Quoted from DaveH:Well that might be a bit unrealistic. Yes, I'd agree there is a switch problem. However, I don't think any pinball company could write software that could account for every single failure that could happen. It's not medical software, it's a pinball machine. The type of testing required to find every possible failure is massively expensive and time consuming. With an obvious issue like he has the thing to do is track down and fix the bad switch. Not blame programming and ball search routines.
I'm just stating that I am really surprised at the amount of obvious issues I see with the error handling and ball search logic on my 2 Stern games (ACDC and MET). Anyhow, as to the problem the guy is having. I'll just go over again some basic troubleshooting:
I'm assuming it's the launch coil that is chattering?
Coil test. Does the coil chatter like it does during gameplay in test mode?
Switch test. Does the switch for the mini playfield ball area work at all? Does it show signs of being intermittent? You will probably need to raise the playfield so the ball rolls forward. Check for the switch opening and closing intermittently. You can flip the flippers or gently nudge/tap the playfield to induce vibration which can reveal intermittent switches. Don't tap on the clear window though....
Is there anything causing the coil to stick in the extended position? If it's getting stuck, it might be interrupting the opto switch and causing this behaviour too.
Rob