Hi,

I picked up a Shadow a few weeks ago, got it home, cleaned the playfield a little, repaired the Sanctum area and then installed a Color DMD. Well last night I finally put some balls in the game turned it on and saw the "Opto Trough Bad Check Connectors, Wires and 12v Supply" error message on the Color DMD. After seeing the message the game just starts ejecting and shooting balls out again and again in a loop. I turned the game off and checked the two opto connectors (re-seated) and they are fine. I was able to start a game one of the times but like before the game just continued to eject all balls over and over again.

I'm not sure if my issue could be tied to me installing a Color DMD. As the Color DMD WPC instructions state I removed (well I just disconnected) the original 8 pin DMD power cable (J-604) from the game. The Color DMD power cable needs to go to J-116 which already had a connector. As mentioned in the instructions I removed the existing J-116 connector and used the included male-to-male adapter to connect the original cable and the Color DMD cable to J-116. I re-seated the connectors and the issue is still occurring. I saw in an older Pinside issue that trough board issues may be tied to J-116 to J-118?

Any other suggestions?

Thank you

I haven't tried that yet. I'll try that this evening when I get home from work. Thank you!

Hmmm. I'll check that out. Thank you.

I think I'm in the right spot in the switch tests. Troughs 1-5 are reading as open. I resoldered connections in the trough board but I'm still getting the same message.

20160312_103017_(resized).jpg

I also did a switch test for all 5 optos in the trough. I dropped one ball in at a time and could see the switch test picking them up.

Any other ideas?

Now this is weird. Tried playing another game. After the first ball was launched they all started firing again. Went back into switch test and I switches 46 (top trough) and 47 (inner loop enter) seemed to switching on and off. Both of those show up as closed which according the manual is normal. Hmmmm

Thanks for the tips! I'll check that fuse. Now I just need to figure out which one it is, haha.

Got it. Just needed to look in the manual. "See said the blind man" comes to mind from my Grandmother, lol.

Thanks for the tips, out getting some fuses now. When you say you had to swap the connection for the color dmd on DH is that to a different j-connector? In the Color DMD instructions it says to go to J-116 I believe. Did you connect to a different one? I already had a connector there so I'm using the included adapter.

Thanks Randy for the tips! Well, it looks like I may have some connectors mixed up or even a missing wire. Not sure.

Below is the wiring config for J-116, J-117, and J-118 according to The Shadow manual.

20160312_130915_(resized).jpg

Below is the original state of the three connectors on my games power drive board. While J-117 has 3 wires as stated in the manual, connector J-116 does not and only has two. The manual states that J-116 should have 3 wires but I'm only see two, I don't see a lose wire anywhere either.

20160312_130905_(resized).jpg

Picture of adapter. I see that it has three wires. I tried the connector plugged into J-117 on my board (since it has 3 wires like the connector, made sure they matched up) but that resulted in the same error. I've swapped them all around and still get the same error.

20160312_131104_(resized).jpg

I'm really puzzled! Any suggestions?

Thank you

Thank you for the tips. Yes, I believe the balls were in the trough at the time. I just checked the switch test again and with the balls in the trough they show up as open, all 5.

Thanks! The opto test looks good, all trough switches are open with balls in the trough. When I took the balls out all trough switches showed closed.

The "Opto trough board..." error on power up is now gone. I replaced fuse 115 (replaced f116 earlier which didn't correct issue) turned the game on and it was gone. I just used the two wire connector at J116, the three wire J117 connector is where it was. I put a slow blow fuse in it though and the manual shows it should really have a fast blow fuse...

I thought the auto ball launching issue was gone but its still happening every game, not right away but just at random. One game ended and the game was still trying to shoot out all the balls. I took the trough boards out and cleaned the optos but the issue is still occurring. I don't think having the a slow vs fast blow guse in f115 could be causing the issue? Maybe the opto boards themselves are just bad. I did cold solder every solder point on the boards earlier as well.

Thank you! Opto switch 46 could very well be the problem. I remember going into the switch test one time and all of sudden I heard the switch transition sound cue and thought I saw it say 46 and or 47.

I tried cold soldering the trough jam opto and it's connector again on both boards. Fired up game, same issue. Will let game sit for a bit like you said and see if it switch audio cue comes on again.

...and the "opto trough board..." error just reappeared on start up. I can't win, lol.

Top trough opto, jam opto, shows closed in test. However, I left the switch test on and did notice that switch 46 was open and closing randomly ok occasion. Could be a dead LED I suppose. Already cold soldered that area twice. I think I'm going to order a new set of opto boards from Great Lakes Modular, I need to order a set anyway for my STTNG.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the additional tips. I tried cleaning the original optos but that didn't help. Checked ball count and I have 5 balls in the game which is the correct number.

I ended up getting a new set of opto boards from Great Lakes Modular. I installed them today, same issue...I played one game fine and then the next all the balls started firing. Sometimes when I start the game up I'll see the bad opto board message, others I don't. I did see switch 47 for the inner loop optos go on / off randomly in the switch edge test. I took those out and cleaned them but the ball launch issue still occured. Connections to the optos for the inner loop look good. I'm not sure what the problem may be at this point. I was really hoping the new trough boards would have fixed the issue.

Any more ideas?

Oh, sometimes with the new boards I noticed that balls were not even causing the trough switches to open / close when in the switch test while other times they suddenly were...weird. I just turned the game on again, didn't even start a game and the balls just auto launched...

Also, I'm seeing switches 46-47 opening / closing randomly in the switch test the game is just sitting still in the switch edge test. 46 is the top trough (jam) and 47 is the inner loop optos which I took off and cleaned.

Thanks. The connectors look good. I replaced the two optos for switch 47 (the inner sanctum shot). The switch along with 46 is still opening on and off...ugh.

The video below shows the switch behavior I'm seeing (right around 7 seconds)

Thanks! I'll give that a try first thing in the morning.

Thanks for the tips PinballManiac40 and Cody!

I'm trying to figure out which J connector is for that column of switches.

The shooter lane switch is working as expected, no odd behavior and oddly enough is the only switch in the colum that isn't flaking out in the switch edge test. Below is another video I took showing all of the opto switches in that column flaking out. In the video below all of the balls have been removed from the trough. I also disconnected the connector for the inner loop Sanctum, switch 47, which is on the same switch column since that one was flaking out before. There are optos on another column for the ramps and mini playfield but they are fine.

Thanks! I'll take a look tonight. Also going to replace a 100 mfd capacitor on the power driver board that I've read causes a lot of 12v issues and repin J116 - J118. I removed each of those connectors during the ColorDMD install so it's possible a wire may be lose.

Some tests results.

1. Regulated 12v test point on driver board read 12.2
2. Opto board power point read 13.8 which seems very high
3. J116 to J118 connector is showing about 13.98v. It seems like the longer the game is on the voltage starts to rise.

Also, fuse f116 is showing around 6.4v while f115 is showing 12v. Both should be 12v.

The problem turned out to be the ColorDMD itself and it's draw on the 12v. I saw another thread on here where someone reported a similar issue. I went back to the standard DMD for now and will install a seperate PSU for the ColorDMD.