pinbot - visor won't close

chadd

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i have a pinbot machine that has been working great for years... recently the batteries died (got the the "adjust failure" message) but it was still playing/functioning just fine. no issues with anything except a few burnt out bulbs and some rubber bands that i replace as they snap.

anyways, this weekend i finally opened it up to change the batteries and then i reset everything in the settings. afterwards, i started experiencing the following oddness:

when i press the credit button (i have it in free play mode), and between balls, the visor opens and closes itself 5 times. it ends this cycle in the "open visor" mode. only after it finishes this cycle it will release a ball into the "plunger area" (sorry, not sure what that is called). the visor repeats this "open/close cycle" between every ball no matter how many players are in the game. the visor then stays in the open position for the rest of the game.

everything else seems to be fine in the game, and i could probably live with waiting for the cycle to finish before the ball launches, but the visor staying in the open position effects game play, so it seems like something i want to take care of.

any suggestions? any help would be appreciated, but remember, i'm a pinball newb. i have just replaced the batteries, but between that and doing the rubber band swaps on the playfield, that's about the extent of my pinball maintainence experience...

thanks!
 
couple of questions:

if it was searching for balls, wouldn't it fire off all the ball return mechanisms? not just close and open the visor 5 times? i never hear anything firing, it just closes and opens the visor and then releases a ball into the plunger area.

could you explain more (or link to) about how to do the test mode? i tilt the playfield up and then? where is the test panel? is that the same as the buttons in the coin door that i use to make the game adjustments? i'm assuming this is all done with the game powered on?

sorry, for the newb questions, i just haven't ever done anything more difficult than replacing rubber bands or batteries in this machine :)
 
i have a manual, but i can't find where it spells out how to get it into and use test mode...
maybe i'm just missing it in the mass of schematics :p
 
Maybe something got changed when you "reset" everything.I would have turned the machine on,then changed the batteries then continued playing.....
 
Maybe something got changed when you "reset" everything.I would have turned the machine on,then changed the batteries then continued playing.....


all i "reset" was change it back to free play mode, turn the attract sounds to none, and change the custom message... nothing to crazy, i thought...
 
ok, i got the diagnostic tests all working.

switch test: the only alert was #59 - 10 pt switch, which i found to be the rubber band switch at the bottom of the jet bumpers. i think the band was a little tight so i gave it some tugs and let it loosen up a bit on the outside and that alert went away. so, after that, no alerts during switch test.

switch edge test: i tested pretty much every switch i could find and they all responded correctly. both eyes in the visor, all 3 in the ball trough, ball out, plunger channel, jet bumpers. they all seemed to respond correctly during the test.

coil test: everything seemed to fire when it displayed. when it got to the visor i paused it and let the visor go up and down a while. very hypnotizing :) but it seems to be working fine. the only thing i couldn't seem to find was the "cams on the visor assembly to see if they are tripping the switches." where are the switches you refer to?

after all that, i did a factory reset to set everything back to normal, but the same "visor cycling" problem persists. is there anything else i can check? something i missed?
 
i did notice that when i run the switch test when the is visor open it sounds the alarm about "visor open 47", but when i run the switch test when the visor is closed, no alert is sounded...
does that help at all?
 
i finally found and got into the visor limit open and close switches during a switch edge test. they both reacted normally when activated during the switch edge test. so it would seem they aren't bad...
 
Taken from RGP excerpts pertaining to your issue.
The motor relay board had a relay with the wrong voltage rating. All the relays under the
playfield are 24volt relays. This one was a 48volt relay !

The 2 sensing microswitches must both be working...otherwise the visor doesn;t know what position its in...

It's one of the two microswitches on the visor motor assembly. it's either
broken or not connected.
 
I went and checked out mine, took pics, searched for the micro switch part number, saw your post on pinside, and Deadly seems to have it.

Would connecting the wires going to the switch make the switch seem to work?
 
so what's the solution? replace them both?
they both responded fine during the switch edge test... so i'm confused on how they aren't working. is that switch edge test not conclusive to determine what is wrong?
 
I don't own this machine and am totally shooting in the dark here, but looking at the manual I would assume your cam limit switches are bent. So all i can say is to take the motor plate off and bend the limit switches. I would bet your switches are good - just need adjusted.
 
Since there appears to be two switches my best guess is that one way or another one of the switches is maladjusted thus making the machine think that the visor should be open. As far as farther open or shut I don;t know. Compare both switches by manually engaging the switches. You should feel the difference. Make the looser one match the tighter one. The beauty is this process is completely reversible.
 
i just tested the switches again. both of them seem to be solid in there and both have the same amount of "play" in the switch itself. i know it is detecting when it is down because when i run the switch test with the visor down, it sounds the alert for that switch.
 
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so does anyone have any other ideas?
if there's nothing i can do myself, what's the best way to get this fixed?
 
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