My "State of the Shuttle" thread.

Frax

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Want a consolidated place to track all the work I do on this pin as I go through it...

I emailed RPG about the repro playfields they're doing, hoping they were keeping a waitlist for seconds....and guess what...well..that preorder isn't REALLY closed. I'm on the list..they said they'd email in 6-8 weeks when they're ready. Now I have to begin an extremely desperate scramble to get all the money together and secure it against my legitimate bills. Ack.

Got pissed off enough with the right flipper sticking and having to fix it for the kid that I pulled the PF up to take a look and see what was going on. I knew from the first time that the return spring is a bit....crappy. It's weak and looked like it was getting tangled up. But as I was messing with it tonight, I realized the problem wasn't the spring at all...it was the leaf switches. The tension on them against the piston at the end of the stroke was high enough that if the thing went all the way to the end, the leaf would actually hold it in place if it stopped there. Took some flat-nose pliers, bent them AWAY from the mechanism just slightly so that they still function as intended, just don't put enough pressure on the thing at the end to lock it in place.

Real test will be when the kid comes home and has a chance to pound on it. I dunno what he does, but he's got a real knack for locking up that flipper where I could play for 20-30 minutes and not have it happen. :| Couldn't get it to lock up by manually moving the flipper mech though....that's promising. :)
 
Update.

Flipper is verified not sticking at all. Thank god, that was annoying. Pulled out a soft sponge and some alcohol to do some more cleaning, think I have MOST of the dust gone now. Decided to poke around in the backbox...the lack of GI is really bugging me. Was looking at the burned up corner of the power board that handles the GI, looking at this funny little jumper and wondering where I can test voltages to see if anything was even getting through...

Touched the jumper, sparks. Touched it again, more sparks, and the GI bulbs flickered...

Well...okay. Took the multimeter and tried to test the voltage, got no readings (Probably had it set wrong idiot noob..) but when I touched the end of the jumpers, all the GI lit up. What the hell. Okay, so it's probably some kind of continuity issue with the jumper that's there. No biggie, I'll just solder another one in it's place. Go grab my stuff, push down on the existing jumper a bit to get a better look, and now all the GI is on, and staying on. I know I should still replace it, and probably sooner than later unless I want sparking back there, but at least it looks good.

Only issue I have is that I was replacing bulbs, touched the wrong thing, got sparks two or three times, now none of the lights except the pulsing engine lights in the headbox that directly illuminate the shuttle will come on. Tried replacing them all, have no idea what might have died....all this stuff seems to be wired through the same braid...don't see any reason why this one section of GI is now dead but all other is working. :(

Noticed that all the rubber on the playfield is so old and cruddy it's all turned yellow, and is actually *brittle*, nearly flaking apart.
 

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Got my first batch of parts in for the machine today. Go go Pinball Life!

Tore down much of the playfield. Replaced about half of the GI with "white" (More like very light blue...whoops, guess I should've ordered the "warm" ones) LEDs. Tried them behind the backglass...looked like ass. Have three under some of the orange inserts, which now look *yellow*, those will be going somewhere else. Also put some in some transparent arrows to see how they look...dunno if I'll keep those or not. Will post pics if anyone's interested. :)

Did the full rubber kit on it tonight, cleaned out a lot of dirt, but didn't get too meticulous with it, as I'm just planning on stripping it and swapping it out in a few months when the CPR one becomes available. Fixed two loose posts. Machine plays much faster now without the hard, cracking, flaking rubber on there. Much more unpredictable too!

Switches for the jets need adjustment, as do some of the scoring switches behind those new rings...just takes way too much to activate them. These LED bulbs don't work in the pop bumpers.

Put in 3 new pinballs, and learned that doing the full playfield swap isn't going to be nearly as scary as I thought it was.

Replaced the shooter rod, the old one was mushroomed on the tip and missing a rubber tip, Tried using a flush cutter to cut off the mushroomed part but didn't quite get there. I got aggravated, went and got my saw, and cut that thing in half to get it out. Now have shiny new rod with an actual tip.

Still need to do flipper rebuild, but I've been working on this for 6 hours...I'm going to bed!
 
Replaced the coin door lock last night. The only thing I have parts left for at this point is to do a flipper rebuild. After that, hopefully I can work on some of the electrical issues causing the multiplier feature lights to not light up, and some of the GI lights in the head.
 
Glad you got on the list. What do you plan on doing with your old playfield? If you're interested in selling it let me know.
 
Not quite sure yet. I'm really struggling to get the money to pay for the CPR playfield an it's coming up fast. I may be SOL when the tax man comes, so haven't put too much thought into what to do with the old one. If it comes down to it, I can afford an overlay if guy can still make them. :/
 
Middle-of-the-job-OH-SCHIESSE-Update:

Removed one flipper. Unsoldered everything. Pulled it apart. Started cleaning the coil...why's this one look different than the other one? *Reference manual* SHIT!

*sigh*

Well, I'll just order the new one and do what I can....finish cleaning the inside of the coil as it's been very soot-laden because of sparking on the EOS switch. Pull out the old sleeve, it's filthy too. Oh well, I'll just put the new one...in...THERE? *JAM JAM JAM ERRK* Yeah, that ain't gonna f'in work....SHIT!!!

Now I'm stuck doing even less than I wanted to, but at least I know that I have both the wrong coil, and the thing is burned up anyways probably because OH I DON'T KNOW IT'S THE WRONG COIL!? :|
 
Finished with the right flipper, until I get a new coil. I need a soldering iron that heats up faster, but having a big gauge extension cord sure did come in handy letting me move from my table to the pinball machine pretty effortlessly. Also realized that having a stool would be extremely useful. I used a chair, for now. :|

So, rebuilding a flipper isn't really that big of a deal. I was totally worried that it was going to be some complicated mess and..not so much. Worst part was finding out just how bad that coil really is, and the fact that now my lane change isn't working...I want to replace that switch anyways and I'm going to pull it back out to replace the coil, so might as well kill two birds with one stone. Switch in there still works, but the contacts are corroded from 27 years of sparking..just need to figure out how to adjust these leaf switches. There's a lot that need it, and you'd think it would be simple, but they don't cooperate.
 
Rebuilt the left flipper last night. Has the same problem as the right one...the coil is expanded, it's even worse. I couldn't even get the sleeve out after cleaning it. Sleeve is actually cracking and chipping away the end where it sticks out. Did what I could, just to make it a bit easier to replace the coil later. Resoldered it wrong, looked at it a bit funny, pulled out my phone for the pic I took of the assembly before I started and sure enough I had the wires reversed for high/low power part of the EOS switch. Fixed it and put everything back in the machine...

Anyone know what bumpers are supposed to be on the sides of the ramp? I put two of those cone shaped bumpers there, but with the left flipper now being substantially stronger than it was, I'm getting a lot of airballs due to all the new rubber, and I think the fact that these cones are big on the bottom and tapered on the top might be causing part of that. =\

Oh, and hey...what the hell, but I had resoldered power wire to the bell mechanism a few weeks ago, tested and tested and tested and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. I played last night after reinstalling the flipper and BRRRRIIIIINNNGGGGG......scared the crap outta me the first time. There's gotta be a continuity issue on that power wire, but I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts!
 
Copying some from other threads just to assimilate....

I'm ecstatic to report flipper issues are...FIXED. No more squeaky, no more limpy, no more puny. Both flipper mechs had a basic rebuild. The right flipper has been COMPLETELY rebuilt aside from metal mounting plate. Everything else was replaced with new, unburnt components. :p

I used every ounce of nerd rage and fat white guy geek muscles I had to tighten down that sucker with my socket driver. It has NOT reoccured and the kids have been playing it. Flipper is fantastically strong and it's like a whole other game now..plays much faster with both flippers at full strength. Lots more ricocheting, jets fire off a lot more because the ball is moving faster in general...just a lot more fun to play.

Did have some funny issues due to how strong they are now though. Right after I had tested it the first time, the left kickout/lock hole was continuously firing with no ball in it. What the.... Couldn't get to it until late last night, pulled up the PF, and the leaf from the switch, which is kind of a L shape with the part at the end very short, had gotten hit so hard by a ball that it wedged itself UNDER the plastic in the hole, and was causing the thing to fire over and over again. My wife said that while I was gone, before I fixed it, the machine was also kicking out an extra ball after the first one left the shooter lane, but I wasn't able to replicate it, and the machine is detecting all the balls just fine.

I don't really see how the two issues could be related, but what she described hasn't happened when I'm around!
----------------------------------

Lighting and LEDs

The multiplier lines on this machine have been extremely dim since two days after I brought it home. Typical noob issue...I touched something with something else and whoops, what was that spark? Oh look, multipliers only light when there's only one active. Any more than that, and the entire line goes dark.

Finally got in my order of LEDs to (try) finish doing all of the playfield lighting from Pinball Life with my last order. Did all the easy stuff first, replacing here or there. Got done with all that, got most of the GI, then decided to do the lamp matrixes for the bonus/attract grid, and the multipliers. Took out bulb. Put in 1 green LED to see how it would look. Okay, that looks good. Triggered the multipliers again, and the 2nd bulb lights. Went to 4x, LED goes to half brightness, bulbs are OUT. Ooookay. Take the rest of the bulbs out, replace them all with LEDs. They all light now, no problem. Obviously a problem on my driver circuit for those lights, the LEDs are just skating by on the lower current requirement.

Now have all the lights on the playfield LED'ed out, except for some GI under the big shuttle/ramp assembly that haven't had time to get to yet. Have replaced about half of the star posts, again, most of the ones I need to get to are under that thing.

I have the replacement decals for the drop targets and spinner. I'm afraid to do anything with the drop targets. They work great, they look fragile as all getout, and I can't for the life of me find replacements for them. :(

Have the parts and still need to replace:

Jet bumper score and trigger switches.

Cabinet flipper button switches.

Rubber post bumpers for the center ramp. I had put bell shaped ones on there but it's causing a lot of airballs to go up on the plastics and hit the glass. BAD!! Should've just replaced with what was there before. :|

Left flipper, nylon passthough grommet, and hesitantly..the coil. The one in there works fine, but is all burned up..I think I'm just going to leave it alone until it actually becomes an issue.

GI lighting under the ramp, and the rest of the star posts.

Ramp switch to start multiball doesn't seem to be registering every time. Probably just an adjustment needed due to the fact the balls are rocketing through there now instead of Driving Miss Daisy.


Overall, I'm very happy about the state of things right now. I think the coloring mods that I'm wanting to finish on this will look fantastic once I get all the pieces I need...a bit of trial and error going on since I can't continuously be ordering parts for it, lol. I would LOVE to have the star posts lit up, but it's like 10$ per post! Crazy.
 
For comparison Then/Currently.... Left side is now, right side is then.
 

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Emailed the CPR guys, asking about timeframe on the playfields. Trying to get enough money for plastic set as well...wanted to know how long I have!

"Be ready for payment in the next 3-4 weeks at the earliest. We'll be shipping 150 playfields over 6-8 weeks, starting in 3-4 weeks.

Kevin"


WOOT. Playfield might get in my machine before christmas!
 
Holy crap! I've been looking for drop targets for weeks, I finally got around to replacing the decal on the main one in front of the shuttle ramp, and then..today..got a break. HOLY CRAP LOOK WHAT I FOUND! NOS DROP TARGETS?!? NO WAY!!

A bit pricey at 15$ a piece shipped, but man..I've been killing myself trying to find some of these, so... HELL YES! Okay, one's missing a screw and spring but I can always transplant the screw and spring, or find a screw and spring to fit!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/120763381717?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
 
Things I learned tonight:

The 3-bank targets are NOT the same as the rollover drop target. Which means I now have three rollover targets, 2 of which are NOS and have never been used. YAY REDUNANCY ON NON-REPROED PARTS! BOO NO BACKUPS AND GOOD LOOKING PARTS FOR MY 3-BANK DROP TARGETS! Broke even on that one I guess...

How useful flux can be while soldering. Christ. I'm teaching myself soldering as I go, and haven't found a lot of truly useful resources, but buying that stupid flux along with my soldering station was a purchase I will not regret.

How to deconstruct a pop bumper, rebuilt it, make it better, faster...wait...wrong show. But I know how to take it apart and rebuild it now. Next step is to teach my wife. For some reason she's just bonkers about doing one of these...I insisted that I do the first one in case she runs into issues, so I can fix it.

Removing mylar with freeze spray. Actually was pretty simple, given that the mylar was already coming up, and probably 30 years old. This PF is so damaged I'm not really too concerned with what it does pull up at this point. The only way to make this PF beautiful again would be direct ink or an overlay. There's just no way to touch up 60% of the paint being gone and the kind of insert wear it has.

And finally:

Red, white and blue pops are going to look AWESOME with the RWB bonus lights and the RWB rollover lanes!
 
Playfield arrived this morning. Unfortunately, I'm working 13 hours today and tomorrow. =|
 
Thanks for the updates Frax, keep them coming!

What are you doing for leds? I've been using mainly White Ablaze Ghostbusters for everything, I haven't done any specific color LEDs yet, but I'm interested to know what they look like if you have done that, especially on the GI.

-Wes
 
Played around with some colored in the GI, but I don't like it. I don't even really like the cool white's I've got in there currently. I'm going to switch the GI to warm white LEDs when I get a chance and see how that goes. Now that I have Pinbot, not afraid to buy some more LEDs...they'll get used SOMEWHERE, unlike the 15 orange ones I have sitting around....they'll get put in Pinbot but were sitting around for months.

*edit* Forgot why I was posting... I've got Red/White/Blue in the bonus lanes, red/white/blue bumper skirts and R/W/B is going inside the pop bumpers themselves when I find a LED bright enough to do the job and disperse enough light to the sides. I'll see if I've got a recent pic...
 
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