Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Stern, 2004Just picked up an rbion. Seems the head opto and super jackpot opto arent working. Magnet for the head isnt working either. Possibly opto related. Checked the connection...its plugged in. Any help to trouble shoot would be appreciated
Gonna clean the optos and report back. First they didnt register. Now they do half the time. Operator alerts said they needed checked.
The old style optos they used in Ripley's don't age well. If they look original, replace all three pairs. Shrunken head, idol and upper loop.
If the optos plug onto a small board under the playfield. I would remove the small board. Reflow the solder the big pins the connector plugs onto and the tiny pins the opto plugs onto. Stick it back in the game. And put a dab of hot glue on the opto connector to hold it onto the board better.
LTG : )
I had the same issues. Check the fuses and replace the optos. See my thread. Hope this helps.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/rbion-fuse-20-blowing#post-5319907
So i dug more this morning - had company and was trying to play and ts at the same time.
1) Went to diags. Coil test - one at a time. Magnet at the head works. Magnet at the idol works.
2) Go to operator alerts. Super jackpot opto and shrunken head opto are listed.
3) Go to switch test. They're both on.
4) During the game the shrunken head opto will actually register like 50% of the time. It does advance the column of inserts by the head. But the magnet won't work.
I see phishrace mentioned the upper loop - i presume those are the super jackpot. I did notice while there's not an error, the idol doesn't fire nearly as often or as hard as it should. Which sounds like all 3 optos aren't playing nice - which leads me closer to LTG's solution.
LTG - soldering on a board is definitely not my strong suit. Hands are kinda shaky all the time. I can manage on individual parts, not a board. Is this the board you were referring to? For the 12 bones I'd just replace it:
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/520-5239-01
Can someone give me a link to the opto's themselves? I'm thinking to just buy all the parts. Start with the board because it's easier to get to. If that solves it - great. Have the opto's there for when they go.
Quoted from tommyp:So i dug more this morning - had company and was trying to play and ts at the same time.
1) Went to diags. Coil test - one at a time. Magnet at the head works. Magnet at the idol works.
2) Go to operator alerts. Super jackpot opto and shrunken head opto are listed.
3) Go to switch test. They're both on.
4) During the game the shrunken head opto will actually register like 50% of the time. It does advance the column of inserts by the head. But the magnet won't work.
I see phishrace mentioned the upper loop - i presume those are the super jackpot. I did notice while there's not an error, the idol doesn't fire nearly as often or as hard as it should. Which sounds like all 3 optos aren't playing nice - which leads me closer to LTG's solution.
LTG - soldering on a board is definitely not my strong suit. Hands are kinda shaky all the time. I can manage on individual parts, not a board. Is this the board you were referring to? For the 12 bones I'd just replace it:
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/520-5239-01
Can someone give me a link to the opto's themselves? I'm thinking to just buy all the parts. Start with the board because it's easier to get to. If that solves it - great. Have the opto's there for when they go.
You need a pair of these for each opto if you want it all new.
https://www.pinballlife.com/data-eastsegastern-opto-transceiver.html
Your super jackpot error could very well be that the shot just hasn't been made in X number of games. Just put it into switch test and roll a ball up there.
Was the board they plug into the right one? The 12$ one from marco?
The one from pinball life - I need 2 for each location, so 6 total?
https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-opto-transmitterreceiver-amplifier-pcb.html
14.95 at PBL. You will see that only 2 opto pairs can plug into the same board. Do you have a manual?
You can download one for free here.
https://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=ripley%27s&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick
Quoted from tommyp:LTG - soldering on a board is definitely not my strong suit. Hands are kinda shaky all the time. I can manage on individual parts, not a board. Is this the board you were referring to? For the 12 bones I'd just replace it:
That is it.
LTG : )
Quoted from tommyp:Was the board they plug into the right one? The 12$ one from marco?
Yes.
Quoted from tommyp:6 total?
Look under playfield. How many of those small boards do you see ? Usually 2 or 3, I doubt 6.
LTG : )
I'm followin now LTG - i thought it was just one. I see two - missed one of em.
So - 2 of them 12$ boards.
Are the "sending" and "receiving" opto the same part? Can someone post a link to the part(s) on marco perhaps?
Quoted from tommyp:Are the "sending" and "receiving" opto the same part?
Yes. Both glow red when working.
Quoted from tommyp:Can someone post a link to the part(s) on marco perhaps?
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/500-6775-01
LTG : )
So parts got here. Figured I'd start with just the idol and go from there. Swapped both optos, as well as the board. Still doesn't work correctly. Haven't moved to the head or the super jackpot since I have to strip half the game to get to those and I'm assuming perhaps they're all related. Any help where to look next would be appreciated.
Operator alerts lists super jackpot and shrunken head optos. Can one bad one be messing up everything down the line?
Visual inspection and it does not appear that either opto is lit at the idol, nor the head. As mentioned above i replaced the idol. Balls out, pf up, power on, neither were lit. To confirm i pulled the lower back off the underside of the magnet, definitely wasn't glowing red.
Should also mention the vari target opto is showing tripped in switch test. Removing power to the idol opto board removes it from being listed in the switch test.
Quoted from tommyp:Checked the backbox. Saw 2 tournament wires disconnected. as well as these two, but didnt see anywhere for them to go either.
Quoted from tommyp:And this was hanging out in the cab..
Might have been part of a TOPS tournament board and message sign no longer in/on the game.
LTG : )
Any ideas what to look at next ltg?
Swapped board and optos at only the idol as it was the easiest to get to. Still same issue. All optos showing active in switch test. None light up. Disconnecting power to the opto board removes them from the switch test list.
I guess I could try that. Any merit to replacing the others? Would something fubarred at the head and super jackpot mess up the idol downstream?
Have you actually checked to see if the opto boards are receiving +5V DC (red wire pin 5)? Even un-powered I believe that the switch matrix can still detect that the board is there (speculation), so that could possibly explain the behaviour that you are seeing when unplugging the board.
Also if you do not already have a copy of the manual.
https://www.ipdb.org/files/4917/Stern_2004_Ripley_s_Believe_It_or_Not_English_Manual.pdf
Pages 143, 139, 101
Just take it slow and just work your way back from the new opto boards, eventually you will find the issue. You can do it... 
How would one check 5v there? I'm fine with testing but no clue what I'm doin. I do have a multimeter. One lead in the connector for red wire. Other....where?
Yes, check pin 5 (+5v red); and your other probe should go to ground (pin 4 black). Just make sure your meter is in DC mode.
Realized it was the weaker setting. Upped into the 20 on the DC side. Also tossed on the old board I replaced dangling so I could hit the solder points on the back for better confirmation. Hit .76 on the meter only. So presumably no 5v getting there?
Where do I go from here?
I just noticed that there is also a power led on the board itself to let you know if it is powered as well.
If neither board is powered check to see if the +5V test led on the power driver board in the head is on (bottom left corner of the large heat sink).
If that is not on pull and test the F23 fuse to see if that is good or not, according to the manual it should be a 4A slow blow.
Again appreciate all the help. I can replace things when I know what's broke...but narrowing it down ain't my game
Alright, fair enough. Hopefully you can find someone near you who can take a look at it for you, it really is a great game. In the mean time just make sure when you installed the new board and optos that nothing got plugged in backwards on accident. Good Luck.
Not sure if you've seen this. May be helpful. When they refer to the lower magnet, I'm pretty sure they are referring to the Idol. I used to own RBION but no longer have the game.
ripley1 (resized).JPGripley2 (resized).JPGQuoted from LOTR_breath:Not sure if you've seen this. May be helpful. When they refer to the lower magnet, I'm pretty sure they are referring to the Idol. I used to own RBION but no longer have the game.
[quoted image][quoted image]
Saw that. The optos ltg pointed me to arent send and receive any more. They're interchangeable so upper or lower shouldnt matter
You sir ... I read that like 3 times and missed that. Late in the tooth tonight but I'll try to figure out where the hell it plugs in tomorrow. If you got a picture or something I'm looking for itd be appreciated
Anyone with the game able to post a pic? Should I separate this connection then? Single green to the opto board, double wire to opto if I'm reading that properly?
Progress. I split that connector. Purple and blue to the opto. Green to the controller board on j1. Optos for the idol light, still show active.
Head and super jackpot are not lit, still show active. I've done nothing yet to trouble shoot these.
Thanks again for all the help so far...what do I look at next?
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ripleys-help-needed?hl=jfre81 and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Davenport, FL
Vancouver, BC