I have an original manual. $20 shipped. I think a few pages are loose but otherwise nice.

image.jpg

Yes the gate opens and closes during attract.
If you have a lot of buzzing noise you can take apart clean and deburr it. It should be very quiet.

My mod to the upkicker per PinWiki suggestion. Simply using a flipper solenoid, a piece of scrap metal with holes drilled into it (attached via #6 screws and nuts), and an EOS switch = an adjustable power solenoid for the plunge back up to the top (the bigger the gap on the EOS switch, the more power it uses) + protection against transistor shortage! image.jpgimage.jpg

I like that modification, it's a good idea. Whoever thought of it was a genius.

Steve
System 80, not just a job, it's an adventure

I would give you a pat Steve you don't have to give em to yourself.

The game I bought had that coil clipped off, so no ball could come back up. I need to dig in and do that mod. Not too bad, eh? I also need to find the correct wires that went to that coil......

I have the original set up for lower kick upI never had a problem
I never did the fancy mod.
Sometimes if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Hello everyone!

I finally got my Black Hole pin up and kind of running. The lower playfield isn't firing the coil to kick it to the upper playfield. I've replaced the coil, but still get nothing.

Additionally, my outhole is not functioning. I replaced the coil, and it's still not firing. Any thoughts / ideas on where to look?

Thanks!

Did you go into switch test?

Q15 on driver board thru Q5 2n5879 on lower pf

Check switch es first then q15 then q5

Ball release is q16. Mpsu45 same as q15. You may just have a few driver board transistors out. That drives q2 on upper pf.

Did you check for proper 4.7k pull up resistors? I think some machine had 10k put in ( an error).

When I got mine the upkicker transistor was burnt, and oddly the ball trough guide was turned around backwards. Every time I drained the ball would get hung up on the reversed guide. Wtf was someone thinking? I replaced the transistor, flipped the guide, and it has run like a champ for years.

I'll double check switch test, I only test the upper playfield. Sorry, still getting used to working on these. My Laser War got back up and running much easier then this one.

Honestly three system 80 machines and only one self inflicted problem in like 10 years. Once the bugs are worked out I think they are tanks. I like the gottlieb flipper feel too.

It is still bugging me that HH is ahead in the rankings. You got to be kidding me. Come on guys start entering some ratings. My theory is that HH just changes hands more often.

So I had to look as I couldn't remember solenoid test does not test the up kicker. But test 16 lamps test does. Ya got to give it a few seconds as it tests the under playfield relays and coin lockout it then goes and fires the both lower to upper pf and the ball serve.

Solenoid tests only do a few which are wrong in manual and I think a lot where coin counters???

The Gottlieb test modes pretty much suck.

One reason I would love to one of you guys with the Pascal boards show off the goodness!!!

yeah, between my three games, BH has been far and away the most reliable.

haha yeah what in the world is up with that? i can't say it bothers me, but it is baffling.

Alright, so I got the outhole kicker working, I went through, checked all the connections, and on a whim, replaced the fuse and voila! Outhole kick is functioning correctly. I'm in the process of checking the transistors and wiring for the lower play field up kicker.

So I have a thought, figured I would post it here and get some info as my google skills are turning up nothing on this issue. I was thinking about the lower coil, and after messing with it and reading some things I'm thinking that I have to replace the Diode that's on the coil. I reused the same diode that was on the burned up coil, and I read that if the coil burns up, odds are it is because the diode failed. Additionally, I installed a larger coil that was recommended. What I'm wondering is, what diode should I replace it with? I've never had to purchase one before, and I'm going to assume, possibly incorrectly, that with a larger coil, I would need a different diode?

Thanks again everyone, I'm getting more and more excited the more and more I button this thing down and get it ready to play finally.

If coil burns up it had nothing to do with diode on coil. Don't know what you thought you read. If the diode on coil had failed open the back emf could cause upstream damage. If coil diode fails shorted your fuse for that coil should immediately pop as it is a dead short and coil will not even be harmed.

1N4004-1N4007 any of those will work fine for coils.

A coil burning up is almost always due to an upstream driver that failed causing coil to be on forever. Or circuit over fused or a switch stuck closed telling coil to keep on firing.

Does flippp make each board when they are ordered?

My gosh. My board arrived saturday!/ but I was at the in laws building a shed...sooo I have to wait until tomorrow to pick it up. Longest weekend ever....

Sometime last week; I finished creating some Black Hole-inspired Flipper button's for my Brother's Black Hole... What do you guys think?

Really cool, but the Black Hole decal might be too subtle to show up. How is it in person?

If we can get blue....heck freaking yes that looks awesome!

Very nice button. I just recently saw bally translucent buttons not sure if the same as Gottlieb but a bunch of colors.

There def is some tiny detail there. I'm wondering if it makes more sense to zoom in on some of the center detail somehow. Let me play in Corel a little bit.

There is some talk about having the back PCBs made in White LEDs... then they would be compatible with all button colors. I'll let you know if that materializes.

They are compatible with all buttons of this style. TBH; The buttons I make are actually more compatible with Gottlieb than anything else; because they have the longer pole.

My Black Hole was acting possessed last night. I tried to play it and it played fine but there was no background sound and all the feature sounds were mixed up. The rollovers and the pops would trigger the tilt noise. Other targets triggered end of game or other sounds. It was really strange. It was kinda funny hearing the tilt call-out every time the ball hit the pops.

I turned it off looked in the backbox for loose connections, didn't find any. Turned it on and everything worked fine.

Sounds like a bad edge finger connector. Prolly to sound card

Anyone have the boston pinball company displays? I got the new pascal board in but looks like some displays are out.

I just realized the buttons are actually red :/ We need some blue ones! Then with led's, oh baby!

Like this?
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/black-hole-visual-mod-suggestions-needed#post-2681213

I have had that strange sound "possession" issue too. Both times it has happened the machine was booted up cold in the winter, lower 60s. After a few restarts it went away.

What angle do you guys have the top playfield of your Black Hole setup as? 6 degrees? Mine seems to max out at around 4.8-5

Hmm, every time I turn the game on. It boots, then what I think is the attract, it fires 3-4 coils in order, over and over, like with the re-entry gate opening. I think that attract mode does some high power lights or something? New game does not start.

Sounds like ball search. You need to have three balls in machine.

ah yes...it does. I'll verify theres three....thought there was.

So I put three balls in, still does it, But the coil that takes the 3rd ball to push into the main trough, wasn't firing. I'll have to check those coils and make sure they aren't burnt, diode works and wires are attached. I'll start there! Thanks!

On ball search, does the coil that pushes ball 3 into the near shooter lane part fire?

It would be similar to the coil wrapped in orange on the middle

alien_mp0031.jpg

Black Hole doesn't have ball search that I'm aware of. Which game is this a picture of? It doesn't look like a BH at all.

Steve

I'm in, its coming Friday. I need a new back glass as the one in there is shot to hell, flaking and missing sections of paint, if anyone has any leads please let me know.

That was a random Williams game I googled that looked similar.

I have a pascal board in but it isn't starting a game

image.jpeg

Looks like Alien Poker.

Oh yeah. well I feel dum! At least I got the three balls correct.

Does the pascal board feature a ball search?

Does anyone know of a match for the blue paint color on the cab?

No, but a pretty decent option is Rustoleum Painter's Touch spray in Brilliant Blue.

Picked up my first pin a few weeks ago. Got a good deal on a Black Hole. I love it, but damn its a ball breaker. I've only gotten multiball twice! That lower play field likes to laugh at me. I have a hard time hitting the bottom right target to turn on the upper playfield ball lock. Usually its an accidental thing. Big fan of this pin though. Its a little open in the middle cause of the window, but its still pretty fast, so it makes up for it. That lower playfield is so unique though...its like no other pin!

haha yes it is ruthless. definitely one of the toughest games to get to multiball on! the most infuriating is when you FINALLY do get it ... on like your tenth game of the night ... and then drain the two balls on the lower playfield without completing a bank. it forces you to watch as it shoots both balls down the right outlane, then drains the locked upper playfield ball. no multiball for you! try again! hahaha. fast, pretty, evil game.

Super fast game - I waxed my playfield the other night and it's just wayy too fast for me right now! I would say BH is the fastest game I have ever played.

Another scenario that seems to occur all too often recently: setting up the lower pf for big bonus scores by lighting both lower pf G-Force lamps and yellow targets then SDTM. There is no carry over of the G-Force multipliers or yellow lamps and you have to start all over again

also love when i make the mistake of trying to catch the ball on the right flipper, only to have it roll up, push the re-entry gate open, and drain.

That was the first multiball I had, I was less than enthused. It was like I worked so hard to get that, then gone.

That one infuriates me more than the left drain. At least on the left, you have a chance to nudge it out most of the time. That right one, its just gone.