I picked up a WD? a couple months ago that required a major shop out and a few switch repairs. Hadn't played a single game on it and tore down the entire PF, restored it beautifully, LEDs and tonight decided to put it all back together while watching the Cubs game with a friend.

I was pleased how nice this came out and everything seems to play great -- except the flippers. I haven't rebuilt them yet (hence the poor alignment), but noticed that as soon as I power on the game, I get these phantom flips every few seconds that occur both game play and attract mode. They are not full flips (basically like Bally tap pass speed, or like the equivalent of the low power hold).

It's almost acting like some voltage is leaking and getting discharged. I have searched and been unable to find anything on this topic.

All other switches and solenoids in the game appear to be functioning normally.

I'm not sure if it's related, but I took a nasty shock while grounding a coil (non-flipper) with the game OFF during my LED swap. I'm usually more careful then that, so I'm not sure if there's some charge stored there, or if there's a wiring issue. I don't have any locked on coils or unusual game play other than the flippers.

LTG, I'll check and clean those (and given how filthy this was, I wouldn't be surprised). However, regardless of the opto state, how could I get flips during game states where the flippers should be non-functional?

Lloyd,

Cleaned optos. Actually were pretty clean allready. No change to the behavior seen in the video. Every few seconds, a weak flip by usually both flippers.

bump, anyone? confirmed it's *NOT* happening in attract mode. again it's frequent, every few seconds, and had the strength of a good tap pass.

if it helps, when i achieved a high score and cycled through the letters, a couple times it self moved over a letter.

I've done a lot of flipper repairs in my day but this is just wonky and I can't find any posts on it.

So, I swapped both flipper opto boards with my Road Show. Road Show continues to play fine so it's not the opto boards.

With the swap, WD doesn't phantom flip (at least visibly), but the flipper hits at random strength and weak considering the flippers were both rebuilt.

On a whim, I put the game in switch level and hit each flipper button, holding it in. Instead of getting a single switch register for each opto, I get an infinite loop of open/close switch levels on both sides! Both opto boards do this and the behavior does not carry to road show, which functions correctly.

See below

I'm confused. I completely swapped the opto boards and interrupters with my Road Show. One game has the solid black plastic interrupter all-in-one. The other has the white plastic interrupter with the metal spring flap. Both result in what you see above when the flipper buttons are pressed. Both perform flawlessly in Road Show.

I even went so far as to remove the interrupter so as to behave as if the flipper button were pressed. The same on/off rapid switching continues.

Here's another thing I don't understand. If I trigger the leaf switch on each coil, the L flipper and R flipper EOS activate. Great!

If I press in the flipper buttons as per the video above, the switch edges test cycles through L flipper/UL flipper for the left flipper button and R flipper and UR for the right flipper button. In other words, instead of getting a single switch register for each, they cycle over and over and over.

additionally, if you hold the flippers during game play (tested only for a few seconds), you can hear a cycling pulse. turn up audio to the video below.

I'll do that next Levi and G.P.

Not sure if I stated this initially, but this isn't a problem that developed in my possession. I acquired this filthy game from a friend (who shall remain nameless). I was told it was fully working, so I spent a week stripping down the entire playfield, cleaning it, rebuilding flippers, new rubbers, etc. So, the flippers have not worked correctly in so long as I've owned the game.

Swapped Fliptronics II board with Road Show. No change.

Road Show continues to test and play perfectly.
Who Dunnit continues to have the following symptoms:
1.) Random power when flipped.
2.) A loud pulsating hum when the flipper is held up (particularly the left but it's noticeable in both).
3.) In switch edges test, the flipper buttons fire the R/UR and L/UL switches over and over repeatedly instead of a single time. This is probably what's causing #1 and #2 because the game is thinking that the full power is being activated over and over and over again.

It should be important to note that the phantom flips no longer occur and have been replaced by the symptom above. I think the root cause is the same.

So me, #3 is important. What instructs the CPU that although the opto beam signal is received (interrupter removed), that the switch should only register once (until the beam is re-interrupted and un-interrupted again) and not infinitely?

SOLVED!

So in line with my previous thinking that the constant switching on/off is the root cause of the problems, I looked at the schematics and see that the 12V line drives the flipper optos and EOS switches. There's not much to the 12V circuit. I look at the driver board and immediately note C30 can be wiggled around pretty easily on the parts side, and does not appear stock. The serial numbers of the board don't match, which tells me this is not original.

What do I find? C30 isn't even soldered into the through-holes! W T F. Now I've seen everything.

Needless to say, I've got 11.9V on the 12V line now and everything works great. Switches register once. Flippers are strong as they should be after a wxforecaster rebuild.