Schematics - Repairing A Few Issues On A 1976 Bally Captain Fantastic Pinball Machine! 

Absolutely enthralling how you worked through those schematics to find the issue, which ended up being something simple. These machines look so complicated, which they are, but generally the problem is relatively a simple one, is just finding it. Hats off to you Ron, you must get a lot of satisfaction in repairing these machines. This has turned out “Fantastic”.

I think my favorite videos in each series are the troubleshooting ones. Thanks for walking us through it!

Reminds me of some cars I’ve worked on instead of Game Over it’s the check engine light. They just remove the bulb or put tape over it and pretend there’s no problem until it is Game Over. Great detective work and nice fix. Thanks for the video.

Joe, next time you are near the edge of the current rating on a connector and you have a spare slot (you used a 2-position connector a single circuit). Double them up. Use two contacts and just either make a "Y" at both ends or when you crimp/solder the pins on, jump it over to the other contact. You'll essentially double your current rating (you can do the same thing on relay contacts if you have a spare set on a multi-pole relay. I don't know how often it comes up for you, but Extech makes a range of AC/DC clamp on ammeters so you can know, with certainty, what the current is. They can also be handy for tracing out a circuit that is drawing too much current...which could indicate a failing coil (or other circuit where you know what the approximate current should be). Great videos, by the way! When I was growing up, we had a Gottlieb "Super Circus" pinball machine. My interest in electronics started with that. I can almost "smell" the vintage electro-mechanical electronics in your videos!

Nice machine and cool it's fixed! Couldn't help but think of "Game over, man! Game over!" I miss Bill Paxton, he said that as Private Hudson in Aliens.

I suspected the ball-in-play unit from the very beginning, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Thanks for taking us along on the ride.

Schematics to the rescue! Glad that "Game Over" gremlin was put down. This machine is just beautiful. Helluva job!

Really diggin' the problem diagnosis sections of your videos. Very helpful going through the schematic and explaining. Also commenting that you want people to be able to follow you and describe it thorough. Also like how you use strategy based diagnosis to trace a problem down. Thanks for doing that Ron. Joey in Canada

So glad you’re a little bit better than me at reading schematics. … but watching you troubleshoot has slowly improved my skills in this area. Thanks heaps Ronnie. I played this machine back in the day, and also repainted the cabinets on two of these. … Still got a soft spot for the Captain.

Great troubleshooting as always! At first I thought you could use your Fluke to measure the current, but specs online say Max of only 10A, bummer. Your logic and back of the napkin calcs are spot on for the Molex connector. Molex should also design in overhead to achieve their ratings. This is likely why CSA found they can handle 15A in their testing. The N/A designations only mean that the part was not tested by that particular organization, i.e. UL 1 vid/day is quite impressive! Greg

Always make your videos interesting and not too long so keep the videos coming have a good night

That's a weird one Joe. The film depicted is "Tommy" and Elton John is the pinball wizard, defeated by Tommy in the film, but he had an album called captain Fantastic and Bally have just welded the two together....love the vids man ,,,keep em coming

Great timing - I just finished the previous 2 in the series half hour ago.

Great video! I'm learning a lot on how these old EM pins work. Thank you! At 57:34, when the drop targets reset, the bottom one dropped on it's own. Might need to check that out. :)

Remember Star Trek II, the Wrath of Khan right after Khan blasted the Enterprise and Kirk told Savik, "this is why we learn how things work". They sent Reliant's transponder code and were able to return fire! After that ten foot long schematic was stretched out on your counter and you took us on that journey through the weeds (for a loose wire) I think I understand how these things actually work! Your a good teacher Ron! Thanks as always!

Excellent job as usual.

I love the chimes reminds me of when I was a kid in the pinball hall

That made me think of the time it started on ball 4.... Interesting

Was great Ronnie to have the 3 of you guys feature in Donnies video with him bashing that machine 👏 🥊

A lot more complexity than meets the eye I remember this machine coming in brand new at our local arcade I got to play it for free so the tech guy could set it up watching me then he gave me maximum FREE games on the credit counter to enjoy for helping him. What a GREAT deal a Quarter was something back in 1977 so I was pretty lucky that day! Don't jinx yourself with the double flipper and I liked the knock when you got SPECIAL. Can you connect that to the Free Ball?? Good job I enjoy the Videos.

Nice video! I couldn't remember if there was supposed to be lubricant on the game ball position switch. I called an over-tightened screw on the playfield, not replaced and mis-matched! Greatly enjoyed watching/hearing you fix this one. Thanks for posting.

Watching these videos makes me want to buy a Pinball Machine, play it then break it then try and fix it. Not sure what would fascinate me more.. playing them or watching them being repaired 🤔 another great video In schematic reading and experience 👍👍😄

Top job keep em coming 👍👍

The album is a masterpiece of early Elton John, I still listen to it on occasion. Really enjoy your videos 🙂

You the best Koe thank u 4 your content

That broken wire makes a lot of sense now. I remember in an earlier video, you reset the game and it played through one game properly and then went back to dropping straight to game over. Nice catch to find it now :) Broken wires can be hard to trace sometimes.

I think one of the diodes is a dampening diode. When you collapse the field of a coil, it will release voltage. So the diode will catch this unwanted "flyback" pulse.

Awsome fault finding and repair skills! Can you spare some for me?

Haven't heard the ominous music in a while :)

Cmon dirt brown cowboy 🤠

The album Captain Fantastic and the brown dirt cowboy was recorded in August 74 and released around May 75 I believe

Nice. You need to have very good troubleshooting skills to fix one of these beasts!

I wish I could read the schematics as good as you. I'm struggling right now with Space Odyssey. I think from here on out, I'm going to stick to Gottlieb's EM only. They seem to be a little better built in my opinion.

I bought a vigilante jamma pcb board for bout 20 bucks at a flea market..assuming it works lol now I just need the rest of the machine 😅

The way people nitpick you sometimes, I'm surprised no one has complained you use your left hand to write with🤣

Great EM series! What is your schedule for working on Flight 2000 ?

Awesome Ronnie

Could you have a silence switch to keep the peace at night so as to not annoy the parents with to much noise.

Great video. When I get 100k points on my capt. fantastic, the machine makes a long humming noise. Is this normal and related to rolling the score over? Seems odd it would hum, but wasn't sure. Thanks

yes its Canadian

Can you say how you got started in the business? I would like to start a store and do things like you do including fixing pinball machines where I live! 😀 My friend has rich parents and they started a video game store here that was innovative for the time (2016ish) you could play games in the store, they had gaming tournaments there and all kinds of new stuff at the time. They paid 2 or 3x more for used games than game stop would the store was a hit in my opinion! I loved it, I even helped them build the store from the ground up.... It lasted 2 years then shutdown out of business. I am not sure what happened. I dont want to wind up in that situation. Tips and any useful information to help would be highly appreciated! 😁😎

Hi I have a Bally capt fantastic but the special light by the drop targets will not come on at all. If I run a jumper wire to another light that is lit it will come in but not on it's on, do you have any idea were to look for the problem.

The "d" in the word "And" looks like "al". That together with the placement of the word "THE" suggests they were spelling something completely different...

Cmon people..why would somebody cut the stand up switches..ridiculous as Jim Rome would say😆

Has anyone converted this game to solid state to make it more reliable.

Yodelayheehoo

Without the noises it’s a worthless pinball game.🤦