Quoted from SuperPinball:Hey Otaku, I have a 1975 Gottlieb Fast Draw that whenever any switch on the play field is hit, it cycles through players 1-4 adding some points to each player and advances the ball count. Can you direct me to which part of the guide that would help me fix the problem?
Thanks
When a Gottlieb drains a ball, to get back to the Player 1 it cycles over the rest of the players that are not in play. It actually is a pretty fascinating circuit, games from Williams and Bally use a seperate ball count unit and player (player "up") unit, so if it is a one player unit it will just stay on the player 1 position the whole game. However since Gottlieb combined these, the unit is layed out from contact to contact like:
- P1 Ball One
- P2 Ball One
- P3 Ball One
- P4 Ball One
- P1 Ball Two
- P2 Ball Two
- P3 Ball Two
- etc.
So, on a single-player game (or anything lesser than a full 4-player game), there are players to skip over each time a ball is drained, controlled by checking through the player relays on the relay bank and then pulsed through the score motor (how many pulses is controlled by how many switches are closed on the relay bank).
It sounds like there is a misadjustment in your game that is activating this feature, and then the points from said switch are carrying across to each player. Because, as stated, it has to skip over these players. This actually puts each player "in play" for about a half second each (one at a time) and any points being activated will transfer over to them as the game skips over them to the next player-1 position. Are the points added fairly quickly as I suspect?
I suspect that your outhole switch is adjusted too closely and the vibration from the point relay, score reel, and chime from activating any switch on the playfield is enough vibration (especially that chime coil, powerful) to close the gap on your outhole switch and drains the ball. If you hold the switch down (even accidentally) while it does this, these points will quickly add to each player as the player unit skips over them.
If that is not it, you can also check for switches gapped too closely on the outhole relay/hole relay in the bottom of the cabinet.
Quoted from Crile1:I have an issue:
Gottlieb 1964 Big Top. The top rollover lane determines which lower rollover lane light is lit (A, B, or C). A and C work fine. B will not light. This is a big deal because lighting and then hitting the lit lane adds a ball. I traced the issue to the connection between wire and lamp socket. I de-soldered (first time) the connection. Touching the wire to lamp post and hitting top rollover fixed it. Then soldered the connection. It worked. Then I lowered playfield and it won't work. I de-soldered again. Now cannot get it to work touching wire to lamp. Did I mess up with a bad solder job (I'm a rookie). Should I buy a new lamp socket? Is there a way to test the wire? Should I trim the end of the wire (almost no slack)? Help please.
Hi there, while it may very well be your connection, it could also be a bad lamp socket. These games are notorious for these (they get dirty and corroded) and describe what you are saying - they will light at one moment and then seemingly go dark at another. If you can verify your solder bridge is good, it may just be wise to change out the lamp socket or clean it. (replacing is usually the better option)
You can test the line using a multimeter. If your multimeter is setup wrong it will allow voltage to pass through the leads, so make sure you do not accidentally use a 30v line as a ground! Luckily since it is an insert light it would only likely only blow one or two bulbs, but if you mess that up on the GI line you usually have to replace all of the bulbs in the playfield... not fun!
However, the feature is still activating correctly, right? Another thing to check if the light socket continues to not work even when your solder connection is verified/the socket is replaced is that the contact on the relay that controls the feature is clean (file it) and adjusted correctly. This will also cause what you describe. This would also cause no voltage to show up on the multimeter, while an errorneous socket would still show voltage at the wiring - so pick whichever suits you. Of course, make sure the feature is properly activated or deactivated (whichever causes the light to light up - some rollover lanes go dark when activated when normally lit while some light up after being normally dark) before troubleshooting or you will be leading yourself down the wrong path by accident!