Bally Solved The Addams Family (Bally, 1992) Loses Power and Thing Magnet Problem, please help

Skillimon

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The Addams Family
Hi, I am seeking advice from a kind expert to help resolve problems with my TAF pinball, I am in the UK on 240V AC domestic circuits, summary of my issues as follows:-
  • The WPC Power Board is dated March 1992, all fuses check ok when removed, all LEDs are correctly illuminated
  • The game runs ok some of the time, everything works correctly apart from the Thing magnet which won't pick up the ball or power up on test mode.
  • On occasions when switching on the table a circuit breaker trips in my consumer unit, 230V measured in the line input box inside the cabinet (maybe just the power demand from the table).
  • TAF often loses GI and Solenoid power during games, sometimes it starts up with no power to the GI or solenoids but the DMC and sound do work all the time. When the power to the play deck goes it can stay off for some time or come back again quickly.
  • When the lights go out Relay 1 on the power board starts clicking, it is normally quiet, I have the Fliptronic board in the cabinet and from what I have read online the relay serves no purpose. There seems to be a link between the clicking Relay and the power drop.
  • The table has the original GI lighting, no LEDs installed, the PCBs are originals other than a Rottendog DMC controller I just installed as there were signs of overheating on the original DMC board. I also installed a new Opto board for Thing but again the power problems were there before and after I changed these 2 boards
  • Also the thing magnet has no power, when running the solenoid test all the pins on J130 show 77.5V DC against the ground test pin except pin 7 (violet-blue wire) which is 0V, this is the pin for the Thing magnet. The wires to the Thing magnet from the backboard check out ok. I have attached some pics of the power board in this area
  • When the thing hand moves it triggers both the Thing up and Thing down Optos on test mode
  • There are no visual sign of any damaged connectors, wires, pins or sockets.
  • Resistance across the solenoid coil for the thing magnet measures 68 ohms with a DMM
  • There is some sign of aging on the power board, see photos. Near R202 / R205 the soldering in this area seems degraded or maybe signs of a previous repair
I have a DMM, logic probe and some enthusiasm, I would be grateful if anyone could point me towards a solution or areas to investigate further! Thanks for reading this. I sense I may need a new power board or to make some repairs there...
S.
 

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Solution
A sad Sunday my TAF was starting to shows all the defects listed in the original post … exactly.

All the Fuses, TPs, LEDs on the driver boards are as expected.

I was then investigating the BUS from the CPU board to the Power board via the short ribbon cable, using my logic probe, and I did find that the bus is actually not moving (all Dx to “H”).

Tracing back, I was checking U12 (LS240) on the CPU board and I observed that the Data input pins are moving as expected but the outputs are stuck. Actually the signal DREN from the ASIC pin47 is fixed to 'H” and being the signal active “L” according to the datasheet of the LS240N, it is correct that the bus is not driven and so the pullup resistors are making the bus fix to “H”.

I...
What a high quality help request!

Just a note-- help may come anywhere from immediately to some days down the road. Bookmarking this thread might help.

EDIT: Hmm. Thread was held up in the moderation queue for some reason. Approved now.
 
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Q66 ( part # TIP36C) is what drives the thing magnet.
In your first pic you can see that the solder connections on Q66 are very sloppy.
De-solder Q66, inspect the solder pads, and check with DMM the thru connections from top side of pad to back side pad for each connection.
Check Q66 resistance readings for shorts or open resistance junctions..
Verify that Q66 is the correct part#
Re-solder Q66 onto board and test.
Replace Q66 if necessary.
A pre driver transistor and other parts in the Q66 circuit also might need to be checked.
 
Brill, thanks for the post, I will give that a go and let you know the outcome. Many thanks.
 
You’re power problem might be corrected by buying a WPC daughter board from rob kahr at kahr.us .
Because of the high demand on the 5 volt supply, the daughter board uses the 12 volt supply, regulates it down to 5 volts and uses it supply 5 volts to power the cpu board , lowering the load on the power supply 5 volts.
I heard that this works well when your supply voltage varies also.
 
Hi, thanks again for the suggestions, I wasn’t aware of the kahr.us device looks like I should consider that as it’s an easy fit solution, looks like it distresses the 5v circuitry which is no doubt good for longevity of the machine too. I am still concerned about the flipper relay on the power driver board behaving erratically and possibly indicative of another fault. I guess it’s a case of one step at a time to progressively eliminate the problems.... :) I really do appreciate the help.
 
I just got back from a trip to the USA and I now have Rob Kahr’s daughterboard, first I will say he was very helpful to me with the delivery and I would highly recommend him so thanks Rob and thanks Pinballdaveh for the recommendation. With the pro board fitted I have a steady red LED indicating the 5V dipped on power up and a flashing green showing the 5v exceeded 5.6v. My TAF is still not working reliably but there are some clear indications of power issues on the 5v supply now. What should be my next steps? Can I assume my cpu / asic board is getting steady 5v from the daughter board and the errors indicated relate to the 5v off the was powerboard? Thanks again.
 
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There isn’t any one next thing to try.
Read up on wpc troubleshooting, I like pin wiki but there are other good sources.
 
A sad Sunday my TAF was starting to shows all the defects listed in the original post … exactly.

All the Fuses, TPs, LEDs on the driver boards are as expected.

I was then investigating the BUS from the CPU board to the Power board via the short ribbon cable, using my logic probe, and I did find that the bus is actually not moving (all Dx to “H”).

Tracing back, I was checking U12 (LS240) on the CPU board and I observed that the Data input pins are moving as expected but the outputs are stuck. Actually the signal DREN from the ASIC pin47 is fixed to 'H” and being the signal active “L” according to the datasheet of the LS240N, it is correct that the bus is not driven and so the pullup resistors are making the bus fix to “H”.

I replaced the U12 but … NO SUCCESS (to easy!! … was just a trial).

So now the question and the request of help from the experts:
There are 3 signals of feedback from the Power Driver Board to the CPU board via the short ribbon cable:
- the ZC (zero cross) … This signal has a TP and with my DMM I see 0.4v
- the LED2 (ON in my case)
- the LED3 (OFF in my case)
Can these signals prevent the DREN signal to be activated ?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and I really hope these can also help user Skillimon ( thanks for the usefull report ...)

Ciao & Grazie
Stefano
 
Last edited:
A sad Sunday my TAF was starting to shows all the defects listed in the original post … exactly.

All the Fuses, TPs, LEDs on the driver boards are as expected.

I was then investigating the BUS from the CPU board to the Power board via the short ribbon cable, using my logic probe, and I did find that the bus is actually not moving (all Dx to “H”).

Tracing back, I was checking U12 (LS240) on the CPU board and I observed that the Data input pins are moving as expected but the outputs are stuck. Actually the signal DREN from the ASIC pin47 is fixed to 'H” and being the signal active “L” according to the datasheet of the LS240N, it is correct that the bus is not driven and so the pullup resistors are making the bus fix to “H”.

I replaced the U12 but … NO SUCCESS (to easy!! … was just a trial).

So now the question and the request of help from the experts:
There are 3 signals of feedback from the Power Driver Board to the CPU board via the short ribbon cable:
- the ZC (zero cross) … This signal has a TP and with my DMM I see 0.4v
- the LED2 (ON in my case)
- the LED3 (OFF in my case)
Can these signals prevent the DREN signal to be activated ?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and I really hope these can also help user Skillimon ( thanks for the usefull report ...)

Ciao & Grazie
Stefano
Problem solved!!

DREN was actually working .... Using an oscilloscope I can observe some (rare) activetion ("low") of the signal.

The actual problem was the BLANKING.
The track fom the J102-31 to U5-1 was interrupted. Probably, beeing on the component side, some corrosion from cap C2 (that I did replace, even if I can't see nothing wrong) or for any other reason (cold solder ?) was progressevely damaging it.

Ciao & Grazie
Stefano
 
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