# Batman '89 Pinball Overhaul: Episode 1

**Source:** Cary Hardy  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2023-09-22  
**Duration:** 11m 40s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ojWOZxk-U

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## Analysis

Cary Hardy begins a comprehensive overhaul of a Batman '89 pinball machine, starting with foundational electrical diagnostics and cabinet cleaning. The machine requires a ground connection on the power plug, has a failed MOSFET (Q44) preventing the left buck solenoid from firing, and needs adjustment to the shooter lane switch alignment. Hardy documents the systematic troubleshooting process and prepares the cabinet for deeper restoration work.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] The Batman machine's power plug lacks proper grounding, which is critical for pinball machine operation — _Hardy explicitly identifies and addresses the missing ground connection at the start of the overhaul_
- [HIGH] The left buck solenoid is not firing due to a failed MOSFET (Q44) on the control board — _Hardy performs voltage and ohms testing, identifies Q44 as visibly damaged, and confirms the coil itself is mechanically sound_
- [MEDIUM] A missing spring component in the shooter lane switch is likely causing repeated activation and solenoid burnout — _Hardy observes the switch resting incorrectly and notes 'there should be a spring in here to keep it from resting like that'_
- [HIGH] Data East machines provide poor internal access, necessitating removal of the playfield to rotisserie for comprehensive work — _Hardy states 'these data east they don't give you easy access back here inside the cabinet' and moves the playfield to rotisserie_
- [HIGH] The machine had significant dust and loose hardware accumulation inside the cabinet — _Hardy performs extensive vacuuming and finds loose hardware at the bottom requiring inventory_

### Notable Quotes

> "proper ground is very important especially especially for dealing with something such as a pinball machine if you want some really weird stuff going on then have a faulty ground"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~2:00
> _Core diagnostic principle: emphasizes why proper grounding is foundational to pinball machine repair_

> "We've got a rotten dog board, so that's a plus on that. And everything else looks to be OEM"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~5:30
> _Initial assessment of board condition; 'rotten dog board' appears to be a colloquialism for a specific board type or condition_

> "I don't even know where the other half of that transistor is at"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~12:00
> _Visual confirmation of catastrophic Q44 MOSFET failure; indicates severe burnout_

> "these data east they don't give you easy access back here inside the cabinet so best thing is just to take the damn thing out so I can walk around it like so and access every nook and cranny from every angle"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~14:30
> _Design critique and practical troubleshooting approach; explains methodology choice_

> "If you find loose hardware at the bottom of a cabinet I'm sure it went to the machine at some point but it looks like everything's intact"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~21:00
> _General troubleshooting wisdom about cabinet inspection and parts tracking_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Cary Hardy | person | Pinball restoration technician performing comprehensive overhaul of Batman '89 machine; provides detailed diagnostic and repair narration |
| Batman '89 Pinball | game | Data East pinball machine being restored; primary subject of the video; requires electrical repairs, solenoid work, and mechanical adjustment |
| Whirlwind | game | Pinball machine being packed up and returned to its owner to make room for Batman '89 work |
| Data East | company | Pinball manufacturer; Batman '89 is a Data East machine; noted for having poor internal access design |
| Q44 MOSFET | product | Failed transistor on control board preventing left buck solenoid from firing; visibly damaged/burned out |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Electrical diagnostics and grounding, Solenoid troubleshooting and MOSFET failure, Data East machine design and internal access
- **Secondary:** Cabinet cleaning and mechanical inspection, Rotisserie setup for playfield access, Shooter lane switch adjustment

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0.5) — Hardy maintains a methodical, professional tone throughout. There is some minor frustration with missing components (broken security bits, missing spring, picking the lock) but this is offset by systematic problem-solving and satisfaction with diagnostic progress. The overall sentiment is solution-oriented and matter-of-fact.

### Signals

- **[product_concern]** Batman '89 machine exhibits multiple electrical and mechanical defects: missing ground connection, failed MOSFET, missing spring component, shooter lane misalignment, and significant dust/debris accumulation indicating inadequate maintenance history (confidence: high) — Visual inspection and systematic testing reveal Q44 transistor damage, improperly grounding power connection, missing spring in shooter switch, and extensive interior contamination
- **[technology_signal]** Data East machines have design limitations that make internal access and comprehensive repair difficult, requiring removal of playfield to rotisserie for effective troubleshooting (confidence: high) — Hardy explicitly states 'these data east they don't give you easy access back here inside the cabinet' and moves entire playfield to rotisserie for accessibility

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## Transcript

 Alright, time to get Whirlwind all packed up and wrapped up because another game's going to be going in its place and we're going to start working on Batman. Alright, we have Whirlwind pretty much packed up and ready to go back to its owner. And now we have the Batman. Doing all this in the dining room right here. so space is a little limited because it's too hot in the garage I ain't doing that no sir so we're going to get this thing all set up now and see what we got going on all right let's do a walk around so right off the bat the ground cable right here from the backbox to the cabinet has been disconnected so we'll reconnect that and then we're going to basically wipe everything down it's a little bit dirty so we'll start with that and then we'll get the backbox up and see what we got inside so doing a quick walk around got everything kind of wiped down backbox is all nice and locked first thing i can see is that we're going to need to get a new plug for this because there's no ground so that's a no bueno no ground makes my repair for that ground right there pretty close to pointless so proper ground is very important especially especially for dealing with something such as a pinball machine if you want some really weird stuff going on then have a faulty ground all right let's get this thing pushed back so i can have some room to work on it and then to open up this backbox and see what we're dealing with well i was going to open it up but I did not bring the key with me to get into this machine so gonna have to do it old school gonna pick the lock let's do this all right just these two I had to go through my rolodex of parts up here to figure out which one I was going to need for this particular lock but yep got her done hopefully we've got the key to the backbox on here which doesn't look like it but that's not that big of a deal because i can always just unlock it and unscrew it from up there all right what we are in like a dirty shirt and the keys weren't in there so i had to remove the security bit screws if you don't know what these look like actually these aren't security bit ones and if they are the oh yeah they are okay that's what I thought I was like I thought for sure I saw one that's why it's always nice and handy to carry a set of these things around I guess I actually broke off the bit on that last one right there in the center So we going to be replacing this anyway But we now have full access to the entire machine Alright, this is what we're dealing with back here. We've got a rotten dog board, so that's a plus on that. And everything else looks to be OEM, but I can already see that I'm going to have to be doing some rebuilding on this power supply right here, obviously. The only thing that looks good honestly is this GI connector which I think I rebuilt this one already. That's why that one and that one. This is the only good looking thing on this power supply is this one is I rebuilt on location. So or did I? No this couldn't have been me. No this was not me. This was before I got here. I don't know what they've done right here. but okay so that's what we're gonna do i can already see like i said this is some sort of bypass thing on here i don't like the look of that uh it looks like we've had a burnout on this resistor right here i probably can't see that very well all right but i think we're gonna plug her up and see if we get any magic smoke or anything but before we do that I'm gonna go ahead and replace the plug on here and give me a good ground there we go that looks a lot better going through the switch matrix all the switches work including the left buck switch which also currently has a ball inside of there all solenoids everything fire except for the left buck right here so that's gonna be our first thing to diagnose to figure out why that's not firing. All right power is turned on and we're going to be setting our multimeter to ohms but before that this is the buck in question and first of all we're going to check for mechanical okay so I can move it with my fingers and everything and it looks to be pretty smooth so the coil doesn't feel or seem to be burned out or anything so that's a plus. Actually let's yeah we'll test on first getting four ohms so it's not burn out so that's good let's go to voltage DC and put my probe on ground this is the power 40 volts so I've got power going to this coil but it's not firing when the game tells it to So can we manually fire this coil Let me Alright so Then what we lacking more than likely is a ground So I'll hook that up to ground. Maybe we can reach to this. Okay. So that lets me know that the coil works. Mechanically, it's sound. more than likely it's going to be one of the MOSFETs on the on the board up here I can't thanks trick but uh so now that's our next step is to look at the board and see I need to download the manual and figure out which transistor gives this thing ground so let's get that done all right so I was going to get the manual and figure out which one of these is bad but I don't need to it looks like definitely Q44 is my problem that thing is pretty much done it's like I don't even know where the other half of that transistor is at so yeah we're going to have to replace that alright doing some plate testing everything looks to be working but we're going to need to make an adjustment to the shooter lane switch and alignment and everything obviously because it has this so that's going to need to be adjusted I don't think that's lining up very well down there either and that should be shooting a little bit better so we'll work on that so all that looks to be mechanically everything looks to be pretty good on this machine except for that buck which is that transistor up here so here we go and we now have batman's cabinet is empty moved everything to the rotisserie because i feel like i'm really going to need it for this game right here for ease of access and everything because these data east they don't give you easy access back here inside the cabinet so best thing is just to take the damn thing out so I can walk around it like so and access every nook and cranny from every angle so the only thing that doesn't work is this due to a fried transistor so that should be good I feel like that switch Yeah, I'm going to have to adjust that because that switch is activating when it's not supposed to So that probably why this fried is because it was constantly firing over and over and over again and it got too hot maybe that a mere educated guess at this point because there should be a spring in here to keep it from resting like that so we are missing a component so that's something definitely I'll have to get in order to get this thing working 100% without further issues all right so I guess for the time being I'm probably gonna go ahead and clean this thing up right here get it all vacuumed out and make it look a little bit better all right here we are post vacuum cleaner and giving it just a quick wipe down we aren't doing like restoration and stuff like that we're just getting it cleaned up and looking making it look a lot better than what it did and I would say it does it was pretty damn dirty got all the loose hardware that was down there and I've got that set to the side because chances are I'm probably gonna need it. If you find loose hardware at the bottom of a cabinet I'm sure it went to the machine at some point but it looks like everything's intact. The only thing is on here on the switch, the coin door switches, is that there is a little bit of a homebrewing going on right here. This is the switch in order to progress through the menu and everything and this is the toggle for adjustments and diagnostics so I'm probably going to get new new parts for that I will see I do have a budget so gotta figure out what can be replaced and what can't oh I also found the keys to the backbox down right here here so I removed that for nothing right now. Oh well. Yeah cabinet looks pretty good and I guess we'll start doing the play field here pretty soon and this thing is oh man I can already see some some stuff going on here we'll just say that. I'm just kind of curious of what all I'm going to find when I start taking it apart.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: a47691bd-bf2b-4cf3-877d-561a08d822c6*