(Topic ID: 206835)

Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man Resets on Exit - Fixed

By madaracs

6 years ago


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  • 12 posts
  • 3 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 6 years ago by madaracs
  • Topic is favorited by 1 Pinsider

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#1 6 years ago

This has been happening pretty often lately. When the ball exits through the far left exit, the game resets and the intro music plays and the score goes to 500. Could anyone with some early solid state Bally pinball knowledge give me some pointers of what to check first? The wiring harness could be at fault---I've already re-seated all of the cables to fix a problem where the down direction lamp wouldn't light.

Any suggestions for bullet proofing this machine would be useful too. I have a new Ultimate Lamp Board on the way.

Pac-Exit (resized).pngPac-Exit (resized).png

#2 6 years ago

Early Bally SS pins, I would recommend re-pinning EVERY board connector, male & female.
Also, replace all of the switch capacitors.
It is a long a tedious process, but worth it in troubleshooting headaches.

#3 6 years ago
Quoted from dasvis:

Early Bally SS pins, I would recommend re-pinning EVERY board connector, male & female.
Also, replace all of the switch capacitors.
It is a long a tedious process, but worth it in troubleshooting headaches.

This is a good suggestion. I've done this on my Williams arcade games and it's helped quite a bit. Is there a preferred source for connectors and pins? I assume the caps you're referring to are on the Solenoid Driver Board?

I found this link: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-quick-bally-driver-board-repair-bulletproofing which I may have used when I was working on my Xenon about 3 years ago--I can't remember!

#4 6 years ago

The left outlane shares I5 with the credit button and a drop target. I believe there is a short happening when the ball rolls over the rollover that is causing all the switches on that line to fire.

#5 6 years ago
Quoted from madaracs:

This is a good suggestion. I've done this on my Williams arcade games and it's helped quite a bit. Is there a preferred source for connectors and pins? I assume the caps you're referring to are on the Solenoid Driver Board?
I found this link: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-quick-bally-driver-board-repair-bulletproofing which I may have used when I was working on my Xenon about 3 years ago--I can't remember!

No, the little M&M looking caps they put on rollover switches & such

These -- https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=CCD-0.047uF-50V

#6 6 years ago
Quoted from BigAl56:

The left outlane shares I5 with the credit button and a drop target. I believe there is a short happening when the ball rolls over the rollover that is causing all the switches on that line to fire.

Well you win the prize.

If the first drop target on the left is dropped, and the outlane switch engages--a credit is applied to the machine. This either adds additional players or starts a fresh game somehow.

If it's a short in the harness that's a lot of wire to traverse...

There is a diode on that outramp switch... should I replace it?

#7 6 years ago

Yea that sounds like a sneak path through the matrix. It's like a puzzle, used to love solving these (not).

The credit button is located at S0-I5 (per the cabinet wiring schematic). Take a copy of the playfield switch matrix and pencil in the switches from the cabinet. Now the puzzle, trace a path through the playfield matrix that takes you through from S0 to I5. If you draw that out you have to go backwards through a switch/diode to get to the finish at I5. That's the bad (or missing) diode. Try solving this before reading my solution in the next post.

Hint: S1-I0.

pasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).png

#8 6 years ago

Here is the solution I came up with. From ST0 up through left bottom drop target onto I0, then down through ST1-I0 (#3 coin switch not shown on playfield schematic), then up through left outlane to I5.

That path means the coin switch is stuck and the diode on the coin switch is is bad or missing.
Trivia: At the time we did not use diodes on the coin switches because nobody could figure out how to wire them up. That's why stuck coin switches caused all sorts of problems like this. Eventually someone figured out how to do it and later games have diodes on the coin switches.

There are other possibilities. This is the one that makes the most sense as coin switches are often stuck.

Good luck.

#9 6 years ago
Quoted from BigAl56:

Here is the solution I came up with. From ST0 up through left bottom drop target onto I0, then down through ST1-I0 (#3 coin switch not shown on playfield schematic), then up through left outlane to I5.
That path means the coin switch is stuck and the diode on the coin switch is is bad or missing.

This explains everything. I suppose there is always a missing piece to the story when we complain about a failure. This is mine: When I bought this machine the coin components had been completely stripped out of the coin door. Naturally, I rebuilt it from scratch using guts from another door or two. I never installed any diodes on ANY of the coin switches.

Now I'm off to my spare parts to see if I even had the right diodes...

Thank you very much for your help.

EDIT: Disconnecting the coin door confirms the outramp switch and drop target work as designed. Have to take a look at my wiring on the coin door.

#10 6 years ago

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1 week later
#11 6 years ago
Quoted from madaracs:

I added diodes to the coin switches and the problem was solved.

Spoke too soon. It's just my "expert" wiring made it so the stuck switch moved to another drop/switch combo.

I ordered a new wiring harness for the coin door and put it in yesterday. I wanted to make sure my MacGyvered wiring on the old door wasn't at fault. It isn't. But I've got a whole host of switch issues with this machine right now so I'll have to reserve the solution for this thread until I get those figured out.

Thanks everyone for the support and help.

#12 6 years ago
Quoted from madaracs:

It isn't. But I've got a whole host of switch issues with this machine right now so I'll have to reserve the solution for this thread until I get those figured out.
Thanks everyone for the support and help.

When I wired in the new coin door harness I started getting other switch problems. Including when I engaged the left flipper--points were added to the board. (triggering that outlane switch again). So I started from scratch with the assumption that the problem was likely in the most recent change: The Coin Door.

Troubleshooting:

- I ran the self-test and switch 1 was stuck. I ran it a few times and it showed number 9 (Coin switch 3) was stuck intermittently.
- I disconnect coin switch 3.
- Ran self-test again. Switch 11 is stuck (coin switch 2).

Seeing as 9 and 11 were the two switches I added, I finally started to put two and two together. It turns out that I when I wired this coin door up nearly three years ago, I did it by sight--not by reading anything important like where the NC (Normally Closed) and/or NO (Normally Open) terminals were on each switch. I had assumed they were all made the same. So up until this point I didn't look at the actual specifications of the switches.

Turns out the original switch on the coin door was:

Coin Switch 1: COM - NC - NO

The other two switches are:

Coin Switch 2: COM - NO - NC
Coin Switch 3: COM - NO - NC

I had inadvertently wired the Common to the Normally Closed terminal on coin switch 2 and 3. I believe I was basically bridging the current which was affecting the rest of the switch matrix.

All I needed to do was move strobe wire for switch 9 (coin switch 3) and 11 (Coin switch 2) to the NO terminal and things started behaving properly.

Switch self-test checks out OK now.

No more wonky resets. Flipper and outlane operations normal.

Leaving these links here for additional help (I used them in my search for the solution):
Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man Switch Matrix Troubleshooting Tips:


Pinball Rehab's infamous Switch Matrix Theory and Troubleshooting Guide: http://pinballrehab.com/1-articles/solid-state-repair/repair-guides/146-switch-matrix-theory-and-troubleshooting I actually didn't make it past the section entitled "Human Error."

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