Category Archives: How-To

How to, maintenance and other technical aspects.

Rebuilding/Bulletproofing Gottlieb Pop Bumper Driver Boards

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This is a series of three videos covering before, during and after, demonstrating problems with Gottlieb System 80 pop bumper driver boards. There are some basic things you want to do to make them work better and more reliably.

Summary of Pop bumper board mods:

  • First, check to see if you have older, or revised boards and convert older versions to the new revised version
  • Replace 47uf cap with 100-200uf cap
  • Add a 4.7uf 10v cap on underside to help with “phantom pops”
  • Re-flow pin headers and make sure to remove any oxidation from the pins
  • Test the driver and replace with a Tip102 if needed
  • To reduce “ghost pops” you can add a 47uf (10v-16v) cap between the pins displayed below:
Location of optional 47uf cap
Location of optional 47uf cap

Stuck Flippers? Sometimes the problem is not what you expect..

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Anybody messing with pinball machines will undoubtedly encounter problems with flippers. Often they seem to get “stuck”, will stay up and not go back down or behave weird. We often instantly go to the flipper mechanism to look for a problem, but sometimes it’s not there.

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BSOS Custom Paragon Pinball Update – New Modes!

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Here is an update to my progress completely re-coding a 1979 Bally Paragon pinball machine, with an Arduino Nano, with all new rules and operating system. This game will be an enhanced version of the original with extra features and deeper modes, and 14-channel polyphonic CD-quality sound.

For more visit: https://pinballhelp.com/

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Building a custom micro-controller for early Bally/Stern solid state pinball machines

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This is an introduction to an up-and-coming technology that a small group of pinball and electronics enthusiasts are developing. A custom microcontroller that interfaces with Bally-35 MPUs and allows you to write customized rulesets, even completely re-theming games. This is the first part of a journey that I hope to take everybody on.

NOTE: This is a video I recorded several months ago that I forgot to make public, so I’m much further along.. But thought it might be interesting to show this early look at the development of this technology. Now there are etched boards that can be acquired.

What’s involved in programming a pinball machine?

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After restoring a vintage 1979 Bally Paragon Pinball, I go on a quest to see what’s involved in re-programming a game like this and doing my own, custom ruleset. You may be surprised at how many things you have to take into account and keep track of. Let me show you some early progress trying to hack a pinball and re-design a new operating system and set of code.

This video goes over some general, philosophical considerations in pinball design. In future videos I will dive in deeper into the specific technology and coding.

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Fixing “weak” pinball flippers

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What happens when one of your flippers seems “weak?” What could cause that? I investigate on m y 1979 Bally “Paragon” pinball. But the cause of this could happen on any game regardless of era. Let’s take a look at how the flipper works and the different things that can cause “weak” flippers.

You’ve Got A Pinball Machine! Now What?

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This video addresses a common scenario that I often hear about – mostly from people who aren’t very familiar with these games. Someone gets a pinball machine and it doesn’t work. Now what? Let’s walk through this situation with a game I just picked up and explain the process of what to do when you have a new pinball that you don’t really know what condition it’s in or what’s wrong? What do you do? Are there things you should not do? How do you tell what’s wrong? Let’s get into it.

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