Rockola 429 Write in and home switch

Hello all! Thanks to all who have helped me in my quest to get this machine back operational. I have gotten the mechanism back inside the box. I can get the machine to complete an entire cycle now.....with some help. I am having trouble with the write in portion. I can make the selection, write in carriage moves to proper location, but then nothing. The hammer is not firing to pull the proper pin. If I manually pull the pin everything else continues as normal. I have read alot of the posts regarding this issue but nothing seems to be the case so far. Funny thing is however, this step worked beautifully while I had it outside the box on a rack! The only thing I can think of is pinched or faulty wiring while moving in and out of the cabinet. If any one has any ideas, please feel free to share.

As for the home switch, I believed that my machines was removed but now, after testing, the read out stops at the home position seemingly at random. ususally it stops after three selections are made whether or not the cycle was completed on each. Then again sometimes it doesn't! Is this an issue I should be concerned about? What is an easy way to test?

Ed,
Just "GUESSING" here--but it sounds as if you have "typical RO problems" with the slip rings on the pinbank--
I would wash them with a non-residue safety solvent, then clean them again with Deoxit 5. This always works for me--
Ron Rich

Hi
Does the problem occur with aA and B sides, along with waaht Ron said make sure plug connections are good and clean contacts on accumualtor reset blades and adr relay, check wiring on write in arm and coil resistance
clones

Clones,
yes the problem occurs on both sides. I have checked wiring on the write in arm and it seems good. This leaves the coils themselves, which I dont see them both out at the same time, and the ADR relay and accumulator reset. how exactly would one go about this? Also, in full disclosure, i have been working on this so far not even knowing if the accumulator is working or not. i have never dropped a coin per I have never had to for a selection to index. Now is the only time the write in doesn't pull the pin.

Hi
The machine may be set on free play, the reset pawl/spring may have been removed at the accumalator so credits are not being removed. From machines i have dealt with before with this type of fault i have cleaned the write in relay, stop relay, accumulator reset relay and adr relay with a burnishing tool. Check credit unit plugs, check resistance of write in coils, check that none of the contact blades are broken. Maybe post a photo of the credit unit-write in unit
clones

Ok. So I removed the pin bank and cleaned the rings and contacts on both sides. I also verified continuity between each wire and a point on black plug and the plug going to the snap switches. On the bright side, "home" function of the read out now works. But write in is still not putting pin in play position. I also got the accumulator worked out. It isn't set to free play, but credits aren't being removed correctly.
Does the write in armature look exactly like the read out? I noticed the read out has small contacts under each blade. The write in does not, but there are spaces for them. Is that normal?

Ed,
Not quite sure what you are calling the "armature"--if you are talking about the blue, or gray, plastic item that holds the coils/hammers,
it would be my guess that the items missing on the WI side, are the sensors used to detect a "selected" pin. If that's the case, there would be no need for sensors, on the WI side. See the parts book to verify this. Ron Rich

Ron, yes I was talkling about the plastic piece. And what you said makes sense. I'm grasping a straws I suppose to figure out why the wi will not select the pin after stopping in the proper location. Since I'm a novice at reading writing schematics, I can't make heads or tails of which wires I should be paying attention too!

Ed
You say you cleaned the slip rings- did you use Deoxit-5 on them after cleaning ?? If not, I surly would do so--
Have you measured the resistance on the two WI coils--? How about the "third, WI coil" ?
Have you select a number where you can see the WI hammer--is it moving at all (assuming the coil is good !) ?
Ron Rich

I didn't know there was a third coil! As for the other two, I checked for ohms but didn't measure. The hammers appear to be trying to move slightly.

Hi Ed,
OK--I think I knowz what your problem iz--
Vast sums of $$ are required to pry the answer out of me !!
Either the "third WI coil", or it's "helper spring" is bad !
Try the following----Manually flip several, of the selection levers to the play position.
Make a selection that you can see, and determine if the hammer is now moving--
Let me know what you see--
Ron Rich

OK. i tripped several manually, then selected a6 (I didn't manually trip this one) because it's where I can see the top hammer. Still nothing. It may move slightly, but that could be where it stops and wiggles a little. I also tried with the lower hammer, still not putting a pin in play. The RO consistently selects a pin if pulled and WAS stopping at home if none selected. Any ideas now?

Yes--check the "3rd coil". It is the one located at the top of the pin-bank. See if it's shorted, --meter it while making a selection--is it getting power ?? Did you use Deoxit on the wipers ?? Ron Rich

Ron,
I did not use deoxit per I don't have any. More or less cleaned with contact cleaner and could have done a better job. But in other news I found the third coil, and found some interesting issues. See the photo below: the small pin (A) was stuck in the supposed home switch. While in oper mode, the RO would continuously spin, After some tapping, the pin was free and the RO stopped at home position. If i were to move the wobble plate? forward, simulating a selection being made, the RO will start and search for a pulled pin. As for the coil, I found continuity between points B and C but no readable current. Could be checking in wrong place. I don't have enough hands to see what it reads when a selection made! Am i on to anything here? I still don't see how this controls the write in hammer coils. But at least I think I know how to get the the RO to stop at home position! Let me know if I am testing this right! Thanks

Hi
The pulse to fire the write in coil comes via the accumulator reset and adr relay in the credit unit and the write coils should read i think around 50 ohms, perhaps they are both faulty thats all i can narrow it down to apart from dirty slip rings on the wobble plate but you have cleaned them. Most times when they are dirty the write in arm won't even stop
clones