Popeye Volume Mod help

[2unes]

Hi all, my first post after lots of reading and learning about my new Popeye Pachinko. Thanks to everyone for this site, it's a great help and lots of fun reading. I was hoping my first post was going to tell how successful I was at adding volume controls to Popeye, but instead, i need Help.
For volume control, I decided to go with L-Pads, 15 watt. I read where finding wires coming from the speakers is a good place to make speaker wire cuts to add the volume controls. Well, I did this and now when I connect the wires for the L-Pad, my ball shooter no longer operates. If I put everything back original, the shooter works fine. In trying to diagnose what might be happening, i noticed that if I touch the cut speaker wire that connects to the machine, then the shooter doesn't work. So I'm thinking there is some grounding issues going on here. BTW, the L-Pads work fine when I drop a ball through center hole, and really like the ability to adjust the volume (well my wife does).

Can anyone help me with this or give recommendations on where I went wrong and how to fix. I do see where others have added really nice volume controls on Popeye so I know it can be done, but something is going wrong for me.

Thanks again for the fabulous site and all the helpful tips and information.

[dalto]

Can you describe how you wired the LPADs?

[Tulsa]

A picture would do wonders.

[2unes]

Can you describe how you wired the LPADs?

The LPAD has three posts, 1,2,&3. For post 2, I ran the black wire from speaker to it. For post 3, I ran the black wire that goes back to the machine to it. For post 1, I ran to the red wire from the speaker and red wire back to the machine to it.

While initially I thought that I had wiring issues for the LPAD, I think it's more related to grounding, because just by physically touching the bare speaker wire going back to the machine doesn't allow the shooter to operate. This seems really strange to me, but it's happening.

BTW, thanks dalto for all your previous posts on volume controls, they were inspiring.

[slotter]

Welcome, 2unes! Glad to have you posting!

From your description it sure sounds as if you do have it wired correctly, 2unes. As mentioned, a picture might help figure out what is going on.

[2unes]

A picture would do wonders.

I hope the picture comes in clear enough. I've numbered the crimped connects to correspond to where they would be connected to the LPAD. 1a is red wire from speaker; 1b is red wire to machine (both connect to post 1 of LPAD). 2 is black wire from speaker (connects to post 2 on LPAD); 3 is black wire to machine (connects to post 3 on LPAD).

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/4180/dsc008555qq.png

Sorry for the link, didn't know how to get image otherwise posted.

Thanks for your help!

[2unes]

I think this will post the picture


As you can see, I can make the connections back easily and then everything works fine; however, when I connect a wire running to the LPAD from number 1b or 3, then the shooter no longer works.

[dalto]

I think this will post the picture

Looks OK to me. I usually tap into the wire that leads to terminal 1 but I would think it would work connecting them both to the terminal as well.

[2unes]

Just wanted to follow-up on this situation. I never did figure out why the L-Pads created problems with the shooter on Popeye. I went with the Syscom pots (5 for $15 set) instead and everything is working great.

I was able to use the L-Pads on my Sankyo Pachinko and didn't have any problems getting it to work correctly. I really love being able to adjust volume while playing. It's sweet to turn up the volume during the Fever rounds.