First pin! Xenon!

Firstly, today is a happy day for me. I've waited 32 year for this and I finally own a pinball machine!

I got a Xenon table.

I'm brand new to this, total noob. My friend who has restored dozens of tables helped me look at it and will be providing me with some support but I don't want to go at him with every detail. So, with your permission, I'd like to ask lots of questions in this thread about maintenance and upkeep of my Xenon.

Preferring to tackle one thing at a time, I'll begin. She worked fine before we picked her up, but had to remove the headboard to transport here. Initially she worked fine here, now it is intermittent. When she is being fickle she hums makes a humming sound when turning on. The MPU light flashes 7 times. After I press the the flipper buttons one or twice it freezes and the displays go blank. I put it in test mode and says I have a stuck switch on number 2 (Ball Release #1). Is it the J2 connection, the switch, or something else I should be looking at?

Thanks in advance.

xenon1.jpg xenon4.jpg

#2 12 years ago

SCO

scooter

Pinside member

15y 96,900 3,615 1 205

Nice pick up! I would check all your connections first.

#3 12 years ago

JOE

Jobi

Pinside member

I reseated the connections. It gave the the same problem immediately, but then worked after I turned it off for 5 minutes. Time will tell I suppose..

My next question is one on LEDs. I know I want LEDs in the headboard, the photos of it look amazing. There are a few lights out on the playfield so I want to start swapping those too. Cointaker has a driver board. They say you need the board for controlled lights so they don't flicker. I'm not sure what a "controlled" light is and if Xenon has one. Do I need a new board for playfield lights?

#4 12 years ago

CAL

mojozone

Pinside member

Fort Dodge, IA

12y 51,400 2,557 4 32

My friend has some flickering on his meteor, but i don't think its a problem. dosnt bother me when we play.

#5 12 years ago

WRD

way2wyrd

History Of Pinball

Fort Worth, TX

13y 116K 4,917 21 12

that was my first pin. I still love her.

#6 12 years ago

MLV

Pinball-is-great

Pinside member

Lafayette, LA

12y 147K 5,016 3 102

Congrats Jobi on getting a Xenon. Classic. I like the light show, artwork, tube, and sounds/speech. I bought a dirty non-working one last year and have it cleaned up and working pretty good for the most part. However, intermittently it acts sorta grumpy and some things don't work for a bit, such as flippers and top saucer kick-out hole. Lately it's working great. On my machine these two probs are related and occur at same time, and could be a connector issue or grounding. ??
For now, I'm not going the LED route. I did buy a plug & play light strip from Pinlogic that installs along backside of tube and works fine. The light strip that came w/ the machine I bought was in sad shape. Have fun w/ your Xenon (cleaning/repairing/enhancing/& playing it).

#7 12 years ago

NAM

kwiKimart

Inactive member

San Diego, CA

12y 90,650 10,693 3 71

Congrats on your first pin!!

#8 12 years ago

RDH

rommy

Pinside member

Springdale, AR

12y 79,150 3,706 16 15

Wow what a first pin! Like getting an 18 point first day deer hunting. Gonna be hard to follow up on that one. Congrats!

#9 12 years ago

MAL

Angyalpor

Inactive member

MaglÃ³d

12y 50,900 965 2

Wow, congrats, I plan to collect a Xenon, too...

At this age, mostly the connectors has got problem, mostly if you clean them,move them a bit will help. Now everything is OK?

#10 12 years ago

JOE

Jobi

Pinside member

It had the same issue again last night, so itisintermittant and not fixed. To reiterate, i am a total noob and need to learn to clean the connectors. Anyone knowof a site or video that explains that process to a layman?

#11 12 years ago

MAL

Angyalpor

Inactive member

MaglÃ³d

12y 50,900 965 2

I'm not a professional, just I can share my experiences...
I disconnect the connectors, then I can check the continuity with a DMM. If that is Ok,then clean the pins with candpaper, and connect,disconnect it few times, then should be OK.
My lamps and drop targets was wrong, but after cleaning they works well...

#12 12 years ago

CBM

spfxted

Pinside member

I have the light kit on mine. Get the board. Do them all...do it right. Looks great! Fantastic game! Enjoy!!

#13 12 years ago

DWE

SDFworker

Pinside member

12y 40,100 291 11

OP
Quoted from Jobi:
It had the same issue again last night, so itisintermittant and not fixed. To reiterate, i am a total noob and need to learn to clean the connectors. Anyone knowof a site or video that explains that process to a layman?

Connectors to boards are a major source of intermittent issues with Ballys of this era. Sometimes you can lightly wiggly on wiring at individual connector, or connector itself to see if you can duplicate problem. I have found the smaller thin connectors to be the most troublesome. Read about your era Bally at Pinwiki.com. Be prepared to replace connectors. Tools, connectors, and pins at Great Plains Electronics.

BTW I have Ultimate light driver board and Leds in my Xenon and it looks awesome.

#14 12 years ago

CBM

spfxted

Pinside member

Listen to SDFworker!...he is wise!

#15 12 years ago

DWE

SDFworker

Pinside member

12y 40,100 291 11

I should also add that my Xenon has IDC connectors which I always replace with Molex connectors. Pinwiki.com will explain the difference. Welcome to the obsession

#16 12 years ago

DWE

SDFworker

Pinside member

http://www.pinrepair.com/connect/

12y 40,100 291 11

Even better.

#17 12 years ago

CBM

spfxted

Pinside member

Try me again....

#18 12 years ago

DRM

Honch

Pinside member

12y 79,300 5,073

Great game. Nice score!!!

#19 12 years ago

MAT

mummite

Pinside+ Frequent

Redwood City, CA

12y 91,650 2,244 20 28

Xenon rocks! nice score congrats

#20 12 years ago

DEY

absocountry2

Pinside member

Wasilla, AK

13y 82,050 7,424 29 72

great pin, enjoy the artwork

#21 12 years ago

JOE

Jobi

Pinside member

I figured out the short. It wasn't the machine, it was the circuit in the house. I first noticed that when I printed something on my laser printer the machine shorted and I was able to replicate that. Hmmmm... I started to suspect it was plugged into the same circuit as the hot tub, which uses a 110V line. Long story short, it was. No more hum, no more shorts.

Curious though, if I did not have another circuit to plug into, is there anything that could have been done to keep the table and the tub both plugged in? Thanks

#22 12 years ago

CBM

spfxted

Pinside member

Xenon seems to be very sensetive about that sort of thing. When my dehumidifier came on sometimes the machine would reset...

#23 12 years ago

JOE

Jobi

Pinside member

That fault seems to be clear now that I'm using another circuit, but I've discovered another short.

This doesn't always happen, but sometimes it is like the machine loses power for a split second. It restarts and is immediately playable. This seems to only happen during multiball. I would think it is because more things are being hit at once and drawing more power. I'll try to take note of what targets are hit when this happens. Any thoughts? Thanks

#24 12 years ago

SunKing

Pinside member

Houston, TX

13y 130K 3,983 5 21

Sorry I can't help on your specific issue - but had to say WELCOME to pinside. Xenon is an awesome 1st pin - love the classic late 70's early 80's pins.

#25 12 years ago

JOE

Jobi

Pinside member

Thanks, I'm happy to have found this place. I'm digging Xenon. I'm hoping to acquire some Williams System 11 games soon. That seems to be my favorite era.

#26 12 years ago

CAL

Wickedquickss

Inactive member

12y 32,650 915 1 11

I got a little soft spot for Xennon..see my story....Still love it to this day....Nice pick on a first pin..was the first pin I ever played

#27 12 years ago

JOE

Jobi

Pinside member

What's proper etiquette here? Should I make a new thread for each issue I come across or should I put them all here?

#28 12 years ago

TDA

The_Dude_Abides

Pinside Moderator

Northern California, CA

14y 137K 9,468 151

Such a cool looking pin Congrats!!

OP
Quoted from Jobi:
What's proper etiquette here? Should I make a new thread for each issue I come across or should I put them all here?

Do a quick search in the topic section first to ensure your similar problem hasn't already been covered by a past post. If you can't find one then I would recommend starting a single post that includes all the problems that you are having.

#29 12 years ago

CBM

spfxted

Pinside member