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Few centaur questions

kevlar

kevlar

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10 Years
Joined
Apr 11, 2013
Messages
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Location
Newport, South Wales
I've just taken delivery of a centaur, got it set up but not working yet. I haven't had time to tinker much and heading out shortly. The MPU seems to boot fully with its 7 flashes but the displays end up just flashing all zero's. Game can not be started. Solenoid test initially worked then stopped after I lifted the playfield. Found the under playfield fuse blown, replaced and solenoid test works again. No stuck switches. Anyone know what all zero's on the displays mean? Can centaur be put into freeplay? The manual doesn't mention it. Credit switches on door don't seem to do anything.
 
Check that the coin switches and start button switch works using the continuity test on a meter. If they do then it's probably a connector problem so reseat and wiggle J3 on the MPU. No freeplay but you can set the replay value to 10,000 points...

Good luck!
 
The zeros mean you haven't scored any points. Try hitting some targets and stuff, this usually helps.

Failing that, put it on eBay.

Ha ha.
 
kevlar said:
Can centaur be put into freeplay?
Click to expand...

My Gold Ball of similar genre doesn't have free play and I've set it up as @Moonraker suggests above so you pretty much get a replay on the first ball to keep topping up the credits. The custom ROMs add freeplay and I believe they are available for Centaur.
 
What arv said. You need a total of 5 balls in the trough. 4 in the lower trough, 1 in the out hole. Until it sees a full compliment you'll get the zeros in the displays.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions, won't have time to look until tomorrow but there's 5 balls in there plus the captive ball so maybe a dodgy trough switch.
 
Couldn't resist having another quick look at it before bed, full marks to Peter for sugesting giving J3 a wiggle. Seems J3 and J2 could do with re-pinning. Anyway it's working now and I'm very happy, have wanted a Centaur for a while and it sits very nicely next to Medusa :-).
 
All your questions will have one simple answer. Sell your medusa or centaur to me and get the vector of your dreams !,!,!,
 
The trough below the playfield for the captive 'Orbs' has three micro-switches;
  • The furthest right (position 1) shows if the trough is empty.
  • The 'middle' switch shows that 4 balls are in the trough.
  • The furthest left shows if somehow five balls get into the trough, and is handy for getting all balls out of the trough - holding its trip-wire in the activated position operates the trough Release/Kick mechanism, even when the other switches are 'clear'.
Another game from that era which 'locks up' if balls are missing is Stern's 'Flight 2000' - the complex locking area doesn't have any switches to register balls being held in the 'ball walker' unit, so if the game is booted without all three balls in the outhole the player displays continually show the Highest Score (with Credit display blank), while the release mechanism and two kicker pockets attempt to return the missing balls. Once the three outhole switches are closed, the game goes into the Attract Mode (though the software does have a time-out on what I call the 'recovery' mode; the release is operated a maximum number of times, 10 I think).
 
Last edited:
Jay Walker said:
The trough below the playfield for the captive 'Orbs' has three micro-switches;
  • The furthest right (position 1) shows if the trough is empty.
  • The 'middle' switch shows that 4 balls are in the trough.
  • The furthest left shows if somehow five balls get into the trough, and is handy for getting all balls out of the trough - holding its trip-wire in the activated position operates the trough Release/Kick mechanism, even when the other switches are 'clear'.
Click to expand...
Thanks David, I do have to look at the trough switches as it happens, now and then the machine thinks all the balls are in the trough when one is still in play. Sounds like the middle switch you mentioned.
 
Jay Walker said:
The trough below the playfield for the captive 'Orbs' has three micro-switches;
  • The furthest right (position 1) shows if the trough is empty.
  • The 'middle' switch shows that 4 balls are in the trough.
  • The furthest left shows if somehow five balls get into the trough, and is handy for getting all balls out of the trough - holding its trip-wire in the activated position operates the trough Release/Kick mechanism, even when the other switches are 'clear'.
Another game from that era which 'locks up' if balls are missing is Stern's 'Flight 2000' - the complex locking area doesn't have any switches to register balls being held in the 'ball walker' unit, so if the game is booted without all three balls in the outhole the player displays continually show the Highest Score (with Credit display blank), while the release mechanism and two kicker pockets attempt to return the missing balls. Once the three outhole switches are closed, the game goes into the Attract Mode (though the software does have a time-out on what I call the 'recovery' mode; the release is operated a maximum number of times, 10 I think).
Click to expand...


sys 80's act weird without all the balls - like most things simple enough,but you have to know the signs of what it is trying to tell you:rolleyes:
 
TYHO said:
sys 80's act weird without all the balls - like most things simple enough,but you have to know the signs of what it is trying to tell you:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

They sure do. A Sys80b game will pretend it is entirely broken if the balls are not in the correct positions in the trough. That one has caught both me and John out more than once. Could they not have thought of a better way of dealing with a missing ball then playing dead?
 
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