On many pinball machines like early solid state Bally and Stern games, you’ll often see little capacitors on most of the playfield switches. Sometimes they’re there but a leg is cut off. Why are they there? What do they do? And are they important? We’ll talk about that.

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What are these capacitors? Originally they were 0.047 uf 50v. There are various versions you can use. I will sometimes replace them with a 0.1uf and it works fine.

Any .05 or .047 uf at 50 volts or higher mylar or ceramic disc type is fine. Here’s a sample link: https://www.newark.com/vishay/1c10z5u473m050b/cap-0-047-f-50v-20-z5u/dp/57AC4650?st=0.047uf