Yeah, i was very crest fallen and felt rather stupid killing that solenoid.
So leading up to that one solenoid would still work from the main board, so i placed a volt meter to its contacts and made it fire, it spiked to between 15-16 vdc
I had unplugged the wiring from the main board to not do further damage to the board, and was using ac power supplies to fire the solenoids to both test the other 2 and to adjust and restore the mechanical parts they move, i had decades of dust to carefully clean.
You likely know how those black cube power supplies will have written on them the input ( 110 usa in my case ) and output in VDC, i have acquired so many i use them for all kinds of projects where i need say 6 vdc or 12vdc or ? you get it idea,
The big transformer on the board was 6 vdc, so even thought that one solenoid spiked to 15vdc i tried 6vdc and they all three worked but sluggish,
So i tried 12vdc and they all worked great didnt seem to be overpowered and basically mimicked the way the board ran the one, they have no data or specs written on them just "regdon corp".
So i have had a lifetime of nervous ptsd panic type issues, OCD ADD, and i will get very overtired as i almost never feel sleepy, if i am not told to rack out i might be up 20 hours or more,
I had been up a long time and not feeling well and should have stopped but my pal OCD keep me going
i wanted to try 9vdc and reached for that black cube power supply, between my poorer vision and not taking due care being tired i missed it was 9 VAC not direct current, rut row....
I connected it hit my button and smoke bellowed up and a little glass diode? Between the solenoids contacts got red hot, all that happened quickly but now testing with 12vdc the solenoid does nothing, so i expect its fired, a volt meter connected to the power supply showed me my epic fail,
I dont recall running into a VAC black cube before, i will be more careful, i havent a clue how to try to find a close replacement on ebay, it seems to be a generic metal frame solenoid, i am hoping one in my junk stash will work.
I was pretty darn upset at my blunder.
To try to wing the other questions...
"You could try replacing the 7400 series with 74HC parts."
While i believe you are speaking of the little black ic chips that was my extent of knowledge about them besides when i looked up the number on one they are obsolete.
"How do you detect a ball in a scoring pocket? Another microswitch? How many are there?"
There are 9 scoring pockets on this machine, while some are harder to hit when the ball goes into any pocket it goes to the same place,
think like old pay pool tables remember how you get any pocket the balls goes back to the holder rack inside the machine.
In my games case the ball goes to what i call a seesaw when a ball rolls into it the ball weight makes it tilt and drops the ball into a chute to send it back out to the player, it rests then in dump position, the chute is made that if you were hitting several pockets in a row the balls line up waiting for the seesaw to tilt back for their turn to be returned to player.
when this seesaw tilts it also hits the micro switch that does a few things it makes a solenoid reset this seesaw and tells the brain board a score pocket was hit, this causes the board to add 10 points to the led score readout and to trigger a different solenoid to dump a different seesaw, one that holds the 14 balls you win for hitting a pocket the other thing that happens is a 3rd solenoid triggers and opens all the pockets wider, so all that is triggered from that one micro switch but controlled by the brain board, during fast play all 3 solenoids might seemingly be firing at once, i assumed since there were 3 relays on the board each relay goes to a solenoid but oddly even those that one relay will work from board controll i do not feel any relay clicking.
In addition there is a light in the center that lights for a moment if you score a pocket and if you win a free credit a very loud electric bell goes nuts a few moments and an upper corner light comes on, i believe as long as there is a credit that upper cornor lamp is on.
The only other switches are the one on the coin mechanism when you pay for a game it adds one credit to the credit led, and ticks a electric counter inside the machine that kept track of how many games were paid for, oddly it still works if you add a coin but the led credit is stuck on 1 no matter how much you hit credit button or add coins its push button to use for credit,
The "tilt" is also a switch its a wire hanging in a metal ring, if they touch that turns on a tilt light and locks up machine until another credit is used or paid for and used.
"Before you start cutting any wires, map the microswitch connections in the card edge connector. Also map the lights and solenoids"
I love i mean really love old stuff like this, ive restored old metal typers other pachinkos and old hand crank digger cranes my car was built in 69, i try to make as much orginal work as i can, i have 2 metal typers i restored inside they are clean work like new, almost, outside they are clean but wear the scars and patina of 80 plus yo machines.
i wont cut the wires, i will have to cut zip ties to even trace and map them and im not thrilled about that, its such a nice job, if i dont get its antique brain board working i would make a little board to plug into and solder new connections there, only in a very last resort would i remove the wires from the plug and i would unsolder not cut,
But yes, i do need to map it and after my chores tonight i very well may tackle that, i have to unsolder that solenoid i cooked, ugh.
im here because im looking for options to get it working i thought arduino might be an option, i would be thrilled just to repair the brain board there but its far beyond my security clearance and pay rate, the board is pretty much alien to me, to test or work on it, i will end up having to pay some wizard for their magic either way.
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