Can anyone recommend a good repair guy in Northeast Ohio?

I can't narrow down the problem on my Twilight Zone... I figure I might learn a thing or two from watching a real repair guy one time.

I'll give you the recap because more has changed.....

The day it died we played about 6 hours straight when upper flippers started to flutter and lowers flippers went weak. When I restarted the pin I received “ball popper opto is stuck”, then the gumball popper, auto-fire kicker and outhole take turns firing, then bridge diverter will open and close a few times. All sorts of crazy happen for about 30 seconds until it stops and goes into attract mode. While in attract mode it sits idle for a few minutes until the clock hands moves (I assume it sets itself), then the crazy happens again for about 30 seconds…

The next day the ball popper opto tested good, but maybe they go flakey after a while and since I have extra I swapped out both transmitter and receiver but the issue didn’t go away. Figuring the gumball popper, auto-fire kicker, bridge diverter and outhole are all controlled by the optos I ordered the new board and replaced it. The new board is installed and it DID clear the “ball popper opto is stuck” error, but not any of the other stuff, everything still randomly fires.

Next, I went into the switch edge test it appears that the opto’s are opening and closing constantly which explains the bridge diverter, gumball popper to auto fire lane constantly firing. Since the flippers are also controlled by optos I’m guessing everything is related somehow.. I’m just not good enough to figure out how.

**one very odd note** if I wait until all the crazy finishes at startup and then start a game everything works as it should except the flippers. All targets, optos, poppers, clock, bridge diverter, auto fire kicker, piano….everything appears to play as normal except the flippers are weak and the uppers flutter.

It’s driving me nuts and I’m still very green when it coming to using the DMM. I can test the hell out of fuses though. Lol

I actually gave that a shot yesterday, but had no luck. I will try again tonight and give it a more thorough cleaning.

I actually wasn't sure if the flippers optos and the opto board I replaced connected somewhere else, so that is actually good to know that I'm chasing separate issues.

Other things I looked at:
I tested the outlet on the wall to make sure I had the proper volts.
I checked the playfield for shorted wires and gave wires a light tug, one actually popped off the gumball popper and I soldered it back on.
I checked all fuses with the dmm.
I checked for loose connectors and found one the WPC power driver assembly on connector J118. The wire fell easily off so I reseated it.
I checked the CPU BOARD for LED error codes but they were all normal.

I shot you a PM Lisa... Might have to take you up on that offer.

Ok, I removed flipper boards and it appears that one board was already repaired before I owned the pin. I gave them a good cleaning but it didn't remove much gunk. I plugged them back in and it's still the same.

I took a short video so you guys want to can see the strangeness and as I was filming the switch test at the end of the video I noticed it wasn't only the optos opening and closing rapidly but also the magnets.

In the video you’ll see then everything act up, then I edited to when the clock sets itself and everything starts over again.

Today also brought a new strangeness factor. The gumball machine constantly running, emptying itself and then reloading. I ran the gumball test which I had not checked before and it’s also a mess, I took a video of that as well.

and

Absolutely, I’m here in Mentor so you’re right around the corner. This is my first pin and it’s overmatched me this time…

Cadillac, I’ve checked the pin and connectors you asked me to and they all seem good. No broken pins or burned connectors on J116, J117 or J118... The wires in the connector all seem firmly placed as well.

Hello again, I've highlighted the problem switches and traced them on the schematics. I hope this isn’t a really dumb question but how can I tell if I'm having a problem with Column J206 or Row J208? Connector J206 seems to run into the U20 IC you mentioned and J208 runs into the LM339’s.

That is, if I’m reading this right.

Schematic.GIF

opps...it bounces my 2nd picture of the switches.

Switches.GIF

I installed a new flipper board to replace the one that a previous owner repaired, that solved the “flipper” problems. No more flutter and they’re all strong again.

It also seems to have stopped the opening and closing of all the optos, as they are back to normal in the switch tests and also the gumball and magnet tests are normal again. It seems that flipper board was causing a lot of other issues.

The only switch that’s still going crazy at the moment is switch 26 "through proximity”.

What remain is the wacky behavior when first powered on. The popper, bridge diverter, auto fire kicker still go nuts and if I start a game the twilight zone starts randomly registering shots all over the board.

I’m getting closer and looking forward to today’s repair session with Cadillac to solve the rest.

Cadillac Music is the best!!! I met Lisa, a wonderful tech who diagnosed my problem back to the driver board and swapped it out fixing my Twilight Zone. I can't thank her enough.

She was also kind enough to answer my questions and it was great to see how a real tech diagnoses and tracks down the problem. Time and money well spent and Lisa you’re welcome back anytime. (Hopefully just to play pinball and not fix things though)…

Also, PinMike you nailed the bad flipper board problem so thank you as well.

Pinside is awesome...