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Stargate ball trough issue

iamCornhoolio

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Joined
Apr 13, 2025
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63
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I had the the playfield up last night while I was replacing bulbs on my Stargate. When I started a game following this, when I pressed start, balls would not feed into the shooter lane.

Taking off the apron, when a ball hits the left switch it fires it towards the shooter lane. However when back rolls over the right switch in the trough (I can hear a click so contact is being made), the coil on the gate doesn’t fire and the gate doesn’t open so the right most ball can’t go into the shooter lane.

Any ideas?
 

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I may be misremembering, but doesn't Stargate sit in attract mode with a ball in the drain i.e. on the left end of the trough? In the photo above, the one-way gate in the middle of the trough shouldn't be held open like that.

Does the trough coil (on the right) work in solenoid test mode?
 
You say you can hear a click for the switch but have you confirmed in the test menu all the switches in the trough are registering correctly.

Also as fubar says have you done a solenoid/coil test on the right hand coil.

Also you said you had the playfield up, I would do a visual inspection of the wiring to that coil and the switches i ncase it was disturbed when you lifted the playfield.
 
You say you can hear a click for the switch but have you confirmed in the test menu all the switches in the trough are registering correctly.

Also as fubar says have you done a solenoid/coil test on the right hand coil.

Also you said you had the playfield up, I would do a visual inspection of the wiring to that coil and the switches i ncase it was disturbed when you lifted the playfield.
Switch also registers fine in test. Switch test has a rotation of switches going automatically (glider motor stop for example), but trough registers just fine. Wiring doesn’t look disturbed either
 
I may be misremembering, but doesn't Stargate sit in attract mode with a ball in the drain i.e. on the left end of the trough? In the photo above, the one-way gate in the middle of the trough shouldn't be held open like that.

Does the trough coil (on the right) work in solenoid test mode?

You say you can hear a click for the switch but have you confirmed in the test menu all the switches in the trough are registering correctly.

Also as fubar says have you done a solenoid/coil test on the right hand coil.

Also you said you had the playfield up, I would do a visual inspection of the wiring to that coil and the switches i ncase it was disturbed when you lifted the playfield.
I might have an idea. Looks like the replacement bulb has popped out of the holder, no where to be found. So I guess it could have fallen into a VUK or somewhere. Could the machine detect its there and stop balls being released?
 
To save anyone looking at this, I figured it out over lunch.

I pressed the shooter lane leaf switch down accidentally when I had the playfield up, so it was constantly on and therefore not letting a ball into the lane from the gate, as it thought there was a already a ball there and wouldn’t fire the coil.

Adjusted the switch back to how it was and it’s all working now. Tonight’s job will be to find the missing bulb!
 
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