So I just completed my "flipper rebuild" on the lower flippers of STTNG. And much to my dismay the left flipper now does a double tap and quits each time you press it. It goes just fine in the flipper test mode though.

I had a little trouble dissembling the old stuff (getting it out of the coil). I may have tugged on the coil a little too much. However, I do not see any broken wires or anything. Since the game worked fine prior to the flipper rebuild... I probably messed up something easy, but what?

Here is the video:

http://s1114.beta.photobucket.com/user/sellingstuff2011/media/061AECBB-28FD-4DF5-A658-C802C4866A90-3855-0000033F6519F593.mp4.html

Thanks... I found a small portion of wire off the coil. I am trying and trying to get it to solder back but it simply does NOT want to go. I am ingoloriously bad at soldering.

This is what I am looking at. There is a small portion of wire on the gray/yellow line that isn't attached. Is that the problem?

image.jpg

Soldering is getting me nowhere. Sadly I don't know how to de solder either. It appears it will be phone a friend or out of order time.

I don't see any breaks in the red wires.

image.jpg

Is this good? Ha! Could I have fried a board part by having this broken?

image.jpg

That is beyond my skill level. I couldn't even get the wire fragment soldered back together. I noticed this when I was tugging at the little red wires.

I'd like to have the game up and running for my Super Bowl party. That now appears doubtful. The issue with the drop target in the back of the game confuses me as well.

Yeah. I have tried and tried and tried.

Reflow joints = check

Actually solder something to something else = big fail

I had a cracked solder joint on a pop bumper in TSPP. It took about 2.5 hours of soldering and I did fix it. I spent at least an hour on the little frayed wire this evening. Zero result. I went though a foot of solder. I am not even sure where it al went. Zero seemed to end up on the connection and it's not on the floor either.

I will take a picture of the tools when I get home. They did come from radio shack. I have watched videos. There is something seriously lost in translation. When I do it the solder simply disappears and nothing gets attached.

Good news is there is no mess.

Haha that's funny. Yes I have two master's degrees but I can't figure out soldering. The iron is from radio shack. The solder is from pinball life. I don't know any other particulars about them other than I can't get anything to stick.

I am not sure about the smoke. I think there is a little but not so much that I notice/remember.

So true. I once worked from 7pm to 4am straight on a rollover switch. I got it though.

Do I buy one of each?

image.jpg

I don't see that one. There is only one listed with flux and it is huge. The store people say flux comes in all of them. Apparently it isn't sold on its own.

I am getting 60/40 rosin-core solder .032 diameter and 62/36/2 silver bearing solder 0.15 diameter.

Yeah, I have absolutely no clue what I am doing.

Those are the tools. I have watched several videos. I don't really learn much via video though. The professionals make everything look too simple.

image.jpg

I am trying to hire someone but no luck yet. I have tried to solder things several times and only been successful once.

Got it... Well sorta. It still doesn't work.

image.jpg

You were right. I followed the other gentleman's tip about setting it to 40, cleaned off the tip and the sloder actually started to flow correctly. I "fixed" the old coil and it still didn't fix the flipper problem.

So I wired one in from a different game and it still hasn't fixed the flipper problem. I really am stumped. I may be able to get some help on Saturday. I'm guessing I broke something on the driver board.

The high power works fine. The low power does not.

I'd like to thank everyone for their help and for putting up with me. If I ever get the flipper to work I'll post the solution.

The good news is that I fixed the drop target. I took the whole assembly apart and reassembled it with a new coil sleeve. Works like a champ so far.

Doh! I'll go figure out which one it is and check it.

Here are some pictures.

Thanks. I paid someone to do a flipper rebuild for me two years ago. That's how I learned to do that. Funny... because that's how I messed this one up.

All four fuses on the fliptronics board are good. Yes I did remove them to test.

The flipper leaf switch moves correctly. I am rather stumped. I thought for sure the coil swap would fix it.

Here are the pictures that weren't posting for me.

game.JPG coil_swap.JPG diagram.JPG

My bad... wrong term. The flipper high power works fine in test mode.

It worked fine in the game it came out of. Very stumped. The good news is that I did increase my soldering skill from a 1 to a 2. I don't think it will ever take me 2.5 hours to fix a cracked connection again.

Thank you for that.

Could there be a wire short? Would that cause this issue?

I knew that buying a less than 100% STTNG would force me to learn some things. I certainly didn't expect anything from the flipper rebuild. I have completed that task on five other machines with no problems.

I'm thinking I blew a transistor on the fliptronics board. I'm going to ground those plugs and see. I have no clue how to fix the transistor though.

Oh sorry. I grounded each power and holding circuit for the left and right flippers.

Left Flipper:
J902 slot 9 - Blue-Gray Power = kept the left flipper up when grounded
J902 slot 7 - orange-blue holding = nothing happened when grounded

Right Flipper
J902 slot 13 - blue-violet Power = kept the right flipper up when grounded
J902 slot 11 - orange-green holding = kept the right flipper up when grounded

So the problem is with the orange-blue wire (aka the Auburn wire) on the left flipper. I checked the current and it hits right around 1 volt. The other two connectors on that coil hit 3.5 volts. All three connectors on the other coil hit 3.5 volts.

So I need more volts to that wire. Or maybe I wired it wrong? I think it is wired correctly though as it is in the same sequence as the old coil and the old coil worked before I rebuilt the flipper.

Any advice on this one? I think now we at least know the problem. Right?

Rats... I'm running out of coils. So the coil can affect the volts?

There is a wire break in the "new coil." Could that be the problem?

Sorry... pictures aren't uploading from my cell phone.

Both coils - the one that came with the game and the one I stole from another have breaks in their wires. Is this something all coils have? Or could this be the root of my problem?

Can I "solder" those wires back together? I'm only asking because we don't have a local coil store.

Here is the picture. Uploading them is getting more difficult.

coil_break.JPG

Doh! Doh, Freenzy!! I know I caught the "new" coil on something when I took it out. The old coil... well there was a dent in the paper. I must have done that too. I think I just may have a very old one from TAF in my cabinet somewhere.

Yes I know I could take the upper flipper one off and put it down there. I really, really don't want to canablise any more flipper coils.

I may be calling in the overnight shipping.

Yes. I'm going to see if I can scrounge up yet another coil that will make the game playable for the short term. If not... it's probably best to overnight some. I know I should have backup coils but I do not.

I think both of my dogs are in there somewhere.

mess.JPG

Picking up a new coil today after work. Let's all hope that does it.

Then I can get to fixing the cannon and my drop target still has an issue. It won't go down on it's own. The launch a probe option is supposed to make the target drop. It only drops if a ball hits it.

Thanks! I am going to the circus tonight and Sienfield tomorrow night. I won't be able to sleep until the new coil is in the game. By the little timeline I had in my mind, STTNG was supposed to be running fine with one or less errors (drop target or cannon) by bedtime last night.

The left flipper has really thrown everything off track. Please everyone cross your fingers for coil #3. As LTG eluded to several times, the problem is in the coil. Then the problem was in the "replacement" coil. Having two with the same issue was the weird part.

Néw coil!

Fixed it! LTG and Crash were right. The coil was the problem this entire time. It's just odd that my replacement coil had the exact same issue. I went to the circus (cool elephants!), came home and put the new coil in. Flippers work great!

I'm thinking I may add "replace coil" to my standard flipper rebuilding process. It is currently the only thing I don't replace.

As for the rest of the game, I think I have the left cannon working properly now too. BUT my drop target has a missing piece! I'm wondering if I can rig something to make it work for this weekend. If not the game is quite playable without it.

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/01-8647-L

Okay... but for now on I am keeping a spare around. Most of my games use that same blue coil.

No. It isn't laying in the cabinet! This game is so weird. Here is the back story from the recepits I found inside:

Game purchased new by an arcade in Rome, Georgia. It sold in 2004 to a "high end" (that means high priced) amusement store north of Atlanta. In 2009, the previous owner bought it for $6,000 cash and a Ms. Pac-Man for $2,000 cash. Wow.

The lady I bought it from said they never removed the glass during the time they owned it. The game had five balls (not six), six switch errors, missing parts on the trough boards and this missing drop target part. The broken off pieces of the trough boards were not in the cabinet and neither is the drop target piece. Actually the inside of the cabinet is mysteriously clean. There was an opened goodie bag, manual, reciepts and plastics.

The playfield (underneath the dirt) is in very good shape. The right ramp has a melted spot from the 555 pop bumper bulb underneath of it. I have one on order (where is that package?!?!). I sure hope it gets here tomorrow or Saturday.

I'm checking to see if the gentleman I got today's coil from may have one of these drop target actuators laying around. I punched it up at marco's. It's just $7.95 but overnight shipping is $35.

I need to go to the hardware store, but this piece needs to be exactly the correct length and then bend at the right spot. I'm not sure if there is enough American Ingenuity to make that happen.

I'd like to thank everyone for their help and support. The game is fully functional now with no errors. It's really fun and has good depth. My new ramp came in but I haven't installed it yet.

The room is pretty clean and the party should be good tomorrow. Thanks again!

I had that problem with my TSPP and it was the end of stroke switch. It sounds like you checked that already though.