I'm on the lookout for a Centaur so I can join the club, wondering if anyone here has fitted a Playfield Protector to their Centaur and what they thought of the outcome? http://www.bestofpinball.de/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/636/products_id/12760

I have a Flintstones and PinBot and have put protectors on both of those and like the result, it smooths out the playfield from any slightly raised or sunken inserts. Does Centaur often suffer from insert movement?
Wondering how the protector works as Centaur has the roll overs, inline drops and the outlane bounce posts etc that might be affected by the overlay?

If the overlay works fine then I will not need to be as fussy about the playfield when looking for one.

Excellent thanks for your detailed response

Yay I am finally officially in the club ☺
Proud owner of a Centaur 2 with rough cabinet and reasonably good playfield.

No doubt I will have a few questions over the coming weeks.
First one is what angle do you have your playfield?
I have raised the back levellers more than half way up and I am only up to about 5% gradient and it's playing quite slow. I will raise it some more and give the playfield a wax and see how I go.
Do most people have the back levellers wound right up?

Thanks SilverballNut ☺
I have wound up the back legs a bit more and now it's playing much better.
I have a huge list of improvements I want to make and parts I want to replace.

I would like to replace all the coil sleeves, from what I can work out online (away from pin atm) is Centaur has 18 coils and they use 1-11/16 #03-7066-2 which I have only been able to find at Marco none in Australia unfortunately.
Could someone please confirm that all the coils use the same sleeves? I hope it's that simple.

Thanks very much for that, could you please tell me what sleeves the drop target coils use?

Awesome thank you

Pinball makes her "Hot" !!!!
Enjoying cleaning and tweaking Centaur II, in places it's a bit rough, I would describe it as "players" condition, but due to the rough and tough theme I'm accepting of its battle scars, some I will cover or touch up and some I will leave.
The most important things are it plays well, its fun and sounds good. I have spent a couple of hours tweaking switches and cleaning the under playfield ball launch rails and solenoid etc. Now it's launching balls with gusto, time to "Destroy Centaur"
So I invited my Son (14) "do I have to?" down for a game which he dutifully did, he played well and seemed to enjoy it and even hung around to listen to me talk about it for 5min after, what a good kid, but he won't play it again.
Then it was my Wifes turn, she also seemed to enjoy playing, in fact she had a fair bit of action going on and said "it makes me hot" LOL. I think that was because the heater was on but I'm going to use that quote on her when I buy my next pinball. "But dear you said pinball makes you hot, so I thought you would be glad that I'm buying more"

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After cleaning and adjustment I find that I still get the occasional ball launched from under playfield ending up in the ball launch lane, most go straight to the upper lanes, about 1 in 10 goes down the right lane and maybe one in 20 or less goes to the shooter lane.
Is this normal? I'm guessing this is just due to the design of the game and that it's common for the occasional ball to do that, it doesn't ruin game play, but it does give the player it happens to an advantage over their competition.

Also the top star roll over, I have tweaked and cleaned the switch and its working but I can't get it dialled so that it works for a fast strong shot. Fast shots will go straight over without triggering the switch, should I keep tweaking or is this also common? I don't want to waste time chasing perfection that might be unobtainable.

Thanks for that Timmo (neee) I will check to see there are such capacitors present on my machine, I guess they are missing as I am finding fast balls are sometimes not registered by all the lane switches even though the contacts are close and have been cleaned.

I cleaned them with a cotton bud and isopropyl, a mate suggested 800 sandpaper but I have read many say that is bad as it removes the gold from the contacts.

Is Abe here? seems he got a huge score on my pinball in 1984 and he was quite proud of it, I would like to congratulate him and ask if it was on factory settings 3 ball or 5 ball ?

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Mine is "players" condition and I won't be redoing the outside artwork, I actually like that mine has this bit of history and character but I wouldn't want more all over it.

I had a couple of pinhead mates visit tonight and they noticed that one of the rubbers on my slingshots was almost broken at the top where it goes around the steel post. They wondered if there should be a plastic post there but I just checked on IPDB and it shows the same as mine a steel post.

So does everyone go through slingshot rubbers quickly on Centaur?

Could someone please tell me if the nylon bush for the under playfield ball launch mech is the same as the flipper shaft bushes? If not do you know the part number and where I can get one?

I'm away from my machine at work and can't check for a few days and want to finalise a parts order.

Thanks I will take the chance and order one, not an expensive risk.

Flipper bush fitted my ball launch thanks

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0tKYkpAaQsQZGNLaVJmZkZFVmc (me pressing switches with glass off)

Can someone listen to this ^ sound file please and tell me if the sound effect at 11sec and again a few times at 21 to 24sec is normal? I have watched Centaur videos online and I don't remember it happening on other games, I can't work out what triggers it, seems that sometimes it will play that effect for whatever I hit and sometimes it will make that sound quite a few times in a row especially noticeable during multiball.

At first I wondered if it was because the bonus was maxed, but no then it did it early in a ball, there doesn't seem to be any logic to it so I'm thinking it might be an error sound signifying an issue?

OK thanks, it's a strange and mildly annoying sound and I don't like that it's random and doesn't have meaning but it's good to know that it's normal Centaur behaviour and not a fault in my game I need to troubleshoot so I will relax and get used to it.

I wonder if it's a software bug or if the programmer wanted it to have some randomness to the effects.

I think the laughter call out added in the home rom is great, I don't understand why that was left out of the original code either, perhaps a few mistakes were made?

My S&T has been recapped and I have a new repro SAI board and mine makes the random sound. Good luck tracking down why it happens, I assumed from the other responses that they all did it.

Nope can't relax and get used to it the very next game it did it heaps and drove me mad.

Next week I'm going to try removing cleaning and reseating all the sound board chips. I will check for cold solder on the board while there.
If that doesn't work I will consider replacing the sound rom chips.
I will report back with progress.

Looking forward to getting home and checking out my J1 to try to fix the sound, fingers crossed.

Could someone please post a pic or description of the striker plate on the under playfield ball launcher mech. Mine is two plates joined at a right angle leaving a "bum" groove in the middle of the strike plate. I'm thinking if that groove doesn't hit right in the middle of the ball then it would not push the ball straight foward. There is at least a mm or so of side to side movement here so that the mech doesn't bind which leaves the potential for an off centre strike.

Mine launches nice and strong about 30 times in a row and then I will get a few weak launches that only just make the playfield and fall down the right lane.
I have a new coil new sleeve, new mech bush, polished and adjusted rails.

Excellent help thanks Joydivision
I will check my solenoid expander board. I read someone else post that their Centaur 2 didn't have a bulb wired to the expander and didn't have two diodes for the launch solenoid as it says on Pinrepair should be there yet it was working. Does yours have the bulb and two diodes one across the solenoid and one on the power in? It would help to know if mine is wired right or not when I check it tomorrow.

Fantastic information thanks guys you have saved me wasting time acting upon information that is irrelevant to Centaur.

Next time you are in Tasmania feel free to drop round and I will shout a few drinks

I bought an IDC connector punch tool and pushed my wires in tight in J1 but that didn't help, yesterday a friend came over and replaced the connector with a new one and it still makes the sound that wasn't the issue for me unfortunately. I'm going to get a new S&T board from mypinballs when he does his next batch, fingers crossed that will fix it and give me an overall nicer cleaner sound also.

My under playfield ball launch problem is almost totally fixed now, I reflowed a couple of pin on the solenoid driver board and cleaned all the connectors and pushed the wires down in the IDCs and it seems one of those things helped. But it's still not quite as good as it could be, I'm getting a new solenoid driver board and expander and power rectifier board so once again that should sort that. I will sell my old boards later to recoup some of the costs, I know some people like to keep the originals going and would think what I'm doing is sacrilege, I do keep old boards in my other games, but Centaur is giving me some trouble and I want it playing as well as possible and reliably so that's what I'm doing.

I have installed a playfield protector which I think looks great, almost as good as having a nice new clearcoat, but it does seem to be causing a few more airballs especially from the slingshots. I put washers under the slingshot posts to raise them a bit and that has helped a bit but I'm still getting some airballs.
Do others find that the soft white rubbers dent on the sharp curve of the metal post at the top of the slingshots? It looks like they would wear very quickly there, I might try black rubbers (although I prefer the look of white) and see if they hold up better and maybe even reduce my airballs? I will report back my findings when I get round to it.

Does anyone how many balls per game (3 or 5) Centaur was set for in the dips from the factory? My friend says it should be a 5 ball game and I have mine set as 3. I prefer all my pins to be set as three but out of interest I would like to know what it was set at factory.

This pic is the result of an airball and the ball getting trapped in between the glass and slingshot plastic, this has happened about three times in the last couple of weeks. I'm going to put plastic protectors on that will raise and stiffen the slingshot plastics which should stop this.

sdfzI0w (resized).jpg

If you look really closely at the instruction card on this original flyer it shows this game is set to 3 balls, that may be as close as we get to proof.

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=flyer&db=pinballdb&id=659&image=3

I was playing pinball in Australia in the 80s although I will admit I was more likely to play arcade games.

From what I remember there were a mix of 3 and 5 ball games but I thought most were set at 3.

When pinballs went up to 40c a game some ops changed to 5 balls, but I think that would have been a few years after Centaur?

Once again I am just going from memory and I am sure it would have been different in different states and venues.

Could someone please tell me if this behaviour is normal?

Occasionally if I get the last flashing ORBS target and lose the ball straight away it will release the new ball from under the playfield as it should but end the game for losing the last ball at the same time. So the game ends and you watch the newly released ball drain as you have no flippers.

I'm wondering if this just happens sometimes and is bad luck due to timing or if maybe it's due to ball trough switch issues? mine seems to be adjusted and working ok but I have had to fiddle with them and adjust the wires so perhaps it's not quite right? multiball launch is working fine normally.

Thanks vec-tor I will check that switch, they are tricky to get the wire adjusted right.

Could someone please post a pic of the wiring and diode on the centre coin door micro switch?

To make my question easier now not requiring pictures.

Is the middle coin door micro switch wired the same as the right side coin door or the same as the far left ball trough switch please?

Thanks, hopefully I can understand that when I get home and look at the machine.
Does that mean that the diode is in the same position (switch tabs) on all the coin door switches?

Thanks again ☺

In the manual it says that the slingshot rubbers should be 2"

I bought a rubber kit for mine and it came as per the manual with 6x 2" and 1x 2 1/2" but the 2" rubbers seem far too tight on the slings, they pull tight around the upper metal post of the sling which dents into the rubber and after less than 100 games the new rubber has broken at that post.

I put another new 2" rubber on it and left it for awhile and took it off without playing any games and you can see in the attached pic the big dent creating a weak spot.

So now I'm testing a new 2 1/2" rubber on that sling, it seems to fit better and after a couple of games I have not noticed any difference in the performance of the sling. If it tests well after more games and looks like it will last longer I will order more 2 1/2" rubber for the slings.

Has anyone else found the 2" sling rubbers break quickly? I can't see how 2" could be OK for anyone?

20171207_165444 (resized).jpg

I see you have 3x 2 1/2" on your list of what you think the chart should be, I assume you agree then that the slingshots should be 2 1/2" not 2" like it says in the manual?

You may be correct that the rubber kit I bought is not the best quality, but that would surprise me as it was from one of the longest running and most reputable pinball parts stores in Australia RTBB. Are you just guessing it's poor quality or does my picture shows signs that it is inferior?

People who made these charts at Titan must have just copied the manual https://www.titanpinball.com/kits/index.php/browse/bygame/990

I'm surprised more people are not discussing this issue.

Here is the page from the manual for reference.

Capture (resized).JPG

Thanks for trying to help, I understand some of what you have said, but you are saying the slings are 2" then also the manual still has it wrong elsewhere and should say 3x 2 1/2 instead of one. So where do the other larger than recorded rings go if not on the slings? maybe you mean on C14 but my 2" fit and work fine on those.

I am still looking into this weird sound issue (listen to link in quote) that others reported having also so I thought I would report my progress so far.

I have replaced ALL the boards in the game with brand new repro boards including the soundboard and SIA board and it still makes this sound. I have replaced the connector on the sound board and ordered more to replace others also.

I have tracked down how I can force it to make the sound, if any of the first three inline drops in the chamber are down and I activate the left pop bumper and the top roll over together continuously it will make the sound, it doesn't seem to do it if just the fourth drop is down on its own.

I have run a new power wire for the pop bumper out of the harness, I was getting ghost pops with the flipper buttons so have separated the harness and run some new wires and almost eliminated that issue which it seems is caused EMI and is addressed in another thread on Pinside.

I'm thinking the sound issue could still somehow be EMI from the drop targets or rollover switch so I will try to trace the wires and look into that further. I checked the diodes inline on the drop switches which seemed ok and cleaned the contacts. All the wiring seems to be OK, I could not see where these switches are connected to a ground braid though?

Anyway it sure is a stubborn problem but I have not given up yet

I'm also still getting the occasional false slingshot fire with the flippers I will try to fix that too.

Another strange issue is that when I use the new squark and talk soundboard from Applejuice (which sounds great) the call outs stop when I press the flippers, so I have gone back to the old soundboard which doesn't do that as the new sound board didn't fix the issue I was trying to resolve anyway and just added another one.

I have already run new wires for the power to the flipper buttons and flipper solenoids looks like I will have to run new wires for the signal wires also.

Thanks CactusJack that is a great help.
I will try activating the same switches without the coils activating and see if I still get the sound issue.
I have not replaced all the caps or diodes, I am a slow noob with the soldering iron but I will give it a try if it becomes a last resort.

STILL trying to troubleshoot the crazy sound my Centaur sometimes makes that I linked to earlier, I have replaced all the boards with repros and it still does it so it must be wiring. I have been replacing diodes everywhere and rewiring new connectors in with no change until just now when I rewired a couple more connectors on the MPU board, not the sound is totally stuffed.

I thought I might have done a bad crimp but they seem ok, then I checked the schematic and on J3 on the MPU board I have a wire missing at position 12.
I have checked through the cab a couple of times and can't see it anywhere, I'm wondering if it was ever there on my game?
Could someone check their game please and tell me what this wire does and where it goes from the J3 as I am struggling to work it out on the schematic.
Pic of my connector and the schematic below

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Thanks very much for that Timmo, I will now assume that wire was never part of my loom as I can't see it anywhere and assume this does not cause some weird matrix issue, but I will hook up a wire to pin 4 of the coin door to test, just in case.

Joydivision, you may be correct that it is just a Centaur thing, in fact I hope you are because then I can give up looking for a fix. But I can't help wondering why more people didn't report that theirs does this and why one person said they stopped theirs from doing it? Perhaps theirs was intermittent and they didn't play enough for it to do it again?

It would be great if a few Centaur owners could do this test for me and see if theirs makes the sound. I find that if I take off the glass and start a game and repeatedly activate the top rollover and the left bumper at the same time it will make the sound. Sometimes it will take a couple of minutes to start doing it but then it will do it multiple times in a row. If the Queens chamber drop targets are down while doing this test it will do it much sooner. That is why I have been directing my attention to these areas and have replaced all the diodes on those switches. That is my way of forcing it to make the sound for troubleshooting testing, but it will make the sound sometimes during normal gameplay it just takes longer to test as I can often play 3 or 4 games before it does it.
Here is the link to the sound again, does it a couple of times at about 10secs and a couple at the end 22secs.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0tKYkpAaQsQZGNLaVJmZkZFVmc

Now that I know it still does it with new boards and new connectors I have been wondering if it is something to do with EMI through the wires as others have reported for ghost pop bumper activations. Mine had ghost pops also which I have stopped almost completely by running new power wires to the pop bumpers.

It seems the sound happens when the soundboard is overloaded by too many sounds happening at once, so yeah it could be a code issue, but why are more people not reporting it as normal if that is the case?

I have another issue that has me wondering, when I use my original soundboard the speech callouts work normally. But when I put the new "myPinballs" S&T board in the speech call outs cut out when I press the flippers. I asked applejuice about this and he suggested looking at J4 on my MPU board, but I have put a new connector there and it does it with the original board and the new repro MPU board. I have run new wires from the flipper solenoids to the new Solenoid board and put new diodes on the flipper buttons and the flipper mechs and solenoids are new and I have tried to separate the wires from the loom and used ferrite core31 snap ons to reduce possible EMI so I am running out of options.

Perhaps if I can get others to confirm that the weird sound above is a common thing with Centaur then I will just go back to using my old soundboard which doesn't cut out and forget trying to fix it and see if I can put up with knowing I can't fix it. (Would be a shame as the new soundboard sounds much better apart from cutting out speech)

Unfortunately at the moment this is sucking all the fun out the game for me and I'm not playing it just troubleshooting. In fact it's sucking the fun out of my games room altogether I am even considering giving up and selling it at a loss and buying a different game which would be a shame as Centaur was a grail pin for me and I looked for one for ages and I have put a heap of time and money into fixing it up.

Thanks for that dothedoo, I missed your reply earlier, as both the restored one at TPF and yours does it also then it seems more and more like it is a very common thing with Centaur.

I wonder if new Centaurs did it or if it's something they develop, if they did it new then perhaps it is something that could be fixed with a hacked code update to either the MPU roms or soundboard roms. It does seem like it happens when there is an overload of signals, so maybe the code could be changed to only accept sound input every "X" amount of time and ignore others, if that is possible. That would mean the occasional sound effect would not be produced when a switch is activated but if it stopped the crazy sound then that would be worth it. Anyway such code mods are out of my league so I won't be holding my breath for it to happen, does anyone think it's worth mentioning it to a code guru for investigation?

Thanks for the encouragement Tominator, I am interested to see if you can force your game to make the noise the way I can do with mine, that will help build the case that it is a common issue.

Thanks again Joydivision I will try caps on my flipper button switches soon and let you know how that goes. I have some 47p 50V from jaycar here already which is what vid1900 recommends in the link you provided. The 100V you recommended might be better, I dunno, but I will try these first anyway.

OK yeah Jaycar is only 10mins away so I should go in and get some of the ones you recommend rather than pissing about wasting more time first

Re this post and the issue with the random strange sound that I'm still having an issue with https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/centaur-clubmembers-only/page/15#post-3932337

Quick update is I now have ALL new boards including the parlor city pinball repro centaur say it again board and the Mypinballs @applejuice Squawk and Talk board and I have replaced multiple diodes and caps and connectors and I'm over it.

Just this week yet another Centaur owner posted on my local Aussie Arcade forum that he is having the same issue, and someone replied that it is sound #19 which seems to be an unused sound on the soundboard.

So that has me wondering would it be possible for someone to hack the sound rom and remove that unused sound so that myself and others who are struggling with this issue don't have to put up with this sound or the endless troubleshooting?

Is there anyone here that can do it or could you suggest anyone that I could ask? and then burn it to a rom that I can put in my new S&T soundboard?