Flash Backglasses now available ...

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-FLASH-BG&Store_Code=PP

Just bought one!!!!

39$ shipping not too bad some places charge up too 100$

I just purchased a Fish Tales to replace my Flash so MMAO if you're in the market. It is a wicked fast game and I will be sad to see it go but there is only so many pins I can fit in my office. The five drop targets to advance the extra ball gets me but not as much as the three center drops to light thunder, lightning and tempest. I am sad to report that I never rolled the score over.

Don't know why I just bought a new Flash backglass, I haven't even opened the new Blackout glass yet.

BTW, any trick to removing the lift rail from the old glass?

I have just entered the club. I have yet to see the machine other than some blurry pictures, but it is a project machine for sure.
It is missing the backbox, so i need to either make one, or buy one.
But how hard do you guys think it would be to get hold of an backbox? Prefably with boards...

I hit the loop 4 times tonight after rebuilding my power supply.

I can't figure out how to post a video yet

So I'm glad I'm not the only Flash fan. I like the game. It was my first pin. I did a quick shop a year ago when I got it and now I want it to look and play better. So now I'm thinking about fliptronic rebuilds, and always always thinking about playfield resto.

ricklavin1962 ... i've been eyeing the overlay for months. did you have cupped inserts? can you explain the installation process with a bit more detail? my inserts are cupped and worried the overlay will sag with ball roll.

I tried a different tack with lighting mine. I got some incandescent blue and red from PBR. The blue goes much lighter and matches the colors on the playfield more.The reds are in the pop bumpers and behind the Flash in the BG.

Not sure how many do this, apparently not stock, but I put #455 self flashers behind all the lightning bolts in the BG.

Learned that the white lane guides at top were wrong when I bought it, so just replaced those.

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Yes the inserts on mine had cupping! I don't think the playfield protector will cup into inserts. Its a rigid piece of thin plastic!
It just lays over the playfield and doesn't move at all. Like I said before the only thing I see is the three star rollovers on the right.
They cut around them so sometimes you get some weird movement from the ball going over it!
But no big deal!

Thanks Rick. That's good to hear. I might have to learn how to mix Createx now, since I have quite a bit of wear

Another thought ... LEE ... If I could find someone to scan your PF, would you allow that? If I could get a good scan, I would do the photoshop work and look for printers who would print an overlay. I feel like there'd be lots of people who would jump at fresh Flash PF art.

Of if there's someone with a NOS PF to scan.

mine is not perfect has some wear spots!

It looks like somebody used a old ball with pits on it to scratch a playfield like that?

got my new back glass nice

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I saw this playfield protection sheet on ebay and was wondering if anything looked strange to you. My head scratcher is the upper left area. Thoughts?? Anyone have one?

ebay.com link: Playfield Protector for Williams Flash Pinball Machine

I have one on my machine!
It may look funny on the left top and top right because they cut out around the red star rollovers!
Look at my video earlier in this forum.

Does anyone have a picture of the under playfield warming resistor wiring for the flash insert? I decided today that I would finally replace those resistors and I somehow managed to make it not work when I was done. And like a dummy I have 0 pictures of the underside of the PF, doh.

Here it is!
I've unsoldered the 2 black wires off the first tab on left. Because I have leds and they won't shut off!

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Thanks! Got it figured out now. The new resistor I put in tested the same and must have gone bad or something. I clipped it and put in LED flashers either way I'm calling it done.

Hey all,

I joined the Flash club this past weekend. Picked up a project that I'll be bringing back to life in my spare time. It's gonna be a lot of work but after reading through this thread I think it will be worth it when done. Will periodically post updates as I make progress.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for my Williams system 3-7 sound board potentiometer solutions

http://www.pinballrebel.com/game/pins/instruction/

scroll to Flash

I've had mine for years, did a complete rebuild when I got it and really enjoy the game. Easy to see why it was such a hit when released.

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Just picked up my first official machine this week -- William's Flash! Sounds take me back to my Atari days. I was really looking for an Indiana Jones, Dirty Harry, Back to the Future, etc. (memories from back in the day) but found this guy locally at a fraction of the price of some of the more popular names. So far I love the game -- very happy with it.

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Really with stock flippers?

And no video?? What.

I guess it never happened.

Hi fellow FLASH owners,

I have 2 FLASH machines, one I just bought that was working but needed worn parts in the flippers replaced. I kitted them out and put everything the exact same as it was before only with new parts.

Now the flippers don't work and if I push either flipper button for more than a split second it will pop the Playfield fuse. As far as I can tell everything is correct. Could someone please tell what it is I did wrong and/or post some pictures or a drawing of correctly wired flippers?

I appreciate it! I know it must be something simple that I'm doing wrong I just can't see it.

Jon

I think the best place to find pics and descriptions is in Vid's flipper rebuild thread. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-upgradingrebuilding-flippers

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for Williams system 3-7 sound board potentiometer solutions

Yes. What I need is some pics of what it looks like correct.

Thank you!

Help Needed

Hey folks,
This is my first post to the forum but have been a pinside member for a little while. The forum restoration content from all the experienced folks has been beyond invaluable and has gotten me to this point. I'm very appreciative!
I am a restoration newbie but fell in love with the process after doing minor fixes and upgrades to my first pins over the last couple years. Last winter I dove into the deep end with a Williams Flash system 4 I picked up that was really ready for the dumpster. It was probably ridiculous to try and save it, but in retrospect worth it due to what I have already learned. Anyhow, I was what I thought was in the final stretch with almost everything working after major work on all the boards, mechanics and cosmetics following the forum guidance (bulletproofing guides, vid's restorations, and expert fixes) until I hit a wall.
More background:
- Implemented power supply bulletproofing, re-capped, etc. and all checks out good.
- MPU checks out good, as well, the game worked all except for switches in matrix column #3 (see below). Replaced a suspect timer crystal and capacitor and minor bulletproofing. All checked out good.
- Unrelated, but bullet proofed and fixed everything with the soundboard.
- Replaced many coils, diodes oriented correctly (I believe) and all checked out when doing the coil test. (I did have one diode incorrect and had to replace the associated transistors on the driver board and all checked out fine).
- Redid many connectors.
The initial problems:
Pin went into attract mode fine and would start a game. Game would play and score fine with exceptions.
1. The two upper left star rollover lights are always stuck on both during attract and play mode.
2. All switches relating to column 3 in the switch matrix were not working, scoring, etc.
- Believe I verified all caps (replaced one on a pop bumper) and diodes are good under the playfield.
- Believe I verified all wiring is good through connectors (replaced due to heat damage) through to driver board.
- Believe part of the problem is tied to switch column (drive) section on the driver board. Voltage at #7 in the switch column drive connector was low. Found three bad resistors and one shorted capacitor (C51) in that section.
- Also found what appears to be a shorted Transistor at Q47 in the lamp row drive section.
- Did my best to test entire board with a DMM and did not discover any other problems. There may definitely be some, but I am a newbie!
- The board already had the resistor upgrades in place.
So, I replaced the problem resistors, transistors, and capacitors according to the parts list with the schematic. One problem is that it was very hard to determine the part specification for the replacement capacitor in position C51. Totally unreadable to me in the documentation online and printed. I thought I had it correct and now think I got it wrong.
Final problem:
Turned on the game and it went into attract mode briefly - then the driver board started smoking and I had to shut it off. I fear I put in the wrong capacitor or maybe something else.
- Verified with the DMM the new capacitor is shorted, new resistors are fried, and the transistor appears shorted again (Q47).
- Also highly suspect that IC17 is fried. Couldn't exactly tell where the smoke came from but a resistor (R206 I believe and one I had replaced) was super hot as well as IC17 was pretty darn hot.
My newbie attempt to fix things clearly did more damage so any guidance / insight is super appreciated.
- I have replacements for the IC (and will install a good socket) as well as the resistors and transistor.
Questions:
- Does anyone know the capacitor specs or have a link for the replacement I should use for C51?
- Is the Q47 transistor related to the two locked on rollover lights or something else? If something else, then where should I look for that problem and what does Q47 short relate to?
Clearly the work I did caused the problem so I am assuming it is related to the capacitor but I may be wrong. And was I even fixing the right stuff for the behavior I was seeing. Last note, some previous owner had replaced the same resistors that were reading bad in the switch column drive area.
I'd like to give fixing the board one more shot, since so much time and effort has been invested to get to this point (and $$) vs. buying a replacement board but I am at my wits end and now over my head. I just want the final feeling of bringing this back to life and actually start enjoying it as well as devoting more time to enjoying the pins we have.
Any guidance from experts is greatly appreciated. I've attached a clip of the driver board schematic.
Thanks for reading.
DesertPinGuy

schematic (resized).jpg

Joined the club about 2 weeks ago. So far I have replaced the cpu, updated the driver board, and stripped the PF. Next up will be bullet proofing the power supply, re-cap the sound board, detail clean the PF and install protector, LED it, replace all sleeves, rebuild the flippers and fix the drop targets.
Then...play the cap out of it.

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anyones here with multiball mod on their Flash?
i wanna do that to mine, any leads for roms and instructions?
thanks

Is that a thing..?

Recently picked up a flash and sent the boards out to a repair tech. Got it back and can’t get it to start a game. start button doesn’t work. Can’t put credits on game, tried putting it into free play mode but can’t do it. Start button doesn’t work.

And the really strange thing is I can’t get it into switch test mode like my Firepower.. Any thoughts guys?

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