Happ Gun Opto Troubleshooting

jacklick

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about the only thing that could break a gun is dropping it a lot. there's an optic in there, that's typically what breaks. the legs will usually break in half or it'll break off inside the board. the legs hook a little bit, so in a pinch you can get enough length to resolder in.

chances are though you could have a broken wire. you'll have to measure from inside the gun to the plug that goes into the board to find that out. if that's the case then you're probably hosed (no pun intended right), I don't know if it's possible to feed a new wire in there, never tried it. not with a Happ 45. knock on wood.
 
about the only thing that could break a gun is dropping it a lot. there's an optic in there, that's typically what breaks. the legs will usually break in half or it'll break off inside the board. the legs hook a little bit, so in a pinch you can get enough length to resolder in.

chances are though you could have a broken wire. you'll have to measure from inside the gun to the plug that goes into the board to find that out. if that's the case then you're probably hosed (no pun intended right), I don't know if it's possible to feed a new wire in there, never tried it. not with a Happ 45. knock on wood.

Thanks Mecha.
I reflowed solder on the gun pcb, checked continuity from game pcb end to the optic board header. the optic is completely intact. I have to assume it is the gun pcb and bad luck.

going to try it w/ the gun apart and check voltage and eliminate any possibility of obstruction of the optic.
 
make sure the little plastic lens in the gun shells is intact too. that makes them see better somehow!
 
What I do when I have a gun that does not work.

1. make sure connector to optic board is seated all the way.
2. use a dental pick and GENTLY push on each leg to the optic and see if it is broken.
3. Make sure trigger switch is working.
4. Make sure none of the wires inside the gun have come loose from connectors etc
5.Make sure the optic itself is clean and aimed correctly.
6. Make sure lens is clean and in place.
7. If all of that checks out then I usually pop in a spare optic board and test.
8. If that does not work I meter wires for continuity from inside the gun to the connector at the other end of the hose.
 
What I do when I have a gun that does not work.

1. make sure connector to optic board is seated all the way.
2. use a dental pick and GENTLY push on each leg to the optic and see if it is broken.
3. Make sure trigger switch is working.
4. Make sure none of the wires inside the gun have come loose from connectors etc
5.Make sure the optic itself is clean and aimed correctly.
6. Make sure lens is clean and in place.
7. If all of that checks out then I usually pop in a spare optic board and test.
8. If that does not work I meter wires for continuity from inside the gun to the connector at the other end of the hose.

Nice step by step. Thanks

I know the boards are only @ $27 bucks but I have so many non working guns wanted to dive in to see if it was something easy / cheap that can be replaced. If nothing else, all the guns will be clean. I was pleasantly surprised to find I have two guns w/ recoil coil although one of the harnesses was hacked.

Suspect board types
A.1 happ type 2 (visually looks fine)
A.2 happ type 2 (visually looks fine)
A.3 happ type 2 (visually looks fine)
B.1 happ type 1 (broken photo transistor leg)
C.1 knock off happ type 1 (P2200) (looks fine)
D.1 Atari - very close to happ type 1 - (no photo transistor)

I inspected all boards and desoldered phototransistors to test like normal NPN transistor. All seemed to test fine (AFAICT). Only one transistor had a leg that was broken. I was hoping some of the phototransistors would test bad. I believe they are L14G2 or but likely the OP805SL is a replacement, the later is only @ $2.50 at mouser.

I also reflowed solder on connectors for the heck of it. I am going to test A - C board in same gun and see which ones work and then go from there.

Hoping for some simple tests on these boards...additonal note.
While in ckt (yes I know you can't test transistors in ckt)the E <> C of photo transistor game me a reading of 1.5 in diode test for the Type2 boards but read OL on type 1. The type1 has through hole components which could be replaced ex.(LM311x & 2n3904) however, the type2, while having a LM311, has two additional transistors instead of 1 and everything is surface mounted so it hard to tell what they are. Definitely not worth the time messing with type 2 components.

some links so I don't have to go back and search
https://na.suzohapp.com/images/pdf/opticalgun.pdf

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Optek-TT-Electronics/OP805S

http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/414/OP800SL-49801.pdf

https://na.suzohapp.com/wp/search.p?OLD_URL=/amusement/optical/l14g1.htm >>this shows thhe op805sl
 

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A. 2 test good and 1 tests bad (screen flashes but shot doesn't register)
B. Tests good (after fixing broken phototransistor leg)
C. Tests bad (screen flashes but shot doesn't register)
D. untested.

So. I am going to try swapping (known working) phototransistor from B to non-working board and (vice versa) to see if I eliminate phototransistor. Then will see about the LM311.
 
Hate inconclusive results.
Board C.. tested 2n3904 out of ckt = good. Swapped LM311 and phototransistor with B board, and now it tests good.

Put B board in with original Board C parts and it tests good as well. I can only guess that, board C was plugged in wrong during test, the optic was misaligned (I have my doubts about this based on all the swapping I have done) or reflowing solder helped.
 
edited previous post for board # clarity.
ok finally an identified bad part.
Swapped known good working photo transistor from Board C (originally from board B) with board A.3 = Tests good.

Test board C with A.3's photo transistor = test bad ...shots not registered. Pull now known bad phototransistor and it passes diode test.

So I guess in conclusion, there is no easy way to identify a bad photo transistor unless the leg is broke. Good news is I have 5 known working boards (maybe 6) just need 2 photo transistors.

Now to reassemble guns. I now I have a couple w/ bad lenses and need to verify all the trigger switches, cabling etc.
 
Hello,

Hate to go all low tech, but when the game was running, were the trigger events being registered with a flashing screen, (but not hitting nor deducting ammo). You mentioned the shots aren't registering, did you mean 'hits', but you didn't say whether the trigger events were registering.

Clean the lens and the gun opto register, and turn up the brightness of the monitor 'a lot' on both the flyback and / or the monitor controls, think too bright to like and almost seeing raster lines. Also, are you in an area with a high amount of ambient light, that can throw off the weaker monitors. The older gun games with weaker monitors have this problem, monitor looks fine to us, but not to the guns.

I just had a similar problem and it was the monitors not the guns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSF8wPsXKKg


Didj
 
Hello,

Hate to go all low tech, but when the game was running, were the trigger events being registered with a flashing screen, (but not hitting nor deducting ammo). You mentioned the shots aren't registering, did you mean 'hits', but you didn't say whether the trigger events were registering.

Clean the lens and the gun opto register, and turn up the brightness of the monitor 'a lot' on both the flyback and / or the monitor controls, think too bright to like and almost seeing raster lines. Also, are you in an area with a high amount of ambient light, that can throw off the weaker monitors. The older gun games with weaker monitors have this problem, monitor looks fine to us, but not to the guns.

I just had a similar problem and it was the monitors not the guns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSF8wPsXKKg


Didj

Yes the trigger switch was registering (screen flashing) but no hits (shots) registered. I was testing all these gun boards in a known good gun (cabling, lens, trigger sw) with known "good" monitor and pcb (note: I have a pcb where one of the gun inputs is hosed so important distinction). This is why most of the gun pcbs worked.

Further, I would say the monitor is currently not adjusted perfect and even needs degaussed as lower left area is magnetized and there is plenty of ambient light etc. I have yet to see a working monitor or ambient light (unless in direct sun maybe) be the reason that no shots/hits register anywhere on screen. Others can comment.

However, Not registering a single shot on screen while other guns do (monitor and pcb good), leads one to suspect bad gun. As others mentioned above, could be wiring, lens, trigger switch, or opto, or opto board. I started with eliminating opto board because I had all the guns apart and wanted to find a way to eliminate/test the opto board components.
 
more low tech

also in gun games, you need to set the pcb voltage at 5.2 vdc at the main game pcb
this helps the gun optics work better
 
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