Great work Johnny, glad I could try and help - basically what we found out thru process of elimination and doing some research is:
the cannon motor basically has two speeds, speed 1 (no ball) and speed 2 (with ball).
Speed 1 (no ball) is created by sending 12v to the motor.
Speed 2 drops the voltage to 7v to create the slower speed - so you have a better chance of
hitting the targets.
12v can usually power thru the gunk and grime built up over the years, but cutting
that power in half is what caused his cannon to hardly move.
I just wanted to explain how it works incase future people have same questions/problems.
My other question or point of interest we were talking about is the EMI board the cannon connects to - anyone know what it actually does, just curious.
My initial thought was something to do with the voltage changes but EMI stands for electromagnetic interference so that theory might be out the window - well always trying to learn something new