BINGO PINBALLS

 

No pay

Games affected: all

No pay is probably going to be the first situation you are faced with. This is a divide-and-conquer exercise.

Problems

R-button doesn't do anything
what R-button? OK, let's assume this will only apply if your game has the R-button on the foot rail. If not, the search wipers are usually turning continuously and you are reading this for no apparent reason.
Select before 4th trip relay hasn't tripped on most games, the select before 4th lockout relay in the trip bank closes when the 4th ball is shot. Payout is disabled until this time. On some games, payout may be delayed until the 5th ball is shot, though I'm not aware of any game with an R-button that has this delay).
R-button contacts or connector plug pins are dirty. coil is bad. could be bad contacts on the R-button due to people pouring beer in the button hole. I've never seen a coil on the R-button relay or the search wiper release mechanism go bad.

search relays not closing
search wipers not turning or slip ring wires misadjusted see R-button. on games without an R-button, the search wipers should be turning all the time. The slip ring wipers on the search wiper unit connect directly to the search relays. Make sure the wiper fingers are in the right grooves and have enough tension. You can clean the grooves with a piece of string.
search relay coils bad or power missing it's not likely that all the search relay coils are bad. If none of them work when the search wipers are turning, then the power feed is probably bad (fuse) or the connections to the playfield are bad. If the numbers light on the backglass, then it's not the playfield.

search wipers don't stop
search index unit adjustment this is the most common problem. You can see/hear the search index coil power briefly, but it doesn't stop the wipers. You get a quick "thunking" sound. The problem here is that the search index unit needs to be loosened and slid forward or backwards so when it powers, it will stop the search wipers while the contacts are still on the winner rivets. It's pretty much trial and error to get this unit in the right place, though an initial guess can be done by loosening the unit, pushing on the coil plate so the plate is engaged in the search wiper ratchet, and slide the unit so the wiper fingers are still on contacts but about to leave them.
search index unit wear Ray Watts found this problem with his machine. ue to wear on the search ratchet and/or the search index relay plate, the plate simply wasn't engaging the ratchet deeply enough in the teeth to stop the wipers from turning. There is an adjusting screw which can be turned to limit how far away from the ratchet the plate drops (you want it pretty close, but with still enough travel to operate the switches). This doesn't help though, as what limits the upward movement if the plate is the top of the coil.

It's possible the coil was incorrect (too tall). Another thing to look at is the frame that goes around the coil. It may be possible to loosen a couple screws and shift it up somewhat. Ray fixed his problem by using a couple old switch blades as shims underneath the whole assembly to raise it up.

cruddy switches/stepper contacts there are a bunch of switches and stepper units in the circuit. A bad contact in any of them will kill you. The easy thing to do is use a voltmeter to trace the 50V. The tricky thing is that you only get 50V injected into the circuit while the search wipers are on a winner...and the search wipers are turning all the time.

So make life easy and use a jumper wire over on the search relays. First, make sure you have 50V at wire #18-4, then connect your wire such that the search relays are bypassed. The picture shows a 4-in-line winner since it's convenient to just keep the jumper wire connected across wires on the search relay bank. You can connect to the other red dots for other winners. Note that in this came, the 3-in-line winner circuit goes back through the search disc, so you need to bypass that as well if you wanted to create a 3-in-line win.
current limiting resistor bad there is often a big ceramic resistor that is in the circuit to the search index coil. It's job is to reduce the current flow through the search index coil once it has been powered...thus reducing the heat generated by the coil on big payouts. If the resistor is bad, the search index coil will drop out as soon as the replay cams index coil powers. The sneaky thing is the resistor is not always physically located near the search index coil itself. For manufacturing convenience, it sometimes is connected to the switches on the replay cams index unit. You need to check the schem to see if you have one of these.

replay cams don't release
bad switch contact/bad replay cam index coil ok, if you got to the point where the search index coil is pulling in and stopping the search wipers, but the replay cams never release, you'll just need to check switches. The most likely one is a switch on the search index unit. Various games have other switches in the circuit as well. Just be aware that you really don't want to leave the game in this state for a long time. If the search index coil is powered, but the replay cams aren't turning, then the search index coil will stay powered forever. Eventually, it will burn out. If your game has the current limiting resistor (and the switches are properly adjusted to cut off the resistor bypass circuit), then you have lots of time to poke around with the voltmeter. If you don't have the resistor (Surf Club doesn't), then keep your eye on the search index coil and power-off the game after a few minutes to let the coil cool.

overpay | no pay