Sinistar comes home

YellowDog

In Memoriam

Donor 2011, 2013
Joined
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Location
Humble, Texas
The Wall o' Williams got a new resident on Saturday. Thanks to a KLOVer from McKinney (a suburb just north of Dallas) I was able to make a quick run to the slush capital of Texas and returned home with the Sinistar pictured below.

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It had been retrofitted with a switching power supply, so the first thing I did when I got it home was unplug the switcher and put a rebuilt Willliams power supply board back in. Props to the person who did the conversion though, it was not the usual operator hack. It was well done. There was a connector on the AC line input (which was tapped into the monitor AC lines) and there was a 15 pin adapter to convert the switcher power outputs to the Williams pinouts so it could use the original power connector. He also left the power supply board and the heat sink with the transistors so all I had to do was remove the old power supply board and replace it with a working one and reattach the connectors. It fired right up and has been working fine.

I had to tune the monitor up a little and came up with a question. It is a Hantorex vertical mounted monitor but it has a bright fuzzy line (more like a smear) on the left side (that would be the top if it were mounted horizontally). I wasn't able to adjust this out. Is that normal? If it can be tuned out, then what controls will adjust it out? I tried to get a picture of it shown below. It is the red vertical line in the picture below. I'd really like to clean it up as it is the original monitor that came with the cabinet. It has the same Williams serial number as the cabinet.

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ken
 

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Nice Ken, you've been looking for a dedicated Sinistar ever since I can remember. How do the sides look?
 
Congrats on the pickup! You no longer have to play that pile of parts in your garage. :D
 
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Good job man, that looks minty fresh. Sinistar rocks, I love it. As far as that red line, no its not normal. Don't recall seeing anything like it when mine is in play. Do you think a cap kit might take care of the issue?

Tom
 
Nice Ken, you've been looking for a dedicated Sinistar ever since I can remember. How do the sides look?

Thanks. THe sides are in good shape. The right side has some scratches. I'll probably get some paint and touch them up a little, but I'm not overly concerned about the sides. If they have a few scratches then they look just like they did in the arcade.

Congrats on the pickup! You no longer have to play that pile of parts in your garage. :D

That pile of parts was transplanted into a Moon Patrol cabinet about 6 months ago. Now I have to decide if I want to keep it as a Sinistar, turn it back into a Moon Patrol or convert it to a Bubbles to sell.

Good job man, that looks minty fresh. Sinistar rocks, I love it. As far as that red line, no its not normal. Don't recall seeing anything like it when mine is in play. Do you think a cap kit might take care of the issue?

Tom

That was why I was asking. This is only the second Hanterex monitor I've had. The first one I got from Chris Rhodes and UPS broke it, so I didn't know if this was normal for them. If I convert the SiniPatrol back into a horizontal game I can always steal the monitor (a vertical mount 4600) from that one.

ken
 
I assume this is the one that Marc was selling.
Glad you got it, I just couldn't afford the asking price right now and plus you've been looking for one way longer than I have, so it's well deserved.
I'll get one eventually :)
 
It took a big chunk out of my "I want another pinball" fund, but I think it was worth it. The cabinet was in good shape. The boards are solid. They have the 4164 RAM mod and the lithium battery mod. I had to replace the switcher with an original linear ps and the fluorescent light in the marquee. And I'll replace the thumb locks when I get my next batch of keyed alike locks.

I do have the Moonistar that I need to decide what to do with....

ken
 
Great looking machine! Glad to see you finally got a dedicated. I've had mine for a long time now, and it's definitely a keeper!
 
It took a big chunk out of my "I want another pinball" fund, but I think it was worth it. The cabinet was in good shape. The boards are solid. They have the 4164 RAM mod and the lithium battery mod. I had to replace the switcher with an original linear ps and the fluorescent light in the marquee. And I'll replace the thumb locks when I get my next batch of keyed alike locks.

I do have the Moonistar that I need to decide what to do with....

ken

restore it back to moon patrol!
 
restore it back to moon patrol!

I am debating. I have everything except a working Moon Patrol boardset to restore it back. On the other hand, I have all the Bubbles pieces including a working boardset. But I already have a Bubbles and I don't have a Moon Patrol anymore....................

ken
 
I am debating. I have everything except a working Moon Patrol boardset to restore it back. On the other hand, I have all the Bubbles pieces including a working boardset. But I already have a Bubbles and I don't have a Moon Patrol anymore....................

ken

Pretty much sums it up right there Ken, MP it is
 
Pretty much sums it up right there Ken, MP it is


Anybody got a cheap working Moon Patrol board set? The boards that came with the cabinet are seriously toast.

[I had to ask, this is KLOV after all. If KLOVers were to rebuild Steve Austin, he would be the $6.72 man :D]

ken
 
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