Wizard of Oz
Jersey Jack, 2013Strange thing today. While playing a game the flippers just stopped working. Once the ball drained they were back. During the next two balls the same thing kept happening. It's not like they are stuck or anything they just stop until the ball drains. Anyone have any ideas?
If the game thinks you’ve drained (DMD/sounds go into the end of ball stuff before the ball has actually drained) then reseat the connectors on the trough opto boards. If the game doesn’t think you’ve drained, reseat the connectors on the applicable node board.
EDIT - reading is hard! For whatever reason I thought this was Stranger Things (I think because the 1st sentence said “strange thing” LOL), if this isn’t even a newer Stern just ignore
Go into the switch test and verify all trough switches are working as intended. Especially when the table is being banged around a little, like when it's being played.
Also, WOW in your title is confusing. Just type out the game name.
Need to reflow solder joints on your trough opto board likely. I believe someone from JJP just recently posted a picture of which points to reflow on the GNR owner's thread. It's pretty obvious though, look for the bare side of the trough opto board and reflow all the points.
New day new issues. Ok, so there is the problem with the flippers that stop working midway through a ball. Then last night after this happened again I opened the coin door to go into test mode and the "coin door open" message pops up on the screen like it should but the coin door buttons would not respond. When I closed the door the message stayed up. Open and close the door the message would not go away.
This morning based on a suggestion I checked all the connectors that enter the board box, both on the inside and outside of the box. Checked all the connectors on the boards. Closed things up and after it booted I tried to start a game, start button did nothing. Opened the coin door and the "open door" message did not display and the door buttons will not respond. Checked all the connections on the door and door switches, all seem good.
Just got this pin on Thursday and must have played 30-40 games until all this started happening. So during transport something come loose? Software issue?
2021-08-23 08.15.46 (resized).jpgOn the I/O board in the board cage in the bottom center of the cabinet, locate connectors 601-604 on the front left corner (the way the board is mounted) of the board. Those are for the dedicated switches. Pin 1 on each connector is solid black (ground). Unseat and re-seat the connectors with the game power off, paying particular attention to pin 1 on each to make sure it is fully seated into each connector. From there the wires go back to the bulkhead connectors on the back wall of the board cage. Push in the wires (into their connectors) on the inside wall AND outside wall - the wires can sometimes fall back out of the connectors on the back wall of connectors especially if the game was just moved.
Ok, this is going to be a WOZ specific suggestion, because I went through this for months...
Setup a video camera and play the game. If this happens after the left VUK fires, it is the Crystal Ball causing the I/O board to reset.
This is specifically if it isn't starting the "end of ball" stuff. In my case, the Crystal Ball was installed with the wireform ramp leaning on the connector. Over time playing the game, the pins on the CB screen broke, however the connector was hot glued together, so it seemed very tight. When the VUK would kick, that shake caused the inside pins to disconnect sometimes, and that would reset the I/O board which took a couple seconds to boot.
Even if it was only with another vibration it could be the same thing. For mine the ball was always coming down the left wireform to the left flipper when it happened. Once I cut off the glue and pulled the connector, I found my issue.
Quoted from DaveH:Ok, this is going to be a WOZ specific suggestion, because I went through this for months...
Setup a video camera and play the game. If this happens after the left VUK fires, it is the Crystal Ball causing the I/O board to reset.
This is specifically if it isn't starting the "end of ball" stuff. In my case, the Crystal Ball was installed with the wireform ramp leaning on the connector. Over time playing the game, the pins on the CB screen broke, however the connector was hot glued together, so it seemed very tight. When the VUK would kick, that shake caused the inside pins to disconnect sometimes, and that would reset the I/O board which took a couple seconds to boot.
Even if it was only with another vibration it could be the same thing. For mine the ball was always coming down the left wireform to the left flipper when it happened. Once I cut off the glue and pulled the connector, I found my issue.
This is a good thought - there is a ground wire in the connector on the back of the crystal ball PCB and if that vibrates when the VUK kicks it has been known to cause all kinds of issues including resets and light lockups.
THANK YOU! Just played 5-games with flippers operating the whole time! I thought I checked the connectors well enough but based on your suggestion I paid special attention to the ground wires on 601-604. I also checked the crystal ball connector and it looks fine for now but I never would have thought to look there. I will file that one away in case I need it later.
Celebrated to soon. The same problem is back. Pin was working again but, as I was playing the ball got stuck on a switch so I lifted the front and brought it back down, the ball game down but no flippers again. Opened the coin door and the "open door" didn't come up on the screen like it should. At this time start button will not work, coin buttons will not work and pin doesn't know door is open. I repeated the earlier suggestions and this time it didn't help. I don't think it the crystal ball issue mentioned above because the game is not resetting.
I was able to fix this with the help of Ken at JJP. Ken quickly pinpointed where the issue would be. Just in case anyone else ever has the same symptoms: communication problems between the CPU and I/O boards. There is a micro USB on the I/O board to goes to the CPU board (as either a USB or plastic connector depending on mfg date), reseat both ends and problems FIXED! Thanks JJJP and Ken!
I-O_board1 (resized).jpgcpu2 (resized).jpgWanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
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Valley, NE