**Please see latest update below-thanks

New GHS2 owner here. Curious if someone can explain what sets off the beacon. I have tested the MARS lamp & it works fine, but I have yet to see it activate during gameplay. I've hit multiball, video mode, special, "got away"...all the things I would think would set it off.

If it should be going off and it's not (but it works from the test menu) please let me know what you think could be causing something like that as well. Thanks!

Tried banging the top during multiball & got nothing. Tested a few times from test menu & works like a champ every time. Made sure that it was turned "on" for gameplay in the menu as well. Still a no-go during actual gameplay-is it not getting the signals from the board? What would I test to see if the board is doing what it's supposed to (I don't have a manual for this game yet). Thanks

Okay, made some headway & then probably made the problem worse Forgive me if this is long-winded, but I want to be as accurate in my description as possible.

Looking at schematics from manual online, traced all the wires from the triac back to the board & tested continuity. All wires continuity checked fine. Then I noticed what was probably the problem...the red wire which the manual states should go to J106-5, was plugged into the wrong place (J124-5). The correct place (J106) was completely empty, nothing connected.

The connector holding the red wire only has the red wire, nothing else. So I turned off machine, plugged it into J106 where it's supposed to go & rebooted...the GI lights were super duper bright, I smelled a smell, and shut the machine off. Upon further investigation, fuse F104 blew, so I swapped that out & put the connector back to where we started at J124-5.

So now everything is back to where we started which seems to be the connector being in the wrong place (so still haven't solved the beacon issue). The GI has returned to normal brightness. Now there are new problems though, the left & middle supercharger lights are on all the time. I don't know what is normal, but before this attempted fix only the middle supercharger light was on at startup. Also hold bonus, 4x, 6x, drive again & 4th gear lamps are out. I glanced at the matrix quickly, but these didn't appear to be in the same column or row. Help!

Grand total:
1) beacon still not activating in gameplay & appears to be hooked up to wrong place
2) left & middle supercharger lights on, 4x, 6x, hold bonus, drive again, 4th gear lamps out

After looking some more, it appears that column 2 as shown on the lamp matrix is out. What do I need to look at/how do I repair this?

As for the supercharger, it tests fine, all magnets work, the time is good & the MARS lamp works in test mode...but in gameplay the left & middle flashers are always on & the MARS doesn't turn on. Any suggestions?

I'm inclined to treat these as two separate issues, unless I shouldn't be Thanks

lamp_matrix.png

I tried resetting to factory & the MARS lamp only spins in test, not gameplay.
The left & middle flashers are locked on, the right one flashes as it's supposed to in test mode. I've unplugged the connector to these flashers to keep the lights/heat off. I was thinking these 2 problems might have a common link somewhere (I read earlier about accelerator board).

I'll have to try the lamp matrix test later-thanks for sending that link, I had no idea. Can I use alligator clips or rig something homebrew for this? I don't have whatever that jumper cable is. After a full lamp test, these are the lamps that are out: 5 mil, 4x, hold bonus, 6x, drive again, 4th gear.

Okay, machine is just posessed. I was just playing, saw 6x on DMD so looked down & 6x light was working. Not to mention there was a part where every light was on (not sure what I did) and all those other lights worked as well. Just did the lamp test again, and now everything's working except 5 mil & drive again - WTF?

Also, the right sling flasher & (I guess) left ramp flasher are staying on during gameplay as if they are some super bright GI or something. Right sling flasher tests okay in test mode, the other one is always on even in test mode. Getting closer...

One of the resistors on the triac board (I think that's the board you were talking about Hawk) had no solder on one of the legs...figured we had it in the bag - but no, soldered it and still the same for the beacon.

Deciding to postpone the beacon fix for now, want to find out why these flashers are always on. So, I figured I could swap out my BOP driver board into the Getaway to see where we stand (if flashers are normal & all lights work)...and noticed the Getaway has board A-12697-3 installed instead of A-12697-1 as per manual. Was hoping the educated around here can chime in on what the differences between J106 & J124 are on these two boards. Once I've swapped the good board into the Getaway (-1), I'm very nervous if I should plug the suspect wire into J106 where the manual states it belongs, or back into J124 where it was connected on the -3 board (remember when I "corrected" this something got fried). Assuming the -1 & -3 boards have different voltages at these points or something & I don't want to fry another board. Hope that makes sense, thanks.

Edit-now that the -3 board is out, I can see that the J121 GI connection is fried in two spots, maybe that is what's wrong with the always on flashers - waiting to hook up the -1 board until I'm confident where the suspect wire should go.

Can someone with a getaway take a look at your driver board & let me know if the red wire from triac is plugging into J106 or J124? It has been suggested that perhaps the documentation could be incorrect. Thanks

Awesome, thanks for checking/pics. I don't know what this means for me...why it was connected & working to J124-does this suggest some wire hack? At least I know I'm not a complete moron as far as reading a manual goes. Any idea if these two places have the same outputs? I haven't been able to tell from any of my online reading (manual on order).

Okay, posting for posterity-most is fixed...all seemed to be driver board related. I thought about it & against my better judgement swapped my BOP board over into Getaway. I hooked the red beacon back to J124. Everything seemed to work, except the beacon was still not on in gameplay, and the right sling flasher was always on (dim & flashed when it was supposed to, but always on). The supercharger lamps were back to normal. And then, yes, I REALLY went against my better judgement and swapped that wire to J106 after getting dmacy's confirmation. Well holy crap, the right sling flasher is NOT always on now, and even better, the beacon works in gameplay now! I'm thinking I'll order a Rottendog board for this, and then when I have the time to troubleshoot the current board, I'll keep as a spare.

Still 2 lights out, drive again & 5 mil - but I saw at least one of those had a diode on it, so I will get to testing those 2 lights out later, but for now we're good! Thanks everybody.