I have owned my Drac for about 8 years now. Bought it at a general auction in a pretty bad way and fixed 1000 things. It is a stayer that's for sure. When I had trouble with the mist multi-ball "24 inch opto board" (the manual incorrectly calls it "24 opto") I redesigned the circuit and this new board has kept many Dracula owners happy.

http://www.homepin.com/bsd.html

Probably nobody

........or stainless steel wire

There are a lot of useful fault finding techniques for the 24" opto board in this thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bsd-mist-woes-long-beam-opto

You are bending the wire part NOT the flat metal mounting.

The reason is to allow the ball to JUST get through when the gate is actuated by the solenoid.

There isn't a lot of movement when the gate is actuated so it has to be bent "just right".

bsd (resized).jpg

As a general rule never ever lubricate any pinball parts. They are designed to run dry - adding lubricant will create a gooey black mess that makes things X100 worse.

Could you please check and make sure the power (12V) LED lights on the replacement board. After that check that the green "beam" LED lights when the board is plugged in. The beam LED indicates when the TX and RX (long throw - 24") optos are "seeing" each other.

If the board doesn't do the above please tell me where you bought it (in PM) and I will make it good for you.

Nope, Infrared doesn't care about that sort of thing. If it did IR receivers wouldn't be black.

There is no need for an additional diode at the battery pack BUT some people like to fit an extra diode if they are using a 4 x battery holder to fill the space where the 4th battery would usually go. If fitted you will lose about 0.6V from your battery pack so this will probably result in the usable life of your batteries being shortened a little.

Towards the bottom of the page here there are several types - you haven't told us which optos you are looking for exactly?

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=19&pg=1

If it has a green LED to indicate the beam is intact then it will be a Homepin board for sure.

Happy to assist if there is a board problem.

Install the board - make sure the path between the TX and RX LEDs is free of obstructions - look to see if the green LED is illuminated - if it is, break the light beam across the playfield with your hand and observe that the green LED goes off and on as you break the beam.

If it does - the board, the LEDs and wiring is all OK. You problem is elsewhere.

If not - we need to look further at the LEDs and the wiring and plugs to them.

For those using the Homepin board here are a few faultfinding tips.

First, assume that the new board is working. It's easy to blame an unknown but we go to extraordinary lengths to ensure the board is 100% when it leaves the factory. The chances of it being faulty are very slim.

Plug the new board in and make sure the green LED lights showing that the beam across the playfield is working.

IGNORE all other things. Forget about any DMD displays, warnings etc. Just concentrate ONLY on the new board and getting the green LED to light. Do not bother with any of the machines self tests at this early stage.

If the green LED doesn't light, chances are high that either the optos (TX and/or RX) are shot or poorly aligned. Attend to them as required and check the soundness of all wiring and connectors between them and the new board.

Again, IGNORE everything else until you get this green LED illuminated. You are wasting your time looking anywhere else. The mist ball will never work until you get this long opto beam working correctly.

A very simple bench test for those who doubt the board is working:

Wire a TX LED to a plug for J2 and an RX Phototransistor to J1, then plug them into the new Homepin board directly. Apply 12V and the green LED will light. Using a steel ruler or similar you can break the light connection between the two LEDs to confirm. The RX and TX are marked clearly on the new board. You can even solder the TX and RX directly to the PCB on the solder side for a quick test.

Also be aware that there are many replacement parts out there (RX/TX) that have the leads reversed in the body. These parts work perfectly BUT must be connected the wrong way around. See my other thread on this issue.

ir_silk (resized).jpg

Yes, they are only there as spacers for the resistors to keep them away from the PCB.

This is a common issue with all WMS machines of this era. It's caused by the 5V rail sagging below the reset threshold of the microprocessor.

I suggest you read the Pinwiki on "WMS resets" and follow the suggested procedures there.

You could try "wiggling" the connectors on the main driver board to the right of the bank of fuses, J101 & J102. These provide the power to the board from the mains transformer and do cause trouble. If the fault goes away you should replace the plugs AND the pins on the board as a set to future proof it.

One warning I would make is that some people will suggest that you replace the big electro caps on the driver board. DO NOT do this until you have exhausted all other suggestions as it is VERY easy to damage the board and cause more problems.

All jumpers REMOVED also defaults to English.

As others have suggested you probably should pull the 24" opto boards and inspect it. It is mounted UNDER the PF.

I suggest replace the electro cap, carefully inspect the choke (L1) and look for dry jointed connector pins. After that it's time to replace the board as the IC used is just no longer available. The suggestions above seem to fix about 1/3 of these boards so well worth a look.

https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=4362

The optos usually won't be required.

There is a volume override for minimum volume setting - somewhere in the menu.

The only thing worth trying is have a close look at the choke on the board. It has very fine wires that break off. You can scrape back some of the coating and attach a new wire if you find a broken wire.

Also replace the electro cap on the board. They can leak and cause issues.

If those things don't fix it I'm afraid there is little else can be done as the main IC is simply not available and the rest of the parts don't give any trouble.