Genie
Gottlieb, 1979I'm trying to fix a Gottlieb Genie for a friend and I'm beating my brains out. The lower right flipper and the upper right flipper won't activate. I've put new diodes on the coils and replaced the bridge rectifier for the solenoids, but no luck. It has a new-ish MPU and driver board, so I'm fairly confident the problem isn't there. Does anyone know what I should check next? Thanks!
Quoted from BRW84:I'm trying to fix a Gottlieb Genie for a friend and I'm beating my brains out. The lower right flipper and the upper right flipper won't activate. I've put new diodes on the coils and replaced the bridge rectifier for the solenoids, but no luck. It has a new-ish MPU and driver board, so I'm fairly confident the problem isn't there. Does anyone know what I should check next? Thanks!
Is this a new to you game or did they just stop working? Did you check the right flipper switch? Compare the voltage to the left side one with a meter. Some of games had soldered on wires on the flipper switches and others had crimped connectors. The crimped ones will fail over time and need some attention.
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:Is this a new to you game or did they just stop working? Did you check the right flipper switch? Compare the voltage to the left side one with a meter. Some of games had soldered on wires on the flipper switch and others had crimped connectors. The crimped ones will fail over time and need some attention.
I'll check that out! It's new to my friend and those flippers weren't working when he got it. It was also blowing the solenoid fuse because it had a bad flipper diode, but I fixed that already. Not sure if it was related.
Follow the wires back from the right flipper switch. You might have a bad bridge or a flipper coil too.
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:Follow the wires back from the right flipper switch. You might have a bad bridge or a flipper coil too.
I'm thinking it has to be the flipper coil. My guess (and fervent hope) is that the bad diode on the coil that kept popping the solenoid fuse also fried the coil. I'll report back when I get the new coil on.
Bad diode won't fry a coil. It's basically bypassing the coil.
You can test if the coil is good easily, just check resistance vs another similar coil
Upper flipper is activated by the lower one, so it makes sense that the lower not working would cause that.
Quoted from zacaj:Bad diode won't fry a coil. It's basically bypassing the coil.
You can test if the coil is good easily, just check resistance vs another similar coil
Upper flipper is activated by the lower one, so it makes sense that the lower not working would cause that.
The coil seemed to test within range (at least decently close to it), but when I first started working on the machine, the coil was wired backwards. Could that have messed it up?
Quoted from BRW84:The coil seemed to test within range (at least decently close to it), but when I first started working on the machine, the coil was wired backwards. Could that have messed it up?
If the cool is wired backwards, the power is going to short through the diodes and blow the fuse and diodes.
Quoted from plowpusher:Did you file the right flipper switch to get it nice and shinny
Oh yeah. The right flipper switch still activates the second of the two right flippers, so the problem isn't there.
Quoted from KenLayton:The end-of-stroke switch on the bottom right flipper is your problem.
It looked pretty good, but I'll try replacing and see what happens!
Quoted from BRW84:It looked pretty good, but I'll try replacing and see what happens!
It might just need cleaning/adjustment....
Quoted from slochar:It might just need cleaning/adjustment....
I've cleaned the hell out of it, unfortunately.
Several months ago I had the same problem on a Genie you are having with the flippers. I ended up replacing the end-of-stroke switches on the bottom flippers. No amount of cleaning/adjusting would fix them. After I replaced them, everything was fine.
I took a good look at the old switches after I took them off the machine. Turns out one of the switch blades was broken clear through *inside* the switch stack between the insulators.
The upper flipper activates by EOS switch on lower flipper. So if your lower flipper does not work, neither does the upper flipper. Maybe the other EOS switch on lower flipper, that controls current to power winding of lower flipper coil is bad, and the flipper does not pull in with only the hold winding, thus not activating the upper flipper. So check that both of the lower flipper EOS switches are OK.
Flipper operating sequence:
- Flipper button pushed, current flows through lower flipper power winding, since the hold winding is shorted by normally closed EOS.
- Lower flipper pulls in, normally closed EOS opens, effectively connecting the hold winding in series with the power winding and lowering current to safe level.
- At the same time, the other, normally open EOS at lower flipper closes, connecting power to upper flipper coil (that has its own EOS to switch to hold mode)
Quoted from KenLayton:Several months ago I had the same problem on a Genie you are having with the flippers. I ended up replacing the end-of-stroke switches on the bottom flippers. No amount of cleaning/adjusting would fix them. After I replaced them, everything was fine.
I took a good look at the old switches after I took them off the machine. Turns out one of the switch blades was broken clear through *inside* the switch stack between the insulators.
Man, I really hope this is the issue. It's about the only thing that makes sense at this point.
Quoted from KenLayton:Several months ago I had the same problem on a Genie you are having with the flippers. I ended up replacing the end-of-stroke switches on the bottom flippers. No amount of cleaning/adjusting would fix them. After I replaced them, everything was fine.
I took a good look at the old switches after I took them off the machine. Turns out one of the switch blades was broken clear through *inside* the switch stack between the insulators.
UPDATE: Finally got it fixed today, and this was the EXACT issue. Popper a new switch stack in there and it worked like a charm.
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