How common are Bally six drop target assemblies? What games were they used on?

I'm toying with a scratch built Fathom now that I have a playfield but have to science out a few things. The inline drops pop up for sale time to time but I'm not sure how common the 6 bank drop assembly is or the 3 ball trough.

Just noticed that the two inline units are with "memory coils" so that may complicate things.

Looks to me like someone was trying their own stenciling for Capt. Fantastic in different colors on a Silverball Mania backbox.

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Silverball does not have swing out box.

I can't seem to find the size of the nyliner used in Bally drop targets. I've looked through multiple manuals and it doesn't seem to be called out.

It's not the same size as the ones used in linear flippers.

Anyone know the size that is used?

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For future reference, they are 1/4" diameter nyliners.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/looking-for-classic-stern-service-bulletins-17-and-above

Nice

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A question about #197 Future Spa - I'm reassembling after a wholesale basement rearrange. On the Rectifier I have three cables. Two go to J3 (in two pieces) but where does the other one go? J1 or J2? Or am I missing something?

There are three connectors on the rectifier board; J1, J2, and J3. There are cables that connect to all three of them. Maybe one of them fell into the lower cabinet.

Anyone with a set of cheap Galaxy inlane plastics? Or at a minimum the right side?

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The three connectors are different length and should be keyed so they can't be installed in the wrong position.

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Thanks re: Future Spa. I'll dig into it this weekend when my son is here to help me move machines around.

If J3 is in two pieces it may have overheated and broke in half.

Always match up the keys. If keys are missing beware! Follow Quench's diagrams carefully.

someone mentioned a "custom rom" for Bally Lost World... Is there such a thing? I am not sure what it would do since the code is so basic... Maybe speed up the bonus count down?

That's worth the price of a rom for sure on that era game. It's painful when it takes forever to count the bonus down with that sound effect.
I know there's one that does that for Star Trek.

i thought if someone knew about it it would be you yeah, that max bonus countdown is painnnnnnnfull

Porting that to Lost World and Supersonic have been on my todo list for some time. I recently picked up a Supersonic that I'm getting started on soon.

Has anyone run into an issue with the 7-digit Wolffpac displays show the most significant digit on the left bright and the rest of the 6 digits dimmer? Otherwise working and displaying score. Triple checked the correct 100 ohm resistors on the display board and measured them. Happens on each of the 7-digit displays tested. Built these for an Elektra that works ok with original displays.

I got a note back that although pin 11 should be empty on the display connectors and the schematics for Elektra shows pin 11 as N/C that some Bally games may have run wires to pin 11. If normal displays are used that wouldn't be a problem. But some of the 7 digit LED's have pins 11 and 12 shorted together so they would also run in a Stern.

Has anyone run across a Bally game that pin a wire in pin 11 on the connectors for the 7 digit displays? If so the fix may be as simple as cutting the trace for pin 11 on the LED displays.

It looks like the schematics for Elektra may be wrong. When looking them over I see the 4 player displays and the credit display shown. I don't see where the 6th display for the Elektra units is shown or how that is connected.

What 6th display are you referring to? Aren't there only 5 displays in the game?

The display that shows the Elektra units. Only uses the middle two digits of a 6 digit display. So Elektra has four 7 digit displays and two 6 digit displays.

Similar to my Mr and Mrs Pacman. That also has four 7 digit and two 6 digit displays.

While this isn't the same symptom, maybe something Bally did in wiring passthrough of the IDC connectors on Elektra is causing your issue:
Take note of the last post in the first link from Dave at Wolffpac regarding the jumper for pin 11 / 12.

Bally 6-digit displays have pins 10, 11 and 12 tied together which the schematics don't agree with.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-firepower-club/page/89#post-7592802

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/mrmrs-pacman-display-problems#post-3957468

If there are wires in pin 11 on any of the connectors I think I am just going to cut the trace for pin 11 on all four 7 digit LED displays so they will be open like the original ones. I’d rather fix the displays than modify wiring. Should have it figured out this evening after work.

Looking at the Wolffpac schematics it's just a matter of cutting the "X2" cut point. Good luck!

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I used a pacman display harness for my universal cabinet, there was a day or two of work sorting that out.

Actually it looks like the cut points on the schematics are swapped. Had to cut X1 to isolate pin 11 on both sides of the PCB. Only took 5 minutes to do all 4 displays. Once I did that and put all the displays in they are working as expected.

Have a Bally Rolling Stones. Has all new boards. When you play a game and hit the flippers all lights (led) GI and back box flicker. Feels light AFM strobe multi ball. What could be causing this? I checked all connections and grounds.

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Dimming lights coupled with flipper flipping is a common issue with Bally games. There are a few things to check,

EOS switches should be opening at about 80% of stroke.
Flippers in need of rebuild.
Transformer is optioned for low line, 115v in 120v region.

You cannot eliminate the problem entirely but doing the above can minimize it.

Sorry, I had it backwards as far as the transformer goes. If the transformer is optioned for high line -120v and your line voltage is actually 115vac that would reduce output voltages and cause power issues.

Has anyone ever documented the assembly code for the ROMS for the Bally AS-2518-35 boards? There are two ROMs (U2 and U6) with 4K of code each. One is the main code that I believe is the same for all machines, the other is the game specific code. At 4K each that isn't a lot to dig through. A lot of it is talked about in the Bally Theory Operations. It just needs to be matched up to the corresponding assembly code. I've been poking around the code, and I have been able to figure out all the test routines (the seven flashes). Mostly and intellectual exercise since I am interested how they programmed these back in the day.

Yes, quite a few people have.

Is it posted anywhere?

No because of copyrights.
You can see the stern equivalent in the galaxy disassembly thread. Close in many ways.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-galaxy-code-disassembly

Also posted some stern source at:
http://tsqmadness.com/slochar/SOURCE/

Selling a new AS-2518-51 and Lamp Driver board by WEEBLY.
Make offer via P.M.

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Free to a loving family home, 5 original display frames.
Just pay the shipping.

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No longer available

Please help with +5 level on Bally Solenoid Driver AS-2518-22. I was getting some random resets on my Xenon. This could happen during a game, OR in attract mode. I checked the +5 on the MPU to find it was a bit high at 5.3 v. I also checked connectors to make sure the problem wasn't connector or wiring related.

Just to make sure the problem was the SD board, I temporarily replaced it with an Altek ultimate SD board. Checked the +5 at the MPU, and it was 5.02v. No more random resets during gameplay or in attract mode. So, I know this was a SD board issue.

I want to fix this Bally SD board. C23 was replaced within 2 years by me with a 15000 uf @ 50v, and currently has an ESR of only .01 . So I'm guessing C23 is fine. I replaced C24 (old one was original) with a 2.2uf 50v. I replaced the LM323k with the one shown on the board. I checked R49 and it was slightly out of spec at 97 ohms, so I replaced it with the 2w 100 ohm resistor shown in the picture. R50 was slightly out of spec at 2.9 ohms, so I replaced it with the shown 2w 2.2 ohm resistor shown in the picture.

My +5 at the MPU is now at 4.85 v using the original Bally SD that has the newly replaced parts. This seems too low to me. Thoughts?

What should I do to get the +5 back to 5-5.1v? Thanks in advance, mk

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Not sure where you got the LM323K. I know there's a lot of fakes out there. I would put the original one back in.

This came from Marco Specialties and was bought about 12 years ago.

That LM323 looks fake. Remove it and see if the isolators around the two pins are blue and large. That's the giveaway.
See here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lets-get-technical-ballystern-led-display-power-consumption#post-2983421
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/6821-pias-from-china#post-4279650
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lets-get-technical-ballystern-led-display-power-consumption/page/3#post-3278633

Alltek uses a switch mode 5V power-supply, so the voltage will be close to 5.0. Bally's design purposely raised the voltage a little using R49 and R50 to counter losses in connectors. Tolerances in the LM323 also affect the final output. See here for more details:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-55v-logic-too-much#post-5903981

Or be done with the LM323 and use a PSU5 part.
https://www.ezsbc.com/product/psu5-nonoise/
There are some adjustment/replacements to be done to make this work correctly.
Read this:
https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Bally/Stern#Driver_Board_LM323K_5V_Regulator

Thanks Quench,

Here are pictures of what I installed, with the pick sheet from Marco. I bought 2 of these back in June of 2012. How recently have the fake ones been around?

Many thanks, I did order the PSu5 NN.

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At least 2012 apparently

Feel like cutting the top and bending the lid open so we can have a look inside of it?

Anyone have trouble with a Silverball Mania, Alltek MPU, and the RoyGBev Arduino board + Wav trigger board?

Where does the jumper go to - it shows in the docs that it goes to the top of R134 I believe, but that doesn't exist with my Alltek MPU.

Lights on the Arduino and WAV trigger board seem to indicate proper operation.

I can force it to boot to the Arduino, which does start the game from the Arduino, but coils don't work, doesn't recognize switches, etc...

No sounds. No sounds from WAV trigger board test either.

Have micro stereo plug to RCA cables to a small amp to a pair of nice (too big for cab) speakers.

I did follow along and write the sound files to the root of the micro SD card in the Wav trigger board, they seemed to play fine on my PC.

Bought the kit from Pinside, $169 I believe it was. Pre-done boards, connectors, the works.

TIA

With the Alltek MPU you do not need to connect the jumper wire, that lead goes to the Arduino conector. I would try booting it up without the WavTrigger.

Ok, unplug the serial connector, don't worry about the IRQ jumper, and set the "switch" jumper (2-pin) on so it boots to the Arduino?

Yes, I will cut it open. Can I use my Dremel with a cutting wheel? I never cut open a TO3 case before. Until now, I never had a reason to cut one of these open. I will post when I get it done.

Yes, you want it to boot to the Arduino. Did you program the Arduino or buy it as a kit pre-programmed? If it does boot, it does so in about 1 second compared to the original board booting in about 7 seconds. Assuming it boots, you can try going into diagnostic mode using the coin door switch.

Yesterday I turned on my Paragon got a few flips in and then something popped. Now I'm only getting 6 flashes so I'm attempting to troubleshoot this and would like a little confirmation I'm chasing this down the right way.

I checked TP3 and I'm getting ~23vDC on it. My next test point should be pin 18 on U10, correct? And just to confirm, this is the 18th pin on (I guess I'm calling it) the bottom side of the PIA. From what I've read this should be pulsing?

I have a Bally Rolling Stones. When playing the ball looks like it is strobing . Doesn’t matter if you flipper or the ball is just rolling around on the playfield. It is at the point that it makes you dizzy. I replaced the reflector board , led board, MPU , solenoid board. I tried warm white led and then I switched to cool white LED. I alway use the same leds and have them in all
My old Bally and sterns. What would cause this?

This is a weird problem. Do you think it is your GI lighting? The GI circuit provides the most lighting on the playfield. Any chance someone stuck a diode on the whole GI circuit and its only operating at 30 Hz instead of 60?