Ansonia, CT
In a nutshell: I have 1 opto in the game that only works for a couple minutes or so, and there’s no telling when that window of operation will be. Switch #33, “under right gun sw.2”
The whole story: I had what I thought was an intermittent non-working opto so with the game still on I unscrewed the opto from where it was mounted and all of a sudden the game’s dmd went out and some coils started firing. I figured I shorted something and should have had the game off (I really shouldn’t own pinball machines but I have the addiction). I shut the game off and called my tech. He came over and after disconnecting things in the backbox and under the playfield, we discovered the C6 cap on the 16 opto board was leaking and fuse F116 had blown. He thought C6 could be the problem and it was just a coincidence and I hadn’t done any damage. He took the board with him and gave it back to me a few days later with C6 replaced. He didn’t want to come in the house now due to the possibility of the coronavirus so I installed the board and still had coils firing. Turns out in evaluating these problems a black ground wire came out of a connector in the backbox. I put a jumper from that wire to a ground braid in the backbox and the coils, optos and the game are working proper (except this one opto). (One thing, the led on the 16 opto board is not lighting up. The tech thinks it might just be a bad led.) Anyway, I changed the photo transistor side of the opto and hit it with a flashlight and it worked. I got about five games played and then the game did a ball search and I found the switch to not be working again. For days, I’d turn the game on and go into switch edges test and just watch as after about a minute or so, the switch would start flaking out going open/close/open/close faster and faster...and then stay in an open state and I could never get it to close again. I’d shut the game off and wait a few hours. Then I’d go back to the game, turn it on and go into the edges test. Sw.33 would start off closed and I’d watch the process repeat itself. I thought maybe another component somewhere was heating up? I’m no tech by any means, barely know how to use a meter and don’t own a oscilloscope. I have a soldering iron but don’t use it too well, but I can solder optos and bulbs. Then yesterday I turned the game on, went into edges and saw the switch was ALREADY OPEN! I took the photo side off and checked to make sure it was still soldered on well. I did my usual pulling, bending, reseating the wires and connectors associated with the opto and the board and couldn’t get anything to happen. After about an hour of frustration I began mounting it back into position and IT STARTS WORKING! I pulled, tugged, bent wires and pounded on the playfield and couldn’t get to NOT WORK! So I put the balls into the game and stared at a perfect switch edges display...and 5 seconds later the switch went open again. WTF? If it’s a bad component, wouldn’t it be bad all the time, or when hearted up? Or if cold solder joints, wouldn’t I be able to manipulate it with all the pulling and bending? If nothing else, thanks for allowing me to vent folks.
