Am finishing a restore of a G.I. The initial startup test yields an Island Error, and the motor does not move at all. In Motor Test, the island lock solenoid engages/disengages and the Lock Switch toggles from 0 to 1, but the Island Opto never changes from 0, even if I force rotate the island by hand when it is unlocked. I can tell that the microswitch for the lock mechanism is engaging properly.

I'm thinking the opto board is not getting the proper voltage from the driver board, or is not working correctly. I can see from the schematics and opto board diagram that J118 should supply GND and +12v dc. When I measure at the opto board 4 pin molex connector between grey-yellow (+12vdc) and black, I get a low voltage reading on my meter, around +5vdc.

opto_diagram (resized).png

When I unplug J118 from driver board, and test the voltage across pins 2 and 3, I get around 8-9 vdc, well under what I think it should be. Same with TP1.

The green island plastic does not sit in the middle of the opto sensor, it is almost flush against one side of the sensor. Does it need to be lined up in the middle? I've read that it could be reading through the plastic, so I took a black sharpie and filled in the outer edge of the black plastic where the sensor would go by, but no change. The motor did click on twice randomly on a power up, but never in test mode.

My motor is brand new, the relay board is a repro from Great Lakes Modular, but I've tried also with the original Relay pcb.

I've read that you can ground Q58 to activate the relay and get the motor running manually. How does one do that exactly? What pin on Q58 do I ground?

Thanks for any help.

Ok, I think I figured out the initial issue: connectors J116 and J118 on the driver board were swapped. They have the same color wires and same pinout, and I had marked them before disassembly for a playfield swap, but I guess they were in the wrong spots. After swapping them, the motor now works and the opto in motor test is toggling 0/1 as the island rotates. It seems to hit all the stops correctly in test mode.

On power up, the island rotates a little but not all the way until the lock clicks, and it still reports "Island Error", and often is misaligned so that if the ramp was down a ball would not travel through the island but would hit the median.

If I power it up, and let it do its thing, then go into Switch test, it tells me the Wheel Opto is closed. It stays closed even when I manually move the island until it clicks into the lock fully. I'm not sure if the Wheel Opto should show closed during the switch test.

When a game starts, the ramp up coil is activated and the ramp goes up. When starting Kona or getting Jungle Run ramp, the ramp down solenoid will not trigger and the ramp will not go down. The ramp does go up and down in solenoid test successfully every time.

So I am part way there. Any ideas on why the island might misalign on power up, and why the ramp will not go down when it should?

I think I am on L7. I will try and upgrade the rom.

It could be mechanical for sure as well. I did a playfield swap and it was near impossible to see where to mount the lock mechanism exactly so it would slide into each slot on the island perfectly. There is literally no visibility from under the playfield. In motor test it makes it through all the paths most of the time, but occasionally on a particular path it will get stuck and have to click for a few times before it frees.

It does seem like a timing issue though. Almost as if on power up, when it starts the motor and gets to a point where the opto toggles, that it stops the motor immediately and expects the lock to be engaged indicated by the lock switch, but it stopped the motor a hair too soon before the lock slipped in.

Ok, upgrading to L9 rom made the island error go away. On startup, the island rotated for a longer period of time and came to rest aligned, and there was no island error. Threw the ball around to activate Kona and it worked for a few seconds lowering the ramp and rotating the island to the first slot, but then the rap raised again on its own, and now game reports ramp error and the ramp will not go up or down in test mode. Fuse F103 is now blown.

Getting closer but still paying whack a mole. Any ideas why that fuse would blow now when ramp was working fine before in test mode with the old game rom?

Island started sticking again and have island error again, so I took the lock mechanism apart to see if I could better align it with the island holes. I noticed that the switch limit actuator bracket (the metal piece that has the tab that actuates the switch) is really worn down. There is too much play side to side in the groove it rests in that I can’t find a sweet spot for actuating the switch in all paths of travel. Looks like this part is unobtanium.

IMG_5647 (resized).jpeg

Replaced the fuse and ramp up and down are working again. I will investigate more why that fuse blew.

I was able to fix the actuator. An old arcade coin door lock latch, and 30 minutes with a dremel metal wheel cutter and stone grinder tool and was able to created another thicker layer to go over the worn tab.

IMG_5648 (resized).jpeg

This fit right inside the bracket.

IMG_5649 (resized).jpeg
IMG_5650 (resized).jpeg

With the actuator working on the lock mechanism, I went looking at the alignment of the lock unit with the island. I had to go into single switch test, wheel opto switch, and make a few adjustments. I rotated the wheel until it was aligned with the ramp in a proper orientation and the opto just switched from open to closed. Then I moved the unscrewed lock mechanism around from the bottom until I felt it click in the hole on the island. Then I screwed it back in at that place. Took me a few tries to get it in the right spot, sometimes it would click in one spot, but then rotate to the next stop and wouldn’t click in. Everything is working now, island and ramp too.

It is very picky about where everything needs to be.

Thanks, good find, my manual came with a service bulletin insert, but not this particular one. I may try that coil as I do get a stuck ramp every so often. I also noticed that my pin crank is worn down. There are a couple of mechanisms in this game that have two pieces of metal grinding perpendicular to each other generating grooves, the island lock mechanism is one of them and the ramp is another. It's a bad design IMO, and I may end up also swapping the pin crank with new:

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/02-4429