So going back to my pictures, I realized the switch was out back on the 13th, before I even took the ship out. The switch could’ve been out from the factory for all I know. I only played a handful of games before I removed the ship. Any ideas?

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Will check later tonight and report back. Thanks brother!

Alright, so I did some investigation and it looks like the diode might be reversed on chapter select switch # 2. All of them have the band on the side closest to the playfield while this one has it on the opposite side. Since (it looks like) they are daisy chained, Do you guys think that’s what is causing it to be stuck open and not register at all in switch test?

I want to be 100% sure before I pull it out. It’s crowded down there
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Yes. Clearly facing the wrong direction. And why your switch no worky.

LTG : )

I guess they missed it in the testing stage. Well, I better get my soldering iron going. Thanks Lloyd!

Had another occurrence of wires breaking under the Black Pearl mini playfield. I’ve got to give a big thank you to Kurt Hemispheres Amusements for going above and beyond again to help me. Met me at his shop way outside normal business hours to solder them for me and then took a lot of extra time to come up with an idea to help bulletproof it to lessen the chance of it happening so often. He took an old standoff post from a parts playfield, attached it to the underside, and zipped the horizontal part of the wiring harness to it to keep those wires from moving & breaking again. Idea being if he can stabilize those wires to hold them still while the section of harness dropping through the playfield can still move up and down with the rocking it should reduce the chance for the wires to break from the solders. Now when you tug on that lower section the wires attached to the switches don’t move at all, so the Pearl will rock with the connections staying secure. He also ran the wires through a large rubber sleeve to have the sleeve remain at the hole in the playfield to for smooth travel back and forth with the rocking. Very nice to have Kurt’s experience on my side! He and Mark at Hemispheres have been invaluable to this rookie owner. Here are a couple pictures.

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Nice! Did he drill holes on the bottom to install this post?

The base of the standoff post takes a single screw, so he used a very short hex head screw through that spot to attach it. Here’s a picture.

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Perfect! Thank you!

Hey Chris, Thanks for the kuddos! Much appreciated. I think this will be the long term solution for you on that issue. I was really pleased with it and it should have been done this way right from JJP! Now on to your JP...lol Call me when you have time. Spend some time on the factory floor with the Stern guys yesterday and got a lot of info on what and how that entire assy should work...We'll get her nailed down...

Thanks again for your business, Much appreciated Chris!

You did great on that fix! I'll be doing the same thing to mine if you don't mind I'll look for one at Pinball life or Marco

Need some help, trough 2 and 3 are stuck on. Tried to adjust the sensors but they didn't have any effect. The switches randomly switch on and off in switch test mode without me touching anything. So anytime there are 3 balls in the trough, it spits them all out into the shooter lane. I'm out of ideas, game is unplayable until I get this fixed. Appreciate the help.

I know you said you tried to adjust them but did you try to clean them with some alcohol and a q-tip. I had some issues with an opto and as soon as I cleaned it all the problems went away. Sounds like its getting a weak signal (dirty)

Thanks for the idea, I checked the opto board, everything was plugged in tight and messing with the connections didn't change anything. I did however start pushing on each of the optos individually and found that the opto for ball 2 would trigger the switch on and off. I basically pushed it into the board to try and make a better connection and this seemed to have done the trick. I played over a dozen games and didn't have anymore issues. I'll try the rubbing alcohol, what you said makes sense. Maybe it got really dirty, hopefully that's all it is. It's nice to play again without all 5 balls being on the playfield at all times haha.

I would get a hold of JJP. Sound's like a bad solder joint. It could possibly be a dirty opto but would not put too much stock in that. Since you pushed it into board and now it works, would suggest soldering issue.

Roger that, I'll see what they say.

20 years of computer repair, including board level repairs, tells me that bad solder joints very very rarely fix themselves by pushing on the board. Yes it is possible but lets say 1 out of 100 will that fix the issue and even then typically the "fix" will only last for a few days to a week. Now this is in a computer that is not dealing with constant vibration. Pushing on the board to "fix" it would last 1-2 games on a pinball machine. Long story short when your car dies you shouldn't automatically call the dealership and have them tow it. Maybe you should check if you have gas first.

I'm going to have to say NO to that one.

THIS

Okay I started having trouble in two areas - 100 plays into ownership and need a guiding hand...

1. Balls draining down the middle aren't registering once they enter the ball trough. I'm going to check level on the playfield tomorrow and insure left to right is good. Do I need to clean an opto as well? The problem is intermittent, and shaking the game to the point of tilt helps the opto trough identify the ball.

2. The Chest will not release captured balls all of a sudden. Was working great, but now won't release. If my ball in play drains, the magnetic switch will click on and off trying to get the balls out. Can someone point me to the pictures of where we are supposed to lightly bend back the metal tab holding the balls? I'll also check to make sure the Magnet is fully engaging the release mech too. I really feel that this Chest issue should be a sticky in post number 1. Can't find it in the thread.... but I know it's there. Many on the "fan" thread though?

Thanks so much in advance!
Murph

Definitely try those two things. Does it not read ever? My end of ball sequence takes a surprisingly long time to get going. Feels like it’s not registering the drain, then after a couple seconds, it does.

2. My left/right leveling fixed this one. It was flaky when i first got it. Then i leveled it and the problem went away. No bending required but mine was already dialed in with a previous owner, so I can’t say that he hadn’t already bent the tab.

Both symptoms sound like the balls are magnetized. Just a guess. Hope you figure it out.

My end of ball sequence takes a surprisingly long time to get going. Feels like it’s not registering the drain, then after a couple seconds, it does. Is this normal?

You can’t forget in drain sometimes the machine has a “list” of things it needs to complete. Only example I can think of is when you drain during chapter. The game first needs to close out chapter before end of ball bonus. The time from your drain to when chapter points pop up is a couple seconds then a couple more to bonus points. I think it just seems long sometimes. Can test the switches to see how fast they register. Pull balls out and drop them in trough during switch test to see if there is any abnormal delay on the switch itself

100 plays the opto is probably not dirty. I had my first dirty opto prolly 1500 plays in. Only noticed it because I would get random ship boardings. Optos unlike physical switches (with very few exceptions) can have a half state. So on/off/dirty. Dirty optos will trigger themselves without any outside help. Machine on no movement opto keeps going on and off there is a good possibility that there is dust on the opto and it has a weak signal between the points. If you push on an opto and it triggers that could just mean you moved the opto enough that the invisible beam is no longer pointed where it needs to be. Physical switches will typically either be broke no signal or stuck closed. Very rarely could I see a physical switch getting stuck close enough where it would register with no outside help but is is possible.

Thanks for all the great replies!! I will check for magnetized balls. Why would magnetized balls not allow a drain to register in the trough? Just curious. Also when I do drain and it doesn’t register, I’ve let the game sit idle for more than 20 seconds before shaking the pin near tilt for it to find the ball.

I’ll let you know the status. And thanks for the bending tip for the small magnet on the chest!

My guess is the trough is metal and magnets stick to metal?

Makes Sense!!! Thanks again PinMonk!

whoops, wrong thread...ignore lol

Today suddenly 1 led board stopped working. See the pictures. First they were constantly lit in different colors. After a few minutes they were not working anymore. I reseated the USB and all connectors on the central lightboard, but not effect.
2 days ago I added the chest mod with light. Everything worked. Now these lights are off. Any advice would be kindly appreciated.

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Should I replace this board?

How can I test the power to this board?

Two pin connector on each board for power. Red wire +5 volts DC, Black wire ground.

LTG : )

I had the exact same issue, new machine using the balls that came with it (cleaned the balls as per JJP instructions) but balls jamming in trough & chest, so used another set of balls and no more problem.

My Pearl light board is doing this. It is intermittent though - I can fiddle with the connections (havent' removed the whole miniplayfield yet) and get it to come back on for about half a game, and then it shakes loose again. Really frustrating! It's tough to get to the connections so I dont' re-seat it all the time, and right now the Pearl is just dark. Definitely makes the game look lesser. But anyway it may just be a connector too in your case

The board only has a blue USB cable connected to it.
The board does have another slot to connect a small cable. It is not used as far as I know, or am I missing something?

Check the pinout for that board in the manual.

LTG : )

Page D-14 in the manual, J100 is the +5 and Ground.

Look over the whole board more, opposite end of the blue ethernet cable spot. ( not USB )

LTG : )

Should J100 have a cable connected to it?

I was going to post these very same issues. I feel like mine have almost been from day 1 though.

According to the manual, yes. Power has to come from somewhere.

LTG : )

I apologise for providing some incorrect info. Upon closer inspection I saw that:
J100, J101 and J103 have a cable in their connector.
J102, called rollover acces, doesn’t have a connector. Seems like this connector never had a cable in it.
The green led near connector J100 & J103 is lit. I see this green led on almost all led boards below the playfield and this led is always on. Green means power is ok.

I didn’t measure anything yet. Wanted to provide correct info first.

Now what to check next?

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Okay - for those guru's that guessed I had Magnetized Balls.... you are RIGHT! Every single ball is magnetized. Some balls only in ONE SPOT - which would
explain the randomness of the balls not draining in the trough. I don't know if I've solved it, as I have no "new balls". I'll be running by Marco Specialties after lunch tomorrow ( On Friday's I work about 5 miles from their shop). Should I just order a sleeve of their Standard Silver Jets? Or a Special ball of some type?

Here's the thing - I've got less than 100 plays on the machine. Weird that they would magnetize so quickly. Should I expect to have to change them every 100 games?

More to come tomorrow - after I load in 5 new ball! : )
Murphy

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