(Topic ID: 194080)

Ripley's Believe it or not coil/program issue

By StrangeSubset1

6 years ago


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#1 6 years ago

Hi guys.
I need some help with my new Ripley that I just got. Had noticed some weird behavior during multi ball that the game crashes. Did some investigating and found out this:
Every time Coil 13 (lock kicker) is supposed to fire, the game crashes completely. I have to manually pull out all the balls from the lock lane and restart the game.
This happens after the 3rd ball is locked and also when I try to fire the coil 13 through the diagnostic menu, game crashes (and diagnostic menu crashes) and resets to beginng.
It is obviously not the coil. I even unplugged j9 to run the test. Coil 9-12 nothing happens (as expected), coil 13, game crashes.
The board looks brand new, no battery damage anywhere. Could this be a defective ROM? Obviously the signal that is triggering the coil (or is supposed to, since it is not triggered but crashes) causes this.
As a side note, I went through the diagnostics and the flasher test only has one flasher going off.
Any hints would be appreciated. I have a multimeter and know how to use it, but I have no idea what I would even be testing.

#2 6 years ago

Is your 5v dropping when that coil fires? Has the diode on the coil failed?

#3 6 years ago

Since you've removed the connector that the coil finds ground through, and the game still exhibits the same behavior, there is almost certainly a board issue.

You can test the FET with your DMM. Black on center. Red on each flanking leg. Should read same/similar as an adjacent FET. Note that FETs "charge" once you test them. Short all three legs of the FET together to drain the charge if you wish to test them twice.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.ChrisHiblerPinball.com/Contact
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info

#4 6 years ago
Quoted from ChrisHibler:

Since you've removed the connector that the coil finds ground through, and the game still exhibits the same behavior, there is almost certainly a board issue.
You can test the FET with your DMM. Black on center. Red on each flanking leg. Should read same/similar as an adjacent FET. Note that FETs "charge" once you test them. Short all three legs of the FET together to drain the charge if you wish to test them twice.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.ChrisHiblerPinball.com/Contact
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info

Hi Chris.
Two quick questions
1. When you say red on each flanking leg, do you mean connect drain and source at the same time or after each other, testing both subsequently. Center pin is the gate, right?
2. By shorting you mean connect all three legs together? Not just source and drain?
Thanks,

#5 6 years ago
Quoted from YeOldPinPlayer:

Is your 5v dropping when that coil fires? Has the diode on the coil failed?

Coil never fires, and as Chris pointed out, since the same behavior pertains once the j9 connector is disconnected, it is probably not coil related.

#6 6 years ago

Oh well. Board is burned. Crap. Tried to measure. Did get around 50V on Q11 and Q13. But when I shortened it to do another test. Small sparks and now pretty much all coils are dead in the water. Only the flipper 14-16 work.
Edit. Blew the fuse. Off to Fry's to get a new one (yes, you should always have some around)

#7 6 years ago

May I add, Chris Hibler does excellent board repair!

#8 6 years ago
Quoted from Cash_Riprock:

May I add, Chris Hibler does excellent board repair!

I know. He did one of mine already, but I have to find out if it is the board or something else first.

Some the fuse is blown, I figured I do some resistance testing on them. Q16 and Q15 read fine at .44, but all of q1 through q13 only read .26. I doubt that they are all burned, especially since none of the others cause any issue.
Btw. Just so that I am not stupid. The gate is on the lower end right. From bottom to top, gate, drain, source?

#9 6 years ago

You test and short legs WITH THE POWER OFF

#10 6 years ago
Quoted from Homepin:

You test and short legs WITH THE POWER OFF

Yeah. Know that now

1 week later
#11 6 years ago

So. Turns out it is a big in the software. Resetting the game worked. But, since I blew a transistor testing, I had to replace it. All done today...i also stripped almost everything of the PF to give it a good clean a d was.
Anyhow. New transistor helps for not blowing the fuse anymore, but....the bumper coil which is controlled by this transistor won't fire anymore. I tested if power is coming to the coil, and appears it does. I can measure a very quick peek current on the coil lugs when firing the coil through the diagnostics, but the coil won't move. Could it be the suite that is connected in between the two lugs, or do I have to get a new coil? Or possibly, not enough power? Any other ways of testing the coil or the power to the coil?

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#12 6 years ago
Quoted from StrangeSubset1:

So. Turns out it is a big in the software. Resetting the game worked. But, since I blew a transistor testing, I had to replace it. All done today...i also stripped almost everything of the PF to give it a good clean a d was.
Anyhow. New transistor helps for not blowing the fuse anymore, but....the bumper coil which is controlled by this transistor won't fire anymore. I tested if power is coming to the coil, and appears it does. I can measure a very quick peek current on the coil lugs when firing the coil through the diagnostics, but the coil won't move. Could it be the suite that is connected in between the two lugs, or do I have to get a new coil? Or possibly, not enough power? Any other ways of testing the coil or the power to the coil?

Are you testing this with the coin door open and the white cutoff switch pulled out so the coils aren't disabled?

#13 6 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Are you testing this with the coin door open and the white cutoff switch pulled out so the coils aren't disabled?

Yes, of course

20170730_185947 (resized).jpg20170730_185947 (resized).jpg

#14 6 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Are you testing this with the coin door open and the white cutoff switch pulled out so the coils aren't disabled?

Yes, of course

#15 6 years ago

Did you test the coil for resistance to see if the coil is actually good anymore?

#16 6 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Did you test the coil for resistance to see if the coil is actually good anymore?

Sorry, how would I do that? Kind of new at this.
I mean the coil portion. Soldering, switching components, no biggie, but coils are new to me.

#17 6 years ago
Quoted from StrangeSubset1:

Sorry, how would I do that? Kind of new at this.
I mean the coil portion. Soldering, switching components, no biggie, but coils are new to me.

Power is OFF for this.

Set your digital multi-meter to Ohms (looks like an upside-down U on the dial) and put each lead on a lug of the coil. See what the resistance is. I checked a 26-1200 (that's what the manual says Ripleys uses for the pop bumpers) I had here and it was 11.5 ohms. If you get a wildly different result or 0, the coil is bad.

#18 6 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Power is OFF for this.

appreciate the warning in bold up front .
Will check towards end of week, not much time during the week. At $9 bucks, I did order a new coil already, just in case. Will keep you posted. Thanks for the help.

#19 6 years ago
Quoted from StrangeSubset1:

appreciate the warning in bold up front .
Will check towards end of week, not much time during the week. At $9 bucks, I did order a new coil already, just in case. Will keep you posted. Thanks for the help.

If you end up having to replace the coil, just pay attention to the wire placement on the original as you move the wires over. They don't work either way, and if you get it backwards the drive transistor on the power board is toast immediately.

#20 6 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

If you end up having to replace the coil, just pay attention to the wire placement on the original as you move the wires over. They don't work either way, and if you get it backwards the drive transistor on the power board is toast immediately.

That's wire placement RELATIVE to the diode orientation (banding).
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://ChrisHiblerPinball.com/contact
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info

#21 6 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Power is OFF for this.
Set your digital multi-meter to Ohms (looks like an upside-down U on the dial) and put each lead on a lug of the coil. See what the resistance is. I checked a 26-1200 (that's what the manual says Ripleys uses for the pop bumpers) I had here and it was 11.5 ohms. If you get a wildly different result or 0, the coil is bad.

Well. It is shot. Resistance measures 0 . All other coils are 11.5. New one already soldered in. Just need to put the bumper assembly back together.
Well. Tomorrow. Haven't turned it on yet....keep fingers crossed.

#22 6 years ago
Quoted from StrangeSubset1:

Well. It is shot. Resistance measures 0 . All other coils are 11.5. New one already soldered in. Just need to put the bumper assembly back together.
Well. Tomorrow. Haven't turned it on yet....keep fingers crossed.

With the transistor and coil changed, you should be good to go now!

#23 6 years ago

All up and running. Thanks everybody. Transistor and coil.
Funny story, one of my flashers would not work. I traced the sh#@ out of all lines and everything. Turned out, a defective new bulb. Looked perfectly fine and was brand new, but would not light up. Next time, I'll check the bulb with a 2 new bulbs . Would have saved me an hour of frustration.

3 months later
#24 6 years ago

Have the exact same issue here on a Ripleys. After a LOT of testing and debugging i eventually found out that it happens when the Coil Pulse Power setting is set to Hard. Then it resets when trying to fire the lock coil. And it even resets if you disconnect the power board entirely, so it is clearly a software bug. Believe the machine is running 2.04, so dont know if it have been fixed in later versions?

Setting the coil pulse power back to normal removes the problem.

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