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Help! GnR flipper lane change shenanigans

Spandangler

Spandangler

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Hi group
My mate picked up the GNR off eBay the other week. That's right , the ridiculously overpriced one which was fully working from that well respected seller:rolleyes:

Apart from some shoddy trough switches and questionable soldering skills, the main imbuggerance is the flipper buttons won't activate the lane change, high score initial entry and video mode features. Plus you can't eject all the balls in diagnostic mode.

In switch test nothing registers when you press the flipper buttons (not sure if they're supposed to or not)

The flippers work fine.

Actions taken so far:

Flipper board removed, dry joints reflowed and connectors reseated.
Ribbon connectors in backbox re seated
And that's it!!

So if anyone has any suggestions, as always they're gratefully received.

Thanks in advance
Gaz
 
Can you do switchtest and make sure that every switch works perfect ?
Same for solenoid / Flasher test.

When you press the flipper buttons, an LED should light up on the flipperboard. (Indicates that the flipperbuttons work...or not).


Seems to me you could have a software problem, try to do a reset (Remove batteries)
 
Ah, doctor, thank goodness you're here!. In switch test I pressed lots of different switches (admittedly not all) and they registered fine. All 3 LEDs came on on the flipper board when the flipper buttons were pressed.

Interesting you mention the software issue, as the seller changed the roms before the sale from Italian to English. I'll recommend the reset and report back.

Thanks again
Gaz
 
Had an issue on MB ones.
After a reset 2 eddy-swithes didn't work during game (worked fine in switch test !!)
seems you have to play about 20 games before the activate.......very weird !
 
I did!! Even played it when we got there. But without entering a high score or getting video mode , would never have noticed!!
 
Check the cabinet flipper buttons. They are probably double stacked, one for triggering flippers, one acts as switch for high score entry etc. May just need adjusting

Failing that, check if the End of stroke switch needs adjusting. Early DE games used that as the switch for high score etc.
 
Gaz,

If there aren't any extra switches attached to the flipper buttons, or to the flippers themselves (unlikely), then the game may have 'solid state' Lane Change switches. I'm not that familiar with DE hardware, but Williams used this, from Jokerz! through to Hurricane. Tiny opto-coupler chips sense the flipper current and link into the switch matrix. But then Williams didn't have solid-state flipper control at the time..

Extra - looking at the manual on Ipdb, the switch listing shows the flipper/lane change switches as being in the cabinet, routed via the flipper control Pcb. The components mentioned are transistors Q7 for Left and Q5 for Right.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Jay I seem to remember reading somewhere that data East use solid state flippers. Flipperwinkel or somewhere like that!
 
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