Phantom of the Opera
Data East, 1990Quoted from Ratiganpin:Would anyone have a diagram of what each circuit board in the back box actually does? Which plugs power what? I'm waiting for an actual POTO manual, but its coming from the states, so will be another few weeks yet.
Many thanks for any help.
I emailed you a PDF of the manual, to the email we used for the Mirror. Its big at 11MB so hopefully your email allows it.
Don't know if anyone might be able to make sense of this, but 2 of the issues i've been having are the digital display not working at all, and the under play field lights not functioning.
While looking over the machine, I decided to try the buttons inside the coin door. On pressing the forward/reverse button, the machine suddenly came to life( although still no digital display ), all the play field lights functioning in attract mode. However, if i turn the machine off, then turn it back on, it won't start attract mode until the forward/reverse button is pressed again. I have tried leaving the button on forward and reverse with the same outcome.
Also, when in attract mode, If I press the start game button, the sound of the phantom laughing plays, but it sounds speeded up, a kind of high pitched comedic effect, if you get what I mean. Does this make sense to anyone?
Also, can anyone advise me what I can do to test wether the digital screen not working is the screen itself, or something running back to the circuit board?
As always, thank you for any help.
Sounds like its not on Free play and the Phantom is laughing at you because you need to insert a coin/s. Your display is probably done. On my LAH i had issue with the connector, I reseated them and cleaned the connectors and I never has an issue again.
Hi, thanks for the replies.
Firstly to jboner, could you tell me what I need to check regarding the tilt bob?
And to bycyclenut, I have removed and reseated all of the plugs that appear to be anything to do with the display, but there is no life whatsover. What is the best way to clean the connectors? I'll try as much as I can before I buy a new display, just in case.
At the moment, I'm finding on switching on the machine that the speech "I am the phantom of the opera" is heard, and also the sound of some of the solenoids firing briefly, but no attract mode, just the general illumination lights lit.
It seems that as I open the coin door, the attract mode kicks in (again with a brief firing of solenoids). At this point, I am mostly finding that when i press the start game button, I just hear the speeded up laugh, and no other response. However, just now I went through the above routine, and when I pressed start, it actually started the game properly with the "I am the phantom of the opera" speech, and the ball ejected to the shooter lane. I played a whole game, and the good news is everything on the playfield appeared to function properly. I started another game, all went fine, so I turned it off to see if it would now work normally when switched back on.
No such luck, exactly the same routine outlined above with the speeded up laugh again.
Thanks jboner, that's something new I've learnt about the slam tilt switch!
I've found the switch, and sure enough, it's that switch that is making the table come to life as I open the door. What I have found is that if i activate the slam tilt by opening the coin door so that the playfield comes to life, leave the door open, then turn the machine off, then back on again, the playfield comes to life on switch on.
However, if i shut the coin door, then turn off and back on, its back to the old problem and nothing will happen until I open the coin door and activate the slam tilt switch again.
I've added a picture of the slam tilt switch, does it look like it's set correctly to you?
Cheers.
20180912_221856 (resized).jpgHi all, Just to close the case ( as far as the attract mode and game start problem that is ), I got a message on a tech forum that hit the nail on the head. It was nothing more than new batteries in the back box!!!!!
Hadn't occurred to me at all as I thought it only really mattered for scores and saving chosen settings, and that without them it would just function under factory settings.
But still a big thank you to jboner, as I now know about the slam tilt switch, and it's thanks to this that I was led to the answer. 
A big thank you aswell to darscot for the manual, and the magic mirror parts ( which arrived today ) .
And of course, thanks to everyone who took the time to offer a reply.
Still have the display issue to sort out, but at least now have a working game.
That’s actually the white memory protect switch that’s connected to the door causing the issue. When the door is open the memory protect line to the battery gets bypassed so you can enter settings. So when the door is open it’s not looking for battery anymore and can boot up
I've got a POTO and the CN1 connector had problems from the day I got the game. It has a bad connection which can cause the game to lose power including the alpha numeric display. I found that by holding the connector to the right it would maintain contact and the game would play fine so I just zip tied it to keep it where it needs to be for continuous contact and my game has been playing fine since. I think if your CN1 connector is bad though you wouldn't have power to anything except the GI lighting. At least that's how it was on mine.
I just read your previous post I it sounds exactly like the problem that I had and if so it is sounds like it is definitely the CN1 Connector. Try wiggling it around and see if the game comes to life. You may need to build a new connector you can get the kits on pinball life.
Hi, thanks for the reply. I've tried moving the CN1 plug about, but no response from the digital display.
Everything else on the machine, apart from the digital display seems to be working.
Think I may have to bite the bullet and just get a new Xpin display and power board and see how that goes.
I saw something on YouTube that said, if I have understood it correctly, that if a display is used and used when it is showing signs of failing, it will make higher and higher demands on the power board to the point that not only the display dies, but the power supply dies aswell.
Wether that means all power or just the power for the display, I'm not sure.
I’m guessing that this is the battery for the CPU for my POTO. Can someone confirm? I’ve never seen one like this for a Pinball Machine but of course my experience is very limited. I would like to replace it as it must have been on there for a very long time and probably should be replaced. The problem is though that it appears to be soldered in place and I’ve never seen that before so I want to make sure that I know what I’m doing. How does one replace a battery like this? Just desolder and solder in a new one or is there a better way?
C76EC5AD-1418-4ACF-A240-A1AFD42803DA (resized).jpegI received my Xpin replacement display for POTO today, and, deep joy, it does work, but as you will see in the picture, the lower display is fine, but the upper, while working, shows parts of the digit areas that it shouldn't be.
The lower display was like this at first, but on moving the ribbon cable about, it improved, but the upper screen will not improve.
Does anyone have the part numbers of the ribbon cables needed, as I can only assume this must be the issue, but I can't find anything about these in the instruction manual download
Also I understand that the high voltage power fuse should be removed now that the Xpin display is installed, could anyone confirm for me that this is the fuse that is referred to please? - FUSE F3 0.25A SLO-BLO Display Reg. Input (90VAC).
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Many thanks again.
20180918_200820 (resized).jpgTypical! Ordered a new ribbon cable, turned the machine on again to check some other bits, and the display is now completely fine!
Still, no harm in having a spare
Can anyone confirm which fuse is the high voltage fuse on the power board of POTO? I'm really not sure if I've got the right one.
It doesn’t work with data east rev2 games. They keep saying for years they are gonna update it, but nope
Quoted from jboner1058:It doesn’t work with data east rev2 games. They keep saying for years they are gonna update it, but nope
if any pin deserves to be included in a pinsound should it not be this one , may the phantoms curse be on them =)
Quoted from Darscot:Where are those from? I’ve only seen the ones with skulls.
Retro refurbs I love them
Does anyone have a spinner bracket they are willing to sell and the U shaped wire form from the left VUK?
Quoted from RudeDogg1:So has anyone created a decal for the lower part of the playfield yet?
Hi rudedogg.....ive a restored one in clear as you know so if I get a bit of interest I could re create just the gold strip from it before i sell it..it would be months off and be a huge amount of work digitally re created it but it's a possibility
Quoted from chris111:Hi rudedogg.....ive a restored one in clear as you know so if I get a bit of interest I could re create just the gold strip from it before i sell it..it would be months off and be a huge amount of work digitally re created it but it's a possibility
its a loaner machine so I wouldnt expect anyone to go out their way. More if there was one already in existence
I made decals for pretty much the whole playfield but hand painted the bottom. And then I found the nos playfield and didn’t use any of them
I’m really surprised no one produces a black decal for the lower part especially as they have all worn there
Hi fellow POTO owners. When I light top three lanes for jackpot build, no switches will add anything to the jackpot. It stays fixed at 2 million while the timer runs out. Anyone know what would cause this? Code error? A setting? I am running A03-2. Meanwhile, I installed Cliffy's new Magic mirror assembly, which looks great.
20181031_204740 (resized).jpgQuoted from jboner1058:Weird. Only the pop bumpers add to the jackpot, and they aren’t adding?
Nope. Hitting the bumpers has no effect. The total stays at 2 mil while timer counts down from 20 seconds.
Quoted from code2quest:Installed blades
[quoted image][quoted image]
Thise blades are beauties. I havent seen those before. Are they available? I put the ones on that have all the skulls piled up.
Check and make sure you didn’t have a wire come off from one of the switches in the matrix. I had my whole bottom half of scoring switches stop working when the right outlane had a wire come off
Quoted from jboner1058:Check and make sure you didn’t have a wire come off from one of the switches in the matrix. I had my whole bottom half of scoring switches stop working when the right outlane had a wire come off
Thanks. I looked the matrix over that has the top.lane switches, which I assume activate jackpot build. They all look ok. Dont see any other obvious switch issues, and they all test well.
Quoted from PhantomO:Thanks. I looked the matrix over that has the top.lane switches, which I assume activate jackpot build. They all look ok. Dont see any other obvious switch issues, and they all test well.
Check these switches (center column) the top lanes aren’t in the pop bumpers matrix (which add to the jackpot) check all your center stand up targets
Thank you Jboner and Hawkeye for you suggestions and descriptions. Based on the knowlwege that your jackpost starts at a lower level than 2 million, I tried restoring factory settings. That did the trick, and now the jackpot starts a 100k and builds as it is supposed to, game to game until collected. Yay! Erik is happy again...
Abit if a weird one I’ve just finished a overhaul of a POTO I have on loan. The organ flashers has their wires cut off and black lamp holders removed. I reinstated them. But I’ve now discovered why I think they were removed. The targets hit the black lamp holders. Am I missing something?
Quoted from RudeDogg1:Abit if a weird one I’ve just finished a overhaul of a POTO I have on loan. The organ flashers has their wires cut off and black lamp holders removed. I reinstated them. But I’ve now discovered why I think they were removed. The targets hit the black lamp holders. Am I missing something?
You need to add 1/4 inch tall spacers under the two screws on the organ top.
Just restored this to sell,hopefully will sell in UK but with it being a rarer and not an expensive machine it may not.price £700 UK plus post etc..
WP_20181130_14_50_52_Pro (resized).jpgWP_20181130_14_50_58_Pro (resized).jpgWP_20181130_14_51_34_Pro (resized).jpg
WP_20181201_14_43_02_Pro (resized).jpgWP_20181201_14_42_57_Pro (resized).jpgWP_20181201_14_42_53_Pro (resized).jpgWP_20181201_14_42_42_Pro (resized).jpgWP_20181201_14_42_50_Pro (resized).jpgSo Im looking at getting this pin, waiting on pics, but the owner says the middle of playfield phantom face insert has been melted by a previously stuck on flasher, does anyone know if this is available, or if a decal can be placed over a plain insert. ? . Apparently its melted bad and rippled so it affects gameplay.
a1e3c656a6075e5ec6b3eb04a20067174df5c1d2 (resized).jpgWanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
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Chilliwack, BC
London
Bridgeton, NJ