Rookie space odyssey question
yzfguy
basement for about 25 years- unused for the last 10. Cleaned it up
(plastics and playfield were horrible, and now look pretty darn good)
and only had to make a few adjustments to get her up and running. We
played it for an hour or so and all was working/scoring as it should.
I couldn't believe it was that easy- well.......today we fired her up
and it just keeps registering score and switching from player 1 to
player 2 quickly, ending the game within about a minute.
I figure a contact must be stuck closed, but before I jump in and try
to clean them all(wow, there are a lot!) I was hoping someone might be
familiar enough to know which one(s) might cause it to switch from
player to player like that. Any suggestions appreciated (except "buy
a manual"- I plan to but I want this up and running for Christmas
Eve).
Thanks in advance and please let me know if I left anything important
out of my description of the problem.
Thanks,
-Brent
billg
In what increments is the score increasing? This might give you a
clue as to what switch might be stuck closed (i.e. 10pt/100pt/500pt/
etc. relay). From there you can work your way back and determine what
feature(s) provide this type of scoring. You might also look on the
bottom of the cabinet where a number of relays are located. Sometimes
a nut or other items can shake loose and drop below causing a short
(i.e. closed switch).
billg
yzfguy
>
> - Show quoted text -
Thanks. It's scoring in 1,000 point increments and now it just starts
as soon as you turn the game on, rather than after you push the start
button. It looks like the large, wheel lookin' mechanism with the
three contacts spinning on a wheel of contacts (sorry, I am totally
new to this em stuff!) is moving and the large row of contacts
connected to a counter on the bottom of the cabinet is going nuts. I
guess buying a manual may shed some light. I hope so anyway!
billg
Could be a number of things as always is the case with EM pins. When
you turn on the game does the bonus (i.e. 1000, 2000, 3000, etc.) on
the playfield have a value? The machine could be confused thinking it
needs to count down the bonus and its reset isn't taking place. The
best way to know this is reset the bonus unit by hand by actuating the
smaller coil on the unit. You'll find it on the lower left side once
you raise the playfield.
Another thing to do to help the machine start at a known condition is
reset all the score reels to their zero position. This will help to
further isolate the problem.
HTH
billg
yzfguy
hanging onto the underside of the playfield with two coils on it seems
to be firing a lot and the rear coil is getting warm.....not sure what
that is, but I may not be cut out for this EM stuff, seems way
overwhelming to me. I may try buying a manual and hopefully learning
a little bit here. Thanks for the response!
Chris Hibler
I believe that is the "ball in play" stepper...
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
www.Team-EM.com
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/index.htm
yzfguy
O.K. I think I might "get" what you mean, because I am able to
manually operate the linkage and it does move the mechanism, I think
releasing the spring's tension. If this is the problem, what do I
try? I tried cleaning those contacts and none appear to be in the "on"
position all the time. What might cause this unit to fail to reset? I
appreciate you guys reading this, and I know it probably gets old
answering these annoying newbie questions, I just cannot find any
answers with the search function that are not over my head!
billg
> O.K. I think I might "get" what you mean, because I am able to
> manually operate the linkage and it does move the mechanism, I think
> releasing the spring's tension. If this is the problem, what do I
> try? I tried cleaning those contacts and none appear to be in the "on"
> position all the time. What might cause this unit to fail to reset? I
> appreciate you guys reading this, and I know it probably gets old
> answering these annoying newbie questions, I just cannot find any
> answers with the search function that are not over my head!
The bonus unit has two coils. When energized, the larger one (A-22
550) is used to advance the unit by one position (i.e. 1000, 2000,
etc.) and the smaller one (B1-26 800) decrements the unit by one
position (i.e. 5000, 4000, 3000, etc.). When starting a game the
bonus unit is reset to the zero position - no bonus. Let's try the
following to see if the bonus unit is resetting correctly:
- turn the machine off and take off the glass
- raise the playfield and lean it against the head
- on the bonus unit, depress the plunger for the larger coil a number
of times so there's a bonus value
- turn on the machine and start a game. Watch the bonus unit - the
should the smaller solenoid should fire causing the unit to reset to
its zero position
The bonus unit may or may not be the problem here, but at least we'll
know as much as we try to isolate the problem.
Also be sure to check out Clay's EM repair guide - http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index.htm.
Having the schematics and game manual on hand are also invaluable.
You can get them at Steve Young's Pinball Resource.
billg
yzfguy
> Having the schematics and game manual on hand are also invaluable.
> You can get them at Steve Young's Pinball Resource.
>
> billg
Thanks for the link, I hadn't thought of that site. The bonus unit
does seem to be resetting as I push the start button, and then even if
I take the ball out of the equation, that same unit fires, causing the
bonus lights on the center playfield to increase by 1000 over and
over. Seems like a switch stuck closed would cause this, but I can't
see one with contacts touching. I tried cleaning the rivets on the
bunus stepper with sand paper and rubbing alcohol, as suggested on
clay's site.......Glad I grew up in the computer diagnosis era, this
stuff woulda turned me off from the get-go!
yzfguy
>
> - Show quoted text -
Hey..thanks if anyone is still humoring me here! I thionk I made some
progress! It seems the center swinging target was kinda smushed
closed, and the stuck-switch culprit. I adjusted it and the problem
went away. Not sure if I screwed something up while trying to "fix"
the last problem, but now the scoring has an issue. During the game,
the "tens" column works, but does not roll over to the hundreds. The
tens keep spinning, but it doesn't add up. At the end of a turn, the
bonus counts down and the thousands column adds on, but the hundreds
stay at zero. I plan to check the score reels but I dont want to
screw something up if the issue stems from something under the
playfield I may have inadvertenly botched. Well, at least the game is
quiet now! just can't keep score!
Rubicon
My first machine was a non-working EM and I had a similar sequence
issues. This may have been recommended earlier, but clay's guide and
schematics are absolutely essential. Clay takes you through a loose
step by step process of diagnosing and repairing a game.
I had really good results from cleaning the contacts on all the
stepper units in the body and head. Cleaning these cured all kinds of
little issues switching between players, balls and bonus counting.
Cool thing about the EMs is that you can physically see most
problems. A good strategy is to locate the non-working item on the
schematic and inspect all the items linked to the problem spot.
Good luck,
Jim
yzfguy
I actually found a wire broken off inside the head,bottom left under
score reel. Re-soldered it, and the hundreds column started working. n
ow the damned thousand column isnt working!!!! No more visibly broken
wires, so I dunno. On one game, all but one column reset to zero,
and the reels just kept turning until I shut off the game. I manually
reset that column to zero from behind, and now they reset fine at the
start of a game, score just does not add up past the hundreds column.
I think my next step is going to be to take apart all those score reel
coils and clean them in case gook is preventing them from operating
properly. This is sort of helping me by updating this post, as it
makes me think thru what I've done, so sorry for continuing this if it
is annoying anyone!
billg
> Hey..thanks if anyone is still humoring me here! I thionk I made some
> progress! It seems the center swinging target was kinda smushed
> closed, and the stuck-switch culprit. I adjusted it and the problem
> went away. Not sure if I screwed something up while trying to "fix"
> the last problem, but now the scoring has an issue. During the game,
> the "tens" column works, but does not roll over to the hundreds. The
> tens keep spinning, but it doesn't add up. At the end of a turn, the
> bonus counts down and the thousands column adds on, but the hundreds
> stay at zero. I plan to check the score reels but I dont want to
> screw something up if the issue stems from something under the
> playfield I may have inadvertenly botched. Well, at least the game is
> quiet now! just can't keep score!
On my Space Odyssey the swinging target would sometimes get wedged up
underneath the plastic that covers it - this would cause the switch to
also get stuck. I went to Ace Hardware and got three 1/8" small nylon
washers to put underneath the plastic to help provide additional
clearance.
For your 100s score reel problem is there any time during game play
that it increases? If it does, then the 9 position switch on the 10s
score reel could be the problem. You'll find on each score reel,
except for the 10000 pt, there's a switch that closes when it's in its
9 position. With this switch closure both the score reel in the 9
position and the unit to the left are incremented by one (i.e. 090-
>100, 590->600, etc.) when the 9 position score reel is incremented by
one. The nine position switch on the 10s score reel is a good
candidate for why it's not adding over to the 100s score reel. If you
pull out a 10s, 100s, 1000s score reel you can see this 9 position
switch in action by quickly depressing the coil plunger by hand and
see how the switch changes position when score reel transitions from 8-
>9 and 9->0. Clay also has a good picture of this switch and
explanation on his EM repair guide http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index1.htm#reels
(scroll down to the first pic).
billg