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Taf flipper

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glyn davies

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10 Years
Joined
Jun 23, 2012
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150
Hi my tafs right lower flipper chatters when pressed and doesnt stay when the button is pressed

Ive resetted all cables checked all fuses

Can some one point me in the right direction before i start buying new parts
 
Check that there are no loose wires that should be attaching to the 3 lugs of the flipper coil. It seems you have lost the low power hold circuit and the wire detaching from the coil is common cause.
 
It should look like this. You will be ae to see by opening coin door. No need tk remove glass to check.
 

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It could be a broken winding on the coil or broken circuit elsewhere in the low power circuit or transistor on the flip tronics board etc. Time to get out the dmm and circuit diagrams and start testing.
 
You should check for broken coil wire first. When they break it is usually close to where they are soldered to the coil lug so often easy to see.
 
I had the same ussue a few years ago i put new coil on n board tested but didnt resole the issue then found a fix buy cleaning up and reseating the plugs on the board which worked but now its back
 
glyn davies said:
Hi my tafs right lower flipper chatters when pressed and doesnt stay when the button is pressed

Ive resetted all cables checked all fuses

Can some one point me in the right direction before i start buying new parts
Click to expand...
Most probably the fliptronnics board. One of the upright thingy needs changing, my star trek did a similar thing.
 
Swap the right with the left on the fliptronnics board if it travels it's the board
 
TaF still has leaf switches for the flipper buttons so it isn't just a dirty opto. Check EOS as per above first, if that is OK and the coil is good you have an issue on the Fliptronics board.
 
There are no plugs you can swap on the Fliptronics, the drivers for the coils are on J802, EOS on J806 and flipper switches on J805. Rest is power and feedback/control from CPU.
 
To add: Fliptronics doesn't control the flippers from the switches directly, it relays the switch information to the CPU and the CPU then controls the coil. The EOS is only used as confirmation of the flipper having moved AND to re-energize the power coil if the flipper drops while the button is pressed (e.g. a fast ball hitting the flipper). If you have followed @Asiapinball 's suggestions above and coil and cabling are definitely OK you could have an erratic EOS, EOS detection loop or a problem with CPU control. Try reseating the ribbon cable between CPU and Fliptronics a few times.
 
Iwas thinking ribbon cable im sure it was that last time
But ive reseted that a few times
What indid notich last night is that in test mode on flippers they all worked apart from hold none went up on hold they tryed but didnt do awt
 
To test hold you have to lift the flipper manually, the hold coil isn't strong enough to move it. If it doesn't chatter in test it isn't the coil control circuit or the coil itself (good!).
It therefore is the flipper button circuit or EOS. Have you looked at the leaf switches closely? Are lower and upper closing correctly and clean? Unplug J806 from the Fliptronics board to test EOS theory.
 
glyn davies said:
Is the two connectors to the right of the board
Click to expand...
Sorry I'm getting confused, thinking of the little boards that the flipper button connect to on that machine, swapping them around.

I still think it will most likely be the fliptronnics board.

Drhex is very knowledgeable and helpful I would listen to his advice, I did with my STTNG which after trouble shooting a similar problem in the end turned out to be the fliptronnics board, but it may well be something else.

I rebuilt the flippers first with new coils, but STTNG was a pain in the #### and everything needed replacing to get it to work constantly and 100%
 
Taf doesn‘t have those boards, it was the first generation of Fliptronics and still had leaf switches on the flipper buttons.
 
OK, then your hold is broken somehow. The chatter is caused by the EOS being opened as per the above. With J806 off the pin can't detect this and the flipper will just fall down.
In flipper test, does it stay up when you enable the hold coil and lift the flipper manually? Have you measuered resistance across the hold coil, should be around 150 Ohms (if it measures a short, flip your probes as you're measuring the diode).
 
Do you have a DMM? Put it on resistance (Ohms) and measure between the middle and left lug on the coil with the pinball OFF. You should measure around 150 Ohms.
If you measure under 10 Ohms:
- Reverse your probes. If you still measure low, the coil or diode is shorted.
- Snip off one leg of the diode and remeasure. Replace diode or coil.
If you measure 150 Ohms:
- Your hold coi is good, you have an issue in the cabling to the Fliptronics board or on the board. Measure continuity with your DMM set to that function on the cables from the coil to the J802 on the Fliptronics board (just same wire colours)
- If you have a break find and fix it
Come back if the above doesn't fix it as next step is starting debugging the Fliptronics
 
"How do I test voltage?"

Well, it depends whether you want to check voltage or resistance; Dr. hex suggests checking the resistance of the Hold winding, by selecting resistance on the meter, and (with the power Off) placing one test lead on the 'front' end of the coil (Blue-yellow wire for the right side) and the other on the end of the Hold winding (Orange-trace wire). A very low reading could be caused by the diode conducting rather than the winding itself, so in that case change over the two leads to eliminate the diode. As above, the winding should read at around 150 ohms without the diode.

This is a parallel-wound coil, so checking at the middle and tail-end terminals won't show a direct measurement of the hold winding, but the one of the diodes and the hold winding. Incidentally, Williams practice at the time was to fit the flipper coil with the terminals away from the stop end, to reduce the incidence of broken connections.

As to measuring voltage, then I recall Andy mentioning previously about this that each terminal should show around 70v dc without the flipper operating. Set the meter to dc volts, and put the -ve/com/Black lead on ground, such as the braid inside the cabinet. Then touch the +ve/Red to each coil terminal, with the power On. I suppose that as with a continuity check, the return wire to the Fliptronic board should also show the voltage.
 
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That is fine and my bad, should have been the outer lugs - anyway, this shows the coil is OK. Given the power coil pulls there is voltage at the coil - we can therefore eliminate the blue yellow cable. Put your dmm on the beep/diode setting, putting the leads together should produce a beep. now put one lead on the left lug with the orange/violet wire and measure to plug J802 in the backbox, should be on pin 4, same colour. Should beep. If it isn't, find the break.
 
With the pin still OFF that is.
The driver for the hold coil should be Q7, please make sure that you have continuity from pin 4 on J802 to one of the legs of that transistor to exclude a broken solder link on the header.
 
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