Hi Everyone,

I needed some troubleshooting help with the Game Over relay on a Solar Ride.

The game over relay never energizes. This game has the Boston Pinball Company driver board, original system 1 MPU, and original power supply. Here is what I've done to troubleshoot:

When applying +5 volts to pin 2 of the Z1 chip on the driver board, nothing happens. When applying it to pin 7 it does energize the tilt relay (not related to the testing of pin 2, but just wanted to make sure this testing method would give results with the BPC driver board).
When checking continuity with J5 hooked up, I get continuity from the collector of Q1 through the connector, and to the coil lug.
When checking for voltages at the coil lug, I get 12-13v at each coil (but they all work) however at the coil lug on the game over relay from the driver board I get 9 volts.
When testing the driver board transistor in circuit, it tests exactly the same as all the other Q1-Q4 transistors (these are newer style transistors MJE802) and does test good in circuit.
I've tried 2 different mpus and they both do the same thing.

It's weird that I only measure 12-13v at each coil but they all work. Could this be a sign of a failing bridge? I always thought they either worked or did not.
And does anyone have any feedback on where to go from here?

-Pat

Well, I made a mistake and was using the ground from the side rails. When attaching ground to the ground plane in the bottom of the game, I was still getting a voltage way too high, ~30volts.

I'm having the game brought to my house to take a look at it a little closer.

-Pat

The game is at my house, and the coil on the Game Over Relay is bad. It reads infinite resistance. I guess it got so corroded that the winding broke off. This should resolve the issue, I'm hoping.

Gottlieb A-16890

-Pat

Well, it was the relay coil. What a mess. Coil was replaced and game worked perfectly. In fact, in 3 games of test, I got the special twice! Haha, have never done that well before.

-Pat