Hi Everyone,

While I'm still developing my ideal pinball troubleshooting board for your Williams system 3 through 7 pinball machines, I have come up with an intermediate solution for those who need to get their machines up and running today.

It's called the Pincoder Adapter, it comes preloaded with the Pincoder diagnostic software, and is ready to go out of the box. You do not need a chip programmer or any chips to use it.

You can find out more and also purchase the adapter here:

https://pincoder.ca/index.php/2020/07/10/adapter-2020-06-23-0506/

Of course, if you have questions you can certainly ask them here and I'll be happy to answer.

Thanks and happy repairs!

Yes, much in the same way as the Leon and Andre ROMs.

The software on this adapter also verifies all functions of the CPU, RAM, 5101, LEDs, displays, etc. The RAM and 5101 tests verify every single address available in the respective chips, and with multiple bit combinations. The Williams built-in code has been known to produce false positives because it only tests chips on a few addresses to see if it responds.

There is even a switch bounce test that allows you to find switches that produce more than one pulse (typically due to dirty or worn contacts). Completing this test is good for ensuring accurate scoring.

This adapter will also allow you to test the signals going to the sound card, but not the sound card itself. Since the sound card has it's own CPU, a new test needs to be written such that this adapter could also be placed into the appropriate socket of the sound card. A future version of Pincoder software will contain code compatible with this adapter to run those types of tests.

Also, If you have a chip programmer that can write to an ST39SF040 chip you can fill the unused portions of the EEPROM on this adapter with any image you like, include the Andre and Leon test ROMs.

Yes. I've been buying project machines and writing tests as I repair them. When the opportunity comes up for other games I'll build support into the pincoder software. If they use the 2726 or 2532 chip, you'll be able to use this adapter on those games.

Behind the scenes, I've created a development environment for myself that allows me to create ROM images for other games using existing code (for the most part) so including future games should be faster.

Thanks Cheddar!

You're not too far from me at all! Send me and email with your shipping address and I can get one out to you today

Good News! Online purchase now available everywhere (click and scroll down to "HOW TO GET ONE" here):

https://pincoder.ca/index.php/2020/07/10/adapter-2020-06-23-0506/

Thanks again for your support!

Excellent! How do you like it?

Awesome! Good to hear!!

Sorry for the delayed reply.. Glad you got your adapter and thank you again for your purchase!

One of the key differences between the switches and solenoids tests is that:

1) The switches test DISABLES the flipper relay and the special solenoids circuitry.
2) The solenoids test ENABLES the flipper relay and the special solenoids circuitry.

Because the special switch trigger lines are not routed into a PIA on the driver board, it is impossible for software to detect these switch closures.

Interestingly enough, thanks to IC6 and IC7 (OR gates) on the driver board, software CAN fire the solenoids independent of the special switch triggers. Currently the solenoids test does not handle firing special solenoid on its own. That will come in a later release of pincoder software.

Getting back to your original problem, occasional game crashing could be caused by intermittent power or a bad blanking circuit. Since you've already tested your blanking circut, and the fact that your GI also goes out, I'd say it has more to do with the power supply.

Does the GI go out and stay out, or does it go off and come back on again?

Sorry for the delayed reply.. Glad you got your adapter and thank you again for your purchase!

One of the key differences between the switches and solenoids tests is that:

1) The switches test DISABLES the flipper relay and the special solenoids circuitry.
2) The solenoids test ENABLES the flipper relay and the special solenoids circuitry.

Because the special switch trigger lines are not routed into a PIA on the driver board, it is impossible for software to detect these switch closures.

Getting back to your original problem, occasional game crashing could be caused by intermittent power or a bad blanking circuit. Since you've already tested your blanking circut, and the fact that your GI also goes out, I'd say it has more to do with the power supply.

Does the GI go out and stay out, or does it go off and come back on again?

Yes there are.. Cheddar made some videos and posted them here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtGB2hX0oWQT_eIL4mvQg1mNrVZWnpJz5

You can also read the official Pincoder software support thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-williams-system-6-in-game-test-roms

From there you will find questions and answers from other pinside members, and can post your questions about the software there, and you questions about the adapter here.

Thanks! I really appreciate that! I'm glad they're helpful

Thanks for buying! Unfortunately, being New Years Day today, I could't actually hand it off to the shipping company, but it will be on it's way tomorrow!

Let me know how the diagnostics go

If you're sure the game runs with the chips in those locations then you have a labelling error. Those are the original stickers too so rather strange to have this happen.

The ROMs must be installed in their correct locations. If the socket for IC17 has the wrong chip installed, the game will not boot. If one or more of the other ROM sockets doesnt have the correct chip, the game may boot, but will definitely not function correctly if it does boot.

If you suspect it's NOT a labelling error you can swap those two ROMs, put them in their correct locations, and see if your board boots in the game. This will not hurt anything. I would say this is quite likely the issue with that board.

As for your original question, the tests are designed to run in order so that you can verify certain aspects of the game (like displays etc) because the later tests use more functionality (like displays etc). However, if you think you need to jump to another test down the line, then it doesnt hurt anything to do so and then jump back. It just depends on what your theory of the problem is and whether you think jumping to a later test for a moment will help you prove or disprove that theory.

You could run all of the tests on the bench or in the game - you just have to be aware of the limitations of either scenario. Running a test that shows results on the displays won't be very useful on the bench unless you have a set of displays connected on the bench.

I would swap those ROMs and install the boards into the game and see if it boots into attract mode. Either way you could then finish the remainder of the test ROMs in game just for the sake of completion. You may find other smaller issues that you wouldn't otherwise find out until after playing the game for a while.

There is a mistake in the README.txt of the current documentation. It talks about using the PATTxxxx.bin files to use with the "12-ROMS-ICxx" tests. These tests were removed from the current release because the requirement to have a programmer and extra chips greatly outweighed the usefullness of the test.

Since those tests only tested the ROM sockets and not the ROM chips themselves, it is easier to just replace a questionable socket than test and have to replace it anyway.

The next release version will have that part removed from the documentation. The ROMS-ICxx test images are not on the pincoder adapter anyway.

Let us know how things progress

That's quite a blunder. Did any of the other pinball manufacturers have this problem?

I saw that. It's up now. Please try again. Thanks.

Thanks for letting me know!

Thank you! I'll drop it at the carriers today.

No problem

Please let me know how the repairs go

Craig

If you dont have DIP switches I'm guessing you don't have the COMMAND_ENTER button either. My system 7 board (Hyperball) does not have them either. Without those you won't be able to test the soft IRQ. However, it is quite likely okay to skip this part of the test. I say that because hard IRQ's are generated by other circuitry on the MPU board and it is very unlikely that the Williams code would need to generate one by software. If you make it through all of the other tests, and game play seems normal, then you're good to go.

I just wrote the soft IRQ test because it is part of the CPU chip functionality in general, and it is better to have the ability to fully certify a chip. I'll update the documentation to reflect this.

Thanks!

That sounds like a bug in the test ROM, I'll verify that.

The flippers are only fired by pressing the flipper buttons. In the earlier tests they are not "enabled" and so will not fire. The solenoids test does "enable" them. The flipper relay on the MPU board will be energized in this case and you should be able to fire them.

If you get through all of the tests and the game still doesnt boot you likely have corrupt/dead ROMs, or bad rom sockets. Check the soldering job on the remaining ROM sockets and if you're in doubt replace the sockets with new ones. If they are "scanbe" sockets definately replace them as they are known to be bad.

Yeah if IC17 is bad it definitely won't boot. You might want to find a replacement EPROM chip, or, since you now have a burner, you could add the contents of the ic17 chip to an empty slot on your Pincoder Adapter and be done with it

If you can't read your ic17 chip at all, you can download the image from here:

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/Williams/tech/roms.html