Bally Solved Dr. Dude And His Excellent Ray (Bally, 1990) Drop Target Quirk

[Coil_Smoke]

My beloved Dr. dude and his excellent Ray machine has two new problems. The bank of drop targets refuses to reset during play. The targets only reset after the ball drains. The targets score as they drop but stay down until the ball drains. The bank should reset when the fourth target drops. I've tried various settings but the problem remains. At about the same time a problem developed in the ball trough. The machine indicates missing pinballs. The game requires three balls. The third is actually a spare and not required at any time during play. The game refuses to start with three balls in the trough. The game will start with only two balls in it. I do get an error message at startup with only two balls. The machine seems to sense three balls in the trough but wont play with three balls installed. It hangs on 'Waiting For Pinballs'. Granted this is not much of an issue. Of course I'd rather the game start with no errors. This Drop target issue has me stumped.

 

[faralos]

visit the IPDb scroll down a bit to the manual
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/737/B...lish_Manual_includes_paginated_schematics.pdf
you can download it from there
the manual may have a reason why the drops ain't resetting properly

 

[pinballdaveh]

do drops and trough switches work correctly in switch edges test? with card apron off do balls line up in trough over actuators correctly?

 

[Coil_Smoke]

do drops and trough switches work correctly in switch edges test? with card apron off do balls line up in trough over actuators correctly?

Both of those switches fail to activate the switch edge test. Somehow the game still seems to know when three balls are installed. Both the #3 ball trough and #1 drop target are in the same row of the switch matrix. Should I be looking for a broken wire /bad connection some where?

 

[pinballdaveh]

have you checked for 12volts at the drop target opto board? pin 6 is key, pin 7 is gnd , pin 8 is +12vdc . in the manual right after switch edges test is a paragraph called playfield or cpu. it tells you how to remove jacks and jumper connections to test switch matrix . it says to use just a jumper wire without a inline diode. this troubleshooting technique should tell you if the problem is in the playfield switches ,wiring , or the board .

 

[Coil_Smoke]

JOY!

Thanks for the hints. Problem solved. Using clip leads to jump along wire traces under play field I found the broken connection. Both switches are doing their thing. The Dr. is in the house.

 

[pinballdaveh]

good job finding the problem. im glad i was able to help. have fun, enjoy.