Has it really been that long?

I am humbled and honored.

Some good, some bad. Just like life, I guess.

The good. My pins went three weeks before there was a problem with Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man.

The bad. I am saddened to report that my affiliation with D&D Pinball has ended. It was a good run and I enjoyed working with Robert. It was all good, but I won't miss the 20 mile one-way trip down there.

This meant that the Gorgar I took down there last Thursday came home with me on Thursday. On Friday, it went to Hotrods Old Vail and Stellar Wars was taken back to Pecos' Palatial Pinball Parlour (my home pinball collection). Also on Friday, Flash was pulled from D&D and went to Hotrods upstairs storage. Eventually, it will be part of the downstairs lineup. On Saturday I pulled Black Knight and brought it home. Today it went to Hotrods Old Vail and Aztec came back to the PPPP.

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Do you see a pattern here? After Flash is moved into the lineup, three of the Fantastic Four will be available for all to play! I have priced the Williams Fantastic Four pins at 75 cents a game. I would have liked 50 cents a game, but my costs are going up and these games are in great condition - worth the cost. I'm staying with 5 balls per game.

But, wait! There is more musical pinballs. On Sunday I pulled Harlem Globetrotters On Tour from D&D Pinball and moved it to Hotel McCoy. I pulled Super-Flite. It has been on route for over a year, a solid performer, but needs a tune-up. I expect to put it back at Hotel McCoy. I did learn one thing from the year that Super-Flite has been on route. Incandescent lamps last less than a year when on 24/7/365. The GI lamps were burned out or burning out.

Sometimes procrastinating pays. I had been putting off placing orders with Titan Pinball and Comet Pinball. When Black Friday came around, I knew this was the perfect time to stop procrastinating. I got some Ninja Pinballs from the Ball Baron. I ordered 50 2 3/4, 10 2 1/2 and 50 flipper Competition Silicone rings from Titan. All of my games on route will be getting the silicone rings on the slingshots and on the flippers. This will, hopefully, reduce the number of service calls I have to make for broken slingshot rings.

I also ordered a LOT of LEDs from Comet Pinball. I ordered some warm white and sunlight 2 SMD LEDS. These will be used primarily in EMs where the incandescent lamps tend to fail early. That was the plan, but I like the warm white and not the sunlight for EMs. I will use the sunlight in early SS pins. I also ordered a bunch of wedge base LEDs for Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition. I will be putting cool white in this game. They are bright and will really brighten the playfield.

I don't like the blinking incandescent lamps that are available these days. I bought a boat-load of the warm white and sunlight fast blinkers from Comet for the backbox behind the pin name. I bought more of the sunlight than the warm white, but again, now that I have seen them in action, I prefer the warm white for EMs.

I now have a 'wall of parts' at Pecos' Palatial Pinball Parlour. It sure helps having parts on hand when fixing broken pins.

I have been spending most of my time restoring Gorgar, but also working on Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition. Yesterday I had the first time to get back to Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition. I repinned the 25 pin connector on the Power/Driver board. I think I am closing in on the finish line. It should be done soon, but I have no client where I can put it out on route.

I find myself in an unusual position. I have quite a few pins that either work or only need a few small fixes.

#travel-time-williams
#wizard
#op-pop-pop
#future-spa
#hardbody
#aztec
#stellar-wars

And soon:

#harlem-globetrotters-on-tour
#mr-and-mrs-pac-man
#six-million-dollar-man

I need to get out and find more clients - not my favorite chore.

Maintenance Log:

#mr-and-mrs-pac-man had a weak left upper kick-out hole. I pulled the board and tested the transistor. No problems there. The solenoid tested good too. The switch was just cleaned so I know that was not the problem. Just putting the board back in place has solved the problem for now. I'm thinking that the problem lies with one of the pins on the same 25 pin connector that I just repinned and replaced on Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition.

Restoration Log:

It has been quite a while since Gorgar was on route. I had to spend a lot of time restoring this one. It had been scavenged for parts. There were like 30-40 problems that needed to be fixed but I'm not complaining because the price was right and the playfield is in good shape with only a tiny bit of planking. There was a short in the GI lamps; those are never fun to solve.

It is in the 'break-in' period. The left flipper is a little weak, and more problematic, the Rottendog board occasionally resets during a game. I will have to order one of the German NW7 boards at $500 each, shipped all the way from Germay. Ouch!! Maybe I will open a thread here on Pinside asking for help diagnosing the problem with the Rottendog board, but there is not a lot of experience with the MPU327 boards

#gorgar has a weak left flipper and Flash might have the same weak left flipper problem. I have new flipper EOS switches and that is the first place I will be looking.

As mentioned, Super-Flite will be getting a thorough tune-up.

I'm still working on Firepower's System 6 MPU board. I found a spare System 6 MPU board in my stash of parts and hoping that between the two, I will be able to come up with one working MPU board.

#eight-ball-deluxe-limited-edition needs a new 7 digit display and pop bumper bodies, and probably more parts that I haven't found yet or forgotten about.

I received this and really like it. I am not sure that I could have repinned and replaced the .1 connector without it.

With Firepower down needing a MPU and Gorgar with a flaky Rottendog board, I am seriously considering the NW7 MPUs. I need a 'universal' Williams board as a backup, so the only question now is whether I buy one or two NW7 boards.

https://www.pinball-dreams.com/flipper-pinball-flipperautomaten-modding-shop/verschiedenes/all-in-one-nw7.html

Income was down in November and, with no pins at D&D Pinball, it will be down even more in December.

I am sure I have missed something. I will post it if I remember it.

Pecos Pinball is pleased and proud to announce that Flash has joined the line-up at Hotrods Old Vail. Now, you can play three of the Fantastic Four - the four early SS pins from Williams that forever changed how pinball machines were designed and manufactured.

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Three of the Fantastic Four at Hotrods Old Vail (resized).png

Maintenance Log:

I have begun swapping out regular rubber slingshot and flipper rings with Titan Competition Silicone rings for pins on route.

#mr-and-mrs-pac-man blew another F4 solenoid fuse. It does this every month or so - not frequently enough for me to worry about it.

#flash - The pinball was occasionally get stuck in the ball trough when being spit out to the shooter lane. A little bit of manual manipulation of the ramp and problem solved.

I put a sign on Gorgar warning about possible triggering of PSE:

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Restoration Log:

I got the 25 pin connector on the power/driver board of Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition repinned. I was able to start a game and the solenoids worked! My excitement was quickly doused with cold water. While in attract mode, the MPU locked up. Turning the game on and off revealed that the 7th flash was too short - a problem with the 43 DC Volt solenoid circuit. Add that to the fact that sometime several weeks ago, all of the displays went dead. One step forward and two steps back, delaying my deployment of this fun pin.

I only have seven pins on location now, so income was down for December.

Current Line-up:

Hotel McCoy: Harlem Globetrotters --> Super-Flite
Hotrods Old Vail: Grand Prix, Flash, Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man, Gorgar and Black Knight
Galaxy: Aztec 1

I pulled Super-Flite from Hotel McCoy to do a tune-up on it. It will be returning to Hotel McCoy this weekend and Harlem Globetrotters On Tour will be pulled.

I placed an order with Pinball Life for new flipper assemblies, some #47 lamps and a 5/8" x 9/16" wrench. One end is for removing leg bolts and the other end fits the bolts in the backbox. I should have bought one of these years ago.

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Maintenance Log:

Super-Flite: All of the GI lamps were either burned out or about to die. I am debating what to do about this. The new #44 and #47 lamps suck. They are fine for home use but when they are on all or most of the time on route, they are only lasting nine months. I may consider going with retro LEDs, but in the short term I bought 400 of the #47 lamps to replace the old ones. I plan to start reusing the old GE #44 lamps I have pulled when doing restorations.

The second player wasn't working - fixed by replacing the small screw and ground wire on the player unit.

Some of the switches needed to be cleaned.

#super-flite is working 100% again.

#Gorgar: I got a text that Gorgar's left flipper was sticky. I did something you are never supposed to do, add a little bit of Super-Lube to the plunger. I knew I was going to be replacing that flipper assembly soon so an 'operator hack' was okay with me.

I got a text today that one of Gorgar's rubber rings was broken. While I was there, I replaced the weak left flipper with one of the new Pinball Life flipper assemblies. I am charging 75 cents a game, five balls per game, so I want only the best flippers I can buy for Gorgar. It does play noticeably faster.

These new flipper assemblies are not cheap, but they are an upgrade to the original flippers. They are snappier and a little more powerful.

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https://www.pinballlife.com/full-flipper-assembly-for-williamsbally-machines-from-021992-to-101998.html
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-upgradingrebuilding-flippers/page/3#post-773606

Thanks to vid1900 for this flipper upgrade option.

I will be putting these on Flash and other early Williams SS games with less than perfect flippers.

#flash: I also got a text that Flash was acting strangely. Well, that can mean almost anything. It turned out to be a bad fuse for the solenoids. There was a 3/4A Slo-Blow when the diagram in the backbox called for a 2.5A Slo-Blow. No wonder the 3/4A fuse blew! I want to double check that, but Flash is flashing again.

I did my first house call this week. I normally don't do service calls, I can barely keep mine running, but made an exception for a local Pinsider. I was able to fix his beautiful Old Chicago and it is now working 100%. It sure was nice working on a clean game for a change.

Oh yeah, how could I forget. I got all of my fees, licenses and taxes paid for, on time, and the EOY bookkeeping done. Now, I have to pay for my TPT, Transaction Privelege Tax, local and state taxes.

Late 2019 and 2020 has been tough times for Pecos Pinball. I removed my pins from D&D Pinball and in mid-February I removed my pins from Hotrods Old Vail. That left me with only two pins on route and one wasn't making any money. I would have closed Pecos Pinball down but I have licenses for all of 2020 and I vowed to get more clients.

I am terrible about finding new clients. It's not that I am bad at it, I guess that I am very particular about who I want my clients to be that I have few prospects. You will be better at this part of the business than I am, so don't feel disheartened that my results will be your results.

Speaking of, Pecos Pinball is very excited to be able to announce a partnership with Nerdtopia in Sierra Vista, Arizona! Nerdtopia specializes in retro video gaming and wanted to have some pinball machines in their shop for customers to play. I think that pinball will do very well at Nerdtopia.

Maintenance Log:

A couple of days before pulling my games from Hotrods, I noticed that Flash was resetting during the game. Was it just a coincidence that this problem started after upgrading the three flipper assemblies? When I got it home, I went through some more bullet-proofing. The MPU and driver boards had obviously been recently worked on - but how recently? I decided to do all of the bullet-proofing work, reflowing the male header pins, replcaing the electrolytic capacitors, and replacing the 40 pin female interconnect. I put in an NVRAM and removed the batteries. I repinned the +5V and +12V connector on the power supply board.

After this work, the reset problem remained. Reset problems can be a real bear to diagnose. I got smart and started pulling fuses, the solenoid fuse, the flipper fuse, and the insert lamp fuse. Pulling one of these 'fixed' the problem. Guess which one? It turned out to be the insert lamp fuse! It wasn't a coincidence that the reset problem started after replacing the flippers.

I then removed all of the incandescent insert lamps and took the opportunity to replace the incandescent lamps with LEDs. I replaced about a third of them at a time and started a new game to see if the problem still existed. After the first third, no reset! After the second third, no reset! After the final third, no reset! I don't know which insert lamp socket was the problem child, but I had obviously, serendipitously, fixed the reset problem.

The first game to go into Nerdtopia is Flash! Ironically, Flash came from an owner in Sierra Vista and today Flash returned home.

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The owner, Malachi, seems pretty happy to get a classic Williams SS pin in his shop!

What would be the perfect pinball for a retro video store? Why, Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man, of course! Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man is the first pinball machine to have a video mode.

John, the one playing Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man is a fellow Pinsider, @johnnycruzr. He will be helping me out with simple fixes. He lives in beautiful Sierra Vista, is just down the street from Nerdtopia and loves pinball. I have also given a key to the owner. He is young and enthusiastic to learn more about pinball. They are both great guys and I enjoy working with them.

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I really can't. My clients deserve their confidentiality in matters like this.

It is a great venue and the location of the games was perfect, right in the front lobby.

I call my Pecos Pinball contract the 'no contract contract.' Either party can cancel the contract for any reason at any time. If either party is unhappy, the pinball machines will be removed and the income distributed per the contract. I figure that if I can't make the client happy, I don't deserve to be doing business with them.

Hi Dono! I only have five games out now. Tucson has the familiar restaurant and bar lock-down but I have no pins in those locations so I am not affected.

I have three pins at Nerdtopia in Sierra Vista. I asked the owner if he would wipe down the three pins there with disinfectant and he kindly agreed to do so, thankfully. I don't want my pins to be a vector of disease spread. Nerdtopia stayed open last week but voluntarily closed their doors this week.

I have one pin at Hotel McCoy, but doubt if it is getting much use. The other pin is at Galaxy Theatres and they are closed down.

I am operating my business for reasons other than making money, so am not at all concerned about the loss of income. I do have a large expense coming up - my annual liability insurance. I wish I could get a discount on that with my pins lying dormant, but doubt if that will happen.

I, too, am concerned about all of the restaurant workers who have been laid off. My loss of income is nothing compared to what they are facing.

I planned to get some of my Project Pins working. Instead, I have been learning as much as I could about the novel coronavirus. After 20 years out of the market I am putting some of my IRA money to work, very carefully. My CoVid-19 virus research led me to 'put my money where my mouth' was.

Thank You!

If you are interested, I have posted some of what I have learned about CoVid-19 here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-official-coronavirus-containment-thread/page/37#post-5546370

Having my pins at Hotrods has turned out to not hurt too much because they, and every other restaurant in town is closed down. Who knows. My pins might return there one day. I didn't burn any bridges on my way out.

I don't understand why a lot of businesses here in Tucson wouldn't want one of my vintage pins. They attract a lot of attention and play great. It's mostly my fault because I just am not the kind of person that likes going out and trying to find new clients.

Thank you for posting that. I really enjoyed reading it and I am glad to hear that you enjoyed my thread. Who knows? Maybe we will meet one day and compare notes!

I know and you are so right! My pins are so underappreciated.

I have one pin left on location that is in a business that is still open - Super-Flite at Hotel McCoy. My fixed costs versus income is so far out of whack right now that I wonder if I will still be open next year.

Pecos