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You guys suck. Your positive comments forced my hand (ouch). Order placed. This will be my daughter's first NIB. She gets a NIB before I do! My Christmas shopping has apparently already started...
For any Canucks looking to buy one for their daughter/son, mine was $180+HST from Chapters/Indigo shipped to the store.
How do I add this pin to my Pinside collection?
1%? How can you go wrong with those odds? 
First NIB in my house. Went to my daughter. She went nuts when she opened it Christmas Day, but it didn't come out of the box until Boxing Day. Then I couldn't get either kid off of it. I was pretty impressed with it. Metal legs, apron, rails, and coin door. Screen printed wood body instead of decals. Start button is solid and feels good when you press it. Flippers are pretty decent considering what they are. Pretty responsive and they are strong enough to get the ball to the top of the playfield every time. My son was even tap passing on them today. The plunger feels a little cheap but it seems to be holding up fine. I like that they put 6 digit scoring on the backbox, most companies would have just cheaped out and put 5 digits.
Kids played all day and the batteries are still going strong. My guess is the plunger will fail first. The only other thing I wish it had was glass over the playfield as the plastic is going to get pretty scratched up but it's understandable why plastic was used. High score is 282,xxx or thereabouts. I've enjoyed playing it every time I've gotten a turn. It's not like there are any rules, but there are bonus targets which gives you something to aim for. Overall, pretty happy with it. I think we will get our $200 CAD out of it eventually.
Quoted from kermit24:It’s pretty funny this thread started as a semi joke and now that we have the machine in hand it’s probably exceeded most of our expectations. They executed this thing pretty darn well. No doubt they had it designed by a pinball person or consulted with them.
Was there ever any confirmation that Stern had a hand in any part of this? I remember seeing that FB picture of Roger Sharpe with the AG pinball machine but I don't know what ever became of that.
Very nice. Are you able to see how the scoring works? For example, are the pops actually scoring 100 points or is everything just seemingly random?
Great teardown video. Looking forward to seeing more come out of this. Did you get the spinning target quieted down?
Quoted from kyle5574:I just posted Part 2 of my teardown series. I've figured out almost all of the functions of the micrcontroller and I've got a good idea what can be done with the machine without replacing the two main boards. Looks like the hardware can support a much better light show than what the existing software does.
I've also got a really good start on decoding the SPI interface between the cabinet and the backbox (next video!). Just like the lights, there's more capability there than what the existing software uses.
00:00 : Tracing a circuit (optical switches)
18:33 : Summary of each circuit on both boards
39:34 : Functions of the main microcontroller; lighting and switching capabilities[quoted image]
[quoted image]
Very thorough video. It's interesting to see how the jumpers were used. I am used to seeing them used the same way you spoke of, but seeing them used to actually 'jump' traces never really occurred to me. Smart.
Interesting to see the LED mapping. I figured it was all powered from one source but this proves me wrong. The switches on the other hand, are pretty much exactly how I thought they were.
I'm looking forward to the next video. It'll be interesting to see what signals are sent and if they can be manipulated.
Great video. Got out of focus near the end, I thought it was my connection speed, but then things cleared up just in time for the eureka moment! Very cool that you have individual control over every LED in the backbox. Do you think control over the PF LEDs is also possible?
Looking forward to the next video!
Quoted from winteriscoming:They're only 7 segment displays, so it will be difficult representing all letters. Alphanumeric displays are 14 segment, I believe.
You really know how to crush a guy's dreams.
Quoted from kyle5574:Part 4 of my teardown is posted. I'm able to control the score digits from my own microcontroller now! The protocol between the playfield and the backbox allows independent control of each of the 7 segments of each of the 6 digits, so it's possible to display patterns and rudimentary alphabetic characters. Not shown in the video, but I can also control the three LEDs in the backbox (the lower 2 LEDs and the 1 LED behind the title). I don't think the machine ever flashes the LED behind the title, but it is controllable. Also, if you look close at the score digits, you'll see an arrow underneath digits 1-3 and digit 6, and dots between digits 3 & 4 and between 4 & 5. I can control each of those independently too. Maybe I'll used those as the ball counter.
I'm late to that party, but your progress is fantastic! $12 for a logic analyzer is definitely a no brainer. It was really cool to see the data translated by the program so easily. All of it is very cool. Looking forward to seeing more!
Glad you are still pursuing this. I am enjoying all of your videos. You put a lot of detail into your work.
A heatgun solder station would have saved you a lot of time desoldering that mini PC. It would have allowed you to just heat up the solder and remove the PCB while leaving the beads of solder behind. You would have had to use heat tape on the more sensitive areas around it, but I think it would have saved those tore traces.
Looking forward the next video.
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