Space Invaders Pin Restore

ComputerSpace

Well-known member

Donor 2011, 2025
Joined
Nov 1, 2008
Messages
1,873
Reaction score
276
Location
Kingsport, Tennessee
Hello all, I'm gathering parts to restore a Space Invaders pin I dragged out of a shed about a month ago. I'm in process of rebuilding the power supply - burnt connectors and hacks everywhere on it.

I've picked up new repro plastics for it and would like to change the acorn nuts that hold them down as well. Currently, there are horrid looking white nylon ones on the play field.

Anyone know what size acorn nut to use on the posts? According to Bay Area Amusements, it looks like the choices are:

6-32
8-32

Which size should I order?

Also, what color - white or black - rubbers would you recommend? I'm leaning toward black due to the dark nature of the pin.

Thanks!
Tom
 
Easiest way to determine is to remove the acorn nut and substitute with a regular 6-32 or 8-32 nut from your "junk" drawer. We can't always go by "was" on the pin when it was made, because another owner my have substituted the posts. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say 6-32. However that's only a guess. Another possibility is to get some of these rubber caps http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=51&parent=99 . Then it won't matter what size the posts are.

As far as the color of the rubber rings/sleeves, if it were my machine I would go with black for the same reason you mentioned.

Half Life
 
Hello all, I'm gathering parts to restore a Space Invaders pin I dragged out of a shed about a month ago. I'm in process of rebuilding the power supply - burnt connectors and hacks everywhere on it.

I've picked up new repro plastics for it and would like to change the acorn nuts that hold them down as well. Currently, there are horrid looking white nylon ones on the play field.

Anyone know what size acorn nut to use on the posts? According to Bay Area Amusements, it looks like the choices are:

6-32
8-32

Which size should I order?

Also, what color - white or black - rubbers would you recommend? I'm leaning toward black due to the dark nature of the pin.

Thanks!
Tom

I'm curious on the condition of your playfield...
 
Is there any call for #8-32 acorn/cap nuts? I haven't had a pin that uses anything but #6-32's, but if there was enough call for them I'd offer them on my store as well.
 
I'm curious on the condition of your playfield...

Here are some of the pictures I took when I picked it up. I literally pulled it out of shed. When I got it home and opened it up I was surprised to not find any dead rodents or nests in it. I found a collection card inside it listing how much was collected and when. The last collection was in 1994. Filthy dirty but the playfield is not too bad.

Enjoy,
Tom


P1050480Large.jpg


P1050481Large.jpg


P1050483Large.jpg


P1050485Large.jpg


P1050488Large.jpg
 
Oh, and I had help pulling it out. My helper was handling the other end so you can't see him.

Tom

In the shed, alot of this junk was piled on top of the game so it all had to be moved aside so it could be extracted...

P1050495Large.jpg


Here are a few more later after I got it home.

With the glass removed, here's the playfield. It's not too bad. Some wear on some inserts but not too much on the field itself. It is WAY dirty and will require a complete cleaning.

P1050544Large.jpg


My friend Steve who helped me carry it out couldn't stand not knowing if it would power up. So I looked at all of the connections in the back box. There were not any burnt ones so we powered it up. In retrospect, it was not a good idea because at the time I did not know about all of the burnt connectors on the power supply and incorrect rated fuses in there. Could've burnt it up in my garage - but it didn't.

P1050542Large.jpg


P1050543Large.jpg


That's it. I'm working on rebuilding the power supply at the moment. The CPU has a minimal amount of acid damage that will have to be dealt with before I know what else might be wrong. I've never restored a pin before, but I'm looking forward to working on this one. There's just something about it I really like.

Tom
 
Tom,

Nice score! Congrats on the find. Looks like it is in pretty good shape other than being a little dirty. Good luck on getting it back in tip top shape. Keep us updated on your progress.
 
wow, that is in much better shape than what I'd have thought considering where it came from. I love those barn pictures... I have now taken to bringing my camera with me whenever I get a new machine so I can document where it came from like that.
 
Man this is on my most wanted list if I could score another pin to go with my Black Hole. Congrats!
 
Thx guys for the positive comments on my barn find. Here's a couple pics of the power supply connectors I kind of mentioned earlier...

Here's the main connector, broken in two, burnt connectors and a wire that was soldered directly to a power test point on the supply.

P1060058Large.jpg


This connector had it's end pin sliced off and had that wire directly soldered to it's intended pin.

P1060060Large.jpg


more later...
Tom
 
Thought I'd update this thread as some good progress has been made...

I replaced the power rectifer board with a unit from Great Plains Electronics. That was a bit of work, but I got it installed and tested. Voltages seem a bit high, but there is no adjustment to be made on the board.

I had an acid damaged MPU board, surprise, not. I checked around and found repair kits, and a shop that would repair the board, and replacement boards. I'm not all that great soldering IC sockets so I considered sending it out and having it fixed until I discovered a 6 week wait.

OK, I cheated and picked up a Alltek MPU and solenoid control board. I installed them last night and gave it the smoke test and the game came alive!! It was kind of a good news / bad news thing. The game is now playable but there is no sound. Testing the sound board came up with nothing.

So we played it for a couple hours. Everything else seemed to be working fine, there were of course lots of bulbs out and one limp wristed flipper that needs looked at, but I was quite happy. Then the upper playfield lights went out, but the game was still playing.

Looking at the fuses, I see that F5 blew. I don't have it with me at the moment, but I think it was a 10amp fuse. Looking back at the manual, it looks like that fuse should have been a 20 amp. I hope that's all it was. I'll pick up some tonight and give it a test again.

I've posted on RGP for a tested and working sound board...I'll see if anyone replies, I'll post an ad for one here too. The game is still very dirty and needs to be taken apart and cleaned and re-rubbered. I'm also going to replace the light bulbs, some with LEDS, some with the lower voltage 47 bulbs ( I believe that's the lower voltage ones...? Some correct me if I'm wrong). I have new replacement play field plastics and such. The originals are really bad looking, dirty, and warped. Looking forward to seeing this cleaned up and back together again.

I'll snap some pics of it working tonight if the fuse does not blow again!

Tom
 
Thought I'd update this thread as some good progress has been made...

I replaced the power rectifer board with a unit from Great Plains Electronics. That was a bit of work, but I got it installed and tested. Voltages seem a bit high, but there is no adjustment to be made on the board.

I had an acid damaged MPU board, surprise, not. I checked around and found repair kits, and a shop that would repair the board, and replacement boards. I'm not all that great soldering IC sockets so I considered sending it out and having it fixed until I discovered a 6 week wait.

OK, I cheated and picked up a Alltek MPU and solenoid control board. I installed them last night and gave it the smoke test and the game came alive!! It was kind of a good news / bad news thing. The game is now playable but there is no sound. Testing the sound board came up with nothing.

So we played it for a couple hours. Everything else seemed to be working fine, there were of course lots of bulbs out and one limp wristed flipper that needs looked at, but I was quite happy. Then the upper playfield lights went out, but the game was still playing.

Looking at the fuses, I see that F5 blew. I don't have it with me at the moment, but I think it was a 10amp fuse. Looking back at the manual, it looks like that fuse should have been a 20 amp. I hope that's all it was. I'll pick up some tonight and give it a test again.

I've posted on RGP for a tested and working sound board...I'll see if anyone replies, I'll post an ad for one here too. The game is still very dirty and needs to be taken apart and cleaned and re-rubbered. I'm also going to replace the light bulbs, some with LEDS, some with the lower voltage 47 bulbs ( I believe that's the lower voltage ones...? Some correct me if I'm wrong). I have new replacement play field plastics and such. The originals are really bad looking, dirty, and warped. Looking forward to seeing this cleaned up and back together again.

I'll snap some pics of it working tonight if the fuse does not blow again!

Tom

Thanks for posting such detailed pictures. That's always helpful and informative.

Have you done any re-pinning of connectors? Your sound problem could be a bad pin in one of the connectors or a cold solder joint on one of the headers. Considering the heat damage on some of those connectors, I'd just go through and try to replace the connectors.

Good luck with things.
 
All of those connectors pictured were on the power supply rectifier board, and yes, I replaced them all. I'm keeping them as souvenirs!

Tom
 
Update:

The sound board lives - the original one in the game that is. I had disconnected the sound board since it was not doing anything. Yesterday I was poking around working on the sequencing lights not having very good luck getting the lights that are off to come back on again when I decided to try something on the sound board. I'm a bit ADD I guess....

The last time I worked with it, I pulled the IC's and reseated them. The SI game sounds chip had a leg bent under it when someone else apparently tried to do what I was doing. I straightened the leg out and I got lucky because it did not break. Plugged it all back in and nothing, still, so I left it.

Yesterday, I connected it back up and did notice that when I moved the two prong connector going to the speaker I would get some hum out of it. Looking closer at the connector I could tell that connector pins were wore out with no spring tension.

I replaced the two connectors with the last ones I had from the power supply rebuild, plugged it in, turned it on and I had SOUND!! Turns out the board is good, but connector to the speaker is bad.

So, the game is now officially fully working. I've begun cleaning the outside cabinet art and will soon be disassembling the playfield and cleaning, waxing, replacing horrible condition plastics.

I have a couple pics and my wife took a video of it playing with sound last night I'll have to put up in the next day or so.

That's it for now.
Tom
 
I too have a SI resto project. I am jealous of your playfield, mine was worn to the bare wood. I am still having some playfield switch issues, the center hoop. Here are my playfield before and after. This is a great machine. I have tons of offers for it; but it is going in my arcade.
 

Attachments

  • playfield before.jpg
    playfield before.jpg
    101 KB · Views: 70
  • overlay.jpg
    overlay.jpg
    106.5 KB · Views: 72
  • working playfield.jpg
    working playfield.jpg
    104.4 KB · Views: 76
jbk, Wow! What an impressive restore you did there!

How the heck did you fix the playfield? It looks new. Great job, thanks for sharing the pictures. I guess it can be done.

Did you have any issues with your sequencing lights around the inside edge of the backbox? I have quite a few lights in there that are not working and I can't seem to get them to work.

I am looking at pulling that assembly out of the back box but I'm not sure it can be pulled, from a wiring harness point of view that is...

Thanks
Tom
 
I wish I could restore PFs that way. That is a complete playfield overlay. I sanded down the original, sealed the wood and applied the overlay. I had a few lights that had bad sockets, replaced them and all is good. The resto is not complete, I cannot get certain PF switches to work properly and I suspect the MPU. It had acid damage and was repaired. I need to pull another MPU from my Silverball Mania and test it (the machines are almost the same). Have got busy and not got back to it.
 
Nice jbk - my project S.I. isn't quite as worn as yours was, but pretty darn close. IDK what to do with it, though...

Any pointers as to were I might find an overlay? :(

Also looking for plastics if anyone has some extra's (mine's missing a lot so any used pieces would be better than nothing)..

Thanks Guys.

BTW - what a great machine to pull out of a barn find!!!
 
Back
Top Bottom