Figuring out a Williams Big Guns pinball machine switch issue
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ม.ค. 2025
- Kind of a funny switch problem on Williams Big Guns related to the switch matrix. A slight oversight in my first round of troubleshooting had me digging deeper into the game.
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I had the exact same problem today with my Black Knight. All the switches tested ok. When I put in the three balls , it only read two of them. This has happened before, and I thought it was the plug under the playfield I messed around with it, and it started working again. Well, today, I had the playfield up, taking all the drop targets out to clean, polish, and replace the stickers. We'll it wouldn't start. I watched your video and I found it within two minutes. Thank you so much. I love watching your videos. Hopefully, you make many more. By the way, I ordered a wire tracer for future troubleshooting. Thanks again!
Back when I was a service tech for an operator, I was given a service call from another operator 150km away because of the same type of thing that they couldn't figure out. It was a Harley Davidson. One row had half of the switches not working. This era of Stern machines use 0.100' IDC molex connectors on many of the switch boards where the connector was just placed on a pair of wires in a certain spot. What had happened was when the IDC was installed, the punch down process had cut several strands and it eventually broke the rest over time. The insulation, or what was left of it, was enough to hold the wire in place. Good job on finding your issues. Oddly enough, I have a similar tracer that's part of my network cable identifier kit. However, I've never needed to trace within a pinball machine. But it's a good idea.
I just found your channel and I really enjoyed how you explained the switch matrix. I'd like to see another video where you go into it a little deeper.
Thanks again,I now have a little better understanding of the switch matrix,good stuff!
I have another machine with a switch matrix issue and I'm making a video on it. This time, we'll video the troubleshooting as well. I'm hoping to have that out in a few weeks. We're in our busy season right now so finding time to make videos AND run the arcade gets thin.
Good explanation. Nice tip on the wire tracing tool. Might have to look into that.
It really helped on this machine. I would have found the disconnected wire eventually. Visually it looked connected and a slight tug in a later inspection would have found it. I just missed it because I was rushing. But if this were actually a broken wire, the toner would help narrow its location down.
I will say, the good wire toners are not that expensive. Under $200. There are cheap ones on amazon for $20. Avoid those. They don't work well enough. The one I have is an old school telco standard made by Progressive Electronics - The 200EP. I've had it for over 20 years and it's still going strong. I've used it to tone wires, in some cases, up 10+ stories in a building.
Great you have find and fix the problem on Big Guns 😎👍
Love these types of videos, thx for posting :)
There is a lot less cursing involved in your troubleshooting than in my usual process. 😂
I doubt that. :)