Episode 63 - More Search Disc Woes

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·12m 56s·analyzed·May 13, 2015

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Nick debugs Ticker Tape scoring issues through relay adjustment and discovers score card documentation mismatch.

Summary

Nick Baldridge details ongoing troubleshooting of scoring problems on his Ticker Tape bingo machine, including tension arm adjustments, relay switch arcing, and search disc wiper finger alignment issues. He discovers that scoring discrepancies were caused by using incorrect score instruction cards, emphasizing the importance of verifying documentation. The episode covers diagnostic techniques for EM bingo machines, including continuity testing, wire integrity inspection, and the challenges of multi-card search unit systems.

Key Claims

Search disc wiper finger adjustment is extremely difficult and should be left alone unless obviously misadjusted
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, from personal experience troubleshooting Ticker Tape
Ticker Tape is the only bingo game Nick owns or has worked on that has multiple cards and therefore multiple search units
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, stated directly in episode
Small wires connecting wiper arms to slip rings are vulnerable to breakage inside cladding due to constant flexing, especially when not properly secured with electrical tape and zip ties
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, from experience working on multiple bingo machines including Bounty
Search relay number 3 on card 4-6 search unit had severe pitting and required flipping the switch to use large contact surfaces instead of pitted contacts
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, describing work performed on Ticker Tape this session
Ticker Tape's original scoring instruction cards list 16 replays for four-in-a-row on card one, but the operator had substituted generic six-card score cards that listed 20 replays
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, verified by consulting bingo.cdyn.com reference documents
Card 5 search index coil is not pulling in at all, likely due to wiper finger misalignment rather than a deeper electrical issue
medium confidence · Nick Baldridge, speculative assessment pending further troubleshooting
Bally designed the search relay panel to be removable and flippable for easier access to switches without desoldering
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, from direct observation of Ticker Tape design

Notable Quotes

“I'd rather it work accurately 90% of the time than not at all.”
Nick Baldridge @ ~mid-episode — Reflects pragmatic approach to EM maintenance when perfect restoration isn't feasible; illustrates tension between perfectionism and functionality in vintage machine repair
“I highly suggest leaving those alone unless you feel like pulling some hair out, unless they're obviously misadjusted.”
Nick Baldridge @ ~mid-episode — Strong cautionary advice about search wiper finger adjustment difficulty; likely to be referenced by other bingo technicians
“because a partially broken wire will cause all kinds of weird phantom behavior, and I've had that before and had to fix that on Bounty.”
Nick Baldridge @ ~early-mid episode — Diagnostic principle for intermittent electrical failures; demonstrates cross-game troubleshooting knowledge
“And I've mentioned this before on many episodes because it always, always, always bites me in the back when I least expect it.”
Nick Baldridge @ ~mid-episode — Self-aware humor about equipment limitations affecting troubleshooting; running gag about defective multimeter probe
“double check your score and instruction cards make sure that they're appropriate for your bingo game”
Nick Baldridge @ ~late episode — Key takeaway and practical advice for bingo machine operators; emphasizes documentation verification

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonTicker Tapegame Bountygame BallycompanyFor Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball PodcastorganizationPhilperson

Signals

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restoration_signal: Detailed troubleshooting methodology for EM bingo machine scoring issues, including tension arm inspection, relay switch cleaning, wire continuity testing under movement simulation, and wiper finger alignment verification
high · Nick's systematic approach to diagnosing multiple concurrent failures on Ticker Tape search units
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restoration_signal: Documentation of relay switch pitting and arcing issues in older machines; discussion of carbon buildup and contact surface degradation as ongoing maintenance concerns
high · Severe pitting found on search relay #3 requiring contact flipping; discussion of carbon buildup requiring future cleaning
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restoration_signal: Identification of cold solder joints and internal wire breakage inside protective cladding as common source of intermittent scoring failures in EM machines
high · Nick's experience with broken wires inside cladding on multiple machines; emphasis on wiggling wires during continuity testing
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community_signal: Podcast serving as educational platform for EM bingo machine restoration techniques and diagnostic best practices
high · Structured episode format with specific troubleshooting tips and actionable advice for listeners
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product_concern: Discovery of incorrect score instruction cards affecting game scoring; operator substitution of generic six-card sets for original machine-specific documentation
high · Ticker Tape scoring discrepancy (20 vs 16 replays) resolved by consulting bingo.cdyn.com reference documentation

Topics

Search disc troubleshooting and repairprimaryRelay switch maintenance and arcing issuesprimaryEM bingo machine scoring systemsprimaryWire continuity testing and diagnostic methodologyprimaryWiper finger alignment and adjustment challengesprimaryImportance of accurate documentation (score cards)secondaryMulti-card search unit complexitysecondaryPreventive maintenance techniquessecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.55)— Nick expresses frustration with persistent debugging challenges and documentation inconsistencies, but maintains constructive problem-solving attitude and finds satisfaction in fixing issues. Tone is pragmatic and humorous about limitations and setbacks.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.039

what's that sound it's for amusement only the em and bingo pinball podcast welcome back to for amusement only this is Nicholas Baldridge so my search disc woes continue scoring problems usually take a bit of time to troubleshoot and in this case there were a few different problems that I found and corrected today that I hadn't noticed last night. The first of which, those tension arms that I had mentioned that can cause a problem if they're not the appropriate tension were not the appropriate tension, at least one of them. It had been adjusted at some point in its life and bent out of shape, and so it wasn't, even though it was deflected against the cylinder that it's attached to, it wasn't making good contact in all instances. So I fixed that, and that brought me back cards 4 and 6 scoring, which I was pretty happy about. And then I noticed that I was getting some arcing on some of the number relays, so 1 through 5. So I took another look, and to take a look at those, they're all wired in series, or in parallel, rather, the coils on the power side. so because they're all connected you can't separate them without desoldering them. Well, I don't like to do that unless I have to because again, I'm lazy and I'd rather make a lot more work for myself. So thankfully Bally thought of lazy folks like myself and what they did is put them on a panel that's removable and you can flip it down and then look at the switches and adjust as necessary. Now, each of the switches on search 1 through 5 are of the type that have a second bent piece of metal backing up the short edge of the switch. The short piece of metal provides deflection and allows the switch to bounce. As I mentioned last night, timing is absolutely critical on these switches, and if they don't close at the appropriate time, then you'll never get a hold for your scores. Now here's an infuriating thing. On Ticker Tape, as I mentioned, this is the only game that I have and that I've ever worked on, and I've worked on quite a few bingos that weren't my own, that has multiple cards. And so because it has multiple cards it has two different search units and therefore all the problems that occur in one search unit can occur in the second Now the search unit that scores on cards 1 through 3 was working 100 correctly And so it was driving me a bit insane. So I took the search unit apart again this afternoon and took a look and toned everything out one more time just to make sure because a partially broken wire will cause all kinds of weird phantom behavior, and I've had that before and had to fix that on Bounty. Now, here on ticker tape, I wiggled all the wires around. The only thing I haven't done, the small wires, which go from the wiper arms up to the slip rings, are connected via a small solder point on the bottom of the search wiper assembly. And everything toned out there. But typically, these were electrical taped into place around the shaft and then zip-tied. and this prevented the wires from flexing too much. Now, I've certainly had the problem before where a wire was broken inside of the cladding underneath that zip tie just because they move around all the time and they flex. And so, what's going to happen? It's going to shear at some point. There's just not enough strength in that thin, thin wire to actually hold it together. So, that doesn't happen on every game, and it's a rarity, but it does happen. And if you're having scoring problems, it's worth investigating, you know, toning everything out, and cutting the whole thing apart, and just making sure that if you wiggle the wire this way and that, you still have conductivity. Now, part of my laziness and cheapness is that I refuse to buy a new meter. and the positive probe on my meter is a piece of junk and I have spare leads, but it appears to be inside of the meter and I just haven't taken it apart yet to see what's going on, but it doesn't provide good conductivity depending on where on the probe you touch. And I've mentioned this before on many episodes because it always, always, always bites me in the back when I least expect it. So in this case, though, I'm able to tone the thing out and get, you know, a good beep. But I can't trust it. Because of my stupid meter and my own stupid personality, it could very well be fooling me. So one of these days, I promise I'll get a new meter. but until that time I have to go on my gut And so I adjusted all of those individual search number relays 1 through 5 and cleaned them And in search relay number 3's case, there had been severe pitting. And I ended up, I had filed it previously, but it was still arcing. So I cleaned it, and it still acted as if it was fouled, so I ended up flipping that switch over so that the large contact surface hit the large contact surface. Now the only problem with doing this is that carbon will build up on it, and I will have to clean it again in the future. But I'd rather it work accurately 90% of the time than not at all. so my current status is that it will search and find everything in card 1 through 3 just fine on card 4 through 6 it's barely making contact with the wiper fingers when it actually does decide that I have a winner and then I have to make sure that it's making good contact before I try to push the regular score button or the double score button. So I decided to take a step back because that was driving me crazy. Trying to adjust those little fingers so that they're all perfectly centered on the rivets as they pass is maddening sometimes. I highly suggest leaving those alone unless you feel like pulling some hair out, unless they're obviously misadjusted. but I never learned my own lessons, so... So, I started troubleshooting the scoring. Now, I had mentioned previously that there was a feature that had been blacked out on the scoring instruction cards that I thought the operator had cut out of the machine. Well, when I went to look up the scoring instruction cards, I realized, in the schematic, Actually, I hadn't looked at the score and instruction cards until tonight, but I'm getting there. So, on the schematic, that unit and the associated feature that it provided didn't appear. So I realized that that feature wasn't present in the game, and that the operator had substituted just a generic six-card score and instruction card set. So, keeping that in mind, I'm troubleshooting scoring, So on card number one, if you get three in a row, you earn four replays. If you get four in a row, the score and instruction cards in the game said you earned 16 replays. Well, I was consistently getting 20. I said, hmm, that's not right. So I moved on and double-checked all the scoring on cards number two and three, and those came up appropriately. and card number four came up appropriately as well And I said that kind of weird Card number six is where I ended up breaking four five and six and I think I'm going to leave it for tonight and take another look tomorrow. But card number one, with it scoring 16 instead of 20, I went back and looked and checked and made sure that the unit that handles counting the replays was actually counting appropriately, and it was. If you get half steps or weird things of that nature, it will cause it to miscount. But it had been adjusted previously, and I went through all the units when I bought the machine and made sure that they stepped up and back crisply, and they all do. So, now I'm left with the situation where it's a mystery as to why it's happening. So I start looking at the schematic, and something's not adding up. So I decide to take a look at the score and instruction cards that are on Phil's site at bingo.cdyn.com. Well, what do you know? Ticker tape, you earn 20 replays if you get four in a line on the first card. the good news is at least I've fixed two other games that had minor issues so I don't feel all that bad but that can be irritating so double check your score and instruction cards make sure that they're appropriate for your bingo game and if you don't have to adjust the search wiper arms don't do it. Check conductivity. Make sure that you wiggle the wire around because as the wire flexes and moves, it's going to change the conductivity, possibly, if you've got a cold solder joint or you've got broken wire inside the cladding. So that's all the tips for tonight. and hopefully I'll have the search disk thing beaten by tomorrow. Card number five, I can't get it to stop consistently on or at all. It's not pulling in the search index coil at all for card number five. So I'm hoping when I adjust the wiper fingers completely correctly, it will suddenly burst into life. I don't think that that's going to be the case, but a man can dream. So, thank you again for listening to my rant here tonight. My name again is Nicholas Baldridge. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com. And you can listen to us at 4amusementonly.libsyn.com. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Cast, via RSS, on Facebook, and on our website. Thanks again for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.