Hi all, I am having a problem with my TAF that is making me crazy, any advice would be greatly appreciated:
I’m desperately looking for advice on how to fix some flipper problems on my TAF. All four flippers have had very intermittent, weird things happening that make the game unplayable.
At times the bottom right flipper does not respond at all when pressing the button but the upper right flipper does work, sometimes both work perfectly. Other times the upper left flipper does a double flip motion while the bottom left is fine. Ive also found that sometimes when I hold the left flipper button in all the way, both flippers activate and stay in the up position then the upper flipper goes down while I still have the button pressed, it does not happen every time however.
This is what I have done so far to fix the situation:
Replaced all four coils
Installed a new Rottendog Fliptronics II board
Installed new flipper button switches
Ive made every attempt to adjust all of the switches on the all four of the coils and the flipper button switches, the spacing looks correct as far as my eye can tell.
Ive re-seated every connector related to the flippers in the back box many times.
All of the solder points on the flipper button switches and coils look solid
All fuses are good
If you have another WPC game handy try replacing the ribbon cable from the MPU to the Fliptronics board.
You should also check your MPU for any signs of alkaline damage under the battery tray. That damage can cause lots of weird behavior from your game.
Thanks so much, that’s excellent advice. I have a theatre of magic also, so I switched the ribbon cable as you suggested, I also tried the cable that connects the mpu to the power driver board but it didn’t fix the problem unfortunately. The mpu does not appear to have battery acid damage.
Does addams have leaf switches the flipper buttons hit, or opto switches?
If leaf - Are they the correct low voltage ones with gold contacts and not switches with the tungsten contacts?
If opto, (I think its optos?) have you tried re-flowing the solder on the flipper opto boards, and cleaning the optos in the U opto housing themselves? Also re-seat the IDC connectors that plug into the flipper opto boards.
Great questions, thanks so much! My Taf has leaf switches, not optos. I was having these bizarre flipper problems before I replaced the switches, however I am reviewing the switches I ordered and I did purchase this:
Flipper Button Switch - Dual Contact - High Voltage (Bally/Williams)
Item# SW-1010A-13
Do you think using high voltage tungsten contacts could be causing the problem?
Also, I am trying to look for diagnostic info on the MPU board in my TAF. I know that the red flashing diodes can communicate an error with a certain number of flashes, although I can seem to locate info on what the flashes mean. I don’t see it in the TAF manual. Any advice on that?
I have had the MPU serviced in the past, although I don’t remember what was done to it.
Thanks!!
I actually found the info and all of the lights on my board, flash as they should according to this:
CPU LED’s Explained
D19 – Blanking,
D20 – Diagnostic
D21 – +5VDC
D19 – At game turn on, this should be on for appx 3 seconds, then should go out AND STAY OUT! This indicates that the blanking circuit is disabled and therefore the machine cannot energise solenoids etc.
D20 – After D19 has gone out, this should stay flashing permanently while the game is on. This indicates (when flashing continuously that the CPU is running)
D21 – This should always be on. This indicates that the 5VDC power is on the CPU board.
Using High Voltage switches will definitely cause issues like you are experiencing. They have way too much resistance to be used in a Fliptronic system.
Hi all, checking back in on my TAF woes. Here’s what I’ve done recently:
Replaced flipper button switches with the correct low poser switches, replaced all of the end of stroke switches on all 4 flipper coils, replaced the flipper buttons and cleaned up all solder points that looked a little weird.
After all of those upgrades I played a solid three games with no troubles and then the problems came back all over again, flippers skipping, dropping dead and not activating when pressing the buttons. I was convinced that these upgrades would do the trick but they didn’t help.
Any idea what I should look at next? The LEDS on the CPU board flash in the correct pattern, I’ve re-seated the connectors several times. Im really just totally out of ideas at this point.
Have you tried re-pinning any of the connectors associated with the flippers? Also, I am assuming the Rottendog Fliptronics II board is backwards compatible with Fliptronics 1? Do I remember correctly that TAF is one of the only Fliptronics 1 games?
Great question, the Rottendog told me that the board is backwards compatible for TAF, which yes if Fliptronics 1. I have not tried to re-pin any of the connectors, I really suck at it. I should look into that next. It seems that the majority of the issues now are with the lower right flipper, perhaps I should look at re-pinning all of the connectors associated with that flipper.
Thanks!
@MarkPorter have you tried switching back to the original fliptronics board after the switch change?
Edit: Also whats the part number on the new coils?
Hi! Well, I can’t switch the board back because the original is fried unfortunately. I thought a brand new board would just clear up the troubles as I am terrible at board repair. Before I replaced the coils I found that the incorrect coils were installed, I switched them to:
Lower right and left FL 15411
Upper left FL11753
Upper Right FL 11630
If your game is indeed a Fliptronics 1, which it should be, the Rottendog board shouldn’t have been plug and play. TAF has the extra flipper supply board, which other games don’t have. Some good pics of the Rottendog board and the flipper supply board might be helpful.
If the lower right flipper is having the most issues, first try cleaning the contacts with a business card. Slip card between contacts, gently push contacts together, pull business card out. Even new contacts can get oxidized when they sit on a shelf long enough.
Make sure the contacts are aligned and making good contact when the button is pushed. Back blade should move slightly with the button pushed.
Once cleaned and adjusted, test the switch in switch edges test. Also test the EOS switch by pushing the flipper up with your finger until the EOS switch closes. If all that is good, start a game and see where you’re at.
Thanks for your reply. I can assure that the switches are clean, I replaced all of the end of stroke switches and flipper button switches with new switches, they are out of the box clean.
You are suggesting that I should not be using the Rottendog Fliptronics board?
The Rottendog site has this listed under the part:
New Rottendog Fliptronics II for Williams and Bally games.
Replaces Williams part number A-15472. After extensive testing, the FLP892 will also replace the Fliptronics 1 in Addams Family and Addams Family Gold.
