Hi, on my Funhouse pinball, Rudy does not say ouch when you hit him. I went into switch test mode and the optos in front of Rudy's mouth seem to be working when I put my finger between them or roll the ball through them they register. But during a game, he doesn't say ouch! He used to, this just recently stopped working.

Anybody have any ideas how to fix? Do I maybe have a bad circuit board? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

_{Post edited by pinrock : New info}

Even though all other speech works, (the ouch is the only thing that Rudy doesn't say) you think it might be the sound board? I will do as you say and see if it works. Thanks!

no, he does not, react at all...it is like the opto doesn't recognize it's being triggered. If it wasn't for the fact that it worked in the switch test...hmmm...I'm wondering if I have some type of communications problem from the small opto board under the playfield to somewhere else...the superdog opto's work and register, and they are connected to the same small board under the playfield...strange...

The optos I was speaking of for Superdog are on the left ramp at the top, right below the sign that says "Lite Super dog bonus timer on stairs". They are only accessible from the left plunger. I think Rudy says something like " I'm not hungry" when you trigger them.

Yes, with the glass off I start a game and use my finger to try to trigger the optos, but to no avail. So the switch test records the optos as working, but must not account for the connection to the electronics that prompt Rudy to say "ouch" and the corresponding motion of his mouth.

Still looking for some help if anyone has any ideas...

no scoring, when I trigger the opto's with my finger...

Rudy, seems to work fine in every other way except for saying "ouch" when you hit him in the mouth...

Now that you mention it, every so often rarely, he does say "ouch", which leads me to believe, bad connection of some sort...failing wire, bad connector, etc. I am going to get the multimeter out and at least test continuity.

The strange thing about this is that in test mode, the opto switch is working (triggered when I pass my finger or ball thru the beam)

Sorry Atomicboy, I just realized I said what you said like it was my idea... I'll do some testing and repost what I find!

OK, I figured it out with all your help. It happened was while installing LEDs
in the game I turned one of the Light fixtures so it was touching another switch in the matrix, I guess causing a short. Once I rectified that Rudy was fixed! It didn't show up in any of the tests, nor did the system indicate any type of error. Morale of the story, be careful when installing your LEDs!

Yes, and pinball machines tend to act very strangely when there is a short. When something doesn't work I found it is very easy to fall into the trap of over reacting! I was checking connections between the opto board and the optos, the opto board and the power and CPU boards, checking for continuity, etc. I thought about just buying a new opto board, even cutting wires to isolate the problem! And all the while I was focusing my attention in the wrong place. (To exacerbate the problem, by coincidence, i had some other unrelated problems going on with the machine, some related to the problem and some not..and it started to overwhelm me) Luckily I've been doing this a long time and have learned to ask for ideas, as I did here, and to stop and think!

Whenever I think about taking some drastic action, I walk away from it a while and think. Think about all the facts. After all, in this case it worked before in the recent past. I had just done a bunch of fiddling around with the machine (in other words, making a lot of changes at once) and didn't connect the outage with the installation of the LEDs.

In the end I got out the manual and checked the schematics with relation to the opto that was failing. I then opened the machine and started tracing every wire in the same matrix. It was relatively easy, took a while, but I did it methodically and calmly, not knowing what I would find. That's when I saw the light metal tab touching the metal part of a diode on a switch. I simply turned the fixture so it wasn't touching, and everything went back to normal!

I share this with you all in the hopes it may help you in the future. Good luck and keep flipping!

Ouch!