Problem solved

Problem solved..

One of the fixes in PEMBOT is that this music is played all the way to the end (it ends in a cool fanfare that is cut off in the WMS code).

I haven't tried this on all my system 11 games, but I believe you don't have to hit the start button after selecting your third initial. That way you get your initials and still enjoy the full sound/light show.

But enter the last initial with your flippers but don’t hit the start button to hear the longest version of the high score music without using Music Test in service menu. It will still pick up the correct last letter of your initials, but you get to hear the whole high score song too.

It still cuts off unless you have pembot or the tournament ROM.

What do you have your drop target (dt) timer set for? I recently did a lot of work to my machine, and many of the settings changed. I noticed my drop target timer was really low and it was nearly impossible to knock all 3 targets down with more than one shot. I checked the setting and it had reset to only 4 seconds, which is just ridiculously hard. Changed it to 8 seconds. Still not easy, but doable.

I have settings on hardest and the only change I made to that is to carry on the planets you scored to the next ball. I have a 3 ball game and no post between the flippers either.

I find that I have no issue with the drop target timer being too short.

I like to have the game set up at the most difficult settings possible without it being a pain to play. This way I believe the game stay challenging enough to enjoy playing it for a long time

Hmmm I’ll check the timer. Boards are currently at coin op cauldron fixing music and sound issues.

So you have the dt timer set for 1 second? That is the lowest, hardest setting. That means you would have to hit all three drop targets with one shot. Personally I think that takes alot of enjoyment out of the game, but to each his own.

Thanks. I wasn’t aware that you could disable the auto adjust for the drop targets and just pick an active time from the adjustment menu. My targets were resetting quickly after knocking down one target.

No.. silly.. you are exaggerating now ROMM

These are actually the hardest game settings (see image).. as I said, the only adjustment I made was to change planets memory to yes.

The game is still very enjoyable. Plenty of time to hit the 3 planet targets before they reset. In fact, that’s pretty much the only way I score planets in the game as the advance planet target on the right side is really hard to hit.

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You can actually pretty much adjust every setting to your personal likings..

Regardless if you changed settings to make the gameplay easier or harder, Pinbot is always a super fun and enjoyable game to play

All,
is it still recommended to add fuses on the bridge rectifiers in the back box?

Thanks,

Yes or the bridge board.

I can check later but I'm pretty sure the auto adjust code isn't bound by the manual adjustment so it could get shorter until your percentage drops below the setting.

It never wasn't nor will it ever not be a mandatory update.

Ah my bad. No exaggeration intended, but I thought when you said you had the settings on hardest, you went and set everything to it's actual hardest setting. You can actually set the dt timer to 1 second, which would be the hardest setting, but I understand what you are writing now.

No worries mate.. I understood you.

Regular white flippers, same red bands on both.

I just put comet non ghosting LED into my Pinbot feature lamps. Yet still the amount of flicker is insane. Do you guys just deal with the flicker? I can't even buy an LED OCD board. Sold out.

Deal with it until they are back in stock?

I don't really have that much flicker on mine. Maybe go incandescent if it bothers you.

Are you using non ghosting LED or regular LED?

I have very basic LEDs in the inserts. I think they are the cheap Pinball Life ones. I really don't notice any flicker, although I'm not overly sensitive to it.
The GI is still mostly incandescent.

Hello all. Looking for some help/advice regarding some issues my Pinbot has developed…

I originally pulled the MPU board to help out another owner to diagnose their issues with their game…. That never happened as they got it resolved before I got to help them out. Since I had the board out, I installed the NVRAM. So, I reinstalled my board back into my game, and that’s when the gremlins arrived….

First, upping game start, the pinball would not be shot into the shooter lane…. So I replaced the transistor associated with that and it worked again.

So after playing 6/7 games, it started acting weird - the visor no longer went up or down, flashers stopped working and both balls are being launched into the shooter Lane….ugh.

I changed out the transistors for both the relay switcher (to resolve flashers) and the visor motor but still no change. Everything else seems to work fine except for these coil issues.

My power supply is a Xpin, everything else is original.

Is my board bad?

Since it was working before, I would try to reseat all the connectors with power off. Maybe you have cold joints that showed up when removing the board.

I'd look for a bad connection in anything that got touched when you (presumably) pulled the non-socketed ram out. A hairline solder crack/broken trace/sneak short. Any previous battery leakage anywhere on the board that might be hidden? Also, maybe your nvram is flaky, do you have any other ram to swap in (either nvram or regular)?

Which lamps are the "feature" lamps? under playfield or above?

I'm looking to do LED conversion on my recently acquired PINBOT, it has LEDs above playfield (except the flashers) and on back box (except flashers here too), but I want to add LEDs to underplayfield, flashers and topper flashers...been reading up on this (I know I would need to disconnect warming resistors for LED flashers)....but I'm not sure if I should be using LEDs with bulb top or flexible type for under playfield particularly for replacing the horizontal mounted lamps.

I did all led lights everywhere except the flashers, led flashers can be too bright in my opinion and less work to keep them original. The fire led on the back glass for the sun is a nice touch to do.

Don't do LED flashers on this game, & maybe all system 11. They don't work right without certain modifications that probably aren't worth it. I've LED's system 11 before but its been a while & I do recall that I used LED OCD to smooth out the flicker. Looks great with that but they are out of stock. Feature lights are the computer controlled lights, the ones that are mostly (sometimes completely) under the playfield to light up the inserts. I always use flex LED for horizontal. On pinbot there are only 3 (the drop target lights). The LED's will flicker. I'm preparing this game for somebody else but if it were mine I would likely find it unacceptable. I'm just going to tell my guy if this bothers him that we'll wait for led ocd to be in stock. Those are worth it for these system 11/data east era games.

Yeah, I hear you about the flashers being too bright but I'd like to try for myself, but at minimum the topper I will convert to LED flashers. What types of LEDs did you use under the playfield?

So for me, I use the Comet led flashers (not the retro ones) and I think they are great. I found it works well when you color match the led to the flasher cover. I have only blue and red covers now on my Pinbot, with a same colored flasher. I put a normal white led flasher under a blue cover and found it too bright, and even out shines the flasher cover and still looks white and not blue.

I'm trying to set pinbot for free play. Adjustment 23. However, there is no YES or NO displayed on the lower displays. Very strange & nothing happens when I press start. In fact, most of the adjustments up until like 30 have no options for me to change. However when I get higher up I'm able to change some things like score thresholds, drop target timer & other things. I'm at a loss. Please help!

Are all of your score displays working?

Yes. Even if it was a display issue nothing happens when I press start on these settings. No noise or anything. Yet some settings do have a display on the lower displays and I can change those settings. Very confusing.

Do an install factory to clear everything out.

That is weird. If you go into switch test, is your start button switch working well and not registering other switch closures?

Yeah start switch is fine and it does what it should on the settings that I am able to change

Tried this. Same issue. Also all the displays are good.

The plastic and flaps were looking a little time-worn on my lift ramp, so last week I made a new one from 1/8" lexan and blue spring steel, and polished & reused the original bracketry. I had made a similar one for Jackbot a few years ago so was able to avoid a few of the mistakes from that one (like, don't rivet the bracket underneath until you've blown all the dust off of the lexan).

Also scanned in and recreated the ADV "X" decal to be as close a copy as possible to the original faded one. Same font, same size, printed on clear vinyl, it's a nearly exact match. I have several extra decals available for sale, PM me if you're interested.

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I have some PEMBOT rom chips heading my way! Will provide feedback once I get them installed and played a few games!

All,
Regarding adding fuses for the bridge rectifiers:

So the fix is to add two 8A slow blo fuses? or one of them is 2.5A? As I'm reading/seeing different info out there.
Thanks in advance.

YES!

Custom translite for my upcoming build...

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Hi, just got a Pinbot. Had a Jackbot for many years and sold it a few years ago, prefer the OG.

It has an issue with raising and lowering the ramp, both solenoids are working but the ramp doesn’t quite sit flat on the playfield until a ball rolls over then it stays flat and when raised it goes up but drops back down a bit and enough for the ball to touch the flap when it goes under.

The pivot pin on the arm underneath was a bit gummed and moving stiffly and have fixed that so nice and free now.

Does the lift crank lock plate and lift crank lock arms wear on these to cause the issue I’m having?

I had similar issues on a Dialed In I had with the Bob trap door but that was normally just adjusting the tab you can bend.

Only looked at it and pulled the lift coil off so far as just want to play it, trying to get a heads up before I strip the mech off for a look.

Thanks

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Lift crank lock plate has a groove worn into it but bending it about and adding a washer fixed it, now locks high and right down.
Will order one, easier than I thought

If anyone would like to check out PEMBOT and needs ROMs programmed, PM me!

MRS switches installed on the ramp! Great product!

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Just started a restoration and I’ll need to replace some switches.
Are the diodes on the switches 1n4004?

I originally posted this in the wrong place. I hope I am not breaking any rules by putting it here now.

+++++

Pin•Bot is my only pin and it never fails to perform. It's the first thing my grandchildren say hello to before me. They ask PinBot if his circuits are ready!

But I never fail to think of a way to tinker or redo something that is working just fine. To that end, I am lighting the flipper buttons, blue on the left and red on the right.

I have all the parts and figured I would grab the power from the GI on the coin door. The coin slot light sockets were corroded and CLR really cleaned both of them up nicely. But rather than solder the wires to the light sockets I looked at the Molex connector going to the door with a plan to re-pin one side adding the tap.

I am sure it was not pulled apart for 25 years or more but the plan was to re-pin the yellow and yellow/white pins tapping off power to both buttons. But when I took it apart, here is what I see. One of the connectors does not have a socket, and two pins facing each other. Could it possibly have come from the factory this way?

I can easily fix it but something things are done and I am not sure why. I am just asking if I am missing something.

Thanks in advance.

///Rich
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