Tech: Data East Star Trek 25th - smoked Kickback soleniod

[John Zitterkopf]

This weekend I had a little get together which encompassed many nerdy things
including laser cutting and lots of Pinball.
http://www.austinmodders.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2213

Unfortunately; the ST:25 pinball took it upon itself to smoke the left
kickback solenoid and in the process took out several fuses... not before
taking out the solenoid ofcourse.
Up to this point; It's be working well with no obvious issues.

I've been troubleshooting tonight attempting to find the cause and have
found and replaced what I believe are all the blown fuses. F5 on the PS
board... and F3 on the Flipper board.
I have all the solenoids working (I think) except the Left kickback.
measurements with my VOlt meter shows the solenoid has ~70VDC across it;
even with it being connected ofcourse. This is confirmed if I temp touch
the ground wire to the negative terminal; which causes the coil to activate.

I've done a quick pass on Q5 and it's diode and them seem ok with the diode
checker of my fluke DVM.

D11 seems to have ~23VDC across it which seems strange; but given I haven't
yet been able to comprehend the Data East schematics - I'm not sure if
that's normal.
Anyone got any "smoking guns" they'd suggest I try to root cause the issue?

Prior to this unfortunate event; I had planned on loaning out the pin with
it's sister STNG and Pacman for a United Way charity fund raiser at work.
As it stands; STNG and Pac will be going ... I'd love ST:25 to go... but it
really depends on how fast I can rootcause this issue and make the repairs.
John

--
EE's do it 'til it Hz 8-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~John D. Zitterkopf~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
zi...@zittware.com http://www.zittware.com
_____________________________________________________________________
Under US Code Title 47, Sec.227(b)(1)(C), Sec.227(a)(2)(B)These email
address may not be added to any commercial mail list with out my
permission. Violation of my privacy with advertising or SPAM will
result in a suit for a MINIMUM of $500 damages/incident, $1500 for
repeats.

[Borygard]

Check Q24 on the CPU. Temporarily ground it's tab to confirm wiring from
the CPU through the PPB to the coil is all good. If the coil fires, Q24 or
it's surrounding circuitry is likely bad.

--
Rob Anthony
borygard at gmail dot com
Pinball Classics
www.LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Repair - In Home Service
314-766-4587

"John Zitterkopf" <zittware@_no_spam_hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:R%CGk.2495$x%.1843@nlpi070.nbdc.sbc.com...

[Zitt]

On Oct 7, 4:28 am, "Borygard" <boryg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Check Q24 on the CPU.  Temporarily ground it's tab to confirm wiring from
> the CPU through the PPB to the coil is all good.  If the coil fires, Q24 or
> it's surrounding circuitry is likely bad.

Rob,
Grounding Q24's ?collector? will turn off the coil?
John

[orbaddict]

the Kickback is on the high power coil line, so it's driven by a TIP
36C on the PPB board. That transistor in turn is driven by a TIP
102/122 on the CPU bard. Chances are the 36C is bad. All solenoids sit
high when the game is on, the transistor turns on the path to ground
which causes the coil to fire. Grounding the collector on the
transistor will turn the coil on (which is a good way to confirm
continuity with its wiring) but that is not the problem here.
Gavin Miller
Gavin's Game Service, inc.
Schaumburg, IL 60193

[Zitt]

On Oct 8, 10:24 am, orbaddict <ord...@gavinsgameservice.com> wrote:
> the Kickback is on the high power coil line, so it's driven by a TIP
> 36C on the PPB board. That transistor in turn is driven by a TIP
> 102/122 on the CPU bard. Chances are the 36C is bad. All solenoids sit
> high when the game is on, the transistor turns on the path to ground
> which causes the coil to fire. Grounding the collector on the
> transistor will turn the coil on (which is a good way to confirm
> continuity with its wiring) but that is not the problem here.

Troubleshooting last night identifed the Kickback transistor... Q1; a
TIP36C was bad. The Emitter and collector appear to be shorted.
I'm trying to locate a replacement locally.

The issue right now is that DataEast's schematics are difficult to
read. On one page the the kickback coil wasn't even labeled. ARGH!
Still not 100% sure the bad transistor is related to the kickback; I
need to ohm out the wiring to be 100% sure that Q1 is driving the
Kickback coil.

Thanks for the confirmation of the circuit topology - that's what I
worked out last night looking at the schematics across multiple pages
in the manual.

[Borygard]

Q1 on the PPB is indeed for the kickback (Laser Kick as DE calls it). The
driver on the CPU is Q24 and should be checked as well.

--
Rob Anthony
borygard at gmail dot com
Pinball Classics
www.LockWhenLit.com

Quality Board Work - In Home Service
314-766-4587

"Zitt" <zitt...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:f6cb167e-576c-4be7...@s9g2000prg.googlegroups.com...

[John Zitterkopf]

Wanted to follow up to resolve this open topic for future generations.

The cause of the smoked laser kickback solenoid was indeed the TIP36C
transistor - labeled Q1 on page 46 of the manual.

Replacing it (
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1131&parent=20 ) ; the F5
5am fuse and the solenoid (090-5001-01)
(http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1184&parent=104)

I also had to replace the plunger (515-500-00) as it melted during the
kickback smoke process:
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=612&parent=121

I was able to get the machine back online.

Links included incase someone needs to cross reference Data East part
numbers to Stern / Pinball life.

John