If I remember correctly, what ends the mode is one of the cars interrupting an opto at the end. There's nothing between that and the start that measures how far the motor has driven the cars. So I'd check the opto, and make sure the string isn't hanging into it or something. Does it declare someone won the race?

It may have a software compensation thing going on from when it didn't work before. Have you tried a factory reset?

Also, a drop in voltage can make the game think an opto is getting interrupted. When you run the race test (not the self test, but when you run it manually), it works fine? Have you checked the plugs? Those tiny little wires get loose sometimes. Jam a little flathead screwdriver in there to make sure they're snug and secure.

I mean that you should be able to run the cars forwards and backwards with the plus and minus buttons in test, and I thought there should be some kind of feedback about the state of the switches. Little boxes that have X's in them or not.

The reason I ask is that it sounds very like what happens with the reel in fishtales. The motor control board has inductors on it that fail, and it means you get a pulse back up the line when the motor activates. This messes with the optos something awful, and sometimes you can catch it in test mode.

Well, it would be quick X's appearing in the boxes, or quick beeps, while the motor is running. I'd also check the motor driver board itself, to see if the inductors fell off, because sometimes they do. Other times they just go bad. Here, let me find a picture....

Stolen shamelessly from marco. See those coils of wire that look brass colored? They're inductors. Looking at the board and seeing if they're missing or broken is step one. If it doesn't seem to be missing them, then it gets a little sticky. I suspect them, but can't prove that's the problem with any test, so it'd be up to you if you wanted to replace them or buy a new board.

detail (resized).jpg

Did one of the plugs on the power board come loose? It'd be the three in the lower left corner. Double check fuses 116 and 115.

And check your two 12v voltages on the power board. Both regulated and unregulated.

No thanks needed. We're getting a corvette from another operator soon, so it's helpful for me to review how all the toys work, because I'm sure they won't be working right.

Drat. To repeat what I said in my PM, that board controls the motor only, and has nothing to do with the switches. It's really weird, because if you're only getting the false hits when the motor is running, there shouldn't be an issue with the opto board. Do you get phantom hits when the motor is unplugged?

I have seen corrupted ROMs do weird things before, but to me it doesn't sound like that kind of error. Still, it won't hurt to get a new ROM, if you want to.

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.

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.