so I'm very new to working on pin machines. I'm getting some experience on a Williams 'Space Station'.

My current challenge is that some lights are not working. In the game, there are white, and green lights under raised playfield areas. The white lights are on normally, and during multiball, the whites turn off, and the greens come on.

Currently NONE of these lights come on ever. I am going with the assumption that they are not all burned out, and that its an electrical problem. I have done my best to try and follow the wires back to a source, (with very little success) but it appears nothing is un-plugged anywhere...

So I guess my first request would be, does anyone know where exactly those lights connect with the boards? So I can try to at least confirm that they are wired up correctly?

if so I guess I'll need to see if they are burnt out... which seems unlikely.

If neither of those work, (shrug) suggestions?

Thanks!

Ok I got around to getting a voltage meter, and confirmed the lights are currently not receiving power. could you specify where the relay?GI lines are?

At this point I'm wondering if following the wires back to their source, which would involve un-bundling the wire rigs because there are too many to keep track of... But see if I can make sense of where they go and see if something got cut or disconnected?

Or, should I try to test all the fuses? If all the ambient lights under the raised playfield are out, I have to assume they are all suffering from the same severed connection or blown fuse? are the lights connected to a fuse?

Again, I'm super new to this. If anyone can nudge me in the right direction of where exactly to look it would help me avoid doing more damage than good.

Once I do figure this out I'll post pics of where the problem was for future Space station owners.

UPDATE: ok so I took some pics and am hoping someone familiar with the machine can tell me where to go next.

In PURPLE I have highlighted what I believe are relays? If these are not them could you give me an idea on where to look next.

In YELLOW are a few of the lights that are not working, and the path for what I believe is the power to those lights. I followed it back to a big Junction mess and lost track of where it goes from there. I could take the zip ties off and follow them better, but I'd rather not if I don't have to. Note, I did not highlight all of the lights that are not working, the white/green lights under all of the raised playfield areas are all over the place. and all of their power wires lead into that question mark area where I loose track of them.

Any help appreciated!

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I tried checking the fuses this morning but I could not pop any of them out with my fingers and didn't have the guts to lever them with a screwdriver...

1, whats the best way of removing fuses without breaking them?

2, I tested them all while still mounted, and the machine unplugged, all of them came back OK, but I read somewhere that testing them while still in the machine can give false results sometimes. Also all of them 'look' ok, but again I have read that can be a false positive as well.

Thanks for all the info! I'll have this thing restored in no time!

Ok I checked every fuse in the back box and cabinet. They all check out ok. So at this point I have to assume it's the relay. I can order a new one from Marco Specialties for 25 bucks, no problem. From what I see it should be a easy instal. My only question is if there might be something wrong with the connectors and not the relay? How could I test that?

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Thanks for the heads up on Pinwiki! You saved me ordering a users manual for $30.

I think I found the problem! After reviewing the diagrams on Pinwiki I followed the global Illumination back to the power supply board, and found that the 9-Pin connector looks burnt up.

As I do not have a lot of experience with a multi meter and dont want to short anything out, stop me if this is a stupid thing to do. I am planning to unplug the connector, and while the machine is on, touch the red prong of the multimeter to each of the 9 pins(3P8 in the manual), and the black prong of the multi meter to one of the black ground wires at the top of the power board (3P6 in the manual)

That should not blow anything up should it?
If the pins ARE getting power, but the connector is the problem, is this a compatable replacement part?
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/09-01-6091

I'll check if the fuses have power as well. I checked to see if they were all OK, but I did not test if they were getting power yet.

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Thanks! I'll look into it and post if I run into any problems. I have about a dozen other little problems with the machine but I'll let this thread die and move over to the Space station Club thread once this issue is fixed.

Thanks Platypus.

I bought a replacement connector at my local electronics surplus. I managed to get it hooked up with very little trouble. Unfortunately one of the header pins came out in the process so I needed to replace that as well.

So now the right side of my GI lights come on, but the left side does not. I replaced the lights under the slingshots with LEDs, but not any of the other GI in the upper playfield yet (Ran out of LEDs) and the pop bumpers light up now.

Also Green mode does not happen at all. When multiball is triggered the white lights stay on and the green stay off. :-/

side note: All 4 pins on the left have continuity to each other, and all 4 pins on the right have continuity to each other. Is this supposed to be that way?

side note 2: The orange flasher just behind the pop bumpers and to the right is almost constantly on now. None of the others are. is that normal behavior? all of them flash when a ball is locked. but sense I fixed the GI connector it came on like its a pop bumper...

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can you send a pic of the GI connector to the power supply (the thing I just replaced) so I can make sure we both have the same wires in the same place? also, do you have 2 yellow wires in one port? mine was set up that way when I opened it. You can see it in the photo before my latest one.

EDIT: also do your pop bumper lights come on? do your coin door lights come on? Both are working for me. I'm wondering if that's a 'Right' side thing or not.

Mine are definitely different from yours. My wires from left to right are:

Yellow > Green > Purple > Purple /space/ Yellow > Green > Purple> Brown

According to the schematics I got on PinWiki you have them wired correctly and I don't. I'll try putting them right tomorrow and let you know if my left side lights up and not my right. we may be on to something if it does.