These look good, I previously pursued your original idea, which is a closeup of the knight face from my original backglass. I am happy with my result. I also think the three different is a cool approach, nice job.

Folks,

I've received a few requests for copies of the target files. Here's a link where you can grab the best files I have:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1s5N316C0IyQvD0wxYD0tzlex1P3HGt?usp=sharing

If someone gets a set printed and installed, I'd love to see some pictures posted!

Let me know if you have any issues with the files!

wow just looked at the pics of your game...didn't look that bad on your phone..that was a long game night thanks to the pinball wizard

Definitely a project machine Ron! Waiting for the hardtop to be released. Going to start disassembly today and see if I can start sanding this puppy down!

And yes, Eddie made it a long night last night!

Playfield looks much better like this than when I got it! Onto the upper playfield. I'll see if I can make some new rails for it while I'm waiting!

IMG_20180120_183238 (resized).jpg

IMG_20180120_141731 (resized).jpg

I cut new rails out of red oak and then poly’d them when I did my playfield swap, very happy with results.

I used maple for my new rails.

Yup! Used this stuff when I did my Firepower but I painted them black.

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.oak-hobby-board-12-x-3-x-4-feet.1000761164.html

Still debating what colour to paint them this time. Maybe red, blue or black. Or just clear them and be done with it. And I want to make the pieces on the upper playfield one piece on each side instead of the smaller pieces that were cut to accommodate the screws holding the playfields together!

Good call

What I don't get is that on the top right corner of the upper playfield, they drilled a hole in the rail and put a screw in that fits. Farther down the rails on both the left and right sides, where it is much more visible, they cut this huge ugly gap in the rail for the screw.

Guess they had their reasons...

Both maple & oak are nice hard woods and a good choice over the ugly laminated stock pine.

I had a local (at the time) cabinet shop make my rails in white oak. Ohhhh baby do they look nice, and they can take a beating too.

-Hans

I recently just picked up a BK in a trade. It was supposed to be 100% working but when I got it home the magnets on either side won't activate. I checked and both fuses are good and I go into the test and each relay is activating. It looks like it might be transistor 31 and 33 on the board. Could they both have went out or is it something simple I could be overlooking (cable not hooked up/etc.)?

There's a second white wire that needs to be on the ground braid

Yep. Most common reason for the magnets not to work is the ground braid not connected. Though from memory, isn't it white with a red stripe? Either way, you need to have two ground braids connected to that lug in the head box, just in front of the wiring hole.

-Hans

Maybe? I can never remember for sure. Problem is I know some williams use white w/ red stripe for the flipper 30V so I get worried

If the lower flippers work but the magnets do not, its either the fuses under the playfield or most likely the ground wire is not connected to the ground lug at the bottom of the backbox. It is indeed white with red stripe and married the playfield harness with the black connector that connect at the bottom of the backbox.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/black-knight-clubmembers-only/page/17#post-4059959

Got it and THANK YOU ALL!!! It was the darn red and white wire hidden.

The BK I have currently is for a friend; I tried to talk him into going with a hardtop, but instead he opted to track down a CPR. New plastics, even! I'm gonna do the pf swap for him, and am *definitely* going to use your drop target decals.

It might be a while before I get to it, as I'm currently in the midst of restoring my F-14 and can only handle having one project going on at a time. But once I get in to it I will thoroughly document the process.

And what is the going rate on a CPR BK playfield? I know someone that has one but he says there's no chance he's gonna sell it.

The hardtop test fitter posted some pictures today so Outside Edge has to be close to putting them up for sale. Right now, that's my choice based on price.

I don't know what he paid for the CPR but I'm willing to bet it was at least $1K. If it were me I'd absolutely have gone with a hardtop, they are clearly a far better option than those gross full playfield decals. Nice thing about the CPR, though, is I can take my time with trying to do a playfield restoration on what is there (not nearly so beat as a lot of other BKs I've seen). This guy just went with CPR as it would have been a comparable amount of labor to do a full restoration as doing a playfield swap.
Hardtops are a great looking product! I love that there's a relatively economical way to salvage old games that would otherwise have been considered goners.

My machine is probably gonna cost me around $500 CDN (haven't paid the guy for it yet but have it in my possession). Hardtop delivered to me will be around $450 CDN. Plastics, LED bulbs and other odds and ends may run me $300 CDN. A new backglass will cost me $450 CDN if I really want one.

All said and done, I will have almost $2000 CDN (around $1600 USD) invested in this game and it should play fantastic as long as nothing else blows up. I'm not sure if that's too little or too much but $1000 USD just for a CPR playfield seems a bit crazy. Unfortunately that's the going rate.

The thing is, it plays crazy! A new, cc'ed pf on this machine is awesome!!!

I was preparing to refurb a BK when I found a completed one with cpr/Kruzman pf, matched LED's, new bg and a very nice cab. Needless to say, I paid a lot, and sounded crazy at the time. But I couldn't have duplicated it for the price, let alone the time and effort.

And it was worth every penny.

My Firepower has a CPR playfield and plastics, new backglass, Xpin displays, new flipper mechs, full LEDs, a bunch of lighting mods and a nice cab. I've probably invested $2500 USD in it. I've done all the work and I don't think I'd ever sell it or get my money back out of it.

With BK, I wanted a really nice playing machine without spending stupid money. That's why I went with the hardtop option. We'll see what I end up with!

For anyone interested, the BK hardtop is now available for sale on the Outside Edge website!

Well, I'm very happy with Dino Z's (@dzorbas) alternate BK drop target artwork. In my opinion, he crushed the 12X repetitive factory art. I did a pretty quick and shoddy job hand cutting and placing, but this will work until I get some sheet mylar to cover and protect the artwork. (DZ, my Black Knight and I thank you again!)

Steveo

20180215_100243 (resized).jpg

20180215_104047.jpg

20180215_104255.jpg

There is a picture of it on the website but it isn't showing as one of the options available to add to the cart.

Glad I could help out! I was wondering how it would look seeing as I haven't even printed up any for my game yet. Interesting how you laid them out. My thinking was to put them on opposite of how you did. Definitely a nice change from the boring knight!

Thanks for the props and posting the pics @Steve-o!

I was in touch with Bruce at Outside Edge about a week ago. He said his web person was a bit too eager. Originally you could actually add it to the cart but they disabled that and left the picture of the playfield up. He said they weren't quire ready to roll it out but it should be there soon!

OK thanks.

I have fired them an e-mail on availability and will post their reply.

I've been told international orders will have to be done via email. Let me know if you get a response. I'm very eager to get mine...

I considered laying them out in the reverse order and having the Black Knight and his horse riding inward. The cool thing is is that it is an easy swap to rearrange the drops and change them to either direction. ....and the artwork is infinitely better than the blank red targets.
Steveo

Say Whaaat.jpg

For those restoring your Black Knights, check this out: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-whisperers#post-4238558

Sheprd

Question for the Black Knight experts. When on "Free Play" do you ever see either of the arrows light during a game for the free ball or special at the turn-a-round? The arrows light during test and attract mode, but I cannot seem to get into a mode where they light during game play.

The 'Special' for Black Knight is probably one of the hardest modes in pinball. Only lights up during the post-game 'bonus round' following a multi-player game, and only if you complete all 4 sets of drop targets during that round, which is only 30 seconds long. All while manually plunging a non-stop multiball.

The extra ball I get all the time during free play. Default settings are you have to finish all the upper OR lower target sets three times each during a single ball, that gets the first extra ball. Any subsequent ones you have to finish all 4 sets of drops three times each (which is also what the 'hard' setting needs for the first extra ball).

-Hans

So it seems some of you have a really good understanding of this game. Mine is currently unplayable while I work on it. However, when it was working, I never heard the bell go off, even when I put it in diagnostic mode.

I'm assuming it worked at some point. What causes it to fire? And it should work in diagnostic mode right?

It goes off when you get an extra ball, or when you collect bonus but you've already maxed your bonus

In other words, I may never hear it other than in diagnostic mode!

Thanks for the info!

It goes off when you get an extra ball, or when you collect bonus but you've already maxed your bonus.
+ multi-player games... one with the high score gets bonus round.

Bell goes off in a few spots.

When you max the bonus sword and multipliers, it'll ring on everything after that which would have advanced the bonus. (Short rings)
When you're awarded an extra ball. (Looooong ring)
When you obtain the high score. (Looooong ring)
When you're awarded a free game via the match. (short ring)
When you're the highest scorer in a multiplayer game (# of rings is the player who wins)

Man, when you get that maxed bonus, it's sure as hell draws attention. Black Knight wants everybody to know when someone is having a kick-ass game.

Definitely should work in diagnostics, just like any other solenoid circuit. But it's commonly found with a cut wire, or something else to keep it from ringing. Some venues don't like how loud it gets.

Thanks... I will test out those sequences. Great information as always!

I just joined the club this past weekend. I have been enjoying reading through the thread. I am probably going to need a few things but first I need to try to find a used (reasonably priced) upper playfield. Mine is toast around the pop bumper. I know some of you have got to have one around somewhere. It doesn't have to be perfect but one that is better than what I have. If you have a nice main playfield too I would look at buying both but really just need the upper. Let me know what you might have available. If I don't find a good upper I'm going to need some good hi res scans of that area to make some water slides. Thanks for the help!

Changing coils on my Black Knight. Question on upper right flipper. Does the black and yellow wire go to middle post on coil or outside post. I put it on outside but now questioning my memory. Always take pictures.

Joined the club. Very cool game.

Does anybody have the file for insert decals? Thanks in advance. Just bought well-working machine. Just needs a good playfield resto, touch up and clear.

I'll shoot you a PM. I scanned my set as a backup in case I needed another.

I could use that as well if you don’t Mind please sir

Me too please?

thanks

Would need to PM me your email as the file is to large to send.