With the move over and settling in almost done I was going to set up and reconnect all of the harness for the pinball machine I had  in November of 2018 repaired. In a haste I was quickly setting up the score board box, the glass, the legs and the harness.  One little over sight and you can damage a Williams 1984 pinball machine in about as quick as you can turn it on…

Well the damage this time was to the mother board MPU and the driver board…. it was a big let down and I had to really regroup and accept my mistake. It was several months of check ICs, looking at signals, trying to see which driver PIA chip was going to need replacing or if it was all of them.

Checking power supplies and fuses, and really learning all the functions of each zone.

It was a good lesson and a lesson in the design and function of a pinball machine. The Williams 1984 System 7 machines were still pretty much analog for all of the outputs, the lights, the bell, the thud maker, and simple switches. The only digital came in logic ICs and the Micro processor unit, RAM, ROM ICs and a hand full of specialized programmed ICs.

How I wished the engineers at Williams would have redesigned the two main connectors so that NO ONE would ever be able to plug the High Voltage into the Low Voltage connectors. Sure color codes are done for a reason, pin Keying is done for a reason… but in the dark corner of an office at night while rushing (my part of the failure) to get the ball rolling and the flippers flipping and the solenoids popping… it can lead to total disappointment…  and I am able to fix things like this… imagine if you were a Pin Ball Wizard how just is a master at playing and new cared to learn the maze of wires and each type of component. You just got it home and to your surprize, it will cost you another 200 to 500 dollars to get it running again (depending on labor, who you select to do the repairs, and if you EVEN trust them), not to mention the day will feel like it will never come that it is finally repaired and ready to play again!  UHG!

Well it is fixed… it was good to learn so much… it is something that makes you feel good AFTER you get it fixed but that time in between… I would rather just go play Laser Cue!

More photos to follow and maybe a list of ICs that got fried on my machine.