repairing a bally embryon pinball machine

[@brianyork5510]

Thanks for this video Will. I miss working on arcade games, especially pinball machines. I liked them because they're both electronic and mechanical. I was never going to get rich working for an amusement company, but I loved going to work, it was different everyday. Worked with some really good guys that always had your back. The owner started electronic techs at the top end of pay scale, and always made sure we had good insurance. I really miss it...thanks again.

[@kevinhedspeth4303]

Great video! I also have an Embryon Pinball . Recently, the mechanism that loads the ball to the shooter quit working...do you have any suggestions on what the problem could be? Thank you.

[@mikemurphy5336]

what about going back and checking the bad voltages after you repaired the board traces

[@luisownerbr]

That looks like a nightmare to fix dawg, good thing you've got some insane fixing skills.

[@Ajaxaxxess]

Doing the exact same thing on the exact same machine. Alltek Ultimate replacement mpu board went in mine. Squak n talk needed U13 3900 chip replaced. And many other things. lol. Its alive though.

[@luisownerbr]

Hey, just remembered something, a long time ago you said you were going to try hardening a cheap floyd rose. Did you do it? If so, how did it turn out?

[@billwilliams6338]

COOKING WITH DR CHILL In pinball games the solenoids voltage is +6vdc or +12vdc mostly? because atari pinball games used +48vdc any reasons why +48vdc for the solenoids voltage?

[@Cookingwithdrchill]

it changes depending on the maker, and what year

[@areizman]

Pinball coils of this vintage ran on 43v DC. The reason was that coils pulled enough Amps to be a shock hazard. UL regulations at the time required operating voltages for that amperage to be under 50v. There was a movement to reduce the maximum voltage to 25 volts and some game manufactures made or tested the change but the regulation was tabled.

[@billwilliams6338]

@@areizman why does pinball engineers say that the AC coils are WEAKER at hitting the ball compared to DC coils are STRONGER, why are DC coils flippers stronger compared to AC coils flippers? Any way to measure how stronger the Coil flippers force and strength level at hitting the ball?

[@areizman]

@@billwilliams6338 it's really just physics. Alternating current varies up and down from 0-50 volts 120 times a second. DC is a continuous steady pulse. Late mechanical era games would have a bridge rectifier powering the bumpers to give them more kick. In the solid state era we switched to a pure DC power supply because it was easier to control with semi conductors.

[@billwilliams6338]

@@areizman yes i have seen the bridge rectifiers used to convert the AC +48vac into +48vdc for the flippers and bumpers coils. Was the Flipper AC coils and Pop Bumper AC coils made differently for AC? use a different wire type to create less buzzing and AC noises from the coil. What are some things to add to the coil to make the AC buzz noises on solenoid coils more quiet. Because people would add bridge rectifiers to get rid of the AC buzz noises. Same problem with the LAMPs making noises buzzing because of the AC 50hz or 60hz so they used bridge rectifiers added to convert the lamps to DC. I don't understand by the pinball games lamps would use a "negative voltage" - 6vdc I have seen for the coin door lamps. Why use a negative voltage for the lamps and not a positive voltage for the lamps? Solid State Pinball games they use PIA chips to interface all the switches, solenoids, bumpers going to a PIA chip. The PIA chip was the interface for the switch matrix circuit and another PIA chip was for the lamp matrix circuit. The PIA chip would turn on/off the switches and lamps. Why did they use PIA chips for interfacing when you can just go direct to the CPU microcontroller input/output pins directly.

[@billwilliams6338]

COOKING WITH DR. CHILL 1.) When a switch is CLOSED the PIA chip will send a memory address back to the MPU chip to tell the MPU which switch matrix address has been Open/closed? 2.) When a Lamp light is turned ON/OFF the MPU sends a strobe data signal/row & column data signal to tell the PIA chip which memory address to turn ON/OFF which lamp light in the lamp/light matrix? 3.) PIA chips are acting like an address decoder chip for all the switches and lamps Each switch and lamp/light has a specific memory address to each switch and lamp/light for the PIA chip to turn ON/OFF?

[@blakeworsham3026]

But can you play a mean pinball?

[@BRRRwm]

We've got bush! LMAO

[@allanpatterson7471]

Tediously pick through the switches replace the little Pumpkin seed capacitors 0.05 uf make sure none of the switch wires make contact with anything like ground, lamp and solenoid voltages. Pin connectors to cct. boards other big issue, either solder joint on cct board or just a bad pin in connector. On the mpu a hand held oscilloscope is handy to look at wave shapes a meter is only good for average voltages unless it can measure frequency. Take a picture of the foil patters before you replace a lot of time it is just the tedious job of checking continuity between components.

[@johnx2s]

At 7.04 it is unclear what you are testing, please go into detail.