Could be a lot of stuff - my guess is one or more of your connectors need to be repinned. Try taking off the connectors on the mpu and putting them back on.

Maybe try switch test to see if the mpu recognises the switched closed?

Look for dry solder joints on the back of the mpu.

Sorry, your pic shows the saucer, so is the saucer working, or is it the outhole, or are you referring the saucer as the outhole?

Also, have you used an 8 Ball mpu in EK and swapped ROM/s and U6 and checked they use the same jumpers?
Sure someone can chime in and confirm this.

Check transistor Q8 on your power supply board.

Q8 is the transistor for the saucer. Try connecting a jumper wire by attaching, if you have one, an alligator clip to the metal tab of transistor Q8 on the Solenoid Driver board to a ground point, say the ground braid inside the backbox where the braid from the cabinet meets the backbox braid, do so quickly and see if the saucer coil works.

Q12 is the transistor for the drop target coil, try the same.

yes it could be a connector, J5 on the solenoid driver board.

pin 10 for the saucer & pin pin 13 for the target reset.

by grounding the tabs you have confirmed there is power to the coils but bypassed the mpu communicating with the solenoid driver board to turn on the transistors and provide a path to ground.

unplug J5 and confirm you have continuity using a meter from pins 10 (green) & 13 (black) respectively, back to the coil.

also remove the solenoid driver board and check the rear for any dry solder joints on any of the header connectors. If in doubt please post pics.

also reseat J4, this is where the data comes from the mpu to the decoder U2. Having said that also check the rear of the cpu board for any dry joints at the header pins.

there are multiple reasons why these solenoids aren't being switched to ground: a PIA on the mpu, one or more connections, the decoder and/or driver on the solenoid driver board, the transistors Q8 & Q12, dry solder joints. Hoping it will be an easy fix.

So the connector pins are OK?

Ok. Following

Right now, I’m not worried about the coil resistance. You’re comparing two different size coils.

The coils should have a diode across the windings, and you won’t get accurate coil readings without lifting a leg of its respective diode.

Did you repin J5 on the driver board connector?

yes correct, you can't test a coil/solenoid in circuit, a wire must be removed so the meter will measure the coil, the diode can stay in place imo.

where is this 3A SB fuse?

the 3A SB fuse is for the mains, being F6

the fuse for the solenoids is F4 which should be a 5A FB

i'm not making sense of the knocker coil taking out the mains fuse, or i misread your post?

I always test without removing a wire for resistance. You can't always test a diode installed on a coil though.

off topic from original post, but to be clear, are you saying for example you can get the resistance reading of the hold winding on a flipper coil without removing an EOS wire or breaking the circuit via the EOS contacts?

Yes

so to send you a message or to post? i'm always up for learning and it may help others too?......so current will take the path of least resistance, there are 2 circuits, that being the 2 lugs of the flipper coil that the EOS is soldered to, ideally zero ohms and the other circuit being the hold winding. How do measure the resistance of the hold winding when there is a short circuit?

Here is an copy from the guide:

Before Turning the Game On: Check the Coil Resistance.
A very good idea for any unknown game just purchased is to check all the coils' resistance. If the game is new to you, and you have not powered it on, a quick check of coil resistance will tell you a lot about your new game. This takes about one minute and can save you hours of repair and diagnosing work.
Any coil that has locked on (usually due to a short solenoid driver board transistor) will heat up and have a lower total resistance. This happens because the painted enamel insulation on the coil's wire burns, causing the windings to short against each other. This will lower the coil's resistance, causing the coil to get even hotter. Within a minute or so the coil becomes a dead short, and usually blows a fuse.

If the solenoid driver board (SDB) transistor is repaired, and the game is powered on with a dead-shorted coil, this will blow the SDB's same transistor again when the coil is fired by the game for the first time! There is no sense making more work for yourself. So take 60 seconds and check all the coils' resistance BEFORE powering the game on for the first time!

In order to check coil resistance, put your DMM on its lowest resistance setting. Then put the DMM's red and black leads on each coil's lugs. A resistance of 2.5 ohms or greater should be seen. Anything less than 2.5 ohms, and the coil and/or driving transistor may be bad. Now remove the wire from one of the lugs of the coil, and test the coil again. If the resistance is still the same (low), the coil or diode is bad (and also perhaps the driving transistor). If the resistance is higher than 2.5 ohms, the coil is good but the solenoid driver board transistor is shorted and will need to be replaced. Lastly, the coil's 1N4004 diode could be shorted too, giving a false low coil resistance. Cut one diode leg from a coil lug and retest the coil's ohms.

When replacing a coil with a new one, and make sure there is a 1N4004 diode installed across the coil's lugs. Remember when reconnecting the wires to the coi that the power wire (usually two wires or thicker wires) goes to the coil's lug with the BANDED side of the diode attached. The thinner wire is the coil's return path to ground via the SDB.

I'm going by practice, not a general guide which in my opinion is misleading and incorrect.

#WeirPinball, please tell me how you measure the hold winding on a flipper coil without breaking the EOS circuit?
You said you can do it and I'd just like to know how?
Please try it for yourself and post your result.
The meter will show zero ohms if the EOS circuit is in place or a different reading, that being the resistance of the circuit of the wires connected. This is inaccurate and give a false reading to what you are wanting.

#Judoratt sorry to hijack your thread, but using a meter to a coils' resistance on an EM can be different and will work as in most cases the coil under test is activated by the closing of a set of contacts in another switch stack, so there is only one circuit. When there is more than one circuit the meter doesn't know what you want to test, it will give a reading the way the unit was designed to and that reading will be the one which path has the least resistance.