Finally joined the club last night!

Working through a complete, but somewhat neglected (as in owned by non-pinheads for years prior) example.

Cleaned out lots of wd-40 used as a lubricant, resoldered a bunch of broken wires, adjusted a bunch of switches, to get it playing reliably while I wait for a parts order to arrive.

Can anyone do me a favor and post a picture of their switch edge test screen, just so I can compare to this one?

Here’s where I’m at now:

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I just had my recently acquired one apart yesterday, but these are the only ones I took. Hope it helps.

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Buttoning this baby up, and one (hopefully) last issue to finish up with. I’m almost embarrassed to ask, as it seems so easy to usually identify...but this one is driving me crazy.

GI is out, I believe an entire string; the 4 rollover lane guides, the gi under the coffin, and the gi under the end of the shooter ramp. Fuses in the back box (106, 107, 108, 109, and 110) look and meter good. No noticeable wire breaks on the yellow strings. Lower GI (flipper area) works good. Reseated connectors on the driver board. Any idea where to begin?

The GI that is out appears to get power from a brown wire, and white wire with brown spots; it traces back to j115, and the connections look and feel solid. I’m going to try swapping fuses around and see if the problem follows.

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Fuses verified good out of machine with a meter, can’t find any loose or broken wiring. Any ideas where I should look next?

I got the optos and magnet adjusted and working perfectly, and now it’s just this string of gi out at the back of the playfield, and it seems like it should be obvious but it’s driving me nuts, haha.

They are shims that go under the service rails, on the underside of the play field between the in and out lane switch notches.

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The wires in the connector all looked to be seated correctly; I pushed all the individual wires back in the connector with a jeweler’s flat heat screw driver and still nothing.

Going to pull the connector and see if there’s at least power coming out of the driver board pins with a meter. If there is, I’m guessing then it’s a bad lamp socket? Never had #44 socket go bad before, so I’m not even sure what to look for.

As for checking the pins on the driver board, I’m putting the lead on pin 1, then checking for voltage at the other pins, and then on pin 2 and doing the same?

I got 10 volts on each of the top 5 pins at j115, so I guess that narrows it down a little further. Extremely frustrating haha.

Anyone know the proper diode orientation across the shooter coil lugs? I’m guessing it should have one, unless someone before thought this was a convenient spot to just blob one on...

This thing just keeps coming up with hacks and surprises, haha

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The game plunges without it, and I’m not getting any other switch errors...weird. I guess I’ll go ahead and solder it to the other side and see what happens.

I have a bunch coming tomorrow with a large order; this one is a 1N4004; it shows 0 reading in Ohms?

Duh; anode side reads 580, and 0 on the cathode side in diode mode, so it looks good...it’s been a long day, haha

The saga continues on the two gi strings that are out at the back of the machine...

In acv mode on the meter, I get
7.2/3 volts on the double ganged string with the two brown and the two white with brown dots wires.

To get the readings, I am putting the negative probe on a ground braid, and the positive probe on the soldered connections on the bulb sockets.

I go down each string, placing the positive probe on each socket, on both socket connections. All readings are 7.2.

I do the same thing for the socket that it is single gang wired with brown and white with brown dots wires. Same thing all along the entire string, 7.2.

What am I doing wrong, or what is this info telling me?

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Would jumpering from somewhere be helpfull, or am I risking damage? The game is entirely led’d at this point, so the draw wouldn’t be like it would with incandescents.

I’m fully stumped at this point how the two strings could be out.

To the delight of everyone in this thread, I can finally shut the hell up!

Per the pinwiki on WPC GI, I reseated the ribbon cable between the power board and the the driver board, reseated the asic chip, and reseated J120 for the umpteenth time. Voila! Not sure which specific thing did it, but it’s working.

Now just waiting on some odds and ends to arrive, and she’ll be in tip top! Thanks for the replies and guidance everyone.

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I’m sure it’s been discussed ad nauseam, and I’m still catching up as I’m pretty new to the club, but I had the dreaded switch 82 error; I was able to trigger the switch on the receiving end with a tv remote so I figured that side was fine. I could see the emitter glowing slightly with a cell phone camera, but it looked weak. I recapped the 24 opto board ($3), and soldered in a new emitter assembly ($5). Tested prior to reassembling everything, and switch 82 would now close when you passed your hand across the play field. Hardest part was taking everything apart to get to the emitter. Just an option before considering buying a $100 replacement board you may not necessarily need.

It's freakin' BSD!

It better have lightning flippers, it better have the lanes wide open, and it better have the slings and pops adjusted to hair trigger sensitivity!

(If you're feeling extra brutal, pull the out lane rubbers, and adjust the tilt extra sensitive)

This game would lose all of its moxy if set up easy. That's why it's so satisfying to stack the multiballs and get huge double jackpots, because it doesn't happen every game!

Run a magnet test; if everything checks out, and the error doesn't clear, try a factory reset.

If that doesn't clear it, try cleaning the optos, or maybe even replacing them (they are cheap)

Anybody know the size of this missing threaded spacer for the ramp, and the correct associated threaded post for the sling/star post?

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Anybody know the length of the hex post closest to the backbox of the two that support the right ramp at the sling?

Gah! Of course all the extra ones I have are tapped for smaller threaded posts. Going on the list...

Before delving into the board, try replacing the emitter/transmitter opto. They can appear to glow under a camera, but may not be strong enough. Have you tried using a tv remote to trigger the receiver side in switch test to verify that side is working?

I recapped the board on mine a few months ago right after I got the game to try and iron out similiar issues, and finally just replacing the emmiter opto is what got me squared away.

My GI issues all came back to the connectors located on the power driver board; the wires needed to be pushed into the pins for a better connection, and a quick burnish of the pins on the board itself that the connector plugged into got mine back up and running.

Good luck sir!

Gord's guide helped me greatly.

The only PITA is that you'll have to remove (or carefully bend) the right ramp, and all the associated plastics on the right to get good access to the mist emmiter opto. Once everything is out of the way, it was as straight forward as unsoldering the old opto, and soldering in the new.

My plain old tv remote worked fine to trigger the receiver opto on mine in switch test when I was trouble shooting mist issues on my game. I'm guessing if you can "see" the transmitter lighting up through the cheap selfie camera on an iphone of any old common remote, it "should" be good enough for the receiver opto to see as well.

In the grand scheme of things, replacing BOTH optos is $6...cheap peace of mind in my book.

I found that recapping the 24 opto board (for $3), replacing the 10 microhenry inductor ($2), and the above mentioned optos solved every mist issue I had, and the game has been running flawlessly since (hundreds of games), and a lot cheaper than buying the $100 homepin replacement opto board (which may or may not resolve the issue if the emmiter opto itself was bad. YMMV.

From my understanding, the "magic" happens in the 24 opto board to boost the signal of off the shelf, regular old, short throw optos.

LED on the 24" opto board?

Only conjecture, but my bet is on the emitter being weak.

There's only so many things that can cause what you are experiencing. You'll get it squared away soon.

Check the caps and inductor on the 24" opto board.

I chased weird issues for a while, sometimes mist would work, and then it would have errors. I finally just said screw it, and replaced the optos, the two caps, and the inductor, and everything has been rock solid since.

It was maybe an hour of my time and $10 in parts.

Good luck, it can be frustrating, but you'll get it squared away.

Randomly, when I was chasing issues, I replaced the inductor with an exact uH match; went to test the receiver side with an IR light, and it wouldn't trigger; I then switched it out for the other inductor I had (it came in a two pack with the original that didn't work), and it "magically" started triggering with an IR light (ie mimmicing the beam being reset). Not saying it's related at all, but just a strange observation. I'm guessing it had to do with ripple, but I don't have a scope, and it's waaayyyyyy above my pay grade.

A new red sharpie works wonders in the mean time, haha.

I'd say it's a solid player's machine; the added mods add no value, sans the colordmd. Reflow the header pin on the lightboard to get the "a" in dracula to light up.

In today's market...$3.3k-$3.7k is what I'd guess it would go for, assuming EVERYTHING works.

If the playfield wasn't planked, you could get a little more.

Just to clarify, you're saying that the led lamp bases (#555 wedge style) with domed tops are of a differing shape and size than other #555 led bulbs, EVEN from the same manufacturer? Never had that happen myself.

I've had some tight fitting led's before that needed a little persuasion compared to their original glass counterparts, but never as your describing. If I recall, the "toughest" of these was the wedges under the drac coffin cover, I had to use a channel lock wrench "gingerly" to get them in there.

Weird, I would "think" the wedge bases would all be the same, regardless of dome/no dome/number of smd's...

I'm guessing it was a batch/lot that was manufactured out of comet's specified tolerance.

IF, big IF, you wanted to go to the trouble, you could sand a little material off the corners of each wedge so they fit better. Or, you could just try a different batch of bulbs. Weird.

While we're on the topic of bulbs, I generally only buy Cointakers and Comets; and always with a frosted dome. If I need to, I can just pull the domes off and have the flat top style.

That really sounds like a manufacturing defect. Comet has always done me right. Maybe contact Ryan and see what's up, even if it's just to let him know.

The one with the dba is "domestic market", the one with the the three vertical stampings is "foreign market".

So if your example was a US game, then it should have the one with the dba, and if it was an export/re-import, it would have the one with the three stamps.

This, times 1000! (and a lot cheaper than the homepin board). This is the standard advice I give to anyone dealing with magnet issues.

Replace the emitter and receiver optos as well, cheap insurance!

I did the above months and hundreds of games ago, and have had nary an issue with Mist since.

I'm a big fan of the perfect plays for flipper rubber; to me at least, they seem very similar to the feel of good old regular rubber after maybe a dozen games, and you can pick a myriad of colors (although I usually go for bright red, haha). The one's from Marco seem "dead" out of the bag to me, similar to heavily played or aged regular rubber.

Everywhere else, regular old black or white rubber. When they seem to start losing bounce, it's a good indicator it's time for a shop out. YMMV.

Check the skill shot drop target spring and switch; also the drop target itself, as the little nub that holds it above the playfield could be worn, causing even a small amount of vibration to trip it.

Ball launch is independent of skill shot.

This right here.

Possibly in combination with shooter lane switch.

Switch edge test should tell you pretty quickly what it is. Good luck!

Just read this part...

Sounds like it's time to replace your mist receiver and emitter optos, clean the coils for the two mist gates (or adjust them to make sure they capture, hold, and release a ball correctly, and re-cap and replace the 10 mh inductor on the 24 opto board. It's not as bad as it sounds, and is about $10 in parts.

Or you can replace the 24 board with a homepin one ($100), and replace the three mist optos.

I have cointaker's in mine and don't get any ghosting...

Not really BSD specific, but I get the "slightest" bit of ball hop from the transition to the guide to the left flipper on mine. This DOES make the game play a lot harder (not being able to spam the coffin ramp repeatedly reliably), but I would like to correct it.

I've tried loosening the screws for the guide and sliding the whole assembly "up" as mush as it will go, and tightening everything back down, but it eventually works its way back down, and the hop returns. I'm thinking maybe taking a couple tooth picks in the 3 or 4 screw holes, and using them as shims may do the trick? Any other ideas? (I really think the flipper bat playfield hole was drilled slightly off from the factory, but I'm not going down that worm hole over something like this, haha.)

Forgot about those! Thanks! Just emailed Cliff. Hope to hear back soon.

Contacted Cliffy, sent a few pictures, and my enhanced guide will be on the way shortly...sure beats me re-drilling the playfield and or modifying the existing guide! Thanks for the suggestion!

On a side note, according to Cliff, Churchill playfields are quite rare in BSD, apparently he had never seen one before. I guess that's why the copy I have doesn't have (knock on wood) planking or popped inserts like a lot that I've seen. I suppose the factory misaligned guide/flipper bushing holes are a worthwhile tradeoff, haha.

I have an original Chruchill in mine; thing is still minty with no insert issues and it's smooth as glass.

This is correct.

Not sure if DW was intended for them (as it came BEFORE BSD), but Popeye has them featured (as Popeye's arms) on the backglass, so I figure Python intended them to be there.

For the record, I've always felt BSD should be lanes full open, lightning flippers, and game pitched high for the full ass-kicker effect.

Recap the 24 opto board (and throw a new inductor in it too). Takes 5 minutes and is less than $7 in parts, and you keep the original board. Just food for thought.

The Churchill Cabinets manufactured playfield that came with mine has the serial number uv printed on it. You can see it from certain angles without a black light.

IMHO, lightnings are a must on BSD! The game loses it's one-more-time appeal if 30 MIIIILLLLLLLLLLIIIIOOOONNNNNNNN jackpots and 300+Million supers are every game (or even every 10 game) occurrences.

Lightnings, lanes wide open, and slings adjusted to fire if you so much as sneeze! Bring the pain!

From a playing and getting better/more skilled standpoint, lightnings (and this game in general), will make you a better player overall. Other games after a few brutal sessions of bsd feel downright easy. It makes you anticipate and react to ball movement extremely quickly.

I forgot if I got them from pbl or Marcos, but the yellow ones on mine have held up great for thousands of games over the last 3 or so years since I rebuilt the flippers and put new bats in. I give them a quick wipe down with novus when I do my monthly play field wipe down/wax/rubber rotation, and they still look new.

J21 (or 20, I’m not in front of the machine) connector is likely smoked. Wiggle the connector and see if you get a better connection and lights back on. I had to repin the connector in mine, but for the top 1/3 gi.

I’ve never actually played a bsd w/o lfs. I’d imagine it changes everything for the worse.

Hear me out:

I’ve played FT (the OTHER most appropriate game that also shipped with them…I get it drwho and pste also had them from the factory…) with standards, and it’s not even the same game that I played as a punk yute, and now I’m a decent player.

I’d argue that it’s night and day how much that little extra 1/4” gap makes. FT and BSD are BETTER with lightnings. Consider it a little weird nuance in pinball history, that is now from 30 years ago. It may not be what BO or MR intended, but it’s basically a signature of both at this point.

Viva la lighting flippers for life on BSD and FT!