Thanks guys. Marty, I didn't know about that, but I do now! :)
I might as well keep going with detailing my repairs in this thread. Hopefully it helps others that are inexperienced like myself and gives them the confidence to have a go themselves.
One other issue I've had but ignored up until now was that the lower right flipper was a bit sloppy if you were holding it up and the ball hit it at high speed. The impact would cause the flipper to sag down (often causing you to lose the ball) and then it would swing back up again.
I spent some time reading up on the Fliptronics 2 board and how it works but ultimately the problem was very simple once I actually got into troubleshooting it. Lucky for me it was just another simple broken connection as opposed to a faulty component.
- First I went into the single switches test mode from the test menu and tested the End of Stroke (EoS) switches. The lower right flipper EoS was not registering as closed when the flipper button was pressed. I did a quick continuity test on the EoS switch itself just to make sure that it was making a good connection when activated, which it was.
- The flipper circuit diagram shows that all three flipper EoS switches are dependent on the same ground connection. As the left flipper and the upper right flipper EoS switches were working correctly, I tested continuity from the ground tab of the lower right flipper EoS switch to a grounded part of the machine. This test failed.
- I then visually traced the ground connection for the lower right flipper and found that it attaches directly to the left flipper EoS switch ground tab and then shares the same wire back to the Fliptronics 2 board. Looking closely I could see that the wire wasn't making any connection at all and the only reason the wire was still sitting there is because the insulation was melted to the insulation of the lower left flipper ground wire.
- I desoldered both wires from the left flipper EoS switch ground tab, cut and stripped them, and then soldered them back onto the tab (after winding them together).
- I re-ran the single switch test for the upper right flipper EoS switch and it now showed the switch as closed when the flipper button was pressed. It now works as intended and I can no longer use it as an excuse when I lose a ball.
Apologies for another long post! :)
