Firmware bug

[lilshawn]

found a bug in the last version of "Ripley's Belive it or Not" pinball (V3.20)

I had an issue with the machine where the upper right flipper locked on. This is the same machine i mentioned in another thread where it got stuck in a torrential downpour. I let it dry for a few days and powerd it on. no issues 

left it on for about 15 or 20 minutes on idle while i worked on some other stuff...heard the solenoind pop on.  oh well. power off, power on, stuck. okay no big deal.

went ahead and replaced the Q14 FET and the diode on the coil for good measure, no action on test. Grounding the tab of Q14 causes solenoid to operate. I placed a jumper wire between the gate of Q14 and R14 because sometimes that tiny trace gets ripped when replacing the FET. Still nothing.

Tested for gate turn on voltage from R14 when the solenoid is activated - nothing.

Lifted  R14 and Tested for gate voltage directly from U2 pin 15 - nothing

Replaced U2 - tested again, still nothing on that line.

Continuity tested the data line for 6D (the data line for that channel) and it's good all the way back to the decoder where the data from the main CPU come into the board.... getting continuity to other chips (U1,U3 etc) so the data line is intact.

It's almost as if there is no data being sent (from 6D) to turn on that particular channel (6Q) in U2.

turns out (this is where the bug comes in) the solenoid test in the service menu for the upper right flipper DOESN'T WORK...but the solinoid DOES work properly in game.
 

sigh. least it works.

[ChadTower]

Doh.  Good work but definitely frustrating.  I have spent time similar to that chasing down coils that only "half fire" to figure out eventually that the solenoid test pulse is too short to work the mechanism on the coil.  Coil fires, but very briefly, so the (for example) drop bank won't reset in test mode.