Hey Everybody,
I need a little help. I'm having difficultly reading these old schematics. Can anyone tell me if these transistors are correct?

Q17 (SE9302 or Tip 122) = 3 Drop Targets on right
Q3 (SE9302 or Tip 122) = Knocker

I'm assuming both are on the solenoid driver board

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IMG_1449 (resized).jpg

Note:
Tip 102 is = SE9302

Tip 122 , Tip 120 = +28 volt solenoids

Thank you
Pinball Life shows all 4 working together as equals.

Food for thought:
O.K. then why would Williams/Bally system 11... and the WPC system
use a booster TIP 36C for 50+volt coils? Same as Data East if all
the Tip122 could handle 50+volts?
--
But then again, a Tip102 can replace Tip122, and Tip120.
Bally developed the SE9302 50+volt transistor for its pinball line.
Tip 102 is the generic form of the SE9302.
--
In conclusion, if you are a mobile tech, the best all around transistor to have
is the Tip102. It covers Gottliebs, Williams, Sterns, and Ballys.

My game was missing the small plastic diverter piece that is located by the treasure chamber ball kickout. I had some plexiglass lying around and figured I could make one. I found an image online and brought that into word to make a template. Through a bit of trial and error I got the sizing to appear pretty close to the original from what I could guess. I cut it by hand, drilled some holes, and added some plastic spacers to get it to the right height. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

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Nice work! That saucer is such a rewarding shot. It always puts a smile on my face.

I think that is mostly relief that you survived the previous shots!

Thanks! Definitely a tough shot. More often than not I drain before I can get the ball in the saucer.

I’d still like to confirm:

Q17 = 3 Drop Targets on right
Q3 = Knocker

Thank you

Went down the Paragon rabbit hole tonight and realized something new. All the games shipped to France had only 3 flippers. That would change the way I play this game drastically.

Side note, is there a mythical creature that actually depicts the beast Paul Faris created in Paragon? The Griffin, and Manticore are close, but I cant seem to find one that is a Lion, eagle, lizard mix.

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The beast is a “chimera”. Definitions below, with #2 being the loosely matched winner.

Chimera
1. (Classical Myth & Legend) (often capital) Greek myth a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a serpent
2. (Art Terms) a fabulous beast made up of parts taken from various animals

Kinda a basic question, but figuring this is a starting place.
I replaced all my GI with LED bulbs. Looking great!
I replaced my bumper and always on playfield with LED.
Regarding other lamps, I’m under the impression that bulbs that go on and off will flicker and malfunction with LED bulbs.
What about lamps that are on but can change…… for example the upper left pop out bonus of 2-4-6k…… they rotate but not rapidly, vs the upper right p-a-r-a-g-o-n which moves.
In addition, what about the center bonus chart from 1-9k the 20,30,40 and the big PARAGON lamps?
Can I use LED in those? Without a lamp board adaptor?

All the controlled lamps, which are the ones you are describing, the ones that aren’t always on, will need some form of adapter to avoid risk of flickering / blinking. There are cheaper adapters all the way up to getting a replacement Alltek board. Some even solder a resistor to each LED but that seems like a pain to me despite being the cheapest option.

https://www.siegecraft.us/presta/index.php?id_product=44&controller=product&id_lang=1

Here's the adapters. I bought a set for my Paragon. No more flickering.

Awesome!
Thank you!!!!

I just bought a project Paragon! The guy who sold it to me had an extra playfield (along with a few extras as well). While it has fallen into a bit of disrepair he has been the owner of it since 1982. It was likely routed before he purchased it due to the overall wear on the cabinet, but I'm really looking forward to the challenge of getting this into fantastic condition.

I'm so excited!

Paragon - defanged (resized).png

Congrats, and welcome to the club!

Nice! I would send that extra plafield to kruzman to clearcoat it. It will take some time before you get it back. You would have to contact him.
But, That would give you time to make sure everything is 100% working. You Can redo the cabinet. Pinball Pimp has the stencils.
Then you would have one sweet Paragon!

I believe it was all the paragons shipped to Europe that had that difference, and that is why we now refer to it as an “Italian bottom”. Apparently, the story goes that Italian players like to trap the ball, take a sip, and call their next shot.

I play a lot of paragon, like 10+ games a day!
My center bonus numbers show a small amount of wear above the inserts. I’m worried that over time I will cause lots of wear, kinda like those totally destroyed playfields that look like raw wood in the middle. What options? Clear Mylar? Buy a full Mylar playfield cover? Leave alone?
Thanks!

Just clean and wax your game regularly. Playing 10 games at home a day is nothing compared to how much these machines were played on location. You’ll be fine.

460k+ on first ball yesterday. 5x and maxed out super bonus. That doesn't happen every day!

Hello everyone! I bought a Paragon a couple weeks ago and then immediately went on vacation. Imagine really being grumpy about vacation so you can get back to your new pin...

At any rate, this is was priced as a project and it appears the description was accurate. Today was the first opportunity to open it up *after* I had read through most of the pages here. There are a couple of issues I have and would love your opinions on whether I'm on the right track.

(Be kind, I'm exceptionally new to the hobby and I'm just hoping I can turn someone's leftovers into a beautiful machine again.)

Issue: I reviewed the battery which looks like it hasn't been changed out in a while. There's corrosion damage, but I haven't taken the board off the machine yet to see the back side. I'm hoping it's salvageable.

Plan: Remove the battery, neutralize the area with distilled vinegar, wash/dry, remove any corrosion I can find, then seal it with some clear lacquer. Short term I'll relocate the battery off the board and long term I'll move to NVRAM.

Question: based on the below photo, does that seem right? (I understand I need to look at the back of the board to assess the true damage.)

paragon_battery (resized).jpg

There are several other issues with the pin but I wanted to get this out of the way first. I'll attempt to make these short and to the point in the future.

thanks!

That MPU doesn't look too bad at all ...Cut the battery...Today

Yes, agree with Randy_G. Remove the battery. That board looks very good except for perhaps the ground trace under the battery. You didn't mention if the game boots and plays. By the looks of that board, it should.

By the way, you can cut that battery off the board for now and still play the game. The only thing that battery does for you is keep the high score and credits in memory.

Thank you for your responses!

JethroP the game gives me the 7 LED flashes, boots and plays. (I do have a separate problem where the game sometimes resets mid-game but that's for a different post as I'm still diagnosing how to consistently reproduce the error but it seems like it's holding in the left flipper button.)

I hadn't really thought about what the battery was for until just now and I seriously do not care about credits and (someone else's) high score over the board. It's getting cut off within the hour.

There are NVRAMS still out there. I wouldn't waste time with a battery holder and get an NVRAM on order right away. It's a plug 'n play install, easer than hooking up a remote battery holder which will require a blocking diode to be installed on the board.

Thanks for this--saves me time for certain. I'm guessing this is plug and play because the RAM is that chip just to the upper left (5101) is socketed? I'm guessing the proper way is to replace the socket as well while I'm at it? (Checks notes...22 pin socket.) Actually, thinking about it now I probably should back up the truck on sockets and just have some handy--I happen to know there are problems with the displays and I'm guessing I need to replace them there as well.

Another learning point for me: is the idea behind the blocking diode simply because the previous battery was rechargeable so the machine wants to flow power back to it when it's on? If someone had installed a remote battery pack and a blocking diode would I need to clip that diode off when I installed the NVRAM (or perhaps it's inline with the wires so it would automatically be dealt with when removed)?

Thanks a ton everyone! I love this community.

Buy an nvram, and below is a link to the cheapest source that I can find, $19.65 each. Since you already have a socket installed on the board, simply remove the 5101 chip on your board, noting the orientation of the legs, and install the nvram in it's place. No soldering needed. You may need to clear the audits using the buttons on the inside of the coin door.
https://twistywristarcade.com/ram/1149-5101-nvram-module.html

Pinwiki has great articles on inspecting, repairing and upgrading pins of all generations.
https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Thank you for both the link (purchased!) and also for guiding me to pinwiki so I can stop asking all of the "easy" questions and not tire everyone of my posts!

I do hope to post a little bit of my progress though if nobody minds.

Yes, the diode is used if you install remote AA batteries so the game won't try to recharge them. I've never seen anyone install a diode on the board for that purpose, rather, they install in the battery holder or in the wire going to the battery holder. I've installed many remote battery packs with diode. Cost is about $4 plus batteries. As others have said, you can just pull the chip at U8 and install NVRAM in that socket. No soldering required, but the initial cost is more. Based on the description of your game operation and the physical condition in the photos, I don't see any need to replace sockets.

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I just finished my restoration.
Regarding displays, I wanted to stay traditional and bought some used gas displays on this site. $100 total for 4 perfect and two with ‘issues’.
I bought an XPIN led display for the credits and ball. Was curious what it looks like.
In retrospect I wish I had just bought the XPIN displays for all from the beginning. Less electricity needed and more long term.
FYI…

FYI, I did the same.
When you cut off the battery the machine will not save your high score. So, almost every game will end with three knocks for the new high score. Be forewarned! And the nvram is gently pry off the old one using the head of a screwdriver and gently press the new one in.

Thanks for this. All of my displays function however the player 1 display doesn't show the 10,000s and the player 4 display has some weird "bubbling" going on in it. My guess is the P1 connector is having problems and I need to either reseat it or just re-pin it.

Eventually I'm going to change them all out and had been looking at those XPin displays and the Pinitech UNO displays. I'm glad to hear that hunting down the old ones isn't a good decision as I have been debating that. Fortunately I don't really need to make that decision soon as I have much bigger problems to deal with right now.

Look for YouTube videos on repairing Bally/Stern plasma displays. You can buy the transistors needed to fix them really cheap from Great Plains Electronics.

Thanks--I'll definitely look those videos up! I'm all for repairing everything I can but this has been a crazy learning process so far as the oldest machine I had up until two weeks ago was 2003. I just had my first "mess with a couple connectors and suddenly a few things don't work" moment yesterday. Fortunately I was able to fix the issue after a couple minutes of panic.

No need to panic. More than likely a machine as old as Paragon likely needs at least a few connectors rebuilt. When I rebuilt the connectors in mine, I recall about 20% of the connector pins being broken off inside then connector. It's a grueling mundane process. But very necessary on these older titles.

I love the LED replacement displays. Put green ones in my 8 Ball. But if you're a traditionalist. The boards are easily repairable. As long as the displays aren't bad.

Quick question about flipper coil sleeves:

I've read that although the manual states the flipper coil sleeves should be 1-3/4" x 1/2" there are folks that say the 1-11/16" x 1/2" fit better. Can anyone here personally weigh in on this?

Thanks!

1-11/16 x 1/2 would probably be a better fit. I used 1-3/4 x 1/2 in my flippers and found that I had to shave the end of the sleeve down a bit because the linkage was catching on the coil sleeve and shortening the range of motion.

Thank you! I had a PBL order going anyway so I grabbed a few of the longer ones but have plenty of the shorter on hand.

My machine has been down for a little while. Blown bridge rectifier, I ended up ordering a new bridge rectifier board to replace the original one. I had a little mishap reconnecting the connectors due to their being an extra pin on the new board but it's working well again, definitely missed playing it the last several weeks! Even made a new high score.

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I have such a nice one and can not seem to sell it at 3k. Crazy I think being priced are so stupid on everything else. Why not on a mint paragon classic

It's all subjective at this point as far as what the worth is. pinball prices have gone crazy in the last year. But the market seems to be cooling a bit now. That might be contributed to seasonal factors or due to the coming recession and extreme inflation. Your location is also a big factor. I live in the Midwest and machines seem to always sell pretty quick around here, if the price is reasonable. $3k for a Paragon that is mint doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Shout out to my fellow Paragon peeps!
6 months into my obsession, played hundreds of machines and thousands of games….
And my Paragon is still, by far, my favorite game!!!!! No other game can I crank classic rock and play for hours without getting bored or overwhelmed.
Rock on!!!!!

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@MyParagon1979, I am curious as to the ACA shield on your apron. Is that an operator sticker? What does the smaller text say?

Ya.
Was on there when I bought it.
Super frustrating.
If you want to service a machine properly, no need to splash your graffiti advertisement on my apron!
Too afraid to peel it off and risk it will look worse.

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I actually think it’s a cool piece of history. It adds to the uniqueness and authenticity of your particular game.