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Solved: Strange TZ slot machine kickout issue

Mfresh

Mfresh

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Joined
Oct 7, 2012
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2,218
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Marlow on Thames, Bucks
Alias
Paul
On my TZ, some of the time the flashers flash and a sound plays before the ball is kicked out of the slot machine, but some of the time it doesn't - there's no noise or other warning, and then the ball is kicked out. Any idea what the issue is?

I have changed the switch at the bottom, and all the switches down there test OK, but this is still happening. I figure it must be a switch issue, but given that the ball is being kicked out the machine is obviously detecting that the ball is there...

Thanks for any suggestions...
 
So you think the machine is shifting a stray ball when 'no flashers', and expecting it as part of the game flow when it 'does flashers'?

What happens when the ball ends up there via the Piano or Gumball exit?
 
Mfresh said:
On my TZ, some of the time the flashers flash and a sound plays before the ball is kicked out of the slot machine, but some of the time it doesn't - there's no noise or other warning, and then the ball is kicked out. Any idea what the issue is?
Click to expand...

Flash and sound when the machine knows the ball is there - none when it doesn't but will do the kick out first (no noise or warning) before a proper ball search activating all solenoids in turn.

It's possible another switch in the matrix is masking the one for the slot machine - something stuck on (geneva or clock?) or faulty diode?
 
Any chance its not the switch on the slot machine, but an issue with the main ball trough?

Had something similar where balls were launched from a lock location after a lock instead of popping a new ball to the plunger from the main trough.

It turned out that the balls in the main trough were occasionally getting caught on a burr in the metal of the trough and not rolling down all the way to the main launch solenoid so the game wasn't getting a ball to launch to the plunger and consequently it launched one out of the lock location to replace an assumed missing ball.
 
I've just taken the glass off and done some more tests. It seems like the issue only occurs when the ball is kicked out of the slot machine after entering via the gumball exit/camera, and then only sometimes. When it goes to the slot machine after entering via the launch lane, the piano, or the slot machine itself, the issue doesnt occur.

I'll have to take a look tonight to see what I can find. What diodes should I be looking at?

Thanks

Paul
 
Well all the switches tested OK. A ball down the piano fires piano, proximity, slot. A ball down the gumball/camera/upper playfieldback exit fires camera, proximity slot, and the shooter lane and slot itself fire the slot switch.

But still when I put a ball down the gumball/camera hole, the machine makes a noise like it knows the ball has gone down there, there is a pause, and juist when you expect the next noise and flash as it ejects it just ejects. So it is just the flash and sound that is missing, but otherwise the machine behaves correctly.

Cant see any other switches that are mis-behaving from the switch tests....
 
Does it detect the powerball properly or has it just worked out where it probably is and do you get the rocket animation from the rocket?


It's a great day for racing!
 
This has been bugging me for four months now but yesteday I put my determined hat on and got it sorted.

When a ball goes to the slot machine scoop it closes the switch, but what was happening was that instead of coming to rest on the switch, keeping it closed, the ball had just enough room to roll a tiny bit further, releasing the switch again, before coming to rest. So the switch was working, but after closing it opened again when it should have remained closed. I put a slightly longer actuator arm on of roughly the same shape and now we're good. Some numpty must have put the wrong switch arm on a while ago. Probably me.
 
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TZ is full of stuff like this. What on a normal game is a 15 minute fix takes about 7 hours on twilight zone

"Time is a one way street, except in the Twilight Zone"

Brilliant game, but so much work
 
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