Hi everyone - My Hyperball machine has a bad gate / switch on it. Looking closely at these, they appear to be optical switches, where the target would just swing up and interrupt the light. The machine has 3 blocks like this, with 3 switches in each. Only one target in one block is not working.

I opened things up, blew air into the space where the switch is, checked hte motion, seems okay. Next step I think is to pull the switch block out and check to see if it's, well, switching.

I've attached a pic of the bad switch. I think the next steps is to undo the hex-head screws around the block and pull the assembly out and then do switch tests on it on the bench. It looks like this switch is the same as this guy: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/tt-electronics-optek-technology/OPB380T51Z/1636860

Anyone have experience with these? Also, I'd like to make sure i'm taking this component apart properly (looks like 4 screws).

Thanks!

Bad switch (resized).png

So going to continue posting here, in case someone gets a chance to see it. This is the offending board, with the failed opto marked. I can't find any debris on the LED, it looks clean. I did a cleaning before i pulled it from th emachine and ran the self test again, still showed 'blocked', so no light getting to the receiver.

I can't find a replacement component for this, and I'm not sure how to bench test it to confirm it's failed

The part number on the board i s 5768 09826-00

The opto switches are OPB3830. Going by https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/tron-optical-sensor-where-to-find-a-replacement.65665/ - apparently a proper replacement is an OPB-822S, but the casing is different, so you need to remove the components from inside the case and swap them out - honestly not sure about that, because the 822S appears to have 8 pins, when the ones on hte WIlliams targets are only 4. The OPB-380T51Z has 4 wires, i'm not sure if it's a drop in replacement

BTW - also found a thread about this from an old Pinside post: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hyperball-opto-switches - unfortunatley no joy there either.

Wiliams target back (resized).png

Williams 576809826-00 (resized).png

Another update. Confirmed one of the opto sensors is definitely not working. The phone camera trick was magical.

Hyperball opto switch fail (resized).png

Last update, because there's nothing left to update about!

I've fixed the gate, reassembled the machine, and everything is working. The part that I needed is available from Marco: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/5490-12451-00

The part number is generally referred to as an OPB804.

It was a matter of just desoldering the old switch, and putting this one in, and all the self tests passed. Gameplay is now working fine!

Opto switch (resized).png

Sorry for the long delay - i took several months off working on the machines. I'm glad this was helpful, that was why I wanted to share it. I'm currently working on trying to figure out why my playfield lights are out - I'm slightly concerened I grounded one of the lights when I put the opto switch in, but still working on it. Hope you're enjoying your machine!