Gottlieb Haunted House (Gottlieb, 1982) pinball sounds playing in wrong order

PinballDude369

Inserted Coin
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
43
Solutions
1
Reaction score
5
Points
15
Favorite Pinball Machine
Haunted House
Hello,

I recently had a problem with my Gottlieb HH pinball playing the sounds in wrong order, so I pulled the sound board and cleaned the connections. That fixed it for a short while, but last night the sounds began playing wrong again and at one point the background music disappeared then later came back on. Any idea what's happening? I checked on Marvin 3M and it says there that there may be a problem with what they called "the dreaded S16 line." Can anyone tell me what this is and what should I do about it?

Thanks so much,

Rob :)
 
If cleaning the connectors helped the situation and you are having issues again, I am pretty sure that it is a connector problem. The bad thing if I remember right is that the system 80 used card edge connectors instead if pins and molex connectors.

Let me try to explain the "dreaded S16" . The Gotlieb sound board have 6 sound trigger inputs that tell it what sound to play. "S1,S2,S4,S8,S16,S32". These are basically on/of switches. Depending on what sound needs to be played, these swtiches areturned on or off by the MPU board. Since these machines have more than 6 different sounds, more than one trigger may be turned on to produce a purticular sound. S1 thru S8 take there instruction directly from the MPU board. S16 and S32 are triggered through a lamp driver on the driver board. They wre an added workaround by Gotlieb to enable more sounds. S32 was rarely if ever used. S16 however is used and is a common problem. If transistor Q10 on the driver board is dead, then S16 is dead.

I still think however you have a connector problem. If S16 was your problem then cleaning would not have helped.
 
Fixed...for now...

If cleaning the connectors helped the situation and you are having issues again, I am pretty sure that it is a connector problem. The bad thing if I remember right is that the system 80 used card edge connectors instead if pins and molex connectors.

Let me try to explain the "dreaded S16" . The Gotlieb sound board have 6 sound trigger inputs that tell it what sound to play. "S1,S2,S4,S8,S16,S32". These are basically on/of switches. Depending on what sound needs to be played, these swtiches areturned on or off by the MPU board. Since these machines have more than 6 different sounds, more than one trigger may be turned on to produce a purticular sound. S1 thru S8 take there instruction directly from the MPU board. S16 and S32 are triggered through a lamp driver on the driver board. They wre an added workaround by Gotlieb to enable more sounds. S32 was rarely if ever used. S16 however is used and is a common problem. If transistor Q10 on the driver board is dead, then S16 is dead.

I still think however you have a connector problem. If S16 was your problem then cleaning would not have helped.

Hello,

I went ahead and reseated the connector and then played the game a few times and had no more sound issues. However, I know the problem will probably come back later. How can I really fix the connection problem for good? BTW: thanks so much for the detailed explanation. Opened my eyes for sure :-)
 
Your best option would be to replace the connector. How did you clean it the first time through? You could try cleaning with pure rubbing alcohol and a q-tip. Make sure you use rubbing alcohol and NOT witch hazel.
 
just a semi-random note, here- in PCB cases where you're afraid to use a liquid cleaner, two dry options i know of are white erasers and fibre-glass erasers.

at art stores in particular you can get white erasers that come in a 'stick form', like a mechanical pencil that you click to advance when the tip gets worn down. they have them in various sizes, for example 1/8" and 1/4" width. i must say they are extremely helpful for when you have stubborn corrosion that doesn't respond well to the isopropyl alcohol.

fibreglass erasers are powerful and handy for contacts, just that if you do a lot of work with them they leave a fair amount of fibreglass powder behind. a little irritating to fingers and probably not very good for the lungs. er, okay... maybe just forget i mentioned them.

okay, there's my random, possibly helpful, contribution. :p
 
just a semi-random note, here- in PCB cases where you're afraid to use a liquid cleaner, two dry options i know of are white erasers and fibre-glass erasers.

at art stores in particular you can get white erasers that come in a 'stick form', like a mechanical pencil that you click to advance when the tip gets worn down. they have them in various sizes, for example 1/8" and 1/4" width. i must say they are extremely helpful for when you have stubborn corrosion that doesn't respond well to the isopropyl alcohol.

fibreglass erasers are powerful and handy for contacts, just that if you do a lot of work with them they leave a fair amount of fibreglass powder behind. a little irritating to fingers and probably not very good for the lungs. er, okay... maybe just forget i mentioned them.

okay, there's my random, possibly helpful, contribution. :p

Thanks Ike. I did not think to mention the eraser for the PCB. I was more thinking the the edge connector itself. Kind of hard the get an eraser in there and it would shread in the pins anyway. Thanks for the backup!! All about teamwork!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cheers:
 
Problem acted up again briefly

Your best option would be to replace the connector. How did you clean it the first time through? You could try cleaning with pure rubbing alcohol and a q-tip. Make sure you use rubbing alcohol and NOT witch hazel.


Am I replacing the entire connector which runs to the sound board since there's just one big one? I actually did the cleaning with Radio Shack Precision Electronics cleaner that a friend who knows electronics well (I think) recommended. He told me to use a wire brush from Radio Shack and spray the cleaner on the contacts, then gently scrub with the brush, then finish with a dry towel to wipe off dirt. Was this a good suggestion? Seems to have worked so far. And yes, the problem did occur briefly again with the messed up sounds when the ball hit the pop bumpers at one point.
 
Electronic cleaner is usually not recommended. Alcohol is a better bet. If you can replace the entire connector, all the better. Don't need to replace the wiring, just the connector. I would start with the one on the sound board first and see if that fixes it. I loked last night and could not find a source for the entire sound board harness. I would follow Ike's idea and clean the contact on the board with an eraser. Standard pencil erasor will do the trick.
 
Electronic cleaner is usually not recommended. Alcohol is a better bet. If you can replace the entire connector, all the better. Don't need to replace the wiring, just the connector. I would start with the one on the sound board first and see if that fixes it. I loked last night and could not find a source for the entire sound board harness. I would follow Ike's idea and clean the contact on the board with an eraser. Standard pencil erasor will do the trick.

Thanks again for the reply. I'm not that good with electronics so will replacing the connector be something I can do? Where would I get another one?
 
I would need to see to connector to tell you where to get one. Replacement is not hard if you do it one wire at a time. I would not cut the entire old one out as it could be difficult to figure out what wire goes where. I have an alternate idea that may work for you. Clean the connectors/traces on the board with an eraser. Get yourself a soft medium bristle tooth brush and dip it in alcohol. Use the toothbrush to clean the contacts inside the connector. Make sure to let it dry before you reconnect. The contacts inside the connector are sort of spring loaded if you will. As long as they are still tight this should fix the issue. Sometimes you can bend them back out CAREFULLY with a very small jewellers screwdriver but this would be a last resort before replacement of the connector. If it comes to replacement of the connector, I may have someone you could send the sound harness to for replacement. Try cleaning as I described and report back the result.
 
Going to try this...

I would need to see to connector to tell you where to get one. Replacement is not hard if you do it one wire at a time. I would not cut the entire old one out as it could be difficult to figure out what wire goes where. I have an alternate idea that may work for you. Clean the connectors/traces on the board with an eraser. Get yourself a soft medium bristle tooth brush and dip it in alcohol. Use the toothbrush to clean the contacts inside the connector. Make sure to let it dry before you reconnect. The contacts inside the connector are sort of spring loaded if you will. As long as they are still tight this should fix the issue. Sometimes you can bend them back out CAREFULLY with a very small jewellers screwdriver but this would be a last resort before replacement of the connector. If it comes to replacement of the connector, I may have someone you could send the sound harness to for replacement. Try cleaning as I described and report back the result.
I'll go ahead and do as you described. I'll be sure to let you know the results. Also, the problem triggered again for a moment a while ago when I played the game. When the ball hit a main playfield pop bumper a totally different sound played. I read originally this may be caused by the S16 line we were talking about much earlier. Does that make for a possible answer to that? Thanks again!
 
Quite possibly. I know the pop bumper sound is triggered by s16. If it is causing issues you would get "tilt sound" I believe. Since it is intermittent, I am still convinced it is a connector issue. I would also clean the connector on the driver board. If it is dirty it could cause an intermittent S16 like problem.
 
Going to clean that connector tonight.

Quite possibly. I know the pop bumper sound is triggered by s16. If it is causing issues you would get "tilt sound" I believe. Since it is intermittent, I am still convinced it is a connector issue. I would also clean the connector on the driver board. If it is dirty it could cause an intermittent S16 like problem.
I'm heading to my job today and while I'm out I will get the toothbrush you mentioned and work on that cleaning tonight. I'll report the results right after. Thanks!
 
Cleaned with the toothbrush and alcohol

Last night I went ahead and cleaned the connector with the toothbrush and alcohol and even hit the connector on the board itself with some alcohol and q-tips. I then used a dry rag to gently wipe off the sound board connector and some black did come off. I then re-attached the connector to the sound board and played a game and kept hitting the pop bumper as much as possible on the main playfield where the problem would come up. So far, no problems at all. I'll continue to play the game and let you know if the wrong sound ever comes up again. Using the alcohol seems to have gotten the connector pieces very shiny.
 
I spoke too soon...

Glad I was able to help!!! Play one for me and have a cold one!!! :pint:
Started getting the wrong sound on occasion again from hitting the main playfield pop bumpers. Any suggestions? It's very random and seldom, but does still happen. It plays the sound where you start the game.
 
AT this point, I really think at the connectors on the cables going to the sound board are going to need replaced. I would need to see them in order to determine where to get them, however, I will be seeing Rob with Lock-when-it in a few weeks. He may even have them at the show or be able to tell me where to get them.
 
Connector

AT this point, I really think at the connectors on the cables going to the sound board are going to need replaced. I would need to see them in order to determine where to get them, however, I will be seeing Rob with Lock-when-it in a few weeks. He may even have them at the show or be able to tell me where to get them.
Would you like me to send you a link showing pics of the connector and such?
 
I found what you need to replace the pins in the connectors on the card edge connectors. You will reuse the plastic housings.

The Pins. $7.00 for 100 for .27 each.
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=ZZBj1wiNDbnEqpNpmJNYsg%3D%3D


You will need a crimping tool.

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Molex/63811-1000/?qs=u6Gr9%2fNt%252b%2f9oql%252bd80isUQ%3d%3d


And a Pin Extractor to get the pins out of the plastic housing. Make sure to do 1 at a time so you don't get the wires back in the wrong place.

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=GNoxSpue3Y37z3Uq0MzqvQ%3d%3d
 
Last edited:
Forum activity
Help Users
You can interact with the ChatGPT Bot in any Chat Room and there is a dedicated room. The command is /ai followed by a space and then your ? or inquiry.
ie: /ai What is a EM Pinball Machine?
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
      Mibs Mibs: StevOz has posted a new reply in the thread "(mis)Adventures in Cooking".
      Back
      Top