A lot of DE games don't have them or work without.

If your game had them, I'd hook them back up.

LTG : )™

Probably. But we will never know why. I never try to think of what a person was thinking when they do something. I just get it going and move on.

LTG : )™

It was probably on location when they were removed. It's not uncommon on modern Stern's for the EOS actuator to completely break off (after thousands of plays). Or the long blade on the EOS breaks off. The fix-it-quick operator sees the game playing and earning fine with no EOS switch and says screw it, I'll pull the other one off too. No point (or profit) in buying new ones.

My mostly LUO (location use only) WPT has a broken EOS switch right now. I'll put one on next time I go to the location, but because of the software, no one will even notice. Lane changes are done with the flipper button switches, so there's virtually no way to tell.

On a Data East machine with the flipper control board, the purpose of the EOS switch is to re-power the high power winding when you are holding the flipper in the operated state. This works fine w/o the EOS switch until you are holding a ball in multiball and a ball hits the end of the flipper or you are holding the flipper to trap an on-coming ball. When the ball hits the end of the flipper, the hold winding allows the flipper to deflect downward, causing you to loose
the ball.

But....if you have the EOS wiring in and working, as soon as the flipper deflects when held, the EOS opens putting some power back into the coil power winding. This is controlled via flipper control board.

If your EOS wires are not connected together you will not get power to the power winding of the flipper coil. I expect your EOS wires were connected together in the absence of the EOS switch.

For further details of the operation of the EOS associated with DE machines with the flipper control board, consult Data East Service Bulletin number 049 below.

likely was disconnected for the low coil broken-damaged and connected it'd start short stroke hammering on the main coil near EOS (buzz!). -without it in place risks burning the main coil if ball holding very long.

you can replace the coil if bad and put the switches back into the loop, or rewire main coil with EOS normally closed so when it opens it puts a resistor in series to the main coil, dropping voltage and current to the coil (as the resistor heats up of course!). resistor-switch "rewire hack" is what Sentinel-WonderWizard did for using a single coil for flippers, not the best method but effective. normally that EOS switch would bounce power from high to low coil when "on". either method will help to prevent burning a main coil, or its driver transistor.

Not on DE's. They are timed for activating the pulse. Minnesota13 explained it correctly. EOS for DE and above only prevent a ball from pushing the bat down completely.

On b/w machines, a non working EOS is trouble, but all in all, makes for a better flipper feel and play.