Making the Popeye full cyclic and installing Gaku's Pachicounter etc.

[musky]

Ok, do this at your own risk, I'm not responsible if you screw up your pachinko.

So, with that said, let's get started shall we?
First thing we need to do is remove the cell. You will have to unplug 6 cables on the back. See photos for reference. The first pic shows 2 cables that need to be unplugged.

[musky]

Next you will need to unlock the front of the cell. Open up the front of the machine, top and bottom, and locate the 4 locking lugs located in the 4 corners. The bottom 2 are located behind little doors that you will have to pop open. There is a little tab at the bottom of the doors that hold the doors shut. Just push down on the tab and the doors should pop open enough for you to get a hold on them to open them.

[musky]

Twist the lugs to line up with the slots then remove the cell pulling out on the right side a little. The whole thing should come right out, make sure you have a hold on it, don't drop it!. Dropping the cell is bad!

[musky]

The next step is making the pathway for the balls to come back out in the shooter tray, but first, lets look at how the balls travel after they leave the cell. In the first pic i'm pointing to a tab that is pushed to move the gate assembly lower. Notice the white locking lug just to the left can't be moved because the gate assembly is in the way. With the gate assembly lowered (pic 2) you can twist the lug and pull out the ball track assembly. (pic 3) In pic 4 there is a piece removed so you can see the slot along the back between the black and blue parts. This is where the balls would go to drop out the bottom in the back. We don't want the balls to go that way so we need to cut out part of the frame (pic 5) and direct all the balls to go toward the cut out. I just cut and formed a piece of sheet metal to do that as seen in pic 6.

[musky]

Oops! Forgot to mention that in pic 3 above we want the balls to enter the ball track assembly through the hole just left of my thumb

[CarlW]

Oops! Forgot to mention that in pic 3 above we want the balls to enter the ball track assembly through the hole just left of my thumb

The rectangle? Just left of your thumb, correct?

[musky]

Yes, that be the one. If you notice, there is also a chute toward the right side of the ball tray assembly. That can be use as well, in fact, that was the route I used when I converted Freddy Vs Jason.
I will be continuing this thread with the next steps in a few days, a little thing of life called work in interrupting my play time. The steps above do make Popeye or similar Sammy machines cyclic.

[musky]

The next step in this project is to install Gaku's PachiCounter. Rather then reinvent the wheel, I will refer you to an earlier project of mine where I install the counter on a Freddy Vs. Jason, with much success I must add. Anyhow you can find it here Reversible Payout Assembly Mod The only change I made was to use heat shrink tubing on the paddles, makes for a cleaner looking job.

[musky]

OK, today I was able to finish up some of the wiring and play a little Popeye. I played about 9 minutes and hit a couple of small fever rounds. This game is a little different then some of the other games I have in that it has shorter fever rounds (5 cycles instead of the usual 15). I was playing with only 12 balls in the machine, that's what cyclic is all about and as you can see on the counter on top, I'm 300 plus balls to the good. Anyway, a fun project and a fun game!