KenLayton so I replaced the diode and the circuit breaker still blows almost instantly. Could this be due to the driver circuits being bad or would you suggest to replace the whole coil? Or what else . The rectifier on the board has been replaced and it test as good. clodpole .

Diode

A21F2C0B-6122-4D14-BF44-E0B4C06DFEE9 (resized).jpeg

KenLayton I ended up replacing the coil and I still get the same result. The ball will kick out to the shooter and the bumpers move then the circuit breaker will blow almost instantly . I must have burned up some of the TIP 102 transistors or the pre-driver 2N4401 transistors I replaced earlier when I eliminated the circuit breaker. Any other ideas ? The bridge rectifier has been replaced as well. Maybe the circuit breaker is bad as I suspected before. It checks out with the ohm meter. The only progress I ever made was to eliminate the breaker and eve thing worked. I will try to check the TIP 102 transistors and 5 pre-driver 2N4401 transistors

I thought you already installed a fuse holder and fuse?

@kenlayton. I ended keeping the breaker. When i replaced it with the fuse holder i was getting the same result of the fuse blowing .

I have ordered new driver transistors . I checked them with a meter while still on the board and 3 seem to be bad. I know it’s best to remove them for testing which I may try today

I May go ahead and replace the circuit breaker what do you think?

KenLayton would bad driver transistors blow the circuit breaker/fuse?

Don’t know if it matters but the circuit breaker does not trip with the driver board removed.

KenLayton clodpole I received my new driver transistors ordered off Amazon and some appear to bad straight out of th box. Ken is that you were revering to as counterfeit? They are made in China. Who would be the best supplier to get these from?

Counterfeit transistors can certainly be bad right out of the package. Yes, they can blow the fuse.

Great Plains Electronics is an excellent source of known good components. He's closed for the holidays right now and will reopen in early January.

KenLayton do these TIP102’s have both PNP and NPN Polarity?

TIP102 is an NPN transistor.

I’m assuming NPN would mean I should get a reading on the multimeter but placing my positive lead on the middle prong and the negative lead on either outside prong. These Tp102s show nothing on the meter. However if you place the negative lead on the middle prong and the positive lead on either side I show voltage drop . Like PNP. So they must not be correct @kenlayton. Maybe my assumptions are wrong here

I bought a donor Star Explorer to get the back glass and the boards. I have these parts that are extra. All were tested and work.
I am open to reasonable offers or interesting backglass for a wall hanger.
PaulDBurnham (at) Gmail

IMG_3752 (resized).JPG

Sold

But it has a 1977 date code. Who knows what storage conditions it has been subjected to.

I recently picked up a partially working Star Explorer. Nothing would "pop". After reading some of these posts (Thank you for all of the information, especially @kenlayton!), I ended up replacing all of the driver transistors/pre-transistors, and now have action on everything. But I do have some issues with the bonus popper and scoring, and the pop bumpers.

My first questions about the bonus popper, to hopefully help me troubleshoot these issues further....

How is the bonus hole and scoring supposed to work? How many points is it supposed to earn? How do the popping of the ball and registration via the switch to trigger the pop function? Is this related at all to the "galaxy bonus"?

I can solder things. But I don't quite understand what the transistors and IC's do. And I believe that there is a single IC and the 2 transistors that drive this solenoid for the bonus hole, but are they also doing anything for/with the bonus switch?

So here is the problem - as soon as the machine is powered on, this solenoid activates and immediately pops the breaker. Bypassing the breaker for a short time, when I turn the machine on, that solenoid activates and stays activated, but de-activates when I power the machine off. I pulled the main transistor again for the bonus popper, reconnected the breaker again, and fired the machine up. The solenoid doesn't activate, but the breaker doesn't pop.

And it seems nothing I do to trigger the bonus switch increases the scoring at all. So I yanked the wires from the switch and touched the wires together to see if the switch was just bad, but my score didn't increase. For a little more info, the "galaxy bonus" area on the upper left - I cannot generate a score on that roll over switch. And I wondered if since it's called the "galaxy bonus", if it's somehow related to the bonus popper and scoring/switch. Every other scoring mechanism functions on the game.

I couldn't find anything specific in the manual about how the bonus worked/scored, etc. Hoping you can provide some info. I'm trying to decide what I buy next to try and fix this. I have extra transistors, so I can try new ones. But do I buy the IC for that circuit, the solenoid/diode, or something else, if the replacement transistors don't do the trick.

I'm thinking try transistors first, diode second, IC201/LM324N third, and coil last. I don't know what diode or coil I would need to buy - I can't seem to figure that out from the wiki.

Thanks!
Tim

Thanks, Clodpole!

Since I don't know if the pre-driver/transistor combo is also somehow in the mix of the scoring before the ball kicker engages, I'm going to switch those out first to see if I had bad ones or I somehow ruined them on initial install.

I gotta get figuring this one out/learning as much as I can, because I found a local Red Baron (Chicago) from the 70's that partially works, and I don't think I can pass it up if I can get it for a couple of hundred bucks!

Just what I need, another addiction.

If the hole kicker "locks on" as soon as the power switch is turned on then you have a shorted driver transistor for that particular coil.

Yes. Is that yours? Or do you have an opinion on it?

Cool. Not sure if I'm going to get lucky enough to get it. Hoping it works out...

Thanks @kenlayton. I switched out the driver and pre-driver (C305/C306 again). Fired machine up, solenoid didn't lock on. Hit the bonus switch, no points scored, solenoid locked on, and breaker popped immediately. Resetting breaker then immediately locks the solenoid on again, which pops the breaker to the point where it won't reset after a few cycles of this. If I power off the machine for a bit and turn it back on, the solenoid doesn't immediately lock on, until I hit the switch again, and then the breaker continues to pop again after the solenoid locks on immediately after the breaker is reset. Rinse, wash, repeat.

Are there any other IC's besides IC201/LM324N that are a part of this process that causes the ON switch to trigger the C305/306 pre/drivers to pop the solenoid? If not, I'm assume IC201 is trashed, which is causing C305/206 to short out, and then cause the solenoid to lock, popping the breaker. I doubt it was 2 bad TIP102's when the other 4 I installed seem to be working well.

Thanks much.

All of the outer prongs are ground. The single inner terminal is the positive terminal of the capacitor.

IC201 could be bad. Also, the hole kicker coil must have a diode connected across it. If the diode is missing or a lead is broken on the diode, it would blow your new transistors.

Thank you, @Kenlayton. Since I'll be placing an order, I have another issue I probably need to order parts for. The coil for my pop bumpers seems to work OK, and then randomly gets stuck engaged (after a few bumps). The breaker pops. If I bypass the breaker, it sticks until I kill power. I don't think its the mechanical linkage getting stuck randomly.

For the diode on that coil, is it the same diode as the one needed for the bonus pop out? If so, what is the part(s) I need to order? I couldn't tell by everything I've reviewed (but am not 100% what I'm looking for).

Or anything besides the pre/driver for the pop bumper that could be bad (any IC's)? I didn't think so. Besides the coil.

Thanks a lot.

OK. For the bonus popper issue, I pulled the sound board that has IC201 on it and that coil stopped automatically engaging and popping the breaker. Removed IC201 and put the board back in. Now it pops when I power the machine on and trips the breaker. I assume the drivers are toast again.

For the pop bumpers, as soon as the switch is tripped that engages the pop bumper coil, the coil locks on fully engaged and pops the breaker. So I assume drivers and/or coil/diode there too.

I'm going to get IC201 and the diodes for those 2 coils. And I'd like to grab those two coils. I'll switch all of this out, and then a set of drivers again. If that doesn't fix my issues, I may have a parts donor for someone!

Can anyone direct me to the part numbers for the diodes and coils? I've been sifting thru posts but can't seem to find this info.

Thanks.

Coil info:

https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sentinel_/_Wonder_Wizard#Technical_Info

All the coils come with a 1N4004 diode already attached. However, if the coil did not come with a diode already on it, then use 1N4004 or 1N4007 diode. Be sure to match the way the banded end of the diode is installed.

Wow KenLayton I have no clue how I missed that. Thanks. Was too focused on the problem areas in the wiki.

Solenoids, extra diodes, and some LM324N's have been ordered!

IC201/LM324N seems to have done the trick. I did replace the diode that coil for the bonus popper too, for good measure. IC201 also controls/regulates the scoring on the "galaxy bonus", because that is also now working.

And the issue with the slingshots coil was that one was contacting the pad on the table, because I had the spring out because one of the posts had come out. So it made contact and couldn't release because it was feeding itself. I put the spring back - all good. Swapped out the diode anyways.

I played for 10 minutes with no issues. Then I let my 7 and 2 year old's play for 10 mins. Had to reset the coil breaker a couple of times with them going crazy with the flippers and probably holding them down too. Is that pretty much expected? Or would switching to the 2.5a slow blow fuse make that a little more tolerant?

I'd ordered a couple of new coils, another ball, and some bulbs. Other than that, I'm gonna play a bit more and make sure she survives a little longer, and invest hopefully my last $25 into it for a while and buy some new rubber!

Thanks for all the info and responses, @kenlayton!

Those "push-to-reset" circuit breakers are well known for developing metal fatigue over the years and not being able to hold a load. Replace it with a seperate fuse holder & fuse.

Hey all,

Few more simple questions I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask:

1. Best recommendation to re-glue the metal pads around the pop bumpers? I figured straight super glue would work well without expansion.
2. Best recommendation to clean up the metal contacts? I was going to use an eraser, but don't want to scratch them up too much. And recommended cleaner?
3. I'm thinking glue the pads down first, then clean up all of the metal contacts.
4. I bought a new pinball but it's a little bigger than the one in my machine, and it doesn't quite fit down the ball "out" channel on the lower left of the board. What should I be looking for to purchase a ball for this machine?
5. I found new rubber for this a few places. Do you have a recommendation on the best kit to get? Prices vary and not all have great descriptions.

Thanks again!
Tim

tekman78 use isopropyl alcohol to clean the contacts on the playing surface and the ball. Super glue works great to stick the pads back down

KenLayton clodpole dudemo thank you so much for all the assistance . I ended up replacing all the drivers again and that did the trick. The machine is working perfectly.......for now. I believe the original driver transistors I purchased were counterfeit as Ken had warned was a possibility as they never tested consistently. Ended up ordering from a vendor Ken recommended. I do think the issue of blowing the circuit breaker was originally due to a broken diode on one of the coils which took out the corresponding driver transistor. Tried to post a video but could not

02C6A589-1E1A-41E4-9B22-A4E5100F10C1 (resized).jpeg

I also replaced the bridge rectifiers as well.

Thanks @chuckh, I started gluing and cleaning up yesterday!

@chuckh, how many bridge rectifiers did you replace, and were they all the same? I saw KenLayton recommending upgrading the bridge rectifier next to the big cap in another thread, if moving to dual flipper action, and he also mentioned that would give the coils more "pop".

I don't plan to move to dual flippers, but I feel like my coils could use more pop. Sometimes they just seem weak, or they don't pop at all, even though the sound and points are generated.

If there are multiple bridge rectifiers that could be replaced to improve this, I'd like to know which they are, and if they are all the same. I planned to purchase this one for the one next to the big cap:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051U9SKW/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3

Thanks guys.

There are 2 on the board. I replaced both with Radio Shack bridge rectifier # 276-1181. Available at RadioShack.com.

I think I have do have one issue with machine . I believe there should be a chime when the ball hits the bumpers if I remember correctly .

What board or chip would control this ? All other sounds seem good

What’s a pot?