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Ghosts in the machine

Durzel

Durzel

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Oct 1, 2017
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Bath, UK
Ok, this is prompted by something surreal that happened last night that I still can't explain.

For the most part my TZ is 100% reliable (touch wood). The only error it's ever shown (that wasn't as the result of me purposely unplugging something) is the age-old "Check Swtich 26 Trough Proximity" every few months. A little tweak of the metal detector and all is right as rain again.

Last night I thought I'd try and install a mini post up by the rocket kicker to try and get balls to drop reliably into it (occasionally it will fall out). Simple enough, unscrew one screw, screw in mini post. Done and dusted in no time at all.

Powered on machine to be greeted by the dreaded TEST REPORT. Right flipper E.O.S, Right flipper button, Left flipper E.O.S, Left flipper button, U.R Flipper E.O.S, and so on. What the actual f**k? I've never ever seen those before, and why on Earth would what I was doing cause that? I hadn't even lifted the playfield!

Went into test and pressed both the flippers a few times (all the flippers worked despite the error reports) and the errors went away.

I still can't explain what happened or why.

So - anyone else got any tales of ghosts in their machines? Errors that appear and disappear for no apparent reason? Maybe a flasher stuck on "just cos"...
 
Maybe check your CPU board, that can provoke bad/odd behaviour. Or check the ribbon cables up to the flipper board. I had a ribbon cable go bad on LOTR, which is a good 10yrs younger than TZ!

Do you have NVRAM instead of batteries? if not, when were the batteries changed? Any signs of historic corrosion on there?

TRON told me it had a ball jam, which it didn’t, and went away... then it died a horrible death about 5games later.

I hate these things...
 
Got Lithium batteries installed on a remote battery pack. The errors went away after activating the flippers in test mode so I'm not particularly alarmed by it, but it's just very strange!
 
I never understand the "Check flipper EOS" error and generally don't bother to fix it - apparently it is something to do with the gap adjustment of the switches? Despite my best efforts to increase/decrease the width of the gap on games I have had it on I can never get the error to go away, even with a reset it would just return.
 
Does it show E.O.S in the switch edge tests? In my case the game reported every flipper as failing, including (oddly) the button itself. But when I pressed the flipper buttons in edge test I could see several contacts being made with each half-press, and full press, including E.O.S - at which point the credit dot went away.

What machine are you getting it on?
 
With the Fliptronic systems, the end-of-stroke switches aren't as crucial as with the older 'conventional' flipper unit. AIUI, they're used as a check that the flipper is raised, and maybe to operate any Lane Change and produce a Status Report. The only occasion I recall where the eos switch had an effect was on a new Getaway, which had one of its flipper coils open-circuit on the Hold winding. The flipper would lift, drop as the Power winding shut off, lift again and then drop before remaining lowered - a conventional flipper would have 'chattered' like this until it burned out.

In the Switch Edges, pressing a flipper button part-way should operate the main flipper (interlock permitting) and its eos switch, pushing the button right in should register as an upper flipper switch and, if there is an upper flipper, its eos switch. Star Trek Next Gen is a special case, the Spinner is an 'F' switch, the unused upper left eos.
 
The trough proximity sensor error is a common problem. Had it in my old one it’s something to do with a crappy connector if I remember rightly. The fix is to solder the wires directly to the sensor
 
Yeah, I've got the uprated red Pinpoint board, but it still uses a twisted pair wire. Just playing with it a bit sorts it out for a few months. It's one of those things that I know I should fix but playing with a cable takes 30 seconds...

it amuses me that Ted Estes username on Pinside is "check_switch_26" - says it all really.
 
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