Information on Valley Spectra IV Pin

YellowDog

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Donor 2011, 2013
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I am helping a fellow collector that has a non-working Valley Spectra IV pin. It is a very cool machine, but I am looking for some information and preferably some pictures of the boards especially the CPU board.

The prior owner left some AA batteries in the battery holder and they exploded (what a surprise :eek:) damaging the CPU board. I am trying to repair the damage and try to get this pin working again.

Does anybody have a working one of these that can get some pics of the boards? And if you could provide a dump of the ROMs?

The manual says there were 3 ROMs. This board has been modded to use 1 ROM. I just want to make sure that the image is working.

Any help to bring back this rare machine would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

ken
 
Wow, that is rare! In all the years I've worked on coin operated machines, I never knew that Valley (the pool table manufacturer) made a pinball machine. This is a new one on me!

Anyway, I went to IPDB and downloaded the manual for future reference.

I found an interesting repair page dedicated to this machine:

http://treenut.net/left/pinball-valley-spectra-IV.html
 
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Thanks Ken. It is a very rare machine. I don't know how many were made, but the number of confirmed known machines is very low. And of those, only 1 or 2 are playable. So getting this one up and running would be a big ticket item.

Thanks for the link. I think I found that page when I did the first search, but I didn't mark it and then never found it again.

If you do run across any other information, I would be very appreciative if you could pass it along. Especially helpful would be some shots of the boards. It looks like they made several engineering mods to the boards that are not documented in the schematics. The docs say the software is in 3 ROMs. The owner of this one has done some groundwork and found 2 others (also not working) where the CPU board was modified to run 2 ROMs. His board was modified to run 1 ROM. So right now I am identifying the traces that look corroded out of existance and sourcing the parts so I can replace everything if I have to. The only really hard part to find is the CPU itself, they used a 6503 (28 pin version of the 6502). I finally found a couple of places to get them if I need one.

ken
 
No. It is Rusty Key. He has talked with Dan, but Dan's machine is apparently in worse shape than his.

I think Dan has or has had just about every type of pinball machine from pre-1990. He has an amazing collection.

ken
 
No. It is Rusty Key. He has talked with Dan, but Dan's machine is apparently in worse shape than his.

I think Dan has or has had just about every type of pinball machine from pre-1990. He has an amazing collection.

ken

Yes, Dan has an awesome collection and he's an all-around awesome guy. I was blown away when I saw that pin in person. The playfield rotates 90 degrees for each player and then locks into place before the ball can play. Crazy design.

Is there any known working version of the game?
 
This was the thing you were talking about the other day, eh?

So the one here in Texas is busted as well? Crap. That would've been worth the trip to see if it was working. =\
 
This was the thing you were talking about the other day, eh?

So the one here in Texas is busted as well? Crap. That would've been worth the trip to see if it was working. =\

*edit* Just saw it's scheduled to be at TPF? Guess I will see it working or not, highly cool. :)
 
*edit* Just saw it's scheduled to be at TPF? Guess I will see it working or not, highly cool. :)

That is the plan. I am working with Rusty on trying to get the CPU board running and then tackle any other issues as they come up.

ken
 
Quick update: I went over and plugged the repaired CPU board in this afternoon. The CPU seems to be working now. It runs the self test and diagnostics :D, but not all of the playfield components are working :(.

Good:
- flippers work
- it keeps score on the playfield
- most of the components react or score points
- sound is working 100% as near as we can tell.
- when the ball drains, it counts down, including the bonus multiplier

Bad:
- one pop bumper is totally dead
- one kickout hole does not react (the solenoid works in self test)
- several rollovers don't react (but some do ??!??)
- display does not keep score (all displays show 0's, so they are clearing now)

The next thing to look at is the display board and taking a second look at the CPU schematics to see if there is something that may be causing the issues with some of the playfield components.

It wasn't a complete success, but we did take another step foward on bringing a rare classic back from the dead.

ken
 
That's awesome progress on something that was dead. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's working enough to be playable or observable at TPF! :)
 
Here.. let me give a quick update... <grin>!

First let me say that Ken has been awesome in helping me get this baby running. After Ken left a few weeks ago I worked with the machine and cleaned up all the switches and points and adjusted a few and plugged and replugged a few things. The machine was really acting strange but it really seemed like it wanted to work. I do recall that the Visual Pinball programming team (who got my code set working for me) said that with out anything set in memory it did really odd things. So after a few attempts to set the options and getting a bit farther each time the machine seemed to 'wake up'. Another power reset and it was ALIVE!!!! However, it seems it started with a butt load of credits and as you worked down the credits it seemed to want to react differently when the credits were in the 60 and 50 range.

However, after working it for a while I got it where it seems to work as it should. YEAH!!!

For those who would like to see it in action, I put a video of it on YouTube: http://youtu.be/cq8_qTNC7pA

I also have a facebook page dedicated to the Spectra IV and those of us that are trying to get them working. There is another gentleman (Jon) that stated that he has a working machine however it was in storage at this time. As far as I know, Jon and I have the only two working machine. Just seach out Spectra IV on Facebook and you'll find the page.

I have a Spectra IV repair page on my personal website as well. It is in bad need of updating but on it you can also see Dan's machine and his board. My page is http://www.rustykey.com and just click on the Spectra IV image under the Projects Link.

As of right now... it still has a few issues... namely that the solinoids stopped firing. Well, most of them did. So.. I got something going on with the solinoid driver board I guess. Anyway, this machine is still a challenge.

As for the Texas Pinball Festival, it has been my goal for some time now to have this machine there and working like it is supposed to. I am still very set on making that happen. Regardless, the machine will be there.. either as a fully working machine or one that I will be enlisting help on getting it there! I hope to see you all there!


Rusty
 
Another update....

I pulled all the boards out of the card cage and couldn't find any thing that looked out of place or unplugged or burned, etc. I then got out the manual and started to try and trace the wiring and see if I could figure out the common denominator.. turned out.. there's a fuse on the play field next to the bridge rectifier. Sure enough it was blown. I replaced that and discovered that a wire had come loose and the previous owner had used a set of alligator clips and a short wire to jumper the main connection from the fuse. Don't know if this caused the problem but I went ahead and soldered the old wire back.

I then put all the cards back in place and fired it up. All the solinoids began to work but it started freaking out like it did when I first got her to power up. It took a few resets but I managed to get it into 'set mode' and set all the parameters which made the game 'wake up' again.

Problem is.. I now have tons of credits that I have to play through. I guess the problems could be worse.

Well, there ya go.. for what it's worth. Thanks again to Ken for helping me out!
 
Thanks for the update and the kind words Rusty. It was an interesting challenge and I was glad to be part of helping preserve this almost one-of-a-kind piece of pinball history.

ken
 
Very cool video, and lots of action - ball was moving around quite briskly! Looking forward to seeing this beast at the TPF...
 
Got one

The go and I are out of room, our Valley IV can be yours, 250 bucks.
Everything is there, plastics coin door etc. pics upon request. Non working of course, looks like dead board set, havent messed with it since I got it. We used it as the worlds coolest table.
 
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