(Topic ID: 296276)

Testing a coil -or- "Geeze, what'd I do this time!?"

By undrdog

2 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 15 posts
  • 4 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 2 years ago by undrdog
  • Topic is favorited by 1 Pinsider

You

Linked Games

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

Corral 120v relays (resized).jpg
#1 2 years ago

I'm trying to test a relay coil. Found a post here about testing coils. It said to hook the coil up to something that's working.

OK, found a pop bumper that's working. Turned off the machine. Jumpered from the black on the pop coil to the black on the relay coil I'm testing. Jumped the color wire lead to the color wire lead.

Activated the pop and blew a fuse.

My original plan before I read about the above, was to jump from the "Start" lug on the transformer (has black wires) to the black wire lug on the coil and from the "regular" lug on the transformer to the other lead on the coil.

Would that have been correct? If not, how do I power up a coil to see if it works?

Thanks!

Mike

PS Thanks to my Pinside Secret Santa who got me those nifty circuit breakers! They are coming in real handy this weekend.

#2 2 years ago

Pop and relay coils run on different voltages. You might try the same test with a nearby relay coil. Ive found you can test most relay coils with a 9v battery pushed to the coil lungs

#3 2 years ago

Pop bumper and relay coils run on the same 25 volts so both tests you mention should be fine.
Another thing you might do is swap with another coil that has the same part number. These part numbers are specified on the coils themselves and on the schematic legend above the pictures of the score motor.

#4 2 years ago

bonzo71 might be thinking of some later EM games where relay coils run on AC and pop bumpers run on DC.

The black/supply line is common to most solenoids and relay coils so there's no need to jumper to the black coil lug unless you've disconnected something like a jones plug, or you suspect a broken wire. Jumpering from the colored wire coil lug, around the switches to the common red-white or red+white supply line is usually sufficient.

I don't recommend clipping directly into the transformer. It's unnecessarily risky.

/Mark

#5 2 years ago
Quoted from HowardR:

Pop bumper and relay coils run on the same 25 volts so both tests you mention should be fine.

So, why did the fuse blow? I’m trying to learn what I did wrong.

#6 2 years ago
Quoted from undrdog:

So, why did the fuse blow? I’m trying to learn what I did wrong.

Maybe the coil is bad. Maybe you accidentally bumped the jumper wire in the wrong place.

#7 2 years ago

Tried just jumpering the orange-something wire to a pop.

Triggered the pop.

Lots of smoke from the reset bank.

Blew the 115 v line fuse. Somehow, jumping to a pop does not seem like a good idea. Wasn’t touching anything by mistake. Jumped with alligator clip wire

The coil tests at 15 on the multimeter, disconnected.

#8 2 years ago

Which relay coil are you testing? Some coils may be running at 120 volts so if you wired it to a 25 volt coil you'd be asking for all kinds of trouble and sending 120 volts through the rest of the game.

#9 2 years ago

Gottlieb AG relay coil. I think this machine has the same voltage throughout, once you get past the house current. 1961 Gottlieb Flipper Fair.

P'raps I should have looked at the schematic first…

#10 2 years ago

The AG just specifies the relay form factor, not the coil, voltage, name or how it's used. What is the name or function of the relay?

Here's the relevant part of the schematic from Corral made the month before Flipper Fair and the two relays it uses that run at 120 volts:
Corral 120v relays (resized).jpgCorral 120v relays (resized).jpg
Flipper Fair is probably very similar.
Be careful out there. This can kill you.

#11 2 years ago

Thanks. I’m careful- the jumper was clipped in place and all I touched was the pop bumper skirt. I’ll check the schematic.

#12 2 years ago

Per the schematic, the pops and everything else run at 25v, except the lamps which are 6v. So, getting a burned wire on the reset bank just from jumpering from a pop bumper coil to a relay coil indicates something else is really wrong, right?

#13 2 years ago

Got the game working to the point where I could rack up points to see what was and wasn't working. Racked up enough points to score an extra ball. Fuse blew. The problem's got to be either the AAB relay or its coil.

Doesn't seem like the former owner could have wired the coil backwards. A relay coil doesn't matter which way it is wired, does it?

#14 2 years ago

Get a Fuse circuit breaker to relieve some frustration
http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=EM_Repair#Electrical_short_troubleshooting_Fuse_helper

Quoted from undrdog:

A relay coil doesn't matter which way it is wired, does it?

Correct, on a game as old as Flipper Fair it doesn't matter.

#15 2 years ago

Already have some. But I thought the problem had been solved and put a fuse back in. Go figure...

Promoted items from Pinside Marketplace and Pinside Shops!
$ 2,495.00
Pinball Machine
Pinball Alley
 

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/testing-a-coil-or-geeze-what-d-i-do-this-time and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.