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TECH: solenoids

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Greg Dunlap

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May 31, 1994, 9:21:27 PM5/31/94
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My Black Knight has a solenoid which isn't firing (the bell for anyone
with intimate knowledge of the cabinet.) All the wiring seems to be going
in and out fine, so I suspect the solenoid itself is toasted. What is the
best way to test a solenoid? I just want to make sure before I order
another one. Thanks much gang.

Greg

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John.Ro...@jukes.wimsey.bc.ca

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May 31, 1994, 5:49:02 PM5/31/94
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To: All

Recently it was written...
GD> From: Greg....@launchpad.unc.edu (Greg Dunlap)
GD> Date: 1 Jun 1994 01:21:27 GMT

GD> My Black Knight has a solenoid which isn't firing (the bell for anyone
GD> with intimate knowledge of the cabinet.) All the wiring seems to be going
GD> in and out fine, so I suspect the solenoid itself is toasted. What is the
GD> best way to test a solenoid? I just want to make sure before I order
GD> another one. Thanks much gang.

I think that that bell solenoid was controlled by a relay, that is close
at hand to same. If the coil was shorted the solenoid fuse would pop
and the game would be inactive. If you have a schematic of the game you
can test the operation of coils by MOMENTARILY shorting the tabs of the
driver transistors to ground (on Black Night(original) these are the
16 transistors on the left side of the lower board that is in the headboard
and connected to hte CPU by a long row plug series. Be carefull, and if you
are not sure of what you are doing don't try this! If you can identify the
dirver transistor that should fire the bell try shorting it to ground
to see if it sounds. Of course check the coil for continuity first.
:-#)#

Greg Dunlap

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Jun 1, 1994, 5:12:35 PM6/1/94
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In article <940601171...@mailhost.gdc.com>,

Frank Giarratana <giar...@gdc.com> wrote:
>>My Black Knight has a solenoid which isn't firing (the bell for anyone
>>with intimate knowledge of the cabinet.) All the wiring seems to be going
>>in and out fine, so I suspect the solenoid itself is toasted. What is the
>>best way to test a solenoid? I just want to make sure before I order
>>another one. Thanks much gang.
>
> This may sound way too obvious, but the bell can be disabled
> (and enabled) via configuration. Have you checked that out?

Yes I have, and it is indeed enabled. However, this brings up another
question. When exactly is it supposed to ring? It hasn't rung once since I
got the machine, and I don't even know how to create a ring with the glass
off (not that I have any other choice since I haven't yet replaced my
shattered playfield glass.) I assume at a free game, maybe an extra ball?
I have my machine to give out EBs instead of replays, maybe thats why it
never rings?

further on the technical question - the solenoid does not fire when I run
through my machine's solenoid test, but the next one in line does. Since
the next one in line has the same wiring through from the bell, it
definitely looks like the bell's solenoid is dead in the water.

More tech questions - how exactly does a pop bumper work? Another fried
solenoid has rendered my pop buper useless, and I wanted to know how a
bumper exactly works before I put THAT one back together.

Thanks greatly

Frank Giarratana

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Jun 1, 1994, 1:15:23 PM6/1/94
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>My Black Knight has a solenoid which isn't firing (the bell for anyone
>with intimate knowledge of the cabinet.) All the wiring seems to be going
>in and out fine, so I suspect the solenoid itself is toasted. What is the
>best way to test a solenoid? I just want to make sure before I order
>another one. Thanks much gang.

This may sound way too obvious, but the bell can be disabled
(and enabled) via configuration. Have you checked that out?

---
Frank

Frank Giarratana

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Jun 2, 1994, 12:49:04 PM6/2/94
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To: Greg....@launchpad.unc.edu (Greg Dunlap)
Subject: Re: TECH: solenoids
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Organization: General DataComm, Inc.

: > This may sound way too obvious, but the bell can be disabled


: > (and enabled) via configuration. Have you checked that out?

: Yes I have, and it is indeed enabled. However, this brings up another


: question. When exactly is it supposed to ring? It hasn't rung once since I
: got the machine, and I don't even know how to create a ring with the glass
: off (not that I have any other choice since I haven't yet replaced my
: shattered playfield glass.) I assume at a free game, maybe an extra ball?
: I have my machine to give out EBs instead of replays, maybe thats why it
: never rings?

Sorry, I don't have the machine, just fixed one up for my
friend about 8 months ago. In the frenzy of playing I have
gotten it to ring, don't remember exactly how. I think it was
when all the targets had been gotten down three times? I will
have to talk to my friend to verify this.

: More tech questions - how exactly does a pop bumper work? Another fried


: solenoid has rendered my pop buper useless, and I wanted to know how a
: bumper exactly works before I put THAT one back together.

There is a driver transistor (or Darlington pair) that fires
the coil, I believe. My friend's game had the transistor
fried, which caused the coil to continually hold in, then
frying the coil. This happened to one of the drop target reset
coils, but the same should apply to pop bumper. You may have
to replace both coil and transistor. This is not counting
a possibly bad IC which tells the driver transistor to
turn on the coil! (which I think I had to fix also).
--
Frank
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
Frank Giarratana General Datacomm Inc (203) 758-1811 ext 7619
giar...@esun.gdc.com Park Road Extension
giarr...@evax.gdc.com Middlebury, CT 06762-1299

Kurt Peterschmidt

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Jun 3, 1994, 2:20:11 PM6/3/94
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In article <2sitk3$6...@samba.oit.unc.edu>, Greg....@launchpad.unc.edu (Greg Dunlap) writes:
> In article <940601171...@mailhost.gdc.com>,
> Frank Giarratana <giar...@gdc.com> wrote:
> >>My Black Knight has a solenoid which isn't firing (the bell for anyone
> >>with intimate knowledge of the cabinet.) All the wiring seems to be going
> >>in and out fine, so I suspect the solenoid itself is toasted. What is the
> >>best way to test a solenoid? I just want to make sure before I order
> >>another one. Thanks much gang.
> >
> > This may sound way too obvious, but the bell can be disabled
> > (and enabled) via configuration. Have you checked that out?
>
> Yes I have, and it is indeed enabled. However, this brings up another
> question. When exactly is it supposed to ring? It hasn't rung once since I
> got the machine, and I don't even know how to create a ring with the glass
> off (not that I have any other choice since I haven't yet replaced my
> shattered playfield glass.) I assume at a free game, maybe an extra ball?
> I have my machine to give out EBs instead of replays, maybe thats why it
> never rings?
>

My BK rings the bell on 3 occasions:

1. Extra ball (one looonnnggg ring)
2. Replay (several shorter rings). Note: when machine is set for EBs instead of
replays, it will ring as an extra ball.
3. For multiplayer games, assuming the machine is set up for it, the bell rings several
-short- times for the highest scorer to play an extra 30 sec (also adjustable).

Kurt P.
kurt.pet...@cray.com

u...@phoenix.sdg.filenet.com

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Jun 2, 1994, 9:20:56 PM6/2/94
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Greg....@launchpad.unc.edu (Greg Dunlap) writes:
|Frank Giarratana <giar...@gdc.com> wrote:

||Greg....@launchpad.unc.edu (Greg Dunlap) wrote:
|||My Black Knight has a solenoid which isn't firing (the bell for anyone
|||with intimate knowledge of the cabinet.) All the wiring seems to be going
|||in and out fine, so I suspect the solenoid itself is toasted. What is the
|||best way to test a solenoid? I just want to make sure before I order
|||another one. Thanks much gang.
||
|| This may sound way too obvious, but the bell can be disabled
|| (and enabled) via configuration. Have you checked that out?
|
|Yes I have, and it is indeed enabled. However, this brings up another
|question. When exactly is it supposed to ring? It hasn't rung once since I
|got the machine, and I don't even know how to create a ring with the glass
|off (not that I have any other choice since I haven't yet replaced my
|shattered playfield glass.) I assume at a free game, maybe an extra ball?
|I have my machine to give out EBs instead of replays, maybe thats why it
|never rings?

Maybe. All my games knock/ring on EB if set to no-free-games, but they
are all Williams System 11 and later. Black Knight is probably System 9
or before. You could just as easily set it to give out replays and see
if it knocks then.

Now for the weird case, find yourself a magnet. When I got my HIGH
SPEED game, it wouldn't knock at all. They said it was under warranty
and just bring the game in (yeah, RIGHT!!) Eventually I got ahold of
the tech who worked on the game before they brought it to me and he
told me that the actual knocker firing-pin was not a magnetic piece
of metal. I guess instead of turning the knocker off via the software
setting, the previous owner went through all the trouble of replacing
the original knocker firing-pin with something of an appropriate size
and material (it WAS metal), but wasn't magnetic and therefore, won't
knock. Why they didn't simply remove the knocker firing-pin and leave
it empty, I don't know.

|further on the technical question - the solenoid does not fire when I run
|through my machine's solenoid test, but the next one in line does. Since
|the next one in line has the same wiring through from the bell, it
|definitely looks like the bell's solenoid is dead in the water.

Well, if the tests function (I didn't know what was available to machines
of BK's era), then by all means, use it to test the knocker coil. Bring
your magnet close to the outside of the coil. When it "fires", you should
feel it in the magnet. The resonant electro-magnetic field (wait, are we
watching Star Trek?) will cause the magnet in your hand to react. On my
game, the most I felt was a little vibration, but enough to tell me that
the coil WAS working. The other choice (you might as well do both) is to
touch the magnet to the knocker firing-pin (turn the machine off first!)
and verify that it is composed of magnetic material.

If you have a multimeter, I'd also suggest testing the voltage across
the coil when it is supposed to be firing. If you get 0 volts 100% of
the time, then you have either a wiring (tracable) or a board problem
(expensive) :-(

|More tech questions - how exactly does a pop bumper work? Another fried
|solenoid has rendered my pop buper useless, and I wanted to know how a
|bumper exactly works before I put THAT one back together.

Much more likely to have fried a pop-bumper coil than a knocker coil.
Pop-bumpers of that era worked very simply. If you hold down the
bumper-ring, you complete a circuit which fires the coil. The coil
will remain active as long as that switch is closed. If that switch
is stuck closed, the coil is stuck-on and will eventually die. Later
model games (EARTHSHAKER has it, HIGH SPEED does not) has the CPU
control the pop-bumpers and slingshots to only fire momentarily,
regardless of how long the switch is closed.

Essentially, I'd say to put the bumper back together and power up and
start a game. If the pop-bumper fires immediately, turn the game off
... you have a stuck switch and you need to find out why. Come back
when you decide what's wrong with the pop-bumper.

--
Bill Ung
u...@filenet.com or u...@phoenix.sdg.filenet.com
HIGH SPEED: "Dispatch this is 504, suspect got away."
EARTHSHAKER: "Ooohhh, bitchin!!"
WHITEWATER: "Dang, lost another one!"

Jeff Cochran

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Jun 3, 1994, 9:29:13 AM6/3/94
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GD> Yes I have, and it is indeed enabled. However, this brings up another
GD> question. When exactly is it supposed to ring?

My Black Knight rings at a free game, but not at extra balls.

Hope it helps.

Jeff

* WCE 1.5/2239 *

Michael Dunn

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Jun 11, 1994, 6:52:59 PM6/11/94
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Going into the depths of my memory on BK...

The bell also rings when you max out the end of ball bonus, and then
hit something that usually advances the bonus. :>

--Mike--
a54...@pic.ucla.edu

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