This pictorial is demonstrated on a 1997 Bally Cirqus Voltaire pinball machine. We'll demonstrate what the problem is and what's going on.

IMPORTANT! Please use due care and precaution while following this pictorial or any oher pictorial on this website. Use at your own risk. If you do not have any repair or refurbishing experience and/or knowledge, do not work on pinball machine circuit boards, power supply, transformer, connectors or anything inside at all and step away from the machine!

This webpage is for informational purposes only. TXPinball will not be held liable or responsible for any damage that occurs to your pinball machine or any bodily injury or any kind of damage by use or misuse of this technique. If you have no idea what you're doing, step away from the pinball machine! Drop that soldering iron in its holder! Now, onto the pictorial...

Guess there are many ways to go about this and many ways to do these things. This is ours.

What is goin' on here? It is quite common after a while for the neon to not light up, neon in the ramp is dead completely or only glows faintly on the top or halfway problem. If it barely flickers, like it's trying to "kick it in" but it barely manages to light up only a small portion of neon on top of the neon ramp, then you got a problem. The neon ramp is such a big part of the game and is so visible on the playfield that it needs to be fixed and fixed right.

DOUBLE WARNING: Neon transformer output is 1500 Volts! You have to be super, duper, extremely careful and check, recheck and check again your work. Please be careful when doing this type of work, be slow - do not rush, the machine and neon is not going anywhere, be very methodical and think clearly - in no time you'll have your bright neon shining again.

Here is the Cirqus Voltaire Neon ramp already taken outside of game. This particular neon ramp only powers up and lights about 4 or 5 inches close to the transformer mounted inside the ramp, a sure sign the transformer is giving out. We'll attempt to fix that problem here.

Didn't bother with documenting the taking out ramp process, as it's pretty straight-forward. Pretty much 3 screws holding the ramp down to 3 metal posts, one Molex connector for a ramp switch and 1 Molex connector to unplug for the neon transfmormer. That's it. So, ramp is out...

The ramp consists of 2 clear parts held together by rivets and neon tube, transformer, cables and sponge pads all jammed inside. Closeup picture shows rivets and top of ramp end.

Closeup picture of the bottom, showing washers and rivets. We'll go ahead and use our drill bit to drill out the rivets. Be careful with this, you do not want to damage, crack or destroy the ramp.

Closeup picture of the inside of ramp, showing neon transformer and cables. In my approach to refurbishing, I like to fix everything first and make it work, then concentrate on cosmetic issues instead of tearing everything apart at the start and doing double work. So, yes, the ramp is filthy. Once the neon issues are fixed, it'll be properly cleaned and open flame-polished to like-new condition.

Here is a brand new transformer made by company called Ventex Technology, Inc.. Is is the same company that made the original transformer for Bally and Williams back in 1997 when the game was released. This same transformer will work just fine for the light-saber neon tube on the Star Wars 1999 Pinball2000 game. They look a little different, since the old,original one is unavailable, but technicaly they are identical and have the same specs. This transformer s suitable for inside use only, which is just fine for our purpose. Click here to go directly to Ventex's transformer page.

* Based on standard 12mm tube. Deduct one foot from driving footages for each pair of electrodes.
** Equivalent brightness of electromagnetic transformer

You can ask a distributor from out of town to do it for you, as well. Alternatively, Bay Area Amusements sells these transformers too - Direct Link to Bay Area Amusement's website.

Here are both of them side by side. Old, original transformer taken out is the one still attached to neon tube by its red leads, new one is on the right. As pointed out before, they don't look identical, but specs-wise they are the same model.

Now, after the ramp rivets have been drilled out and the inside of it exposed, we are going to rig it first to make sure it works. Then, we'll do the proper Molex connectors and so on and make it look factory later. But, for now, as a test, jumpers over exposed wires are fine for us. So, yes, it's a hack, it's sort of foolish and dangerous a bit (1500 Volts will most probably kill you on the spot, or at least give you a little Dick Cheney-like heart attack if you touch it!), but it's a temporary hack. Again, I heartily recommend you do not do it this way, except if you are fully confident in yoru abilities.

The only reason I decided to do it this way is, yes, I have done it before, yes, I know what I am doing, yes, I am very careful, slow and steady in my work, and yes, I just absolutely, positively HATE to do double work, if I really don't have to.

I'd hate to do everything, put on the rivets, install the ramp and THEN test it. If something didn't work right, then double work will need to be done and rivets drilled out again and so on. So, we'd be back on square 1 with all that time and effort wasted (it DIDN'T work!). This way, once everything is in order and all T's are crossed and all I's are dotted, it'll be put down correctly.

Please, again, do it this only if you are confident if you know what you are doing, as it is a little foolish to do it this way. Bare, open wires shooting high current through them are something definitely not to mess with if you are unsure of your abilities to do this.

So, top picture has jumper wires attached to the neon leads and the other end to transformer right here. We also see top 2 transformer wires going up to the Molex connector getting their required 12 Volts from the game itself. You can see the full "rig" and the mess of jumper wires hack in the video below.

Here are assorted rivets to be put on the ramp after all is tested, confirmed, wrapped up and ready to be finished and put back into the game.

Well, here it is. After everything was jumpered, the game was turned on and here it is. This particular neon tube is a beautiful, deep and rich purple one. Factory made Cirqus Voltaire machines came with various neon colors, I am not sure when and how Bally determined - Well, let's do this one green, Bob... Other colors besides purple are orange, green, red and maybe some others, I did not put any research into this, it's all from memory of seing various games over the years.

Well, after seeing the game in person and up close, I think purple is actualy the way to go! The game has a lot of purple and pink on the playfield and plastics justifying this choice, and it goes along great with the color scheme they chose for this game. Green neon would be my second choice, as the whole cabinet and backglass are green - it smoothly fits the theme, too. Orange is too contrasting, but as with anything, this is just my opinion and what the hell do I know, so others may disagree and that's okay...

In pictures here, the camera does not do it justice, it actualy appears darker and bluish, but when seen with naked eye, it's a beautiful and strong purple.

Since the newest game ROM 2.0H was installed in the game as well, it is supposed to be software supported to give the neon longer life as well. Here is another closeup of a beautiful purple neon.

Other potential problems, if neon tube is not working