Wisconsin Pinball

Hi guys,

I posted this over on Pinside as well, but I know not everybody frequents that site:

I've been shopping out out a TZ I recently acquired, and one of my last steps was rebuilding the flippers. I replaced the two lower flippers (nothing done with the uppers yet), and turned on the machine to check my work. Prior to the flipper rebuild, I'd turn the game on, get the "bong" sound, and the clock would cycle through a couple of hours before moving back to 12:00. The game would then go into attract mode. The first time I turned it on after the rebuild, the game tried to load the gumball machine while nothing displayed on the DMD. I went into the test menu, and the first menu screen displayed briefly on the DMD, then a vertical line about four dots wide appeared about 1/4 in from the left side, and then the DMD went dark.

After firing solonoids for about 10 tries to load the gumball machine, the game went into attract mode. The clock doesn't do anything. This is now what happens every time I fire the game up, and the DMD has stopped working altogether. I moved the DMD into my WCS94, and it works fine there. I also tested the fuses on the Fliptronic and DMD driver board, and no blown fuses on those boards.

I'm considering moving a ColorDMD to the TZ in case the issue is the high-voltage section of the DMD controller board, but I have no clue if I'm at risk of frying the ColorDMD if the problem is something else. Any advice on what to do next? Thanks.

Have you tried disconnecting the wiring to the flippers to make sure its not something with them? Could be something like a bad/misinstalled diode (wouldn't be the first time one came on the wrong way). Thats the first thing I would do. Since thats the only thing you changed, it seems like it would be related. Disconnect them then turn on the machine. If it operates as expected (at least the boot sequence, DMD now may be another issue caused by something else), connect one flipper at a time and power up and make sure it works each time.

Thanks for the response, BrewNinja. Turns out that the fuse at F116 keeps blowing any time I lower the playfield into its resting place (it's fine pulled forward on its support legs). That was causing the issues with the optos and the DMD. Turns out it shorts even if all of the connectors are disconnected from the Fliptronic board. I'm off to search for the short. Anybody have any leads at this point?

OK, problem solved. It turns out that the plate for the right outlane switch was touching the right playfield support leg. When I put the playfield down into its resting spot, the tab and the lockdown bar receiver created a short. I must have just bumped stuff enough in that area for the leg and the plate to make contact. Took me five fuses to figure it out, but it's fixed. Thanks for the help!

Congrats on finding the issue and posting what you found.

congrats. I meant to give you an idea on how to save on fuses the next time you are chasing something like this down.

Help me remember next time I see you and Ill show you.