I'd have probably bought the mirco if I'd hadn't put a CPR in there way back when, just to have the correct inserts.

The registration error in the white underneath ramps wouldn't bother me at all as long as the visible artwork isn't messed up in some way.

Also do NOT go by the colors of the connectors - normally one is white/natural, and the other is all black, but they did mess them up at the factory on some games and they ended up mismatched (or there was a head with one and body with another, etc)

Press advance until you get to option 18 max credits and set it to 00 for freplay. Make sure you have as many credits already on the machine as you want to show because they neither advance nor decrement once you set the credits to 00.

The colored LED's don't look too hot in the BG you plan on changing those?

Yes.

The rubber feed is there not only to absorb the abuse from the pop bumper, but also as you noted to encourage some bounciness to toss the ball towards the upper PF exits. (If you couldn't lose the ball from the upper PF the game would never end. See black knight 2000!)

But to adjust it you need to either get the ramp metal up, the posts down, or the rubber thinner. Some filling and redrilling of holes may be required, I forget if those posts are machine threaded screws into Tnuts or not. It's been however long CPR make black knight playfields that I've had mine apart, but I know that I made sure of this transistional area (I always do this on PF swaps regardless of title) being spot on.

Yours looks pretty extreme, you might be able to change the posts to the thinner style to shave the clearance you need..... but the other end has to feed that left flipper, too, so looks like some experimentation is needed to get this right.

Rewire them to 50volts and stick a later system 7/system 9 flipper transformer/power supply in the game.

Have you tried filing the magnet relay contacts?

I use those PBL switches for the slings because they stick up through the PF and look "right" - for all other custom switch builds unless I have the exact blade from another switch I just use the generic ones from PBR and put the contacts on. I'm cheap

You probably already know this but you can grab microswitches from the later WMS games trough's and use use them with the plate on your BK (or any other earlier leaf switch unit).

pinball resource

PBR sells the leaves too

If you have 50v going through your switch matrix I'd be worried. (actually.... it would be better all around if the switch matrix were higher voltage as the dirty switches wouldn't matter as much I'd guess that's why they went to 12v on later games.)

I don't remember if I changed that many switch on mine when I did the PF swap around 2006 or so. I know I had a devil of a top with the top lock and I added an upside down ball gate underneath to kill the momentum.

Still need to fix the bottom right flipper I've been lazy.

You don't need it higher, you need the activating hump longer. Instead of ----^---- for the wire you need ----/¯\---- the larger flat part will help here.

Or you need to slow the ball down when it comes off the ramp with some fatter rubber. Either method works but the switch actuator bend works better.

2500 2 would be decoded as: "2"500=blue OS, 500=game number, standalone 2 is the revision. They never updated the manual AFAIK the released version was 3 and then an update to 4. So a 2500 4 "error" is telling you that the audit/adjustments aren't saving. (it's not really an error... it's just the OS revision+game number, then the software revision) If you scroll through the entire list until you get to 50 and then hit advance one more time it should go into attract mode. If it doesn't, your battery backed up ram is likely bad, or the memory protect circuit (usually the ram though)

I replace these with nvram from weebly.com. If you want to buy a new board pinball pcb is the kahout boardset, definitely the best one IMO.

Like I said the 2500 4 is NOT an error message. It's supposed to show that as the 'first audit'. It comes up when the ram is corrupted or not working because the game is entering audit mode. The error messages are on the 7 segment display on the mpu when you press the test button on the mpu board.

Set your backup hstd to a really low number and reset it, it will take a while to get the 2.5m. I'd only ever beaten mine once and since I replaced the regular ram with NVram, haven't beaten it yet. I need to do the advice I just gave you myself!

And just so you don't drive yourself nuts trying to adjust it - it also will score the mystery in multiball if a ball comes DOWN the ramp.

You mean all 4 sets 3 times first time extra ball second time special? That's eminently doable. I've been toying around with ideas to have the on-playfield special light during the game too.

Not sure what else would have to light it, there's not a lot else on BK to work with - drop banks would have to be it.

The universal answer to this question is almost always "because they are a moron".

Pinball PCB for the win, here. Best replacement boardset to stay stock style (assuming you can't get working originals)

Also the connector from the head, I have/had same behavior on mine and it's one of the connectors between the head and the playfield. I need to get in and replace that as it fails at parties all the time... IIRC It's 0062 pins but I don't have an extractor for those pins handy (it's lost somewhere, assuming I ever had one)

Yep, this is what happens when you swap those 2 connectors. You can't depend on the factory being all black or all white on each, either - I've seen them with every combination. Flippers lock on..... solenoid voltage down the +5 rail IIRC.

Not a cheap repair in terms of time/labor, or if you just replace the boards, money.

You should be able to use a logic probe on the chips to check for activity in/out, sometimes you're lucky and it's only the eproms that get hosed.... but usually not.

2532 can be programmed/read as 2732 with an adapter:
http://www.thegleek.com/bobroberts/mspacrom.html

Nope, that's stock

That's ball swirls. Novus 2 won't take it off either. New games of this era I get I do a pass of novus 2, novus 1 and then your wax of choice. You can reduce the swirls by using magic eraser with a wetting agent, but you are removing whatever clearcoat is left on the PF. I don't do this unless I plan on clearing the PF.

For my BK it got a CPR PF from long ago and it's been fine since then. Ball swirls are pretty expected with this title because of the lighter artwork.

https://store.go4retro.com/23xx-adapter/

I'm exploring this adapter board to be able to stick 27128-27256-27512 chips in to replace 2532/2732, etc. - mostly because my 2732's are getting stubborn to program now. I'm thinking possibly that's caused by my computers' USB port more than anything though (I have multiples of the burner and they all started doing it at once....)

Might be a nice solution for those that don't want to rejumper. I can't rejumper my system 7 games because I need the 3x2532 setup ala hyperball for larger roms.

It is supposed to be a tough shot from a cradle, but you're getting more power on the half flip because the EOS isn't opening, so double check that it's opening about 1/8" or so at the end of its stroke, not starting earlier.

No 80s flipper is going to feel like the more modern ones, you've only got 28v to work with and a relatively long stroke. I played zacaj 's black knight with 50volt going to the flippers and I didn't really notice a difference, but I only played a couple of games. I should probably fool around with my BK and see how it performs I guess I never really thought about that too much. It doesn't help I'm really used to the way my BK plays since I've had it since 1989. Maybe time for a fresh look.

Yep, he means that large cap standing in the backbox - that's the lamp matrix cap.

yep, it will settle down a bit after a while. Some games go from being really slow to being like freshly cleared games depending on the amount of dirt on it that was cleaned off. The rubbers not so much different unless they were really tired before.

Physics.

You're activating two coils at once off a power supply is going to draw more current. Either increase the power supply capacity or decrease the load.

Also on general there's a lot of connectors involved on bk and any of them might need to be replaced every connector saps a bit of power.

Programming within the current system:
http://gamearchive.askey.org/Pinball/Manufacturers/Williams/pinbuilder/

Pinmame runs the roms as-is, mame does not require translation of the existing roms to other formats (that would defeat its core purpose of preservation).

DickHamill has an arduino piped into a williams system 6 board running stellar wars:

so you could probably modify that to work on black knight but you'd be re-creating the game code itself as well. BK is pretty simple rule-set wise so it could be done.

If you look at the pinbuilder stuff you could probably extend out the original boards' capability to do the things you want, but there's some hardware changes you'd have to make as well I'd think.

If you're using LEDs I doubt those 5 amp slo blows will ever do so unless there's a dead short on the line.

Try PPS in the parts books of the era they might be there. Also on ipdb look at uploads for that era in advanced search.

Nope system six is missing the sound and commas pia and bigger ram.

System 7 mpus can be used in the earlier 3-6 games. The aftermarket boards have the added pia and RAM.

Extra ball, max bonus add, bonus ball drop banks, replay, hstd, match

Pic from earlier in the thread from frunch - I did a similar thing on mine with a ball gate frame turned upside down with an angle, there is NO WAY a ball can fly through the lock. The gate stops it, and it drops. 100% locks.

I can't find the pic I took of it a while ago I thought it would be here in the thread but it's not.... have to organize my pics at some point.

b903de0aa5b062c0da3dea69ad76c4dab854053c (resized).jpg

Good thing you have the steel plate... missing from some games!

yes

Reseat the connectors between the head and playfield.

Locks on was factory. After the difficulty of Firepower's multiball, I think bk is about MB all the time.

I despise the setting for locks lit through bonus horseshoe. My machine will never be set that way, tournament or not.

I'm not a fan of the bonus ball either.

Are your coin door switches sticky?

The nvram does have a checksum, and if it fails, it will reset. I don't remember offhand if the high scores are protected by this checksum, the settings are, but the memory protect circuit prevents any changes on the nvram settings contents. You would get the audit mode (2500 03 or 2500 04 on p1 display) when that happens.

Bend the guide at the top to redirect. Bend the arm that kicks the ball out.

Also, you should clean off all the old lube and relube.

The jumpers increase the current available to drive the switches. Higher current means better detection with dirty switch contacts but at the expense of switch bounce causing multiple hits. System seven's OS has good debouncing built in.

For your horseshoe switch, reforming the wireform to be less of a point and more of a mesa ie flatter on top will help.

The stock bk software does not track which targets are down and will happily score them over and over.

Now, is probably no surprise that the software in MY black Knight does operate the way you described.

This happens if the ball skips the outhole switch or takes too long to get to the trough. The game will not end a ball without the outhole switch tripping which starts a timer.

Planetary pinball has the parts manuals online.

Technically they're all unobtainium as WMS isn't making parts.... so anything you get is a modern recreation/replacement. Because of this, I just buy the raw blades and contacts from pinball resource and build my own. I either replace the existing stacked parts one blade at a time maintaining the stack spacing, or I create a new stack as I have tons of the little bakelite pieces and tubing laying around from when you could buy a populated playfield at a show for $10 for a treasure trove of parts. At some point I actually had time to strip all the PF's down to the switches and sorted them into a bin for easy access.

I have a physical copy of the 1980 parts catalog myself but for people that don't it's available for viewing on planetary's webiste.
https://www.planetarypinball.com/williamsbally-parts-manuals

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/black-knight-clubmembers-only/page/54#post-7139173

This is the way to do it, no foam. Like I said in the linked post (this is frunch 's pic, not mine.... I can't find mine and too lazy to take another) - you block the entry that would fly through with metal angled so that you don't ding up the ball or whatever type of bracket you use, it cannot fly through (or bounce out.)

You want that path to be shootable with the upper left flipper around to the lock, so as long as your rubber doesn't stick out you're ok on the posts. I wouldn't want them to hang over either, but make sure if you drill in that you are clearing.

I have a CPR PF in mine as well from 10+ years ago, I don't recall if the holes were correct on it, likely not, because every playfield I've ever swapped (including NOS) has had dimples and holes off. Just part for the course at this point.

I actually prefer completely undimpled PF's as they just aren't ever 100% correct.

Unless they have corrected it since I bought my set originally in 2006/2007, the fine details were oversaturated and just looked bad. I sold that set at a loss to someone that wasn't as picky.

Get your BK glass from Mayfair, they've had them for years and they are spot on to the original.

Drop stickers are the same. Afaik the apron is different and some of the switches are micros instead of leafs.

Reseat the connectors between the head and the cabinet a couple times (power off of course)

Mayfair

Not exactly. The 2 means blue flipper roms. The 500 is the game number. The last number is the game ROM revision, 3/4 being in common circulation. Never found a copy of rev 1 or 2. 4 is recommended as there is a bug in 3 which is a bit esoteric but doesn't cause any damage iirc it just ripped you off for some points.

Unless you meant revision number by ROM number. If you have rev 2 I'd be interested in getting a copy of it for analysis.

Can you shoot me a copy too? Looks like ipdb doesn't have l3 either.

Most of the playfields are a set afaik.

voltage would be roughly the same on either lug

.6 volt is hardly anything at all (unless you meant 60v?)

measure the output of the bridge. one corner of the bridge will be a diagonal or be labeled '+' - that's your DC output. The terminal diagonally opposite that one will be your DC ground.

+ voltage
v
/-----
|----|
|___|
-----^---- ground

If you have no reading there (you can take off the 2 terminals on the DC output/ground and measure unloaded/directly) bridge would be bad. The voltage won't be spot on +28 volts, it will likely be a bit higher or maybe a bit lower, but it should be in the +21-44 range

Yes.

has the power supply been recapped sounds like the cap is slowly charging over time.

Magnetized parts

I've noticed this with some of the pbl stern brackets too. It's likely the specific metal used.

Any of the later games with that trough style (i.e. all the way up to and including some WPC games) that have a microswitch would work on BK's. You might have to play with the mounting.

For the OP just replace the switch contacts or the blades themselves, or buy an entire new switch, if you inspect them and they aren't gold flashed anymore. This is a bit of a fussy adjustment especially with dead spots on the switches; I just replace the blades with new ones I build out of the raw parts (pinball resource sells the blades and gold flashed contacts, it's really easy to build new blades). The blades look a little different if you care about that (they have holes at various points where you can install the contacts). In that case, carefully remove the old contact and crimp a new one in. I do that sometimes as well as you can do it without disassembling the blade stack if you are careful.

When crimping the new one in, you use pliers but make sure you protect the gold face of the contact with a piece of cardboard or tape on one side of your pliers' jaws. It does not require a lot of force to crush the brass stem. you can also solder that brass stem as well if you prefer, but I don't think that's as clean and there's really no advantage to that (unless the switch contact has loosened up over time, that's more the original ones though)

Mayfair. Mirroring is true mirroring.

Also, if you can get it at a show, much cheaper.

according to the pinexpo website, yep

Put a couple washers under the end nearest the shooter lane to move it down a hair. Also you can bend the arm to change the angle it hits the ball.

We're trying to help you but if you're not even going to try any suggestions it for sure isn't going to work.

Bottom wire form goes in the ball trough.

The sound in attract is voice saying the black knight will slay you hahahaah.... or similar - it's not the background sound at all. If you get that in attract there's something wrong, and if it's all new boards, maybe something in the wiring harness or something shorting out.

All of the sound triggers come from the mpu.

You mean the capacitor and resistor on them? Yes, they are both supposed to be there. Your pictures are not really in focus so not sure what you're asking. Compare to the opposite sling.

The aluminum canned capacitor is likely original and needs to be replaced. For testing, you can cut off one leg of both the cap and the resistor - the cap is probably shorted which is why your sling would lock on.

jumper is shown installed as well as those resistors on the schematic.

Your master display board is likely from one of the system 6a machines that did NOT display commas.

pasted_image (resized).png

The adjustment on the copper leaf springs is VERY slight. One thing though a lot of people mess up on is that the bar that holds the targets in, people really torque the crap out of those screws (which can break the plastic screw bosses on the plastic guides) - you do NOT need to do that, you just snug them down, and the targets will drop smooth like butta.

Bent less. The copper spring is only there to push target on reset onto the shelf.