I just changed out the batteries in all of my games and now my BSD will not load the Mist multi-ball into the side pocket by lifting the shooter ramp. All of the battery replacements went as expected without any issues. My batteries on all of my games are off of the CPU board as I have remote battery holders on my WMS/Bally games and NVRAM on my DE games and lithium wafer batteries on my Stern and JJP games.

The strange thing is that when I run solenoid tests the shooter ramp raises as expected so that a ball can be loaded up into the Mist multi-ball pocket under the castle. The trough ejects all four balls in test mode as well.

When I turn the game on I see the Mist magnet continuously moving back and forth under the playfield as though it wants to load a ball into the Mist multi-ball pocket. I haven't played this game for a month or so and it has always worked flawlessly previously. I ran the magnet tests, but I am not sure what I should be looking for with that so guidance will be needed.

I know that there are quite a few posts on this issue so I will be perusing the Pinside database to see if I can find an answer, however I also wanted to ask the pinball tech wizards on here what steps they would recommend to troubleshoot this issue.

Let me know what you all think and I will search for troubleshooting steps here as well. Thanks.

Gord

Nope, power was on for the battery change, unless the setting was somehow lost prior due to low battery voltage. I will check in adjustments to see if Mist ball is on or off in the settings. I did find a Homepin 24" opto replacement board that I purchased in June of 2013 in my parts stash.

https://www.pinballlife.com/24-opto-replacement-board-a-15646.html

I will check the Mist ball settings and if they are correct I will swap in the Homepin 24" opto replacement board and see if that fixes the issue.

Gord

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After installing the Homepin replacement 24" opto board it works a little better, but still has some problems. Below are 2 videos.

The first video is a magnet test via diagnostics and the second video is what happens when I turn the game on now. Upon startup it does load a ball into the Mist pocket, but it does that several times and kicks out the ball already in the Mist pocket.

I am getting some flasher interference errors on some of the magnet tests during diagnostics. I am not sure why that is happening now.

Gord

BSD Magnet Test via Diagnostics

BSD Game Startup

After installing the Homepin replacement 24" opto board upon startup a ball enters the shooter lane and is loaded into the magnet pocket. Then it repeats this several more times and each time the game releases the ball from the magnet pocket back onto the playfield and then another ball is loaded into the magnet pocket.

Video links are in the post above this post.

Gord

Hi @wxforecaster,

I haven't changed any lighting on this game in the 7.5 years that I have owned the game. All I have really done to it is change the batteries every 2 years and replace any burnt out bulbs whenever I notice it.

I appreciate your responses. It figures that the optos in question are a PITA to get to. I am not quite sure how I will proceed at this point. Let me think on it as I don't want to break anything getting at the optos. The 'finesse' word sort of scares me a bit to be honest as that is not my forte.

Gord

I uninstalled the Homepin replacement 24" opto board and re-installed the original BSD opto board. Now the flasher errors during diagnostic magnet testing and the continuous loading of a ball into the Mist pocket are gone. However, I am back to the original problem where a ball will not load into the Mist pocket when the game is turned on.

This is strange and I will likely seek out assistance from a local pinball tech if I can find one in the Denver area. I have already started another thread for Denver area pinball tech recommendations as the pinball tech that I have used previously (Dan Gutchess) is really good, however that was 7.5 years ago and I am not sure he does home service calls anymore or if my contact information for him is correct.

Gord

Thanks for the lead, I sent Ryan a PM last night regarding this issue as I thought he might have a lead on a good pinball technician.

Gord

With the original BSD opto board installed I tried that on both sides and when I started a game it kicked the ball out of the pocket on the right side so I put a ball on the left side pocket and the magnet started to take it across the playfield from L to R and then about halfway or so it dropped the ball.

With the original BSD opto board installed the game will not load a ball into the Mist pocket as the shooter ramp will not raise and the magnet continually travels from R to L and the L to R across the playfield. With the Homepin replacement 24" opto board the game will load a ball into the Mist pocket, however it then kicks that ball out after a few seconds and loads another ball into the Mist pocket and this behavior continues until the game is shut off.

Gord

Thank you to everyone who replied and a special thanks to Tom Grobe who put up with a handful of phone calls from me and patiently walked me through the issue. I ended up replacing the right long opto (switch #82) after I had replaced the original WMS opto board with the Homepin 24" replacement opto board and now the Mist Ball is playing perfectly again.

I am not sure if just replacing the long range opto fixed the issue as I didn't go back and test the new opto with the original WMS opto board. All of the other errors that I was getting during the magnet test in diagnostic mode also went away with the new opto installed.

The proper behavior for the Mist ball if everything is working correctly is detailed in the thread posting listed below.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bram-stokers-dracula-clubmembers-only/page/153#post-6070782

Gord

Hi @steve-o,

I pulled the transmitting opto out of my electronics parts stash. I had purchased the opto 7-11 years ago. I am pretty sure I purchased my optos from Marco Specialties or Pinball Life.

Original BSD Opto Part
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-14315

Replacement Opto Transmitter
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-16908
https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-infared-led-opto-assembly-transmitter.html
https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-infared-led-opto-assembly-set.html

Another BSD Long Range Opto Thread
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/another-bsd-opto-problem-%E2%80%93-out-of-ideas-please-help

Gord

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Switch # 82 Part Number From BSD Manual

BSD_Switch_82.pdf