Got my new Road Show finished up this morning, and played exactly one ball. LOL.

Upon draining, the game didn't end the ball in play, it just kicked out another one from the trough and kept going.

When I rebooted, I got the dreaded "Opto Trough Bad" error message. I double checked voltage at the check points (it was fine). I reseated all the connectors. In switch tests, the jam switch in the trough registers, as do switches 2, and 3. Switch four registers, but immediately also registers the jam switch (at the opposite end of the trough-- makes no sense to me).

I can swap the board out from one of my other games, but don't want to risk blowing them both if it's an issue with a short.

Other ideas for things to check?

So, I swapped the 7 opto board from my WCS, and the problem isn't the board. The board from Road Show worked in WCS just fine. The board from WCS did not resolve the error message in Road Show.

I can certainly switch the trough opto boards if there's reason to suspect them.

The ball jam opto works, as does ball 2 opto, and the ball 3 opto. The ball 4 opto registers, but at the same time it triggers the ball jam opto.

Lloyd, you certainly live up to the genius part! I followed the column switches, and everything was fine. When I followed the rose, I found two more that we’re not working. Tracing them I found a connector that I must’ve forgotten to plug in when I reassembled everything. I put it all back together and everything seems to be working fine!

I may have celebrated too soon. Played a couple of games and now it’s back to saying that the opto trough is bad. Damn

The opto boards themselves are fairly cheap (and I don't have any spares in my stash, so having a set around for the games I have that use these)-- how likely is it that the boards are causing this problem? Yes, I did pull out the transmitter board and cleaned it well. While it was out, I used a q-tip to clean the receivers as best as i could (I don't mind pulling the whole trough to get at the receiver board, I just didn't have time last night).

Probably doesn't help that the title got cut off. Original title does appear in the thread title when you click on it.

So... I have something going on with the interlock switch too.

The coin door doesn't have the plate to push in the interlock, so it's got a flipper rubber holding it closed. Randomly, I'll get the "close coin door" error.

Is there any scenario in which the two could be related?

Yup, I know that. But could either cause the "opto trough bad" problem if the switch were bad?

Ok. They are testing fine, but I guess I'm going to order a set of new ones anyway, as preventative medicine.

I will, and report back, but I just had NVRAM installed, so I'm pretty sure I'm already freshly factory reset.

Fingers crossed (again), I may have figured it out. I hadn't leveled the game yet, and the pitch was a little shallow-- that may have been leaving the balls sitting in the slightly wrong position.

So I went back and did what I should have done at the beginning…. Swap the entire trough from another game. I found the awful repair below in road show. So I reassembled with the other trough and tge bad opto error is gone

IMG_0302 (resized).jpeg

I should also mention, while the bad opto error is gone, there's still an unresolved problem. When the balls get into the trough, *sometimes* the don't seem to sit right, so the game goes into that "soft kick" mode trying to clear what it thinks is a jam. A hard slap to the side of the machine usually stops it, so I think it's a mechanical issue., not an electronic one. Can (should) the trough be shimmed to stop this? When it goes into this cycle, if I lose a ball it won't end-- another ball will get kicked into the shooter lane.

Also had two different things happen for the first time-- both involving Bob's bunker. Once the locked ball was "recognized" as locked, but still got kicked out. The second time it worked like it was supposed to. The other problem is that it will occasionally kick out a locked ball when it shouldn't, giving an unexpected multiball.

Balls are brand new. I actually had that shim installed with the original ball trough and removed it when these problems cropped up. I'll put it back in and see what happens.

I assume you mean these screws for adjustment? They are already all the way down. Open to any other ideas!

Any chance this could be a board issue? I'd be happy to send the boards back to my guy for further testing.

trough (resized).jpg

Would shimming the trough to increase the depth of angle on the right side be an option? The new opto boards will be here tomorrow, and I'll be pulling the other trough to put it back in its original game, so I have to pull it all apart anyway.

I adjusted them to the middle. Turned the game on and we’re back to the bad opto message.

When it goes into that little cycle where it’s trying to clear a ball, the ball kicker cool remains energized. Is it supposed to do that?

IMG_0304 (resized).jpeg

GRRRRRR... this one is really frustrating.

I've swapped the power board in with a known-good one. I have swapped known-good boards into the trough. I have a known-good 7-opto board. I STILL have that error.

The single switch test shows all of the switches in the trough working correctly.

Is there anything on the CPU that could cause this? I'm otherwise out of ideas. COMPLETELY stumped.

I repinned the connector on the 7 opto board, and I'll do repin the connectors for the opto boards tomorrow.

Now, if there are balls in the trough, the trough will continue to try to clear a jam. Even if it's only one ball.

I was not able to get a game to start at all today.

Trough connectors have been repinned. No change.

I'm completely out of ideas. Somebody throw me a lifeline here.

This thread isn't getting much traffic, I think due to the title being truncated by pinside. I'm going to start a new thread.