New user - hammer strength

[Martin]

Hi all. First post so "hello"!

I'll pop this into the tech support section once i've established if i have a problem or not

Okay, picked up a Woody Woodpecker from a local guy at the weekend (cheers Aran if you're readin ). It's lovely but I'm not convinced about the shooter. It takes 2, 3 or sometimes as many as 5 balls before it's shooting strong enough to actually get the things up on the playfield. Is this normal?

I'm guessing it's not since it makes kinda nonsense of the whole concept of holding in the hold tab and shooting individual shots since they have to be shot on a much stronger shot than if you're just firing off constants rounds.

Anyway, is it a solenoid in there or something else?

Let's see if this is normal and take it from there

Cheers,
Martin.
PS: Oh, I'm "Guddler" on just about every other forum going but thought I'd use my real name here just to confuse anyone that thought they knew me :lol:

[new in town]

To PachiTalk !

Open up the front door and lower tray and check to see if they might have put something on the "Hammer" to quite the machine. Also check and clean the launching rail the Spheres travel up on. If you can take a couple of pictures of those assemblies and let us have a look for anything out of place.

I had one machine a Sphere fell down into the shooter assembly workings and caused this exact same problem. Have a look down in there also.

[H20Dreams]

~~~Welcome to Pachitalk~~~

[luckydog]

after you open the glass part of the door, then look for a release latch to open the bottom part of the door.

[arbycoffee]

on the back in the shooter area is a adjustment, some machines are screws and some are a level to adjust. not having a woody (double pun) I am not sure of whitch

WELCOME

[Martin]

not having a woody (double pun) I am not sure of whitch

Cheers for the welcomes guys, I've already been all over it and I'm fairly sure there's no obstructions and I did give the shooter lane a quick wipe over. Everything looked to be in order to my untrained eye! Earlier when I was having a poke about I operated the hammer with the front open and it doesn't move at all until you've cranked the power up about a third but the ball release is still clicking away. That's essentially the problem. If it was a standard pinball solenoid then i'd basically say it wasn't energising properly.

I've not been able to delve too deep as all my stuff like Novus and tools and even my soldering / desoldering kit is all packed up pending a house move (that sadly has gone pear shaped for the time being!)

I'll see if I can get any worthwhile pics with my mobile tomorrow but I went to use my digital camera yesterday only to find that the CCD has packed up the ghost I'll also have a peek and see if I can spot any adjustment on the back of it.

I guess we're saying that it doesn't sound desperately normal then? Oh, don't forget that after it's shot 3 to 5 balls it shoots at normal strength quite happily.

I should probably also mention that the main part of my hobby is fixing up video game PCBs so I'm capable of getting as technical as it takes, I've just never been in the back of one of these before the weekend.

Cheers all!

[dattia]

Welcome to PachiTalk!!!

[musky]

Hi Martin and welcome to PachiTalk.
Ok, first a couple of simple questions:
You do know that the further you turn the shooter knob the harder the hammer hits the ball? Does this happen even if you twist the knob all the way right off the bat?

[Martin]

Hiya, yeah, I'm with you on that one but I'm not convinced there should be a fairly large "dead area" for want of a better way to put it where the hammer doesn't operate yet the shooter ball release does. Doesn't seem right to me? I may of course just be thinking about it too much!

[Tulsa]

I have a few that seem a bit spongier than others do, I don't know it's a cause for concern though. I just turn it a little farther than I do some others.

[hanabi]

to PachiTalk Martin!!

[MrGneiss]

WELCOME!!

[DrDark]

Perhaps a little contact cleaner sprayed around and into the shooter ring.
You can get a can at your local radio shack or electronics store/website.
Worked well on my Fireworks pachinko that had a similar issue. Just give it a few minutes to evaporate before trying it out.

[Martin]

Right then, just been and had a bit of a play about with it. Looks like it all just needs a bit of a clean up which is good news

The main thing that was stopping the hammer from working while at low power was the rubber bumber just above it that it hits when it goes back to it's rest position. This had become sticky and it was literally getting stuck to it until the power was strong enough for it to break free.

The temporary solution has been to simply rotate the rubber bumper round a little so the surface that's in contact with the hammer is nice and clean. Longer term it could use a bit of a strip down and clean up.

I guess I can try and take a pic of what I'm talking about later?

Next thing is to get a dongle, and then I need to think about quietening it a little and possibly an auto feed for getting the balls back up the top. When it get's going it runs out up there really quickly. I got the fever round yesterday or the day before and even though i'd filled the payout hopper up it didn't have anywhere near enough balls to pay them all out, I was filling it up forever afterwards before it finally stopped paying out :lol:

[MrGneiss]

Glad you got yourself out of that sticky situation!!


I know I know, groan away!!


But it is good to hear that you got it fixed!!

[owennewton]

You asked for the groan, You got the groan.

[MrGneiss]

Oh why thank you, you are too kind!!

[owennewton]

Glad to help. Any time