Testing Boards with Games Off

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#1 7 years ago

OP

BDD

ShootForSlrValue

Pinside member

Morgantown, WV

11y 47,650 412 24 29

So this is probably a really stupid question, I apologize. I was looking at some stuff on pinwiki, and I'm a little confused about the following sections regarding testing boards before powering the games on for the first time:

"3.9.13 Driver/Lamp Board
The configuration of driver and lamp boards vary across different game systems. Sometimes they are all separate boards, sometimes they're combined, and sometimes they're combined with the MPU.

Connect and test each board separately.
3.9.14 Flipper Board
If the game system has a flipper board, connect and test it at this point."

So, if the general premise is to protect the components and electronics by not powering the game on, how do we/what do we "test" on these boards once they're connected if there's no power? Or am I totally misinterpreting this?

Thanks in advance!

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2

#2 7 years ago

DAV

wayout440

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Berea, OH

11y 113K 11,267 3 12

I don't know what specific game you are inquiring about, but the repair guides lay it out pretty well - especially for early Bally. What they are advising is to not blindly apply power. For example, when I get a Bally game I will disconnect all connectors from the rectifier board first. Take the rectifier board out and perform any repairs and reliability upgrades, check fuses, repin and so forth. Then apply power to the rectifier board and check its no load voltages. Then proceed on to the next board which is the solenoid driver board - make repairs, reliability mods, repin where needed, then attach that board into the system along with the rectifier board, and no other boards connected. Power those two boards up and check the voltages that the solenoid driver board creates.

Next, would be to perform any repairs or upgrades to the MPU board, same thing. I might replace the battery with a memory cap, add the ground reinforcement wiring, repin connectors. Then add that into the system with the other boards and check for boot up. Then tackle the displays, add to the system and see if those work. Then the lamp driver board, then the sound board. Before connecting the playfield solenoids check all those - resistance, diode is good and intact - plug that in. Systematically checking everything along the way piece by piece helps to prevent larger disasters in the event that something should fail.

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#3 7 years ago

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ForceFlow

Pinside Moderator

9y 238K 31,362 268 14

The guide in question is here: http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Post-Purchase_Checklist

Quoted from wayout440:
What they are advising is to not blindly apply power.

Yep, the idea is to go through the game systematically one piece at a time. The specific section that was quoted describes possible game system configurations. Depending upon the game you have, sometimes everything is separated out into individual boards (like on classic Bally games) or combined (like on System 11 games).

What game are you working on?

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#4 7 years ago

OP

BDD

ShootForSlrValue

Pinside member

Morgantown, WV

11y 47,650 412 24 29

Thanks guys!

I'm not working on any particular game (yet). I'm just trying to develop a consistent process to go through games to make sure I look at everything. I came across the guide and just had some general questions about it.

Quoted from wayout440:
Then apply power to the rectifier board and check its no load voltages.

I understand the process in the guides and the reasoning in those and in what you wrote. I think my confusion came from how we were checking voltages on those boards with no power... but it dawned on me that the game is plugged in and still getting power, just with no load. My thought was... no power -> no voltages -> how am I supposed to test this?

It was just unclear to me where the power was coming from that would even allow me to check it in the first place. I was basically reading this as a "before you plug it in" checklist.

Thanks for the help!

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#5 7 years ago

OP

BDD

ShootForSlrValue

Pinside member

Morgantown, WV

11y 47,650 412 24 29

Quoted from wayout440:
Then apply power to the rectifier board and check its no load voltages.

To be clear, we're applying power from the game being ON, not just plugged in, yes?

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#6 7 years ago

DAV

wayout440

Pinside member

Berea, OH

11y 113K 11,267 3 12

OP
Quoted from ShootForSlrValue:
To be clear, we're applying power from the game being ON, not just plugged in, yes?

Yes, you have to turn on AC power at the mains switch. In just about any pinball, this then gets AC power to your transformer, which breaks up the AC into different values to be fed to the rest of the game - some may be kept AC and feed GI lamps, motors or discrete bridge rectifiers, while others will go to the main power board(s) and converted to DC. If you really wanted to be extra careful, you could find the connectors out from your transformer and test those secondary winding voltages before plugging everything else in, but I don't usually go to that extreme.