Did you guys see this from Outside Edge? This is the hint at the next hardtop they are releasing. Lol pair of gongs = Paragon???

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did you see that on pinside?

or on outside edge site?

I'm sure that's probably right. They reached out a while back looking for a good NOS playfield to create the image file with.

It was on their Facebook page.

I bought the CPR playfield but still haven't installed it because the saucer depth is wrong. Now, I'll probably wait and see what the consensus is on this HardTop.

I just sent my worn Paragon playfield to the pinsider who's original field they are using for the scan of the hardtop, so it looks like it is definitely true

The pic is on the Outside Edge website and thier Facebook page.

man, would really love to see them do an Embryon...mine is trashed

Randy…you and almost everyone else who owns one. It’s been discussed forever.

probably unlike you all...I just got mine

I'm in! Classic 1979 Bally in transit home yesterday. HUO since 1982 have the paperwork to prove it

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Congratulations!

Should have never sold my first one. I played it on route around 1980. Really nice guy I got it from.

I'm ready to part ways with mine. Happy to ship if needed. PM for details.

That cabinet looks perfect!

I just put a new Alltek CPU board in my Paragon. Everything works except all of my displays are flickering (they are Rottendog replacements). Is this a common or known issue?

Issue has been solved, turned out to just be a connector.

Hey Paragon tech-gurus -

I just restored my Paragon and have a few issues (which existed before the restore) that I'd love to get fixed but my diagnosis and attempts have been fruitless:

1) The 4k bonus light in the 1k-9k tree does not work. All of the lamp holders in this game are in excellent condition. Game was in a well-cared for home for most of its life. Nonetheless, I replaced the lamp holder and still no dice. I also located the wire for this light in the backbox (I believe pin 1 - solid red wire) and took it out, looks clean. Cleaned it anyway, no dice. Male pin it connects to looks nice too. Wiggling the connector doesn't make it flicker or anything. I've changed the bulb to be sure it's not a defective LED bulb. Out of ideas.

2) Two rollover switches, the one above Golden Cliffs and the one to the right of the Paragon hole, do not work. Checked the switches themselves. Solder looks good. Switch contacts are good. Pins in backbox appear clean. Tried wiggling the connector while pressing the rollovers and no intermittent action.

Is there a way to test for sure where the malfunctions are? I have a multimeter but not familiar with how to narrow down whether its the switch/lamp or the connector in the backbox.

Also - my tilt was stuck on due to a failed resistor (the green one) so I cut it. But now tilt barely works so I'd like to replace it. Does anyone know what part this is and where you typically get it?

Thanks so much for your help!

Hi, these are all pretty easy fixes or pretty simple to diagnose, but first things first, are you using the original bally boards in the back box, the mpu and lamp driver, or have they been upgraded to altek boards or some other manufacturer, are you familiar with the self test switch on the back of the coin door and precisely which tilt mechanism are you having a problem with, is it one of the slam switches or the tilt bob and do you have the bally manual for the machine, once i have your answer to those questions, i can tell you how to proceed

Hi again, the easiest way to address the lamp problem is to have a battery box used for keep alive memory, the ones radio shack used to sell, they took 4 double a batteries, but for memory purposes, they were outfitted with 3 batteries and jumper wire for the fourth battery to give you about 4.5 volts output which is perfect for testing lamps, make sure the pinball machine is turned off before testing, you can hook it up right to the lamp driver board, btw, you are correct terminal 1 on connector j3 a red wire is for the 4k bonus lamp, you can hook the ground side of the battery box up to the ground braid on the back of the display board in the back box, the ground braid for controlled lamps, not the GI lamps, this lets you know if the wiring from the lamp board connector to the lamp itself is good, the light should light up, you can go a step further if you have an AS-2518-23 lamp driver, transistor Q57 controls that particular lamp and you can put power to the right lower leg of that transistor and see if the light turns on, that would tell you that the trace on the back of the lamp driver board is good and the terminal at J3 is okay
The plumb bob has the green capacitor you mentioned, it is .05 microfarad cap, and you can check the switched with the self test switch, pressing the switch 5 times puts you into switch test mode and you can activate each switch by pressing on it and it should display a number in the score displays, both of those rollovers are numbered as 34, so they may have a broken wire between them

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1) You might check the associated transistor and resistor for this lamp on the lamp driver board. Check Q57 and R57. You said the pins on the headers look nice. But did you check the back side for a cracked solder joint?

2) First see if a little 95% alcohol between the contacts makes any difference. Ive had tons of switches appear clean but alcohol took off the little bit I didnt see. Check for cracked solder on the back of the board on this one as well.

99% sure the green component you clipped off was a .1 uf capacitor. It's there to help detect slight closures. You can also take a little scotchbrite and clean the inside of the ring and the top where it hangs.

WOW thanks so much for your help on this Trainmonger and @Flashball. Going to try out these steps and report back what I find.

You're very welcome mrgregb123, i have found this procedure to be the easiest to verify playfield lamp operations, it eliminates the need to lift the playfield and start poking around underneath, replacing parts unecessarily, and for what it's worth i checked my paragon and my 8k and 30k lights were out, i don't play it that often, but they worked fine with my battery set up, so i have to replace the corresponding transistors for those two lamps, glad i could help and good luck with your Paragon

Update for Trainmonger and @flashball...

I swapped the pins for the 4k and 3k light and when I do the 4k light works so looks like it's the board that's the issue. I'll take the board out and check for any loose solder joints on the back and then test the transistor as you demonstrated.

Switch test does indeed show 34 as stuck. I'll look for any weird wire situations but if I don't see anything wire or board wise, is there anything else I can check? Again, thanks a lot for the help!

Hi you can try opening each switch and slipping a thin piece of paper between the contacts to see if the stuck switch goes away, if there are caps on the switches, one of them might be shorted and clipping one side of the capacitor makes the short go away, then you need to replace the cap and as far as the 4k light goes, more than likely the the transistor at q57 probably needs replacement

Trainmonger I just took out the board and a couple of the pins on the back had cold joints but were holding good, including the one in question. I resoldered all of them anyway. Didn't change unfortunately so it's probably the transistor. Do you know what they are called so I can look them up online and buy a few spares?

For the switch, I'm not exactly sure what you mean for me to do? The contacts are not near each other when idle - not close like the pop bumper switches at least. Both of these switches do not have caps, just a tiny brown diode.

If the switcheds are both open and the contacts are not touching, then it is possible that the diode is shorted, diodes are a one way electrical connection, meaning they only allow electricity to flow in one direction, if they are shorted then electricity flows in both directions and if they are open, then no electricity flows, what i was suggesting was to insert a piece of paper between the contacts to make sure they are not touching and make sure none of the wires between to two switches are touching, you can check the diodes with your multimeter in ohms or better yet if if has a diode check feature. as far as the transistor on the lamp driver board, the Bally part number is SCR 2N5060, they can be purchased directly from Jameco electronics and their part number for the transistor is 119802 and they cost about 49 cents, you can find a lot of pinball electronic parts there, just punch the part number into their search bar, but you will have to create and account with them to order though

I prefer to buy them from my local friend Todd at Bigdaddy. But you're welcome to buy wherever you like.

This kit has a nice bundle with both type of SCRs found on your lamp board.

https://www.bigdaddy-enterprises.com/ProductPages/Bally-SternRepair.html

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@flashball, I have been buying from big daddy for years as well, he has great kits and great prices, it looked like he took down his site for a while and was only selling on ebay, a lot of his stuff was out of stock for a time and it looks like he revamped his site and it is back on the web, good to know, i recently purchased an MPU connector kit from Big Daddy on Ebay, i only suggested Jameco if you only need a variety of parts and are not looking for kits

I'll always try and support local first. Especially when they're my friends.

I will say, I won't buy any transistors off amazon. A local friend bought a large pack of tip102 from there and most wouldn't hold up through more than one cycle. Garbage.

Thanks for this. While the 2N5064 part is pretty straightforward, I don't know which .05uf capacitor to buy. Does it have to be the exact voltage as the existing one (which for the tilt bob it looks like 12v) or would a 25v one work (lowest voltage Pinball Life sells of this cap)?

Hi again, 12volts is fine for the cap, that was the rating on the original and higher voltage will work too, if a 12v is not available

More common you will find .047 uf caps instead of .05 uf. Either will work.

Having an issue with a paragon. I don’t have flipper hold on upper right flipper. Have swapped eos switch, coil cleaned cabinet switch. I have an altek driver board and it does the same thing with orignial board. I’m at a loss at what to check next. Would love some more input.
Thanks
Al

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Hold coil wire busted?
On the coil lug to the winding not the input wiring

Resoldered wires on new coil. Same behavior as old coil. Also playing the game the left flipper goes out when holding right. It has an original MPU so I'm going to swap in an altek to see if there is a weird issue. I've checked connections at the driver board and have repined them. So I'm running out of things to check.

Hard to see what's going on with the wires and soldered connections. I don't suspect the MPU is an issue. Perhaps connections at the solenoid driver board, header pins, or something in the wiring at the flippers themselves.

I'd liked to thank those who helped me fix a non-functioning "4" bonus light a few weeks ago. I replaced Q57 and it now works.

But I'm still baffled on the upper left (Cliffs) and right rollover (right 'orbit') switches that are stuck on. They both use the same exact two wires. I've replaced the green capacitor on the one that has one, no dice. I've completely removed the two switches from the game and examined them. No shorts, no oddities. Switch test shows 34 stuck on, which corresponds to these. I've cleaned the pins in the backbox for these wires. My game has an Alltek aftermarket MPU that looks pretty new so I'm doubtful the board is to blame. I'm a a loss as to what to do here to find why these two switches are stuck on. Anyone think of anything I missed? Thanks for the help.

I looked at the switch chart on page 18 of the manual and it looks like the switch behind the 3 bank on the right is also labeled as switch 34. Take a look at it and see if you see anything ununsual.

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Thumbs up on that, Flashball, i just got a chance to check my Paragon Manual and i saw the same thing, the rebound switch behind the drop targets is probably closed or shorted

That rebound switch is wired in parallel in several spots. Check them all. One is stuck.

BOOM! You guys nailed it. That rebound switch was closed. Backed it off and problem solved. Thanks so much.

Hi all. My mini-flipper is cracked. I see some online without the shafts. Does anyone know how to remove and install the shaft? Is it easy?

Alternatively, does anyone know where to buy one with the shaft?

@Nokoro, Hi, it is real easy to change it out and you don't need to get a new shaft, just the flipper bat itself, just be sure to get a left side one, they make them both for left and right, the lettering is reversed on each, Space invaders uses both a left and a right, you need to lift and support your playfield and then you have to loosen, DO NOT REMOVE, the two 1/8 inch allen set screws that secure the flipper shaft to the crank arm, loosen them enough to pull the shaft off the playfield, once it is off, turn it over and underneath the shaft is a phillips screw, remove the screw and pull the shaft out of the bat, reverse the procedure and install the shaft into the new bat and reinstall the phillips screw, put the flipper shaft back onto the field and reattach the crank arm, tighten the set screws until they are snug and then orient the flipper at its rest position, once you have it properly aligned on the playfield, then tighten the set screws up really tight, otherwise your flipper can slip and go out of alignment

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Awesome. Thanks!

I’m familiar with taking flippers off. I just didn’t realize these mini one were held in place with a screw. That makes it easy.

Anyone have an extra display holder bracket?

Hi, how many do you want

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Hahaha, wow you are flush! Buddy needs one for Paragon his picked up. I’ll have him send you a message. Thanks!