Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Nevermind. Turns out the relay's power was being shorted at the power connector due to a stray strand on a poor wire cut. Fixed. Blackout actually Black's-out now!

If the machine doesn't have the extra fuses installed before the bridges in the back box you should look into adding those asap. If needed I do have a good picture on where those should go.

Already got those in place. Thanks. Actually, previous owner had already done the mod, so saved me the hassle. Wish they would have used fuse clips instead of the encased in-line fuses so I could test them without taking them out, but still prevents my house burning down either way......

I've made a nice solution for this problem.
Goto my website http://www.inkochnito.nl and click on the Bridge Board image for more info.

Brug Bord 01 klein (resized).jpg

I actually bought one of these for my blackout. I’ve looked at the walkthrough you did for the firepower. I noticed that my blackout has an extra purple wire that’s connected to the orange wire at the left bridge. Will I just end up with an extra purple wire? I wanted to check before I started cutting.

Thanks!

Sorry that should have said blue wire with the orange. Here’s the pic

0EDA049A-1475-4462-AEA2-B40031DB5754 (resized).jpeg

21F14085-855E-42CD-8A52-A50F8B3889B3 (resized).jpeg

This is the way I installed the fuse upgrade in my Blackout.

FuseUpgrade (resized).jpg

Just tread this blue wire as an extra orange wire.
This is in other machines too I've noticed.
I've mentioned this in my pdf file.
http://home.kpn.nl/p.koch3/Inkochnito_Bridge_Board.pdf
Just look at the file and look for J4-5.

From looking at the schematics, I would say that the blue wire is most likely the supply line for the flippers.
Orange is the supply line for the solenoind via the power supply board.

Inkochnito where do we buy these?

Marco and Big Daddy both sell them.

It depends were you live.
In the USA it would be wise to buy at Big Daddy Enterprises or Marco Specialties.
In Australia you can buy at http://www.rtbb.com.au
In Europe you can buy directly with me.
Large quantities (10 or more) can also come directly to me.
It's often the shipping cost that makes it less interesting to buy only one and send over seas.

Any chance this ever happened?

Look at Jeff's website at least once a month hoping stencils will pop up.....nothing yet

I put one in my Pinbot yesterday and it was really easy. I am very impressed at the quality. Thank you for such a great product. Blackout is next...

Hello, I just recently joined the club! My blackout's GI relay located by the large capacitor was removed by a previous owner.
Can someone take a picture of their GI Relay for me? I'm not sure how it's wired. Thanks!

ok

these are not all from the same game.. note some of the pics have a missing wire on the non banded side of the diode

bkoutrelay- - 3.jpg
bkoutrelay- - 5.jpg
bkoutrelay- - 4.jpg
bkoutrelay- - 2.jpg
bkoutrelay- - 1.jpg
.

bkoutrelay- - 1 (resized).jpg

bkoutrelay- - 2 (resized).jpg

bkoutrelay- - 3 (resized).jpg

bkoutrelay- - 4 (resized).jpg

bkoutrelay- - 5 (resized).jpg

Awesome thanks for posting the pics of the GI relay! Just wired it and it works! Previous owner had it wired wrong lol.

condition green! . another one saved. enjoy it its a fun game

Well, I pick up my Blackout mid next week... should be sweet!

It is a fun game and mine gets a lot of use. Check to see if it has the extra fuses added to the bridges. If not they are easy to add.

Welcome to the Michigan Blackout owners club!

So, I really do like these light mods. I don't want to permanently change the game... but doesn't anyone know where to get the flashing runway lights like he uses in the video... wait until he triggers the blackout.

For me I don't like it, the original effect of the whole game going dark is too cool. To each there own.

Seems he disabled the GI blackout function. Seems kinda wrong. Love the runway light strip.

Neat effect, but agree, I like the original better. His PF is in nice condition.

Instead of the cop light - maybe a strobing black light in front of a topper with black light neon showing a different pattern of some sort?

Just spitballing.

*xpost from repair sub, someone suggested I post here! Super happy to have joined the club and looking forward to learning a lot!*

Hi all! I just picked up my first ever pin over the weekend, a Blackout. It was non functional when I bought it, but I managed to get it powered on and semi functional. I am chugging through some play issues right now, but am stuck on drop targets.

When I drop all of the center and right bank targets, each one of them registers individually, but they don't all clear and reset, nor do I get the "Red/Yellow condition". All of the targets will reset when the ball is over, so I know the solenoids work. I also dissassembled and cleaned the targets and circuit cards. In my troubleshooting, I've also discovered that removing and reinstalling the switch column connector on the MPU board will trigger the series completion, reset all the targets, and light up the "Red/Yellow condition" for the Blackout kickout.

I'm scratching my head on this and would appreciate some guidance! Thanks.

Sounds like a bad connector or weak solder on the MPU. Repin the connector and reflow the solder on the MPU.

Also check all the solder connections around the board for the .156" connectors. They were often cut too close to the board and the solder connections break.

Thanks, will do. Just curious (being new to pinball); let's say the connection was somehow broken between the connector and the board. Why would plugging and unplugging then cause the series to reset? Is it because you are breaking the column/row matrix processing cycle, then reinstating it, so something in the ROM says "Hey, reset everything"??? I would have thought if the connection was broken, it wouldn't reset at all, but that's not the case.

If you have bad connections you will be chasing all sorts of gremlins in the machine. I usually pull the whole set of boards and go over them all. Is there any battery damage? That is also a wildcard.

That long 40 pin connector between the CPU and driver is a weak spot. My game had about 5 of the sping clips on the driver board connector just gone. When the solder joints crack they can start getting oxidation in the crack and on the pin creating an insulator. As the machine gets bumped it can make and break connections. Wreaks havok. Also if some of the caps have dried up they may not be in spec and can cause issues.

Another thing is that some of the original DIP sockets were very poor. They often have to be replaced to make a reliable game.

If you're not comfortable with board repairs then have someone go through them.

Or think about a replacement mpu board. Mine has been solid and it eliminates the 40 pin connector issues. I think Rottendog mpu’s are still available.

I would also replace the diodes on those coils for the drop targets - I use 1N4004 I believe. The 'horseshoe' connectors were notoriously flaky as were the circuit boards, and you might even have a problem with the drop target guides, which I can 3D print.

I second shimmydisc 's suggestion on a replacement MPU/Driver board from RottenDog - MPU327. I was having a hell of a time.

I also second Robotworkshop 's suggestion on replacing connectors - the .156" connectors on the MPU, driver, power boards especially.

Also do yourself a solid and put an 8A fuse with holder inbetween one of the blue leads on the left bridge rectifier and one of the red leads on the right bridge rectifier (underneath the PSU, a little to the left I think). The reason is that you want to prevent the machine from catching fire. Literally.

Look up vid1900 's guide on Bullet-Proofing WMS system 3-6+, you'll be glad you did.

Blackout was my first pin too! I learned so much from fixing it. I agree with everything said above. The issues in my game revolved around bad transistors on the MPU board. I went ahead and replaced the MPU and power supply with boards from rottendog. I’ve been very happy with the purchase and the pin plays great. I also purchased a bridge board from inkochnito which essentially does the same thing that pb456 said regarding placing those fuses near the bridge rectifiers in addition to replacing the large capacitor near them.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bridge-board-available-for-williams-games

Blackout is one of the fastest pins I’ve played. Make sure your flippers are strong, crank up the pitch, and have fun!

Unless the original boards are missing or completely hacked up there is no reason to change them with an after market replacement. Once the original boards have been gone through properly they can run rock solid.

Even if you swapped out the CPU and drivers you'd still have to go over the sound speech board and power board.

I’m in the club!

Playfield is a little rough but presents well after cleaning, rubbering, LEDing, and installing a playfield protector which greatly smooths out the insert issues.

I have some questions for the group that I will post to follow.

My biggest gripe with the rule set is that there is no reason to ever shoot the right lower spinner lane. This is a shame as it is a cool shot and adds to the pleasing flow of the game.

Does anyone know how difficult it would be to modify the ROM to add a simple rule to incentivize this shot?

One idea:
Completing the center target bank twice lights the lower right spinner.
Completing the upper target bank lights only the top right spinner.
Completing both of the above lights both but flashes one of the spinners for 2000/spin which alternates with each spinner hit.

Thoughts?

That is an interesting thought. I've rewritten the code to alter the rules on an older Bally machine but haven't looked at the Williams code. A lot would depend if there are any free bytes in RAM to keep track of that and also if there is any unused space in the game ROM.

Robert

I never shoot for that shot anyways because if you miss its straight down the middle

Then that would be a good reason to make that shot something special..if you make it you get lots of points. If not you may loose the ball.....

Good point

I thought after the third go-around of Yellow that spinner is worth 1K per spin?

It does become 1000 at some point. Shit, i just like the feeling of having all three spinners going at once. Reason enough for me to shoot it.

Second go-round it is but so is the upper right spinner which is an easier shot. I dream of something to differentiate the two spinners so that at some point it is advantageous to shoot the lower spinner.

Unrelated observation but I rather like how the background sound pitches up to a very annoying tone at times. I treat it as sort of a hurry up to hit the spinner as quick as possible to cycle the sound back to a lower pitch. When accomplished it is a satisfying release of tension.

I find it almost as easy - bottom and top right - but may have to do with the rubbers and the end of stroke switch on my left flipper.

GI lighting problem. Everything worked on the machine. Then I put LEDs in the black glass (looks awesome). Then noticed a day or two later that the Playfield GI is out. All of it. Also the basic low drone sound isn’t playing. Everything else works. Sounds, insert lights, blackout function on the black glass (GI isn’t working so can’t see it).

So, checked around, no fuses out, no wires off that I could see, no burn marks. Flexed and tapped the harnesses, nothing.

New to pins, and learning to troubleshoot. Suggestions?

On my machine I probably replaced close to 20 lamp sockets on the backboard and some on the playfield. How are the sockets on your game? Any shorted?

I put white LEDs in the backbox since I wanted to reduce the heat and prolong the backglass art. Just changing the bulbs to LEDs shouldn't have caused a lot of trouble.

Well, all of mine seem to work. None out. It does not make much sense that the led change did anything except the I opened things up. Only thought I have is to get my meter and start checking where I am loosing the power.

Guessing - common ground shorted out between BG and PF? Or shorted bulb?