Hey all, having an annoying issue with the drop targets on my Space Shuttle. When my drop targets reset, sometimes they "stutter" and seem to trigger multiple times. Unfortunately, each completion of the targets advances the spinner value, and the game is counting the "stutter resets" as additional target completions -- which thereby artificially inflates game scoring.

It also only seems to happen when I strafe all three targets and get them all down at once. I can't say I recall this happening at all when I get them down one at a time. The drop targets and the coil & reset bracket all move freely without issue. All the switches move without resistance and audibly click when closed.

In the video below, something weird also happened when I bumped the third target and that triggered a reset too. It definitely shouldn't do that (unless it were the start of a ball).

I fiddled with the positioning of the switches, and reflowed the solder on all connections, but this did not resolve it. I've got some new switches on order in the meantime (gambled on it, since I'm trying to fix it by this weekend).

We're chatting over in the Space Shuttle owners thread about it but I wanted to post a standalone thread in case other folks have had similar experience/issues on other games.

Any other suggestions?

Some pics of the hardware:

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Here's an update ... I'll keep this thread detailed & up to date in case future players of this (or other) games need it for reference.

Eagle-eyed pinsider Charles_Kline noticed (over in the Space Shuttle owner's thread) that since the targets weren't making it all the way back up, that it appeared the power to the coil may be getting interrupted. This made a lot of sense, because if the power were cut momentarily, the targets would drop again (from their springs pulling them down, since they weren't fully reset) ... this in turn would reactivate the switches, telling the game to increase the spinner value and cycle the coil to reset the targets again. This process could happen any number of times -- resulting in the "stutter" -- until the power stayed on the coil long enough to complete the stroke and fully reset the targets.

In my earlier troubleshooting, I'd thought it was a switch issue, so I had not reflowed the solder on the coil lugs. Thanks to this suggestion, I've now reflowed the solder there -- and it's working significantly better! Not completely resolved though, because I then had a few incidences (when testing them one at a time) where one particular target (the left one) didn't seem to register or seemed to have a 'delay', so I made an adjustment to that switch and it appears to be behaving properly for now.

After that, I went through several cycles of strafing them 10+ times and they responded properly each time. Also ran several cycles (in all possible sequences) of one-at-a-time, and they're behaving properly this way also.

I'll put several games on it later tonight, to give it a full shakedown, before I call this fully resolved.

Played several games on it tonight and had zero issues with the drop targets. No stutters, value increasing one step at a time, resetting properly when strafed or when hit one at a time. I'll play a few more times over the next couple days just to be sure, but it's looking like we got this one sorted out!

Thanks so much to Charles_Kline for the great catch and another useful experience to file away in the ol' memory bank!