify.
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/5795-10937-09
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/5795-10938-27
Could someone please tell me I am getting the right ones?

That's the correct ribbon cables that are on my machine. A short 20 pin, and a longer 26 pin ribbon cable.

So, no solution yet on my locked solenoid 3 (ball popper) But I found something tonight that I found strange. The (purple/orange) DRV wire soldered on my snubber has no continuity. But I traced it to the connector (1J2 pin 6) the same (purple/orange) wire has continuity at the connector.

Also, during diagnostics in the coil test I can hear each one of my snubbers click. LC eject, RC eject, R eject, ball popper, uper left (Jagov kicker), and left kickback rescue lane. This leads me to believe the CPU is doing its' job correctly by sending ground to the DRV wires.

If I unhook the ground from my locked coil and put a fuse back in the fuseholder should all these other cois in the same chain work properly?

1J2 has nothing to do with coils, that connector is your display strobes. Look at the solenoid table: J11 for switched solenoids, J12 for controlled solenoids, and J19 for special solenoids. You'll find this same information reflected on the interboards schematic, and various other places in the schematics.

I think you are confusing yourself because the wire colors are different at the diode switch board. The wire back to the CPU for solenoid 3 is GRY/ORG J11 Pin 4 (in the solenoid table pg 1 of the manual)

MMMMMMM pinball parts are in the mail. New plastics and plastic protectors, along with some other parts, saaaaaaweeeeet!

Which versions of ROMs allow for adjustment of the strength of the Yagov kicker? Is it only L1?

L1 does, L4 definitely does not, don't know about anything else!

Elliott

I am a owner of a pretty nice Tomcat.....Does that make me a member of the club?

Did you pay your dues?

Show us how nice your Bombcat is and then we discuss your membership.

How is this? .........

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Or This......Not to shabby for a $500.00 machine......and yes, I did donate

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Looks nice. I've never seen one with a blue display added. I prefer the orange, but it's not bad at all.

I second that!

Blue display is fine.... you should order a clear beacon!

The original orange dispay worked just fine when I got the machine, but when lifting it out to do some cleaning I noticed the 4th player glass was lose on the board so I removed the screws holdind the board down to see about securing it back, but when I lifted it up the glass display flopped down and snapped 3 pins off flush with the glass. needless to say, only half of that display woked. A new glass display cost about $50.00 and then taking a chance on soldering it on myself or paying someone with more experience to do it, I decided to just buy a whole new board since I could get one shipped to my door for under $200 (Big Daddy's on Ebay) I think I like the original orange better myself but the blue still looks cool. at least I still have the original board to go back in. just wanted to try something different

You should change the Display to LED-Technology to reduce power consumption and save the electric power supply.
Unfortunately the original Displays die earlier or later.

It is LED....brand new by "Rottendog"

Ah ok, that's good.
I use a LED too and it works fine.

Hey F-14 fans ...This was my first pin that got me hooked! I sold mine but found these 2 collectible speaker cut outs left behind on a shelf....Free just pay shipping to the first 2 F-14 pinsiders that PM me with in the U.S. Happy Thanksgiving!!!image.jpegimage.jpeg

One gone! One to go

And they are gone!

And this is why I should watch pinside more often!
Very cool thing you did Bladefury!

One pinsider backed out! It's yours just pm me your address so I can figure out shipping!

So, these stick over the speaker grill?

These are just covers - some Pins had this as decals painted on the grills.

Bronco John, wouldnt sound very good with them covering the speakers. They were how the speaker panel was printed, then they cut out the holes for the speakers and used the cutouts as promos. Same concept as doughnut holes (well, kinda...)

PS, if anyone is parting a F-14 please LMK, looking for random switches , right sling plastic, a few other odds and ends.

Are they available anywhere?

This is were I go, wth did I get myself into. Lolimage.jpegimage.jpegimage.jpegimage.jpegimage.jpeg

Yes that is a xenon spinner

And if you look very closely at the first picture, you'll notice there's a board missing

At least he doesn't have to worry about battery corrosion

Lol yeah have a rotten dog replacement cpu board and also a display. Was missing as well.
Suggestions on where to start?

I have a display board with three working displays for sale if your interested. It is the Millionaire type board for the early F-14 panels. PM me, I was thinking like $50. One of the alphanumerics is outgassed.

Looks like your missing the entire speaker panel and displays tho?

I'd first clean it and try to get it working, then start worrying about aesthetics.

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Post-Purchase_Checklist

I do have them thanks though.

Update, cleaning today. Hope to get into house soon. No heat in my work shed of a garage! Space heaters going. Not going to put boards in till its inside !// Error: Image 479133 not found //[attachment=2820638,undefined caption="image.jpeg"]
And then there's this! Hopefully I won't need that! [attachment=2820638,undefined caption="image.jpeg"]

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Sorry, Having issues with phone! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Been cleaning, and taking lots of pics.
Any ideas on these two yellows that are cut?
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Hopefully i will not need this, since i have a replacement cpu board
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Yellow wires are for beacon motor
My serial # is 554 94355
Good luck!

Thanks, yes just another part that is missing.