It will only play a four player game. When I initiate a single game, all steppers reset as they should. I play ball one and it goes to player two. Then three. Then four. Then ball two, player one. Etc. It always plays a four player game. #-ball or 5-ball game the result is the same. If the coin unit is at one player only, how can it do this? Something is telling the player unit to pulse every time the ball drains..

No offense taken, meSz. Just getting frustrated here. It's been a long couple of years and I am soooo close I can taste it. Still a few things to work out, but we're almost there. This thing is awesome and I can't wait to show it off.

As previously mentioned, I have new projects underway in the shop while the APP is still being cared fro in the den. Enjoy my other train wrecks.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cowboys-vs-aliens-a-side-by-side-rehab-project#post-2153255

"Quit talkin' and start PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!!" Thump... thump... thump... thump...

Interesting. Any Sonic owners want to chip in with opinions? I have no idea if it should work that way or not.

Ugh! You're right. Just tried it myself and you are correct sir. I had to dumb it down a ton to get it under 5Mb and that killed it. Let me try another route.

Now sending the 20Mb version. Hope it works and thanks for this.

Doesn't appear to be that way, but I'll take a look at it.

So it looks like when the ball drains, the signal goes to the ball count s.u. via coin and player unit? And you suspect that the coin unit is not being read correctly? I will look more into it.

Been over, under and through the coin unit and no fix in sight. My next move is to follow the wires that actuate the ball count/ player unit to terminus and see if there is a short somewhere.

Resolved. Finally. Thought this crap would break me.

In the end, it was just the stupid coin stepper, as it should have been and most of us thought it was. The problem was sporadic, though, and it took was I believe to be an inordinate amount of time to find it. Whenever a game is initiated, the coin unit resets to one player from wherever it was in the previous game. A hundred times outside of the game on the bench I tested (and confirmed) the continuity of this with my meter. It always tested good, and when in the game it looked good.
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What I have come to discover is that for some reason, when in the game, the wiper arm travels just a little further than when it is not. This is why. Wear and tear on the stepper unit allows too much travel on return.
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The knob on the stepper cog is halted by the indent but the indent is too worn so I wrapped this sucker with some of that handy self-sticking copper foil I have laying around until it stopped in the right place.
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Now the SOB plays like it should. 1,2,3,or 4 player games as you choose. I guess if the coin unit isn't saying anything the game reverts to four player? Weird. Don't care. Problem over. On to fuse blowing chime units, weak pop bumpers, mis-wired GI and switches that don't register! (Not to mention a playfield protector.)Thanks again for all the helpful advice. The story continues...

Once I get the chimes going and the pop fixed I'll get up a game play video.

Great day so far. Game plays correctly and all relays activate as they should for all features. After going over the schematics and the playfield a couple hundred times I found the reason the 100pt coil was staying locked in. Probably looked at this several times without noticing.

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Next on the list was to make a stiff wire connector between the lower gate and its activating coil.

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Working on the chime unit now and I think I found the problem. (Besides me!) It turns out it is a bad idea to hook up a set of chimes with DC coils(with diodes attached) to an AC circuit! Video to be posted tonight.

Oh yeah. One of the diodes smoked in a spectacular fashion. Fortunately I am still in "test mode" and have my resettable fuses in place.

Finally got around to test cutting on the .01 acrylic pieces today. I think this stuff is gonna work out just great.

Slot cuts by biscuit joiner -
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Did this with a spade bit backed by a piece of junk wood.
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So now I will use some construction paper to get the basic layout of the play field to transfer to the acrylic piece. After marking and cutting out the cutouts so it will lay on the field, I can mark precise locations for the switch slots and rollover buttons. Once that test fits OK, I can sandblast the graphics in reverse on the bottom side of the thin sheet and that should look freaking spectacular.

One step forward, two steps back. The chimes look, sound and work great! Suddenly I have NO play filed light, GI or otherwise, and the 100 point relay is sticking again when I score either eject hole. (500 points) ARGGG!!!!!!

OK guys. Next of the never ending problems. Fortunately, this one applies to all games so hopefully someone can help me out here. As you can see in the video, as soon as the hundred or thousand point relays are activated, they stay activated. Whether by hand or by a switch in the game the result is the same. What is supposed to release the coil? Is it one of the switches actually on the coil or is it a switch activated by the scoring mech? This is pretty much the last big problem I am having. It wasn't this way to start so I am thinking it is a dirty switch somewhere. I have cleaned the contacts at the point coils several times and it does not seem to help. Help?

It's a Sonic, so everything is Williams-like. I have seen that on the score reels. So that is what will stop the relay from pulling in?

All problems resolved. Ready for TPF. Video forthcoming.

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