Game Plan Andromeda - Tech Help Needed

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Im glad you got the parts. Man thos Gameplan MPU's are PIA to work on.
Trust me, I have fixed a few, I got one right now doing somewhat the
same thing. Have you checked Marvin3m Gameplan guide? Sometimes weird
results (or at least my experience) have been because of bad .01 caps
on the board. I had one that drove me batty, and then out of deperation
I replaced all the .1 mfd ceramic caps on the board. While removing
them I checked them, 3 of them were shorted, thus dragging the 5v bus
down. That made its booting results weird all the time. Any acid on
this board, if so Im thinking solder through holes or sockets, in
particular around the ROM sockets.

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Could be a bad connector or a wire loose from one.

Josh
http://www.pingeek.com

<bertulli@gis.net> wrote in message
news:1125846961.535271.15980@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> I've been working on an Andromeda recently, and while I thought
> everything was all set, I'm getting funky results on startup.
>
> Things I've done:
>
> - Cut battery off main board (no leaking had taken place)
> - Replaced solenoid driver board
> - Replaced drop targets
> - Replaced bumper coil
> - Shopping of coils, playfield, pieces
>
> Now, when a Game Plan pin boots, there's a series of LED flashes that
> indicate where in the process the game is. The problem is that the
> boot up behavior is totally unpredictable. Here's a list:
>
> - 3 to 4 flashes, then nothing
> - Numerous flashes, then a mid-frequency tone that never ends
> - Numerous flashes, then all "4"s on the displays, then nothing
> - Numerous flashes, then all "c"s on the displays, then nothing
>
> Once, after the numerous flashes, the entire playfield lit up, the
> expected boot sound effects happened, then nothing. On one other,
> random occassion, I got no flashes or sounds, but the entire playfield
> lit up, then nothing. For *every* boot attempt, the lights behind the
> backglass all come on, whether anything else happens or not.
>
> Any ideas? We want to play!
>

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

On 2005-09-04 08:16:01 -0700, bertulli@gis.net said:

> I've been working on an Andromeda recently, and while I thought
> everything was all set, I'm getting funky results on startup.
>
> Things I've done:
>
> - Cut battery off main board (no leaking had taken place)
> - Replaced solenoid driver board
> - Replaced drop targets
> - Replaced bumper coil
> - Shopping of coils, playfield, pieces
>
> Now, when a Game Plan pin boots, there's a series of LED flashes that
> indicate where in the process the game is. The problem is that the
> boot up behavior is totally unpredictable. Here's a list:
>
> - 3 to 4 flashes, then nothing
> - Numerous flashes, then a mid-frequency tone that never ends
> - Numerous flashes, then all "4"s on the displays, then nothing
> - Numerous flashes, then all "c"s on the displays, then nothing
>
> Once, after the numerous flashes, the entire playfield lit up, the
> expected boot sound effects happened, then nothing. On one other,
> random occassion, I got no flashes or sounds, but the entire playfield
> lit up, then nothing. For *every* boot attempt, the lights behind the
> backglass all come on, whether anything else happens or not.
>
> Any ideas? We want to play!

This sounds like a problem either with the Z80-CTC or perhaps a
corroded trace to the RAM, ROM, or 8255 PIA.

You have checked that the +5 supply is working fine, with no drop outs?

I fix those MPU's by the way, but am backlogged...

John :-#)#

--
(Please post followups or tech enquires to the newsgroup) John's
Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 Call
(604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
www.flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they
just flip out."

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Yeah like John said you may want to check the +5v and the power supply.
The very big cap (I think 25000uf) on the power supply can go bad and
cause some crazy problems to occur. I've replaced it on some machines
and it has cured some intermittent problems.

-Jeremy