Need a little help on a Sonic Mars Trek, but suspect this applies to most EM games. The lites in the head that show what player is up (player 1 - 4) and also the Ball In Play lites (1 - 5) are not coming up or VERY VERY dim at times. It looks like all of these sockets have a common wire running across all of them with separate individual wires to each as well. I notice that the lamp socket at the Player 1 lite is likely bad, it seems busted and very loose. As I recall this can cause a short that could affect other lamp sockets on the same circuit? What's weird is I can do a continuity test and get a beep on either side of all these sockets to the other side of any other socket. That seems odd to me. May not be explaining it well or using the correct terms either. I have asked similar continuity questions before and didn't full understand the responses. Kinda like what I am seeing is normal, but not sure how. Maybe the continuity could be there, but no "power" is going to the individual socket?

Guess the prime question is, could that one bad socket be causing all of the other sockets issues? And/Or, why would more than one socket have the same issue, especially if they are not general illumination? Lastly, trying to find these on the schematic, is there a relay or "something" that should be controlling all of these at a central point?

Thanks

Great stuff, thanks.

Ok, so ...

PlayerUp lites are now working. Changed the socket - not the issue. Read the schematic and went to the game Over Relay in the bottom cabinet, then cleaned up and gapped the switches - that fixed it. As Pin-it pointed out, the switch where the Blu-Y comes through is where the power seems to go. When closed the lites work. It looked good but wasn't make good contact.

Ball-in-Play lites, are not quite working. I checked out the Ball Count Unit and it has a couple of problems thus far. One is there is a wire that has come loose, need to solder that next. Also, not sure the correct term, but the "grey" portions on the board that the 2 copper (I think those are copper) "fingers" pass across and onto are worn to the point that there isn't much contact being made. I flattened the 2 fingers a little so they could reach further and touch a little more of the "grey" contact area and that definitely helps, but I need a more permanent fix. is there something I can do to restore that grey contact area? Sorry for using all the incorrect terms, please let me know what I should be calling these things .....

Almost there I think.

THANKS, David

Exactly, see the picture. Thanks

20161001_171205 (resized).jpeg

Great!

Will try the "bend method" first and report back. Also need to go ahead and solder on the gry-brn wire at the 3rd as it's the one that is loose. I have it bent over and touching but it's not making contact. The unit resets when you start a game, but it doesn't turn on it's own when going from ball 1 - 2 - 3, etc. Assuming its that wire right now.

Have friends coming shortly, so likely tomorrow morning.

Thanks, David

nice, thanks, I have that same problem on another of this mechanisms and wondered how to fix

Ok, so things are looking up! Thanks to Pin-it and erak.

I was able to resolder the wire onto the ball count unit. Then I was able to use a cleaner to take off what turned out to be residue on the traces. That stuff was on their good, but came off with a bit of work. Had to bend the fingers ever so slightly too. So now the unit seems to be working great, balls are being counted and displayed in the backboard appropriately.

One thing that got me for a few minutes is the #1 ball wasn't displaying, then it would jump to Ball #2 and then Ball #5 as balls where being played. I always stopped and turned the game off at that point to check the unit. The wires looked right so it was weirding me out. This was with the backglass removed. Then I remembered this got me on another game before as well. When looking at the backbox there are 5 lites in a row where the balls get counted. I forgot that in the backglass the artwork are not in the order 1 to 5. So put the backglass back in and sure enough all was well, except Ball #1 lite. Geezzzzz. Ball #1 lite turned out to be a bad solder on that socket in the head, so after cleaning the up, now all lites working.

Thanks for all the help!!!!! Gonna start shopping the game now to get it nice and clean, hoping not to screw anything up during that process. The last game I was shopping, I vacuumed the bottom cabinet and it went from 100% working to not. May not vacuum this time ....