(Topic ID: 181165)

Corvette Racetrack Problem ***Fixed***

By pindude80

7 years ago


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  • 88 posts
  • 8 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 5 years ago by pindude80
  • Topic is favorited by 3 Pinsiders

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There are 88 posts in this topic. You are on page 2 of 2.
#51 7 years ago

I'll try and get some pics tonight of mine in test.

#52 7 years ago

I tested mine tonight, when the cars return to the bottom they register both squares.

2 weeks later
#53 6 years ago

The saga continues. Last week I got a U6 checksum error so I pulled the game rom chip to find 2 of the legs were broken off. I thought for sure this would be the cause of my racetrack problem so I ordered a new chip. I installed the new chip and was still getting the checksum error and problem with the racetrack. I thought maybe the there was a problem with the rottendog replacement board that is in the game so I pulled the factory CPU board out of Dirty Harry, put the new Corvette rom and security chip in Dirty Harry's board, installed it and was getting the same results. I thought maybe it could be a problem with the power driver board, even though I kind of doubted it, but I've checked about everything else so I pulled the power driver board out of my White Water and put it in Corvette, no change.

I disconnected the connectors on the racetrack board that power the motors in the racetrack as I did before and the car positions in the race mode act according to what switches are hit with no run away car syndrome on the dmd like I see when the motors are plugged in. The game is a re-import and I got to thinking I wonder if the people who set it back up for the US did it right and how I can check?

#54 6 years ago

You really shouldn't still be getting a checksum error. Check to see if there are any broken bits left in the socket. You can't diagnose anything properly with that error going on.

#55 6 years ago
Quoted from CadillacMusic:

You really shouldn't still be getting a checksum error. Check to see if there are any broken bits left in the socket. You can't diagnose anything properly with that error going on.

thanks for the reply! I used a magnifying glass and didn't see any broken legs left in the holes. I put the rom on my dirty harry cpu, even in the dirty harry machine I was still getting the error, so it looks like it points to a bad rom.

#56 6 years ago
Quoted from CadillacMusic:

You really shouldn't still be getting a checksum error. Check to see if there are any broken bits left in the socket. You can't diagnose anything properly with that error going on.

I received a replacement U6 Rom yesterday from Action Pinball, excellent service by the way, no more checksum error, but as suspected I still have the racetrack problem.

Anyone have any advice on what to look at now?

#57 6 years ago

Well, I don't think the re-importness is an issue. It sounds like the zero count opto box is the problem. The question is, what can you do to fix it? I honestly don't know off hand if it's controlled by the motor control board, or something else. Does anyone know? Edit: It's controlled by the opto track encoder board, I would imagine. I really think for some reason the optos on the racetrack are not being interrupted like they should by the cars. Here's a stupid thing to try: Wrap black tape around the "fins" of the cars, and see if this helps. Occasionally you get optos that shine through the plastic.

#58 6 years ago

If I follow you correctly the fins, are underneath the cars themselves. I don't believe the optos are shining through because it always registers the cars at the home position, which I believe is the only time the fins are used. The problem is when the cars advance up the track and their movement is tracked by a slotted wheel on each of the cars that turns as the cars move, once it sees 670 opto counts the game ends the racetrack mode.

#59 6 years ago

Monday morning tech help needed bump

#60 6 years ago

thursday bump

5 months later
#61 6 years ago

I'm struggling with exactly same problem. Did you find solution to this?

3 months later
#62 6 years ago

Hello my old friends, I'm back, but not for a good reason. I thought i updated this thread over the summer when a friend and I did some diagnosing with my racetrack in his game, but I guess I didn't. I took my racetrack over to a friend's house who has a nice Corvette. We put my reproduction boards in his track and had the same problem I did with my racetrack in my game. We then put his factory track boards in my track, installed in his game and it worked properly. We came to the conclusion the reproduction boards I had were bad. I ordered a new reproduction set from Mad Amusements I believe it was. I got them over the summer and I didn't put them in until this weekend because I had summer projects going on, new pins in the house and Corvette was pushed off into the corner. Now that winter is fully upon us I installed the new boards in my track and put the track in the game. I thought for sure it was going to be fixed and I would be back to playing a fully functional Corvette. On my first test it screwed up and did just like it did before with the previous boards.

I am thinking it's either a bad connection in my game on the harness, a bad wire in my game, another bad racetrack board or those reproduction boards just flat out were designed wrong and don't work. Does anyone have any experience using the Great Lakes Modular boards? I guess my next step is to find a set of factory racetrack boards, but I'm not thoroughly convinced that is the problem at this point, might be something in my game, but the reproduction board in my friends game had the same result/error as in my game.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

#63 6 years ago
Quoted from pindude80:

Hello my old friends, I'm back, but not for a good reason. I thought i updated this thread over the summer when a friend and I did some diagnosing with my racetrack in his game, but I guess I didn't. I took my racetrack over to a friend's house who has a nice Corvette. We put my reproduction boards in his track and had the same problem I did with my racetrack in my game. We then put his factory track boards in my track, installed in his game and it worked properly. We came to the conclusion the reproduction boards I had were bad. I ordered a new reproduction set from Mad Amusements I believe it was. I got them over the summer and I didn't put them in until this weekend because I had summer projects going on, new pins in the house and Corvette was pushed off into the corner. Now that winter is fully upon us I installed the new boards in my track and put the track in the game. I thought for sure it was going to be fixed and I would be back to playing a fully functional Corvette. On my first test it screwed up and did just like it did before with the previous boards.
I am thinking it's either a bad connection in my game on the harness, a bad wire in my game, another bad racetrack board or those reproduction boards just flat out were designed wrong and don't work. Does anyone have any experience using the Great Lakes Modular boards? I guess my next step is to find a set of factory racetrack boards, but I'm not thoroughly convinced that is the problem at this point, might be something in my game, but the reproduction board in my friends game had the same result/error as in my game.
Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Do you have all of the original boards? I have extra optos that I ordered when fixing my boards. If you want to send them, I take a crack at repairing them and testing them in my Corvette.

#64 6 years ago
Quoted from Kawydud:

Do you have all of the original boards? I have extra optos that I ordered when fixing my boards. If you want to send them, I take a crack at repairing them and testing them in my Corvette.

I am not sure, it's been over a year since I swapped them out, but I don't think I would have thrown them away. They had some previous repairs done on them and a friend that helps me with board stuff recommended getting the replacement boards instead of messing with the originals. I can look for them and if I can find them would definitely take you up on your offer. Thanks!

#65 6 years ago
Quoted from pindude80:

I am not sure, it's been over a year since I swapped them out, but I don't think I would have thrown them away. They had some previous repairs done on them and a friend that helps me with board stuff recommended getting the replacement boards instead of messing with the originals. I can look for them and if I can find them would definitely take you up on your offer. Thanks!

Sounds good, just shoot me a message if you find them.

#66 6 years ago
Quoted from Kawydud:

Sounds good, just shoot me a message if you find them.

I'll look tonight. Thanks for the offer!!

#67 6 years ago

I had my board modded by previous owner. Rightside opto was replaiced with 4-legged instead of 5-legged and modifications were made accordingly. I fixed it back to original and have had no issues since. I think 4-legged opto was too sensitive, and i could see it giving rapid phantom hits in test mode when moving car manually.

#68 6 years ago
Quoted from Iizi:

I had my board modded by previous owner. Rightside opto was replaiced with 4-legged instead of 5-legged and modifications were made accordingly. I fixed it back to original and have had no issues since. I think 4-legged opto was too sensitive, and i could see it giving rapid phantom hits in test mode when moving car manually.

Did yours end the race early during game mode even if the cars weren't physically at the top of the track? So it sounds like the factory is a 5-legged opto and that's what it needs to be. Replacing optos is beyond my skill set and tools I have, but Kawydud offered above to look at boards for me.

#69 6 years ago
Quoted from pindude80:

Did yours end the race early during game mode even if the cars weren't physically at the top of the track? So it sounds like the factory is a 5-legged opto and that's what it needs to be. Replacing optos is beyond my skill set and tools I have, but Kawydud offered above to look at boards for me.

Yes, I had exactly same problem as you. Original manual (at least when downloaded from ipdb.com) comes with wrong, 4-legged opto schematics. You can find correct schematics in Manual Amendment #16-9890. When in race track test mode, moving right car manually by hand I could find several spots where opto switch kept turning on and off rapidly, so when playing software thinks its moving fast and reaches end quite fast, even though car is physically still in first half.

#70 6 years ago

I am fighting a couple issues on my Corvette at the moment too. I just received a set of the Great Lakes Modular Boards. Did you ever determine if they are indeed designed wrong or is it just your set that is bad? Have you talked with GLM about the boards? I haven't put mine in yet and I will not have the chance to install the boards for a while, so I am curious what you find out

#71 6 years ago
Quoted from mjwilliams:

I am fighting a couple issues on my Corvette at the moment too. I just received a set of the Great Lakes Modular Boards. Did you ever determine if they are indeed designed wrong or is it just your set that is bad? Have you talked with GLM about the boards? I haven't put mine in yet and I will not have the chance to install the boards for a while, so I am curious what you find out

Well, still not sure. Before when we put the GLM boards in my friend's game that was working fine with his factory boards and it started screwing up with the GLM boards. GLM actually ended up screwing me and not refunding me for the bad boards or replacing them as he said he would and quit responding to my emails I ordered another set from Mad Amusements, those are the ones I put in last weekend and it was doing the same thing. I am going to try and find my factory boards who a fellow Corvette owner graciously volunteered to check out for me so I guess that is my next step.

#72 6 years ago

Just want to make sure you realize that the MadAmusements boards are also GLM boards. I called MadAmusements with a question about the boards a couple weeks ago and they said I had to call and talk to GLM with any questions. I ran out of time for more calls and never did call GLM.

#73 6 years ago
Quoted from mjwilliams:

I am fighting a couple issues on my Corvette at the moment too. I just received a set of the Great Lakes Modular Boards. Did you ever determine if they are indeed designed wrong or is it just your set that is bad? Have you talked with GLM about the boards? I haven't put mine in yet and I will not have the chance to install the boards for a while, so I am curious what you find out

Can you post a close-up picture of your replacement board?

#74 6 years ago
Quoted from mjwilliams:

Just want to make sure you realize that the MadAmusements boards are also GLM boards. I called MadAmusements with a question about the boards a couple weeks ago and they said I had to call and talk to GLM with any questions. I ran out of time for more calls and never did call GLM.

yes I do know they are GLM boards. GLM screwed me as I mentioned and wouldn't refund or replace my boards and I needed a set so I didn't have much of a choice but to buy another set. Did you ever try to get in touch with GLM? I'm not sure if he got caught up or past whatever was going on in his life, but others posted the same thing that he wouldn't communicate.

#75 6 years ago
Quoted from Iizi:

Can you post a close-up picture of your replacement board?

Here are the new ones.

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45BCD8B1-831A-4582-A797-ADE3CC1A3748 (resized).jpeg45BCD8B1-831A-4582-A797-ADE3CC1A3748 (resized).jpeg

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2 weeks later
#76 6 years ago

Kawydud tested my boards and here was his response to me on what he found: I took apart my racetrack tonight and installed your original boards and went through the tests. I hate to tell you, but the boards tested out perfect. I even took a video of it that I can send you. Then I also took your brand new boards and installed them into my game, same thing, things tested perfect. So there has to be something else going on with your game I think.
I would suspect wiring at some point, because your original boards were repaired at one point, they had original traces lifted on them that someone jumped out with a soldered wire. Who knows what else may have been messed with.

I guess I will do some continuity tests next from the wires in the racetrack to the backbox and see what comes of that.

#77 6 years ago

My faulty boards also passed tests with no problems, weird behaviour only occurred during gameplay.

#78 6 years ago
Quoted from Iizi:

My faulty boards also passed tests with no problems, weird behaviour only occurred during gameplay.

I almost forgot about this, this is exactly how many acted in the past. It would generally always pass the test mode, maybe one in 10 time fail, but pretty much always messed up in game play. I am in search of another track to try in my game to see what happens.

#79 6 years ago

I think we did this before, but I couldn't remember for sure and didn't document it. My friend took my 10-opto board home and tried it in his MM since it runs the same board, he said his game played fine with my board in it. We are also going to put his MM opto board in my Corvette and see what happens, but I don't think is the problem with my game.

#80 6 years ago

Man you can’t win for losing wth this corvette. I’m not going to lie. I repaired the broken traces on the opto boards but I did not mess with any of the wiring for any of the race track when I had it. Just added new optos and tried to repair someone’s previous hack job to it. However if I recall correctly there were several old hacks throughout the game that had been fixed over time by various pinsiders including myself. Not to mention whoever had their hands in it overseas before it got to us. I wouldn’t rule out a wiring problem.

#81 6 years ago

Yeah man this Corvette has really put up a fight. I forgot to mention that last weekend my friend and I continuity checked the wiring in the racetrack, from the racetrack to the opto board and to the cpu board, all tested ok, so it doesn't appear to be a wiring problem at this point and like he said if it was a wiring problem it would more than likely not work at versus give us the screwy stuff it's doing.

1 month later
#82 6 years ago

I saw you posted looking for boards and a racetrack and that made me wonder if you ever solved this problem? I finally beat my track issues. I had to replace the MPU board. I think the problem is actually in the switch matrix itself. Did you try swapping in a different MPU?

#83 6 years ago

nope, haven't solved it yet. My game has a Rottendog MPU board in it, I swapped the factory board out of my Dirty Harry and it did the same thing. I'm glad you got yours fixed, hopefully one day I will be able to say the same thing.

7 months later
#84 5 years ago

Update: the never-ending racetrack saga may have come to an end, finally I ordered new 5-legged optos for the opto count board from Marco and one of my good pinball buddies installed them for me. I put the track back together last night and it didn't work at first; the red car would go to the top and the motor would keep going. I went into test mode and it didn't show the home position so I got one of my Great Lakes Modular home boards, installed it, ran the test and it passed a couple times so I went to test it in game mode. I really wasn't expecting it to work because of everything we went through with no luck, but I ran the race in various ways about 10 or more times with the glass off then played the race track mode at least 10 times in true game play and it worked great!

When my friend got my board he tested everything and it all tested ok, but he went ahead and installed the optos to try it out. I called him last night with the good news and he said a couple of the through holes for the optos looked a little rough so he worked his magic and did an install method that beefed up the connection.

Thanks to everyone who offered their help and advice in getting this fixed! Since this game has been down so long and it's back from the dead it's almost like getting a new game!

#85 5 years ago
Quoted from pindude80:

Update: the never-ending racetrack saga may have come to an end, finally I ordered new 5-legged optos for the opto count board from Marco and one of my good pinball buddies installed them for me. I put the track back together last night and it didn't work at first; the red car would go to the top and the motor would keep going. I went into test mode and it didn't show the home position so I got one of my Great Lakes Modular home boards, installed it, ran the test and it passed a couple times so I went to test it in game mode. I really wasn't expecting it to work because of everything we went through with no luck, but I ran the race in various ways about 10 or more times with the glass off then played the race track mode at least 10 times in true game play and it worked great!
When my friend got my board he tested everything and it all tested ok, but he went ahead and installed the optos to try it out. I called him last night with the good news and he said a couple of the through holes for the optos looked a little rough so he worked his magic and did an install method that beefed up the connection.
Thanks to everyone who offered their help and advice in getting this fixed! Since this game has been down so long and it's back from the dead it's almost like getting a new game!

Glad it is now working the way it should.

#86 5 years ago

You and me both! The only bad part is I kicked the game out to my 3-seasons room that isn't climate controlled a few months back when I needed room and my brand new ramp flaps that a friend made for me are covered in rust!

#87 5 years ago

Man! I am so glad it finally got fixed. That track had been a PIA to say the least. Ready to trade it? Lol

#88 5 years ago

You and me both! It's been a long and frustrating journey. Heck no I'm not ready to trade it, I haven't played it until now in over a year so it's like getting a new game!!

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