Williams Strato-flite. Match and High Score not working.

Hi Pinside!

Finally got my Strato-flite finished. Game play is reliable, everything seems great. Once it started getting regular game play we discovered it still has one or two issues. The on game Special works okay, but high scores and match are not awarding credits. The first place I looked was the free ball / credit pin in the backbox to see if it was inserted 100%. Turns out it was, but I noticed there was no wire/s on the lug attached to that side. I'm guessing somebody has removed it for their own reasons. The game is also missing it's solenoid for the knocker. It was set up for extra ball play when I got the machine. I'd like to completely restore it to credit. Can anybody tell me where the wire/s from the credit lug on that plug go to?

231591001_10159761228793854_4323264551628463124_n (resized).jpg

#2 2 years ago

MarkG

Not sure which lug you're referring to but here's the schematic for the Replay Step Up solenoid including the Extra Ball/Replay adjustment. The Replay lug should have a grey wire and the Extra Ball lug should have a yellow-black wire.
Strato Flite Replay (resized).jpg
But if your special awards a replay (via the bottom part of the schematic) then the plug should be working fine. I'd check the make/break switch in the red box on the Game Over relay. If that's not working properly the Match and/or High Score replays might not work.

/Mark

#3 2 years ago

???

blibb

Pinside apprentice

Quoted from MarkG:
Not sure which lug you're referring to but here's the schematic for the Replay Step Up solenoid including the Extra Ball/Replay adjustment. The Replay lug should have a grey wire and the Extra Ball lug should have a yellow-black wire.
[quoted image]
But if your special awards a replay (via the bottom part of the schematic) then the plug should be working fine. I'd check the make/break switch in the red box on the Game Over relay. If that's not working properly the Match and/or High Score replays might not work.
/Mark

Hi Mark, Thanks for your help.

I have no wire. What I mean by that is if you look at the sockets where the free ball / credit plug is inserted. The free ball side has a lug, which has a wire, which is attached to the rest of the game. The credit side has no wire. Just some old solder. The previous owner has removed the wire on that side of the plug. What I need is what to jumper the lug on the credit side of that plug to, to restore it's functionality. Perhaps the removed wire is still back there, but I can't find a loose wire anywhere.

Can you figure out from the schematic what that lug was connected to?

IMG_0105 (resized).JPG

#4 2 years ago

MarkG

It looks to me that the wire wasn't removed so much as it was moved from the socket to the plug. Notice that the two wires on the right side of the plug in your photo are the same color (grey-brown?) and daisy chained to other points in the game. The wire on the left side of the plug is a different color, probably grey, that was probably originally soldered to the socket lug instead. If that's the case the replay is hardwired to always be enabled.

Either way the wire that should be soldered to the Replay socket is the grey wire highlighted in red in the schematic above which is also connected to switches on the 10c and 25c relays, and to one lug of the Replay Unit S.U. (Step Up) solenoid.

#5 2 years ago

???

ErikM

Inactive member

Unknown

6y 8,000 10 1

I think that my Strato-Flite has the same situation. The colors are difficult to see. I think the two wires where the blue arrows point to, originally where soldered to the pin where the red arrow points to

extra-ball-adjustment (resized).png

#6 2 years ago

???

blibb

Pinside apprentice

Quoted from MarkG:
It looks to me that the wire wasn't removed so much as it was moved from the socket to the plug. Notice that the two wires on the right side of the plug in your photo are the same color (grey-brown?) and daisy chained to other points in the game. The wire on the left side of the plug is a different color, probably grey, that was probably originally soldered to the socket lug instead. If that's the case the replay is hardwired to always be enabled.
Either way the wire that should be soldered to the Replay socket is the grey wire highlighted in red in the schematic above which is also connected to switches on the 10c and 25c relays, and to one lug of the Replay Unit S.U. (Step Up) solenoid.

Ah, okay. Thanks guys.

So they made the credits permanent. Okay, so you think it might be the game over relay? I'll look at that. Thank you!

#7 2 years ago

???

blibb

Pinside apprentice

Good morning,

I apologize for giving you false information. The SPECIAL is in fact not working. The coin mechs are also not registering credits now. I checked the credit wheel and cleaned the switch that opens when too many credits are in the machine. It seems to be closed and clean. The Game Over relay looks like it's working fine. That probably doesn't surprise you now that I've confirmed no credits are scoring at all. The score motor turns over when the SPECIAL is hit, and it also turns over when a coin is inserted, but nothing gets added to the credit wheel.

I have recently messed with the credit wheel to make it free play so I've got one of the switches clipped. The other one next to that is open.

Thanks for any help!

#8 2 years ago

???

blibb

Pinside apprentice

Quoted from MarkG:
Not sure which lug you're referring to but here's the schematic for the Replay Step Up solenoid including the Extra Ball/Replay adjustment. The Replay lug should have a grey wire and the Extra Ball lug should have a yellow-black wire.
[quoted image]
But if your special awards a replay (via the bottom part of the schematic) then the plug should be working fine. I'd check the make/break switch in the red box on the Game Over relay. If that's not working properly the Match and/or High Score replays might not work.
/Mark

It looks like the Player Reset Relay has a big part to play in this. I'll try checking and cleaning all the contacts involved.

EDIT : The Player Reset relay is clean and working as it should.

#9 2 years ago

MarkG

The switch on the Player Reset relay would only affect replays awarded by the match circuit. It wouldn't prevent the other paths (high score, coin mechs, special) from working.

OP
Quoted from blibb:
I have recently messed with the credit wheel to make it free play so I've got one of the switches clipped.

Clipped how? Did replays work before that? Usually to set free play you need to force a zero position switch on the replay unit closed (in this case white-orange wire to white-brown wire) by bending the leaves together or adding a jumper. Is that what you did?

OP
Quoted from blibb:
I checked the credit wheel and cleaned the switch that opens when too many credits are in the machine. It seems to be closed and clean.

Given the behavior you've described that switch (the Replay Last Position switch) or the wires leading to it are the most likely culprits:
Strato Flite Replay 2 (resized).jpg
Does the Coin Lockout coil on the coin door work? It relies on the Replay Last Position switch too. If you jumper around that switch (black-red wire to black wire) with an alligator clip test lead can you add credits?

#10 2 years ago

???

blibb

Pinside apprentice

Quoted from MarkG:
The switch on the Player Reset relay would only affect replays awarded by the match circuit. It wouldn't prevent the other paths (high score, coin mechs, special) from working.

Clipped how? Did replays work before that? Usually to set free play you need to force a zero position switch on the replay unit closed (in this case white-orange wire to white-brown wire) by bending the leaves together or adding a jumper. Is that what you did?

Given the behavior you've described that switch (the Replay Last Position switch) or the wires leading to it are the most likely culprits:
[quoted image]
Does the Coin Lockout coil on the coin door work? It relies on the Replay Last Position switch too. If you jumper around that switch (black-red wire to black wire) with an alligator clip test lead can you add credits?

Yes it's clipped together with a jumper clip. Sorry for the weird terminology. The replay last position switch should be okay. I'll triple check it, but it's been cleaned, and it seems closed. Maybe I'll throw a jumper on that too just to make sure.

I will try your jumper hack and check on the coin lockout coil later this afternoon. Thank you for your help.

#11 2 years ago

???

blibb

Pinside apprentice

Quoted from MarkG:
The switch on the Player Reset relay would only affect replays awarded by the match circuit. It wouldn't prevent the other paths (high score, coin mechs, special) from working.

Clipped how? Did replays work before that? Usually to set free play you need to force a zero position switch on the replay unit closed (in this case white-orange wire to white-brown wire) by bending the leaves together or adding a jumper. Is that what you did?

Given the behavior you've described that switch (the Replay Last Position switch) or the wires leading to it are the most likely culprits:
[quoted image]
Does the Coin Lockout coil on the coin door work? It relies on the Replay Last Position switch too. If you jumper around that switch (black-red wire to black wire) with an alligator clip test lead can you add credits?

Third time is the charm. I cleaned the blades on the replay last position switch 3 times. This final time seems to have done the trick. High Score, Specials, Coins, all working again. Hopefully match will too, but it likely will.

Thank you very much @MarkG, it really helps when you have someone who knows what it has to be, rather than my guessing what it might be. Great job, thanks again!

#12 2 years ago

???

blibb

Pinside apprentice

Quoted from ErikM:
I think that my Strato-Flite has the same situation. The colors are difficult to see. I think the two wires where the blue arrows point to, originally where soldered to the pin where the red arrow points to
[quoted image]

Thanks for the photo confirming that ErikM!

#13 2 years ago

MarkG