EDIT: 11/7/14: Found a solder joint on the back of the driver board that had the J1-2 and J1-3 touching, I re-soldered them and the game appears to work as intended!

EDIT:10/29/14: Issue below was a fuse, game boots with the last driver board that was used, center pop bumper does not fire.

EDIT 10/28/14: Game no longer boots since putting in different driver board after it had booted and played once before.

EDIT: Found that when the chime 10 coil fires so does the down post coil.

Hey guys, having some issues with a Power Play, any advice is greatly appreciated.

1. game tells me that switch 25 (post down rollovers x2) are closed, while they are not physically closed, they do not respond in anyway when pressed.

2. Up Post acts funny, it raises as intended, however it drops when the ball goes into the saucer or a target bank is completed, the light at the post stays on however. Its only supposed to go down when the ball goes through the return lanes, rolls over one of the two rollovers, or when a new ball starts.

I'm bringing this one back, so the original post was made 10 months ago when I was in Florida at my dad's house where the game was. It is now currently at my place in Philadelphia and I'd like to get this all sorted out now. As per the original post, #1 is no longer a problem, all the rollovers work as intended. However #2 is still a problem, I took some video of the issue, I didnt drop a bank of targets in the video but doing that does the same thing that's shown in the video when the post is up and then the ball goes into the top saucer.

Could this be a board issue? Let me know if there's any other video or pics I can take, Im not quite sure what to do from here. Thanks.

Some kind of anomaly?

Alright thanks, i was going to check the board today, im still learning to read schematics but im getting better at it, I did notice there was a jumper on the mpu board so that might be it, not sure what its there for. I can post a photo of it in a few hours.

Ok, so I cant see any visible burns or damage on the boards (except where the battery used to be). The battery is gone from the mpu board and it does have a jumper on it but i believe its to bypass a bad trace on the board.

mpu.jpg

The J3 connector on the solenoid driver board appears to have been worked on (judging by the masking tape with pin numbers on them)

solenoid driver.jpg

Having messed around with the playfield more, I noticed that the slingshot switches and the switches that are behind the drop targets also make the center post drop but the center post light stays on. It would seem any 10pt or 100pt switch makes the post drop (plus the saucer at the top and when the target banks reset).

I thought this was maybe due to vibration from the coils or something accidentally triggering the down post rollovers. But I can use the flippers no problem without the post going down and theres no vibration when the switch behind the drop targets is hit.

Im a bit stumped, something tells me something is wired wrong somewhere but im not sure where to look.

I dont have a good answer for this. After having the game shipped, when I first turned the game on Monday, they were working fine.

There are no switches stuck and all switches test normally.

I checked every plug on that connector and they all match up with what's on the schematics.

What would cause all of those switches to activate that coil that pulls the post down? Could it be a missing capacitor or diode missing from a playfield switch? or a bad diode at the coil?

Morning bump. Any input is much appreciated, gonna check the diodes in a few hours, also someone on facebook suggested swapping the pia chips around to see if that does anything.

Ok, ive found that the CHIME 10 coil also activates the DOWN POST coil, which explains why all those other switches activate the down post coil, cause they all score 10pts. And when the drop targets reset it rings that chime coil 3 times, and watching the down post coil during the target reset it fires 3 times. The down post coil also fires in test when the chime 10 coil fires.

So I was getting continuity across all the pins, meaning it was reading a closed circuit across A4J4 1-4 through every pin at A3J4 3-6. I took the boards off with the J4 connectors still plugged in on both boards and tested continuity at those pins on the back of the boards like you said.

Also getting 2.0-4.8v at each of those pins during the solenoid test.

Using a flashlight and looking at the connectors closely i dont see anything wrong with the female end, but i didnt take the crimps out of the housing, should I?

currently the knocker is disconnected, and so is my right flipper, the COIN LOCKOUT DOOR doesnt fire, the POST DOWN coil fires twice, once when it's supposed to, and then again right after when the next coil fires CHIME 10

How can I test the decoder?

The voltages at the 4 pins on decoder that come from connector J4 fluctuate while the game is in solenoid test.

I have a few PIA chips from old boards that I've been swapping onto the current mpu board but there is no change.

Im trying to avoid spending $200 on a new mpu if i can help it, but its starting to look that way, but i cant even be sure thats where the problem is.

I have a few actually, not sure if there's anything wrong with them since they weren't already in the game, but ill give them a try.

Alright, so astonishingly enough, one of the other driver boards makes the game work as intended. Like many had speculated, something on that other driver board i had in must have not been working right. Im gonna hope this holds up. Thanks everyone for your advice and help.

Ugh...soo, now the game wont boot. MPU gets to 6 flashes and stops. I tried switching out PIA2 at U11, cause from what I've read thats what get checked before the 7th flash, but to no avail.

Where should I go from here, I tried about four different driver boards and get the same thing, 6 flashes from the mpu. Im guessing I should either try desoldering the socket at U11 and putting a new one on or just buy a new mpu board?

Sorry Im a bit eager, I have about 20 people coming over this weekend and I wanted this guy up and running (I know thats not your guys' problem). Any advice is appreciated.

Replaced fuse F4, game boots now with the most recent driver board that was used. However the center pop bumper does not fire, I may not have noticed this the last time the game booted and played with this current driver board.

No.

Nothing happens when i ground Q9, and now the right pop bumper and 10pt chime dont fire during play or test. Another decoder problem on this board too probably?

ok, I figured out how to ground the transistors, (I was using my DMM before, which doesnt work, using a wire with alligator clips now) so when I ground Q1 the 10pt chime coil and the down post coil fire at the same time. The same thing happens when I ground Q2, the same two coils fire simultaneously.

You were right! Found a solder joint on the back of the driver board that had the J1-2 and J1-3 touching, I re-soldered them and the game appears to work as intended!