Hi all. Picked up a complete disaster Skateball game a few months ago that was torn apart for parts for other Bally games. 3 months later the rebuild is coming along well to save the game. Playfield is really a nice original so worth the effort. All missing coils and switches have been put back under the playfield.

Wiring the switches isn’t a problem as I followed the switch matrix for wire colors. I’m having a problem determining which mpu wire goes to all of the solenoids to activate them. No manual but I did download the 10 pg schematics from the Internet but it’s really poor quality to read. I know the power wires go to the diode banded side of the coils. Can anyone help with this?

I did get the game to boot up with a new Alltek MPU and Alltek SDB. But now something is not wired correctly as the rectifier F3 fuse (4amp) blows immediately upon power on.

If I can get some good close up pics of the underside of the playfield from someone it would help tremendously.

Thanks! Ed

Quench and BigAl56 you guys are terrific! I see you are both frequent responders to topics like this one. I really appreciate your help. I have some wiring (and wire finding) to do under this playfield now. I will report back in 1-2 days to let you know how I do. Appreciate it!

Thanks @Quench!

Hi guys back again. I have taken care of the drive wires for all of the coils as per advice from Quench and BigAl56
Now the only problem I have is to re connect all of the lighting ground wires under the playfield as a lot of the ground wire was pulled for other games. I’m trying to re-construct everything by common sense and by looking at similar age Bally playfields.

Can anyone give me some really good under playfield pics that I can look at? Also, I need to see pics (or hear what wires I need to properly connect) for the 2 flippers. I’m not sure this Bally Skateball is supposed to have an under playfield fuse near the flippers. If it IS supposed to have a fuse, I don’t see a double yellow 43v wire and a double brown wire that would come off of a fuse.

Thanks! Ed

As always, appreciate you @Quench. I have been slowly reconstructing the ground braids under the playfield with help of a friend but after reading your last post, I fear we may have some mixed. I did know that the GI carried one ground and the switched or featured lamps carried their own ground and I knew about the thick blue wire carrying powe. However, I didn’t know that there are 2 separate GI braids with 1 having 7.3 V AC.

I will take a few pics of my under playfield and send them to you. So, what is the easiest way to make sure which braid is ground and which carries current? By putting my DMM on AC and checking voltage? By checking continuity from braid to braid? I’m not sure if continuity would work because it would probably tone out if ground and power connect at the same switched lamp.

Thanks for your help again. I’ll send pics tomorrow but if you could tell me the easiest way to determine which braid is which that would be helpful

Ed

Thank you so much @pinflip. Between the info I received for Quench and BigAl56 I should be able to make headway in getting this Skateball back to playing! I’ll report back in a day or 2

Starting to make headway on getting the ground and power braids corrected under the playfield for Skateball. I will report back as soon as I am near completion. Thanks again guys

pinflip_ can you please send me some really close up pics of the flipper wire connections?
Thanks! Ed

BigAl56 Im going back to your post on this thread regarding the flippers not being fused. I’m at the point where I can’t tell where all of the wires connect on the flippers and the 1amp SB fuse. So I understand the 43v yellow wire bus to all of the solenoids which connects to the fuse holder. So if the flippers are NOT bringing power from the fuse but directly from the thick brown wire (which originates from J1 rectifier) then where does the brown wire on the opposite end of the fuse holder come from? I’m attaching the pic from pinflip_

E7AA63F7-1DDD-4BD6-BFEB-ED51FBE04D96 (resized).jpeg

Ok gdonovan i now understand why the flippers don’t need to be fused at the 1A slo blow fuse. However where does the brown wire on the fuse holder (30) come from? That is if the solid brown wire (30) coming directly from the J1 rectifier goes to the banded side of the lower right flipper

Thank you so much pinflip_ ! You have tremendously helped me with this project. I had it almost correct but have found 2 small errors I made on the flipper wiring (which is a huge mistake!)

I will report back to hopefully say it’s working. Fingers crossed.

Btw…. Without the flippers connected today, I tried to boot up the game. I have a new Xpin rectifier, Alltek mpu, Alltek solenoid driver board and Alltek light board. Figured I would keep all boards new to keep the process clean. I am immediately blowing the 10amp F1 fuse but if I let the game go a few seconds it does boot up. So I’m assuming there is a ground short in the GI lighting? I have powered up the game with the coin door disconnected and the backbox disconnected and F1 still blows. So if I power up with J1 connector from the rectifier unplugged, F1 fuse does NOT blow. Therefore does that mean I have a ground short on my playfield lamps?

Thanks, Ed

Skateball has booted up and on its way! Thanks to Pinflip BigAl56 @Quench!

One last issue. None of my solenoids are firing in either test mode or game play. My voltages are all good.
I have 44-45 volt DC to all solenoids but I can only get them to fire if I touch a ground wire to the non-yellow wire side of each coil. All coils are good and have proper ohms. I have new Alltek MPU, driver and light board with a new Xpin rectifier.

So why is the game not getting a signal to the coils to fire? All fuses are in tact including the 1 amp SB under the playfield

This should be the last issue I have before I get her playing 100%

Thanks! Ed

BTW. Solve to earlier issue. The F1 fuse was blowing because when I was reconstructing the under playfield braids I accidentally connected a small section of the control lights braid to the GI ground braid. Disconnected it when I found the error and now all lighting is perfect

None of the LEDs flash red (which would indicate they are firing)

Solved! So after re-pinning a few connectors, I figure that the signal wires to the solenoids were not all making good contact with the boards. I now have all coils working except the saucer which I will track down. Thanks again to all of you. It makes learning pinball repair fun and rewarding having a great support system on Pinside.

Much appreciated!