(Topic ID: 225979)

LEDs work but not incandescent bulbs?

By PiLgRiM

5 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

You

Linked Games

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

Capture2 (resized).JPG
Capture (resized).JPG
Screen Shot 2018-09-24 at 4.11.47 PM (resized).png

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider PiLgRiM.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

#1 5 years ago

I'm having an issue with a Williams System 11 High Speed where the bottom row of back box lamps will only work if they're LEDs. These are the "Game Over", "credit", "ball in play", and "Shoot Again" lamps. If I use regular incandescent bulbs, I get no light, but if I switch them to LEDs, they work. I was thinking even the LEDs looked dim, but over some hours of play they started to brighten up. Does anyone have any ideas where I can start to troubleshoot this? I'm assuming the voltage at these lights is MPU controlled and it's not getting enough voltage to the socket, but it's not even dim. Also, nothing else in the back box or playfield lighting looks dim.

Thanks!

#12 5 years ago

The incandescent lights don’t glow at all (that i can see) but the LEDs do flicker faintly when they’re supposed to be “off”. Doing a DC voltage test had proven difficult because the lamp test flashes the light on and off so the voltage rises and falls faster than my DMM will read on the other working bulbs. I was able to get just over 5V on the Game Over socket because that’s easy enough to get the game so light up

Should I just replace Q66 or is there another way to test it?

#14 5 years ago
Quoted from kbliznick:

Also you can put the meter on those tabs and compare the voltage rise and fall to those adjacent ones.
Every once in a while I run into a bad diode on the board on these lamp matrix. I don't remember if that's column or row specific.

So you're saying I can test voltage from the transistor tab to ground while the light test is running and compare it to other transistors-ground voltage for known "working" controlled lamps?

#19 5 years ago
Quoted from kbliznick:

Yes, But I don't remember if it's the column or row transistors you can do this on.

Based on that and these clips from the manual, I'm inferring that Q66 should switch voltage and Q65 should switch ground, and that means row transistors is where I can test for voltage?

Capture (resized).JPGCapture (resized).JPGCapture2 (resized).JPGCapture2 (resized).JPG
#21 5 years ago

So I can see the same voltage between 3.6V and 12.5V ish strobing up and down as the lights blink on and off on both the column and row transistors. Does that mean the issue is on the grounding side (Q65?)? Should I just replace both Q66 and Q65?

#25 5 years ago

The transistors are ordered and the resistor measures good. I guess I’ll just replace it too while the board is out. I get the same voltage reading out of J7-1 (3.5v - 4.5v, then sometimes spiking to 8-12v). I even tested about 12v-14v on either side of the resistor.

Promoted items from Pinside Marketplace and Pinside Shops!
$ 15.00
Playfield - Other
RobTune
 
$ 15.00
Playfield - Toys/Add-ons
RobTune
 
$ 27.95
Eproms
Pinballrom
 
$ 18.00
Electronics
Yorktown Arcade Supply
 
$ 53.99
Eproms
Matt's Basement Arcade
 
$ 35.00
Cabinet - Other
Rocket City Pinball
 
$ 10.00
Playfield - Protection
UpKick Pinball
 
$ 69.00
Gameroom - Decorations
Pinball Pimp
 
Wanted
Machine - Wanted
Fort Lauderdale, FL
$ 10.00
Playfield - Protection
UpKick Pinball
 
$ 35.99
Eproms
Matt's Basement Arcade
 
Wanted
Machine - Wanted
Red Oak, TX
4,995 (OBO)
Machine - For Sale
Dunakeszi
$ 2.50
Lighting - Led
Pinballrom
 
From: $ 3.50
Playfield - Other
Rocket City Pinball
 
$ 15.00
Playfield - Decals
Metal-Mods
 
6,500
Machine - For Sale
Orange, CA
$ 12.00
Playfield - Toys/Add-ons
UpKick Pinball
 
$ 20.00
Cabinet - Decals
Pinball Haus
 
Great pinball charity
Pinball Edu

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider PiLgRiM.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/leds-work-but-not-incandescent-bulbs?tu=PiLgRiM and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.