Arcade Collecting > Pinball
STTNG electrical problems (switches/opto's)
Cenobyte:
--- Quote from: smartbomb2084 on June 06, 2011, 08:56:21 am ---You need to tell us the actual switch NUMBERS of the problem switches as they are labeled in the SWITCH MATRIX. The numbers make identification a LOT easier....
From what you are describing it seems that ALL of the switches in Switch Matrix Column three are not registering?
--- End quote ---
You're right, sorry for that.
It looks like all switches in column 3 are not registering. But there are more:
92 left gun mark (under the cannon?)
95 right gun home (under the cannon?)
96 right gun mark
97 left gun home
--- Quote ---Take a digital camera or cell phone camera and point it towards the emitter half of the opto (green board) and see if the emitters are glowing like the sun through the camera. If they aren't take a flashlight and shine it toward the receiver of the opto (blue board) and then block the light and see if the switch works.
--- End quote ---
All emitters on the faulty opto's seem to be working!
--- Quote from: pinballjim on June 06, 2011, 09:26:21 am ---From your photo, you've clearly got a problem with that column. You need to investigate all the switches on it. Check the optos, make sure no wires are grounded out, that kind of thing. I shorted a wire in the gun handle on my Demolition Man and it closed an entire set like that.
--- End quote ---
What's a fast way to check for shortages?
I disconnected both cannon harnasses as they are also prone to broken wires, but that didn't change a thing. I did notice that these wire harnasses looked newer than the rest of the wiring, so they look replaced.
I'm beginning to suspect the ULN2803 on the CPU board or the 16-opto board?
smartbomb2084:
When you enter the SWITCH EDGES test do all of the switches in Column 3 immediately close one after the other in rapid succession?
Check the green-orange wire from CPU J207-3 to 16 Opto board J5-10 (Column 3).
Column 9 is driven by the 8-Driver board not the CPU board. Check the violet-white wire from J5-1 of the 8-Driver board to the guns.
Switches that worked yesterday and not today are usually wire/connector related.
Cenobyte:
When surfing, I stumbled on this which sounds very familiar to me:
http://pinballproject.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/opto-insanity/
Are the connectors on the driver board all .156 Molex connectors?
smartbomb2084:
MOST of the driver board connectors are .156 but there are also .100 headers for the the lamp matrix at J133-J135 but simply LOOKING at the board would answer that question.
Of the +12V power connectors at J116-J119 only J118 connects to the playfield boards. You could have a problem with this connector but I would think you would have even MORE opto problems like ball trough issues where the game is launching balls everywhere at random like when the cannons have broken wires. Your problem seems to be with switch Column 3.
When you enter SWITCH EDGES test do all of the switches in Col 3 immediately close in rapid succession one right after the other?
Have you checked the previously mentioned switch wires? You gotta start eliminating possible causes and simple wire continuity is a good place to begin. All the perfectly functioning boards in the world won't work with flaky wiring but you didn't need ME to tell you that. ;)
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: smartbomb2084 on June 08, 2011, 06:12:06 pm ---simply LOOKING at the board would answer that question.
--- End quote ---
It's all very overwhelming to the inexperienced. I couldn't have IDed a .156 or a .100 when I got my first pin.
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