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Pinball Electrical 101


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There are 4 connectors on the switch.

Two (silver on Chris' picture) go to your I-Pac (one ground and one "switched") and the other two (golden on picture above) are for you led or bulb.

The ground wire you can just daisy-chain to all other buttons and run back to your PSU. (not to the I-Pac !)

The remaining + wires go to either your PSU 12v or to your LedWiz depending on how you want your buttons to operate.

As for the I-Pac wires you can also daisy-chain the ground wire.

Did I make any sense ?

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Ok, have just set up my strobe via the ledcontrol.ini file, and its having a wired effect on my led-wiz or/and I-PAC.

The first game i tried the strobe out on way cirqus voltaire as it has alot of strobe effects. Anyway i noticed that the led-wiz/I-PAC stopped resonding, the flippers stopped working on the table or though the contactors were still working, and none of the leds were flashing anymore. In order to get everything working again i had to unplug the I-PAC and plug it back in and then do the same for the Led-Wiz, then it would work again for a while.

I thought that it might have just been that table, so i tired Scared Stiff and everything was working fine (5+ mins) until i got the mulitball and the strobe started going off and the same thing happened!! Its as if the strobe is causing the Led-wiz and/or I-Pac to trip out, any ideas??

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It could be some EM signal Lettuce, but it's kinda unlikely. To test this just put your strobe 10 feet away from the cab.

Are you 100% sure you wired it correctly ?

Yeah i believe so....it all works as it should do without setting on fire. Joking aside though the strobe is on the rear of the machine and both the led-wiz and I-PAC are at the front of the machine so its not like there right next to each other.

On a side note i have been getting interference on my DMD monitor, where i can see very slight lines scrolling across the screen, it was suggested to replace my cheap vga cable with one that has the shielding blocks at either end of the cable, but this hasnt seemed to help, its strange if i turn of my 150 12v PSU that powers the connactors and leds the interference disappears from the DMD montior.

I wonder if these 2 problems are linked in anyway?

Edited by lettuce
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Remember the time i was changing the fuse in a plug, i couldnt be bothered to put the back of the plug on to test the fuse, so i held the side of the casing with me fingers and plugged it in.... BOOM :vollkommenauf:

Arced onto me hand, and i wouldnt have beleived it if someone had said, but it actually blew me across the room, i think the current made me legs jolt and it threw me back about 7 foot.

Damn that hurt, had intense pins and needles down one side for about 2 minutes and didnt know where i was :)

I have quite a bit of respect for electricity after that :)

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Stuck thanks.

Thanks Bill!

I am no longer a virgin. I got my first sticky. Yay! :party:

Wait that just sounds wrong.....

do you have a picture of a switch connected to both an ipac and a power supply so they light?

I will take a couple of pics and show the pushbutton connections with a bit more detail bladex when I do my next ammendment. Do you have your pushbuttons yet? If you have one to look at its pretty obvious where the connections go as the microswitch is a totally seperate unit on the push button as compared to the connections for the light.

Remember the time i was changing the fuse in a plug, i couldnt be bothered to put the back of the plug on to test the fuse, so i held the side of the casing with me fingers and plugged it in.... BOOM :vollkommenauf:

Arced onto me hand, and i wouldnt have beleived it if someone had said, but it actually blew me across the room, i think the current made me legs jolt and it threw me back about 7 foot.

Damn that hurt, had intense pins and needles down one side for about 2 minutes and didnt know where i was :)

I have quite a bit of respect for electricity after that :)

Lol! Ahh that first boot. When you get your clock reset for the first time you never forget it. Worst one I had was from a switchboard and had two phases accross my index finger. It threw my hand back that hard it forced my elbow through the plaster wall behind me. No more working live for this sparky.

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Yeah i believe so....it all works as it should do without setting on fire. Joking aside though the strobe is on the rear of the machine and both the led-wiz and I-PAC are at the front of the machine so its not like there right next to each other.

On a side note i have been getting interference on my DMD monitor, where i can see very slight lines scrolling across the screen, it was suggested to replace my cheap vga cable with one that has the shielding blocks at either end of the cable, but this hasnt seemed to help, its strange if i turn of my 150 12v PSU that powers the connactors and leds the interference disappears from the DMD montior.

I wonder if these 2 problems are linked in anyway?

Could have a sick power supply there lettuce. If one of the filter capacitors is dead, you will get bad emf but that is just a guess. As for your Ipac / Ledwiz fault, try removing the realy for the strobe from the base and try it out again. This will leave all of your control circuit in for the strobe without actually running the strobe. If you get the same result, you know its the control side. If not it has to be the strobe side.

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Could have a sick power supply there lettuce. If one of the filter capacitors is dead, you will get bad emf but that is just a guess. As for your Ipac / Ledwiz fault, try removing the realy for the strobe from the base and try it out again. This will leave all of your control circuit in for the strobe without actually running the strobe. If you get the same result, you know its the control side. If not it has to be the strobe side.

I dont think its the PSU, as i upgraded the PSU from a 100watt to 150watt and had the same problem with both, it must be the wires from the led cree's as they do run under the shelf that i have the dmd monitor on, not sure why it would cause interference though

In regards to the strobe, what do you mean remove the relay for the strobe from the base???

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I dont think its the PSU, as i upgraded the PSU from a 100watt to 150watt and had the same problem with both, it must be the wires from the led cree's as they do run under the shelf that i have the dmd monitor on, not sure why it would cause interference though

In regards to the strobe, what do you mean remove the relay for the strobe from the base???

Shouldn't be the cree wiring I would have though as DC voltage doesnt not cause too much interference unless its being switched really fast. But the problem is there all the time I assume? not just when your crees are on?

The realy has a soild blue base and the actual relay which has the coil and switch contacts and should be encased in clear plasitic. That part is removable from the base lettuce. If you pull that out and test it (obviously your stobe wont work as the relay is out) as this will test your control wiring for your strobe.

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Shouldn't be the cree wiring I would have though as DC voltage doesnt not cause too much interference unless its being switched really fast. But the problem is there all the time I assume? not just when your crees are on?

The realy has a soild blue base and the actual relay which has the coil and switch contacts and should be encased in clear plasitic. That part is removable from the base lettuce. If you pull that out and test it (obviously your stobe wont work as the relay is out) as this will test your control wiring for your strobe.

Yeah the interference is there all the time until i turn of the power to the 12v PSU, would it be a connactor thats causing it?

In regards to the relay, i see what you mean just pull the plastic lever and the coil in the clear plastic pops out. So its safe to remove that coil from the relay and still have everything connected up to the relay without the coil attached, having the live side of the strobe still attached to the relay and then onto my led-wiz is safe to do so yeah?

What am i actually looking for it to do when the coil is removed from the relay?

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Totally safe to remove the relay lettuce. It just removes the coil and switch from the circuit so the LEDwiz will try to turn the relay on, but because the relay is not there nothing will happen. If your lights and everything else does not turn off with the relay out, there is a problem with your wiring to the relay.

If the problem still occurs with the relay out, disconnect everything from the power supply, both + and -. turn your power supply check your dmd. If the fault clears, wire one thing back up at a time, i.e ledwiz and nothing else, then add your lights for your push buttons, then your relays and try to run a game each time to see if the dmd shows the fault again. Logically the last thing that you wire up when the fault reoccurs is the cause. You may be able to acertain which circuit is faulty this way.

If the dmd shows the fault the with the power supply on and nothing connected, it has to be the power supply. Let me know how you go.

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i don't understand the diagram on making buttons lit. how do you connect to to an ipac and make them lit as well?

Bladex your buttons come in 3 parts

P1000778.JPG

You simply daisy chain the lights together if you want them on all the time, or for the LEDwiz setup, you daisy chain the 12 to the power supply and then the ground wire, you wire individually back from each light to the output of the LEDwiz.

For the micro-switches, a common from the ground on the Ipac dasiy chained between the buttons and wired back to the Ipac individually from the Normally Open (N/O).

P1000779.JPG

Edited by maxxsinner
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So, I ordered myself a LEDWiz from GGG, and am now thinking through my layout.

First off, the Siemens 12v contactors and finder relays seem to be essentially unfindable for an average joe in the US. My current thinking is just to use cheap starter solenoids ($10 off amazon), and cheap EM relays rated for 5 or more amps (a few bucks each from allied), and I should be in business. Most of the releays I look at are under 5ms reaction, so I'm guessing there are no "gotchas" here I need to worry about.

My question is actually on playfield LEDs. Has anyone mounted LEDs on the inside of their cab, like, above the playfield glass on the sides, corresponding roughly to where flashers commonly are in more modern tables? I've seen lots of folks with LEDs on their backboxes, but why not down on the playfield? Is the reflection just too much?

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AH. See. I have a ultrawidebody lockdown bar which drove the width of the project, but a lowly 40 incly playfield, so I have 2-3 inches of gap on either side of the field whether I want it or not.

Has anyone found a good source for LEDs int he US that's not $25 a pop or whatever?

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Guest gstav

Hi! Check my cab thread PuckenPin! :D

I have mounted 5 RGB flashers and 2 strobe leds all under pf glass in an old Judge Dredd cab.

Check my latest vids of the flashers in action!

Cheers!

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I have two strobes just above the playfield glass, see my vid. There are no issues with reflection at al.

There is someone who placed the flashers just above the playfield, but I forgot who....

Ah! I see. Are those white Cree's? Do they blind you when playing?

Man thats a cool looking cab.

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Guest bladex
Bladex your buttons come in 3 parts

You simply daisy chain the lights together if you want them on all the time, or for the LEDwiz setup, you daisy chain the 12 to the power supply and then the ground wire, you wire individually back from each light to the output of the LEDwiz.

For the micro-switches, a common from the ground on the Ipac dasiy chained between the buttons and wired back to the Ipac individually from the Normally Open (N/O).

thanks almost got it just need to know how to connect the lit button daisy chain into a computer psu now.

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Totally safe to remove the relay lettuce. It just removes the coil and switch from the circuit so the LEDwiz will try to turn the relay on, but because the relay is not there nothing will happen. If your lights and everything else does not turn off with the relay out, there is a problem with your wiring to the relay.

If the problem still occurs with the relay out, disconnect everything from the power supply, both + and -. turn your power supply check your dmd. If the fault clears, wire one thing back up at a time, i.e ledwiz and nothing else, then add your lights for your push buttons, then your relays and try to run a game each time to see if the dmd shows the fault again. Logically the last thing that you wire up when the fault reoccurs is the cause. You may be able to acertain which circuit is faulty this way.

If the dmd shows the fault the with the power supply on and nothing connected, it has to be the power supply. Let me know how you go.

Ok, removed the coil from the strobe relay and played 4 games of cirqus voltaire without the led-wiz buggering up. So what could the problem be a possible faulty relay?

On to the 2nd problem with the interference on the dmd display, i unplug the 12v 150 watt PSU and removed all the wires that were attached the positive terminals on the PSU, turned the PSU back on and the interference was back!! I even try plugging the PSU into another outlet rather than my multi IntelliPlug strip, still the same problem. How can 2 different PSU give me the same interference problems?? Would still having the negative wires attached to the PSU terminal from all my components still cause interferance?

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Hi! Check my cab thread PuckenPin! :D

I have mounted 5 RGB flashers and 2 strobe leds all under pf glass in an old Judge Dredd cab.

Check my latest vids of the flashers in action!

Cheers!

See ? I knew it was you :D

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