Is this with the red opto light continuously on after you adjusted? Or is the hole maybe still interrupting?

You can check and see if it's the node board by swapping Node 8 and 9 (and resetting the dip switches for each to the opposite) - WITH THE POWER OFF - and see if the problem is solved. But that's a lot of work. :/

Hehe that is a lot of work for a relatively small but annoying problem. The red light appears to be on the whole entire time….
And i cant recreate it manually by touching the opto or the ramp. Only with the flippers or my finger running up tripping the wire.

The optos are not loose. Ive clamped them down where i find them to be working. And even when i loosen them and re adjust its the same result.

Can you take a bunch of pics of that opto on your game(both sides) and see how they line up?

Maybe ill post on facebook and hope that Gomez responds like he sometimes does. Heh

So just discovered that the auto launch will sometimes trigger it as well. And the pop bumpers. So basically violent coils are making the left ramp entry opto fire despite it seemingly being installed flawlessly…they are screwed on well!
I cant recreate this by touching the opto board or the outside of ramp

Do you have a drinking straw you can cut to fit from one opto to the other to make a hard visualization of the beam path?

My Elvira's long gone or I'd take a pic for you.

Im sure i could do that. But it really seems that the beam is in tact. And i CANT recreate this by touching the opto itself or by touching and moving the ramp metal. So i doubt its that right?

But if the beam isn't centered in the ramp holes it could be triggered by vibration.

Yea. But wouldnt me moving the ramp and pressing on the opto itself simulate that?

Can you send me a pic of how yours look?

Thanks for all the help btw.

Don't have an Elvira anymore or I would.

Pressing would simulate top down, but NOT bottom up or left/right. Only one direction of obstruction by the hole.

I took off the left return plastic ramp to get access and i jiggled it around all directions the most i could. It doesnt seem to have any play at all. The only thing that has play is the inside of the metal ramp if you saw the video i linked to. But when i do that by hand nothing happens either…ugh!

When the flippers or autolaunch trigger it, does the red light flicker or go off and on?

Hi,
I have the problem that I cant start a Mode when i shot in the house.
Every shot in the house the pinball registred as drive me crazy shot.
So i think the problem is switch 43, house ramp opto.
I checked the opto with my finger and it registred nothing.

So what must i disassemble to come to the two optos without any Problems?

Did anyone have a Instruktion sheet what i have to disassemble?

Thanks for help

Sorry had to sleep. Earlier in the night i would see some flicker. But after adjusting many times i think i have it lined up properly and i dont believe its flickering anymore. But it could be so quick i cant see it

So for the pop bumper issue I’ve had. You can see the seal on coil is exposed in pic attached. That’s my issue right? What would cause that?

It’s playing okay now I think it was a stuck pop. Issue is over heated and melted the seal a bit. Is that okay to just play or do they seal seal paper?

EEE8C590-2CA1-4672-882A-0A9831ECB32D (resized).jpeg

Just checked. From what i can see the light does not flicker. But if its just for a micro second maybe i cant perceive it?

Hmmm. I think you’re right, it certainly looks like the coil became so hot it melted the wrap a bit. I would consider a new coil there. Others may know better than I.

Just visited this thread again, and saw you were looking at this again. But I kinda got lost in all the posts.

Can you summarize where you are at in troubleshooting? Looks like left ramp opto, and something going on w/the LED?

****** Edit: Oops! Just notice you mentioned ramp! This is for the opto behind the house. Sorry ****

I just worked on mine about a month ago. It's still sort of a kludge until the correct parts show up.

Two screws hold a bracket that both the optos are mounted on. Tx opto is mounted on the top, Rx opto is the bottom. In my case, the Tx opto LED was bad. You can check the Tx IR LED it using by using the front facing camera on a tablet or phone. Those often do not have an IR filter, so the IR shows up bright. Like this (not the exact opto):
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Here's my kludge of using a different Tx opto until I install the correct one...but it shows the bracket. Screws are where the red highlight is circled.
pasted_image (resized).png

mbwalker thank you for the Photos, but i mean the opto before this when you shot the ramp up, just before the Ball went into the tunnel.
It is in the house, Not that one after the backboard

Yeah, I misread it at first (my brain translated ramp to the opto behind the house), but since I already posted the opto mod...what the heck, just leave it in case someone else needed it. Instead, I just added the comment that it was the wrong opto I posted about.

Well i did some more attempts at re aligning the left ramp entrance opto and thought i had it perfect. Switch test was great. No more left ranp entrance opto going off. Put balls in and seemed to go ok. Then put glass on and its back to the same bullshit. Ugh!!!

The wires to the opto can get broken inside the insulation from vibration. I'm wondering if you don't have a broken wire inside one of the wires that is making intermittent connection. You can try leaving the opto connected and fiddling with the wires in switch test to see if the optos trigger just from moving the wires near the circuit boards on the optos.

Yea i had tried that as well. Nothing. I also did your straw connection and it seems aligned. If anything the left side of the opto is just the slightest bit to the right. But if that were an issue you would think jiggling the left side of the ramp would cause it to trigger. But it doesnt.

I mentioned this earlier...try putting a little black tape on the ramp of the Rx opto. Small hole cut into it for the Rx opto. This will help eliminate stray reflection of the Tx opto. I recall the JP owners doing something similar as a fix.

One thing I noticed when looking at the manual...the Tx opto is shown on the left side, the Rx opto is on the right. But in my pin, Rx is left, Tx is right. How is yours configured?

I forgot about this. Which one is rx and which is tx? The one with the purple light is on right

My Rx (receiver) is on the left. That is the one that has the red indicator LED which goes off when the beam is broken. It also has 3 wires. The Tx (emitter) only has two leads, which is just power.

Am I putting the black tape on the outside of the ramp? Or the inside? Id rather not have it too visable. Thanks!

I'd do it on the inside because it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to try. I consider this just a test more than anything. If it works, great - but then you figure out a way to make things look nice.

Will do. Thanks

If that doesn't work, you're really down to a flaky opto (send or receive) or the node board. Optos are relatively cheap, I'd do the pair and see what happens. When you replace them (if you do) trim back the wire past where the hard kink is to eliminate that, too.

Yea im at my wits end. I did order replacements. But wonder how much stuff i need to remove to replace them

Black tape didnt work. I cant recreate it by shaking ramp. Only by coils AND by repeatedly tapping the back of the reciever. Like flicking it with my finger.

If its alignment. If anything i think the receiver may be set just a tad high. How would i lower it without shaving down the black plastic on the opto where the screws go?

Tape: Darn - but was easy to try.

If you still think it's alignment, try to take one opto off the ramp (your pick which side). Then place it as close as possible to the other opto as possible. To the point that even sloppy alignment doesn't make any difference and see if it it still acts up.

Another option is to swap it with another opto.

But if you got some on order - maybe no sense digging into the pin further. I had a bad opto on my TWD - Rx diode simply bad. So it does happen. Fom what you describe (tapping it) - sounds like a bad solder joint. Can you take some closeup photos and post here?

So what side of the was the Rx opto (3 wire) on? Remember I mentioned mine's opposite of the manual.

Adding to my comment above..

I do want to mention the manual calls these out as long range - so alignment might not be quite as critical as you think. I used one of these (but it was the Tx opto) in a kludge behind the house while I waited on the real opto to show up. Alignment is crappy and it still works 100%.

Left side is receiver. So i actually just unscrewed the plastic part from the circuit and pressed on it as much as i could while acrewing back together. Just trying to get the sensor sitting a bit lower. And that just passed switch test and i think one game. About to try another.

In the end i bet it is a bad solder. When i flick the receiver with my finger i can make it go off.

Soooo i dont want to jinx myself here…….but i think i got it? At least for now. Switch test passed and just played a few games with no issues. At least that ive noticed. So im not going to touch that damn glass for a while and just hope its good to go. Maybe that tiny bit i was able to move the reciever down did it….

Thanks for everyones help. Hopefully i dont come back tomorrow!

Man i feel your pain. I had a very similar issue with the godzilla building entry opto.

I fiddled for days. I took out the glass 10 times a day and unscrewd, resrewed, taped both sides, taped one side, taped top half, bottom half, following pinside suggestions...

There are references where taping allegedly solved issues with fast balls in IM and JP, so i thought it must work.

Often after a taping marathon it worked for a few games. And the next day NOTHING worked. Soooo frustrating i hated that machine...

I finally ordered a new set of optos for 18€ shipping included. And guess what, it worked after a 10 minute install and i did not have a single detection failiure for the next 2000 games ever since.

Opto switches are a little sensitive, and yes you should try to allign as good as possible, but not by the tiniest fraction of a millimeter. Its a large beam detected by a large receiver, if not alligned PERFECTLY it still should work in a certain margin. It was just a bad quality component failure.

I really doubt the theory of taping the receiver to make breaking the beam longer on a fast ball passing... a proper opto really detects also the fastest possible balls no matter what. They just often fail, are badly manufactured and vibration can kill them. Have spare parts available!

I really wish you a hassle free future with your machine.

Yes, could be a faulty opto. I has this on my NIB JP Prem.

An intermittent issue where the main ramp opto would trigger randomly with any vibration. No amount of adjustment or taping or connector reseating would fix it. Stern sent me a new opto under warranty, and I never had any problems again.

While I never did the black tape hack myself on my JP, I always assumed it just cut down on reflections (i.e. less sporadic opto triggering ).

Yep, and like any pinball fix it might not be what'll work as a solution for every case but it's definitely worked for me on both my JP orbit and POTC inner orbit.

.

Added a topper and am wondering what scenarios/events cause it to open?

I don't know the full list of triggers, but being as this hasn't been answered yet. Here is what I've noticed.

If you have it set to go off during attract mode you can occasionally get it to pop up with a flipper press while not in game.

If you watch the video for Wild Women Multiball. It'll trigger at the end of that clip.

There are certain multi-balls where I believe the super jackpot will cause it to trigger. Keep in mind you set a timer that will prevent it from happening too often in adjustments. I think the default is around 90 seconds.

I believe the scream test mode will also cause it to go off.

As a side note. My topper didn't work on arrival. It wouldn't stay up. I had to adjust some screws to get it to stay up for a bit.

The frequency and events that cause the topper to open vary depending on adjustment settings. With my machine, the topper was not opening at all at first when I installed it. Then I adjusted the settings and it opens, but now not always at the same time. For example, in the beginning it opened at the start of garage multiball, but after a while it stopped doing this. Now a super jackpot shot in House multiball usually opens the topper. So, it may also be monitoring frequency or success and act like an adjustable high score in that more advanced success is required to open it as your play improves. In any event check the topper adjustment settings.

Ok thanks for the feedback on the topper - seems like I have things set right but will double check and get some more games in this weekend!

Has anyone had an issue where the game freezes and restarts? I’ve had this happen in a tournament two weeks in a row. I play 2 hours of flip frenzy, then we do 4 player finals and it crashed both times.

Try re-imaging a new non-Stern provided SD card and replacing the stock one. Those issues are usually SD cards going bad or power supplies not supplying 48v solid.

Cool, thanks for the suggestions!

Also, I have heard of issues on non-IC games running the new IC-enabled code. If you DO NOT have IC on this Elvira, I would revert back to version 1.02 before Insider Connected was added and see if that takes care of it. Another thing to try, but only if you DO NOT have Insider connected installed.