PCB Repair Of The Special Solenoids In A 1987 Williams F-14 Tomcat Pinball Machine - Repair #8

[@rlcd1967]

Whatever happens in the end with this machine, you deserve a prize for your infinite patience

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you rlcd1967 we appreciate you watching!

[@denniskaszynski9288]

Thanks Joe. I bought a F-14 pinball machine that was in dire straits like this one. I watched these videos over and over to learn the stuff you know off the top of your head to sink in. Five non-working coils from a red-white wire not hooked up right was the culprit.

[@gregoryschmidt1233]

Enjoying the longer series of videos.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Gregory we appreciate you watching us!

[@markjackson1444]

I’m watching this series of vids for the second time ….. and I don’t even own a solid state machine. Really interesting and enjoyable. Thanks Ronnie.

[@jameschristian4005]

Just picked up one of these this weekend. Owner said it’s been non-working for 4 years. Swapped out the batteries, luckily no corrosion, and it fired right up. Everything works perfectly. Your videos are helpful for when something eventually goes wrong.

[@LyonsArcade]

Very cool James, it's a great game!

[@pcachu]

And the Common Failure Point approach wins again!

[@LyonsArcade]

Hey it makes sense :)

[@BEpicEvents]

Man this is a cool machine! I played one as a kid but had forgotten how great the sound and light show were.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah it's really well designed, this is one of the reasons Steve Ritchie has so much clout, he made great games.

[@TheGnomestead]

Nice work Ronnie! Looking forward to that Play field video! Thanks for bringing us along 😊👍👍👍

[@LyonsArcade]

Coming soon Gnomie :)

[@afattori316]

I unlike your videos so I can like them again. Loving the F14 repair series!!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you afattori316 we appreciate you hanging out with us man!

[@justmanny9275]

I hit the like before the video even STARTS! You're the man, Joe!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you Manny!

[@richjacka1]

I love how quickly you can swap out transistors. 👍 Its great if the point of the video is not how to show somthing, (probably shown on another episode) it is a quick skip of that step. Your doing everything right. Love it. 👍👍👍👍👍 I always love the circuit tracing and fault diagnosis. I can guess what the problem is and wait to see if my guess was correct.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Rich we appreciate you watching!

[@ItsaRomethingeveryday]

I went back and watched the vid of yours on the Really nice f14 that had all the leds in it, this one is equally as cool in it's own unique way,Liked

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah I take them as they come if they need work we get on it :) Thanks for watching It's a Rome Thing!

[@ruaraidhmcdonald-walker9524]

Great video!! Really good diagnostic to just ground the SS transistors. Super quick shortcut to find the problem. Blanking common too I'm guessing? System 11 secrets revealed! Thanks for this!

[@InMyHead]

I know this is taking a bit but I AM LOVING THIS ONE. Take care man. you will get it (or well you already have because we are seeing the videos)

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks man, we appreciate it! BY THE WAY, we have another KISS we're going to be working through soon, we're going to do several videos.

[@InMyHead]

@@LyonsArcade oh man do you happen to need a special guest or someone to help test it (me me me)

[@patrickfivetrick9202]

Thanks for the details in how to repair/troublshoot the problems Ron!! Anooother great video, greatly enjoyed!!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Patrick, glad you enjoyed it!

[@maccustoms2295]

Love this game always a good light show.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah it's something else, they went crazy with it!

[@memyopinionsche6610]

Shaping up to be a pretty decent game. Definitely working your magic.

[@LyonsArcade]

It's coming right along!

[@ryanstroh4120]

Who's the jackoff that keeps giving a thumbs down? You're videos are always great! Especially because you're trying to do all of this with 1 hand while holding the camera lol. Thanks again

[@LyonsArcade]

I'm getting big enough that I now have haterz, that's when you know you're doing well :) Thanks for watching Ryan!

[@ryanstroh4120]

@@LyonsArcade always. Keep it up Ron.

[@danijelcar5184]

Great job done almost finish on that great game 😎👍

[@LyonsArcade]

We're getting there, switches and sound next :)

[@seancurry2863]

Great debugging job.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you Sean!

[@richa9719]

Nice troubleshooting!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Rich!

[@simondempsey1]

Great Video Ron, well worked out. Look forward to the next one.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Simon!

[@maccustoms2295]

Always thumps up here you guys do great work. Have a great week.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Mac, we appreciate it!

[@tex-hogger4974]

What a great series. I've watched all of them so far. I have 2 system 11s, Cyclone and Pin-Bot. These videos give great info on what to look for and what to do. Keep up the great work, one handed.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Tex-Hogger, we appreciate it man... you've got two great games there by the way.

[@jameswacker3827]

Outstanding, most helpful!!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks James, glad you enjoyed it!

[@carboumen7661]

Eres una máquina........👍🏻greetings from Spain

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you CARBOUMEN!

[@johnhammond3482]

i will be waiting for repair #9 video Ron im looking forward to see this F.14 TOMCAT fully working

[@LyonsArcade]

Coming soon :)

[@101fng]

Watching your progress on this machine has been awesome! I’ve been checking KZbin throughout the day just to see if you’ve uploaded the next video.

[@svrdriver]

jo you are a star thank god for wiring diagrams

[@LyonsArcade]

They really help us, luckily most of them are available for pretty much all the machines, even the really old ones!

[@pauz2175]

Amazing stuff.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Pauz, we appreciate you watching along with us...

[@seanj1984]

I always give you a thumbs up at the beginning of the video

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Sean, we appreciate you watching!

[@Even-Steven]

It's gettin' there!

[@LyonsArcade]

Piece by Piece :)

[@kepler240]

22:42 always interesting...never thought dirty contacts would cause a slow flipper. I guess higher resistance from the dirt lowers the voltage and power to the magnetic coil slowing the plunger.

[@KingWilliam]

I like the music, it sounded like Deep Purple Highway Star on there for a bit.

[@LyonsArcade]

I don't know how much Steve had to do with the music but you know he plays guitar.

[@WonkoTSane]

This is a very common issue with system 11 machines. One of the special solenoids will lock on and fry chips. U50 was not socketed from the factory so someone had been in there replacing it before. I am betting that you will find a coil that has been replaced and probably one or more of the drive transistors. Someone was cutting the wires to the coils to try and find the issue.

[@LyonsArcade]

That sounds about right Jeff, thanks, I haven't done too many PCB repairs on System 11.

[@WonkoTSane]

@@LyonsArcade Pinbot seems to be very bad about eating them. It has to do with a couple of the flash lamps looking like 89s but actually being 1251s. If you put 89s in they get very bright, do not last very long, and will cause damage to the board.

[@Jimgat83]

Another great video

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Arcade Crusaders!

[@andymouse]

Finish line in sight ! gonna be interesting to see if your ' Kung Fu ' on the playfield is strong, nice work Ron....cheers.

[@LyonsArcade]

hahaha, we'll see...

[@GrandTheftWatto]

26:31 Its no "Highway to the Danger Zone"...but it rocks pretty hard!

[@LyonsArcade]

Beavis & Butthead would love it!

[@jasonudall8614]

@@LyonsArcade I think its an Archer reference

[@frankgagliano9677]

Great job Ron. You mentioned dirt and grime but was it corrosion? That heart beat is getting louder, almost there. Thanks filming. Can not wait for video nine.

[@LyonsArcade]

I haven't seen any corrosion on the playfield but boy that board had plenty of it. By the way, speaking of Heartbeats, GORGAR SPEAKS

[@frankgagliano9677]

@@LyonsArcade So I heard. Great news, can not wait to see the videos.

[@litz13]

This is one of those cases where a logic probe is useful ... It's a bit misleading because you have the buffer feeding all the A-F signals, but there's an enable line coming off U50 which also drives the flipper enable relay. It's like a blanking signal just for those drivers. Sys11 can be weird sometimes. Really shows how clean the WPC design is by comparison.

[@LyonsArcade]

I haven't worked on much of the WPC stuff yet... but COMING SOON

[@litz13]

@@LyonsArcade WPC was my bread and butter for about 10 years, you'll like it. Feel free to ping me if you have ?'s or issues

[@gregm1457]

@@LyonsArcade Oh man the walking wounded transistors and dirty mechs... good fix !

[@akgyrator]

Another great upload Ron :)

[@MercuryX01]

For the missing decals are you able to cut out some of the decal such as just the outline of 2k and cut out separately the 2 from 2k and give it a more finished look than damaged decals. Using a sharp blade then peeling and placing partial decals might look better then not and can probably be peeled off again if it doesn't work out. The fonts might not match for the words on the lower arrows but if done right might be unnoticeable

[@RS2000XPACK]

Keep at it mate :0

[@LyonsArcade]

We're gettin' there :)

[@PlumGurly]

Wow, Darlington transistors. That is when you take 2 transistors, whether discrete or wired internally like here, where the collectors are wired together and a base and an emitter are connected through each other.

[@bzhmaddog]

There is a microswitch below the launch ramp a little bit after the kicker (hidden behind the triangle shaped plastic)

[@LyonsArcade]

I saw that one while perusing how to take the ramps off :)

[@michaelanders737]

Cool

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Michael!

[@waynegram8907]

JOES CLASSIC, what is so much different about the special solenoids? I don't understand how they are different compared to the stock normal solenoids. The root cause of the problem was that the EOS end of stroke switches were dirty on all 5 of the special solenoids which was prevent them from turning on and off?

[@EngineeringVignettes]

Luckily those TIP darlington transistors are still readily available and were pretty inexpensive, last time I checked. I'm guessing you probably already know this, but the horizontal bar on top of the netname (wire label) means "asserted when low" so it's easier to troubleshoot the logic in ones head, knowing that the logic IC outputs will "assert" when the active low input net is shorted to ground. In the case of this circuit it looks like the net (wire) is also _open collector_ so multiple IC outputs can be tied together (eg. CPU and manual over-ride) as long as all IC's are open collector (or "o.c.") style. On o.c. circuits the common outputs are pulled up with a resistor to get the logic high; this slows the speed of transitions (low-to-high) down, depending on the amount of circuit capacitance. o.c. circuits are *always* active low (the term "collector" referring the the output driver stage in the logic being an NPN transistor (or equivalent) with it's collector only tied to the output and it's emitter tied to GND). Another interesting point is that _assertion_ does not have a specific logic level. It can be asserted low (GND) or asserted high (VCC). The meaning assertion just means that the inputs of the IC/circuit meet the conditions for the asserted state to be true, as per it's truth table. Whew. :D Cheers,

[@petarstraub]

Thumbs up! :)

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Petar!

[@Jeroen_a]

Those special solenoids .... it also prevents the issue like, with the older games? Sometimes when you hit stacked leaf switches with a ball (eg the kickers) where somehow you only get the one of 2 pairs touching because the ball was just short in speed... INTERESTING :-)

[@LyonsArcade]

I think Gottlieb HAD to do it on their system because the cpu wasn't capable of controlling all of the solenoids, so they made some of them controlled by switches... but I can't remember if the early Williams design that came out before the Gottlieb design had the special coils.... so i'm not sure all the reasons they all felt it was necessary.... I don't believe any of the Bally coils were special though I believe the cpu could control all of them.

[@Jeroen_a]

@@LyonsArcade it's still an interesting circuit that they made :)

[@webdoc90]

Rusty balls. Remind me to tell you a story about my oldest son.

[@LyonsArcade]

hahahaha

[@naytch2003]

Don't let ya balls get rusty people 😒 😆

[@ovalteen4404]

Back when this was at my local arcade, those diverters were often the ticket item. You'd hit the lock chute, but it would end up going down the wrong (already locked) ramp so the game would have to eject the locked ball to make room for the next one heading its way. That was frustrating.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah I'm trying to figure that out, it looks like you have to turn on the lock for each ramp, and then the diverter will send it there.... but you don't really turn them all on at one time...

[@edptrs9040]

@@LyonsArcade There is a service update for the diverters. Posted on pinrepair I believe.

[@t.c.bowling1934]

It's sad to see a game in neglected shape. TNT mentioned this game recently and said something about switches shorting that blew flashers when new. Williams finally figured the issue.

[@edptrs9040]

flashers shorted to the upper stand up switches and fried the switch matrix

[@Sunsetdrivein]

Judging by the amount of burning/pitting on both the end of stroke switches and the flipper button cabinet switches, the capacitors attached to said switches aren't doing their job. Either there is a lead broken off the capacitor or the capacitor has failed from old age.The flipper button cabinet switches use a .1 uf @ 500 volt ceramic disc capacitor and the end of stroke switches use a 2.2 uf @ 250 volt axial mylar (a.k.a. polyester) capacitor.

[@LyonsArcade]

That makes sense, thanks Ken!

[@Codeaholic1]

Rusty balls sounds like a personal problem.

[@LyonsArcade]

It happens!

[@DarthVader-ESB]

What's that ball stuck on the side of the machine for..???

[@informedhealthnews]

I have a domino's pizza, 2017, 300 plays, I accidentally tore off the wires to the solenoids of the auto launcher lifting the playfield up, reconnected the wires correctly but it just blows the fuse when I have the auto launcher solenoid connected.

[@LyonsArcade]

You may have the wires backwards on the auto launcher, but that game was made by Spooky Pinball, they're really good at troubleshooting and supporting their stuff, give them a call! www.spookypinball.com/game-support/

[@jussikuusela7345]

Hmm. Maybe magnetic coupling between the diverters?

[@renatowertheim]

so next video is on Thursday

[@LyonsArcade]

Friday this week!

[@renatowertheim]

@@LyonsArcade ok

[@clarkhull4148]

Have you ever seen an Addams family pinball machine

[@LyonsArcade]

I have, that's one of the greatest games ever!

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Why could the playfield have been on a large multilayer PCB.

[@donsurlylyte]

Mama always used to tell me I was a special solenoid or maybe she didn't, whatever

[@LyonsArcade]

Life is like a rusty pinball, you never know if it's chinese Steel or not. I think that's how it goes

[@ArtStoneUS]

So the reason the CPU is connected to the special solenoids is in order to do the test mode

[@LyonsArcade]

Not just for the test mode, they may want to be able to control them so they can do special things, remember this board was designed for several different games, it's a System 11 (and later System 11A, B, C) so there were dozens of games that ran on the same board (basically).... This concept was famously used in the Addams Family (which was a later system WPC)... at the end of the ball, sometimes, the flippers would flip on their own to simulate "Thing" snapping along with the music. So while the flippers are usually controlled only by the switches, by then they had the ability to turn them on through the cpu as well....

[@Jeroen_a]

1st, yay! cuppa-tea-time :D

[@LyonsArcade]

You are very quick! VERY QUICK YOUNG JEROEN!

[@808zhu]

Repair #841