Busy day today! Though not much in regards to South Park haha.

3 piece tub/shower kit got delivered today, and should be installed tomorrow.

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Cement was poured early today, should be ok to work on by tomorrow when they go to install the 3 piece tub/shower combo.

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I made a trip into the nearest city that has a shipping depot, which is a 4 hour round trip. Brought back the bathroom vanity my wife wanted:

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And something from the shipping depot for me:

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My son and I have been very excited for this to arrive. It’s midnight here so that’s as far as I’m unpacking it tonight (it was plastic wrapped, then cardboard wrapped, then plastic wrapped again). From what I can see it is minty minty minty. Lots of worthwhile mods too. This, with South Park, are my brother in laws two dream pins, and two of my dream pins as well. I’m not telling them I have them, I’m going to let him casually find out next time he’s over visiting, so that I can see his reaction. I know for a fact he’s not on pinside, so this is the only safe platform that I can share my new pin without him knowing haha.

One small update with South Park. The large Marco order I bought about 3-4 weeks ago, finally arrived today to my post office, though it was after hours. So I’ll pick it up tomorrow. Which is great as I was at a stand still for the pops without it. So should be able to move forward with a few more parts of the South Park swap now.

A small update. Basically saying I haven’t ditched or forgotten about this project haha.

My new xmen pin has been taking up some of my free time. What an awesome game. Right now it has a finicky Xavier switch, but I’ll get that sorted sometime.

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I’ve also been spending a lot of my free time with my family, getting into the Christmas spirit. It’s been fun so far. I have this coming week off from work, so I should have lots of time for family and the playfield swap.

As far as South Park goes, I finished up 90% of the wiring on the underside. The only thing left is soldering a few wires together, finishing the pops (though I’m waiting on a package with the parts I need to fix the under playfield parts of the pops), and a few wires along the very back that I can’t access due to the playfield rotisserie edge. So I turned it back over and started adding a few rubbers, flippers, etc to the topside of the playfield.

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I did install one one pop assembly today, and will likely do the other two tomorrow. I went with a yellow body and red skirt, to match the top pop bumper cap. I’m happy enough with how it looks. Beats the plain white at least.

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And, as it has become customary (for reasons I’m not even sure) here is an up to date pick of the basement bathroom expansion. Most if the plumbing and electrical is done, so we will drywall, mud and then paint hopefully this week.

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Random question.
For the light sockets in pop bumpers, does it matter which black wire connects back to which original spot? I have the two connection spots marked for each, and I believe I have it straight which of the two from each goes where. But if I happened to have messed it up, does it matter if I got the two black wires on one light socket crossed? If my wording makes sense.

Also obligatory update pic:
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Awesome, thanks for the info!

It’s soldering time!

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Now admittedly I’ve been putting this step off for a bit. My soldering skills aren’t great, and I just kept finding other things that needed done. But today I figured I’d better get to it.
With the way I swapped most mechs over, I really only had a couple things to solder. The gi sockets for the pop bumpers had to be cut to transfer, and one slingshot broke its connection when moving. There may be more connections I choose to re-solder later, but for today it was just the 8 wires.

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Then some heat shrink:

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Those two pops I was smart and cut the wire, and resoldered wire to wire. On the third pop, I needed to solder wire to connection.

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A little globby, but strong.

Then the brown wires onto the right side sling:

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And with that, all the green tape on the middle and bottom is gone!

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Just a bit left up top, though I can’t get those done as they’re too close to the edge hidden under the rotisserie lip. I’ll have to remove it soon from the rotisserie to finish the bits at the very top and bottom. But it’s getting closer to going back in the cabinet, which is exciting.

Merry Christmas everyone!
Today was mostly spent enjoying time with my family, watching my kids get excited for what Santa brought them. They’re 2, 6 and 8 years old, so Christmas Day is such a magical and fun time in our house.

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Usually at this time of year it’s between -30 to -40 Celsius around here. But this afternoon it was a beautiful -1. So I took the opportunity to move South Park’s cabinet out of the garage and into the basement. I really hope to get the playfield into the cabinet soon, and finish up this swap. I won’t rush the last stretch of swap, but I am excited to see the finish line soon.

For the cabinet today, I installed light blue cabinet protectors, light blue t-molding trim, and I also painted the inside of the cabinet (or at least what would be visible on the sides above the playfield). The cabinet isn’t the most immaculate, but overall it’s cleaning up nicely.

Sides before:
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Sides after:
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T-trim and cabinet protectors installed:
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Current lineup:
(Two are sold but due to covid restrictions the new owners have not gotten their games yet)

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And it’s in the cabinet!
Today felt like a big milestone to hit. It’s the first time this playfield has ever been in a cabinet. I reattached quite a few pieces today on both the front and back of the playfield to get it to go in.
Still have lots to do though. I have ramps and plastics to attach. I need to reattach all backbox connections. Then install colordmd. But it’s getting there.

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Thanks! Your high speed playfield swap was a big motivator to keep me chugging along at this one. Yours turned out amazing.

Thanks! I was debating between light blue or white, but decided on light blue as I also had the light blue cabinet protectors. I’m happy with how it looks though.

A bit more tackled on the right side. The left side ramp is ready to be installed, but I’m waiting on new pop bumper metal and fiber yokes to arrive in the mail. So until that package gets here, I’m kind of at a stand still on the playfield for the most part. I hope to tackle the backbox wiring tomorrow. I’m also waiting on a pin2dmd to arrive for South Park too.
So a bit more tomorrow, and then I’ll be at the mercy of the post office. Both packages were ordered two weeks ago, but Canada Post is so backed up their mail is at a snails pace currently.

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Got the wiring harness back into the backbox and all the connectors attached again. The finish line is within sight!

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I was waiting on packages coming in the mail for the last week and a half, but today both the pin2dmd display as well as the parts to finish the pop bumpers all arrived at the post office. I'm hoping to tackle as much as I can tonight, and power this up for the first time since taking ownership.

Well, I spoke too soon lol.
Remember how I was posting basement bathroom renovation pics? Well that’s ended up as a whole basement renovation project lol. And right now we’re at the painting stage. So my night consisted of masking, cutting in and rolling paint. I got a lot painted, but sadly nothing done on South Park. Fingers crossed that tomorrow evening is a different story.

Well, I spoke too soon again lol.

I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to do a bit of work with South Park. I ended up installing its pin2dmd display.

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It’s a whitestar system so it’s a bit trickier to setup as it has the extra board, but in the end I think I got it. Shout-out to dzorbas , for being my supplier of pin2dmd displays. Not only does he make great display boards and custom power connections so it’s a simple plug and play, but he’s also a super nice, friendly and helpful guy. I can’t recommend him enough if you need a pin2dmd display.

After the pin2dmd display was installed, I also added new batteries and added a bent plastic dmd reflection eliminator.

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And I believe that’s where I’ll call it quits tonight. Hopefully I can fall asleep now and then tackle the pop bumpers tomorrow.

Here’s a few updated pics to show the bathroom/basement renovation progress.

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Put in the new metal and fiber yokes in each pop, and cleaned the coil, sleeve, etc.

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Should be just the left side ramp now and then it’s time to test! I already cleaned and installed new posts and rubbers on the ramp, so shouldn’t take long this evening.

Well I spent more time on South Park tonight, but didn’t get to starting it up yet.
I installed the left side ramp. I ended up being 4 bolts short on the ramp install, which considering this pin had sat disassembled for a couple years, then was moved to a completely new home, I’m actually surprised I wasn’t missing more overall. I’ll go to the store tomorrow to grab the bolts and finish the ramp up.

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Then I installed the new ball trough plunger. Here’s a pic for comparison of old vs new. The white one is the new one.

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After that I installed some blue flipper buttons to match the t-molding and cabinet protectors. They look dark in the pic, but in real life they match up decently well.

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I have a set of cabinet button wear covers coming in the mail. They look like this:

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I had ordered stern lollipop rails for South Park, but it ended up being they would need cut to fit. So I decided to toss them on my new to me xmen pin instead, and then go with these cheaper covers on South Park.

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And that’s as far as I got today.
Tomorrow I’ll probably have to paint more basement walls again, but time permitting I’ll install the pin2dmd color file for South Park, finish installing the ramp, and then start the pin up. Unless I’m forgetting more small things like I was today haha.

Whoops double post

It’s alive!

I finished up bolting the ramp in and putting the color files on a card for the dmd. Fired it up and.... it works!
No smoke, no fire, no odd noises! Woohoo!

I spent time testing all the rollovers, targets, mechs, etc. Everything works great. I adjusted 2 LEDs and that was it!

I’ve played 3 games so far on it, testing it all out. It’s a pretty fun game! Yeah it’s a bit of a basic layout and code, but the shots are fun, and the humour is fantastic!

I was worried that with being from so early on in south parks lifespan, that it might feel slightly outdated. But it really doesn’t. I love the Terence and Phillip fart pop bumpers, the mr.hankey multiball and all the callouts.

I’m so pumped! I wasn’t sure if I could handle a project of this size, and now that it’s all done, I’m pretty happy with my new skill set and accomplishment.

I’ll attach some pics to hopefully show how nicely it turned out.

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