Hi everyone,

I picked up a Pinbot last month as my first pin and everything was working great until last week (after disassembling, cleaning and waxing the playfield) at some point the solenoid that raises the ramp stopped working. I didn't even realize it until the startup diagnostic told me a few days ago that switches for ramp down and the energy target hadn't been triggered. I manually triggered the switches and they worked fine, and after going through the solenoid tests the one that lowers the ramp is working but the one that raises it (I think it's solenoid 5a in the manual) does not.

Being a complete noob at this I'm not sure what to do next. I've looked at the wiring and having noticed anything out of the ordinary around the solenoid, I've pushed in on all the connectors in the backbox in case something had come loose. I got a cheap multimeter and tried figuring out how to use it. It seems like there's power going to the solenoid, but I'm not 100% positive since I have no confidence in my skill at using the DMM.

Is it likely that the solenoid just needs replaced? Or is it more likely that there's some other issue? Every other issues I've seen on the forums regarding solenoid problems usually have something to do with capacitors or fuses or something, but they're also usually bigger problems like multiple solenoids acting up.

Thanks for any helpful advice!

I was wondering about that. Seemed like I was getting some reading off of the solder joints but not off the thin wires. I'll take another look when I get home.

Thanks!

I did disassemble the arm that raises the ramp when I did the cleaning, but I'm not at sure where there would be any mechanical binding. I can manipulate the mechanism from the arm going to the ramp or by gently pulling down on the actuator part of the solenoid. I am wondering if I was supposed to place the pin from the arm inside the metal rail attached to the underside of the ramp though. Apparently I just sat it on top of it.

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Man I hope that's it. That'd be such an easy fix. Gonna fix that as soon as I get home. My wife keeps pulling me away from the machine for ridiculous things like baby doctor appointments and condo closings

I know, only kidding.

Thanks so much for the help!

I just got home a bit ago and slid the arm into the ramp, but that didn't solve the issue with the solenoid. It's still not even attempting to fire when I run through the coil tests. I also didn't see any obvious breaks in the little wires coming off the lugs, but I think I'd need to remove the assembly to get a better look.

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I'm fairly certain it's getting power. I used a multimeter on it and it looked like the reading was the same as when I tested the coil that drives the "ramp down" function. It was my first time using a multimeter, and I don't have an auto-ranging meter so I was doing a lot of guess work to find the correct range, but I did get a reading on whatever setting I used when I touched both tips to the lugs.

As for shorting the lug, is the non-banded side the left side in that bottom picture? It looks like the diode has three stripes, but one of them is just silver, so I'm guessing that's it. What's the best way to short it? Sorry, I'm extremely green at this.

No, the solenoid doesn't make any noise at all when going through the coil test. There's 0 movement or sound.

No, there's no mechanical binding. The coil plunger moves up and down if I gently move it from either the plunger or if I move the arm that raises the ramp. During the coil test the ramp goes down (if I've raised it to the "up" position manually) but there's 0 response from the solenoid when it tries to trigger the "ramp up" test during coil tests.

I tried taking one of the leads from my multimeter, touching one end to the ground wire going around the cabinet and one end to the lug on the non-banded side (the one with only one wire going to it) and nothing happened. But I also tried doing it to the smaller coil that operates the "ramp down" function and it still did nothing. Should I be trying this with the machine in play mode? I did it while the machine was in attract mode, and I know the flippers don't work when it's not "in play." I have to be doing something wrong if the "ramp down" coil didn't fire because that one is working during coil test mode and during game play.

Thanks, I went ahead and put the up ramp coil on repeat and had to readjust my multimeter, and it was definitely getting voltage. I kept the lead in place on the lug and when I moved the test on to the next coil it dropped significantly.

It is not lost on me that this has been a long, circuitous journey leading right back to your original post. =)

If it were binding wouldn't the solenoid still make an attempt to engage? Like, wouldn't some amount of movement or noise be detectable? And the actuator moves if I move it with my finger.

I was thinking the same thing you were because I just shopped it and it seemed most likely that I did something to it in the process.

I did this, nothing happened. Then I messed around with it some more, put it back into diagnostic mode, then I tried manually activating the solenoid (this time in diagnostic mode instead of attract mode) by connecting the ground to the lug, and it fired. So I guess it's not the solenoid.

I

After everything I've read today that was the next thing I was thinking. I'm assuming I'm looking for the "Driver Trans." that I see on the Solenoid Table in the manual. Looks like it's designated Q31. I'm combing through the PDF of the manual on IPDB to see where to go from here.

The coil fired when I grounded the transistor from the metal tab. So does that mean I should replace the transistor? Or could the problem still be somewhere else?

Okay, that's where I'll start. The scan of the manual isn't great on the CPU parts page, but it LOOKS like the transistor is part TIP122. I'll order a few and see if I can do this without breaking anything else.

Thanks so much for the help!

Resolved. Replacing the Q31 transistor did the trick. Thanks to everyone who replied and helped me figure this out!