cheers mate

I also offer a different hand for the idc wire inserter which doubles as a flipper button nut tool

https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace?type=product&q=swinksidc

The left eye bulbs are on J-11. Pull all 3 bulbs and retest.

- Removed the flashers from both eyes and it completed the sequence without tripping the breaker.
- Reinstalled Sun flashers and trips breaker.

Now I'm assuming I've got two bad transistors on the board or a bunch of bad flasher bulbs.

This is because the breaker is 1 amp. 3 #89 bulbs pull 1.8 amps. Put in the 2.5 fuse and it will be fine.

I think one of the bulb filaments is shorted out. Test each one with jumpers and a 12 volt battery.

Not one, not two, but three bulbs were shorted. I assumed they were good and immediately was drawn into looking for a more complicated solution.

Remember kids, start with the easy stuff first. lol

Don't think I've ever had a bulb get shorted before, didn't even know it was possible. You learn something new every day. Thanks for the heads up!

These bulbs need to be #1251s. not #89s.

One in the eye and two in the Sun, so one 1251 and 2 89s.

Deleted - Found what I needed.

Good morning, l’m looking for playfield scan to create an overlay playfield for pin bot ....is there anyone who can help me ? Thank you

Why not just get a hardtop?

Yeah, might as well at that point unless you're looking for the commonly worn spots on the playfield. Which, there's already decals for that too.

Completely agree; no need to reinvent the wheel for a potentially lesser product with bigger headaches in developing

GRUMPY I am still stuck. The fuse isn’t blowing after replacing the relay and wiring it up but the coils still won’t fire :/.

740D99E0-AD48-457A-81B4-4EF59C114747 (resized).jpeg

It looks like both the A and C side fail. That means that the relay I bought isn't working?

So take a DMM and test the screw terminals, GND should read 32 volts, 28 volts should read 32 volts, DRV should read 32 volts, NC should read 32 volts, Coil should read zero until the relay closes.

Let me know what you get.

I’m getting:
35.9 on GND, +28, and NC. I get .6 on DRV and zero on coil. When I put it into the coil test cycle I get this weird array of voltages (video) on DRV while it cycles through the tests. The coil lug will get .1v pulses in line with when working coils fire.

So I’m tracing the line out (DRV) which goes right into a 2.5 AMP slow blow that is blowing. Apparently I’m coming out of the relay too hot? Obviously my voltage is high from the prior post. Is that triggering anything for you?

C5379B85-C28A-4ED6-947B-7CBFF4C3BDE3 (resized).jpeg

I take that back, maybe it is the line in? Looks like the brown wire which is connected to NC.

Pinbot…. Yeah we have one now so that’s good. It was the wifey-poo’s fault though. She loves Pinbot so we overpaid for a very beat up one. $3300!!! Yikes!!! Well, it works… not very well, but it works. Marco Pinball got a $200 order from us the same day… just for starters!
Poor old Pinbot needs major repairs. The main damage is the front of the cabinet. It looks as if someone had spilled one or more 44oz drinks down the front of the machine many years ago. The Coin door, lock bar, and front cabinet panel all have damage. Everything else is nice but needs refurbishment. It has never been serviced, was running AA’s on the board and the big 30,000uf cap is original!!!
Really!!!
And the machine boots and works.
One day after the wife bought this one, another Pinbot appeared on Craigslist locally for $2750 in much much MUCH better shape.
All you can say is “So it goes!” and laugh at yourself.
I intend to bring this beat to snot Pinbot back to life. I should cut my losses, part it out and buy the cheaper one that’s already fixed but I am rather stupid!
All Pinbots deserve to live. My wife said.
She wanted to play it one more time before we start stripping it down for repairs.
While she was changing a few burned out bulbs in the back box, she inserted a new shorted bulb.
The upper half of the backbox lights went out for good. No more light where it says PINBOT.
I was grumpy and tired and couldn’t figure out what burned up. “Probably a transistor?” I said unconvincingly.
I told her I’ll probably figure this out as I will be taking out all the boards for recap and reflow, but it really bugged her. She looked like Charlie Brown when he thought he killed the Christmas tree.
I haven’t been able to cheer her up.
Does hallmark make pinball sympathy cards?
If anyone can give her advice on how to fix the lights it would be appreciated, she broke them and she wants to fix them with no help from me.
I’ll be outside welding patches on the 73 Spitfire.

The 5 amp SB fuse burnt for that string of lights.

Voltage is fine, not too high.

Now for the DRV terminal, even with the wire removed the terminal should read 32 volts unless there is something wrong with the relay board. The red wires bring in the 32 volts to the relay coil and diode. After going thru the relay coil windings this voltage comes out to the DRV terminal and then the CPU grounds it to turn it on. So since you have no voltage, there must be a break on the board traces or a bad coil winding. Do so ohm testing to find the issue.

The DRV terminal is showing voltage when cycling through the coils, but it doesn’t show anything when you start the game normally. I tried to show that in the video.

Most likely noise on the line because of the broken trace or relay coil. Take the relay board off a take a pic of the backside.

Hard to get detailed pictures. Here is the board.

5210A4D0-D871-4942-B952-B21253359147 (resized).jpeg

976684DA-9253-4441-AEE1-6F032E5A88A8 (resized).jpeg

Howdy!

I just got my Pinbot today! Everything lights up, tested out coils. Only problem is the visor won't lock up, even after the coil test made it go up and down.
Any advice on how to fix this? Really wanted to play it tonight.
Thanks!

There are two switches that register “up” and “down”. Go into the switch test and validate those are working. You can lift the playfield and toggle them by hand.

GRUMPY is there a table for all of the Ohm readings I am supposed to get from the coils? Everything sits around 4.1 with the small ramp coil at 5.

Aniraf Thanks for that. Will look at after dinner.

Also, is that what the message "Give Me Sight, Lock My Eyes" mean? It has said that a few times.

When the visor is up you shot a pinball into each eye socket, which will trigger the release of both ball for a shot at the bonus.
Here is a video showing the game play I found.

I’m about to burn this pos to the ground FYI. GRUMPY i decided to start desoldering coils that look like they are in line after that brown line fuse that keeps blowing. I thought I had found one that was causing the issue, but sure enough it isn’t that.

Is this a time where I should just over amp the fuse and let something explode so that I could find the faulty part? I am really getting frustrated :/.

Ok, I am impatient. I decided to over amp it and burn…the outhole coil started smoking. The ohm test on the coil seems fine, but clearly it is on fire.

I removed it and I’m chewing through the coil test with no obvious sign of stopping.

I would love to replace the coil but I only have SA-23-850s. I ordered some AE-23-800s from pinballlife. I have an AP-23-750 as well, but to my knowledge none of those will work correctly. I figured I would lay it out there for the experts.

Hopefully this is the root cause.

henrydwh

Understood. My problem is that when I booted up the game, the visor was already open and the game won't even start, even after I loaded the two balls.
The visor just doesn't close all the way. What could I do to fix this? Anything else that could cause the game to not start up?

If the visor motor switches don't register showing the visor up and visor down the game will not start. Something is likely wrong with one or both of these switches.

Go into switch test and try to toggle both of the visor motor switches by hand and make sure they are working properly.

Thank you for the help. I will try this out and keep you guys updated.

Yeah, I wish it was the fuse! I was thinking the relay snubber on the backlight board got zapped or the short caused something that was already damaged to burn out on the main board. Might even be the all original power supply board stopped putting out enough delicious voltage. When my wife turned it on today for the last time before starting disassembly, she said the lower backlights slowly faded out and went dark as well. This made her feel like it wasn’t her fault after all.
I think the shorted bulb just pushed a tired old component over the edge.
As I said to my wife, fuses are essential, but they don’t always blow before damage can be done. They “reduce the risk of damage” but are not designed to completely prevent damage. That’s why the 5 amp Slowblow is still working but the backbox GI isn’t.
If you see any future Pinbot questions posted by my account on here it will be my wife. She’s really insistent about doing most of the work on Pinbot and I really am going to go back to welding floor patches on the Triumph Spitfire until she needs me.

My apologies, I thought you were asking about game play.

Yes, when you first power on the game the visor needs to complete an open and close cycle.

because they are awful to play on.

That cap is rarely ever replaced, far more unusual to see it replaced than original.

Couldn't disagree more. I think a hardtop feels a lot like a new stern. Very smooth and fast.

More awful than a vinyl overlay?

no, but at least on an old school vinyl, you can pull it off and fix the PF later. You gotta completely kill the PF for a hardtop. Just need to clear to make it smooth and use old vinyl so it can be saved later if you're not going to do it right in the first place. Too many people killing reasonable playfields for no reason. HT is fine- if the game is beyond repair, which most are not.

I was meaning the relay board, sorry for the miss understanding.

Did you remove the fuse when you tested it? The GI fuses will read good on an ohm meter while the fuse is in the fuse holder because they are connected to the transformer.

I’m confused. I’ve done 3 overlays. On all, you had to sand the playfield bare, clearcoat it, and apply the overlay. You had a choice to leave it, clearcoat over it, or cover it with a playfield protector.

A hardtop, you sand the graphics off the inserts, and stick it down with the applied tape.

Which one kills the playfield more?

I think we all agree the preference is restoration, but if I were to reverse engineer either, I think unsticking the 3M adhesive is easier than recreating 100% of the graphics under an overlay.

I’ll add, I’ve used a KISS overlay from Fabulous Fantasies (clearcoated in around 2005), a Playboy from Classic Arcades (that delaminated when cleared, that was made good by Classic Arcades, now with a Playfield Protector), and a custom one for an unnamed game to protect the author with no covering.

There is zero reason to sand off the graphics on a "normal" overlay. you can just clear and sand the clear to get a smooth surface. the original art is still there just not seen. You just did way more than was needed on the 3 you did. HT requires full removal of the graphics, (recently changed to you can just do the inserts, but then you have a wavy surface and more missing graphics). A normal overlay does not need any of it removed. HT requires you to kill the playfield, overlay just puts a sheet over the corpse. Hardtops also don't line up on every playfield, since playfields came from different places. SS has at least 3 variations, one is a different length, and there's hotdogs vs single inserts in the center. You'll still have alignment issues with an overlay, but again it can be removed later and the field actually get fixed.
direct from outside edge:
Can I take it off later if I don't like it?
This product WILL damage the existing playfield art, so installing a Hardtop should not be considered a temporary solution. We do not recommend installing a Hardtop on a playfield that is in good condition. It's a product designed to save playfields that have few or no other options. Many of the machines with Hardtops were about to be used for parts, and they were able to be saved.

clearing an overlay is a stupid idea. its a soft surface, its not meant for paint/clear. thats a recipe for failure.

I’m not surprised that the giant filter cap is still original.

If I were ever to use an overlay I would get one of the thin playfield protectors. I know people clear over the overlays but I’ve always been skeptical on how long it would last.