I have an interesting problem with my MM castle door opto not picking up every shot that hits the gate. I just finished a playfield swap for a new Mirco one. When I test the opto, it picks up everything passing between, but in an actual game, a fast/hard shot does not register as a hit. Slow or partially deflected shots always register. With the new playfield, it is definitely faster, and I wonder if this is the problem. Would excessive speed be "too fast" for the opto to catch? I do not know the threshold these have. Or with the increased speed I wonder if it is jumping over the opto when it hits the lowered gate? Wondered if anyone has had this issue or if there is a solution? I am going to raise the angle of the playfield to see if this slows it down a bit. I do not see any way to physically raise the optos if the ball is jumping it.

I just did playfield swap and I used the old optos because they worked fine on the old playfield. All connections are good, and on switch testing they work fine. Moat opto works 100% of the time with gate up. When gate is down is when hard shots do not register a hit. I do not know if both sets of optos must be activated to register a door hit, and there is a coordination problem with a fast ball, or if the door optos act alone with the gate down. They will be a bear to replace, and I hate to go through all that work if it is something more simple.

I thought of this and removed the CLiffy, which I also installed. It made no difference. I agree that I think it is jumping the opto. There is no way to raise the opto I can see, though, because it is fixed in position through holes in the metal frame of the castle gate. I am going to experiment with bending the tip and see if it will prevent the jumping.

Regarding the Mirco playfield, I was pleased with it and there were only a couple of screw holes that were off just a bit, but was not a big deal at all. I do not yet know how it holds up. Boy it sure is fast, though, waxed, the ball just flies around, which may be part of the problem above.