Check the opto there.

Power off. Reseat ribbon cable from fliptronics board to CPU, both ends.

If that doesn't do it. Then go to Utilities and hit new location. See if it relearns the shot in about ten games or so.

LTG : )™

Check all the switches... entrance to bear ramp, top of bear ramp, opto above thing flipper.

Report back.

If the opto is working when the ball passes buy you will hear( gurgling)and see the swamp activate if thats not happenin make sure the opto is aligned .

This happened to me to, but my situation may be a little more obscure. The rivet on the leftmost GRAVE stand up became loose and allowed the target to "lean" into the thing opto, shorting it. Thing would not flip and the swamp would activate randomly. Fixed the leaning target and all was right again.

Go into your switch test and make sure that opto is working. Just run your finger or ball by the hole leading out of the popbumpers (above the small flipper). The opto may have been knocked out of place behind the "G" in grave.

Check the other side (sender) then.

Not necessarily. Pull the opto connector and remove the optos. Reflow the solder pad connections and clean the optos with q-tip to get any black dust off. Reinstall making sure the optos can see each other thru the lane guides and test again.

A pair of new optos are like $3 or something. If you're going to take everything apart and get out the soldering iron, why not just replace them. They'll go bad anyway eventually, right?

Edit - they're a little more expensive than I thought. $5 each from Marco without the plastic mount.

Are you talking about this? http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-8506-1

That's up to you, but it's not how I do repairs. I don't replace stuff unless it needs to be replaced whether its $3 or not.

If you see his response above you'll see opto replacement wasn't necessary at all.

That's a good point. I thought maybe my suggestion was more newbie friendly.

I went through this same issue with mine, took it all apart, re-flowed, put it all back together, and had the same issues. Had to order the part and do the whole thing all over again. If I had just replaced it the first time, I would have only had to do the work once instead of twice.

I get that. But it can go the other way too. Buy the parts and replace and it still doesn't work. Then find out it was another connector.

There are ways of using your cell phone to test both the transmitter and receiver, but I wasn't going to suggest that just yet until he did the simple stuff first...

Mine would move every couple weeks so about a year ago I put this rubber around it ,never had a problem since

image.jpg

PL has good pricing for these for a pair at $7:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=167

Or just $4 for the receiver:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=169

I am having a similar issue with my Addams Family. The Thing flipper has stopped automatically flipping. It use to announce "let's go Thing" Then it would flip and make it most of the time. I have tried the recommended things to try that is stated in this thread. I have tried resetting cables, resetting it to new location, tried resetting to factory settings, checked the optos in test mode. It seems to recognize the ball passing thru the optos in the test. Everything else seems to be working. Is there an easy way to test the optos? I see that Marcos has them. I may just go ahead and change out the transmitter and the receiver. Is there anything else to try first? It's been a while since this issued has been addressed. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

Once you do the new location, it takes at least 10 games to learn the shot.

LTG : )

Thanks for the response LTG. I failed to mention that this seemed to start after I installed Cloud Topper lights. Or maybe that's just when I noticed it quit working. I doubled checked to make sure every connector is oriented correctly. I also recently installed the Color DMD. The Color DMD and the Cloud Topper both plug into J-116. Is it possible that there is too much load on J-116 and it's affecting the Thing automatically flipping? The Thing flipper is not even trying to flip automatically. I'll still give it 10 games or more.

Bingo. Unplug power to the color DMD. Play a bunch of games blind, see if things improve.

LTG : )