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Brad's Rescue 911 Thread

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
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Brantford
I actually got a chance last night to go over the new game quickly and fix a few little things, figure I better start a thread before I get too deep into it and get too lazy to tell you guys :) I'll start by saying that the game is "mostly" functioning correctly now and "mostly" playable.

The cabinet artwork is in pretty good shape but the cabinet itself has the back left corner splitting apart and will need to be clamped shut and either glued or screwed shut somehow.
IMG_20130804_081427.jpg

IMG_20130804_081447.jpg


The other part of the cabinet with problems was the coin door. Someone had taken a pry bar to it and busted up the coin returns and bent the whole door to the point it wouldnt close properly. I removed the coin mechs and banged it back to a point where it will at least close now. Still have to put the mechs back together again and steal some plastics from another coin door I have (hopefully they will fit)
IMG_20130804_081501.jpg

IMG_20130804_081515.jpg


Here are some pics of the playfield. There are 3 wear spots (up top on the police car, one by the left flipper where the ball drops and one by the right flipper where the ball drops).
IMG_20130804_081906.jpg

IMG_20130804_081916.jpg

IMG_20130804_081924.jpg

IMG_20130804_081932.jpg

IMG_20130804_081939.jpg


When I first fired it up it kept kicking out balls and saying they were draining but it turns out there were 6 balls in it and there were supposed to be 4. I took the extra 2 and put them up in the captive area that is apparently supposed to have 3 but only had 1. Pretty sure the top and bottom balls are supposed to be clear so the lights will shine through.
IMG_20130804_082046.jpg


Almost all the GI is out in this game but it appears they are all bad bulbs. I don't have enough laying around to fix them all so I'll have to put together an order of things to get. Couple playfield lights out but not many.

Ball shooter spring is shot, too many years of abuse and will need to be replaced.

Almost all switches in the game work. The one to the right of the 3 captive balls seems to be the exception but I haven't looked closely at it yet.

Right flipper was out, had a bad fuse in it.

Right slingshot is out, haven't figure out why yet. It had one wire loose and sort of wrapped around the coil but when I soldered it back onto the peg it still wasn't working. This will still need some attention.

Pop bumpers need some tweaking as they have very little action right now.

Had to remove the lock to install the translight as there was no key.

Helicopter doesn't turn properly and if you dont manually turn it, it wont pick up the balls. This is a big problem because it plays a huge role in the game play. Haven't had a chance to look at it too closely and how its supposed to work but the black rubber ring looks very worn down in a couple spots and has made it flat. Not sure if thats the cause of the problems yet or what.

Changed 3 flipper rubbers because I had some laying around. All rubbers will have to be changed as they are pretty beat up and cracked.

Manual is in French? sucks but is usable for now.

DMD seems to work good and is nice and bright.

Need to install taller legs as its got short ones on and my other games have tall ones. The legs on there look really bad anyways since they are rusty and old looking.

Spent maybe 30 minutes going over the playfield with novus 2 but will need more time to clean it up because of how dirty it is/was.


Thats about it for now. Probably get some more work on it today but wanted to document what I've done so far.
 

tim.sanderson

Active Member
I'm looking forward to your progress. Hopefully I can answer some questions for you.
If the motor for the heli is running, but the arm isn't swinging over to the ball lift, you likely need a new coupler:

I have extras if you need one.

I can also help you with a manual. If you promise not to tell Gottlieb, I have a scan I've made of mine. I'll send you a link a little later this morning.

Welcome to the glamorous world of Rescue 911!!
 

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tim.sanderson

Active Member
spiroagnew said:
Or, as your host Billy Shatner would say: "Rescue......nine......oneone."
I totally wish the Shatner was at least in someway incorporated into the game!
All that's left is for you guys is to start a "For R911 Owners Only!!!" thread.
Right? Maybe we need some sort of matching amulets or something. Or power rings?

brad said:
...but the black rubber ring looks very worn down in a couple spots and has made it flat. Not sure if thats the cause of the problems yet or what.
Nope, that ring doesn't move the heli... it's what moves the gears inside the heli mechanism. It makes the heli rotate when on the way to pick up the ball.
 

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
24
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Brantford
tim.sanderson said:
brad said:
...but the black rubber ring looks very worn down in a couple spots and has made it flat. Not sure if thats the cause of the problems yet or what.
Nope, that ring doesn't move the heli... it's what moves the gears inside the heli mechanism. It makes the heli rotate when on the way to pick up the ball.

I believe that's what the problem is though. The helicopter does move from the top left corner of the game to the point where it picks up the ball. The helicopter doesn't spin around the right direction so I can pick up the ball. When the helicopter is moving I can push on the tail end of the helicopter to make it spin the right direction and it will pick up the ball fine. I'll try and get a closer look at it today.

If you can get me a copy of the manual that would be great... it'll be our little secret.
 

tim.sanderson

Active Member
Also, only the middle captive ball is supposed to be a regular pinball. The other two are supposed to be clear plastic balls that glow either red or blue from the lights below them.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_73HfqXBp6A&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
 

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
24
18
Brantford
tim.sanderson said:
Also, only the middle captive ball is supposed to be a regular pinball. The other two are supposed to be clear plastic balls that glow either red or blue from the lights below them.

I did see that in some other playfield pictures people have posted. Do you know of a source for them? I just stuck the other two in there because it seemed like a long way for the single captive ball to travel and hit that target at the back.
 

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
24
18
Brantford
Made a bit more progress this morning. Changed some flasher bulbs, got the topper light working. Still a ton of bulbs out but I need to buy more.

Tested manually firing the transistor on the driver board for the right slingshot and got nothing. Haven't had a chance to get farther on that. I would think that would mean it's either bad transistor, break in the wire or bad coil? Probably one of the first two though?

Also noticed that the top kick out target up by the pop bumpers isn't working. It doesn't appear to be scoring at all so it may be a switch issue.

Got the coin door put back together and looking good. I took a bunch of the plastics and coin mech brackets from another door I had laying around.

Sent from my Nexus 4
 

mwong168

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
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Toronto
brad808 said:
Had to remove the lock to install the translight as there was no key.

Guess nobody warned you Brock not only forgets legs but he also forgets to give keys to heads as well. You can ask McMean when he bought Brock's ACDC last year the canon died and he couldn't get into the head so Brock had to mail him the keys :lol:

Anyways, congrats on your purchase and good luck getting everything working 100% once again.
 

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
24
18
Brantford
Got at it again last night. I was getting tired of lifting up the playfield and having it fall because the guide rails were too far apart so I got some long clamps and reattached the side of the cabinet and removed that big gap.

I also fixed a piece of wood that was holding up the light board for the translight. It was broken and every time I wanted to get at the boards it felt like it was going to snap off.
e2a8umyg.jpg


So nothing major but it was stuff that had to be done in order to keep working on everything else.

I was hoping playdium store was going to be open on Monday that just passed so I could go grab all the parts I need but it was a no go.

Sent from my Nexus 4
 

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
24
18
Brantford
Feeling good about tonight so far. Cleaned up the coin door gunk and the side rails with sos pad but more importantly got a bit of work done on the "good stuff".

Just to clarify this is what the helicopter has been doing:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOVBFEyldi0[/youtube]

I now fully understand why people consider this to be one of the worst designs ever... this thing can't even look good on paper the design is so bad. They should have used gears and been done with it.

I was thinking originally my problem had to do with the shape of the wheel being off
IMG_20130807_173609.jpg


I decided to thicken it up with tape in hopes that it would round out a bit
IMG_20130807_174138.jpg


trim it down
IMG_20130807_174703.jpg


Looks good, feels good, put it all back together. Worse than before, not rotating at all. I did notice that the rubber had a tiny bit more grip than the tape...

OK so we will call this proof of concept... looks bad but it worked. I had an idea and so I ran with it knowing it wouldn't be permanent.
IMG_20130807_180737.jpg


Purdy it up a bit. To be honest it's basically all hidden once all the plastics are on anyway.
IMG_20130807_181611.jpg



Works great now. I see that the chopper is rotating to its full position too soon so I pull the tape off but I think it is the opposite and the wheel actually needs to be made bigger. What is happening is the rotation to full and then basically just dragging across the whole track... its as if they made the wheel have no traction so it could drag across the track because the design is so shitty that the ratio is way out of whack.
This is mine now with no tape on
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na_thh-KtXQ[/youtube]

I watched the video from tmt amusement and it looks as if theirs rotates the same...about 2:10 in the video
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY6IqoP6o_4[/youtube]


Had a look at that kick out target at the top left of the playfield and saw there was a loose wire and some funky repair but haven't gotten into exactly what should be going where yet. Really hard to get back in there. Also not enough hours in the day.

IMG_20130807_183052.jpg

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brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
24
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Brantford
Tim what kind of shape is your wheel in? does it have those flat spots from dragging? Does your helicopter complete its rotation long before the end of the entire travel distance?
Judging by the design of this thing I'm guessing that most of the wheels are flat in two spots. I also have the idea of flipping that black circular plate over (it's the same on both sides, just one of mine now has the grip paper on it.) and gluing a rubber band around the wheel. It might make it "sticky" enough to catch and run across the plate but not wear down as much. Just a thought at this point but might put it to the test next time I work on it. Would be easy to install a new one in the future should it ever wear down again. hmmm
 

tim.sanderson

Active Member
I've just set up my recording rig, I'll make a short vid showing the rotation.
My wheel is quite worn, (there's still a black rubber dust around the path of the wheel) but I don't remember a flat spot. I'll take some pics for you.

I am off all weekend. You are welcome to come by for a beer and look over my machine. :)
 

tim.sanderson

Active Member
Here's what the wheel looks like:

It's incredibly worn out, but still works without fault. It has never not rotated properly in all my hundreds of plays.

Here's a vid that shows you when and where it rotates during the pick-up: (low res for the sake of upload time)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-WAhz6VgjY&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

When the glass is on you can't really hear it, but when it's off you can hear a creaking noise during the second half of the heli's trip. I've noticed in your vid that yours makes a different/louder noise.
 

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tim.sanderson

Active Member
brad808 said:
I now fully understand why people consider this to be one of the worst designs ever... this thing can't even look good on paper the design is so bad. They should have used gears and been done with it.
I quite disagree! It's an interesting design. It seems like the only weakness of this design is in the friction wheel. And from the looks of mine, it can wear itself down and still do the trick.
 

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