visually check the opto board under the PF. This is what the one in drac looked like. electro caps where spilling their guts.

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Are you aware that opto TX & RX diodes have polarity and must be inserted in the PCB (or wired) the correct way around or they won't work?

Start simple and inspect the board. Look close at the connector pin solder joints. Those boards get shook around under the PF and it can crack the header pin solder joints.

Use test mode and the schematic drawings to figure out where specifically to look at. ie follow the wire colors back to the pcb etc.

Is this measured from the two wire solder points on the opto board?

Check your 12V on the power driver board, F115 and F116.

The small, round black plastic packages with (usually) two legs are "opto receivers". The one at the the other end of the (invisible) light beam is the "opto transmitter" and (usually) they are in a clear package but can be a light pink.

In most pinball applications, they both are wired to a control circuit that is usually close by and the signals are handled by that board and passed on to the main control board (the MPU).

Both are diodes and MUST be connected the correct way around - IE: they have polarity.

Optical Transmitter is the green circuit board with the A (anode +) and K (cathode -) markings on it.

Optical Emitter (resized).png

Optical receiver, this is a phototransistor and is usually a blue circuit board to avoid confusing it with an emitter board, although some after market ones are green.

A photo transistor is basically a light activated switch, when light hits the transistor it turns on...when its on, the voltage applied to the collector of the transistor (C) conducts through it , so what you measure is the internal loss of the transistor (~0.18V), that's how we can tell its on.

Now if you block the the IR beam, the transistor will turn off and you will measure the source voltage on the cathode (C) and since the Emitter (E) side has a path to ground you will measure the source voltage (~12V) between the Emitter (E) and Collector (C).

Opto receiver (resized).png

The technical stuff...

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Yes; that's your 16 OPTO board, and it looks pristine, I wish mine looked that good. There are only a couple of games that used that board: Star Trek, Dirty Harry,and Who Dunnit,

These are measured with the black meter lead on ground, and the red lead on what you are measuring. If you have clip on leads, you can just clip it to the ground braid or something metal like the light board locking bracket. it seems like you have a lot of unrelated things going on, so to prioritize them lets just work solely on getting all your voltages working first.

If you had nothing on F115 (fuse 115) with the above check, then unseat the fuse and check the resistance of it with your meter, it should be close to zero. If the fuse is good, then you probably have a blown bridge rectifier, this happens and it's an easy fix but they usually short and blows a fuse when they failed; this is something you want repaired correctly, PM me if the fuse is good and you have no voltage.

I'm sorry I don't know if you are referring to, please post a pic of this point on the board, and I'll happy to provide more information.

Ugh, sttng is a nightmare of a game and Im starting to wonder why anyone would own it.

Mine has no problems and plays great!

Reply sent

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This isn't factory and is connected to your 12V, remove it to see if your problem persists.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com

All right, so after making some checks it seems we are good at the transformer and verifying that the source voltage is probably good at that point, but reading no AC voltage at J112 and an open circuit on a continuity check. I'm starting to question the validity of the check that was previously made at J112.

This can be a difficult check to make by yourself if all you have is a basic meter; one of the easiest ways to take this measurement is by checking on the backside of the connector where you have good access to the pins.
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The circuit resistance should be lower than it shows but I was having a hard time holding everything with one hand and taking the picture with the other.

If you have a couple test clips and and extra socket with 3 or more pins lying around, you can check it hands free and get much better readings. Its hard to see, but I'm checking on pins 3 and 5 of the connector, this is where the transformer wires first enter the connector, and the meter is showing 0.8 ohms resistance.

IMG_1755 (resized).JPG

Final check ... Turning on the machine to measure my source voltage from the transformer.

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So where do we go from here ...?

Well if you find out you really do have a good connection to the transformer on J112, then you probably have a blown bridge rectifier on your power driver board. If you recheck J112 and really do have nothing there, then you are going to have to inspect every inch of the wire to find where its broken at. Unfortunately, while I can fix your board, I'm not going to be much help in finding a broken wire.

perfect!

Just curious, what meter did you buy and how do you like it?

Outstanding! The right equipment makes all the difference. Please let us know how your repairs turn out.

Any resolution on this?