That being said, your advice is helpful if he has the digital version. As I've never seen one in person, I don't know what the simple fixes on it might be.

That's what I meant by digital. Mine uses the buttons in the coin door for volume. I've never seen a Funhouse with a pot, but I haven't seen that many.

Yes, if he's doing it via the buttons it's digital. That is assuming the volume actually changes. The settings are there on the Sys-11 code, but they don't actually do anything.

Mine would drive you nuts then.

I have wide siderails, an outie start button, a volume pot, L.S. Topcoat (another version of Diamond Plate), and signed by Pat Lawlor as the first (production) game off the line. (brag brag). It was a cool accidental find. I call it FrankenFunhouse.

I assume you mean mylar? (the plasitc that is glued on). I think many did after the first 200 or so. I'm not really clear on if that was an add-on option or standard. Someone with more experience would have to speak to that. I've never had the courage to remove mylar from games. (Note: Playfield protectors are a different / newer product that is an aftermarket add on).

One 'brute force' approach to flaky problems like this is to re-seat all of the connectors. That simply means taking each one off, one at a time, and then seating them again. The act of physically pulling and then pushing the connectors usually removed oxidation and any other debris that may be internittently causing problems.

Note: Do so with the machine unplugged!!! 8-)

When testing switches, use a ball, not your finger.

There isn't much besides the drain switch that could cause this. Sometimes a wire breaks but still makes contact, and will intermittently open due to vibration or corrosion. The way the switch wiring is daisy chained, a break could potentially be on any switch in the same row or column of the switch matrix, not just the one that seems to be acting up.

FWIW, my early (DP) game has WPC sound. No pot.

Good to know. I thought there were more of them out there than that.

It's been awhile since I was looking underneath a FH playfield, but is it possible that the ball is physically not rolling in the trough when it drains? I know the metal trough itself gets ding'd up and perhaps the ball is physically dropping but hanging up before rolling to the plunger end.

So, I had a very similar issue on Space Station (also WPC) where ball would drain, but would not register it until a ball search happened. It was due to a non-working opto elsewhere in the game. The only opto I'm aware of on Funhouse is in front of Rudy's mouth. You could validate that is working as expected (and not flakey). Probably not the issue, but something else easy to check.

Replace the outhole switch.

They get flakey and the actuator gets loose side to side. This causes periodic switch failures in the game.

Crackly and statically sound is either corroded connections or a noisy channel on the sound board.

If re-seating the connectors doesnt help, the board should be sent in for repair. One of the problems that pop up is that some of the components are no longer made.

It might be possible to get a used "good" sound board from here on pinside or off the internet. They can be elusive.

Chris Hibler is very good at diagnosis and repair, as well as others that do repairs.

If the board cannot be replaced or repaired, pinsound makes a replacement board for you, its a fairly quick and easy install, but is does have to be programmed with the classic original funhouse sound mix.

If the problem persists and repairs cant be made, Used 30 year old sound boards can go for as much as $345 if they are rare.

At this price point, pinsound is an attractive alternative.

Replacing the bad parts on the board is cheaper Just saying.

Never hurts to check all switches if having issues. Make sure and use ball when testing. A switch that needs adjusting may trigger when pressed by hand but when ball rolls over.

Some of the parts are no longer available.

So hopefully its just a ram or a cap upgrade.

There are literally stacks of soundboards that have scratchy sound. Its really perplexing, as the best repair guys cant get the parts to sort them out.

It can be a tough repair.

Pinsound is an attractive $350 option if all other options fail. What is does is essentially bypass everything past the sound control logic. It taps into the control signals and then generates the correct lookup, grabs the sound clip in that lookup table, and then generates audio from the chosen sound clip. As long as your CPU and control logic is working, Pinsound will work and sound amazing. (And you can even change the entries in the sound clip lookup table to whatever you want).

A bit steep at $350, but if you run out of other less expensive repair options, it's an easy install and bonus points for allowing the sound track to be modified in the future as you see fit.

Plus you can add the motion control shaker !

My funhouse with pinsound and shaker is amazing!

No need to make your own shaker routine, its embedded in the firmware now.

If any readers are looking for alternatives to repair or Pinsound I have reproduction sound boards available. The linked post is another user's board but the board is offered as bare or complete (built by me).

It should be stated very clearly that repair is almost always cheaper than replacement. I almost always recommend repair over replacement.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dumbass-test-and-reproduction-pcbs/page/3#post-5825899

I totally forgot that you were making these desperately needed boards!

Good job!

Pinsound works and I've kinda wanted to try the new board out.

Recently got the original sound card fixed by Eugene Mosh. He turned it around
pretty quick.

My Pinsound card is now on standby whenever one of my games decide to act up.

I noticed something on my shooter eject the other day. It was struggling to kick it over into the shooter lane. It would try once, then try again and eventually it would go. Not all the time though, most of the time it worked fine. Intermittent.

Then I was under the playfield finishing up some flipper rebuilds and thought I should look at the sleeve on that eject coil. But didn't need to touch the coil when I realized what was happening. Turns out the slim wire bundle coming down beside that coil and eject linkage was interfering with the movement. I saw that a couple of my little plastic wire clips were just hanging on this portion and thought that was my first clue. I secured them back to where I thought they should go so that the wiring isn't getting caught up in the linkage. Good to go after that.

That wiring is wrapped in a short rubbery clear tube so they knew it was going to be close to getting in the way. My clips had been undone previously for reasons unknown and never put back. Now they're good again.

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IMG_4584 (resized).JPG

Rubber tub solution always seems to do the trick when you get into the close quarters near a potential pinch location.
You saw them do this with the more rigid tubes at some point with the folding cabinet heads evolution.

My FH has been in pieces for months now and Im really starting to miss Rudy!

Do any of you guys who have restored a FH have a list of (part #s and quantity) the lamp sockets for the playfield?
I am looking for all GI and insert lighting, along with the ones on the ramps...basically everything except the sockets in the head.

I want to get these ordered but my wire harness is not easily accessible at the moment to identify and count the old ones...
Thanks

I didnt make a list as I had most of the 3 contact and 2 contact sockets in stock. they are pretty standard.

But I order them 25 at a time..

I did however have to order a few of the longer sockets though for a couple places.

Im very happy with 2smd frosted sunlight LEDS from comet, mostly everywhere in the game.
#455 regular blinker LEDS in the backbox, but I had to put one regular 2smd bulb at the right first bulb in the upper blinker string to get them all to blink after installing the GIOCD board.

They all blinked perfectly before the GIOCD installation, just needed a single regular LED at the beginning of the line, to make a continuous connection.

The 5 LED 906 flashers are perfect as well as the 8 LED tower flashers for the #89 bulbs

The only troublesome areas were the millions and extra ball inserts.

I have a red 4smd shooting across the millions and a flex head stooting across the extra ball.

You have to play with these 2 a bit to get them right, but definitely red color.

I havent found a perfect solution for the 12 o'clock lamp. it always looks weak but its ok.

I used yellow green and red frosted 2smd for the mystery mirror and put colored condoms on them to get them to look right, Same with the ramp lamps, colored LEDS with condoms.

What about this?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/funhouse-club/page/22#post-45030808

Ha !

Thats exactly what I came up with.

Im using a dual flex head there. It works well enough but the 2 lighted dots in the insert isnt as perfect as I wanted.

But its good enough for now.

Anyone ever shoot the ball up the ramp and it kinda gets hung-up in or on the wire gate and then comes back down? It's almost as if it gets up "on" the loop of the wire gate instead of pushing through it.

I was thinking maybe my wire gate isn't the size or shape it needs to be, but don't have another one to compare it to.

IMG_4373 (resized).JPG

Position and shape-wise, your wire looks like mine does. Never had that problem. I wonder if the switch is too hard and maybe the flat arm needs to be bent to make the switch a little softer/easier to trigger. I know that sometimes when I buy a new switch it is much harder to click than the one I am replacing, and so it needs some testing and adjustment. That's my guess.

I agree with sb33334 ... Your looks ok. I would check the switch also. Another thought is possibly the ramp could be misshaped or broken somewhere (doesn't look like it in your pic)... but I did have problems with that part and I ended up buying Cliffy's ramp protector kit and all my problems completely went away after installing it. Even if you solve the problem, I still recommend getting Cliffy's ramp protectors because over time, the ball really chews up the front of those ramps. Now my Open Trapdoor is mounted perfectly and securely on the ramp protectors.

Ok, thanks for the confirmation on the look and shape of the wire gate I have in there. I'll definitely look closer at the lever arm on the switch and see if it seems too stiff. I can probably make an adjustment where the wire gate will go up further before making firm contact and stop this occasional ball rejection from happening.

I'm enjoying the game big time since I got it. I am not great at it though yet!! I dominated Getaway over the years, but Funhouse is nowhere near as easy. My accuracy on the trap door/jackpot shot is pretty poor at the moment, Need to calibrate my aim a little and run up those scores. Best call outs ever for a pin IMO.

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Is missing a topper in your Funhouse hahaha

Check out post 2302 a few pages back....

I said that because the others pinballs in the picrure have toppers. My Funhouse have topper. I bought in ebay made in Argentina a few years ago.
I check this post. Nice with lamps.

My topper

20171011_191335 (resized).jpg

My funhouse has no topper.

But then again, i don't like any of the toppers I've seen.

my color changeable topper

IMG_0372 (resized).jpg

None of my games really have any toppers. Getaway and Lethal Weapon 3 just have their rotating light feature. WPT has the "tournament play" sign though.

Some of the toppers I have seen are beautiful. I don't understand the prices people are willing to pay though. I like keeping games original to how the designer meant it to look. Most of the time that means they didn't come with anything on top.

My topper

IMG_20200330_185322 (resized).jpg

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That’s cool. Is it wired to those flashers?

Impressive!

Do the lights correspond to the flashers on the playfield?

That's awesome! Now tell me... do those lights sync with the playfield flashers?

Seriously though... that is a great mod! That's definitely the best Funhouse topper I've seen yet. Up until now, I haven't really seen one I liked.