Star Tech Journal

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Willia1ns Taxi
Flipper Power
Data East Solid
State Flipper
Chris Richards
Coin-Op Inc
Webb City, Missouri
Todd Erickson
Summit Amusement
St. Paul, Minnesota
PROBLEM
I recently ran into some trouble with a Taxi
pin, which may seem kinda stupid to some
of you, but it sure had me stumped for a little
while. Ever run into a Taxi in which the
flippers just don't seem to have quite all the
power they should? They won't quite make
the ramp shots, or if they do, it is
jijuuussssssttttt barely?
IN THE BEGINNING
The flipper assembly has always been the
most troublesome part of a pinball. In the
past, basically nothing had been done until
Williams introduced their parallel coil on F-
14 Tomcat. This coil was the one single item
that was a major help to reliability. It elimi-
nated over 95% of coil burnouts. The EOS
(end-of-stroke) also lasted ten times longer.
Next the coil was turned so that the wires
were on the plunger end. This eliminated coil
and diode breakage.
You tear it down, replace the coils, file your
EOS (end-of-stroke) switches, replace the
despiking caps, file the cabinet flipper
switches, check your flipper voltage, replace
driver boards; nothing seems to improve the
situation.
SOLUTION
Try cleaning J:he bushing that the flipper
paddle shaft slides through. I pulled the
flipper paddle out, and it was caked with
worn nylon, playfield dirt, wax, and other
goodies. Same items were present inside of
the bushing.
Once I cleaned those out, the flippers re-
turned to full power, just like brand new! It
is now shop policy to do this on all pinballs.
It is absolutely amazing how much zip this
one thing has added to the playfield, with a
corresponding increase in revenues!
THE FUTURE IS NOW
The next step in the evolution of the pinball
flipper is by the new guys on the block - Data
East. They introduced the first solid state
flipper to the industry on their new game
Playboy. The flipper feels excellent and with
no problems so far. The coil works on 50V
and holds on 9VAC. I am looking forward to
seeing it in full production. Another nice part
is that the flipper PCB can be eliminated
with an EOS in an emergency.
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