BR2 would be my 1st guess...

Yea. Something is causing the fuses to blow. Unplug the coil and flasher connectors from the boards. Fuses still blow? This isolates problem to board vs wiring. If in board, chrck biard circuit components and bridges. If not, get your dmm out in continuity mode. With one end on ground check each pin of all the coil and flasher connectors looking for one that's shorted to ground.

Testing needs to be done to isolate the issue before replacing board components. But testing the bridge for shorts is a good suggestion especially if the fuses blow with the connectors removed.

BR1 and BR2 aren't on a board in DE

But yes, obviously test before replace

What's important to know here....What does "turn on" mean?

Does the ball eject as soon as the game boots and power is on the pin?

Or Does the ball eject as soon as a game credit is added and a game starts?

Big difference here in diagnosing the problem.

If it locks on a soon as pin is powered up then the transistor for the ball eject solenoid is likely shorted.

If the ball eject behaves until you actually start a game, then it fires and blows the fuse, then the transistor is okay, but something is going on with the coil. If the solenoid actually fires once, then the coil isn't shorted, so maybe the diode is bad? Can't remember if diodes are on the coil or on the board on this game.

Don't remove any connectors on CPU. Remove J2 from the PPB board to kill the 32V solenoids. Or remove the ground wire from the Ball Release Coil to just isolate that one coil, do a coil test in diagnostics and see if any other coils blow the fuse. It might be a problem with all 32V coils, but the ball release is the first one that fires.

No, BR1 and BR2 are in the backbox, mounted separate from the boards.

>What's important to know here....What does "turn on" mean?
>Does the ball eject as soon as the game boots and power is on the pin?
>Or Does the ball eject as soon as a game credit is added and a game starts?
>Big difference here in diagnosing the problem.

Should have been more specific sorry, when the game credit is added.

>If it locks on a soon as pin is powered up then the transistor for the ball eject solenoid is likely shorted.
>If the ball eject behaves until you actually start a game, then it fires and blows the fuse, then the transistor is okay, but something is going on with the coil.

That is what is occurring. You start the game, the music starts, a second later the ball ejects, fuse at this point blows.

>If the solenoid actually fires once, then the coil isn't shorted, so maybe the diode is bad? Can't >remember if diodes are on the coil or on the board on this game.
>Don't remove any connectors on CPU. Remove J2 from the PPB board to kill the 32V solenoids. >Or remove the ground wire from the Ball Release Coil to just isolate that one coil, do a coil test in >diagnostics and see if any other coils blow the fuse. It might be a problem with all 32V coils, but >the ball release is the first one that fires.

Ok, I'll remove J2 from the PPB board and replace the blown fuse and see what happens.

F7 on PPB still blows when game credit is added and game starts with J2 removed.

Hmm....Okay, then the ball eject isn't the problem. At least confirm that removing J2 the ball eject didn't eject a ball right?

Correct, the fuse blew however no ball ejected this time, where as prior the ball would eject right before the fuse (f7 on PPB) would blow.

Okay, so ball eject was a red herring...Something else is going on concurrent with that event.

Instead of starting a game, can you replace fuse and put game into coil diagnostic mode and then flasher test mode. See if one event causes the fuse to blow.

Alright, I'll give that a go.

And to confirm it is F7 on the PPB board not the PS board that is blowing? Unfortunately, DE's lack a schematic for the PPB board so I'm having a hard time tracing down where F7 is.

With J2 still unplugged?

Definitely PPB and not the PS board that is blowing.

No plug J2 back in

I'll try that out, just not sure if I should have J2 plugged back in.

Looking at the limited schematics on the PPB board for DE's, there is one unmarked fuse on the board that supplies a bridge rectifier BR1 on the PPB board. Does it look like the traces from the fuse clip on F7 go to this rectifier?

Ok sounds good.

I'll check that out. Also I checked BR1 on my DMM and it tested fine.

There's two BR1's. One that sits off the board mounted to the back board. And one that is on the PPB.

The BR1 on the backboard just supplies 18VDC for lamp matrix I believe. The BR1 on PPB supplies the 50V power for the high powered coils. If the 32V coils/flashers are ok, then look at BR1 on the PPB for the high powered coils.

As a side note, wonder why DE never supplied a full PPB schematic....sucks to troubleshoot without one.

Really hard for me to tell what the traces from the fuse clip are doing as they go behind other components and then become what looks like one big trace. Still running through diagnostics. Ball eject working fine so not that as you said.

As soon as I get to 'cycling flashers' F7 blows and instead of cycling the flashers the middle VUK (I think there is one in the top right too, I've never had the game working) and ball kick start cycling while the DMD displays 'cycling flashers'

You can only go in one order for diagnostics, (audits you can reverse, diagnostics it won't let you) so I can only get up to 'cycling flashers' and then F7 blows.

BR1 is on the PPB board, however can't find BR2.

Ok found them, they don't appear to be labelled. Never tested a BR until earlier today, is the rule that the lead that is in the different direction is the positive? thus the one diagonal to it is the negative, and the other two are the AC leads?

Both BR1 & BR2 on the backbox and BR1 on the PPB test good. All ~ 400-425

Okay....

There is a A/B relay that switches voltage to either flashers or solenoids so that a group of driver transistors are dual purpose. If the relay is off, the solenoids flash. If the relay is on, the flashers flash. Soooo....F7 must supply power to that relay in some fashion, because when the MPU attempts to turn the relay on, F7 blows, the relay stays off, and instead of the flashers flashing, the solenoids are actuating. Let me look at the schematics.....

DE Schematics really stink....

Near J6 connector there is a fuse that protects the 32V to the flasher side of the relay K1. It looks like either F5 or F6 but the schematics on ipdb are fuzzy. Pull this fuse and replace F7 and run diagnostics again. You won't have flashers, but see if F7 doesn't blow and see if you can hear K1 click on when flasher diagnostics are running. The 32V from the PS on CN3-5 comes into J6-7 on PPB and supplies 32V to switch the relay (along with ground supplied from MPU) and supply 32V (R and L) to both solenoids and flashers depending on state of relay. F5/6 protects the flasher side after the relay. If you can, there is also a diode (D22) across this K1 relay, so check it. If it is shorted, then that could be causing this problem too.

Actually I didn't check for shorts on the BR, only for the readings I should be getting. Going to retest.

nevermind...BR may be bad because its your 50V solenoids that are cycling due to the relay being off, so your 32V is gone....

I have a short in the left BR. (If someone could please verify if this sounds right, when I am putting the negative lead on AC and positive lead on positive, I should get no reading, however I'm getting 1000 on both AC leads. Must be a short.)

The other rectifiers don't do this, so I'm guessing that's the case.

Left back box mounted one, not sure which one that is as it's not labelled that I can see.

Correct you should get no reading...But you need to take it out of circuit, or at least remove the fuse before and after the rectifier to isolate it to test properly.

Unless that's a possibility with the way it's currently wired? My DMM doesn't have a separate diode tester, so it's also the resistance test...

Gotcha. Is that something I should be doing next?

Missed your earlier post, oops. Sorry.

Just to add some clarification:

The solenoids that you have actuating during flasher test mode are 50V solenoids. Here's what's happening:

You are losing your 32V which not only supplies power to the flashers and a few solenoids (ball eject, trough lock) but also supplies power to the K1 relay. This K1 relay ALSO switches 50V circuit for the high power solenoids (VUK, ball kicker). Normally, when the K1 relay is off, all the low power and high power solenoids are able to be controlled via the MPU. When a flasher is necessary, the K1 relay is energized (MPU supplies ground) which switches 32V to the flashers and away from the low power solenoids. It also switches power away from the 50V high power solenoids (Vuk and ball kicker).

So, if everything was good, K1 relay would be energized during diagnostic flasher mode, and 32V would be directed to flashers and no solenoids that are on this A/B circuit (50V or 32V) would be energized. What's happening however is that you are losing 32V at the moment K1 is being energized. That drops out K1 relay and so now 50V power is restored to the high power solenoids instead of 32V going to the flashers. The MPU is cycling the grounds from the transistors that are dual purpose and feed both the solenoids and flashers, and so that's why the solenoids are cycling during flasher mode.

What we have to find out is what is taking out the 32V circuit. Could be the diode across the K1 relay. Could be a flasher shorted. Could be the BR that supplies 32V.

Just to clarify, F7 is the fuse closest to J6, directly to the right of it is F6, and beside that F5.

If it's the 32V bridge, it's the kind that has lugs on it, not wires as it is not board mounted but mounted on the backboard of the head itself. You could still use it with some soldering, but it's not the same style.