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The Pinball Diaries (what did you do today?)

tkaye

Active Member
Mar 17, 2013
598
62
28
55
Ancaster, On
Well I finally installed Eli's ramp mod from pinbits and my mirror blades on my Tron. Took me 9 hours because I also cleaned it, added the plastic protectors and finished the GI LEDs. She's now done!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zNqDJ4VP53U[/youtube]
 

DRANO

Super Member
Nov 15, 2012
2,827
519
113
Mississauga
tkaye said:
Well I finally installed Eli's ramp mod from pinbits and my mirror blades on my Tron. Took me 9 hours

I cheated and bought LE ramps from PBL :)
No drilling... just tranfer switches and flashers over.

However, since mine was a beta unit, I did have to manufacture my own mount for the emitters and build my own wiring harness. I guess it did take a while.

Congrats! best mod ever!!!
 

mwong168

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
6,680
1,450
113
46
Toronto
These new interactive lit up ramps give a new experience to an already awesome game. It took me about 2.5 hours to install my developer kit similar to Drano's. I was pretty worried about drilling my ramps at first but quickly realized it is not as hard as it seems. I mean provided you are not using a hammer drill or one of these old school corded Black and Decker drill that make your lights go dim when you press the trigger. I think if I had to do it all over again I could probably get it all done quicker but the person who hooked up my switches from the Stern factory did it all wrong. I didn't bother marking the connectors when I was removing the ramps because there were already factory markings. For example my left ramp exit switch was really triggering the spinner each time. Anyways, I sorted all that out and cleaned around back of the orbit loop while I had it all exposed.

Good job Todd and you must be loving your line up from when we first met almost a year ago now. Do you have Luci and Tron next to each other sharing your Polk sub?
 

tkaye

Active Member
Mar 17, 2013
598
62
28
55
Ancaster, On
Actually Mike, I bought the Polk sub and put it upstairs in my living room. I moved my Paradigm 8 inch down to run on my Tron which is next to LOTR and ACDC is connected to another sub on the other side of the room next to TZ. :D
I really like my 4 price lineup now. Can't see any immediate adds or deducts there.
 

DRANO

Super Member
Nov 15, 2012
2,827
519
113
Mississauga
I've got two of those subwoofers to hook up.
Maybe I'll do that this weekend. TRON and LOTR are side by side now. Those would be a good pair. Maybe BSD and something else on the other wall?

Any special instructions for hook-up? Don't wanna blow anything up.


As for my diary log:
It's been a busy week or so.
I got the garage all prepped last weekend and the electrical is complete. I now have power for all my needs and I 'll have insulation sprayed on Monday. Hopefully the new garage/workshop/overflow mancave can finally start to take real form.

I've also been continuing some small work on a few playfields here and there... trying to get at least 3 of them prepped for clearcoat at the same time.

I was a bit upset at myself for not getting on the CPR High Speed repro list, but someone came to the rescue and showed up at my place with these babies!
I was fortunate enough to be offered the chance to purchase one of them and am looking forward to a swap and full shop on my container HS... which is pretty darn nice already, if I do say so myself ;)



A couple of days ago I took apart the silly coffin on my BSD and am trying to convince our resident artist to come up with something better than the stock 'carbon frozen Ron Jeremy'. I found this really cool MacFarlane figure and would love to do some sort of crate of dirt around him. Much more accurate to the film and other decorations on the playfield... and very fitting for this mean B$TCH of a game :evil:



And lastly, with the garage starting to come together, my plan to have a couple of vids in there to share space with a couple of project pins is starting to take shape.
I purchased that Super Sprint from YellowMustard in Montreal and hope to get that in soon. And, at the shop, I've been using some down-time to get this baby made!



I've always been a big fan of classic arcade cabinets like this Nintendo and some of the early Bally/Midway games like PacMan and Galaga. These are exceedingly hard to find in decent shape so, with lots of help from a friend who provided a doner cabinet, I was able to create a pretty accurate scratch build. This cab will be done as a Donkey Kong, but It'll house a 60-in-1 for now. I plan to have a MAME in the basemment gameroom, so I can afford to stick to just classic vertical games on this one.
Can't wait to get it done!

Anyway, that was a big installment.
Maybe more next week ;)
 

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DRANO

Super Member
Nov 15, 2012
2,827
519
113
Mississauga
REVOLUTION said:
I painted Shadow Mongols... and then instantly remembered why I hate painting Shadow Mongols.

I got a nice little project for you.
Just involves painting wood and dirt :D

(read previous post)
 

spiroagnew

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Dec 1, 2012
1,334
311
83
Scotch Block, ON
www.creditdotpinball.com
DRANO said:
It's been a busy week or so.
I got the garage all prepped last weekend and the electrical is complete. I now have power for all my needs and I 'll have insulation sprayed on Monday. Hopefully the new garage/workshop/overflow mancave can finally start to take real form.

Gotta get that garage insulated and heated...need a few more games on that Special Force next time I swing by! Been to cold out there the last few times!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Grauwulf

Member
Nov 14, 2012
284
3
18
Corunna, Ont
Been plugging away at some repairs, fixed a driver board for a client's Dr Who, been trying to diagnose and repair the DMD controller, which was totally dead. I think I'm actually in the home stretch on that.

Been organizing my parts stash, I've been finding that I'm ordering components and then discovering that I already had some somewhere. :FP:

Gotta finish stripping and cleaning my RFM playfield so I can get it sent off to be repaired and clearcoated.

Oh, and I stuck some LED's behind the HIGH SCORE, TILT, SHOOT AGAIN, HSTD, etc locations on my Space Shuttle. They seemed really dim with the incandescent bulbs, much better with the LED's. :)
 

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
24
18
Brantford
I got a new (er used) display for my strange science in the mail today. Pretty excited about getting that fixed. Now only one more major thing to fix on it (entire c phase flasher lights are out) and then a few minor things like cleaning all the switches and inserts for it to be ready for the game room full time. It's been slowly but surely coming together quite nicely.
 

McMean

Member
Nov 14, 2012
171
9
18
48
Peterborough
I learned a valuable lesson about 'lectricity.

Continuity does not always 'ring out' on your DMM. If there is too much resistance, it won't buzz. I spent a few minutes lamenting tonight thinking an electromagnet on my pitch and bat was borked because it didn't ring out when I tested it for continuity. (this thing is a major project, so I'm going through bit by bit). As it turns out, there is 55ohm resistance in the magnet. For me, in EM repair, I often don't look at the DMM, I just listen. Guess I'll need to do both now if I suspect high resistance but am also searching for continuity.

So resistance always means continuity, but continuity with high resistance doesn't always buzz on your DMM. But... resistance is still always futile. :D

Daniel
 

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
24
18
Brantford
McMean said:
I learned a valuable lesson about 'lectricity.

Continuity does not always 'ring out' on your DMM. If there is too much resistance, it won't buzz. I spent a few minutes lamenting tonight thinking an electromagnet on my pitch and bat was borked because it didn't ring out when I tested it for continuity. (this thing is a major project, so I'm going through bit by bit). As it turns out, there is 55ohm resistance in the magnet. For me, in EM repair, I often don't look at the DMM, I just listen. Guess I'll need to do both now if I suspect high resistance but am also searching for continuity.

So resistance always means continuity, but continuity with high resistance doesn't always buzz on your DMM. But... resistance is still always futile. :D

Daniel

This is when my crappy $10 meter shines because it doesn't beep and I have to look at it haha

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
 

WARLOCK

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
1,824
208
73
54
The Bluffs, Scarborough
Drano and I are taking a trip to Montreal on Feb.21. Return on the 22nd.

We have booked a trailer, and we have some room both ways.
If anyone requires transport one way or the other, let us know.

Last roadtrip before Allentown.
 

spiroagnew

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Dec 1, 2012
1,334
311
83
Scotch Block, ON
www.creditdotpinball.com
WARLOCK said:
Drano and I are taking a trip to Montreal on Feb.21. Return on the 22nd.

We have booked a trailer, and we have some room both ways.
If anyone requires transport one way or the other, let us know.

Eyes open, gents, for unwanted/unloved System 11s for your old pal in Burlington...!!


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WARLOCK

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
1,824
208
73
54
The Bluffs, Scarborough
There are always pins in play for pals bro.
You already know that all though.
We don't like selling pins yo.
We let go, to upgrade "o"!

Send a PM, go.
Cheerio.