The Pascal board also gives you the option of '7 digit like' scoring on 6 digit displays. It'll flash your current/high score above 999,999 sequentially. No need for 7 digit displays unless wanted.
Like this
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Also my high score so far, 3 ball.
Screenshot_20210923-153834_Motion photo viewer (resized).jpg

I have been searching with no luck for the card that goes on the right hand side. Does anyone have a spare one or could make a copy of theirs?

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All you need and a lot more from Inkochnito:

http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/

Thanks!

I'll check it out.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a bit of information. I have a Mars God of War, and I'm wanting to convert the backbox to mount the backglass like Black Hole, Volcano, etc. I've tried looking at pictures to figure out how Gottlieb changed the design, but nothing I've found clearly shows what they did. Is it a J shaped plastic trim channel on each side of the glass, with those channels screwed into the chaser light frame?

Of course I had a BH years ago, but only for a short time and never looked at how the glass was mounted.

Hello, I'm having trouble with my VUK coming from the lower playfield to the main one. The coil was burned to a crisp when I got it. I replaced the coil and it's still not firing. The switch works great. I have a feeling it's the transistor associated with this coil but I'm not finding any information on this bottlecap. I think it might have been replaced with an incorrect part at some point.

If someone could look at theirs for me I would appreciate it.

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The ECG219 transistor looks like a suitable equivalent to the 2N5879 spec'd on the schematics. Functionally it's ok to use. You'll have to check if it's blown/shorted.

Sounds like this might be the way I guess. I really do like keeping my sys80 infrastructure original (which is why I like the swemmer boards) but this might be a good reason for me to make a switch next time I have a game that needs a new MPU.

ECG parts were sold as replacement parts in electronic stores. Have a bad transistor or diode? Take it to the electronic store and they would look up the original part number in the ECG catalog, with the cross reference to an appropriate ECG part.

As a kid, I use to work in a Lafayette Radio Electronics store. Probably sold hundreds, if not thousands of the ECG parts.

More issues with my Black Hole but there is a bit of progress. I rebuilt my edge connectors (well I still have 4 to go but am in the process). I also rebuilt my interconnect harness.

So, when I power up with three balls in the trough I can coin up and get the game to start but all solenoids are dead except the trough kicker and all switches don't seem to register. I have checked all fuses and they are all ok. This game has a Rottendog MPU and a new power supply board as well.

Any ideas where to start here?

It can be challenging.

You've got switches in the trough not registering or switches somewhere else registering that shouldn't be. Game won't activate switches and flippers if the switches are off.
It's really picky about where it sees them too sometimes it ejects on bootup thanks to the gottlieb thunk and you have to reboot to clear it.

Hey all. I'm getting very close to having this Black Hole going again.

I'm down to 3 issues that I'm seeing.

1. I'm not getting any chase lights on the backbox. I tried this aux light board in a Haunted House and it worked in it. When I put it in the Black hole, I'm getting 4.8vdc-4.9vdc at the input for the aux board but I'm not seeing any voltage coming out to the lights.
2. I'm not getting any controlled lights throughout the game. F5 is fine.
3. The vortex motor is intermittently working, it's more off than on. Currently it's not working at all and I'm getting 0.0vdc at the motor terminals.

Nevermind, it was the controlled lights Bridge rectifier for all three issues.

I would say that I'm about as confident as you can be on Black Hole now. I have a rule where I don't shut the game off or walk away from it until I get a multiball.

One feat I've never been able to achieve is getting all three balls on the lower playfield. That will really be the day. Anybody ever pulled that off?

I've owned my BH for 2 years and have never gotten 3 balls on the lower playfield. BH for me is a much more difficult game than HH. I wish someone could reprogram BH to aleays recycle drained lower PF balls to the main PF like HH does.

No programming needed just disconnect the gate solenoid and it should hang open.

Or use the settings on the Flippp MPU board.

I see the option to prevent it in attract mode, does the game mode have an option to have the gate open?

I was going to add an easy mode on mine so that the gate would be open the first couple times per ball down to the basement (or maybe cache the # of drop banks so you get some freebies). Of course thanks to Gottlieb's (c) enforcement no one would be able to get that modification, but maybe the mission pinball guys would add that to that board too.

Black Hole was the hit of the halloween pinball party we had for sure. (Mostly new players, but some veterans as well). Over and over again 4 player games on black hole, and overhearing many people saying "hey let's go play black hole again".

I guess they didn't care about the missing 10k digit on players 1 and 3 that I have to fix!!

There are setting for the gate in the Pascal/Flippp menus. One of them gives a 7 second ball saver. I haven't tried it. I am still on the factory setting.

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Need some pics from a black hole. Got 3 issues left. Nothing happens on 18 but the holder for the switch at B relay was bent so it was suppose to always be open. I need an under playfield pic of the wiregate relay and switches how they suppose to be in open and closed state.

14 is the uppkicker to the tube if I recall right. There is nothing wrong with that switch..it register as it should in testmode...all diods have been meassured on the diodboards and all test good. I did change the transistor marked x...didnt help..change the coil to a brand new one...didnt help. Brand new janin all in one board installed. Can someone confirm the cabels are installed right? Is the red cabel factory? Offcourse the transistor that drives the under playfield transistor can be bad but just want to make sure its right with the cabeld.

Outhole switch is dead..got continutity when testing switchblades with a dmm. Cleand and makes good contact...any tips where go from here. Crimps in a1-j6?

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I swear I saw in another thread that someone had those transistors and they were mostly all bad. They were sanded, painted and re-labeled.

You are right...that was the case

Check the pre-drive transistor on the driver board. I had a similar issue on my Haunted House. The coil was fried, the under-playfield silver transistor was also bad...after I changed them both...things still didn't work. It was a bad pre-driver transistor causing the whole problem.

Look who's back after a year on vacation ... Mirco playfields, GottFA80 MPU, Gosof soundcard with US sounds.
I'm thinking about converting the backbox to the US version with spinning disc.
Does anyone have any experience doing this ?

2021-12-23 15.52.46 (resized).jpg

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I’m working on putting a black hole project together from parts. I’m missing the brackets for the bonus display. Does anyone have a source for these?

I've got a spare right side bracket, but no left

I’ll send you a message

Saw that some folks were looking for these and I bought WAY more than I needed from Docent when they were still in stock. I have 3x lots of 50 pins, will let them go for my cost. PM me if interested.

gott80 (resized).jpg

They're also available from ArcadeShop.com for 19 cents each. I've used about 250 to repin interconnect cables.

I'm looking on a phone, small screen, What are they ? Fuse holders ?

They're "bifurcated" crimp pins that go (for example) on the interconnect cable between the cpu and driver board.

Does the front glass for the US version of Black hole have some sort of mask or print on it ?
It looks that way in these Ebay pictures : ebay.com link: itm
I don't mean the mirrored backglass, but the one in front of it.

Edit: never mind. I think I found some.

Does anyone mind sending me the original roms for BH? I am running a pascal board but I need to test a couple normal MPUs. I’d like to fully test the boards, but I do not have the original roms. I have a way to burn them, but the lockdown on roms seem pretty intense.

It has grey transparent shading screened on it that accentuates the artwork on the main backglass.

Thanks ! So I would have to get both backglasses if I were to make a US version out of an export version ... guess this project is a bit more extensive than I first imagined.

Yeah, you'll need both backglasses and then you have to build the frame to hold the 2 pieces of glass with the 28 or so bulbs in-between. The board that controls the bulbs can be easily sourced. The door locking mechanism might be available but there are easier ways of securing the door in any case. Then the motor and spinning artwork...quite a lot involved in the upgrade unfortunately. Easy to see why Gottlieb decided to save some $$ with the export version.

The outer glass is never damaged and easy to find. The inner glass is always damaged with paint peeling off and no one has reproduced an inner silk screened glass. Very hard to find in the aftermarket.

Hi,

You can take as an example how is the Mars god of War for the light special effect and its connection.
Nevertheless, I'm interrested with some pic for the US front backglass as they cannot be found in europe (the US back one can be reproduce) so as Zigzagzag, i'm intending to convert my export version to US version one day, but fer sure I will have to turn to DIY solution

Shay has been listing Black Hole backglass as coming soon for years it seems like... Still not available.

Fathom was "coming soon" for four years, but did eventually get added.

Better than half assed product from other vendors.

Hello,

I have converted my BH from export to US.

Here is the procedure.

Material list :
---------------

MARS GOD OF WAR backbox:

It is the only double backglass backbox whose position of the lamps around the glass is compatible.
On the way, we recover the cable that goes to the chase board (A11).

BackGlass:

The second is in repro, with mirror! Available in Europe, Belgium or netherland, don't remember excatly.
The first... More complicated! Not available in Europe.
The disc ... Easy to print on plastic.

Electronic-boards :

A11 Auxiliary Lamp Driver Board, for the chaser around the backglass.
Please note that resistor R13 must be 270 k ohms

A6 Sound / Speech Board, for sounds and voices.
Check that this is the version whose amplifier is supplied with 30v, produced by the A7 card.
You absolutely need the SC-01 and put the S1 and S2 eproms in the USA version.
668-S1.snd (2716): Checksum(272F)
668-S2.snd (2716): Checksum(316A)

A7 Sound / Speech Power Supply Board, to power the sound card.
Check that this is the version to power the amp at 30v.
Do not forget the cable that replaces the "cap" (A12P3) and which starts from the A12J3 connector to feed A7 thanks to A7J1.

A1 Control Board, the cpu what, nothing special except that it is necessary to place the US version eprom.
668-4.cpu (2716): Checksum(48DD)

Various :

F8 1A SLOW BLOW fuse for the talking sound card.
6v continuous motor with reducer to have 1.5 revolutions per minute.
Engine support.
Support for fixing the disc on the motor shaft.

Where to start ?
------------------
For me there are three steps, the first concerns the electronic part to be done first,
the second being the adaptation of the backbox, the third being the painting.

So here we go, we have found the equipment, so we will start with the electronic cards:
First check that they work!
Remove the existing sound card A6 and fix the power supply card A7.
Put the connector on A7 which is fine.
Do not put anything on connector A6J1!!!
Do not forget to insert the F8 1A SLOW BLOW fuse.
Power up and check that the voltages are present (30v, +12V, -12v, 5V).
If everything is OK we turn off (As a reminder...) and we fix the new A6 card.
We change the game eprom on the cpu by the US version.
We turn on and ... That's it, we have a talking BLACK HOLE!

Already we can play and appreciate the differences in sound between the two versions.
We might as well stop there!

The part that I consider complicated: Redo the backbox.
I won't detail the painting part, I did it on mine, with homemade stencils.

Just a few details on the "mechanical" aspects.
So we take the backboxof the MARS, we remove the pivoting white plate and we keep it not far
because it will serve as a template.
We also remove the white plate from the backbox of the BLACK HOLE.

From this stage we can not go back!!!
It will be necessary to make some cuts and some holes at the level of the white plate of the BLACK HOLE
so that the bindings are compatible with those on the MARS backbox.
I can not explain better but when the 2 plates are side by side we can see what to do.
I didn't take any pictures at the time, too bad!

Once the cutouts have been adjusted and the opening system reassembled, the white plate of the
BLACK HOLE in the MARS backbox.
We will also be able to put the second backglass to mark the hole for the motor shaft
which will spin the disc.

This is also the time to fix the A11 board for the chaser, then power it up!
You have to find 5v and ground on a harness and 6v for A10J8 (Lamps).

Fix the motor.
Also the 6v will power the motor + ground.

For fixing the second backglass I opted for sliders like on the VOLCANO and BH US.
Indeed on the MARS the second backglass remains (sometimes badly) attached to the fixed part of the backbox.
On the other backbox, the backglass is fixed on the pivoting part (The frame what)

Then reassemble the backbox, disc, etc..
On this part it's standard!

And that's it!

Hope this is useful.

Binary files for cpu and sound board sent !

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Do I actually need to buy a God of War back box to do this?

This is harder than importing a US Black Hole…

The us Black Hole backbox should be deeper front to back to accommodate the two backglasses. The Mgow backbox should be the same dimensions as US Black Hole. If it was easy, all of the Black Holes that you’ve seen in Europe would have already been converted.

If you can find someone local with a mgow, you can take detailed measurements of the head and find someone to make a head for your pin.

That sounds a better plan! I don’t really want to have to find a broken Mgow AND a Black Hole.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any Black Holes in Europe. I was told there were only two in the UK - one on public display miles away (and currently out of order) and another one that the owner didn’t want to sell.

It looks like a third has just come on the market, so I’m seeing if the conversion is a realistic possibility. If I can just take detailed measurements, it sounds more doable than I initially feared!