Oh god, what have I done.

Dead switches ended up being a broken wire.

Anyone remember this pic?
IMG_0831.JPG

Pay special attention to the MPU connectors, you'll notice a stray brown wire with some green electrical tape splicing it in.

Well, that's actually masking tape.

And after removing it, I found that it's not capped, soldered, or even twisted properly. The wire was just wrapped once around an inline splice. A quick bit of solder fixed this up.

A quick inspection of the solenoid board indicated a blown cap. I replaced it, but it covered the transistor for the 'Match' knocker. Which was firing fine. Replaced it anyway. The #3 solenoid (downward kicker) doesn't fire, even with the ground shorting trick (which was really handy after I replaced that cap and the solenoid fuse came lose under the PF at the same time... I thought I shorted something!). I did a quick cont test and confirmed the wire was connecting. The pin also seemed to be connecting, though there was 4 ohms or so of resistance between the diode and pin.)

Turns out the replacement DMM I'm using has a different way of indicating units than my old one. The resistance over that coil isn't the 14 ohms I thought.. it's 1.41 megaohms.
I'm guessing that's why it's not firing.

Update: Found a hairline crack in the solenoid's winding. There's no slack to try to repair it, and it looks a bit worn anyway, so I'll just replace it.
 
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Unwound the coil a bit and soldered it back where it's not cracked, resistance is now down to 43 ohms or so. Solenoid still didn't fire, so I replaced this perfectly fine looking capacitor...
IMG_0843.JPG

and it fires now.

Getting there...
IMG_0841.JPG


Update: new discovery, some of the feature lights aren't turning off fully. They don't stay solid, but become dimmer and flicker while off. Some more than others. It's worst during play, but is still somewhat evident during the light test.
 
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Sealed the backglass. The bottom edge has some damage that may be beyond repair, but the majority of the glass looks fine now. I might try that trick with plastic wrap to help adhere the remaining bottom bits better, but it already looks significantly better. I need to clean up the score edges a bit, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Reassembled the first target assembly with new targets. The drop springs are kind of weak, I might need to order new ones. Especially since the replacement rings are a bit thicker, and rub against the targets slightly. I don't think bally could have designed a more annoying assembly to house their fragile drop targets.

Clipped off the old battery, need to find some nicads to put in the new 3xAA holder. Replaced the missing post in front of the spinner drop arm.

Finding LOTS of dead sockets under the PF. Combination of rust and corrosion. I might try cleaning them up a bit, but most don't want to even release their current bad bulbs.
 
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That mess looks like my basement right now, I'm working on 2 pins plus zekes peak. I got shit everywhere..although I do have some tables and shit so it's a little more organized..but not by much :)
 
Went over the rest of the PF and replaced every bad bulb that I could, leaving me with just the bad sockets. It seems the bad sockets are concentrated around the front of the machine near the coin door. Most are rusted out pretty bad and/or corroded. I might be able to salvage some, but others will probably need to be replaced. However, oddly, once I replaced the bulb under the skirt, the issue with switched lights flickering dimly while off has gone away.

Replaced the spinner switch. The replacement is close to the original, so installation wasn't too bad, but getting it gapped properly is becoming a chore.

All drop target assemblies have been disassembled, with bad targets/missing springs replaced. All work now EXCEPT the third inline target. This target keeps hopping off the track and getting stuck. The guide bar that normally keeps it in check has broken, and will need to be replaced. I might try bending the trigger back a bit so it stays slotted when the solenoid kicks, but I'm not sure that will help.

Installed a battery pack to replace the time bomb nicad that was still there. I bought NIMH batteries, but the pack ended up having a diode in it. might cut it out, or might just use the NIMHs elsewhere and install some normal AAs.

The electrical tape on the PF came up with some freeze spray, though some of the paint came up with it... especially near the top where the paint was already weak. However, this is still a massive improvement over just pulling the tape off.

Solenoids are still acting kind of weird (Sometimes the wrong one will fire, or an extra one will fire at the same time), but it looks like that'll be fun to diagnose, so I'm not particularly motivated to fix it at the moment.
 
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Your always on lamps and possibly some of your coil issues sound like grounding issues. Make sure all you have good grounds on all of your boards. I'm not incredibly familiar with that boardset, but Gottlieb boards of that era have the grounding issues that can cause those problems.
 
you are lucky about the mpu not bieng corroded. i thought that was standard lol. remove that battery... NOW


and dude, for just getting into this your at it like an old pro!! too bad your not closer to me man.

on basically every ss bally i get i run jumper grounds in between at least one screw on each board. WHy? i had a freedom that acted all kinds of goofy (rendomn rebooting, not kicking thr ball, weited lights, stuff firing on its own) due to grounding issues between the boards. Theres prolly a bad molex pin somewhere or something like that but this fix makes it much more bulletproof, imho. I made some nice jumpers with eyelets, screwed them down, and voila. eveything was happy.
 
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Felt the same way after getting my Space Invaders... Do I have time/money for this? ...and sure enough I have a really nice looking fully working game now, along with some valuable electronics lessons in the book. Best of luck with it!

Brendan
 
I'll second everything the supporters are saying. I tackled a beat to crap, 100% NOT working pin for my first pin project. I learned pretty much everything there is to know about solid state games on that one pin, from board work, to extensive repair and restoration. It gave me the confidence to tackle bigger projects.

You're doing great!
 
Ok, so either my PF inserts faded to hell and back, or they're amber. I ordered red.

Howver, this is made moot by the fact at the replacement inserts are too thick. No matter how much I hammer them down, there's a sizable gap. Anyone know where I might source rollover inserts with bally's thickness?
 
Tonight was fun.

Stripped the playfield...
IMG_0848.JPG


Waxed it...
IMG_0849.JPG


Reassembled...
IMG_0853.JPG

IMG_0855.JPG


Played a quick "victory" round, and right on the first hit on the first ball, and I chip the flipper.
IMG_0856.JPG


I really think this machine doesn't like me.
 
Been working on the strobe module. I notice the one in my machine appears to be from a 'Space invaders' game (At leas that's what it says on the PCB), though the design appears to be identical.

I fixed a 310 ohm resistor that had broken off the board, tested it, all seems well, but the bulb still doesn't flash. The caps are holding a charge. I'm guessing the bulb is dead, but I have no way of testing it. I didn't see anything on pinrepair for diagnosing these boards, perhaps someone knows of some good tests to run?
 
Nice job!

It is hard to find FG that does not have PF wear and bare spots. The stobe is cool and if not a bulb, I think there is a place that sells an entire new assembly.

My bro in law has a FG, nice BG, bad PF, but it plays. He wants to find one with a better PF, he is still looking for that machine! LOL!!!!

My bro in law also has a Flash now that I restored and brought back from the dead. Get one of those if you really like board and component issues! An original Flash like he bought, will have loads of issues to work through. In the end though, it is a good game and especially since the electronics where brought up to todays components by me.
 
The rings I bought off ebay aren't doing too well. the slingshots are loose already, and when the solenoid returns the bands are bouncing back onto the switch and causing multiple fires.

I've also isolated the solenoid firing to one of the jet bumpers. It will randomly fire when the flippers are used. In other rare cases it won't fire when hit from the kickout hole. I'm guessing this is one of those notorious capacitors.

I've also discovered the jet bumpers don't hold the bulbs in very well. I'm guessing the contact on the bottom can be adjusted, but I can't see an easy way to do it.

Replaced the guide plate on the inline target assembly, all targets now work properly.

Got the lockdown bar, but I've now discovered the PF isn' sitting right. Looks like the bar it rests on has bent down a bit, and this lets the PF rest on the edge of the coin door acceptor (Which bent it). I might try bending it back, but I might just have to replace it.
 
Been busy with other stuff, haven't had much time to work on the pin. But I got a few hours yesterday.

SealClubber said:
I recommend you use a #555 socket in the pop bumpers instead of the #44 sockets. Much better resistance to vibration.

http://www.marcospecialties.com/product.asp?ic=24-8776
Click to expand...

It turns out it's actually a case of that same pop bumper EATING bulbs. I've tried three brands (Whatever was in there before, Eiko, and some other brand I didn't write down). 6 bulbs have suffered under the wrath of the right pop bumper. No other socket is giving me this kind of trouble. The bulb is secure in the socket after some tweaks. The record so far is 3 games.

I've noticed that sometimes solenoids and switches don't trigger the sounds associated with them. Common victims are the right spinner and slingshots. Also still having trouble with the left pop bumper and now more recently the left slingshot firing at random. It's interesting to note that when the bumper fires, a sound is played as well. But I wonder if this isn't just due to how the sound board is designed.

As of now, I've counted almost 15 bad sockets, in various states.
 
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