Help with Space Odyssey start up

0

#1 8 years ago

OP

JON

BCpinhead

Pinside member

9y 39,300 307

Hi all,
As I mentioned the other day in another post my SO is giving me some grief. It will not complete start up sequence randomly and seems related to 100 and 1000 relays getting stuck "on". I am an EM novice and have a schematic, I also tried to find Steve Furys YouTube video showing the start up sequence for SM but could not find it.

To recap, this is a game that sat for years and when I bought it on the cheap, it had many blown fuses in the bottom of the cab. This is my second EM. First thing I did was check and replace all fuses to correct amperage. I then disassembled and cleaned the score reels, match unit, credit stepper and ball count unit, all in the backbox. The bonus unit and other stepper under playfield manually work ok so I left them for now ...will get to them later for cleaning. The game is set on coins and does advance and decrease credits.

The main problem is this: after staring a new game when successfully completing that sequence, when the first 100 points is scored right away, it does not advance the score reel but yet the chime goes off and then locks the chime coil on and 100 point relay. I tried advancing the 10 point relay manually up and this way advances the 10 reel but then does not kick over from 90 to advance to 100 reel but still locks on the 100 chime!

If you find a 1000 point target on the pf again being first score after game started, it too will lock on the 1000 chime, and not activate the score reel to advance it.

I'm suspecting I assembled the score reels incorrectly. So, I hear the chime coil buzzing away locked on and turn the machine off. Turn back on again and try and start a new game but then reels do not reset and score motor runs continuously. But! Let it sit for days and presto...no problem starting a new game!

I've tried troubleshooting this problem for awhile and just chasing my tail. If you could weigh in with your expertise to help me get a game going through to completion, we all would be very happy.

0

#2 8 years ago

OP

JON

BCpinhead

Pinside member

9y 39,300 307

Also, there is still one aluminum coil sleeve in the back box on a steeper I reused, and the play field steppers coil still all are aluminum. I would like to replace them all (the whole machine) with new plastic ones and any recommendations to buy a kit would be great.

0

#3 8 years ago

BIF

CactusJack

Pinside member

Lake Forest, CA

10y 80,050 4,200 93

Part of the Score Reel Drum advance circuit is a hold circuit of the score relays which is released through the end of stroke switches on the associated score reel.

So, if you score 100 or 1000 points, the score relay is pulled in and held until the score reel solenoid plunger is energized and makes a full stroke thereby opening up the EOS switch which releases the score relay.

With Odyssey being a two player, Williams probably used a 10 step ball count unit with NO player unit. Instead, there is a score change over relay (I think they name it 2nd Player Relay). On this relay, there are contacts that reroute the 10, 100, 1000 point score power from the score relay to the proper player stepper score drum unit. So, you could have a dirty contact on the score relays (the score drum stepper coil usually has its own set of contacts, not the ones used for chime coil), or on the 2nd player relay. That's assuming your score drum stepper plungers move freely and the coil is not burnt open (check for burnt paper coil wrappers).

0

#4 8 years ago

OP

JON

BCpinhead

Pinside member

9y 39,300 307

Thanks for your advice CJ
I did learn that there is a delay of sorts needed when manually using the score relay to advance score reels. Good to know. So now I can step up by 10's to 90 then over to 0 but no activation of the 100 score except the locked on 100 chime coil. When I try them same procedure on manually activating the 100 or 1000 relays they instantly lock on with no score to the reels. All score reel coils look good. In fact all coils look good in the whole game (unfortunately, no obvious culprit).
I shut the game off pretty much right away after the locked chime coil syndrome...

Soon...then
When I manually advanced the player 1 score reels on the 100 and 1000 reels to like 3500 and then try a game reset, the game cannot complete a new game start sequence and score motor runs and reels sort of 1/2 reset...if that makes any sense. Pretty sure this is the root of why PO,s gave up on this game and also may explain the bunch of blown fuses in the bottom of the cab, but then wouldn't the trouble / coil show up as fried?
Stumped...

0

#5 8 years ago

MJG

Mikala

Pinside+ Frequent

9y 78,800 1,392

I can not find the manual on ipdb, but from a pick of the back box, it does look like there is a player stepper. Bypass player 1, and start with player 2. Score some points, if all works well on player 2, then the problem is in the player 1 score reels, if you still expierence problems, then it's most likely a relay issue. I had a similar problem on my Aztec. A switch on my 100 point relay was closed when it should have been N.O.

0

#6 8 years ago

BIF

CactusJack

Pinside member

Lake Forest, CA

10y 80,050 4,200 93

First off, unplug the chime unit so you dont burn up those coils. The score relays can take a bit more "on time" but you should not walk away with any of them energized.

Then, once you energize one of the score relays and it gets stuck on, go to the first player score drum (of that score relay, like 10, 100, 1000) and use your finger to fully seat the coil plunger so it will open the end of stroke switch, and tell us if the score relay drops out at that point.

Score reset pulses come from a whole different path in the logic circuit. The only thing they share is the step up coil itself (on the score drum/reel)

"score reels kind of half reset" not sure what you mean by that. If you mean, they attempt to step toward zero and stop before they get there, there are two switches on each reel related to score resets.

One switch allows the pulses from the reset relays (the chattering you hear from in back) to feed the score reel step up coil. This switch opens at 0 and stops the score reel from pulsing past zero. The other switch, along with 9 others on the other score reels, tell the reset circuit to stop when all the reels have made it to zero. Chances are, if the reels move from where you set them, but do not continue all the way to zero, you have some switches that need cleaning or adjusting on each score reel, but before adjusting, make sure you tighten the small screws on each switch stack.

0

#7 8 years ago

BIF

CactusJack

Pinside member

Lake Forest, CA

10y 80,050 4,200 93

You may find the bad switches during reset if you look for the small blue sparks across the contacts. Thats usually a dead give away of a switch that is just barely making contact. Enough to make the spark, but not enough to energize the coil.

0

#8 8 years ago

OP

JON

BCpinhead

Pinside member

9y 39,300 307

Thanks again CJ. I will try your tips tomorrow I hope, but right now the machine is not completing a reset for a new game. The half reset score reels (they move to zero but stop before they reach 0) are still the same as when I posted earlier this act. I had 3500 on player 1 that I manually stepped on the reels. Locked on a relay (1000) tried a reset then the reels made it to the current 8000 and now score motor just spins. Turn machine off,try a reset again, nothing, just score motor running and it does take away a credit. Embarrassingly I don't know how to start a 2 player game, tried to push the start button twice but not sure if anything different given the issues at hand.

Obviously chasing several issues here... Will look closely at score reels tomorrow. Thanks

By BCpinhead

8 years ago

Topic Stats

You

Find in topic

Linked Games

BCpinhead

BCpinhead

CactusJack

BCpinhead

Mikala

CactusJack

CactusJack

BCpinhead

Reply

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!