I use the same 304 full hard stainless steel and same thickness as the originals. Direct replacement only with a bit of flare and some much needed light in that area.

It's really the same. Only difference is the direction/end that sleeve is inserted and if it has a diode. Just get the sg and match up the mounting and wire attachments.

I joined the club today, picked up a nice player's table that was well maintained on route! NVRAM, new sound board, xpin displays, NOS backglass, no wear on magna save, decent cabinet.

I've read this entire topic and I'm stoked to be apart of the group. Looking forward to installing LEDs and learning more about the machine. Not sure how I feel about the green Xpin displays...

P.S. first thing is first, i already have on hand the correct hot stamped red bumper cap.

IMG-2780 (resized).JPG

Now that I have played several games, I really like the green displays! Its a nice contrast to the yellow glow of the backglass and is going to make the green inserts on the playfield pop when i install LEDs. The pictures fade the green out a bit. Its a much deeper green in person.

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I like these as well but a little bit pricey for me to replace a couple of ramps. Definitely like the red and blue lighting, it makes more sense.

I developed a cutom rules card for Back Knight pinball at 300 dpi. I hope to develop a Crew card and Free Play card with time.

Opinions and improvement suggestions are welcome!

"Black Knight Custom Pinball Card - Rules" (WILLIAMS). Designed by Zona Arcade & Mikonos.
http://www.zonaarcade.com/fotos/capturas/Black%20Knight%20Custom%20Pinball%20Card%20-%20Rules.%20Mikonos1.jpg

Details in "Black Knight Custom Pinball Card - Instructions" (WILLIAMS). Designed by Zona Arcade & Mikonos.
http://www.zonaarcade.com/fotos/capturas/Black%20Knight%20Custom%20Pinball%20Card%20-%20Rules.%20Mikonos2.jpg

Details in "Black Knight Custom Pinball Card - Instructions" (WILLIAMS). Designed by Zona Arcade & Mikonos.
http://www.zonaarcade.com/fotos/capturas/Black%20Knight%20Custom%20Pinball%20Card%20-%20Rules.%20Mikonos3.jpg
Black Knight Custom Pinball Card - Rules. Mikonos1.jpgBlack Knight Custom Pinball Card - Rules. Mikonos2.jpgBlack Knight Custom Pinball Card - Rules. Mikonos3.jpg

*I take bigger screenshots and photos, click to enlarge images (and click again on display image mode if it is necessary) for avoid blur effect of pinside´s miniatures.

Regards

Looks good!

Should it be "lites" or "lights"? Can't remember what my original card has on it but the proper spelling is "lights". Are these available for download?

Added 5/8" spacers to the prototype plastics to raise them up to match the slingshot height. Looks great!

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In original rules card says "lites", I saw. I only fix syntax problems.

Thanks for your comment about this card!

Another user told me by m.p.: why your rules card is so dark? It is dark for two reason:

1.- The Black Knight writes in black paper. I thought to design wax stamp in black, but it will be enough.

2.- You don´t know it, but I´m designing all my custom cards for to print in chrome vinyl and this is main reason. Doing that I balance shining chrome effect of this print material.
a6fc4c335c59d9b1a798ffb4338c84b9fee682ce.jpg

Regards

Hey all, I am developing some diagrams for lighting the machine with LEDs.

How are you all lighting the right side (encircled in Blue)? I was thinking of using a bulb with a matrix cord between the two right ramps and 2 4" LED strips under the blue plastics.

The area encircled in Yellow i was considering using double flex head comet lights to light the upper playfield. How are you getting extra light thrown onto the upper playfield in this area?

The pop bumper I was thinking of just throwing an Comet Opmax LED light in so it would hopefully illuminate more of the upper playfield. what's your strategy?

InkedBK - PLAYFIELD LED_LI (resized).jpg

For the blue area I use matrix jumped off the sword plastic nearby on the lower level. For the yellow I use 3 matrix 7 LED frosted

Cool! Would you mind taking some photos of the setup?

I just used sunlight white in all the standard GI sockets and that alone really brought the playfield to life. I added a lamp socket under the dark plastic in the blue area on your picture. That helped a lot.

I used a red super bright LED in the pop bumper. It looks pretty good but doesn't add much light up there.

The arrow to the lower lock saucer should be green, not red.

You have the Extra Ball inserts (2 of them) red. Another option is to use white, yellow or orange under them to help them stand out. Might be worth it to pickup a couple extras of various colors to see what you like.

Thanks for the suggestions! Isn't sunlight white tinted blue? Or is that natural White? Also, my lower lock insert is red for some reason.

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Sunlight is right between Natural white (the blueish one) and warm white (the amber one). It looks the best to me personally but they make the various shades for a reason!

Also, I use frosted for all my GI, even LEDs I can't directly see. It disperses the light better in my opinion. Less chance of a visible hot spot on the plastics.

Interesting your lock insert is red! Mine is green!

That is odd. Though i will say my BK playfield had orange inserts for the 3 Lock arrows on the upper playfield. An explanation i was given a while back is that they may have run out of green inserts for that area and opted to use whatever they had on hand instead. Not sure if that's exactly what happened but it makes sense, i suppose.

Totally with you on the frosted debate. Would you mind sending or posting a photo of yours with the GI on and room lights off? I found a photo of @hawknole 's and it looks sweet with the matrix lights surrounding the upper playfield.

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How do I remove the wires from the head capacitor? They are flat on top, the new cap uses screws.

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Probably easiest to just clip them off and strip new clean wire to screw onto. Old are probably soldered

Ring terminals and crimp the wires, or use the ring terminals without the plastic and solder the wires.

Thanks!

I unsoldered them and I’ll solder onto new ring or c connectors to the new cap

Go to your electronic store and get some solder lugs...
Screw the lugs to the capacitor and then solder the wires to the lugs.
The size of each lug hole might be 8/32 or 10/32.
" ____ "
" ( 0 o ) "
" ----- "
Best I can do to draw on the key board.
Pinside editor changes the dimensions.

Electronics store? Those still exist? Rip my local radio shacks. I’ll have to order with my BR’s for the head. Sucks not having things local to go snag parts quick

Hi all. Having read this thread front to back... I think it's time to add my game to the list. Unless I am missing something, I think I am in the club (being a happy owner of a Black Knight Machine). I got my machine back in 2005(ish). It was located, box top off, legs off, sitting on the floor of someone's basement. It had the wrong back glass on it (Wms. Stellar Wars), and was missing a couple of plastics (top left). They said that they had it for some time, but it wasn't working and they didn't know how to fix it. "May be it's just a fuse" they said (yeah... right). So, I bought it and have had it ever since.

I took it home and read everything I could find on Marvin's site (when it was still up). I read everything on Clay's site and printed most of it so I had a repair manual. Glad I did as a lot of it seems to no longer be on his site. I did a basic run through when I first got the machine, but it was pretty minor (replacing the 5101(?) RAM chip and replaced one of the displays (player 2) as it wasn't working. I got it into attract, but it wouldn't start. I kept reading and looking and everything seemed right, but it would never start into a game. Long story short... Turns out you have to have balls in the machine. DOH!

I bought a proper back glass (though not pretty) so it could stand proud as the Black Knight. I am about to get working on it. It's been very kind to me. It has clearly had some work done to it. I am really curious what happened to it through life as some of the repairs are... a little odd. I have played several years without changing out the 40 pin interconnect or touching the power supply. I did change out some of the caps in the sound card as it has always been a little flinky (sound starts to work after about 20 minutes of use). But the caps didn't fix it.

A few years back I went to start it and it the display didn't turn on. While I am pretty sure it was just the fuse (for real this time), but I was far too busy at work to deal with it. So... it has sat (I know... stop haten'). I decided that it was time not to push my luck this time. So... It is time to love on the machine a little bit and set it up for another lifetime of use. I didn't want to power it on until it's been worked on hence the photo is a dark machine. So... I have been reading through Vid's thread about bulletproofing the power supply. So... I have been stocking up a 'project' at Mouser which I am about to pull a trigger on. Eventually I will be buying a new backglass as this one is... well... not great. After all... I do have a fairly nice Stellar Wars glass I can sell to offset the cost of the new backglass. I also have a bunch of other arcade related stuff I can sell too.

The internet has come a very long ways in the past 13 years, and my search for new information is what led me to find the Pinside site. Man this is a great site. So much stuff and... Most of it is really good. I have been a collector of arcade machines and have had a lot of them. My current collection is a MAME machine which I personally built. A Centipede, and my Black Knight.

So... I have a few questions. Aside from the prescribed power supply stuff. Are there any electronic components that I should have a bajillion of on hand that I will want to replace in the cabinet / playfield etc?

While I am comforted by seeing several of your machines, because I always have had this... horrible 'scar' which I have never liked. Like someone made a mistake and didn't know how to deal with it and covered it up in a really bad way... but now I see... all of us have that same issue. So... WHAT is that horrible white dot on the left part of the apron about? Why white? Who thought that this was a good idea?

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That is the credit indicator that is leftover from the EM period of pinball machines.
In some states to avoid gambling you had to coverup the credit display and only
have a credit lite to signal that you have a credit/credits on the game.... How many?...
You have to press the start button to find out.

Wow. Seriously? So, that's why it needed to be obvious.
So, is it a plug? Something drilled through, or is it something that can be removed without a left over blemish?

You can pop it out but then there'll be a hole.

Nice looking playfield. That should clean up very nice. Congratulations on getting to the point of getting the Knight slaying again.

Nice playfield, crappy glass. A little work and a new glass and you will have a really nice machine. I would check over everything real good and rebuild the flippers. Go ahead and have the 40 pin replaced. It's no fun chasing ghosts if you start having a issue.
You didn't include a picture of the boards. What about the battery holder? Has it been moved off the board?
Oh, be sure to fuse the bridges in the back box.
Since your new here did you check out vids guide on system 3-7? You should read up on that too.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-bulletproofing-williams-system-6

Welcome to the club! If you need any board work done on your BK you are welcome to bring the boards over and we can work on them and test them out in my BK. I'm just up the road from you in Cumming.

I am on a trip for work right now and will be starting when I get home. When you say glass, do you mean backgkass, or playfield glass? I will be working getting a new backglass before the playfield as I can look I can live with the scratches (for a while).

I was going to post pix of the boards once I started work (before and after). I spent about an hour and took a couple hundred photos of the various elements of the game (something I do before every referb). It's proven to be a life saver. The flippers look to be in great shape. They are smooth and shiny.

The batteries are still part of the board. But I have been replacing them every few years knowing that was a dangerous point for these machines. I will be moving them off the board, or putting in a coin cell. I just don't get how a 3v coin cell works better than 4.5v (from the 3 AA batteries). But folks say it lasts longer.

The fuses are definitely part of the plan. No fun in replacing the transformer, so yeah, the fuses are a must.

Yeah, Vids guide is how I found this site. I spent many hours reading through that one. I sort of hope he gets around to doing the sound module tutorial. He said that he would be doing one, but that was like 6 years ago. That's the one part of the game that I know will be in need of repair once I finish the power supply. Although I guess it's possible that the problem is in the headers, but not holding my breath.

Hey, Thanks for the offer. Let me get the first phase done so I can see where it lives. Then I will be quite happy to some help.

Thanks. Yes I am really happy with the playfield. I am really looking forward to seeing this thing up and running.

Per request, lights in the upper playfield.

White dot gone with an apron decal.

BK (resized).jpg

I meant backglass. Playfield glass is $45. A new backglass is $350 but they sure are nice.

hawknole That looks sweet! Would you mind taking the plastics off to show how you have the matrix lights setup?

I'd like to see that as well (if possible)!

Thanks for the interest, Comet Warm White Frosted Matrix. Yes, there were 3 lamp sockets underneath the flaming sword but they got in the way, so I only kept one and split off that. The plastic design, one in front, one on top, could be better and I found keeping the strips close to the front to be my preference. On the right side, I jumped off under the small sword up to the upper level.
BK14 (resized).jpgBK2 (resized).JPGBK3 (resized).JPG

I wasn't happy with the score cards I was finding, so I made my own, borrowing a take on the backglass i had seen somewhere else. I like the black background for black aprons.

BK Custom Score Card (resized).jpg

Factory high score beat, instruction cards installed, rubber kit ready in waiting, backglass LEDs futzed with, black cabinet scuffs touched up with Tester's paint pen, 2 new pingulps installed, and Comet order placed! He's coming up nicely for 2 weeks of ownership. Gonna try 4 flame bulbs at the backglass feet and hooves (only 2 installed in the below picture).

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I am getting some red/blue targets 3D printed at my library, so in preparation, I printed out some of scottmaggie custom targets and cut them with my vinyl cutter. I have extra sets and can make more if anyone is interested, PM me. They are inkjet printed on matte vinyl with single sided laminate on top for the glossy protective layer. I used hawknole 's method for printing/laminating. The install picture below is from Scott's machine.

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Black Knight speech quotes from the manual...

Random start button phrases:
"Defend thyself, Knight."
"I challenge thee to fight me."
"You cannot fight and win."
"I will slay you, my enemy."
"The BLACK KNIGHT will win again."
"The BLACK KNIGHT will slay you."
"Fight against me, the BLACK KNIGHT."
"I will slay thee, Knight."

"Fight against 2 enemies" - 2 ball multiball

"Fight against 3 enemies" - 3 ball multiball

"Ah ha ha ha" - Magna Save drain

"I cannot slay you. You win." - win free game

"Fight me again, Knight." - win extra ball

"One enemy cannot fight the BLACK KNIGHT again." - end of one player game

"You win the right to fight the BLACK KNIGHT again." - end of multiplayer game to introduce timed bonus ball for player with the most points

"You win one fight. I challenge thee again." - win high score to date

"The BLACK KNIGHT will win again." - Match

"Will you challenge the BLACK KNIGHT again?" - Game Over

Just in case you'd like to re-typeset parts of your cards with the actual Black Knight font, here's a link to download the closest thing available to it:

https://www.1001freefonts.com/ds-cathedral.font

The original Black Knight artwork used a Chartpak or Letraset rub-off lettering typeface called "Cathedral" by Martin Wait. The font above is a knock-off of it.

Awesome, thanks! I used the "What the font" app to find the ones i used but none were spot on. I was thinking of making some changes and this will do nicely! Also the jpg i posted is not the high res PDF i used to print. If anyone wants the PDF, let me know.

While in the clearing playfield and sanding process, I had actually sanded through a coat of clear, and began to sand my playfield (Ohhhhhh SHIT!). Of course in was right in the center of the sword in the scroll area so not an easy repaint. So I actually made a waterslide decal of the area from a few photos I had taken prior with my cell phone. I was ultimately able to print it out after quite a few sizing attempts onto clear decal paper. I am very impressed with how it came out. The first two photos below are the before and after photos. As of tonight, I have finished clearing my playfields with Spraymax 2K. Very easy to use, but definitely more expensive that going the spray gun route. If I am to clear another playfield, I will probably use a gun for more options. I am very impressed so far with the clear finish. After several coats and sanding with 400 grit, respraying, sanding with 800 grit, I sprayed two heavy coats tonight, using my two last cans. Wow, it looks like glass. I will let it cure for a couple of weeks and then wet sand it and buff it out. Last three photos are tonight after the heavy clear coats.

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Has anyone installed a Inkochnito board? Looking to just verify wiring

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

You can pm him too.

https://pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/inkochnito

Thanks!

I have this pdf
http://home.kpn.nl/p.koch3/Inkochnito_Bridge_Board.pdf

however BK's wire colors can be a tad different. So I wanted to validate before hooking up. Maybe i'll reach out.

EDIT:
I found this
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bridge-board-available-for-williams-games
I'll look at the harness plug and work backward. When I'm done, I'll post up a how to for BK

Part 1: Reading about things that could damage your balls... (sorry, there's just no good way to say that)...
I am not sure what the device is called that flips the ball up onto the playfield, but mine doesn't exactly meet up properly. Being that there's only so much room for the playfield, and it's pretty well locked in, how would I go about making this less of a hit to the ball as it meets up with the field? I have been thinking about going at this in a couple of ways, and I think that the least invasive way might be to slightly carve some of the wood away on the right side to bring the metal guide out just a little. But... I am worried that this could cause other issues too.

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Part 2: Gates n such.
I have never had a gate below the entry. I bought one from the same guy I bought the backglass from. He had no idea what game it came out of, but I got it for like $5. It has a slight slant to it, but I was figuring that I could put it in a vice and bend it so it's vertical similar to the gate on the Black Knight.

But... Not knowing what I don't know, is there anything I should watch out for before attempting this?

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Is the ball actually hitting that? It's probably going to be centered from the plunger lane