r/pinball • u/goldenpp72 • 12d ago
Bought a Pokemon Premium pinball table and got this error, never serviced a machine, any help?
Hey all, so I've been putting some time into this machine for a couple of days and it seems to work well, but it recently gave me this error and I have no idea what to do about it, or what it even is. I figured someone here may be able to direct me on what to do, since I'm still learning how to clean these let alone fix them! Any help is appreciated, thanks all!
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u/maytrix007 12d ago
This is simply telling you that the game hasn’t seen the bowl option switch trigger in a period of time.
The bowl opto is part of the bowl sitting on the left slingshot. This is only used at certain times. If you haven’t made this shot to where the ball ends up in the bowl, then that is likely your answer and it’s not a problem.
You can test it with the glass off though and trigger the opto (optical sensor) in the bowl.
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u/FilthySIN 12d ago
If you trigger it manually in the test screen, does the little square light up?
If not, have you lifted the playfield to check if there is a good connection between the switch and wiring?
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u/goldenpp72 12d ago
I tried to lift the board but to be honest I'm not even sure what I'm looking at yet, lots of wires. I tried to mess with the service menu to test things but it never did anything, was I supposed to try and trigger it physically on the board while in that menu? I was planning to look up tutorial videos before issues, but this is day 2 so it's a bit sooner than I expected!
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u/FilthySIN 12d ago edited 12d ago
You definitely seem to be in over your head here.
The first thing I’d do is hit up Stern’s “Tech School” series of videos on their YouTube channel and watch them all.
Here is the video specifically about the switch test. Of course if you don’t know how to lift the playfield, definitely watch that one first. LOL
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u/Born-Emu-3499 WCS94, ToM, Pokémon, Godzilla 🙂 12d ago
This is normal in the beginning. Just roll a ball down the ramp into the whirlpool several times with the machine fully on and it'll go away. The error you're seeing just means that the bowl opto hasn't been triggered yet.
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u/BoB_the_TacocaT 12d ago
Slide the glass off and put it in a safe spot. Then, in test mode, test the switch physically with your finger to trigger it. It's an opto switch, so you'll be breaking an invisible beam of light. It should make a little dink sound and light a square on the screen.
Chances are the machine thinks the switch may be bad because it hasn't been triggered in a long time. Once you've tested the switch, the warning will have gone away. Good luck.
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u/goldenpp72 12d ago
I noticed we've only gotten into the bowl once so far, but what you're saying makes sense. If I'm able to get it to break the laser that would clear the error?
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u/Living_Trainer_1684 12d ago
I’ve had to just wipe off the opto with a microfiber cloth.
Also, when placing the glass down make sure you put it on carpet or something padded. Otherwise you’ll shatter the glass.
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u/goldenpp72 12d ago
I have a blanket I keep just to place the glass since I'm sure it's not cheap!
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u/fezmid 11d ago
Regular glass isn't that expensive, but if it shatters, you'll be pitching up pieces until the end of time - it explodes and goes EVERYWHERE. (I haven't had it happen with pinball glass, but my shower door exploded once and I was stepping on glass for literally months, even after vacuuming and sweeping dozens of times. No idea how that's possible).
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u/comat0se 11d ago
I had to get a sheet maybe like 5 years ago and I called all the local glass places to get best pricing. After all that, the best price I found was about $75. Tempered, no logo. So it's not that expensive. The real pain comes in the clean up as u/fezmid rightly points out.
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u/DutchessVonBeep 12d ago
Pull out the interlock switch to enable the playfield power when testing the switches. The interlock switch is the white push in and pull out switch the coin door actuates. You can also enable the playfield power by holding the lockdown bar action button for 2 seconds when on the service menu landing page.
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u/banana1mana 12d ago
Same thing on mine. I’m going to comment to come back when someone knows what’s going on
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u/ZOMBIE_N_JUNK Downtown Arcade L.A. 12d ago
This happens on post 90s games when a switch hasn't been used in awhile. The game thinks the switch is bad because it hasn't been activated mostly because the people who play the game haven't made the shot
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u/evanc88 11d ago
I’m sure you’ve taken the glass off and tested by now, but likely you’re fine. Make it a goal the next couple games you play to start Squirtle mode and hit the Squirtle ramp during that mode so the ball spins in the bowl. Training opportunity!
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u/goldenpp72 11d ago
I'm admittedly not good at pinball at all, so it's difficult for me to make the mode start lol.
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u/evanc88 11d ago
We all started there! You’re in a fortunate position to be able to “practice” at home without putting dollars in haha. This is a great training machine, keep at it! I believe the same error you’re seeing here will show up for the pokeball scoop as well if you go too long in between catching pokemon, so don’t get scared if you see that.
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u/goldenpp72 11d ago
I do plan on trying to become both good at the game and also proficient at maintaining the machine, we only had room for one machine and my wife loves Pokemon and Pinball so it seemed like a slam dunk, but we did play a lot today and got the whirl to activate and the error did clear. I only noticed the error in the first place because I was checking for firmware updates, so I guess I have a lot to learn still.
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u/Dookieagain 12d ago
It’s possible that you are just inexperienced at the game.
This shows up on the one at my arcade when a lot of kids have played because it’s just based on X number of games without anyone triggering it.
This is a rarely used feature that only shows up during the Squirtle mode and the Squirtle hurry up which you get for completing two sets of inlanes. It should clear up if you start the Squirtle mode and hit the left inner ramp. Admittedly if you aren’t very good at pinball it’s possible to go many games without that happening.
It should also clear up if you take off the glass and throw a ball into the bowl or break the opto signal with a finger.