Williams PIN·BOT (Williams, 1986) "BALL WAITING" message

[ROMAN-ON]

Hello. I'm new to the forum but have viewed it for sometime. I find it very interesting and try to learn from it. It is great how everybody pitches in to try to solve pinball problems. Now comes my problem. I have a PIN BOT machine that was working fine. Today when I turned on the machine and pressed the free play button, no ball poped up and in the player 1 & 2 score display, the message BALL WAITING is displayed. Also, the flippers do not work. I have unpluged the machine and get the same message. The only thing that I have noticed that is different, is at power up I used to hear the sound of "4 knocks" before the ball poped up. It does not do that anymore. Any help would be greatlly appreciated.

 

[spalmer]

Ball Waiting means that the machine is not seeing the balls in the ball through. Could be as simple as a switch not being triggered. Try taking all off the balls out of the ball through and then reload them one at a time by letting them fall between the flippers with the machine on. See if that works, if not we can dig a little deeper.

 

[faralos]

sounds like the solenoid board has blown if the flippers also are inoperative
but that is for last try everything else first including a look see at all the fuses

 

[spalmer]

sounds like the solenoid board has blown if the flippers also are inoperative
but that is for last try everything else first including a look see at all the fuses

If he is getting a ball waiting message the game is not starting so the flippers are never turned on.

 

[pinballexpress]

Great game - Actually done the 2 - day tour around Williams factory back in 86.

Have had this prob loads of times where leading ball in trough is pushed or nudged half way out of trough lifting it above the switch below that should be reading it.

Go into test - Switch edges - and see what switches are closed - all 3 trough switches should be closed if all the balls are present in trough - if not - then thats the problem.

Could be the one of the 3 ball cherry switches has gone up the pictures.

IF YOU NEED TO RAISE PLAYFIELD UP - MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE ALL 3 BALLS FIRST BEFORE LIFTING UP N OVER.

Hope it helps, Keith.

 

[pinballexpress]

BTW = The 4 knocks are telling operator or you the owner that there's something wrong & you need to go into test to see what it is which should be displayed after the 1st push on test button.

 

[ROMAN-ON]

PIN BOT PROBLEMS

Thank you to everybody whom replied to my problem. Here are my results. I was able to remove the "ball waiting" message by manually putting a ball in the ball through and manually putting a ball in the waiting position. However now that I'm able to play (flippers work) it appears that lots of other things are not working. I ran the diagnostic tests and wasn't sure what I was doing. I beleive that in the switch test it showed a problem with the left 3 drop targets, the outhole, visor closed, ramp down, and through 1 sw. In my terms it appears that the solenoids are not working for out hole kicker, ball ejector, and 3 bank targets. I might be in over my head, but I keep trying with everbodies help.

 

[spalmer]

Thank you to everybody whom replied to my problem. Here are my results. I was able to remove the "ball waiting" message by manually putting a ball in the ball through and manually putting a ball in the waiting position. However now that I'm able to play (flippers work) it appears that lots of other things are not working. I ran the diagnostic tests and wasn't sure what I was doing. I beleive that in the switch test it showed a problem with the left 3 drop targets, the outhole, visor closed, ramp down, and through 1 sw. In my terms it appears that the solenoids are not working for out hole kicker, ball ejector, and 3 bank targets. I might be in over my head, but I keep trying with everbodies help.

O.K. I now know what your problem is, now to find the cause. First let me explain. When Williams went to the system 11 boards, the machines use so many solenoids, they had to find a creative way to run them an. That machine has what they call a "relay Snubber Circuit board". What this does is allows one transistor in the CPU board to run 2 solenoids. On later system 11c machines it is called an A/C relay. If you look at hte manual to that machine, you will see that there are 2 of each 1-8 listed on the solenoid list.

01a Outhole
01c Knocker
02a Ball through feeder
02C playfield flashers
03a eject hole
03c insert box flashers
04a 3 bank top target
04c right left flashers
05a raise ramp
ect.ect.ect

If you will notice, everything that you say does not work is listed with an "a". These solenoids will only work if the relay on the snubber board is engaged. I suspect one of two problems. Either the Relay has gone bad or transistor Q7 on the CPU board is bad. I am leaning toward transistor.

I am not sure how comfortable you are working on the boards but here is an easy way to find out with is bad. Go into the solenoid test and set solenoid 01a on repeat. You will likely get the knocker knocking repeatedly. Take a short piece of wire and attach one end to ground. The metal plate in the backbox should do nicely. Next find Transistor Q7 on the cpu board. The transistor will have a metal tab on it will a hole in it. Touch the other end of your grounded wire to the metal tab. If the knocker stops and the outhole solenoid fires while you have this tab grounded, the transistor is bad. Q7 is the transistor that controls the relay. If nothing changes then the relay is bad. I am not sure where that relay board is mounted. Likely under the playfield.

 

[willytug]

Pinbot Ball Slow in Loading

I have a similar problem, when the ball falls down through the flippers, the machine sits for 15 - 30 seconds before the next ball is loaded, any ideas?

 

[pinballdaveh]

check the wiring on the outhole and trough micro switches. test switches in the switch edges test. replace bad micro switches when found.