My father-in-law purchased a Pinbot machine not long ago after I was reminiscing about playing as a kid. Now I've become a pinball repairman.

The current issue is none of the special solenoids are working, either in game play or in test mode. During the coil test, the left visor flashes, but none of the special solenoids that actuate something trigger.

I've read a post on this forum about an issue someone was having where they were always on, but to be honest, I'm a bit lost on diagnosing and testing these circuits.

I have a 600dpi manual that clearly shows the schematics, and I can follow that I think, but I'm hoping someone can give me some basic instructions for specifically how to test the elements that are probably broken, or some thread that explains in some detail.

I've already fixed several problems on this machine, and it was running OK, but every other day it seems something else needs attention.

Thanks in advance!

Yeah, checked the fuses, the 2.5 OK. (3rd one down) was out and seems to blow out often, and looks cooked after little play.

All the other fuses are ok.

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Thank you very much for the response and advice! Now I think I'm getting into a can of worms.

The left sling wasn't working when we got it, or may have stopped after we got it, there were some switch issues, and I took off most of the playfield parts to clean. The left sling solenoid was fried, so I got a new one, and when I first installed it, it was weak, and didn't seem to have enough power to draw the pin. I had dropped the coil accidentally and thought I might have damaged it. Replaced that with a new one and it was working fine. More fiddling with switch gaps here and there, and resoldered one of the left sling switch wires that came off. Everything was working except the energy flashers, which looks like it's because of a fried capacitor on the cpu board.

Suddenly AC solenoids all stop. Replaced a fuse, all good again.

Now all the special solenoids aren't working.

I don't hear any of the special solenoids fire, and I looked and none of them seem engaged.

Looking at the q50 area, the components look sooty. Not sure how they looked before, I didn't look that carefully, but the greenish blue 'B' pieces look very different...

I used a multimeter continuity test on all those bits, and ohms on the resistors, everything seemed normal compared to other components. The 2 end posts on the q50 had continuity, but I couldn't quite get to the center post. It doesn't seem like that would be the problem though?

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