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Bingo Pinballs _ Created
12-05-2014 – Last Update 06-29-2020 Here is a nice
exchange from the google rec.games.pinball
forum talking about the “turn-on” characteristics of the
early 6-Card Bally Bingos` …both what is suppose to happen and not, smile` Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball From: "neilc" neil...@comcast.net Date: 25 Jan 2007 17:45:34 -0800 Local: Thurs, Jan 25 2007 5:45 pm Subject: question for anyone with working bingo Fun Way
or Lotta Fun, Single Coin, or similar. Hi, I've posted about this game before looking for
technical advice but it seems like no one is
familiar with the problems I'm having. So this time
I'm hoping that someone with a working game can tell me a few things about
how the game operates when it's working properly, as this will help me with
troubleshooting. Does the control unit motor turn continuously during
gameplay? Does the game continuously search for winners during gameplay? Does
the game award points during gameplay, or only after
the fifth ball? If you shoot the first ball and do nothing else, how long
will the game run before it ends the game? When you raise a ball to the
playfield, or shoot a ball, do you hear the timer unit step up once at the
same time? Or does the timer unit
operation seem independent of the gameplay? Thank you very much in advance to
anyone who can answer any or all of these questions. Neil
Neil, check the schematic for anything that
would activate the timer unit reset coil. I suspect that the timer unit is
supposed to get reset at some point during a game, possibly by an unnoticed
switch on the ball lift mechanism. This would mean 24 seconds per ball
instead of 24 seconds per game. In addition, the control unit could be
restarted after all five balls are played by simply cycling the ball lift
mechanism. Ben
Neil, I am not an
expert on repairing bingo pinball machines but will try to help you with your
questions. I have a 1961 "all original" Bally Lite a Line and it
could work like your Lotta Fun or other six card bingos from that year too
but not sure.Yes.... the
Control Unit Motor does turn during gameplay.No......the Search Disc Unit does not continuously search for
winners during game play. I think the game awards replays after the 4th or
5th ball is shot. I am not in front of my game so i
will guess its after the 5th ball.If you shoot the first ball out and do nothing
else, then the game will run continuously which is dangerous and bad for the
control motor. When you first start the game and shot the ball through the
top arch metal switch it steps the timer unit one step. The timer unit
operates alot of important relays functions that
control the gameplay. Make sure your top arch ball gate switch is working and
contacts are clean on it. Niel i
am a little rusty because i have not worked on my
six card games in quite sometime which is a good
thing. Vic Neil, here is Bally's
1961 Lite a Line six card bingo component function operation.1) At the start
of the game a player drops coins in to game.(control
motor runs) 2) Control Motor runs continuously during entire game (until
Timer Unit reaches final step and shuts off). 3) Player shoots ball through
top arch ball gate switch.(Starts timer unit and
closes shutter motor board). 4) Timer Unit continues to step up until it
reaches the final step (which i 'm guessing is
about 25 steps). 5)After 4th or 5th ball is shot player can press left side
button located on front of lower cabinet which will start the search disc
(which are located at the left end of the control unit). 6)Search disc
continue to turn until winning number combination is found (then stops and
will pay out). 7)Player can then again hit the left side button which will
start the search disc turning again to search for more winning number
combination. 8)Timer unit reaches last step and shuts off control motor.
9)Right side red button starts new game if player has replays on backglass
replay counter. Vic All, I can see why
Neil is having this trouble. He and I have communicated some off line and I am baffled at the problem as well. The
Lotta Fun six card has a manual ball lift and no extra balls, which is similar to my six card Bright Lights (which was the very
first Bally bingo game). The Bright Lights does not have a timer unit and the
control unit motor runs continuously during the game. In fact, if you look at
Ray Watt's web site, you will find that the players considered it a courtesy
to tilt the machine upon leaving because it would search for winners
incessantly and the search relays would tick maddeningly. Now, I have a
Shoot-a-Line with essentially the same schematic
characteristics as the Lotta Fun, from the same time period.
The timer is an eight step unit and starts ticking
at the closure of the shutter, when the first ball is shot and at each
revolution of the control unit cams. I agree with Neil that this is an odd situation.Vic, you mention a button
on the front of the cab to start the search unit. Neil has an added button on
the front of his unit as well. Maybe that's it's purpose?Neil, if I were you and
just wanted to have the game for home use, I would revert to the old Bright
Lights method and just let the control unit motor run by disabling either the
timer stepper of the open at top switch which shuts to CU motor. This solves
your problem and for home use will not be a big deal. Remember, these
machines were on constantly, sometimes 24 hours a day and the motors would
wear. Home use, I don't see a problem. Phil Neil, I have a Bally Miami Beach and it
DOES search for winners constantly (which is proper operation). The sound you
hear while this happens is all those relays clicking. This is normal. Mine
starts to pay on the third ball, through the last ball. This too is normal.
It pays as soon as it finds a winner. It does not pay multiple times for the
same number of balls in a row. If you don't touch the game for roughly 5
minutes (or so) it will time out and shut off. This again, is proper
operation. Gameroom magazine sells a very good
book, dedicated just to Bingo operation and repair.Hope this helps, Kevin First, Thank
you to everyone who has contributed to this thread. It is an honor to be receiving advice from
some of the most knowledgeable folks in the bingo field. Steve -- I have
posted about this on bingo.cdyn.com and I have found the site to be quite helpful but it does not get as much traffic as rgp, and as such generates fewer responses. Ben -- Your
suspicion is quite interesting. I hadn't considered that the timer could be a
ball timeout instead of a game timeout, and it seems to me that your idea
would make more sense anyway. But the schematic indicates that the timer unit
is designed to only reset once per game -- it is wired together with a bunch
of other stepper resets that all pulse momentarily upon closure of the shutter.Vic and Kevin -- The
information that you provided has been quite helpful in understanding how the
game should work. I am surprised that my game is apparently operating mostly
as it's designed to. btw Kevin your
orchestrion on your web site looks incredible. It sounds like the conclusion
here is that this game was a crappy design to begin
with. The operator modifications on mine were probably mostly improvements to
the gameplay rather than legal or odds related hacks as I had previously
assumed. My best option at this point appears to be keeping and/or restoring
some of the modifications. Restoring
the operation of the left button to match Vic's description is probably a
good idea. It sounds like that button should reset the timer, and optionally
release the search cam indexes or search enable relays if the game is
configured to not constantly search for winners. My game has relays that
appear to be a modification that are configured to disconnect all of the search cam slip ring wipers, but they are
controlled with the control motor power supply, so the search system is
always enabled during gameplay. It may be more logical for these relays to be
controlled by the left button, but it seems like either configuration will
have the same final outcome. Keeping the timer unit modified to make the
game run longer is probably a good idea as well. It sounds like most
games out there were either designed or modified to have a 20-25 step timer
rather than an 8 step.My
next goal is to reverse the 'single coin' operational modification back to a
one card per coin/credit system. Is this a simple and common change or should
I go back to studying the schematic to figure this one out? Also the scoring seems to be acting a bit funny; I'm going
to have to take a closer look at when and why it adds to the score. The
scoring problem that I have had is that if you have a decent game (I think
two or three three-number lines or better causes it), the score cam pauses much more often and will rarely step up the
timer, and in some cases has stopped stepping the timer altogether. Meanwhile the game continues to add to the
score, apparently failing to differentiate between previously counted wins
and new wins. This is a problem that I have yet to explore. I will probably
have time to work on the game again tomorrow and I will post an update.
Thanks again Neil Regarding the
scoring problem, it is almost certainly normal for the timer unit to stop
indexing while replays are being awarded. Otherwise, the control unit might
be stopped before the procedure is finished. With multiple winners, each
winner is detected at a different point on the search disk. After each winner
is detected and recorded, the search cam will stop at the next one
automatically. The machine should also keep track of winners, so that they
are not recorded a second time. If you are observing behavior other than
this, please repost with the details. Ben -------------------------------------------------------------- Well one day Phil Hooper reaches out to correct one of
my pages, sharing a few comments about “turn-on” http://danny.cdyn.com/initialturnon.htm
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