Castle Gate not registering ball hits

[hocuslocus]

I saw Marspinball posted this like four months ago. I've noticed that the gate hits don't register about 40% of the time depending on ball speed. I checked the connections and switch edge test and it registers it fine 100% of the time. but in game the ball has to hit the gate a lot slower for it to get a hit. do you have any idea how Marspinball resolved this?

since it's an ir beam there isn't anything to bend. only connections and maybe dirt covering the transmitter but everything looks fine. this has actually been an issue for as long as I can remember.
also if the gate is open and you shoot the lock is the castle supposed to explode, I would assume so right?

#342

thank you,
greg

[Lloyd Olson]

Do you have the game sloped to at least 6 1/2 degrees - to slow the ball down a little up there ?

LTG : )

[Pablito]

The castle exploding on the lock ball shot when the gate is already open happens on mine too. But not all the time. I've noticed that a lock ball shot blows up the castle on the shot made immediately after the castle gate opens. If I make some other shot after the gate opens and then hit the lock ball shot, it only registers a locked ball. I'm not sure if that is by design or if I'm just selectively noticing that, but i have been surprised at times when the castle explodes on the lock ball shot and I think I've narrowed it down to that immediate shot after the gate opens up.

[hocuslocus]

I took a picture of the bubble according to the manual it's at 6 1/2 degrees. like I said I just assumed that this was the way it was supposed to play until I saw video of another. and 100% of the ball hits were registering.  the castle drawbridge registers every time no matter how fast the ball is going. the gate itself has all the issues. do you think replacing the sensor would help? could it be software related?
If I do a switch edge test it works 100% of the time.

[Viper001]

I took a picture of the bubble according to the manual it's at 6 1/2 degrees. like I said I just assumed that this was the way it was supposed to play until I saw video of another. and 100% of the ball hits were registering.  the castle drawbridge registers every time no matter how fast the ball is going. the gate itself has all the issues. do you think replacing the sensor would help? could it be software related?
If I do a switch edge test it works 100% of the time.

I have an original game that had the exact same problem, and since the playfield mechanics are the same what I found may help your situation. For either the opto sender or receiver (I can't remember which side it was now) one of the two is very close to a stainless steel piece. What I found is that the solder tabs where the wire is attached was able to occasionally touch the stainless and short out. It wasn't an all the time short so in test mode things still seemed solid, but with the game rocking and rolling it was missing a lot of hits. Once I dealt with that electrical issue my castle was registering hits as it should whether the gate was up or down. Good luck!

[hocuslocus]

well I checked out what you said and there doesn't appear to be any metal anywhere near the solder site. It looks good, so I really don't know what is going on. I must be doing something wrong, since I appear to be the only person with this issue other then that one other guy.

Just so I'm 100% in order to attain a castle hit it has to break the drawbridge opto then the gate opto then the drawbridge opto one more time right, if it doesn't do these in a certain amount of time it disregards the hit correct?

I rolled the ball at the gate in test mode as fast as I would if it would ignore the hit and of course in test mode it passed every time 20 out of 20.

[Viper001]

I think the problem I found was with the drawbridge opto instead of the gate opto. I remember the problem one was close to metal and I found the problem because there was a small burn mark where the connection had been shorting out.

[hocuslocus]

ahhh, I will check that when I get back to the location. I know the ball has to pass the drawbridge once, then hit the gate, and then pass the drawbridge again in order for a hit to register.
only thing is the drawbridge registers 100% of the hits every time, no matter how fast the ball is going. as soon as you try to hit the gate you have to shoot it slower in order for it to register the hits even then sometimes it doesn't work.

at least the drawbridge will be easier to check.
thank you

[hocuslocus]

well I fixed the issue, but I created the issue.
 I installed a cliffy drawbridge protector. I still don't really understand why it didn't work maybe the opto's need to be a little further. I took the protector out and it registers almost 100% of the ball hits. I was honestly going to take that particular protector out anyway because it kept coming loose. so I had to bend it more and more to keep it in place. it might work for a house since it's not played as much but my machine get on average 200 plays a week.

all the other protectors worked fine with some adjusting. the ball was contently getting stuck at the catapult and merlin hole protectors till I bent the metal a certain way. I don't mind having them if they actually help protect the game, but when they start messing with how the game plays they got to go. that being said I'm sure others having figured it out, I just don't have the patience.

[KingCat78]

The castle exploding on the lock ball shot when the gate is already open happens on mine too. But not all the time. I've noticed that a lock ball shot blows up the castle on the shot made immediately after the castle gate opens. If I make some other shot after the gate opens and then hit the lock ball shot, it only registers a locked ball. I'm not sure if that is by design or if I'm just selectively noticing that, but i have been surprised at times when the castle explodes on the lock ball shot and I think I've narrowed it down to that immediate shot after the gate opens up.

I've had this happening on my game too (the castle exploding when the gate is open and you hit the castle lock). Since I've seen a few people reporting this on the forum, it looks like this is a software problem. Could this be solved by a firmware update? I do have the latest version installed at the moment.

Jon

[Lloyd Olson]

Not a software problem.
A switch firing that shouldn't.
If an opto, may be getting effected by stray light.
LTG : )

[KingCat78]

Are you sure about that? I mean I know that opto's can be sensitive to vibrating and such (I also have a POTC which has a lot more opto's and a lot more vibration), but the castle exploding every once in a while only happens when the gate is open and you hit the castle lock. I would say this happens about 1 out of 20 times.

You would think that if it's the opto, the bridge/gate would also be registering random hits when the castle lock is hit. But that doesn't happen. It only happens when the gate is already open and you hit the castle lock, it might happen that the castle will explode (not very often, but every now and then).

Would you have any advice considering the opto's or anything else?

Jon

[Lloyd Olson]

I'm sure it's not a software issue. With well over 2,000 games out there. A lot more would be popping up with an issue.
Be sure the optos are clean, lined up so they hit each other. That the balls aren't flying over the beam of light. And don't rule out poor connection, poor solder joint, or flaky opto. And there have been a few where other light sources were triggering them.

[philw]

Oh, I thought that was a by-design defect - it's 100% repeatable on mine. That is, get the castle to be one-hit away from blowing, then immediately put the ball through the lock-hole, and the castle blows up. The lock-shot has to go in within seconds of the previous castle-shot or it works normally. I will look at my sensors, if it's a physical light-path issue, the timing thing would not be relevant, no?

[Lloyd Olson]

Tests - Switch Edge - pass something between the optos. If they work, the ball is probably flying higher above them. Then make your playfield a 6 1/2 degree pitch and lower your flipper strength.
LTG : )