Game was running very well before this event.

I did reseat all the display connections.

There are other issues.

A hum coming from the playfield now. Very mild buzzing.

The game starts with bad displays and a hum.

The game takes credits but wont launch a ball. Another solenoid fires weakly but not the ball kicker.

All of this after grounding out the jumpers i think.

Its possible that the jumpers are not connected properly.

but I dont know what the behavior would be if that is the case.

Something might be wrong with the logic?

Hi. My name is John, and I am from Cleveland, Ohio (USA). I came across this site from a Google search.

I have a Zaccaria Devil Riders (1984), and it recently started having a problem. When I turn it on, the playfield lights and back glass lights turn on OK, but the game does not start. The score displays just flash on and off, about once per second.

I opened the head, and I don’t see anything obviously burnt or exploded. There IS a RED LED on the board on the top left that flashed in time with the displays, about once per second.

I have found some resources online that tell me to disconnect all plugs except plug #1 from the power supply board (lower right), and check fuses and voltages, so I think I am going to start there in the next day or two…..but I was just wondering if yall experts had any obvious advice for me. Like “Oh yeah, flashing once per second, it’s definitely THIS…”

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for the help. I hope to learn a lot here. (Well…..at least enough to fix my Devil Riders!!)

Thanks,
John

PS….or does anybody know anyone in the Cleveland, OH area that fixes Zaccaria pinballs?

I just went through this a couple months ago. But, I can't remember squat about it.
Thankfully I did have a thread running on here you can reference.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/devil-riders-non-booting-cpu-problem

jumpers should be.

J1- A
J2- b
j3 - c
J4 - f
J5- H
j6- Y
J7- K
J8 - L

I'll check it in a little while.
I'll solder them in properly and report back.

I think its jumper problems?

That seems to be the only thing that was disturbed/shorted.

The game is acting really weird now.

well with those wires like that. i'm sure they were shorting against the grounding panel in the backbox. May have shorted something out. Hope you clipped them off first.

All good.

20191106_140408 (resized).jpg

Thanks for all the help.

Other than work out the repairs on this CPU board, I just ordered a Black edition board from pinball solutions.
I also ordered a set of 7 digit led displays.

I hope they are in stock ! LOL.

My feeling is that WTF am I doing...! Its a 38 year old board, and a brand new one is available that includes free play roms etc.

I'm getting a new one.

Also might get the driver board too. Mine is very crusty, but works for now.

The game surprised me! I didnt even know that the wires were there. I didnt check for this. Who would? its an insane way to work on something.

I have never seen anything like it in 45 years of work.

Oh well, its pinball LOL.

I hope my new board comes soon!

check the fuses on the power board and under playfield (if I recall there are some fuses under the playfield).
its very good the game starts, thats over half the battle.

there are some troubleshooting tips here if you want to get it running.
Its a bunch of reading but if you are going to own zacs you have to understand them.
You are lucky there are replacement boards and displays available but not everything is available so learning to troubleshoot will help if you have an issue.

http://www.pinrepair.com/zac/

My game was running perfectly before shorting the jumpers to the back panel.

I ordered a new CPU board.

It's been hacked way too many times.

I think that this will solve my current problem.

Driver board next maybe!

I'm trying to get the game stable.

After 38 years, it's just not going to be rock solid.

But it can be, with some new parts!

12mm it is!
Thank you so much!

don't let the age fool you. I most of my games are 40 years old and they are all rock solid. Some are 50 years old and more reliable than some peoples 90's and 2000's stuff.

Ill have to agree with this! Age is not necessarily a meter of durability, But usage definitely is!

"Its not the years, honey. It's the miles...!"

However, my game is built on cast off, hacked and worn out boards. Not gently used at all LOL.

Im excited to be getting new electronics! Now my game will be mostly trouble free for years to come I hope.

Ill post the repair when it comes next week.

I received my new cpu board today.

Thank you gianfri

What a beautiful board!
Easy install, super high quality.

And FREE PLAY roms!

I love it.

However the damage is just too severe on my game.

This board alone did not solve any of my problems.

Remember, i had a perfectly running game.

Now I have no yellow drop targets reset or power.

Melted coil on the orange drop target bank.

Buzzing, locked coil on the ball launch kicker.

Moving ramp is down and wont activate.

Relay r2 on the power board is loudly buzzing and pulsing when driver board is connected.

And low power anemic performance all around.

There may be more damage but I'll tend to it bit by bit.

So I ordered the driver board next.
20191112_171612 (resized).jpg

I manually checked all the coils.

They seem ok and not melted yet.

All of my displays are ruined now after the short.

These are plugged into the new CPU board alone with the other boards disconnected.

They are behaving the same as the old original board.

My assessment is that they are really badly damaged.

It's ok. They aren't the right ones for my game anyway.

I bought the led kits and hope to have the new displays mostly done this weekend.

With hope, my new driver board will come next week and my game will be up and running again!

20191112_171649 (resized).jpg

Looks like you fixed her nose, not a bad job. A pinball rhinoplasty?

gianfri is a GOD! LOL.

These led displays are amazing and beautiful!

All my display trouble is gone!

The kits are incredibly easy to build and the parts are top notch!

I had them all built in about 4 hours.

Zero errors. Super easy.

For the first time since owning my game, I finally have the correct displays! And they run on 5v so they wont catch on fire down the road lol.
20191113_193659 (resized).jpg

I'm very happy with them.

Now, time to shotgun the driver board...

i've had to build about 60 of those displays already. They are fantastic .

I'm ecstatic about them!

Now, does anyone want my old displays?

Complete with boards?

I would gladly trade them for neon springs!

Not yet. But working on it.

Thanks for your nice words, it's always a satisfaction when pinball lovers apreciate the amount of hours we spend in developing and producing new products.

Didn't you forget to install the foam light shields around the LED digits?
They will remove the light glare around the digits.

I'll install the foam pads when I add the metal brackets off the old displays to make them more permanent.

I was so impressed with the new led displays, I had to take a picture as soon as they were done.

The last display #5 was still hot from the workbench when I powered it up lol!

I'm making up a list of parts to modify or cross reference, for flipper kits.

I might have to make the flipper links, or have them made.

Does anyone have a cross reference parts list already started?

Does anyone know the voltage of the neon transformer?

I'm thinking is should be around 3000v.

Does that sound correct?

Changed out fuse clips today.
They were pretty corroded and a little burnt.

My game is still a little over amped in the fuses. New fuses are coming.
20191116_111806 (resized).jpg

I'm thinking of changing out all the caps in the power supply.

They work, but I imagine they are out of spec after 38 years.

They dont last forever....

Change stuff thats broken, leave anything thats working alone! You don't want to go over these games and attempt to bulletproof them.

Yeah, my game is a bit fragile.
In hoping to stabilise it.

Fuse clips were a regular maintenance job.

I have 1 oddball bridge rectifier that was replaced at some point, in the group. But it works!

The caps look filthy and smoky.

Decided to fire up the old power supply board after replacing the fuse clips.

No other adjustments, just clips and new fuses.

R6 caught fire and D1 cracked a bit so it's toast.

Its amazing what having proper connections after decades of misuse can do!

No fuses blew.

Note the missing SCR1 on this power board...hmmmm.

I guess someone needed it elsewhere. It' was actually carefully unsoldered and removed from the board.

Probably removed because F1 kept blowing.
20191116_135216 (resized).jpg

The whole 170v system is trashed probably lol.

I cut the lead in R6 to keep that circuit out of mischief.

And pulled out fuse F1.

I'm wondering what caused the resistor to light up?

Missing SCR-1?

No power draw from the displays?

Age?

Way more current available with new fuse clips?

All of the above? Lol

I dunno, I half expected this though.

I did a 1978 bally playboy in similar condition.

It caught fire many times until I bulletproof the power supply and fixed all the 200v displays.

I know that since I put in all LED didplays, I dont need the 170v section any more...

In fact, I can probably remove all of the components in that section.

Pretty much like the last game zaccaria made with led displays
(New stars Phoenix).

(Same power board, missing all of the 170v section).
ns-power-large (resized).jpg

So, I plugged in the boards one by one.

All is good, nothing smoking.
Square sounds button makes speech.

CPU board boots up.

My game has been buzzing, farting and puking since the grounded jumper fiasco.

I plugged in the driver board....

No buzzing, no squeeling, no farting and no puking. Most importantly no melting of coils!

Started a game and HOLY CRAP!

WTF??!?!

All targets reset, everything works.

So, I played a game. Everything is perfect!

Lol.

So. WTF!!??

Admittedly my power board has had a lot of repairs in its life.

So, a bad 170v section can trash the whole game?

Massive short causing serious voltage drops in the 39v?

Upset the driver board, etc?

Really weird. Really interesting.
I'm not even sure where to look on this. It's strange.

Thinking about this.

Someone can probably make a fresh power supply board pretty cheap without the 170v section (or maybe even with it).

There's not much to it.

I'd be in for a kit.

About my game, CaptainNeo is right.

Evidently there was a big pile of hacked, blown and set aside used zaccaria parts somewhere.

So, seeing a farfalla cabinet nearby in a vacant lot, someone decided to build a marginal barely playing game.

That's how I think my game was born!

It sure runs good now.
Better every day!

Cant wait to see the new driver board from gianfri !

Maybe next week...

Just posted 2, million point games!
I just love Farfalla!

I'll be honest with you, I fully agree with luvthatapex2

When it works, just don't touch it

This thread is stressing me because it's like a thriller movie, there is always something going on behind the corner

Anyway, here something for you:
20191117_105656 (resized).jpg

20191117_105751 (resized).jpg

So there is a U type hook which is placed around the neon and the spring which is screwed into the hook.

That is fascinating and amazing!

Those pictures are perfect!

I was completely unaware that the retainers were 2 pieces.

Thank you so much.

I definitely need a sample to copy.

It looks easy enough.

.7mm spring and maybe 1.5mm flatwire?

I'm excited to try to make some of these.

Thinking about the led displays...

It might be good to tell people to remove fuse F1 from the power supply board after the LEDs are up and running.

This should shut down the 170v system that's not being used and prevent any high voltage failures that might lead to a fire lol.

This might protect from any problems in the future?

I agree, actually I was sure it was already indicated but apparently I did it on the Bally/Stern displays and not on the Zaccaria user's guide lol

But to be clear and avoid misunderstanding with other users reading this chat, the accident with your 170v was not related to the LED displays, the fuse option is just an option, good option, but not necessary in order to use the LED displays.

nvm. Didn't know that was R6, can't see a label.

Ansolutely!

The led displays had no part in the power supply failure.

That was destined to fully fail at some point.

Due to age, abuse and missing parts etc.

I'm glad it failed in my workshop under test where I have all the tools and repair equipment lol.

(And a fire extinguisher...)

Its labeled under the component.

I think it's a 47ohm 3watt ceramic.

David's pic (though good) is not quite good enough to see the labels.

When I get the spring retainers made, I'll be ready for the neon tube.

Unfortunately my power box service outlet fitting is all cracked up from age.

I bought some adapters for it but, the plastic wont hold it. Just too damaged.

Also its euro lol.

So I installed a mini outlet box for the neon as well as for soldering iron, worklights, boombox etc.

It's all to code, fully grounded etc.
It's off the input side of the line cord and doesnt run thru the game.
20191119_121259 (resized).jpg

I'll tear into the power box later when I do the clearcoated playfield swap.

I added new cabinet flipper switches yesterday.

The old ones were pitted pretty bad and filing them down worked somewhat. But one pair was worn at a 45 degree angle.
20191122_130239 (resized).jpg

Can I add capacitors to the flipper switches to limit the arcing/sparking? Similar to other games?

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/28690

Has anyone done this?

elsw-0119 (resized).jpg

One of my flipper covers wont stay on.

For the moment I moved it to the upper flipper, they are way weaker.

It doesn't snap on very tightly.

What are people doing to get these to be more secure?

Or are they just putting on different flippers?

What is a good suitable replacement?

My game is getting a lot of play now that it's mostly fixed.

I ended up putting a layer or 2 of 3M tape adhesive all around the inside edge of the cap.

If that fails to hold, I'm thinking of trying some of the 3M VHB tape adhesive, it's really sticky and doesn't dry out.

The problem is that the plastic is a bit oily. Nothing sticks to it.

Seems to work for now.
20191123_162521 (resized).jpg20191123_162529 (resized).jpg

Just posted a pretty good game on farfalla 3.5 mil.

The tape adhesive held well up in the upper flipper cap that was falling off.

No smoking, puking or buzzing!
One pop bumper coil was a little warm.

I put in the correct right flipper coil (D50 S 600)that was wrong (D45 S 500).

Now you can make the ramp much easier.

Marco has these in stock as well as pinball heaven (cheaper).

The new displays are amazing, the nee CPU board is amazing, the game is coming along nicely!

20191123_154710 (resized).jpg

I screen printed these signs as a tribute to Zaccaria pinball. Their dimensions are 35.5" x 23.5" x 1/4" if anyone is interested in having one

KrNMVgQvQmCA3MYZ8EVudw_thumb_507b.jpg

s%jiFGgWSmy+%EhgLyRjzQ_thumb_505e.jpg

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_5096.jpg

oooo. a new zac collector in the group. welcome.