Whitewater Bigfoot Opto's and reset at start up.

[Andypc]

Having a couple of issues with my Whitewater. I turned it on the other day and started a game as soon as it booted and when I pressed the flipper button the machine reset. I turned it off and waited a minute and turned it back on again and this time I waited a minute before starting a game and it was fine. However I then got a credit dot and the bigfoot opto's had stopped working.

Had a chance to look at it again today and it did the same thing. i.e. reset if I started a game straight away and pressed the flipper button. Again it was fine after being on for a minute or two.

Have looked at the opto board and can't see and bad solder joints and re-seated the connector, but the opto's are still not working.

Any suggestions?

 

[cmrl9]

I'm pretty sure this is to do with the 5volt to the power driver board. A common problem with Williams.

No More Reset – PinSound

www.pinsound.org

 

[Pick Holder]

Or repair it properly
Br2 and the corresponding big cap cures it 95% of the time

 

[Paul]

Andy @pinballmania used to say..... Reseat all the connectors on the Right side of the CPU, and also all the connectors on the left side of the Power board (I think that was what it was!).... Reseat them Several times... Then try again...

Or alternatively just get one of the little plug in boards as a temporary fix...

5v reset fix PCB - Pinball Heaven

www.pinball.co.uk

(I think Andy also sells these, however cannot find on the website!)

 

[pinballmania]

Before Bridges and Capacitors, the main culprit is the 7 way power connector between Power Driver and CPU. Reseat this first, and if it helps, you should then consider replacing the connectors for long term effect.

When you decide to replace a bridge or capacitor, you remove all the connectors, effectively doing the simple step above. You then think the caps and bridges were indeed the problem, when they probably weren't.

I dont deny that its worth replacing aging capacitors, but if your skills arent matched to the task, then best avoided if at all possible.

Ignore the opto problem until you've fixed the reset.

 

[drhex]

What @pinballmania says, usually it is tarnished connectors mostly. Unsoldering the big cap and the bridges should be left to people with the right equipment as it is very easy to damage the ageing boards in the process.

 

[Andypc]

Reseating the connectors has solved the reset problem

Unfortunately I am still having an issues with the Bigfoot opto's. I reflowed the soldier joints on the opto board and that appeared to solve it, until the next time I started the machine and they stopped registering again. So I decided to order a new opto board from Pinball.nl, but unfortunately still have the same problem.

Taking a picture with my camera phone shows the Opto's are lit, but don't register. They don't register in test mode even if I break the beams with a piece of card. I have checked all the wires are seated correctly in the connectors and reseated 207 and 209 on the CPU board, but they are still not registering.


Any suggestions?

 

[Paul]

To be honest, there's not much on that board to go wrong. You can check the diode by watching this : https://www.google.com/search?q=how...me&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_NX24YouqBMaP8gLopaiYDw20

Being in Circuit shouldnt make any difference in this case.

What does it feed back into?

Edit : Found it :



Could well be the optos playing up and just need replacing which is an easy job.... or maybe theres an issue on the CPU.

Silly Q : Is there any corrosion from the batteries on the CPU??

 

[pinballmania]

As with any switch, test the wiring to the cpu by entering switch edge test and shorting pin 1 of the connector (column) to each of pin 2 and 3 rows. Each should elicit some response at the cpu. It might be random as you’re not using a diode but it proves whether or not the wiring is good. If no response investigate which of the three wires is not reaching the cpu.