The Pinball Diaries (what did you do today?)

[BMHouze]

My tech pal had some time so he came by so we could see about why the left slingshot on Checkpoint doesn't want to work.
Well I can say you were right. I may have soldered the new coil into the same way but the coil was wired the opposite way. I will have to keep an eye out for that in future when I am not using the same kind of coil.
Unfortunately it's still not the problem.
After getting it all wired in and doing some testing it appears the left slingshot coil is not getting the same 'messages' than the right slingshot coil.
After a bit of work we soldered it all together.
Powered up the machine and blew out 2 transistors on the board this time.
Luckily I bought some extra and we swapped them out, checked the board to make sure all was good, did a little jury rigging to make it work and blew the board out again on the next attempt.
Well, looks like I will be buying some TIP 102 this time.
My tech guy is a bit stumped as to why so much power gets dumped through the coils and is planning on rigging up a smaller board with the transistors with a resistor to hopefully control the amount of power.
wish I could explain it better but I really don't speak tech.
So, Checkpoint is down again. Wife not happy.
I am getting a check from the union this week for this weeks arbitration. My union money becomes my 'pinball fund' I was considering a new rottendog board but I am on the fence as to why waste the money if it could just as easily blow up. At least with 2 boards I could just disconnect the left slingshot and play the game.
On a side note I contacted nineapart (a Porsche wrecking yard) for a few parts to eventually 'mod' my machine. I am looking at getting a shield hood emblem and a 'carrera' script piece to attach to the top front of the head as I don't have enough room for a topper.

 

[brad808]

My tech guy is a bit stumped as to why so much power gets dumped through the coils and is planning on rigging up a smaller board with the transistors with a resistor to hopefully control the amount of power.
wish I could explain it better but I really don't speak tech.

This doesn't sound right. Have you measured how much voltage is getting to the coil? There shouldn't be a need for an extra board. If the coil is getting too much voltage then something is wrong upstream. You should create a thread dedicated to the problem so it's easier to follow the troubleshooting.

 

[BMHouze]

He's telling me it could even be the solenoids.
Just seems really odd that by disconnecting the slingshot (left) that there's no surge/damage further down the line and that something earlier in the process like the thumper bumpers aren't getting damaged.
My tech thinks that if I can find a schematic of the rottendog MPU 004 board it may show modified coil drive transistors that he could add to my existing board.

 

[Menace]

All the coils in the game see the same source voltage, and the driver board transistors just pull one side of the coil associated with the transistor to ground for a minute amount of time. Having stuff all connected together "upstream" means nothing in this case.

What you didn't mention is what you guys did with the coil that you hooked up backwards after you realized it was installed wrong. Now, I'm guessing that the diode that was installed on the replacement coil was actually opposite to what the original was yes? Once you realized it was installed the wrong way, I'm assuming you guys swapped the wires on that coil around or flipped the diode yes? After doing this, did you by any chance replace the diode on the coil with a new one? Usually when a coil gets installed backwards and a transistor is blown in the process it takes this snubbing diode along for the ride. If the diode on the coil is not replaced along with the transistor on the driver board you will continue to blow the replacement transistors.

Given the experience your tech buddy should have, I have been assuming that the above was done during the process but it was never mentioned so I thought I would ask.

D

 

[brad808]

I was able to pick up a lotr last night. I wasn't actively searching one out yet but more keeping an eye out for one. Spent the last few hours going through it a bit. It's been a while since it's seen a cleaning so I gave it the quick once over but I'm going to be doing all the rubbers on it and I'll give it a thorough cleaning at that point. It was in some sort of a hybrid led\incandescent stage where there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind the choices. I've swapped all the GI to the comet LEDs that I like and I'm hoping to do the inserts later. I'll be picking up another ledocd board when I get a list of parts together I want to order. They are really expensive but they do exactly what they are supposed to so it's kind of hard to argue with that. In the mean time I'll just be going through it "tweaking" things and trying to get a few games in. Unfortunately that won't be until later as I have to go help someone move... Don't ever buy a truck.

 

[FastEd]

Well, Wong has struck again, he enabled my 2nd pin in 2 months! Thanks again Mike, very happy with my new pin, TSPP!

Congo is no longer lonely by itself! Thanks again to the seller, really appreciate all the extra stuff that you threw in! I think I got my wife hooked on pins now, maybe more pins to follow?

I'll let you know when I'm ready for my 3rd pin Mike!

Ed

(I'll try to upload a pic...)

 

[mwong168]

I'll let you know when I'm ready for my 3rd pin Mike.

Congrats on the nice TSPP and glad everything worked out. I'm also glad to hear that your wife really likes the game too which will make pin #3 that much easier to bring home. Shoot me a message when you are ready.

 

[tim.sanderson]

Picked up some pretty cool stuff today:

1932 Bally Goofy Jr. playfield. (at least I think it's the Jr., and not the Sr.) It's a little over half the size of a regular playfield.


A (mostly) populated Gottlieb Dragon playfield, to go along with the bare playfield I picked up in Allentown this year. Mine is in better shape, but this one has ̶a̶l̶l̶ many of the bits to go along with it. I'm really not sure what my plan is with this playfield. Probably ultimately going to be wall art. That is, until I hear of someone who can use it for a restoration.

 

[goomba]

Lightning strikes twice on the same weekend. Mwong enables me again with a DM. Thanks mwong and GeneralZod.

 

[mitch_a]

Picked up some pretty cool stuff today:

1932 Bally Goofy Jr. playfield. (at least I think it's the Jr., and not the Sr.) It's a little over half the size of a regular playfield.


A (mostly) populated Gottlieb Dragon playfield, to go along with the bare playfield I picked up in Allentown this year. Mine is in better shape, but this one has all the bits to go along with it. I'm really not sure what my plan is with this playfield. Probably ultimately going to be wall art. That is, until I hear of someone who can use it for a restoration.

I'll buy one of the dragon pf off of you when and if you want to sell one.

PM me

 

[FastEd]

Lightning strikes twice on the same weekend. Mwong enables me again with a DM. Thanks mwong and GeneralZod.

Mike's been busy! Congrats on your DM!

 

[brewmanager]

Only two? That's a slow weekend for Mike.

 

[meegis]

Lots of movement in my home.

Current lineup is nothing like it once was.

Set up X-men yesterday.


Time to work her in.

 

[WARLOCK]

Activity has been busy lately, and I have been trying to document Nov./Dec. events.
In no particular order...

Picked up F-14 from Barry. (Superjackpot) Discussed further pin activities upcoming.
Took a few pins for safekeeping to Josh (Meegis) and another trip to pack + ship TSPP with him and pickup new dollies. Thx.
Texted and emailed Drano, Sparky and I believe 40-50 other members and friends. I like getting into more "pinball + vid" trouble this time of year...

I ended "Behind the scenes" Threads on pbrev and "Tales of Pinball Adventures" on maaca.
Time to start fresh.

No fewer than 6 vids and 6 pins to shuffle around this weekend with B1, Speedy, Milkman and Brewmanager to prepare for next week.
Next week, the fun starts.

 

[luch]

I snow blowed the snow twice , man I don`t now how I got thru a winter without the snow blower before .

 

[WARLOCK]

18 pins folded in my shop - unacceptable. I require 9 on legs.
3 pins are in my office - 2 on legs and 1 to go.
2 vids in my work kitchen. 1 ps to replace.
Very soon, 14 up + playable instead of 4.

 

[spiroagnew]

Proud to be a dad today. My son's picture made it onto Pinside's front page:

 

[WARLOCK]

Holy! That is awesome!
Congrats Ro...ah...
Spiroagnew.
Beautiful.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Nice-I think most of us with kids have similar pictures. Start button is the first thing they can reach usually. That was the case with my son, although my daughter found the power switches first. That made things...interesting for a while.

 

[DRANO]

awesome story dude!

Nice-I think most of us with kids have similar pictures. Start button is the first thing they can reach usually. That was the case with my son, although my daughter found the power switches first. That made things...interesting for a while.

My kids always seemed to find the gun shooter on IJ... and clocked themselves a few times in the process