I have a SF2 where pressing the start button will trip the entire column's switches at once. Verified it in switch test but all the other switches in column 4 will trip individually. Is this indicative of the return being shorted between the next to last switch and START (which is the end of the daisy-chained wire)? Most of that is in bundles running across the bottom of the cabinet where nothing should get pinched. If it is just that button with a short is it easier to just run a new wire between these 2 points than digging through these bundles?

I've been reading numerous switch matrix FAQs but I'm getting overwhelmed and just confusing myself at this point. Please be gentle on the new guy.

Good to see help from a familiar neck of the woods (I lived in Hebron for several years). That was one of the best videos I'd watched while trying to figure this out. Now I'm getting lost between theory and the application. My deduction (right or not) that I have a ground short to the return came from reading PinballRehab's page on switch matrices. http://pinballrehab.com/1-articles/solid-state-repair/repair-guides/146-switch-matrix-theory-and-troubleshooting#switches-closed

There's no box to work out since it's only one column and only from that one button. The part I'm most confused by is that no other switches in that column have this behavior. Don't know if it helps, but here's the SF2 matrix with the troublemaker marked.

SF2_SwMatrix (resized).png

I appreciate any ideas you have. Yeah, being a Gottlieb is also a bit of a pain. Most guides/FAQs are leaning towards Bally/Williams fixes. Hadn't thought about the columns/rows being swapped around. Technically I guess it's the same thing, but it can get confusing when they start changing what you're used to. Started acting up about a week after we got it (it's in an arcade I work at - owner has decided he wants more pinball so I'm learning as I go).

As far as I can tell the Smart Switches are mostly over-engineered garbage. The leaf switch is mounted to a small PCB with surface-mount diodes (I assume they're diodes). It is kind of nice that you can just remove a molex plug to work on it, but one of the spot targets in that column isn't registering and so I need to order a fancy $20 replacement for it. Tripped from the molex plug it works just fine in the switch test.