Hey All

After working through a few issues with the newly acquired Pinball Machine I have finally had to look for some additional help. I have a Bally 6803, Dungeons and Dragons game. It was given to me as a non working unit more for decoration but decided to let my curiosity get the best of me and see if I can get it running. Originally when I got it it was completely non functioning, Ran through it and didn't seem like its been "worked" on too much. Started with working through it and resetting connectors and checking fuses. that got me some power in the power supply, found a couple of burnt fuses and more connectors that needed to be reset, ( taken apart and cleaned) Next power test showed the sound board now working and green light started flashing on the logic board, Messages on the display... Successful boot !!!

Knocker was working, Main flipper buttons not working, Checked with meter switches good. Checked diagnostics on board and they say buttons are never touched. After a sort time started getting message about FU-1 field fuse, Checked and replaced. Short time later same error however fuse still ok. Checked the 2 field fuses as well, one was blown, replaced, Same problem. Because I got the game for free I figured it was worth purchasing a logic board. Found a "new old stock" board off eBay and ordered it and a rubber bumper Kit. Installed it all and it looks awesome. Now I have a problem with all the flippers immediately engaged as soon as I turn it on. I am not leaving the game on for a long time to test voltages and I am afraid I am going to blow the new board as well.

Basically were I am now is as follows, On power up all flippers immediately "trip", LED display not lighting up, TP8 and TP9 showing less than 1 volt, 43volt fuse blows when on for short period of time. I am going to replace the Caps C23 and C26 as Vid suggests (thank you vid your guides are awesome) and follow the additional bulletproofing. I am thinking that I have a shorted solenoid how do I figure out which one it is without having to desolder a leg of each one? is it possible maybe a diode of one is gone bad?

HI Blake

Thanks for the reply, that's the odd part about it, its all of them, flippers at the bottom, upper flippers, even the ramp at the upper right side is tripping. and the ball thrower is tripped. I have looked at the shafts and they all appear to move equally well, I have used some contact cleaner just to remove the 30 plus years of dirt. I cannot see anything obviously "burnt".

by black box I am assuming power supply? I have the power supply out right now trying to source the 2 Caps mentioned by vid, is there a way to test the driver board?

I have the news caps ordered, By rights should be here today or tomorrow, In customs now..... Waiting is brutal.

Have the rest of the bulleetproofing done on the power supply board, Should be ok once I get the rest of the parts.

As for the black box thought the Solenoid driver was a part of the digital board? where is it located?

This one is a 87, not sure if its LE or not., When you open the cab on it there are 4 major components there, Sound board - Upper Left, Digital Controller - Upper Right. Transformer - Lower Left, Power Supply - Lower Right.

The Digital Controller is the one I have already replaced.

By 87, I mean Made in 1987,

HI Blake

I have the new caps installed and just powered the unit up. I have below a list of all the test points and spec and current voltages. The flippers are still tripping and staying engaged on startup. I agree with you that its something with the solenoid driver, I am pretty sure there is one cap somewhere is fried or its the transformer...

Test Point Number, Spec Voltage, Current Voltage

TP1 - 4.9 to 5.2 Volts - 5.1
TP2 - 170 to 190 - 188.5
TP3 - 230 Volt - 235.5
TP4 - 40 to 60 Volts - 42 (this is the solenoid Circuit)
TP5 - 11 to 16 Volts - 15.9
TP6 - 11 Volts AC - (-.22) ( this is A zero crossing for feature lamps)
TP7 - 11 Volts AC - (-.001) ( this is B zero crossing for feature Lamps)
TP8 - 5.8 to 6.8 - 0 (general illumination lights)
TP9 - 5.8 to 6.8 - 0.004 (general illumination lights)

Note
- all lamps on the game are working, I have replaced not working bulbs and all are working for self test mode.
- there are 2 buttons on each side of the lower unit, the self test says the 2 lower buttons are working and test ok, however during self test cannot get the flipper buttons to ack being pushed, Ohm meter shows buttons are working at the contact point.

Note
- all lamps on the game are working, I have replaced not working bulbs and all are working for self test mode.
- there are 2 buttons on each side of the lower unit, the self test says the 2 lower buttons are working and test ok, however during self test cannot get the flipper buttons to ack being pushed, Ohm meter shows buttons are working at the contact point.

Here are 2 overall pics of the game

photo 1.JPG

photo 2.JPG

pic of the sound board

photo 4.JPG

Pic of the new digital board installed

photo 3.JPG

transformer just as ref

photo 5.JPG

Yes I have double and tripple checked the fuses, earlier in this process I had changed one or 2 and realized they kept popping, That problem has since gone away, now once replaced they stay good, Just to be sure I did check them all again today and all test ok.

I agree, after reading some posts I realize what you meant by black box is the one above the play field I believe where the boards are mounted? I agree that the digital board is the one that drives the solenoids, from what I can tell the driver is built in.

I think I am back to my initial thought of either a blown Cap, Diode in the power supply or a shorted coil? I am thinking coil because the voltage for that particular circuit seems ok, or at least close enough.

If you measure just across the 2 terminals of the coils as is without desoldering a leg of the diode is there a measurement that could tell you if that coil is "more than likely" bad?

just did a quick check on the coils, with diodes still connected just checked the resistance across all the 2 terminal coils and all are reading 3 ohm +/- .1. Would appear that if they are all showing the same spec that they would be ok?

ok little more progress, Tracing wires thinking that there must be a short somewhere to trip all the flippers, Found the following in the J2 connector on the controller board, Pins 14 and 15 have both been cut and re-soldered however not wrapped in any kind of covering, so in the harness they were shorting against each other...... Now that opens a whole new question of how much more of this am I going to find.....

Anyhow now for the change in symptoms, now back to only the issue of FU-1 0 field fuse issue. Looks like the opto boards have been rebuild, Not neatly but appears as though all the components on them are new, Checked voltages and resistance and all appears to be within spec, Now back to the head scratching, Any ideas would be welcome

IMG_3083.JPG

Following the schematics through, FU-1 and TP4 are separated by BR1 and R1
According to the silk screening on the board FU-1 should be +43VDC, as should TP4.

When I actually measure both points bottom of FU-1 shows as +21 VDC, TP4 shows as +43 Volt, How is this possible?

I have already replaced R1, Was a 600 ohm resister, Replaced it with 2 300 ohm resisters in series.
Its this telling me that BR1 is bad? I would assume its good because I am getting +43 VDC at the test point.

HI Blake,

I am still getting the coils firing, the entire circuit is firing, one of the fuses under the PF is blowing at the same time.

it seems like I have done through the entire wiring harness, its just baffling at this point. measurement of all the 2 terminal coils measure 3 ohms, the 3 terminal coils are measuring about 17.

update, found 1 coil shorted out internally, is showing 17 ohms across the terminals with or without the diode connected, Found it by testing the common lead on the fuse holder, wired on my game with a red wire with a black tracer, it connects common side of about 1/2 of my coils to each other to allow the trip to ground. Measured it between load side of fuse holder to ground and it was showing 0.00 on my meter, (direct ground). Cut the line approx 1/2 way through circuit and only have the circuit was still showing 0.00, continued eliminating until only 1 coil was still going to ground. Eliminated that coil from the circuit and reconnected everything else. Now flippers are working, left and right. Still blowing same fuse but its not on boot up just when the game tries to trip all the coils at once. slowly getting there.

can anyone tell me if the "magic save" coils are supposed to be activated all the time?

HI Blake

The problems are slowly going away, now they are just getting harder to find.....

I haven't tested the bridge rectifiers, the 43 volt was measuring ok at the test point and on the coil circuit so I was going on the assumption that it was ok.

When I turn the machine off and replace the fuse under the PF I am measuring between 0.3 and 0.4 ohms on the 43v side of each coil, and between 11 and 17 ohms on the switch side of the coil. all seem pretty well in range compared to each other.

when I turn the machine on, the fuse blows immediately, the magic saves (both sides) come on and stay on, the left and right flippers now work. everything else is dead,

I have slowly stripped the pinball machine down, Now there are no coils with the 43 volt line hooked up, When I hook up any coil it immediately attempts to fire and the fuse blows, it actually blows to the point where the fuse turns black.

I have de soldered and tested about half the diodes on the coils and they all have tested good so far.

I think the fuse is blowing because whatever is tripping the coils is no longer "momentary" its hard on, which is why I was thinking short somewhere. there are just no common leads left to be shorted out.

The solenoid driver is integrated into the controller board, I have actually replaced this already. As a measure of troubleshooting I have actually swapped back in the original board and the same issue.

As a mark of what I have tried I think I can comfortably rule out, Wiring, Controller board and bad solenoid. Guess that only thing left is the power supply. cannot make sense of what might be bad on it as all my TPs are showing within spec.

not sure how to change the topic header on this one but I will have a look for the other fu-01 threads