If you haven't already, take some Novus 1 and clean the opto thoroughly on the playfield side (not under the playfield). This has happened on mine a few times.

Could be the board, but try replacing the optos if you haven't already. They do wear out and all the lights around the idol area will trigger phantom hits. If the other optos in the game may be factory, best to change them too. The super ramp pair are more hidden, but the shrunken head optos will act up when they get old.

Replace the optos. It's time. Technically, you only need to do the send (lit) side. For kicks, you can swap the send and receive sides. Assuming this hasnt been done yet, the opto that was receiving will now glow much brighter, but it looks cooler to have the lit one under the playfield.

Your magnet post has a flat spot. Replace it or if you are neat enough you can remove it, file it and reinstall it. These issues are very common to routed Ripleys.

-Jeff

Lifting up an older thread. Did this get solved? The reason Im asking is that Im about to get a RBION with same kind of failure.

If the optos are intermittent, that implies they are working fine from a component standpoint. This usually is a result of cracked solder joints for the opto, or on sterns/segas with the narrow beam of light, misalignment.

First, get a white piece of paper and hold it over the receiver side (you can tell as one side is the one obviously shining a light). Hold this over the other opto that receives the light, and you can see if the bean lines up with the opto on the other side. If not, adjust.

If this is not the issue, then I would be removing both opto boards and reflowing the opto solder pads and the connections to the boards.

This is likely a long (very), but check your tombstone and sling leaf switches. One of mine wasn't gapped right and it was awarding points on ball launch. Also, what else is on the circuit of the idol? Check them.

Bump for same issue.

Time for a super noob question: How do I properly adjust the optos? When I use my finger to push the receiving opto off to the side to line up with the bottom opto, the problem resolves itself. How do I adjust the alignment of the optos?

I know it's likely insanely easy, but I'm still learning

bad opto/board in video just replace both very cheap had the same issue now its perfect as far as adjustment when put back together it should be lined up unless somthings way off..... hmmmmm

Sounds good. I'll buy a new opto set and if that doesn't work I'll trouble shoot it from there.

Help! I am having same problem. My question is that it checks fine in test mode for switch. I look at the board and it is lit very dimly and in test mode it is lit really bright. I switched the boards with the shrunken head and same result and the board works on the shrunken head. When it's not in test mode, the light on the board kind goes with GI lights when blinking. Also both lights are very dim. Could it be a ground issue?

If you changed the board then I'd look into changing out the opto. This very issue happened on mine, I ordered the 7 Dollars opto with the leads and swapped it out. No issues since.

Thanks for info! I thought it would not be the opto's because they work great during test mode. I wonder why the difference? Where did you order the opto with the leads? Marco's is sold out.
Thanks!

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1210

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/500-6775-01

But double check with the manual anyway....

AWESOME! Hopefully this will do the trick

Thanks so much!

Years later ... worked also for me !
I had to swap the tranmitter board under the magnet.

Hi guys, I'm having the same issue too. I've just bought this pinball, and it's my first pinball, so...
Could you help me to understand how to replace this part, maybe using some images?
Thank you very much

TomDK your answer is the most recent, I believe in you

I don't have time to walk you through it, but I just bashed my head into and through the wall at this a few months ago. People say replace the optos, yes, that is the answer. However, I bought a couple sets from PinballLife and that did not work. Very long story short, I bought a set of optos from Marco and those worked fine.

I'm not even going to guess what the hell happened.

For my friend in Rome :

Order an opto (or better 2) here:
https://www.pinballlife.com/data-eastsegastern-opto-transceiver.html

You have 2 of this optos on the IDOL. They work as transmitter and reciefer ! Therefor called TranCieverBoard.

First remove the one under the magnet. Open the playfield, locate left side the magnet with its opto. 2 screws to remove, follow the cable. Swap.

If it now works .. finde ... otherwise. On the playfield, on the plastic is the second Transciever mounted with a bracket on the plastic.
Remove, connect, test.

If it will not work ... other reason. Maybe you order such a pcb as well.
I ordered at pinballlive other stuff and put 1 transcieverboard because it was just 3,50 dollar , and lucky me ... I needet it.
Maybe you can get this opto also in Europe. Mine is working , no issues.
Ignore the rust on the pictures, this was before renovation and galvanising all parts ....

And please .. fight Corona succesfull we have flights in May to Firence and in August to San Felice Circeo

IMG_5128(1) (resized).JPG

IMG_5292 (resized).JPG

Hi Tom,

thank you very much for your super detailed answer!

Hope to fight Corona succesfull here, Florence is a beautiful city, I hope everything will be ok!

We're locked in our houses, but I'm having fun with my pinball

Anyway, I've find the opto transceiver here and I've ordered it.
https://pu-parts.com/data-east-sega-stern-opto-transceiver

I've also found a micro-switch which was constantly triggered, it was
Left jackpot loop #47

I've blended it a little bit and now it seems to trigger correctly.
Since then, I didn't have the idol constantly triggering, but maybe that's a coincidence.

I'll wait for the part and in the meantime I'll play with it

I'm having another issue on Scoop VUN #29, the switch sometimes doesn't trigger.
I've tried to adjust it but no luck, maybe I'll have to replace it, but my seller suggested me to use a Contact cleaner spray on it instead, as the replacement could not have the same adjustment of the partially working one.

And remember .. the Idol Transciever beam is NOT always on !
Therefor one of the cables is splitted and going to the driverboard in backbox and not to the little pcb under the playfield like the other two optos !

Take care ... we are starting the same here in Germany right now !! Hopefully we can go at least in August to Italy.

Thank you Tom, hope for the best!

Just curious if anyone has any new ideas, Same problem with random idol hits. New optos (PBL and Marco), new opto board, new transistor and resistors for that section of the switch matrix. Works perfectly fine in test mode, everything looks ok.

You haven’t added any spotlights or 3rd party illumination products like Pinstadium , have you?

No additional lighting. I have seen other posts with people claiming that the flashers have supposedly caused phantom hits with the idol; so as a test I did disconnect the lower flashers and a couple lights in that area and that had no effect.

I am curious if anyone has the specs for the leds that are used in the opto boards. I think if I can find a led with the same wavelength but with a higher mW output that would help compensate for a 16 year old hazy insert.

Those old optos are transceivers, so same part number for both sides. You weren't mixing optos from Pinball Life and Marco were you? Probably want to keep those in pairs from the same batch.

Have you tried pounding on the playfield during test or gameplay to see if you can trigger it? Cleaning that insert starting with Novus 3 and a q-tip (from the bottom) may help.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ripleys-help-needed/page/2

I had more important things to do and other projects lately so I basicly walked away from this for the past month.

The optos are not mixed, I originally had some from Pinball Life but read in a couple of the threads about people having issues with the the ones they got there so I ordered some from Marco witch are currently in the game. The insert I already polished up as well as possible, there is just some bad crazing that nothing short of replacing the insert will fix. I can't find anything loose and banging on the playfield or shaking the machine does not cause any reaction.

Now that I have begun to look at this problem again this is looking like some bizarre software bug, it is 100% repeatable and behaves the same way over many games.

-Ball 1 and 2 Idol will be lit at the beginning of play, it will not trigger until opto is broken and will score 1 idol hit as it should.
-Ball 3 idol will light for less than a second after ball served into shooter lane you will hear the idol audio and the opto will turn off, this is not counted as an idol hit.
-During the entire game a shot into the lower bumpers or the scoop will only light the idol for 1-2 seconds before you hear the Idol audio and the opto truns off, this also will not score an idol hit.
-During muliball the idol will be on an score hits correctly.
-The only time when I am getting extra idol hits scored is during the bonus countdown; it will add a idol hit and then score one more than the number of hits. (ie. upon draining you have 5 idol hits, when the bonus countdown starts it will always add one extra and you will hear the idol noise, the display will then tell you that you had 7 idol hits even though it only added one, beginning of the next ball it will display that you have had 6 idol hits.)

Hopefully I was clear enough in my explanation, but as I said all of this is 100% repeatable and not random at all.