I had an early production run here that I just handed off to another local collector last night. Is there anything in particular that you want documented? I can drop him a line.

I took some photos, but not many.

And I will chime in and say that my wife and I both really had a great time hanging out chatting with you and thank you so very much for being such a cool person to be around.
I personally thank you for helping me finally get a Black Knight and for MaxAsh for connecting us together.
-Mike

I will be digging into cleaning up and inspecting an early run BK and will be comparing as much info that I can find. So far it is only location of transformer and different power supply design.
-Mike

dung I also found this info in an older thread.
"The early BK's had System 6 power supplies with the transformer in the head and the GI relay mounted in the head and not on the power supply.

The later ones had the relay on the power supply and the transformer mounted in the lower cab (like the other System 7's)."

-Mike

Welcome to the club. I am glad it made it into the hands of a huge fan.

Well, they are working now. I cleaned the switches, I read in another thread someone had about the same issue got mad and started pushing the buttons fast and it started working because they were dirty Anyway I went through the connectors to make sure they were tight up to 2j12 I checked continuity and I had it. I plugged 2j12 back in to check for Volts at the coil and thought why not, I hit the button and they are back. I'm happy they are working but would really like to know why. Now to the scores. I'm a little lost on this part. I have pinscores so I am only using the 5V. It doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason if I move a connector if it comes or goes. Its the 1,000s digit mostly always on as 0 sometimes just 1 on both player 1 and 3. I think that is strobe 5. I guess my question is, do the segments get turned on by completing the circuit? If so wouldn't this be more of something shorting then an open? I thought I found a good write up on how the scores work but I forgot where I found it. Any farther help is appreciated. I did get to kind of play a game today.

Just an update. I did repin Ij6 and found out it seems to be a bad solder on the header pin. If I take the plastic housing and move it a little up or down the problem goes away, another self inflected wound. I put new header pins in it but was in to much of a hurry I guess. I need to adjust 1 switch then it should be running. I still want to repin the rest of the connectors but that can be done a little at a time.

Nice work!

Well, I took the boards out looked at the solder joint, looked ok to me. I resolder all of the pins. Put it back in and for the first minute or so it was fine and then the 1000s digit began to glow yet again. I moved the connector and it went back off. After about 5 minutes it stayed on and would not go off. I turned it back on today and the same thing happened but after a while the digit mainly stayed off. Up until that point I thought it might be a thermal thing or the capacitor. Now thinking it might be a cracked solder joint at the cap or the IC chip. I noticed when I would move the connector up and down the board would flex a little too. Back out it comes again.Any other suggestions to look for something else while its out please let me know.

Just curious if there are any other oddities. My sample pinball magic has no gameplay differences, few art differences, different rails, but the headache is that there are hardware changes so normal repair methods do not always apply.

Picking up a BK on Monday. I will be joining this club!!! It's been a long time coming.

Welcome! Post up pics when you get it!!

Enjoy!

Anybody know someone who's parting out a BK? I need 1, 1" round insert (2x bonus) need an original with the BK octagonal facteted insert.

Anybody know if these inserts were used on any other game?

That's gonna be a tough one. If you are concerned with them all matching you might be better off popping all the bonus inserts out and replacing them. Or at least 2x and 5x so you keep some symmetry. You could get the starburst inserts that CPR used on their playfields instead of plain ones.

bkproject41 (resized).jpg

I'm not aware of any other game that had jeweled inserts other than BK.

I got some from Pinball Life a while back. Search their site for “gem insert”.

Yep that’s them. PERFECT!

The starburst inserts just don’t look right on this game.

Very disappointed CPR used them.

100% agree with you. They used them on the Firepower play fields too. Just doesn't look right to those of us that spent "years of our lives" on the original games.

Wow! I didn't know that anyone still made those or stocked them! That's awesome! Might look a bit off if only one of the 4 is replaced. Two of my bonus inserts look more purple than blue.

I realize it's personal taste but I have no issue with either FP or BK having the starburst inserts. Don't get me wrong, if they had done BK with the jeweled inserts that would have been great but I think both games look fantastic with the starburst inserts and LEDs. Then again, I'm not a traditionalist and I didn't play any of these games in my youth.

I really liked the way the "jewels' fit with the theme on black knight. On other games it doesn't make as much sense

I think I read somewhere that it would have been difficult and costly to have someone manufacture the jeweled inserts just for CPRs run of BK playfields.

I have a CPR playfield and do miss the jeweled inserts, which I had in my machine for many years prior to restoring.

If memory serves CPR has to submit a large order of each type and color of insert being used in order to get them made. The order in turn takes a good long while to get made and that is part of why playfield runs in the past were staged years in advance. So, don't really feel like it isn't a legitimate reason as to why they did not order them for just bk.

Would the molds even have been available?

I think I read this was the biggest issue. This would have been a very special order because these are used in so few (two, maybe three?) games.

For a bunch of guys that work that hard to make small batches of reproduction playfields to exacting detail, I truly can't believe that if the cost difference was minimal, they wouldn't have put in the same style of inserts as the originals. The additional cost would have simply been passed along to the customers and I doubt anyone would have complained.

There had to be more to it than that. And I don't buy into this being the easier option. Have a look at the link above and consider the effort that goes into completing a single playfield...

Looking for some experienced insight to a problem I am having on my BK.

When the bottom right and upper left drop go down in time an arrow is not rewarded.

The timer keeps running ,expires,and resets.Nothing happens when you get them down in time.

The other 2 work as they are supposed to as far as granting the arrow.

Scratching my head over here

Thanks
Marshall

The drops come back up but nothing is rewarded

sounds like one (or more) drop target switches aren't working on each of those banks. All three have to work or you can't score the bank. Take the glass off and start a game. Manually trip each target, one at a time, and figure out which ones don't score points. Then inspect the switches for those targets beneath the playfield.

Well shit man.Thank you!
Couple things popped free
That made my night thanks

The real problem is that even when the molds are readily available the quantity of inserts needed is WAY too low. The plastic molding companies aren't interested in loading the mold and filling the press with the appropriate color for a 1,000 pieces. Which is often 800 more than they really need. You want 100,000 pieces? OK, they can maybe work you in. You want them in two colors, well, that's a color change charge. So you get them made when they feel like it and you pay thru the nose for the few you get. I am impressed that CPR does as well as they do at getting inserts. It would be awesome if someone in the plastics industry could help them out.

Cabinet switch question...the game i'm working on has no capacitors on the cabinet switches. Were those introduced when flipper coils went to 50V? Is it a good idea to add capacitors anyway, and if so, which ones?

Note: the company that supplied Williams with the color inserts and lane guides
----- from that time period went out of business in the early 80's.

Ya but just copy paste them to a new manufacture

Black Knight is in the house!!! Finally getting the pin that hooked me on pinball. I was going the set it up and play it, but I am gonna take my time. Been waiting long enough that I might as well tweak it before I set it up. The cabinet is in very good condition and not faded. I will grab a repro backglass for it since the original has been majorly "touched" up, and it deserves a new one. The playfield is in decent condition. Slight wear over right Magna-Save, some mylar missing behind the pop bumper, some slight wear at upper playfield ball entrance, but overall very good condition for being 38 years old! The bottom of the cabinet was coming apart some and felt too flimsy to hold the speaker. I have removed the base and will replace with 1/2" plywood, recut for speaker, power switch, etc. While at it, I removed the playfield and have torn down the topside. I will rebuild the slingshots as they are very loose and replace the slingshot switches while at it. It came with two factory CPU's and has a Rottendog in it. It has some LED's, Rottendog LED displays, and a PinballPro speaker. I will rerubber with Titans and rebuild the sound board as one of the capacitors is starting the "bulge". I'll update anything else I see that needs to be addressed.

20180806_181809 (resized).jpg

20180806_181815 (resized).jpg

20180806_181820 (resized).jpg

20180806_192658 (resized).jpg

20180806_192707 (resized).jpg

20180806_194604 (resized).jpg

20180806_201212 (resized).jpg

20180806_203628 (resized).jpg

20180807_162602 (resized).jpg

20180807_204247 (resized).jpg

20180807_205155 (resized).jpg

Yes the cliffy helps. What pitch do you have it set too? The higher the pitch the more frequent the fly through.

Yes, it seems to be normal behaviour. I believe that someone on this thread posted a fix where you add a piece of cardboard and tape to the ball guide so the ball hits it and loses momentum as it's coming around and stays in the trough. Here's the link to the post...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/black-knight-clubmembers-only/page/2#post-1836717

I haven’t played mine yet but I was going to say this same thing. Cliffy it

Bought a Black Knight pin last year with LEDs & Topper for $1800. It worked well. Haven't played for several months cuz have epilepsy & the flashing lights are a problem. However, recently put on the market for local sale, & the machine works except for the ball launcher. The balls stay in place after repeated resets. The wire connections look solid, have 3 balls in place & batteries are good.

Please help! Tx - rich (Appleton, Wisconsin)

BK PSCrop Setup Aug 1st 2017 (resized).jpg

BK Topper 2017 (resized).jpg

BKf3 2017 (resized).jpg

Bowling Alleycats Dec9th 2017 (resized).jpg

BreakFlyingSwords4AcesArk Fronts (resized).jpg

Have you tried going back to 44’s or 47’s (incandescent bulbs)? Personally I can’t stand LEDs

TX, but want to sell. Why would the lights affect the next ball launcher? It worked well for months with LEDs …

Have you tried running the solenoid test? Gotta make sure the outhole kicker solenoid is still capable of firing. If it works in the solenoid test, I'd verify the game is seeing all 3 balls in the trough using the switch test.

If the flashing you're talking about is coming from the general illumination, you may be able to disable the GI relay so that the lights are always just on--no flashing. Just a thought!

I like this idea! Hate to have you sell a game if you love it.