Again some changes in the gameroom.
Diner unfortunately already had to leave.. it looked nice, was great fun to play, but because of personal reasons one pin had to go and this was it. It was my wifes decision to sell it (also to buy it in the first place).
The Bally 8 Ball has also been picked up this weekend so I now have finally room in the gameroom. I even have an empty space with Diner gone :(
Now I only need to clean up a bit again as there's too many things laying on top of the playfield glasses. Whirlwind is still open, need to solder in a new display glass.
I did put in the new LH6 eprom in Whitewater. Bought it from www.thatpinballplace.com
Very good seller - good prices, fast shipping, good communication, eprom was very well packaged (in plastic tube so the legs wouldn't be damaged and in a static bag).
Unfortunately it didn't solve my mysterious opto switch problem, I'll put in the cpu of the BSD and see what this does. I start to think it is related to the cpu as the playfield does look ok and in switch test the opto registers well..
I played Sterns Wheel of Fortune pinball machine this weekend !
It looks great ! Very colorful. I like the music, sounds, playfield layout, flow, ..
Don't know much about the game rules yet and the game wasn't updated to the latest version. It played very smooth though, I like the loop, I like the ramps, ..
Didn't get a high score, I did start a few multiballs. The outlanes and posts between the flippers are something you need to get used to but it plays well. The post between the flippers did save some balls (when I played Spiderman it usually didn't).
I'll try to put some pictures on my site one of the next days.
It's weird, everyone likes Spiderman, but I prefer Family Guy and Wheel of Fortune (and would consider owning them if they weren't so expensive new). Maybe in a few years..
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
gameroom reorganised
The gameroom is reorganised. One side now has all WPC games. Another game we bought is a Williams Diner pinball machine. Friends of us restored it (nos translight, some new insert decals, flamepolished ramps, ..) so it looks and plays very good. It's a nice feeling to buy a pinball game that doesn't need to be shopped, I can just put it in the gameroom and play it.. don't have to put extra time in to clean and adjust it.
In the past I preferred to buy bargains, games from operators and I would repair and clean them myself. But now I don't have any time anymore, so it's nice to buy a game that someone else has done all the work on, so I can just play and enjoy it.
On the other side of the room are all weird-sized games. Wide- and small body games.
Orbitor 1 and Black Hole have wide heads. All other games have regular or smaller then regular heads: Tommy, Little Pro, Outrun and finally Safecracker.
This means there are now 15 games in my gameroom :) It's nice to find space for an extra game in a gameroom of which I always thought it was full..
The heads are really very close together, and this extra game is only possible because Little Pro, Safecracker and Outrun are much smaller.. so I can't replace any of these 3 with a regular pinball machine. Not that I intend to ever sell my Outrun or Safecracker :)
My Fireball project game is sold :( I'll miss it but don't have time to fix it or place to set it up. Some day in the future I'll have room again for an electro-mechanical pinball machine..
The 8 ball project is also sold but still needs to be picked up. Once that's out of the way (it's currently in the middle of the gameroom) I will make some nice pictures of the gameroom, as the ones on my website are 3 years old now.
I also was able to test the Little pro. Good news is that it works on 220 volts and seems to run. You can start a game, a ball gets served and the manikin kicks it away. After 27 hits the game ends, so that part of the game logic also works.
What doesn't work is the switch that registers hole 1 (or the logic that registers a hit at any hole). Still need to troubleshoot this..
I was able to lift the playfield (wasn't very obvious): at both sides of the playfields there are 5 screws. 2 on each side are flatheads, you need to remove them if you want to lift the playfield.
Next step is to clean and shop this game and try to get it completely working..
In the past I preferred to buy bargains, games from operators and I would repair and clean them myself. But now I don't have any time anymore, so it's nice to buy a game that someone else has done all the work on, so I can just play and enjoy it.
On the other side of the room are all weird-sized games. Wide- and small body games.
Orbitor 1 and Black Hole have wide heads. All other games have regular or smaller then regular heads: Tommy, Little Pro, Outrun and finally Safecracker.
This means there are now 15 games in my gameroom :) It's nice to find space for an extra game in a gameroom of which I always thought it was full..
The heads are really very close together, and this extra game is only possible because Little Pro, Safecracker and Outrun are much smaller.. so I can't replace any of these 3 with a regular pinball machine. Not that I intend to ever sell my Outrun or Safecracker :)
My Fireball project game is sold :( I'll miss it but don't have time to fix it or place to set it up. Some day in the future I'll have room again for an electro-mechanical pinball machine..
The 8 ball project is also sold but still needs to be picked up. Once that's out of the way (it's currently in the middle of the gameroom) I will make some nice pictures of the gameroom, as the ones on my website are 3 years old now.
I also was able to test the Little pro. Good news is that it works on 220 volts and seems to run. You can start a game, a ball gets served and the manikin kicks it away. After 27 hits the game ends, so that part of the game logic also works.
What doesn't work is the switch that registers hole 1 (or the logic that registers a hit at any hole). Still need to troubleshoot this..
I was able to lift the playfield (wasn't very obvious): at both sides of the playfields there are 5 screws. 2 on each side are flatheads, you need to remove them if you want to lift the playfield.
Next step is to clean and shop this game and try to get it completely working..
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Southland Little Pro manikin game added
This weekend we've bought a new game, it's a Southland Little Pro mini golf game, made in 1964.
I already knew it was for sale since Februari. We were a bit interested in it as it's a pretty rare game and from what I read it's fun to play. But it was a long drive, most of our weekends were already filled, and we didn't have space to put it. So I kind of forgot about the game.
Last week we got some magazines (Magische Machines by Henk de Jager) and in one of them the game was described. My wife therefor thought again about this machine and decided she really wanted to buy it. She phoned the seller and it was still for sale. We were just in time as their house was for sale and the machine was still in the basement.
So on saturday we went to buy the game. It's in quite good condition, legs are rusted and the bottom pannel had some moisture spots, but the rest of the cabinet is good, playfield is good, and backglass is perfect.
I haven't tested it (even haven't figured out how to open it) but it looks like it will work without a lot of problems.
We also got a large box of tokens. Not really valuable but we collect all different kinds of tokens and we didn't have this (they're from a company in London), and tokens are always useful (this Little Pro game needs them to start a game).
Problem is storage room.. but with some luck and reorganising the gameroom we can fit an additional game in there. I may also sell some of my project machines, I still have a nice Eight Ball and a Bally Fireball. Also have an Italian wallgame I need to fix up and sell (or sell as is) and two german wall-flipper games that I need to check if I can fix them..
I already knew it was for sale since Februari. We were a bit interested in it as it's a pretty rare game and from what I read it's fun to play. But it was a long drive, most of our weekends were already filled, and we didn't have space to put it. So I kind of forgot about the game.
Last week we got some magazines (Magische Machines by Henk de Jager) and in one of them the game was described. My wife therefor thought again about this machine and decided she really wanted to buy it. She phoned the seller and it was still for sale. We were just in time as their house was for sale and the machine was still in the basement.
So on saturday we went to buy the game. It's in quite good condition, legs are rusted and the bottom pannel had some moisture spots, but the rest of the cabinet is good, playfield is good, and backglass is perfect.
I haven't tested it (even haven't figured out how to open it) but it looks like it will work without a lot of problems.
We also got a large box of tokens. Not really valuable but we collect all different kinds of tokens and we didn't have this (they're from a company in London), and tokens are always useful (this Little Pro game needs them to start a game).
Problem is storage room.. but with some luck and reorganising the gameroom we can fit an additional game in there. I may also sell some of my project machines, I still have a nice Eight Ball and a Bally Fireball. Also have an Italian wallgame I need to fix up and sell (or sell as is) and two german wall-flipper games that I need to check if I can fix them..
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
dmd driver board repair part 2
OK this is beginning to become a funny story, guess I can add this to my
funny things I learned page soon.
As posted yesterday I had repaired a dmd driver board. Also have one for sale, someone asked about it, I tested it in my Whitewater pinball game, and - big problem: the display came on but was faded at the top. So I emailed the person it wasn't for sale anymore. (as I thought this driver board didn't give enough voltage). Connected the original driverboard in my whitewater pin and it didn't come on anymore. Oops ?!
Anyway, I had tested yesterday the rebuilt driver board in my Dracula. Also didn't come on. Tested it in my whitewater. Didn't work. Put in the original board in the BSD. Display didn't come on and the game even started to reset every 20 seconds. Big problems !
My first guess was that one driver board was bad and maybe had damaged the cpu (and I had killed my BSD and WW testing it).
Now I started to think (finally). 4 driver boards, suddenly all bad ? That can't be happening. Time to take out the manual and double check everything.. DUH - stupid me !!
I had put on the small flatcable that connects to the dmd the other way around.
What I thought was a marking on the pcb for pin 1, was actually pin 14.
Plugged in the flatcable correct and start to test every board and every game again.
Good news and bad news. My whitewater pinball display was a bit faded with my spare and rebuilt boards. The dots in the top line aren't bright and sometimes flicker a bit.
But when the original board is plugged in, it works fine and the dmd looks as new ?!
I'll leave the game as is, and if the display ever is really bad I'll replace it and rebuild that driver board too. (I ordered enough kits from GPE)
The rebuild and spare boards worked perfect in my Dracula pinball machine. I was happy.. my 2 hours of soldering yesterday wasn't wasted. And my spare board was ok.
Final problem then - the original BSD board doesn't work. I have no idea what caused this as it always worked fine (until now when I removed it from the game to test the one I needed to rebuild). I saw the 62 volts was missing, it was a broken fuse.
Replaced the fuse but it blew again after a few seconds..
Bad news :(
Anyway I didn't have any time to check it further, so I put in my spare board and will check the board one day..
at least now my BSD is playable again. Only need to check my Whitewater as it has a strange opto problem..
funny things I learned page soon.
As posted yesterday I had repaired a dmd driver board. Also have one for sale, someone asked about it, I tested it in my Whitewater pinball game, and - big problem: the display came on but was faded at the top. So I emailed the person it wasn't for sale anymore. (as I thought this driver board didn't give enough voltage). Connected the original driverboard in my whitewater pin and it didn't come on anymore. Oops ?!
Anyway, I had tested yesterday the rebuilt driver board in my Dracula. Also didn't come on. Tested it in my whitewater. Didn't work. Put in the original board in the BSD. Display didn't come on and the game even started to reset every 20 seconds. Big problems !
My first guess was that one driver board was bad and maybe had damaged the cpu (and I had killed my BSD and WW testing it).
Now I started to think (finally). 4 driver boards, suddenly all bad ? That can't be happening. Time to take out the manual and double check everything.. DUH - stupid me !!
I had put on the small flatcable that connects to the dmd the other way around.
What I thought was a marking on the pcb for pin 1, was actually pin 14.
Plugged in the flatcable correct and start to test every board and every game again.
Good news and bad news. My whitewater pinball display was a bit faded with my spare and rebuilt boards. The dots in the top line aren't bright and sometimes flicker a bit.
But when the original board is plugged in, it works fine and the dmd looks as new ?!
I'll leave the game as is, and if the display ever is really bad I'll replace it and rebuild that driver board too. (I ordered enough kits from GPE)
The rebuild and spare boards worked perfect in my Dracula pinball machine. I was happy.. my 2 hours of soldering yesterday wasn't wasted. And my spare board was ok.
Final problem then - the original BSD board doesn't work. I have no idea what caused this as it always worked fine (until now when I removed it from the game to test the one I needed to rebuild). I saw the 62 volts was missing, it was a broken fuse.
Replaced the fuse but it blew again after a few seconds..
Bad news :(
Anyway I didn't have any time to check it further, so I put in my spare board and will check the board one day..
at least now my BSD is playable again. Only need to check my Whitewater as it has a strange opto problem..
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
dmd driver board repair
Spent over 2 hours yesterday evening working on a dmd driver board.
DMD didn't work, one of the voltages (don't remember which one) was too low.
Ordered a dmd high voltage rebuilt kit from greatplainselectronics.com, it arrived fast. Nice product for a great price (buying the parts separate at my local electronics shop would probably cost me double).
But the soldering itself.. I really hate soldering these dmd driver boards.
Parts are pretty close to each other. I did start at the top (first did the 4 resistors, then removed the large ceramic resistors, the heat sinks, and moved my way towards the bottom of the board removing parts..
resoldering everything went the other way, first bottom of board and working my way up.
Each time I had soldered in a component I checked with my dmm resistance towards the next component, to make sure they were soldered correctly and I had no cold solder joints.
And still, when I finally tested the board in a pinball machine, the score display did not come on ?!
Aaaargh ! I've been busy for almost 2,5 hour and it doesn't work :(
It was already too late to do any troubleshooting, tonight I'll continue and measure the voltages.. (and test the board in another machine).
I hope it's not a big fault and I can repair this board, because else I would'be been cheaper off buying one of those high-voltage piggy-back boards you just put on top of the original dmd driver board.
Update: seems my soldering isn't as bad as I thought - check tomorrows post.
DMD didn't work, one of the voltages (don't remember which one) was too low.
Ordered a dmd high voltage rebuilt kit from greatplainselectronics.com, it arrived fast. Nice product for a great price (buying the parts separate at my local electronics shop would probably cost me double).
But the soldering itself.. I really hate soldering these dmd driver boards.
Parts are pretty close to each other. I did start at the top (first did the 4 resistors, then removed the large ceramic resistors, the heat sinks, and moved my way towards the bottom of the board removing parts..
resoldering everything went the other way, first bottom of board and working my way up.
Each time I had soldered in a component I checked with my dmm resistance towards the next component, to make sure they were soldered correctly and I had no cold solder joints.
And still, when I finally tested the board in a pinball machine, the score display did not come on ?!
Aaaargh ! I've been busy for almost 2,5 hour and it doesn't work :(
It was already too late to do any troubleshooting, tonight I'll continue and measure the voltages.. (and test the board in another machine).
I hope it's not a big fault and I can repair this board, because else I would'be been cheaper off buying one of those high-voltage piggy-back boards you just put on top of the original dmd driver board.
Update: seems my soldering isn't as bad as I thought - check tomorrows post.
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