Silly question. So there are two sets of optos on the reel unit. Did you check to make sure that the sets are not swapped with each other?

When I took my reel and motor assembly apart, I was very careful not to mix up my two sets of them, I might have a close up pic to post for you.

J2 Reel 1 Switch 37

J2-1 White/Violet
J2-2 Key
J2-3 Green/Orange
J2-4 Red
J2-5 Black

J3 Reel 2 Switch 38

J3-1 White/Gray
J3-2 Green/Orange
J3-3 Key
J3-4 Red
J3-5 Black

FYI - I just ran the reel test on my working FT to compare. First thing it does is a full spin to find home and stops with hole 1 straight up and opto1 and opto2 closed. Yours is wrong at that point, no hole straight up and opto1 and opto2 open. This means yours is not even finding home correctly to start with. Not sure why. (notice how the graphic shows 1 is straight up, but yours is not when it first stops)

Don't forget to give the motor board a look at also.

I’m already assuming you have great pics on file, but here is two either way

A3246824-1094-4BAE-9834-099A0BEF4E9E (resized).png

F9B62E7A-DA09-4A8E-856E-6EB39E0BB4B0 (resized).png

This doesn't have anything to do with your issue but i was wondering why there are shims under upper optos.

I had a similar issue with my FT. Lisa from Cadillac Music in my neck of the woods was able to find it after some intense troubleshooting over a couple days. It had to do with the wire connector on the board that works with the reel. One of the wires in the connector was not seated properly and once she seated it the game worked just fine. Hope that this is helpful. Sounds like we had the same issue.

Have you checked the Lm339 on the opto board?

Was it socketed in the past?

Has C1 on that board leaked?

Were the pins reflowed?

Are the Transmitter optos on the reel new?

Are you getting the correct voltage?

I had trouble with 1 of my IJ idol opto's (3 optos on IJ), but that did show up as faulty in the test. Also the idol had faulty movement.
Anyway if you have a multimeter, you might get a better understanding were things go wrong.
If the photo opto is blocked voltage should drop, so i first tested that. In my case all were ok. (Red probe on photo opto output , black probe on black GND)
Did continuity test on the wires to opto board all ok.
Looked in the manual and found out on what pins on what connector on the optoboard the processed signals go to the boards in the head. I had 2 working optos so i could compare those measurements with the non registering optoboard output pin, and nothing happened there, so i concluded someting went wrong on the opto board.
These boards have the lm339 that can be a cause.
In my case this was the problem.

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#Opto_Switches
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/861/Williams_1992_Fish_Tales_English_Manual.pdf > page 3-22, 3-23, 3-25

Q: Are you getting the correct voltage?
A: need to check tonight, should this be done on the back of the opto board?

On page 3-25 of the manual you can check out the 12v lines.

I also was considering just buying a new opto board,

Great lakes modular has a redesigned board, the osb-3, but the guy is pretty hard to reach lately.
http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/

You probably have the identical opto board in your other BW pins if you want to try swapping it.

"You probably have the identical opto board in your other BW pins if you want to try swapping it. "

lol now i see you have an IJ ! ,swap the IJ idol opto idol "ramp" board (A-17042-3 under POA flipside) that should work to test the optoboard on FT.
.

Soulrider911 I've got pretty much the exact same issue with my FT right now. It started happening right after I re-soldered a loose wire on the catapult. If you manage to fix it, please let me know how, and if I find a solution, I'll be sure to let you know too. Odd timing that we got the same issue at such a similar time. Must be planned obsolescence!

Soulrider911 When I start a game, the ball doesn't launch on its own, but the reel spins way too much. Neither of my reel opto switches are closing (they don't seem to be emitting light), seems they may have suffered from the loose wire shorting before. Should the voltage across the opto transmitters be about 1.5V? That's what I'm getting. I get 12V into my A-13901-1 controller board, but the voltages going to the opto switches is 1.5V. Do you know if that's correct?

You are measuring the drop across the TX diode (1V5) and that sounds correct. Usually it should be between 1V2 and 2V3 depending on the exact device. The resistor in series with the TX is there to 'lose' the rest of the voltage.

You can see the IR light being transmitted with some phone and digital cameras as a pink/purple glow if they are working correctly but I would say yours are with that voltage across them.

I would get it to the Pinball Pirate. That guy can fix anything.

Really. Man, this is quite the mystery...

Soulrider911 While trying to diagnose the issue, I accidentally shorted my 12v and blew a fuse. Took me like 2 hours to work out what I had done. All good now though. I have a suspicion that the issue is the BA10339 ic that's on the board. I've tested all the other components on it, and that's the only one that I can't test. I might try to get a new one and solder it in... or just bite the bullet and try to find a new a-13901-1 board.

It's any easy job to replace the LM339.

Be sure to fit a socket first so fault finding is easier in the future.

$1.95 each from Jaycar:

https://www.jaycar.com.au/lm339-quad-low-power-comparator-linear-ic/p/ZL3339

Soulrider911 That was the on the opto board. Yeah, I replaced the IC. It didn't help.

On the switch matrix, I noticed that when I trigger the catapult switch, my reel 1 opto also closes. My right boat exit is also failing to respond. I'm fairly new to pinball, so I'm not exactly sure when my issue is.

So, I've fixed my issue, but it's almost too embarrassing to say what it was. In the hope that I'll spare another person hours of troubleshooting though, here goes:

Basically, when a switch wire on my catapult came loose (green / orange), it looked like it had came from the ground end of the diode, and without much thought, that's where I soldered it back on. Obviously, this is wrong, and now since learning about the switch matrix (as well as LOTS of other electronics concepts), I've soldered it back onto the correct spot (together with the other green/orange wire), and, hey presto, everything works again.

So glad I didn't call in a repairman! I assume it would go something like..."Um... yeah... I've found your problem. You're a moron. That'll be $150."

Good luck Soulrider911 Maybe just check all your switches have diodes attached correctly and are all wired correctly.

Don’t be embarrassed. Same thing happened to me. Wire came loose and somehow was still so close I didn’t see it was loose the first time through. Spent a whole day on pinside until I went through it again and noticed it

If the motor board is not functioning correctly, the reel has "overrun" problems. This is where the optos say stop, but the motor doesn't stop immediately - stops but runs by the correct opto position. Your transistor on the motor board may be contacting the choke winding.

Hi all, I am working through this problem too, with a slight variation. Had me stumped for months. Thought the belt was okay because it seemed to be spinning fine and the problem must be with the optos. It wasn't. My test was the same. Running errors and showing one opto closed. I replaced the optos, same problem and wondered if I had them the wrong way around or the wiring switched, or defective new parts. Then I replaced the belt and lower pulley. Ran the test and it worked fine. (It should run for about one second. Show the opto open, then closed, no error, then repeat). I can confirm the pictures from Northerndude showing the position of the optos and the wiring is correct, the black ones sit inside the reel (under the fishing line) and the white ones sit outside the reel with the wiring as pictured. I reseated the wiring in the connectors and attached them back onto the board, to find the reel worked fine, but now I have electrical interference on my dot matrix screen (which was working perfectly, with a test, immediately before, but had been playing up earlier). I played a few games with perfect multiball and multiplayer, then ran into issues with the reel spinning again and the balls not ejecting into the catapult, and not lining up on the shoot with the reel. It is intermittent, comes and goes, but the screen is a mess. The connectors on my opto board are loose. I am reasonably confident that replacing the board and replacing the connectors will resolve both issues and that the loose connections on the opto board are causing the optos to malfunction and the noise on the dot matrix screen. I will keep you posted as soon as I get the parts in.

SOLVED: It was the belt and/or the lower pulley and a loose connection..... somewhere.

I just opened the machine right up, and carefully inspected and seated each connection. Inside the cabinet, under the playfield, and inside the backboard. I gently pressed on every ribbon and wire connector and joiner on every board and gently pressed in each wire that looked like it may be loose. I didn't find anything that seemed like the obvious fault. I found one old repair with a sinlge heavier wire spliced onto the lighter original wire by finger twisting and electrical tape that was loose, and soldered into the UDC connector. The connector looked fine so I cut out the twisted together join and made a fresh wire join with a solder splice and reused the same wire and connector. I also reinsulated the heavier wire with a bit of heat shrink over a couple of tiny nicks in the insulation. I straightened anything that looked like it could be connecting with another circuit. I moved any wires that looked like they may be close enough to be sending any interference or noise to another circuit. When I closed it up and turned it on it all worked perfectly. The electrical interference on the dot matrix screen has completely gone and the display is perfect. The Caster's Club is working perfectly through all cycles. It is popping balls into the reel and ejecting them onto the playfield exactly as it should.

I'm kinda annoyed with myself because I read months ago that the problem was probably the drive belt on the reel. I even had a new spare belt and lower pulley in my repair box, but I hadn't changed them because they looked to be working fine. This time I could notice the belt was a little warped, so I spent half an hour and changed the belt and pulley and "Whoa! Looks like you got one on there Ace!"

Summary:

Multiple problems with the Caster's Club/Reel Assembly/multiball feature. Intermittent distortion/interference on dot matrix screen.

*Ball not registering (delayed timing) when seated in Caster's Club. Fast Cast registering: Yes. Ball ejected into rail to reel assembly: No (Would eventually pop up, sometimes after another ball was in play)
*Reel compartments not aligning with the rail from the Caster's Club. Sometimes causing multiple balls to stack in the rail and/or become lodged in the same reel compartment and cause the reel to jam under motor power with the second ball wedged between the first ball, the reel compartment, and the playfield rail.
*Reel constantly spinning when trying to eject/find balls from the reel compartment causing the balls to be stuck in the reel or eventually pop out (it should only move about 1/6 of a rotation to eject a ball).
*Balls being ejected erratically from the reel "Whooooooooooa!", immediately or randomly during game play even though there was only one ball (locked) in the assembly.
*Quantity of balls in play not registering during multiball causing extended play on ball after it should have ended.
*Multiball starting at random times during play.
*Reel test showing one opto constantly closed and one constantly open with multiple errors generating.
*On screen fault displayed after game play: Check switch 37, Check switch 38 (opto 1 and opto 2)

*Intermittent distortion/interference/signal noise on dot matrix screen. Visible on first test pattern (solid line moving left to right across screen) and page generation test as missing dots. Causing some screens to be completely unreadable, including the test/adjustments/set up screens, the in game score screens, and the Fish Finder screen. Distortion (like static) appearing across game screen in time with the topper fish flapping about.

Work previously conducted:

Replaced all optos (transmitters/receivers, white & black) - No noticeable effect/problem not resolved.

Solution:

*Checked positioning of optos and wiring against photos in this thread posted by Northerndude. They should be the same as pictured, with the black ones positioned under the reel assembly and the white ones on the outside of the reel assembly. Mine were correct.
*Cleaned the optos with a cotton tip and some Mr Sheen (furniture/multi surface cleaner and polish, also works great on the playfield). The optos looked clean and no significant grime appeared on the cotton tip (I do not think this was the problem).
*Replaced the drive belt and lower pulley on the reel assembly with new spares. (Disconnect the ball rail from the reel bracket & remove the back plate from the playfield surface. Loosen the top two mounting bolts on the light board (under the playfield) and move it aside to access the mounting bolts for the reel assembly. Disconnect the opto cable UDC connectors from the opto board. Disconnect the reel motor power supply connector from the power supply board. Remove the reel assembly mounting bolts and rotate the reel position until you can remove the entire assembly through the underside of the playfield (It should come through freely without being forced). Unbolt and remove the opto bracket. Loosen the locating grub screw on the lower pulley shaft and remove the nut, remove the retaining clip on the reel, and slide the reel, belt and pulley off the mounting shafts. Inspect the reel and upper pulley for damage (replace if damaged). Clean the reel and the mounting shafts with playfield cleaner (I use Mr Sheen). Inspect the motor wire connections and the UDC connectors. Fit new lower pulley. Fit new drive belt and fit reel onto mounting shaft. Refit the lock/nut and tighten grub screw on the lower pulley shaft and the retaining clip and washer on the upper reel shaft. Clean the optos and refit the opto bracket to the reel assmebly. Refit reel assembly to machine in the reverse order of removal. Reconnect the the opto and power supply boards.)
*Conduct detailed visual inspection of all wiring and connections and ensure all connectors are undamaged and firmly seated on boards with all wiring firmly fitted into connectors. Ensure there are no crushed diodes/capacitors etc and gently straighten any that may be folded over, no loose, damaged or unconnected wiring, no wiring connecting with board surfaces that could be creating electrical field interference.

Result:

*Caster's Club/Reel Assembly/Multiball feature running perfectly through entire sequence. All issues resolved.
*Dot matrix screen solid, crisp and clear on all screens. All issues resolved.
*Reel test is functioning with no errors and showing the opto switches opening and closing in sequence through the circuit test.
*The display test is clear on all screens and displays "RAM OK"

Conclusion:

*This issue was most likely caused by a worn/stretched/loose drive belt on the reel assembly and complicated by a loose connection or electrical field interference somewhere on the boards.

Recommendation:

* Replace the drive belt and lower pulley
* Clean the optos
* Check and correctly seat all wiring, connectors, and joiners.

I have just played about 30 games without a single issue. It's fixed!

[Full disclosure: To my great shame, this problem has been going on for years, not months, I've had it turned off all year and have spent years with the spring removed from from the Caster's Club gate to stop the gate dropping and playing without the multiball feature, because I just couldn't figure it out. If anyone would like more info on the above, I am more than happy to help out. I will probably only be on Pinside when I have a problem, so please also email me ([email protected]) and if I can answer a question, I will. In the meantime, if Madonna calls, tell her I've gone fishing and she should leave a message.]

I have a similar problem. I cannot get the reel to work (motor is good) and both optos are not registering in the test. I checked the voltage for the optos and they are at 1.22v. Do I have bad opto boards?

If you are measuring 1.22 at pins 4 & 5 of J2 or J3 , this means the IR LED is getting voltage and should be lit. Most mobile phones can show an IR LED lighting up if you use the camera. Some might have an IR filter in the lens , but most of the time the selfie camera doesn't. Here's a picture of the 2 IR LED lit up in my fish tales, they are measuring 1.33 volts across 4 & 5. Pins 1 & 2 or 1 & 3 for the other reel should measure about 13v (open circuit) with the opto blocked and 0.1 to 0.3 with the opto with nothing blocking it (circuit closed and you are measuring the voltage drop of the IR sensor). Put your meter on pins 1 and 2 (or 1 and 3 for reel 1) and turn the reel around. does it change from 13 to 0.1 ? If so , it is not the opto board itself. (Could always be the connection between the opto board and the CPU board (Connector J1 pins 5,6,7 should go to CPU)

20210320_134703 (resized).jpg

3 (resized).png

I am having a similair issue but both my opts are working. I replaced the belt and it started giving me some issues but I noticed that opt two doesn't register all the time because it sits too low so I bent the bracket a little and it seems to be working again. My next step is the raise it a little with shim like the one picture in the thread here..

UPDATE: This fault is likely caused by a failed Opto Board (Part no: A-13901 (new) A-13901-1(original). Both are direct swaps)

Do this:

1. Go into the menu and run the reel motor test. The image on the left should dance about light like playfield lights as the test sequences through the opto on/off cycle and the number of errors should be zero. If the image on the left doesn't change and you are getting errors and your reel motor is spinning, then there is a communication problem between the opto board and the reel motor board. Possibly caused by a failed solder connection at the opto board pins.

2. Check all your wiring and solder connections from the reel assembly to the opto board and the reel motor board for physical damage. Check your cable connectors are seated properly and nothing is burnt out. Follow the connections up into the back box and check the cpu board for burns and breaks, but stay focused on the lines to the opto board. You may have a slightly toasted main ribbon on your cpu board - but this is probably not your beef at the Caster's Club.

3. If there are no errors in the test and it's cycling through the opto switches, and your connections are good, replace the drive belt and the pulley (cheap, easy, described above, and should be done regularly anyway).

4. If you have errors in your reel motor test and the reel is spinning, and your belt and all your connections look good, replace the opto board (<$50 and takes about 5 minutes - its three plugs and four screws and can be accessed directly from under the playfield without having to move or disconnect anything else).

Or, get your multi-meter out and start poking it around and unfolding wiring schematics like you know wtf you're even looking at and get no closer to the Super Jackpot.

If the above does not work, I would then swap out the small reel motor board (just to the right of the opto board and also <50 bucks) and after that you've got no choice but to start messing about with your optos and figuring out how to properly use a multi-meter and follow some of the steps listed above.

HOW I GOT HERE:

In my first post (above) I had diagnosed this problem and was waiting for parts (reel motor drive belt and pulley and opto board).

I replaced the belt & pulley first and it worked great for a while, so I thought that was the fix. But I had also very carefully checked and reseated all the connections in the machine (just a hand and eye check with a little pressure on the wires into the connector ports)

It failed less than a year later so I replaced the belt again, but it didn't fix the issue.

When I inspected the opto board I could see the LHS pin connector had been bent outwards and could not lock into the board. It looked fine but had obviously had pressure applied to it which may have damaged one of the solder connections or flexed the board.

I swapped out the opto board and it was immediately fixed and is now running fine.

It is very obvious when the reel motor test is functioning with no errors. I recommend running it while your machine is functioning fine, so you know what good looks like. If you don't know the image on the left is supposed to change quickly and continuously, it is not obvious what the test means if the first time you see it its in "error".

To get to this point I had replaced my belt 3 times, and all the optos, thinking the problem was with the belt not torquing properly or the optos not signally correctly. But thinking back, nothing seemed wrong with those parts or the function of either of these areas. I think the problem from the start was an opto board on the way out and my first fix just re-established the opto board connection (probably when I bent the connector pins out the way, damaging the solder in the process and setting it up for the final failure of the board.)

The best bit was - When I was trying to figure this out after scratching my head under the playfield, I went back and read my first post in this thread and thought, "Hang on a sec here! Did I order an opto board years ago and not fit it??.... I think I may have!" and when I went for a rummage through my parts tub, there it was, brand new and sealed in a static proof bag. 5 minutes later and I was playing my first game in months.

20221005_152649 (resized).jpg

20221005_152715 (resized).jpg

20221005_152734 (resized).jpg

20221005_152755 (resized).jpg

Yes. You have a bad opto board. Order part number A-13901 and replace it.

Joining the "I have the shooter lane auto firing issue" club. Have read the threads I can find. Replaced the opto board. Checked the reel positions. Ran single switch tests, all test good. Checked the position and movement of switch 56. I even completely disassembled the shooter button handle and put it back together (after the problem started, not before). The shooter handle does look great after a good cleaning. A couple of symptoms I haven't seen mentioned in other posts:

A: The auto launch coil always fires twice. Once to launch the ball, the second a couple of seconds later - apparently just for fun.

B: It is intermittent. Most of the time, probably 9 times out of ten, it auto fires. Once in a while, for a ball, or a couple, never a full game, it will not auto fire and the shooter button will fire the coil. This most often happens after playing for a while, almost like once it really warms up, it decides to auto fire less often.

Any ideas would be welcome.

Bumping, still looking for help.

The ball shooter fires when it thinks there is a ball in the shooter lane. You should be looking at the switch in the shooter lane that detects if there is a ball there. Does the switch test show the shooter lane switch working normally and not sticky or intermittently stuck on? If you knock on the playfield to any switches fire, etc?

Sorry, not to respond sooner, been a no time to work on Pinball kind of month. Yes, checked the switche in the shooter lane and shooter handle. In fact took the casting handle completely apart cleaned it so it looks really great. Tested the switch. Everything seems fine, but certainly worth trying again. The odd thing is it fires the ball then a few seconds later fires again.

Figured I would try this thread because the experts are here.

Reel test is showing Opto 2 opening and closing. Reel graphic is not moving. Opto 1 not changing as reel moves. Reel never finds home and never lines up right .

*There is a shitty repair of a section of.the power driver board

Test report says missing ball

Sofar I have.
1. Replaced Opto board
2. Replaced Opto 1 send and receive
3. Replace reel belt
4. Replace short ribbon connector

Test points on Opto board
J2 1.52v
J3 1.37V
J4 14.8v
J5 15.2v
J6 1.37v

Input v to Opto board 14.8v

Test points on driver board
TP1 14.9v
Tp2 4.8v
Tp3 11.9v
Tp5 ground ok
Tp6 73.3v
Tp7 21.5v
Tp8 16.4v

F113 3.5v
F114 7.8v
F115 12.9v
F116 6.5v

I'm at a loss 5+ hours of research 3+ hours of probing and checking continuity of grounds and firing the parts Cannon... Parts cannon is empty besides motor control board and power driver board.