Hi

Just bought a TCP and in the process of buying played a quick game.. no abnormalities.

At home (after reconnecting all the wires, due to shipping) started the machine and played a game. It had no problems at all!

But in the [first] game a ball got into the speed bag area, and WHOOP all of a sudden the machine restarted.

Searched for known trouble issues. Yes it could be one of the high voltage coils making a short to the low voltage switch line! Damn...

So, I removed the speedbag platform and it looked like it could be the problem indeed -> there was a loose winding of a coil which could easily make connection to the iron assy. Secondly, the speedbagswitch had lost of most of it's foam and the nut could easily get in tough with the leave on the back of the switch.

- Most obvious it would have blown at least the U20 [ULN2803A] and probably the security chip, which I read on an article.

FIRST I took care of the short for now in putting isolation tape on the spots where wire could contact the iron + isolated the back leaf of the speedbagswitch.

SECOND I could get hold on the U20 chip quickly so replaced that to see if it solved the problem.

RESULT: ground error removed, but got replace by several other errors:
1. Close coindoor high voltage line out of order [not exact those words but you'll understand]
2. Boxer malfunction
3. Jump rope malfunction

In addition to error 1: Strangly it does seem to have the 50V line active since the jumprope keeps going and it keeps spitting balls into the shooter lane, even with the door open!

Oke, so the Q10 needs to be replaced to... which I had to order... wait... wait... it arrived. Swapped the chip -> fingers crossed + start machine = no result! Same three errors remained in tact!

SWITCH LEVEL:
If in test mode [switch level] you see the switch matrix and without anything pushed there are several 'points' lit up. It seem to be of the opto's. And there flashing a bit. I have no clue!

I'm not educated in pinball electronic problem solving so I turn to you my dear Pinside friends

I hope you could help me out here and provide a very understandable explanation.

Thank you upfront!

Still hoping for an worthy reply...

Hi fans!

Made a vid of the switch test... you'll see strange flickering in the test. Secondary; the manual does not show the same switches to be closed permanently on a Champion Pub.

What could it be?

Small update on the issue...

It seems the current problem could be come from several places on the board... Although a little hesitant I began step by step swapping the usual suspects on the CPU board:

- U18 [LM339] now on a bridge -> but no solution...
- U19 [LM339] now on a bridge -> but no solution...
- U5 [74LS14N] now on a bridge -> but no solution...

The left suspect on the board would be U23 [74HC237], but got none in stock here. So have to wait.
- Have to wait a little longer to be able to swap it.

So an obvious external problem could be the Opto switch board WPC 16 as mentioned by Craz4Pin!
- That would mean swapping the whole board or replacing all it's LM339 IC's. Could be done in under an hour so worth trying.

Additional info one the current error:

- On start up the display show a little to much 999999999999's to my taste. See pic...

- Then a brief "Check fuses F101 & F106" error -> they are oke in real.

- Next; the "Close coindoor for high voltage" error on display.

- In switch level test still those weird flickering lines...
Additional if you put the menu now in single switch test mode, NO switches on the PF will be recorded!

- What really weird that (with coindoor closed) BOTH slingshots will shoot simultaniously about every 2 sec.
Also the ball feeder keeps shooting balls in the ball entry lane.

Mention all these problems in the hope it will help others in the future

tcp_testing.JPG

When removing the switch connectors (if I'm correct J206 and/or J209) the errors in the switch test are gone. Then no closed switches are to be seen also no flickering lines in the test screen. Is that what you mean by "behaves the same way"?

The G10 chip is a new bought chip from Shifted Bits -> and now I see the showed 99999999999999999999999's are correct! It's their way of showing their [EWE22] chip is correctly installed. .... .... ... One problem solved at least

Finally got the issue tackled!

Initially I swapped U20, G10, U5, U18, U19... and than after U23 got replaced the machine worked fine! The reason for not swapping the IC earlier was I measured the chip with my multimeter and it seems oke. But finally U23 was my last resort, and luckily it solved all the errors the machine gave!

Thanks everyone for participating in this thread! Specially Craz4Pin for sending me the opto-board! [Although it was not the final issue...]