(Topic ID: 296280)

Eight Ball Deluxe, Small issues, and some fixes

By Skydivewags

2 years ago


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#1 2 years ago

I bought an 8 Ball Deluxe, 1981 version I think, a few months ago. Photo included for identification. I'll list current issues first.

1. One odd thing the machine does every time I turn it on is it says "Eight Ball Deluxe, 3 Ball". Why does it say 3 ball? That can't be normal, can it? There is no issue with my 3 ball that I can tell.

2. Sometimes when starting a game, player 1 will get 30 points before launching the ball. I am thinking this is a switch that is very sensitive, but what has a value that low? Or is this something else?

3. When the ball hits the bumpers fast, I get dimming of the lights on the board. Is that normal? Do people upgrade the power supply to eliminate that? If so, what do you use?

4. I've had a couple times when the machine has been running a long time that the voice stops. No fuses blown, I just shut it off and on, and it's good again. Is it Just a standard heat issue, or should I be careful of a larger problem looming?

5. One thing not an issue, does anyone know if this pinball normally has any magnets under the play field? I don't see any, but some areas are a bit buried. My playfield is not perfectly flat, so the ball moves strange at times anyway.

I think that covers the issues I still have, anyone that wants to learn from my limited knowledge of this machine so far, read on.

I had issues with the audio failing,(and some other things failed to work) and tracked it to a blown fuse. I replaced it with the same size fuse, and it happened a few times after that. Rookie mistake, I should have looked in the manual for the correct fuse size, as the fuse in there was actually too small. It was F5, and they had a 10amp fuse, and it is supposed to be a 20 amp. Been good since.

I had trouble with the upper left rollover not triggering all the time, especially if the ball was traveling fast. I first bent the contacts so the switch was more sensitive, but then it would trigger randomly when the ball hit something hard, or you bumped the cabinet. I found that my aftermarket playfield had a bump just before the rollover, so I had to literally beat it down and then readjusted the switch so it wasn't so sensitive. Good now.

The left Slingshot was triggering several times most of the time when the ball would hit it. At first I thought it might be a bad diode, but found that it was actually that one of the two switches was too sensitive. It was almost completely closed in it's static state. I opened it up a bit, and it's good now.

I had the left flipper fail, replaced the solenoid, no biggie.

I've had a couple wires come loose that just had to be resoldered, wires loose in a connector, standard for something of this age. I am debating on replacing all the connectors next winter when life slows down a bit.

My game is set for a free game at 600,000, and 1,100,000. The card on the front says 1,000,000 and 2,000,000. What is the standard? I know, it really doesn't matter too much.

I am assuming you can only get one free ball per ball. One time I played I got a ball after the 3rd ball, and it actually said ball 4 in the display, how does this happen? It hasn't happened since.

I love the game, and enjoy seeing the level of technology they had back in 1980. The simplicity of the tilt sensor plumb bob is awesome. Hopefully I can add to the community in the future, for now I have a 99.9% working machine, and I am happy with it. Brings back childhood memories!!!

Hopefully somebody can answer my questions, or at least send me in the right direction. Thanks for any help!

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#2 2 years ago

1. Normal, will say either '3 ball' or '5 ball' depending on how you have the settings set on it.
2. There are score switches that score 30 points, like the rubber rings to the right of the pop bumpers, might check those to see if undergapped. - yup, those two rubber rings are the only 30 point switches in the game.
5. No magnets.

#3 2 years ago

<<4. I've had a couple times when the machine has been running a long time that the voice stops. No fuses blown, I just shut it off and on, and it's good again. Is it Just a standard heat issue, or should I be careful of a larger problem looming?>>

But the sound effects still work? So the voice is just missing where it's supposed to be?

#4 2 years ago
Quoted from Skydivewags:

3. When the ball hits the bumpers fast, I get dimming of the lights on the board. Is that normal? Do people upgrade the power supply to eliminate that? If so, what do you use?

That is not normal. Here is my list of possibilities:
Low Line voltage. Should be 120v in North America. Make sure the transformer is jumpered properly for your voltage.
Loose or burned worn backbox power connector
Switching to LEDs will eliminate this problem and be better for the game in the long run.

Quoted from Skydivewags:

4. I've had a couple times when the machine has been running a long time that the voice stops. No fuses blown, I just shut it off and on, and it's good again. Is it Just a standard heat issue, or should I be careful of a larger problem looming?

Could be dirty speech pot on the S&T cutting out. Try cranking it back and forth a bunch of times to clean it.

#5 2 years ago

Thank you everyone very much!!!

Sorry I didn't get back sooner, family over for the holiday.

Quoted from frenchmarky:

1. Normal, will say either '3 ball' or '5 ball' depending on how you have the settings set on it.

Thanks, I should have read the manual before asking this one. I have it set to a 3 ball game, not a 5 ball game. I had my mind stuck on pool, not thinking about it being a 3 ball pinball game.

Quoted from frenchmarky:

2. There are score switches that score 30 points, like the rubber rings to the right of the pop bumpers, might check those to see if undergapped. - yup, those two rubber rings are the only 30 point switches in the game.

I checked those switches, and they have good gaps. I gave them a little tweak, and not sure why, but I still get that 30 points once in a while. Not a big issue, haven't had a game won by that small of a spread, yet.

Good, I didn't think so, I guess my after market playfield is just not the best. When the ball rolls slow, it makes some strange moves.

Quoted from frenchmarky:

<<4. So the voice is just missing where it's supposed to be?

That is correct. All other audio works.

Quoted from BigAl56:

That is not normal. Here is my list of possibilities:
Low Line voltage. Should be 120v in North America. Make sure the transformer is jumpered properly for your voltage.
Loose or burned worn backbox power connector
Switching to LEDs will eliminate this problem and be better for the game in the long run.

I have 121vac before firing up the machine. 120vac after it is on, and 119vac at the transformer input. My machine is wired for 115vac, not sure why that is, should I rewire it for 120vac? Of all the electronics I have dealt with, I've never seen anything but 120vac, and 240vac, with a huge range for each. Seems odd that this would be that picky. I would love to switch to LED's, that seems like something that will take some time, so might be a winter project.

On this note, I checked the temp of the ceramic resistor on the power module and I know they are designed to get hot, but mine was at 225 degrees! The transformer was about 150 degrees.

Quoted from BigAl56:

Could be dirty speech pot on the S&T cutting out. Try cranking it back and forth a bunch of times to clean it.

Tried that, will see what happens. The board is not original, so not extremely old.

Thanks again everyone, I look forward to spending a lot of time getting to know this pinball machine much better over the years. It really brings back childhood memories, and now it fulfills my joy of tinkering.

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#6 2 years ago

Sounds like it’s on the sound board

#7 2 years ago

Is the voice still going out? Try soldering in a wire to short all three pins of the voice pot. This will set it to high. Stock pots get loose wipers over time - I bet it is opening with heat.

#8 2 years ago

The sound board suffers from electrolytic capacitors that dry out internally over time and go bad. It gets very hot inside the backbox and literally bakes the capacitors to death. Your sound board may need to be re-capped and the connector solder joints touched up.

#9 2 years ago
Quoted from KenLayton:

Your sound board may need to be re-capped...

This bears repeating. Squawk and talk board may be the most prone to this and usually it's the talk portion that has trouble first. If your not sure if your sound board has factory caps, post a pic. If it has originals, that's the first thing to try.

Original squawk and talk caps should be replaced even if the board is working. Makes everything sound better and cheap/ easy to do.

Quoted from Skydivewags:

3. When the ball hits the bumpers fast, I get dimming of the lights on the board.

By board, I'm guessing you mean the playfield. The playfield has general illumination lights (always on) and feature lights, which turn on and off. Be more specific about exactly which lights are dimming. It's possible all lights are dimming at the same time, but not likely. Backbox also has GI lights and a few feature lights.

#10 2 years ago
Quoted from Skydivewags:

I checked those switches, and they have good gaps. I gave them a little tweak, and not sure why, but I still get that 30 points once in a while.

Doublecheck the backing blade that is between the two switch blades in each switch, it presses against the the shorter blade. It could be bent the wrong way and too close to (or even touching) the long blade, which would short the switch and cause false scoring. Also check for any solder splash etc. between the blades.

#11 2 years ago

I just had the audio go out on me. The machine had been on for a few hours. This time turning it off and on did not help. Come to think of it, that might have only worked once.

F5 was blown. Could this be blowing because of the same issue that my resistor on the power module is getting so hot? I have now read a temp of 260 degrees on that ceramic resistor.

I have included a photo of the Squawk and talk board.

I will try to get some video of the lights on the playfield dimming when the bumpers are hitting.

Thanks again everyone.
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#12 2 years ago

If your line voltage is 120 you should carefully arrange the jumpers on the transformer assembly to match. Operating at 115 jumpers will boost the output voltage higher than what is nominal.

#13 2 years ago
Quoted from BigAl56:

If your line voltage is 120 you should carefully arrange the jumpers on the transformer assembly to match. Operating at 115 jumpers will boost the output voltage higher than what is nominal.

OK, done! That was fun since I forgot to bring a pin pusher home from work.

Image attached with voltages. I tried to place it in the text and they removed the spaces even though they were there in the preview.

I haven't run it much since the change, but it seems fine.
I have blown F5 twice in the last few days prior to this change.

My 11.9VDC is still a bit high, 6.5VAC is a bit low, everything else looks fine to me.
I don't know how picky this machine is, so please let me know what you think.

Thanks again for all the help!
Voltages before and after jumper change (resized).pngVoltages before and after jumper change (resized).png

#14 2 years ago

They all look ok

#15 2 years ago
Quoted from jj44114:

They all look ok

Did they look all that bad before?

I will get some hours on it and see how it does.

Thanks.

#16 2 years ago

They were ok before too

#17 2 years ago

If f5 is blowing it’s the gi lamp circuit. It is used on that sound board to create the -5 volts for the speech. Might be related to the speech problem. If f5 blows=no speech.

#18 2 years ago
Quoted from Skydivewags:

checked those switches, and they have good gaps. I gave them a little tweak, and not sure why, but I still get that 30 points once in a while.

Does one of these switches have a capacitor in parallel? If so, try disconnecting the capacitor (just snip off)

#19 2 years ago
Quoted from Thunfisch:

Does one of these switches have a capacitor in parallel? If so, try disconnecting the capacitor (just snip off)

I'll check that, thanks.

Since changing the jumpers for 120v vs 115v, I have noticed the bumpers don't hit as hard. Not real happy about that, although I guess I wouldn't have known if it would have been that way to start.

2 weeks later
#20 2 years ago
Quoted from Skydivewags:OK, done! That was fun since I forgot to bring a pin pusher home from work.

OK.... How did you get the pins out?? I tried for over an hour and gave up

#21 2 years ago
Quoted from Skydivewags:

Since changing the jumpers for 120v vs 115v

So it was jumpered for 115 and you changed it to 120? (Presumably because your wall voltage is closer to 120 than 115)

Of course the voltages are going to drop. If you had 120 going into a 115 input, the output voltages are going to be that percentage higher (roughly) - so more power available.

It's a pretty small amount though. You could either change the jumpers back or now rebuild your pops and slings, and maybe put hotter coils in them if you really want them to be stronger. (EBD tends to have slightly weaker pops and slings I've noticed, overall, vs. other machines on the era)

The only voltage on the 'before' that was out of whack was the 7v one for the controlled lamps I'm assuming - that one I would have probably done the old operator trick of adding a bridge on the output as a voltage drop to avoid silvered over bulbs, but probably not.... how long is the machine going to be on continuously in home use?

#22 2 years ago
Quoted from Forehead_Slap:

OK.... How did you get the pins out?? I tried for over an hour and gave up

I did it kind of like this guy did. I used the longest widest staples I could find.

#23 2 years ago
Quoted from slochar:

So it was jumpered for 115 and you changed it to 120? (Presumably because your wall voltage is closer to 120 than 115)

Correct.

I'll see how it does, but I haven't blown any fuses since the change. When I have friends over it can be on for a good 5-6 hours. We are having a big party in a couple weeks, it will be on longer than that, so we will see how it does.

I might just do some of those upgrades, just not till winter.

Thanks.

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