Looking for help on a TOM I brought home yesterday. Machine worked great at Sellers.

Set it up this morning. Vacuumed the cabinet and dusted down some of the wire harnesses in the cabinet (didn’t touch any wires under the Playfield)

Turned machine on. Everything seemed fine for 30 seconds. Walked away to put away vacuum cleaner when I returned the machine automatically fired three balls into the shooter lane and the color dmd went out. I shut the machine off and a little smoke started billowing from behind coin door. Lifted the Playfield...but couldn’t identify where smoke came from.

Checked fuses. F116 (+12V secondary) was blown. Replaced it. Turned machine on. Looked like dmd was going to light up, but then went out again. F116 blew again. Disconnected Dmd completely. Put new fuse in F116. Turned machine on watching the fuse, and fuse immediately blew again.

Down to my last 3amp fuse. Don’t want to do the insane thing again and blow that without isolating problem. Never tried to troubleshoot without a DMD to help me with tests.

Any suggestions on how to spot the problem?

- no LED strips that I can find

- not sure how to start on this. I disconnected the connectors to the trough optics, but the F116 fuse blew with those disconnected too. How do I know what my other 12 v devices are?

Do I dare put a 4amp fuse in F116? It calls for a 3A. Do I risk blowing the color dmd?

Who doesn’t like blowing shit up?

But this was kinda expensive shit...so I guess I’ll try your idea.

Still a newbie that this. Do I need to disconnect everything from board to test BR5?

I have an analog multimeter that I really don’t know how to use too well. Usually just use it to check resistance across fuses to tell if they’re blown...and DCV to see if I’m getting power to things that aren’t working.

Gonna see what I can figure out...but any help for technical novices would be appreciated.

So, wasn’t really sure how to check BR5. Don’t have any idea what a bridge rectifier does and didnt yet do the research. Nevertheless, I checked resistance across each of the four nodes (probably not the right word) and none of them were shorted. They all showed some level of resistance.

Only after I did that did I see the suggestion of removing J114, J116, J117, 118. Tried removing those. Fuse didn’t blow. Put 116 and 118 back in. Fuse didn’t blow. Not much came on. Turned off. Put 117 in. Turned on. Fuse didn’t blow. Not much came on. Turned off. Put 114 in. Turned on. Fuse didn’t blow. Everything came on. Started to smell ‘burning’. Turned machine off. Lifted Playfield. Touching around looking for a hot coil or something. Can’t figure out what was hot. If it matters, coindoor was open.

So. After a few moments burning smell started. Wires for lighted flippers were tapping into J118. The coating of the wires near the flippers was all melted together. Guess I somehow had a short across the wires.

I cut the wires for the flipper lights under the Playfield ‘upstream’ of where they were melted. Machine has been on now for five minutes and all seems well.

Started to play a game...flippers didn’t flip. Since I was out of 3 amp fuses when I was ‘troubleshooting’, I stole some from the fliptronics board f901 and f902. Upper right and upper left flipper. Silly me figured that since there were no upper flippers on TOM I could use these. Moved the fliptronics f903 and f904 (Lower flipper left and right) to 901 and 902. Flippers are okay.

2 questions now:
- any reason I should Not replace wiring to lighted flippers?
- any reason I need f903 and f904 fuses?

SOB...trap door eject not working. Manual says solenoids 33-35 are wired through the fliptronics board J902 and J907. Guess I’m ordering more fuses.

Thanks for help. Much appreciated.

Flipper lights were a mod by previous owner. Not sure how the wires ‘shorted’ during transport; machine was on at his place for 5 hrs.

BTW...Seller was incredibly hospitable...just met them yesterday and they fed us food and drink and encouraged us to play their collection for hours (and what a collection they have!). Great people. Finding that a lot in pinball community.

Stole a couple of 3A’s from my fish tales and put them in TOM 903 and 904. TOM seems working completely now (except for lighted flippers, of course).

Can’t go long with fish tales down though, so placing order for all fuses I’m low on tonight.

Thanks again to all who helped. Can always count on Pinside!

—-thanks for tip. Fuses ordered, but FT is up-and-running already too.