(Topic ID: 172396)

Paragon Feature lights not working

By Topcard

7 years ago


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  • 23 posts
  • 6 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 6 years ago by BigAl56
  • Topic is favorited by 6 Pinsiders

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#1 7 years ago

I swapped fully populated playfields on my Paragon and since I did, the feature lights don't work. They did on the playfield I swapped out. I really don't know if they did when the "new" playfield was in the other game, but I don't think so. I have a new bridge rectifier, bullet proofed MPU and the prior playfield worked fine, so I'm assuming the problem lies somewhere on the playfield I swapped in. I did repin the J1 connector which had some browning and one of the wires was spliced and taped. Now everything "looks" fine, so I'm not sure where to go from here. I do not still have the other playfield or game, so there's no experimenting there. Thoughts are appreciated.

#3 7 years ago

All fuses work fine and the rectifier board is brand new. I'm pretty certain the playfield feature lights didn't work in the old game either, which makes it a wire or connector issue. It would be helpful if someone could tell me which wires and connectors control the feature lights and I could try and backtrack it from there.

#5 7 years ago
Quoted from cody_chunn:

Rectifier J1.7 (BLUE) feeds ~5.5VDC to playfield lamps.
Rectifier J3.6 (BLUE) feeds ~5.5VDC to backbox (player up, game over, HSTD)
Cabinet has no controlled lights.
Lamp Driver Board:
TP1 = +5VDC
TP2 = GROUND

So if the J1.7 Blue feeds the playfield lamps and the GI works, do that imply it is more likely to be the connector on the lamp driver board?

#7 7 years ago
Quoted from cody_chunn:

The GI is a completely different, totally unrelated circuit to Feature Lamps.
Have you taken any measurements with a meter yet?

I have not. I have a multimeter but I really don't even know what or how to measure. That being said, every board, the MPU, the Lamp Driver Board, the Solenoid driver board and the Sound Board were all sent out and rebuilt. Plus I put in a brand new rectifier board. Plus, the feature lamps worked on the playfield I took out of the game. So doesn't all that point to the wiring or connectors on the playfield?

#9 7 years ago

Ah...this I can do. Electronics for dummies! Thanks for working with an EM guy! I will report back tomorrow night.

#10 7 years ago

Okay, so much for assuming, Perry Mason would be proud of you. Nothing happened when I touched the tp1 bit when i forced the probe in with the blue wire the lights started flashing. I'm thinking now that when I first put the playfield in I tried it before repinning the connectors and maybe that fried something? But then again I don't want to assume anything further. So what's the next logical step?

#12 7 years ago

The rectifier board is brand new and I already repinned J1.7 with Trifurcon pins. However I did use the old housing as it looked fine. Could that make a difference? What does it mean that nothing registered on TP1.

Thanks

Peter

#13 7 years ago

Okay, so I figured what the heck, i took out a brand new housing and some Trifurcon pins from a brand new labeled envelope of trifurcon pins, and repinned it just in case I had done it with regular pins to begin with. (I did take them out of an unmarked envelope, but I thought I had only ordered trifurcon in the past. Perhaps I was wrong). How the heck do you tell the difference anyway?

At any rate, the good news is the features started working. The bad news is a everything started flashing, a bulb in the back box popped and fuse F2 blew. I replaced the fuse and while the feature lights now work, the GI lights don't. I can't win! Any thoughts?
Thanks

#15 7 years ago

I have verified the connectors have the correct wires. Remember the GI worked fine on the old playfield and fine on this one until I re pinned the connector again, so the GI is somehow connected to that action, I think. For what it's worth, any bulb I put into the back box socket that blew, continues to blow, so there is a short in that socket. Can that somehow be playing a roll? Thanks

#17 7 years ago
Quoted from nightsearcher:

Had that problem on my space shuttle playfield gi. Turned out to be 2 sockets shorted out

So did you just replace them and then it was fine?

#19 7 years ago

So I replaced the socket with another one and it turned the machine on and the bulb/socket started to smoke so I turned the machine off before the bulb blew again. So it would seem that there is too much power going to that bulb socket. It's one of the two game over bulbs if that helps. Since it started after I repinned the J1 connector, could someone tell me if one of those wires control the GI and if so which one and I will recheck the wiring.

Thanks

1 month later
#21 7 years ago

Okay, I finally got back to working on this and I realized that my replacement bridge rectifier has nine pins and for J1 and Paragon only uses 8 of them. I forgot that when I repinned the connector and when I put it back on, I lined it up wrong. I moved it over and things were better but not perfect so I swapped out the bridge rectifier with another new one I had and then everything was fine. So I guess blew something on the first rectifier board when I lined up the pins wrong. Gotta wear my glasses next time!
Thanks to all those who helped!

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