Durham, NC
Okay, so every once in a while my scoop will shoot out 2 balls, aggravating, any one know a good fix?
Thank you all!
Lee in NC
(Topic ID: 343557)
Quoted from deafdumbkid:Okay, so every once in a while my scoop will shoot out 2 balls, aggravating, any one know a good fix?
Thank you all!
Lee in NC
I assume you're talking about the ball trough. It's most likely that the switch in the shooter lane is not registering consistently enough. Could be a switch going bad or it could be that it just needs to have the wire arm raised a little bit so the ball more concretely pushes it down to register that a ball has made it into the shooter lane.
It could also be that one of the switches in the ball trough is malfunctioning, but that would be a secondary issue. Check the shooter lane first.
If you are talking about the ball kickout to the shooter lane this is almost always the opto switches in the ball trough not correctly registering the balls.
The manual for your game is here:
On pdf page 114 it has the part numbers for the ball trough boards:
The ball trough transmitter board is PCB0019-01
The ball trough receiver board is PCB-0019-00
It is possible you could buy these directly from American Pinball?
Problems here are usually an opto that is mis-aligned (the optos should point towards each other), or an opto not registering all the time.
It is VERY common for an opto LED to break it's lead, and be making connection some of the time. You'll apply heat with your soldering iron and find out that the leg for the LED is broken off right on top of the board, still touching most of the time.
Could be transmitter, could be receiver, but I'd check the ones at the end of the board that are furthest from the connector first. (The furthest one is the 'my ball has stacked up, and I need to hit it again' opto).
It is is also very common for the solder connections at the connectors to this board to be broken. Apply fresh solder if anything looks compromised at the connector.
You didn't mention that the game went into ball search before this happened, so I don't think your game is miscounting the balls because of sensors anywhere but the trough.
You might contact American Pinball directly, and see if their service technicians have any advice.
(EDIT: Good advice from Pinmonk to check the shooter lane switch first... do that!)
Let us know what you find!
(EDIT: If it's an actual scoop on the playfield (the three ball lock assembly?), you'll need to check the three black microswitches there. Black microswitch rollers sometimes need to be adjusted to 'click' properly... again, American pinball might have some suggestions on how to make this mechanism more reliable.)
If it's the right scoop it's likely because the plunger that holds / releases the locked balls is staying down too long / not popping back up fast enough. Try lowering the adjustment for that coil in the settings so that it just barely releases one locked ball at a time. Might also check to make sure the spring is still strong and that the balls in the game have not become magnetized.
Quoted from bobukcat:If it's the right scoop it's likely because the plunger that holds / releases the locked balls is staying down too long / not popping back up fast enough. Try lowering the adjustment for that coil in the settings so that it just barely releases one locked ball at a time. Might also check to make sure the spring is still strong and that the balls in the game have not become magnetized.
Ah, right. I forgot about the balls that stack up in the subway to the right scoop. Good call.
Quoted from bobukcat:If it's the right scoop it's likely because the plunger that holds / releases the locked balls is staying down too long / not popping back up fast enough. Try lowering the adjustment for that coil in the settings so that it just barely releases one locked ball at a time. Might also check to make sure the spring is still strong and that the balls in the game have not become magnetized.
Thank you everyone! bobukat, you were right I WAS talking the scoop on the right, NOT the ball trough which is working fine, I did as you suggested and lowered coil strength from 10 to 9 and so far NO 2 ball releases so we will see, thank you
One other question so far, I know the game is famous for 'pop up balls' which go rogue or over the flippers, and I certainly see them but not too bad, but any way to reduce? I really only see it with the SEANCE target switches. Thank you all!
Lee
Quoted from deafdumbkid:Thank you everyone! bobukat, you were right I WAS talking the scoop on the right, NOT the ball trough which is working fine, I did as you suggested and lowered coil strength from 10 to 9 and so far NO 2 ball releases so we will see, thank you
One other question so far, I know the game is famous for 'pop up balls' which go rogue or over the flippers, and I certainly see them but not too bad, but any way to reduce? I really only see it with the SEANCE target switches. Thank you all!
Lee
The swinks target bracket replacements lower the targets slightly and angle them forward a little bit to eliminate airballs. You'll have to check if they work for Houdini. I think they should because they do for the slim Ghostbusters targets.
Quoted from deafdumbkid:Thank you everyone! bobukat, you were right I WAS talking the scoop on the right, NOT the ball trough which is working fine, I did as you suggested and lowered coil strength from 10 to 9 and so far NO 2 ball releases so we will see, thank you
One other question so far, I know the game is famous for 'pop up balls' which go rogue or over the flippers, and I certainly see them but not too bad, but any way to reduce? I really only see it with the SEANCE target switches. Thank you all!
Lee
Turn down the flipper power in the coil settings. I almost never get airballs in my game and all the shots are makeable even with the game at about 7 degrees.
Quoted from bobukcat:Turn down the flipper power in the coil settings. I almost never get airballs in my game and all the shots are makeable even with the game at about 7 degrees.
Dead on again, thank you, you know your Houdini, like a whole new game, running like a top
Quoted from deafdumbkid:Dead on again, thank you, you know your Houdini, like a whole new game, running like a top
Yeah, it's one of my favorite games of all time and I was a fairly early buyer so I know all the ups and downs it's been through, mostly ups as far as I'm concerned. Happy to hear you have it dialed-in now!
Promoted items from the Pinside Marketplace
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
