Hello all,

Forgive me if this has already been asked but I couldn't find anything. I have a new to me, Black Hole. It has the "all in one board" and everything appears to be running correctly minus a couple of pop bumpers. I read a post that said try swapping pop boards (which are aftermarket replacements) to see if it works with a different board. I did this and immediately got a huge puff of smoke from the board which will now not work on the original working pop bumper. The part to the left of the test button was what was smoking (first pic). My questions are as follows.

1. Do aftermarket replacement "all in one" boards need all the ground mods that are talked about with system 80? I figure that would have been corrected in the newer boards.
2. Do the aftermarket pop boards need some mod or special grounding?
3. What do I test before putting in another pop board and burning it up?
4. Can the board that are burnt be salvaged?
5. Also I have one board that has a broken capacitor or something resembling a Motrin tablet? Is that a problem? (see 3rd pic) No idea if that was the good or bad board.

Sorry for all the questions but I'm at a loss and don't want to keep burning up $20 at a shot. If you offer assistance, please be gentle. I have very little experience with testing boards. I do have soldering capabilities and solder removing capabilities. I don't know anything about testing, but I do have the meter. I will need (I hate to say this) a picture of the knob selector pointing to what I should be testing on. Sorry! NOOB! Gotta learn sometime.

Thanks in advance.

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This is exactly what I hoped for. Thanks to both of you. I will get on this ASAP.

So before I jump into fixing the boards I grabbed some new ones. I still have 2 pops that will not work. They show the same OHMs as the working ones with and without the diode in place. When the board is hooked up to it, the light comes on when the "test" is pushed. It also comes on when I manually activate the pop bumper switch. The pop does not ever fire though. Is this a coil issue?

Ok, updates. The fuse was blown (I didn't realize they all had their own fuses). Fixed the fuse. Pushed the test button and the pop fired once, and the fuse blew again. I have read that the coils with diodes cannot be wired backwards. I thought that would be a good place to start. So...

1. How do you tell which way the wiring SHOULD run. I have the diagram but have no idea how to read it.
2. How do you know if the diode is bad? I have test equipment but know very little on how to do this, so please be specific.

I feel like the coil is fine because it did fire one solid shot before the fuse blew. Also, the coils in question don't have the tell tale "burnt" looking paper. Thanks in advance, I feel like this is very close to figured out!

sparky672

Thank you for taking the time. This is exactly why I am a member here! I appreciate your support. I will get on this in the next couple days and let you know what I find. Again, thanks!

PROGRESS!

I tested one pop and I think the diode was installed backwards. I put it all back together and it is working 100%. Sparky, your instructions were awesome!

I have one left not working and I'm going to get after that one asap. Thank you all again.

Ok...last pop bumper.

I have one final pop not working. I have changed the board to a brand-new board. The red LED light will light up when the button is pressed or when the pop is moved. I have changed the coil to a brand-new coil and it's the same number as the original, it has the diode as well. I soldered it in and when I put a fuse in it instantly blows. I have tried swapping wires on the coil to see if it was backwards, still blows. What am I missing awesome pinball fixer dudes?

I have not tried that. I thought the coil made it "pop" though? I'll give it a whirl this weekend.