(Topic ID: 51376)

DE Star Wars - Switches are triggering unrelated solenoids

By cheezywhiz

10 years ago



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#1 10 years ago

Just got this machine. Looks like it took a few knocks in delivery and some weird stuff is happening. I'm not very experienced at this stuff, but I can use a multimeter and soldering iron and I'm decent at troubleshooting.

Most obvious symptom.. I get randomly ejected balls during game play and a lot of solenoid noise which I originally figured was the ball search kicking in because the trough switches were glitchy. I've gone through a bunch of tests including removing the apron verifying the switches are all working (with balls, not my finger), removing balls in the trough by hand to see if I can trigger the same machine response (I can't), and removing/testing/resoldering the right trough switch. Monitoring voltage on the right switch during game play, it seems to be working fine.

So what I originally thought was a bad switch now appears to be much more.. so I expanded my search and started manually triggering playfield switches. I now notice the following:

  • Occasionally after launching a ball, the outhole kicker and the launcher will trigger.
  • Touching X-Wing spot targets will sometimes trigger the outhole kicker.
  • Touching inlane switches will sometimes trigger the launcher solenoid.
  • The pop bumpers sometimes cause an unrelated solenoid to fire when hit. The knocker perhaps? It's really loud.

When I say "sometimes trigger".. I mean that sometimes the game works normally.. then suddenly it goes into weird mode and I can make these things happen over and over.. (touch x-wing target and outhole kicker fires, for instance) until somehow the game just quietly reverts back to normal operation. "Weird Mode" happens pretty much every game.. but not every ball.

So I'm pretty sure my extra ball launches are caused by playfield switches wreaking havok on the trough kickers.. and that all the extra noise I hear is because various solenoids are firing when the ball is bouncing around and hitting unrelated switches.

Where should I look to fix this? Thanks in advance!

Added videos:


Post edited by cheezywhiz : Added videos

#2 10 years ago

Solved it. Found this in a PinRepair.com archive.

Problem: My 1992 Star Wars games instantly starts multi-ball mode when a game is started. Balls just keep popping into the shooter lane and then are shot onto the playfield.

Answer: This is an incredibly common problem, and is very confusing. This problem is nearly always cold solder joints on the "L/R" relay, on the PPB board. Because this relay (when not energized) defaults to activating the solenoids, any attempt by the game to light a flash lamp (for example, when a game is started), will instead activate the associated solenoid. The flasher paired with the ball popper is supposed to light, but instead another ball gets placed in the shooter lane. DataEast's auto-ball-fire games all have a 'lightning ball' feature which automatically launches a ball in the shooter lane onto the playfield. This gives the instant multi-ball. To fix this, check the L/R relay (K1) on the PPB board, and resolder the relay's solder joints.

I removed the PPB board and resoldered the relay as suggested. Works perfectly now!!

#3 10 years ago

awesome. thank you for posting the follow up!

#4 10 years ago

Nice!

Check out www.pinballcode.com if you have not already. A must have Star Wars update.

Chad

#5 10 years ago

Hey Chad,

The game came with the 1.04 ROM. The updated code was one of the main reasons I picked up this game. I don't think I would have been interested otherwise because of all the "one shot game" reviews it has gotten. It's definitely not a one shot game any more.

You did some fantastic work! Thank you for your efforts!

Michael

#6 10 years ago
Quoted from cheezywhiz:

Hey Chad,
The game came with the 1.04 ROM. The updated code was one of the main reasons I picked up this game. I don't think I would have been interested otherwise because of all the "one shot game" reviews it has gotten. It's definitely not a one shot game any more.
You did some fantastic work! Thank you for your efforts!
Michael

Hi,

Sorry but I have to disagree, my opinion is that the only shot worth while is now Death Star and ramp has lost all interest. Actually I don't see any reason to shoot ramp (exl. Jackpot or hyperspace). But still MUCH better than original, thanks Chad!!!

#7 10 years ago
Quoted from Tensikka:

Hi,
Sorry but I have to disagree, my opinion is that the only shot worth while is now Death Star and ramp has lost all interest. Actually I don't see any reason to shoot ramp (exl. Jackpot or hyperspace). But still MUCH better than original, thanks Chad!!!

Don't neglect the Force shot (left scoop)... some good points there as well. Also, the pops have increased the growing Sarlaac Pit (right scoop) value making that a more attractive shot.

#8 10 years ago

Now that I can play.. I got in about 20 games yesterday. Woohoo! I've only managed to score about 140m so far. Long way to go, I'm sure.

I love the Force scoop and Yoda (choices are fun!). Jabba hasn't been that generous yet.

I see where Tensikka is coming from though.. the ramp does seem to be underutilized now.

Two things I would LOVE to see in the next rev of the ROM (if there ever is one):
- 5-10 seconds of ball save when Tri-Ball initially starts
- Additional combo shots/variations

I'm sure it's tough to hack those in without the original source code.. is it even possible, Chad?

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