Data East Star Wars - possible shooter lane switch issue

[Ashbo]

Hiya all

This one is driving me crazy. Every now and again (mostly when the death star opens but sometimes on the first ball of the game) I get the following:

1) new ball kicked out from trough
2) left center pop fires
3) r2d2 jumps
4) can't launch using the fire button so I have to wait for the ball search routine which then shoots out the ball.

I have found that this never ever happens when I catch the ball in the shooter lane at step one. I can then manually place the ball on the switch and everything works.

Tested the shooter lane switch, all good. As are the trough switches. Pretty sure no switch is getting stuck on on the playfield.

Ordered some new plastics and side blade art from pinball center so will strip everything back in a couple of weeks and test everything, but before I do, has anyone had this issue before?

Many thanks

Ash

 

[Jagspete]

There’ll be a short to ground somewhere on the loom, had same issue on a similar de machine , or it might be short to flasher lights

 

[Ashbo]

There’ll be a short to ground somewhere on the loom, had same issue on a similar de machine , or it might be short to flasher lights

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. I'll check it out. Thanks @Jagspete

 

[Ashbo]

Pulled the green-red (switch drive 2) from switch 14 (Shooter lane). Problem solved. That means it's either the switch 14, a short on green-red, a short on white-blue (switch return 6) or the transistors on the drive 2 or return 6. I think.... Multimeter time tomorrow...

 

[Ashbo]

Found some possible issues and ended up resoldering. Worked for a bit then same problems. Still digging.....

 

[Ashbo]

Just to finish this up, there were the following issues;

1) trough switch faulty (replaced)
2) xwing targets 2 and 3 intermittently shorting due to huge blobs of solder (resoldered)
3) drop target 1 switch was intermittently shorting due to tight ground wire pulling on fixings (resolved by untangling ground and bending fixings back into place)
4) loose connection on ball 2 trough switch (resoldered)

As @Jagspete says, short to ground issues a plenty. Works fine now