Judge Dredd: fuse blows on ball search

Kristof V.

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Mar 13, 2011, 3:07:22 PM3/13/11

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Yesterday I encountered a new problem with my Judge Dredd. And today
it occured again.

When a ball search is triggerd, fuse F105 (Solenoids #1-#8) blows.
Also maybe imporant to mention is that the right shooter is firing *a
lot* during a ball search. Until about 10 seconds later, when the fuse
blows.

I am experiencing this problem since yesterday, after I installed
Pinbit's Deadworld mod, so I'm also running the L1AT ROM right now.
Anyone else having the same problem?

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but the right shooter
has been working really fast ever since I bought my Judge Dredd. So
fast that when it has to auto-plunge a ball, it often shoots before
the ball has settled in the shooterlane, which cause the ball not to
go high enough. In such a case, the shooter has to try multiple times
to get the ball launched.

Anybody got any tips?

Thanks!

EZ E

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Mar 13, 2011, 3:14:24 PM3/13/11

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Logic issues. Check what switch are showing closed, it might be a
stuck SW or CPU has failed. E

cody chunn

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Mar 13, 2011, 5:52:51 PM3/13/11

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Off the top of my head, I would disconnect the deadworld mod and make sure
it isn't related. Usually when problems arise after service, a mistake was
made somewhere.

Inspect that auto plunger assembly very closely...make sure the solenoid
lugs aren't facing right. If they are I think they can brush a ground braid.
Also make sure it's mounted securely and the diode is tight.

Take the balls out.

Then, I would replace the fuse, leave the playfield on the supports and put
the game in Test Mode, Solenoid Test. Let it cycle through all the solenoids
several times and make sure the fuse survives. Then make it repeat the auto
plunger 5-6 times. If it survives, go to the next solenoid and let it go 5-6
times. Watch all the assemblies closely during operation. Repeat until the
fuse pops and you have found your culprit. If it's all good, then lower the
field and repeat the test.

Let us know what turns up.

-cody

"Kristof V." wrote in message
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Kristof V.

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Mar 14, 2011, 4:51:47 AM3/14/11

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Thanks for these useful suggestions! I will probably try them tonight
when I get home (I'm at work right now).

Could the shooter lane switch also cause problems like this? I haven't
tested this yet, but suppose the switch is very sensitve, which causes
it to (de)activate because of the vibrations of the shooter coil or
the through coil.

What I'm currently thinking is that there's a problem that has been
there for quite some time, but that the L1AT ROM doesn't have some
sort of protection against it whereas the L7 has. The rest of the
machine is working perfectly and the shooter is acting in the same way
as it did before, so I don't think there are any logic/CPU problems...

I will definately keep you updated.

Thanks again!

Kristof

Kristof V.

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Mar 15, 2011, 4:20:59 AM3/15/11

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Problem solved!

I was correct. The problem was the switch in the right shooter lane.
It was bent a little too much upwards so the shooter plunger hit the
switch when firing (although only very very slightly). This caused the
switch to be activated every time the coil fired.

So, in a ball search, when the coil fired, the switch was activated.
This caused the machine to "think" that the ball was still there, so
it fired the coil again, which activated the switch again, which fired
the coil again, which activated the switch again, ... and so on until
the fuse blew.

This behavior could be seen as a software bug. The reason why I didn't
experience this problem before was because I was using ROM L7, which
apparently has a better protection against it. The L1AT ROM is based
on the L1 ROM, in which the "bug" wasn't fixed yet. My suspicion about
this being the problem got confirmed when I decided to take a look at
the software revision history on pinball.com ( http://www.pinball.com/tech/roms/jdredd.html
).

It actually mentions multiple times fixes concerning the shooters and
the coil fuse:

(...)
Changes from revision L-6:
(...)
Improved the ball shooter logic -- left and right.
(...)
Changes from revision L-5:
(...)
Increased delays between firing of certain coils to reduce
stress on the coil fuse.
(...)
Changes from revision L-4:
(...)
Improved right ball shooter logic.

So a suggestion towards anyone installing the Deadworld Mod and the
L1AT ROM: not only your crane, magnet and deadworld planet need to be
working perfectly, but also the left and right shooter are quite
vulnerable.

Greetings,

Kristof