Solid State Pinball Chime ---Capacitor???

[ramrod213]

I have a 1978 Gottlieb Charlie's Angels pinball machine. It originally came with an electronic sound card which produced quite horrible-sounding bleeps and bloops. I bought an old chime unit and retrofitted Solid-State-capable chime solenoids (with blocking diodes) so that it will work in a computer-controlled game. Basically it is working fine. After a couple attempts I have finally found the right coils to use so that the chimes ring loud and clear. However, when rung in rapid succession, the sound volume (strike of the solenoid?) gets weaker as this originally had that electronic sound card being driven with the driver board transistors and now they are driving chime solenoids (which have to physically move). I think that if I somehow add a capacitor (size unknown) to the circuit it might help the chimes ring more evenly by keeping more voltage available. Attached is a simplified schematic I have created. Would this work and would I need a blocking diode anywhere also to prevent damage to the bridge rectifier and/or transformer?

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir ramrod213 . . . . . . .

If the Rectifier and storage cap are there already, it only seems logical that a progressively larger capacitance will extend the permissible drain down time.
Since one doesn't typically make scores at very fast rates . . .right ?


73's de Edd

 

[ramrod213]

Thanks for the response. Actually the capacitor is NOT in the circuit. My question is will adding one do the trick. Would this be the correct way to wire it in?

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir ramrod213 . . . . . . .
You have it shown right . . . .now its just a matter of progressively raising the capacitance to adequately meet your reserve demands.
220 or 470 or 1000 or 2200 or 3300- ufd ? and use a 50/63 VDC rated cap or higher.
That would all be related to the repetition of the activation of a "scores" short duration of current pull.
A very educated guess would be that the timing portion of the control circuitry for that chime function, is probably initiating a grounding action for ~ 500 milliseconds duration.

That rectified DC . . . NOW being filtered . . .is going to be up from that initial nominal 24 VDC .
We will only worry about that, if the strength of the chime activation might abberate the current tonal quality / voicing.

BTW is this just a single "DING" chime or does the solenoids gravity fall create a "DONG" . . . . . with a resultant DING-DONG ?
(But, with no Twinkies being involved ! )


73's de Edd

 

[ramrod213]

Thank you for your input. To answer your question, its a single "ding" from the solenoid throwing the punger up. It falls down and is muted by beer seal. The way it does the multiple scores or actually the sounds of the scores, for instance, if you roll the ball over a 500 point switch it rings the 100 point chime 5 times quickly in a row. Same thing with the end of ball bonus, if the multiplier is 2X it will ring the thousand point chime twice per bonus point lit and so on. This is where the problem becomes evident. Single points or start of game song sound fine. Ill go to the "Shack" tomarrow and do some cap. shopping.

 

[73's de Edd]

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Sir ramrod213 . . . . . . .

If they are in stock, looks like their offerings in a 50VDC rating are 1000 and 2200 ufd or a summation of those multiples.

Lucky you have access to a store there . . . . here I sit in a 6.4 million megopolis . . . with Radio Shacks Interplanatary Headquarters (Fote Werth ah luvs yew . . .) being but a mere 25 miles away.
After their restructuring, I am only having two stores within a decent drive able distance.

73's de Edd




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