Hi all,

The Mini Playfield motor will only rotate one direction (clock-wise if that matters).
The optos are good, because i can move the board by hand and observe, in the Mini PF test, that the system sees the board toggle left and right.
I did replace the motor control board just about a year or two ago when the motors wouldn't move at all.
is this yet another motor control board issue?
It would seem that if the motor works in one direction, it's working, and I would assume that the direction is reversed by simply reversing polarity in the motor control board output, therefore suggesting it's a motor control board issue.
Any thoughts?

Thanks for reading!

Hi

Thanks. I’ve read/searches the forum but I probably did miss something.

Can you elaborate a bit more?
I say the Optos are good because as I mentioned I can move the board by hand and observe the switches 94 and 95 trigger as appropriate and only when appropriate.

Hi,

In mini pf test mode with door open, using the middle 2 buttons for left and right operation....

Right : completely normal operation. No stuttering. Optical sensor works great
Left : nothing happens at all, there no movement from the motor at all. But if move the board by hand the optical sensor trips and it registers that it has reached the left position.

So in summary, unlike the other posts, there’s no movement or stuttering or anything in one direction, and the other direction is completely normal. Both optos appear to be just fine.

Hi all

I do apologize if I caused frustration. However I did look through the forums and can’t see an issue like this where one direction works perfectly and the other does nothing. Both optos appear to be working ok too.

I’d appreciate any help or suggestions. Thanks.

Hi all

This is really weird and still need help.

I changed the motor control board and it’s still the same. Here’s the really weird thing that happens with both the old and new board:

In test T15 mini play field it fails because the system won’t issue a “left” command but if I manually move the play field to the left while it’s doing the self test it reports the System is ok. Doing that enables me to go to continuous mode and that works perfectly, I can observe the system moving the pf left and right under its own power and the optical switches are registering fine.

So it’s only the left fillper (during game play) or the left button behind the coin door and the boot up self test that won’t move the motor to the left direction. How can this be?

I did just change the MPU board and transferred the 3 chips from the old board just before this happened. I replaced it with a rotten dog board. But everything else on the game is working correctly so it doesn’t seem like a general fault there.

So in summary: motor and optical switches and motor control board and diag in continuous mode appear to be ok. But diag at boot up and the “once” diag and the left flipper (during game play) won’t move the play field to the left (but to the right works).

Any thoughts?

Hi
Thanks.

But given that it works in cont mode but not in once mode, doesn’t that indicate that the Allen screws are ok?

Anyone have any ideas? The motor control board is ok. The options are ok. It’s not the flippers causing the issue because it also affects the test buttons behind the coin door.
Continuous diagnostic test mode works fine. And it’s onky one direction that’s a problem.

Ok let’s review.

At startup it complains about mini PF.

During game play, I cannot move the playfield left. I can move it right.

Using the diag test it does fail because the system won’t move it left. If I manually move the pf it passes and allows me to enter continuous diag mode.

Using the diag tests in continuous mode it works perfectly. This implies control board and optis and motor are fine.

Hi,

Not sure I know what you mean by upper and lower flipper buttons. The primary left flipper will not move the play field left.
The left test button (-) in the coin door will not register a left movement... this is true with the coin door interlocks closed or open.
The boot up sequence when the play field is quickly moved left and right only moves the play field right.

The only time I can get it to move left is when it’s in continuous mode test T15 when it just goes back and forth without any buttons being pressed.

Hi

But it’s not just the left flipper, the - button behind the coin door which is used in the mini pf test doesn’t cause it to move left either. The only thing that causes it to move left is in the Continuous diag mini Pf test...that works perfectly. It’s like it refuses to accept any input to move left. It’s not that it doesn’t make it all the way to the left, it just doesn’t move at all
I guess I’ll try to check the mini pf itself. Seems really weird though that it moves and detects the end of range via the Optos just fine

I just replaced the MPU board. It’s brand new. No corrosion.

I am listening. I hear what you’re saying about the two optos but what I don’t understand is how can it move fine in continuous diag mode but not otherwise? Are you saying that one set of optis controls the stop movement and another set has a different purpose that would make it such that the board won’t move left from the flipper or - control board?

I ask because I tried a while ago to remove the opto board and the screw won’t come out, I’ll have to drill it out which I don’t want to do unless I have to.

Thanks all.

Hi all

First I do appreciate everyone’s help a lot. Ask my wife, she will tell you this is the first place I go when there’s a problem that takes longer than 10 minutes to troubleshoot.

I swapped out the opto board after struggling to remove it. I think someone glued as there was what looked like epoxy holding it. After that it worked perfectly. So it was the opto board.

Apparently the diag test in continuous mode doesn’t care at least about one opto. Lesson learned.

To be clear, I swapped out the opto board of the mini play field, not the flipper opto boards...those were in great condition as I changed them not too long ago. The problem was solved by changing the mini play fields opto board, not the flippers.

I changed the motor control board (not the opto) board about 2 years ago...give or take, I don’t recall. I also put a new one in the other day, to shotgun the issue but obviously that didn’t fix it.

I changed both flipper boards also about 2 years ago, I did that because I was having some issues with the mini play field stuttering.

I changed the Mpu board last week. That was because of marginal problems with switches likely due to battery corrosion.

I changed the opto board of the mini play field for the first time today. I actually tried to proactively change it a while ago when I had that portion of the game apart cleaning it, but the board was glued onto the metal bracket for some reason and I decided to leave it alone. But I tackled it today. ===> This mini playfield opto board was the root cause of the issue in this thread.

Hope that helps someone. Again, the flipper optos were not the root cause.