Be careful, not all Ballys have the displays in the same position. I had my Skateball backglass temporarily in another game (Medusa?) and the player displays were offset one digit.

Does this work?

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Nice. Thanks Panda. Find me at MGC, I'll buy you a beer. or Whiskey

Question: How do y’all “find” each other at these events? I’m only three years into the hobby, and have attended both MGC and Expo, and it’d be nice to meet some of the guys here with whom I’ve bought/sold stuff and from whom I’ve gotten valuable advice/tech support. Not easy to do when all you have to go by is an avatar or a screen name.

Usually pick a spot and time and meet there at given spot and time. Describe yourself if you haven't met before. I've met a few people this way. I know that someone made badges for Pinsiders to wear at one point, but not sure if that still happens. I haven't been since 2019.

JJ from game exchange has a meet and greet that he prints badges for. Don't know when the last time he did that. Still have my badge though.

As far as a meet up. Figured Panda would say something like sounds good or I'm not going this year and then I would send him a PM with info.

Not to turn this into a local discussion, but kinda still up in the air, but we have plans to be there on Saturday. Will arrive right before doors open and head out probably around dinnertime. We'll have the kids there so we'll see how long they last but yeah, I'm definitely up for a meet n greet!

To bring this back to Skateball, just ordered new drop targets and flipper rebuilds for all 4 flippers. Just realized that after having this game for about 3 years, that I haven't had to do much work on it. The upper right flipper started to stick and I found a burr on the plunger that was catching. So new Drops and flipper rebuilds it was. Also needed a new mini flipper with shoe and shaft...$170 to PBR.

do me a favor again please. gimmie a shot of the GI wiring on the backside of the board

Rockstar!

Anyone got a line on a new spinner or decal by any chance? Just put in brand new plastics (with protectors) and purple rubbers and would love to change out my spinner.

I know it's pretty unobtainium but worth a shot!

Hey buddy, a skateball spinner is pretty much unobtanium, but they do occasionally pop up on Ebay, none on there currently, would love to see pictures of the Skateball with the new plastics and rubbers, thanks George, Trainmonger

Ok, thank you for the heads up! I'll put an alert on Ebay and send you some pics once I take them. I added a new Alltek MPU and Bally Rectifier board because it wasn't booting. Turns out the rectifier was causing some issues and I figured why not do the upgrade

I'm gonna add LEDs too eventually.

Best bet is trying to get a good scan and making your own decal.

Curious on this, if i remember correctly (too lazy to walk downstairs to check), the spinner graphic is painted on. If so, would you sand all that off then apply a decal? And does anyone have a good scan?

It's painted on. If you have an ultrasonic cleaner, it'll take or loosen the paint off and you can clean it off pretty well after. Then get some vinyl sticker paper and an image and print it off. Did this with Flash Gordon as mine came with a Harlem Globe Trotters spinner and a worn original.

Never thought of using my ultrasonic cleaner. Good tip. Now to get a good scan of it.

I will scan mine for everyone here. It's not that bad and I bet a redraw is very doable.

Couple questions:

I've started my first CPR playfield swap ('78 Playboy, going slow and wanna get it right), and I'm interested in an ultrasonic cleaner. I just got a vibratory tumbler for the metal parts, but for the ultrasonic, where/type/quality to source?? I'm not a the king of restoration, so I really wouldn't need a PRO model.
And when cleaning up a spinner (my Skateball could use the new image), what would I include in the cleaning solution? Then, after printing and applying the image to the spinner, would I just use Triple Thick or another rattle can clear to seal it??

A buddy of mine got one from Harbor Freight and says it works great.

I have a Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaner too and it's totally competent. It'll fit most pinball mechs (the drop target mechs tend to be the biggest and if they don't fit, at least they'll fit one half at a time so you can still clean the entire mech). Should be enough for anything you'd throw at it.

For general cleaning, I use a 50/50 mix of water and concentrated degreaser. You can get cheap degreaser at the dollar store (orange stuff) or I have 30/70 simple green and water right now since I didn't want to run out to get the orange stuff.

When you get a new image sticker/decal on your spinner (or drop target) cut out a piece of mylar the same size and stick it on and you should be set for life, if not a good long while.

I've had my harbor freight ultrasonic cleaner for a number of years and it gets the job done. I've used it for car parts, pinball machine parts, and even hardware on musical instruments. I've run it for fairly long periods of time and I've never had any issues with it overheating.

For cleaning solutions, the above suggestions are good. Depending on what you are cleaning, a water and vinegar mixture can work as well. There's also an ultrasonic cleaner powder that harbor freight sells. I know they caution about using it on aluminum as it can discolor the metal.

Picked one up today at HF in Menomonee Falls. Planned on a buffing wheel too, but I had a 15% coupon good for only one item per day (until 04/02). I'll go back tomorrow for that.

I know HF isn't the be-all-end-all for quality machinery, but I figure it'll be good for this playfield swap, and then maybe one other. All my other games have been swapped out by others, thankfully. LOL

Wrapping up a refresh to hold me over until i can swing a new playfield. Would like to swap out my speaker. Anyone have any reccomendations?

Also the "spot" lamp by the upper left drop bank seems to have a break in the line somewhere in the bundle. Looked but can't find it. Thinking of just adding a direct wire from that light to the board and zip tie it along with the rest of the bundle. Any reason not to?

An 8 ohm automotive speaker of similar size will give you a better sound. Make sure the minimum wattage matches the old speaker.
You can try running a temporary wire from the board connector to the lamp to confirm you have a wire problem. On my Skateball I had numerous lights out and most proved to be bad crimps on the connector. Repining cleared all but a few up that were found to have open SCRs. Once you solve the problem I would definitely NOT leave the temporary wire in place, if anything, just for the appearance.

According to the parts manual it's a 3 watt 8ohm speaker. Don't see many speakers rated that low wattage wise.

This is almost definitely a break in the wire. All connectors re-pinned along with a new lamp board from Weebly. Will pull that pin this afternoon to double check.

Marco pinball and most of the parts companies have a pretty good speaker selection at all different price points and if you want to save time to diagnose a lamp out, and since you have a weebly lamp driver, they are pretty much bulletproof, then all you need is a radio shack battery box that everyone was using before nvram became available, with 3 aa batteries they put out about 4.5 volts and all you have to do with the machine off is run the ground wire to the controlled lamp bus, you can pick that up on the back box lamp board and a t pin for the positive wire, run it to the lamp driver connector and see if the lamp comes on, it will save you the time of running a wire from the lamp driver to the socket, i will include pictures of doing this on a paragon, i sold both my skateballs over the summer

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Trying to wrap my head around your approach.

Wouldn't direct wiring the battery pack to the socket confirm bulb and socket work?

The bare positive appears to be working fine as neighboring bulbs/sockets on the same wire are working.

Isn't what your doing basically a temporary version if replacing that wire?

Appreciate the feedback

With the game on, ground the lamp to a bare price of metal (like the side rail) if it lights, then the lamp and socket are OK.

This usually points to a bad SCR on the lamp board. If you have a weekly board, it might warrant checking other things first, such as connectors.

Oftentimes, I will directly solder the lamp wire to the "nub" of the socket. Sometimes the tab gets loose and doesn't make good connection. I would start there before running direct wires to the connector.

The spec for the sound boards TDA2002 audio amp has it rated up to 15w, (with heat sink attached). You want to be sure whatever speaker you use requires similar or less power. The original 3W speaker admittedly is very tinny and cheap. The 8-ohm speaker used in Xenon was of much better quality. Marco sells them.

So I jumped the socket tab to another controlled lights tab. The socket and bulb are good.

I went back and looked and pulled the pin on the board and it looked good. Re-pinned it anyway. Bingo bongo light works again.

Glad you figured it out!

Had my right upper flipper lose some movement while the neighbor kids were playing. Coil sleeve appears to have melted some. No problem I have a spare bally flipper rebuild kit on hand.

Popped up the playfield and noticed something odd. I have 3 different flipper coils. The upper right is the only one that is the one specified in the manuals. Here's what I have:

Left AQ-25-800
Left Upper A 24-570/34-3600
Right A 24-570/34/3600
Right Upper AQ-25-500/34-4500

Is there a preferred flipper coil for Skateball or us my mix just a bastardization to keep the game playing?

Those 24-570/34-3600 coils are from later Bally 6803 games. Is that AQ-25-800 just a two lug coil? If yes, no way it should be there.
I'd probably put a lower power flipper coil in the upper left like a 26-600/34-4500. This is what Fireball II has in that position which makes more sense considering the proximity of the targets it shoots for.

Random thing I noticed since moving the game.

When I turn on the game and it goes into attract mode(Weebly MPU home attract mode) my player 1 display shows "3" the other display show "0" and then it flashes to high score and back to "3" and "0" until I play a game. After a game it then displays last score and alternates between that and high score.

What's the "3" about?

Your game probably has Oliver Kaegi's version 3 Skateball update code.
http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

Tell me about your ball gate. My lower left ball gate seems to move freely by hand but unless the ball has a good bit of speed I get quite a few balls dropping out of the left outline. This normal?

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Yes, totally normal, if i remember correctly, there is an adjustment on the left upper post to change the way the ball hits the gate when it comes down as to how it hits the gate, so it won't drain as often, that would be the post directly across from the gate on the left side

I suspected that might be the case. Thanks

This was happening to me with some frequency too. What I did was to take a pair of needlenosed pliers (small pieces of duct tape to cushion the insides) and very carefully adjust the tail edge of the chrome lane guide, changing the ball trajectory only slightly, allowing the ball to approach the gate just slightly higher than before, creating a much more seamless transition from the inlane, through the gate to the flipper. Good luck.

Hi ,
I am currently rebuilding a Skateball , and i have found a Bally Mystic cabinet as donor.
But i have to implement on the Right flipper, the contact to manage the "Lane Changer".

Could you explain how is connected these contact to the A1 MPU board.
I have compared the two schematics on A1-J3 connector and they are identical. So where/how is connected this Right flipper contact.

Thanks for your help

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The Skateball playfield cabinet harness has a breakout plug that routs the matrix wires for the lane change to a mating connector placed into the cabinet harness.
As an alternative, rather than reproduce that wiring I would add the outside low power EOS switch to the right upper flipper. This would be similar to the setup used in Space Invaders to produce the blast noise. Configuring it this way would eliminate the need to add the breakout wiring and connectors to the cable harnesses.

Thanks for the reply .
In fact, i have the normal skateball playfield, and yes ..it seems that i have a connector.
This one , right ?

Is sounds no difficult to install with this way .

(Don't be afraid about the blue backbox color - the playfiels is installed in a star trek backbox.. ouch )

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No. That connector is for some playfield lamps that you need to interface to the J2 connector on the lamp driver board.
That connector is described in the wiring diagram of the manual:

Skateball_A5J2_Playfield_Intermediate_Connector.png

I never understood thoses small tables..

On the schematics , the Lane changer switch is on the crossing point of I7 and ST3.
I7 - color code 52 - White Blue
ST3 - color code 53 - White Yellow.
I have found the connector with these 2 colors - Its sounds good..

I'll try on Wednesday - Thank you so much for your help.
Lionel

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In progress ..to join the club

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Finally, the solution proposed by BigAl56 sounds better .
The risk to fry the MPU board with the 43 Volts due to a bad "contact system" on the right flipper is high.
So i will install a normal contact (on stock !) on the upper flipper , as he said.
Thank you for this alternative !

Use an outhole switch with a plastic insulating nub to prevent 42v from shorting to the switch contact.
The breakout for the cabinet switch can be found about 2/3 of the way down the playfield cable harness. It's a small 3 pin connector and easily missed as it breaks out towards the back of the cabinet. If you go with my flipper switch solution all you need to do is reroute those wires to the new switch on the flipper.

Found the connector
Easy now to do the job.
What a great solution. Thank you so much

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Back in the day I would test playfields out in my standard cabinet borrowed from a Strikes and Spares. Needless to say over the years I had to make some revisions to accommodate new features. Installing the lane change switch as an EOS on the flipper was one of my workarounds so I did not have to rewire my cabinet.