(Topic ID: 201351)

Xenon Sound Mystery

By calico1997

6 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 34 posts
  • 6 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 4 years ago by Inkochnito
  • Topic is favorited by 12 Pinsiders

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#1 6 years ago

Xenon plays all sounds until any major coil such as a pop, sling, or flipper is used. Then the musical score stops, but the speech and some sounds continue. When the ball drains, it goes back to normal until a coil is used again. I made a 30 sec video of it.

I read the Bally sounds are sometimes affected by the solenoid lines. I tried the following. Nothing helped!

made sure game setting 18 is set to #3, full sounds
reflowed solder on the headers of the solenoid driver board and sound board.
replaced the solenoid driver board with a brand new Alltek board.
replaced the MPU with a brand new Alltek MPU.
replaced the Sounds+ and Vocalizer boards with a spare set of the same.
replaced the data ribbon cable of the two sound boards.
inspected the molex IDC cable connections and pressed in the IDCs with an IDC tool.
visually inspected all the molex crimped pins and wires.
the primary lamp driver board is a new Alltek lamp driver - didn't mess with this, didn't see the need.
the aux lamp driver board is original - didn't mess with this, didn't see the need.

Board components and roms cannot be the issue since I've swapped out each board one by one (accept the lamp driver boards). I've inspected the cables and can't see a problem. I'm so stumped. Would appreciate any suggestions.

#3 6 years ago

I'm told the sounds are controlled by the solenoid lines. In addition to all the boards I just swapped, one by one, testing in between, I also just now put in a new Power Rectifier board in the base cabinet. The problem remains. I also put it in switch test mode and tested all 40 switches as listed in the manual, in order. All of them including the coin door and tilts flash the correct corresponding number and make a beep tone, and there's no feature lamps blinking when I test each switch. (100% of the feature lamps are working). I also pressed the red test button on the sound card - all the correct sounds come from it, as well as in game, until a pop, sling, or flipper fires. Interestingly, the sound does not get killed in game when one of the two saucer coils fires. Those must be a different circuit.

This is maddening.

1 week later
#8 6 years ago
Quoted from cody_chunn:

Try a new set of game ROMs?

On the Sounds Plus and Vocalizer boards, I tried replacing all the capacitors, the pots, all the roms, the ribbon cable, and eventually I even replaced both boards themselves. I also replaced the MPU board, Solenoid driver board, Voltage Regulator board, and Lamp driver board. I also repinned / replaced all connectors in the back box. It apparently has nothing to do with anything on any of the boards or the connectors to them. I'm calling in a professional repair man. Current theory is there's a coil wiring problem. Personally, I think it is a failing coil diode that is sending excess voltage back into the MPU. I'm seeing other weird things when the coils fire, such as one pop bumper setting off another pop bumper. No.. it is not due to vibration. Already tried that.

#13 6 years ago

Thanks for the good suggestions. Im out of town until next week but will try it when I get home. Also, that youtube video from the other Xenon has a similar problem, yes.

1 week later
#14 6 years ago

My sound problem is solved. I learned a lot along the way and also noted several scenarios that have afflicted Xenon sounds with other game owners. So I'm going to continue this thread with what I've learned. Hopefully other people who search "Xenon Sound" when having problems will find this and save themselves some headaches. To restate my problem and solution:

Problem; when starting a game, all sounds work. Then, when any coil fires, the background music suddenly stops and does not resume until the next ball.

Solution; I called in Dan Chaschetto from Dan's Pinball Repair. http://danspinballrepairser.wixsite.com/dans-repair-services He found the reason the sound was getting killed was at pin 7 on J1 of the MPU board. It is labeled Sound Module Address E on the schematic. Basically just a crusty connector pin. Apparently signals from pin 7, J1 on the MPU affect the command lines of game sound and can cause a sort of code error of not signaling properly. Here's a picture of where it is on the manual's schematic, labeled SOUND MODULE ADDRESS E. Once this was corrected, sounds work perfectly.

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#15 6 years ago

Further to the matter of sound, a number of people complain about scratchy sound or sound that comes and goes. There's no surprise in saying that this is usually the potentiometers and capacitors on the two audio boards "Sounds Plus" and "Vocalizer". Since these two boards are nearly exclusive to the Xenon machine, I took the liberty of buying a pair of them, relatively non-working, from a fellow Pinsider. I tested them out in the Xenon machine and there was hardly any functioning game sound. The following steps were taken.

I purchased a complete set of replacement capacitors for both boards. They cost only a few dollars and only take a few minutes to replace, especially if you own a good desoldering tool. The go-to place to order these as "kits" is Great Plains Electronics. However, they seem to routinely be "out of stock" on the kits. Still, if you read the description of the kit parts, you can then order these replacement capacitors individually from Great Plains, or other sources. Here is the description of the capacitors from Great Plains web site:

-----------------------------------------------------
---> Part Number BALLY-S56E-KIT
Bally AS-2518-56 Electrolytic Capacitor Kit
Electrolytic capacitor set for Bally AS-2518-51 (Sound Module) and Bally AS-2518-56 Board (Sounds Plus Module)
Kit includes all new, matching capacitors:

C5 and C13 (2 Capacitors):
Original = Axial Electrolytic 1uF, 50 Volt
Kit = Axial Electrolytic 1uF, 50 Volt or 1uF, 100 Volt
GPE part number CEA-1uf-50V-RMD or CEA-1uf-100V

C7:
Original = Axial Electrolytic 470uF, 6 Volt
Kit = Axial Electrolytic 470uF, 16 Volt or 470uF, 25 Volt
GPE part number CEA-470uf-16V-RMD or CEA-470uF-25V-RMD

C8:
Original = Axial Electrolytic 1000uF, 16 Volt
Kit = Axial Electrolytic 1000uF, 25 Volt
GPE part number CEA-1000uF-25V-RMD

C15:
Original = Axial Electrolytic 4700uF, 25 Volt
Kit = Axial Electrolytic 4700uF, 25 Volt
GPE part number CEA-4700uF-25V-RMD
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
---> Part Number BALLY-S57E-KIT
Bally AS-2518-57 Electrolytic Capacitor Kit
Electrolytic capacitor set for Bally AS-2518-57 Vocalizer Module
Kit includes all new, matching capacitors:

C11:
Original = Axial Electrolytic 1uF, 50 Volt
Kit = Axial Electrolytic 1uF, 50 Volt
GPE part number CEA-1uF-50V-RMD

C25:
Original = Axial Electrolytic 100uF, 25 Volt
Kit = Axial Electrolytic 220uF, 35 Volt
GPE part number CEA-220uF-35V-RMD
C25 = Power filter capacitor with higher capacitance value is recommended.

Notes:
Higher voltage rated capacitors are a good substitute for lower voltage rated devices.
Some boards were constructed with higher capacitance values than listed in manual. It is recommended to use higher capacitance value for better power filtering for this assembly.
Observe proper polarities when installing parts.
Improper installation can result in damage and/or injury.

#16 6 years ago

I also replaced the two "pots" on the Sounds Plus board that tend to fail over the years. These also contribute to the scratchy sounds, static, or just volume cutting out. Again, Great Plains Electronics was out, so I had to order these from Digikey. Here's the product:

2017-11-21 16_43_27-3362P-1-102LF Bourns Inc.  Potentiometers, Variable Resistors  DigiKey (resized).jpg2017-11-21 16_43_27-3362P-1-102LF Bourns Inc. Potentiometers, Variable Resistors DigiKey (resized).jpg

#17 6 years ago

Photo here shows the old pot (black) and the new pot. Also you can see the new blue capacitors installed.

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#18 6 years ago

These two boards connect to each other with a 40 pin ribbon cable. The connection pins of the board look like new and appear to be gold plated. But the ribbon cable seems questionable. For a few bucks, I decided to replace the ribbon cable. Here's what I found on Ebay.

2017-11-21 16_49_22-40-Pin (2x20) Female to Female 2.54mm-Pitch 40-wire IDC Flat Ribbon Cable  eBay (resized).jpg2017-11-21 16_49_22-40-Pin (2x20) Female to Female 2.54mm-Pitch 40-wire IDC Flat Ribbon Cable eBay (resized).jpg

#19 6 years ago

These cables are perfect, accept you have to file off (grind off) the black center "nub" on at least one of the two back connectors. They are there to prevent the cables being inserted backwards. But the way they connect on the Xenon Bally boards, you need to remove one or both of these nubs. Here's a picture showing the old cable and the new cable with a screw driver pointing to the nub I'm referring to.

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#20 6 years ago

Another picture showing how the ribbon cable connects the two boards...(original cable shown)

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#21 6 years ago

Yet another concern is that the particular ROMs used on these boards have a very, very bad issue with corrosion. They are worse than other game ROM's I have on boards of similar age. I very carefully pulled the old ROMs out (the speech ROMs from the Vocalizer). They were covered in black spots and crust and while I tried to gently clean them, some of the prongs were just hanging by a thread of metal. I temporally soldered the fractured / broken prongs of two ROMs. That actually worked. But the best solution was to order new ROMs from ROMPINGIRL on Ebay.

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#22 6 years ago

So here are my two sound boards for Xenon, with new ROMs, new Pots, new capacitors, and a new 40 pin ribbon cable. I also made sure to dust them off to keep them running cool, especially the large heat sink fin on the Sounds Plus board.

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#23 6 years ago

Before any of this work started, I noticed this game I purchased came with new speakers installed. Unfortunately, these are the wrong ones. It was causing a serious issue with having to turn the game volume nearly up to maximum just to hear proper volume levels. Doing that may burn out the amplifier, not to mention add hum or hiss that is very unnecessary. These are the popular "Pyle" speakers that can be purchased on Amazon cheaply. But they have the wrong specifications. They sure look cool though.

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#24 6 years ago

These speakers are the correct 4" size, but they are only 4 ohms impedance instead of the specified 8 ohms from Bally and a whopping 160 watts each. They are wired in series according to the game design. Total impedance for the circuit is 8 ohms. I discontinued use of the game at this point until I could get in a replacement set of factory spec. speakers from Marco.

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#25 6 years ago

Here are the correct specification speakers I ordered from Marco Specialties.

2017-11-21 17_14_17-Speaker 4 inch 8 ohm unshielded - 031-5004-08US - Marco Pinball Parts (resized).png2017-11-21 17_14_17-Speaker 4 inch 8 ohm unshielded - 031-5004-08US - Marco Pinball Parts (resized).png

#26 6 years ago

They are 4 inches, 8 ohms each (16 ohms for the pair in series) and 12 watt. They looked identical to the original Bally speakers in my opinion. They're extremely affordable.

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#27 6 years ago

Along the way I found one of the speaker wires was frayed to be nearly broken off. So another quick fix and good find.

#28 6 years ago

Another area of concern for sound is apparently good headers and connectors on the solenoid driver board. The sounds are controlled on these Bally games by the solenoid lines. They actually strobe a few lines on the solenoid board to pulse lines to the audio board. Invalid commands can confuse the board (if a line is dead). So, long story short. Check the solenoid board for bad solder connections around the header pins (Same really for sound board)… reflow the solder on the headers, clean the header pins, and clean / repin bad connectors. (new solenoid board shown)

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#29 6 years ago

One more potentiometer to be concerned with this the actual volume knob for the machine on the inside of the coin door. Work this knob back and forth with the game off. If it cannot hold a clear, consistent volume level, you can try spraying contact cleaner into it or just replace it. Places like Marco sell replacements for a few dollars.

#30 6 years ago

I would also like to acknowledge another issue that can cause game music to stop. As posted earlier in this thread and even shown on video, a tube shot can cause the music to stop if the game does not detect the pinball landing in the saucer at the end of the tube shot. In other words, if the ball goes through the tube and down to the saucer without making the switches that see it in the saucer, game music will stop temporarily. I've seen this happen during extremely fast play where the ball zips right past the saucer and out onto the playfield without landing and sitting in the saucer.

Lastly, here's a video demo link to what should happen when you press the red test button on the Sounds Plus board. If you don't get these sounds, check the all items above. Again:

- the two 1k pots on the Sounds board
- the capacitors on both boards
- the data ribbon cable between the boards
- corrosion of the ROM pins
- headers and connectors on the sound board, the solenoid board, and the MPU board
- the speaker wires
- the correct speakers
- the saucer eject switch from the end of the tube shot not been made
- the game volume pot

#31 6 years ago

With clean working connections, new capacitors and pots, and fresh, correct speakers, I can honestly say that the sound on my Xenon is fantastic. It is crystal clear, not a hint of hum or hiss, plenty of amplification, and just sounds really good. This game does not have much base to it, but maybe for enhancement one might add on a self powered sub woofer such as the Pioneer one on Amazon that is so popular for pinball. I've not tried it though.

https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-SW-8MK2-Designed-100-Watt-Subwoofer/dp/B008NCD2PC/ref=sr_1_1

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