problem with powerball in Twilight Zone

[Chad]

Hi all

My twilight zone has just developed a problem where it does not detect the powerball during play anymore. Any help on what to check would be greatly appreciated.

[silverball]

TZ has a trough proximity sensor that detects a metal ball when ejected (from memory). Check for this switch in the trough where the ball ejects, trace the wires and reseat or jiggle the wires/connector as a start. The vibration from the trough will put them out of whack.

[Chad]

I have checked the wiring & connector on the proximity board & they look ok

Thanks

[Chad]

I'am still having problems with my powerball and wanted to know is there a way to test this board

[silverball]

from memory, I think the prox board has an led that lights when a metal ball passes through it, could be wrong though.Check it out.

[pinball god]

Silverball is correct in that there is an led that will light when a metal ball is detected. One thing I'm a little confused with is that the powerball is not detected at all. I had the same problem but only when the ball was ejected to the shooter/plunger meaning the detected near there ball trough is the problem. If I shot the ball into the scoop area where there is a second detector the machine would know that the powerball was in play. Can you confirm whether the slot machine scoop detect recognises the powerball. If it does it then isolates it to the trough area.

BTW I soldered/hard wired the trough connectors as the prox sw 26 error started to piss me big time. Check also whether you have this error.

[pinball god]

forgot to mention, if both detectors don't work, then I'm guessing maybe in your features diagnostics the "no powerball" setting is set to ON. Look at this setting regardless to discount this as the cause

[Chad]

just had a quick look at TZ and the "no powerball" settings is set to NO. Both the slot machine & shooter/plunger was not detecting the powerball.Tomorrow I will have another look at proximity board, but last time I checked, the LED was coming on when the metal ball was in the shooter/plunger but I will check this to confirm it.Also is it possible for the proximity board to be detecting ok but not sending out the right signal. Forgot to check for sw 26 error but will check this tomorrow.

[Chad]

had another look at TZ, both the slot machine & shooter/plunger detect the metal ball (LED comes on with metal ball). Also there is no sw 26 error.

[silverball]

What happens when you pass the ceramic ball through the detectors........that is, the led shoudnt register.

[Chad]

the LED is off when the ceramic ball passes through the detector or there is no ball near the detector and only comes on when the metal ball passes through it

[Pinballace]

If the led seems to be working correct you may have a wiring or connect problem on the output side of the sensor board.  If I recall you can jumper the output in test mode and see if it registers.

[Chad]

I went into the test mode and when I had the metal ball near the proximity board the switch showed closed & when I had the ceramic ball or no ball near the proximity board it showed open. This proves the output side of the proximity board is working with no wiring or connector problems ? Does this mean I might have a problem with one of the boards in the backbox ?

[Pinballace]

More than anything I think the game is living up to it's name.   And just to be sure, you are testing the trough proximity?  When you state you put the balls "near" the board, are you cycling them through the trough as they would cycle normally?    If yes, then you might have a bug in the software/firmware, go ahead and change the powerball setting in the program (yes I know it's correct right now) for a few games and then change it back.  If you want to get extreme then remove the batteries (word of caution you will loose all programing and high scores).  The other thing, although the hardware works in test mode doesn't mean it's 100% working in game mode.  If it is weak (connector/sensor) then I've seen them work in test but not game.  The clock opto's are a good example, I had one that the opto's were fine in test but in game one was intermitten and thus the clock would shut down.  Believe me, that proximity sensor can be a real bugger.   

[Chad]

I was cycling the balls through the trough normally.I have already changed the powerball settings and then changed them back, this made no difference.I will check the wiring & all connections next to make sure this is not the problem.Thanks Pinballace.