Pinball Judge Dredd 1993

$4250 incl shipping TM 201603 Chch

Supposed to be in ‘Great Condition’ but unplayable as delivered

  • Has crane decorative mod
  • Has Deadworld mod & L1AT rom
  • Has later style police LED flashers on left/right ramp entrances
  • Playfield is excellent condition
  • Some plastic ramp repairs but seem ok and not obvious from players position
  • Has topper, with a strip of colour changing LEDs reflecting on to it for a pretty good effect
  • Left flipper coil has been abused including copious amounts of hot glue
  • Left top flipper coil has been abused including copious amounts of hot glue

Issue JD-20160312 multiple problems as delivered

  • Crane was not bolted in
    • Bolted in and aligned using set screw
  • Deadworld loose & misaligned
    • Fixed
  • Left flipper EOS switch non functional
    • found loose common earth wire under playfield and soldered it back on
  • Drop targets unable to be raised by coil
    • TEMPORARY fix: Locking clip lost so Opto PCB tilted and is getting hit by coil activate drop target lifting plate, just tilted PCB back to parallel
  • A few ramps etc loose here and there, tightened as each is found
  • Gets stuck with multiple balls in shooter lane
    • Filed divots from ball through
    • cleaned trough sender & receiver LEDs but still faulty
    • resoldered trough Opto sender PCB
    • still faulty so replaced sender LEDs & current limiting resistors  (Jaycar part ZD1945 works fine), reduced current slightly on feeling slightly more modern (hopefully) LEDs more efficient
    • adjusted shooter lane microswitch
    • tightened shooter coil & replaced sleeve (Did left side at same time
    • tightened trough coil & replaced sleeve
    • Trough issues resource: Http://www.pinballrebel.com/game/pins/ij2/shop/Trough.htm
  • Both flippers activated = resets
    • Replaced BR1/2 (GBPC3504W) C5/11
  • Both main flippers way too much shaft end play

Issues as delivered NOT yet resolved:

  • 1 GI strip out. A fuse is loose on power PCB, Wriggling fixed it for now (Resoldered during Issue JD-20180324)
  • Drop targets unable to be raised by coil: need permanent fix (Added missing circlip during Issue JD-20180324)

Other improvements

It had maybe 5% leds, replaced most of remaining GI & Controlled, as well as all flashers
Dirty playfield, gave it a cursory clean, pending a full future strip down
Cleaned those Opto pairs I could easily get to


Issue JD-20180320 Multiple issues – resolved

Observations:

  • On power up a solenoid somewhere fires a few times before going quiet
  • On game start launches multiple balls
  • On game start continuously launches balls
  • On game start flippers non responsive but work ok through Solenoid tests

Secondary observations after commencing investigation:

  • Opto trough transmitter board doesn’t have LED8 (Power indicator) on
    • IJ manual shows as supplied from unregulated +12V
  • On Power Driver Board
    • Led1 is indicator for +12V regulated supply & is on as expected
    • Led7 is off, is +12V unregulated supply:
      • F116 visual check and does not appear to be blown
      • Nudging related Fuse F116 intermittently activates Led7

Conclusion/Action 1:

  • Conclusion: Power Driver Board Fuse F116 bad joints
  • Action: Resoldered ALL fuse holders on the Power Driver Board

Issue JD-20180324 Left shooter (Missile launch) weak, leaving balls in left shooter lane – NOT RESOLVED

Observations:

  • Assembly is part A-16936
  • When playing when ball goes into left shooter lane, shooter appears to be too weak to send ball out

Secondary observations after commencing investigation

  • Solenoid test activates this shooter weakly but also left lower flipper strongly
    • Left Shooter is: Solenoid 04 Brn-Blk/Vio-Orn
    • Left lower flipper is: Flipper 03 Blu-Gry/Gry-Yel

Solution

  • Wiggled the coil connections and problem went away so resoldered coil wires

Update 20190802 Still weak at times

Investigation:

  • Spring is manky / bent, part no is Solenoid Spring 10-135
  • Noticed that the kicker appears almost offline to the ball groove so loosened bracket screens to playfield and realigned slightly

Issue JD-20190802 Top right flipper no return – Resolved

Observations: Top right flipper appears to be sticking up intermittently, half drops sometimes, a ball running over it also can cause it to drop somewhat

Investigation 1:

  • Doesn’t really look like coil is staying fully on so will assume is mechanical for now
    • Spring is intact
    • EOS switch position looks fine
    • Removed coil:
      • No mushroooming
    • Replaced cool sleeve
    • Shaft end play is minimal but not tight/binding left for now

Solution Attempt 1:

      • Plunger is mushroomed – ground down for now
      • Replaced coil sleeve + spring
      • Flipper shaft end play was set very loose – made adjustments
      • Checked and adjusted EOS switch (was testing ok)

Issue JD-20191025 Top right flipper hard on – interim resolution

Observations:  Top right flipper sticking on hard as soon as:

  • Start a game
  • Enter Tests -> Solenoid Test (and close door to enable door interlock)

Investigation long version:

  • Tests -> Flipper tests no issues so not driving transistors etc
  • Tests -> Solenoid Test, Flipper turns hard on hard on
  • Flippers are activated by 2 stage flipper plunger (Opto assembly)
  • Checked and in Tests – Solenoids and flipper plungers are live and activate selected flipper
  • In Switch tests, left flipper button I can separately activate lower then upper flipper, but right flipper only activates lower flipper switch

Investigation short version:

  • From the above we see that Tests -> Switch Edges shows F6 Upper Right Flipper Opto as locked on, so that is the issue
  • Unplugging Right Opto PCB J1 F6 goes off in Tests -> Switch Edges
  • Right Opto PCB is A-16384-1
    • F6 is Black/Yellow, Opto PCB J1-1 is Black/Yellow so SW1 is F6
  • Removed Opto PCB, and resoldered all joints still no go, Opto1 still not functioning
  • Opto part:
    • is an obsolete Senisys S-1865 (Mexico 9338) NPN Slotted Optical Switch
    • Fairchild QVE11233 is listed as a compatible replacement
    • Also OPB804

Temporary fix:

  • Replaced with a Fairchild H21A1 Opto switch that we had on hand
  • BUT: opto height is incorrect so even after raising the opto in the PCB it activates a little too soon:
    • Assuming QVE11233 is a physically compatible part specifically the Opto CL:
    • QVE11233 Datasheet: Opto CL is 9.9mm up (from PCB) (Height = 11.68mm, CL = 1.78mm from top)
    • H21A1 Datasheet: Opto CL is 7.32 to 9.15mm up (Height = 10.7-11mm, CL = 1.85-3.38mm from top)

Future: Buy drop in replacement:

  • OPB804 Datasheet: Opto CL = 9.89mm up (H = 11.68, CL = 1.79 from top)
  • UPDATE: Suggestions are that the original is a Schmitt trigger device: Forum

Todo (non playfield)

  • Power Driver Board: Resolder/repair fuse holders for GI circuit (Resoldered during Issue JD-20180320)
  • Power Driver Board: Replace all BRs & associated large caps (5V done during Issue JD-20160312)
  • Power Driver Board: J120 is a bit munted, needs replacing one day, has trace jumpers on the underside as well so trace damage

Todo (playfield)  interim to full strip

  • Replace left flipper coil  (FL-11629 Blue 50V)
  • Replace top left flipper coil  (FL-11629 Blue 50V)
  • Remove enough to get to remaining Incandecesents that are under the playfield
  • clean what can be cleaned during the above
  • replace captive balls with something interesting
  • Its a dark machine, needs much light added