Pinball Feature: The Inner Workings of EM games - PinballHelp.com

[@CamTarn]

Absolutely incredible! The score motor in particular - that's quite some piece of machinery. Thanks for the tour.

[@andyblackpool]

I worked for an arcade firm in the late 70's repairing these things; they were all at the end of their commercial life as this was the time all the SS machines started coming out. I remember we had a storage facility once SS won the battle where there must have been over a 100 EM machines all stacked together stood on end like soldiers. I left '79 and often wonder what happened to these beautiful pieces of historical machinery. Ended up in the skip I suppose eventually, what a bloody crime eh? You could really trace the faults on the originals the new ones I remember just standing there staring at the circuit boards in wonder and amazement. I don't recall my thought after all these years but they must have been along the lines of WTAF?.. Happy days.

[@BM-jy6cb]

One word of caution - some of the switches and coils are mains voltage. On Gottliebs such as this one from the 70's, , the Reset Bank reset coils and Drop Target reset coils are mains voltage and are controlled by mains voltage switches on the score motor and associated control relay (purple and yellow on this machine IIRC) The start relay usually has a mains voltage switch on it too (usually Red). The mains voltage switches and coils usually have PVC insulation as opposed to the woven cotton insulation, but I can't say that's the case for all machines, especially the older ones from the 60's, which also had mains voltage on the coin door and on a switch underneath the Reset Bank.

[@v1rtu050]

Thanks Mike I learned a lot from your video.

[@janiedipiazza9634]

thanks, for teaching me how a score motor counts, I've listened and watched other people talk about the score motor, but I still didn't understand what the relays in the back box have to do with the score motor unit. / and on the score reel/steppers there is a wire for each diget ? I' m close to getting it / I guess they work together. they say these EM's are not that hard once you finally figure it out , so learning it can make a guy feel a little dumb at times.

[@andyblackpool]

When re-setting the score motor will keep running getting its power from any score real that is NOT in the 'home' position (0) So therefore each digit will have a wire (as such) through its fingers and the wiper board they run against. If one of the counters isn't making contact with its wiper board or a wire has broken loose the score motor will run forever. Any faulty machine where the score motor runs constantly the score reel wiper boards is the first place (followed by the associated relay) an engineer will check. Hope this clarifies a bit?

[@janbill79]

so thk's you for the reply on how the score reels "0" switch wires keep feeding juice to keep the score motor to keep it turning or stopping. You said as I watches this for the second time in a year. I forgot most of what I took in the first time, as I was to knew to the how an EM game works at the time. After rewatching it all made more sense. as In the mean time of tried gettin' my foot in the door, to how these are wired In order to figure out each relay's function I had to know all the parts in the machine I have got that knowledge now, or closer to it. As far as I can tell from pulling the lower mechanics EM board out like you have it outside on your table. I've got 12 relays that that all line up on the RHS.in row I've starred at these so many times drawing pictures of the switcth states and types 2 blade or 3 blade. I'll se if I can list them 25c RE. index RE. start RE, reset hold RE, lock RE. ( the lock RE. has the least amount of switches and has the most windings at 3100. back to relays 2nd player has about the most switches at 6- 2blade & 2 3blade sw. 3rd strike RE, match RE name RE, ( for grand slam count) and that relay reset relay high score reset relay latch and trip and high score latch and trip RE I've tried reading the schematic and figuring out at least a good guess at there functions in the start up procedure, looks like if I have credits on the replay wheel ( they don't call it credit wheel in 1958 Wms don't.) push the start button called replay button from the schematic seems like the next RE, after the 25c RE is the INDEX RE it like an index( in a book) outlines the story in a book the em game index RE. starts activating other relays needed in the start up process. like start relay, lock relay, " relay" and #4 RE.to do with the run man resetting and 2nd coin relay and I think these are the type that have a wire on sw #1 on each relay to hold it self on. In a story the index outlines chapters to get the plot going here the index re out lines or turns on other relays to get the game start up going. I would like to cut the cat gut ties on the harness to physically follow every wire maybe some tech. invention make something if I hook a signal to the certain wire and use a signal tracer to see where it runs . because a test light or digital volt meter beep out thing wont work because there soldered to too many other things and gives false circuit to dozen other spots.too bad the schematics aren't like a real wiring diagram where things are easy read where there is no puzzle I heard newer game safter 1974 or 76 give more info on how games are like giving you the relay start up procedure