Mounting the back box and switching on

I mounted the back box back onto the pinball machine securing the external hinges and internal wing nuts and then connected up all of the connectors onto their respective pin headers. I’m glad I had numbered all of the connectors! Everything went smoothly (apart from connector J126 whose far right pin was loose, meaning I had to remove the board to push the pin from the back into the connector. It was here that I noticed that the board had actually been “repaired” with a wire leading from this loose pin to another pin for connector J125). When I was finished it certainly looked as it had done before I took it all apart.

Despite the fact that I hadn’t yet levelled the machine, I put the three pinballs into the outhole, held my breath and switched the machine on…..

The lights came on, the bookcase did a turn, a loud “boing” eminated from the machine, the three balls got ejected into the machine and that was it. The display showed “Addams Family” and I was happy. Very happy.

So I thought I’d play the machine for the first time.

Despite the fact that the machine had been set to Free Play (according to the eBay description) it wasn’t. I put a 50 Euro Cent into the machine and got 2 credits. I put a 1 Euro coin into the machine and got 5 credits and then put a 2 Euro coin into the machine and got 15 credits. Strange. But I was too excited to care, so played the machine. It was great, just as I had remembered it. But it was so loud (for my cellar) and really reverberated. Great for a pub environment, but not for my cellar.

So I opened up the coin door and tried to adjust the volume using the volume buttons. Nothing happened. I tried to switch the machine into the Menu System by pressing the “Begin Test” button. Nothing happened. No matter which button I pressed it didn’t have the desired affect. Something was definitely wrong.

So had I been sent a duff machine or had I done something wrong? And if so, what? My first port of call was the back box and all of those connectors. Not knowing which board was responsible for what, I thought I’d start from the left and work my way through all of the connectors. So I turned the machine off and started with my hunt.

The first connector I looked at was J205. Sure enough, the connector was off by one. I had managed to connect this connector up incorrectly! So I corrected this mistake and without checking the other connectors switched on again.

The first thing  I tried to do was adjust the volume again behind the coin door. Sure enough, it worked! Boy was I relieved! I put a 50 Euro Cent coin into the coin mechanism and got a half credit. Things were certainly looking up. I pushed the escape button and got a full credit. YES!

Having set the volume to its lowest level it was still too loud. I remember from flicking through the manual there was a fixed lower volume level which could be overridden. So a quick consultation of the manual and a few adjustments later I was able to get the volume down to an aceptable level (for my cellar). And then I played. Boy was it FUN!

But then I noticed a few anomolies….

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