I second John. I have a Al's garage band with no GI. Looking for some tips or a repair guide.

Chris

John I did some board repair on my buddies mystery castle, and got some help from a guy in europe. When I get home I will see if I still have the contact info and send it your way.

P.s......please sell me the mystery castle

John, I have a working MC if you need me to take some measurements....

John,

There is a pot (VR2) on the PSB that you can try adjusting to get a solid 5V. See if that helps....

The most common problem with the GI on Alvin G games is the connector/pins on the PSB. They loaded these circuits heavily, so I've seen several burnt up. If those look okay, check the fuse holder for the GI on the bottom of the playfield. The fuse clips can get fatigued due to the heavy load, and fail there too.

I've changed a lot of lamps on my Alvin G's to 47's to help lessen the load on things....

There are NOS cpus on Ebay.au....

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ALVIN-G-CPU-Driver-pinball-Board-pca-009-NOS-/140896161708?pt=AU_CoinOp&hash=item20ce10cfac

G

Ive got a manual for my Al's Garage Band and im sure that the power driver section mirrors it for both MC/AGB and PP. I could make a copy of the schematics of it if this would help.~ SpOoKs

Looks like I am getting closer to that 1200 non working range than 2200 avg condition range I mentioned on the phone, too funny! I pay 4k for a really good one. Good Luck I am coming up soon like Fri or Sat.

Huh?

I think we have all but confirmed there were apx. 200 units made. In an interview, Michael Gottlieb also said that there were far fewer than 500 made, but he wasn't sure of the exact number.

I could bring that almost working Pistol Poker for outright sale or trade. Chad in NC got the nice CQ Pistol Poker

I did a interview with Mike on the now defunct PBC~ Mike confirmed it was closer to 200. Most MC's left at the plant when they shut down, and didnt get trashed by fork lifts on purpose, got bought by one guy as well as left over parts. Mikes a great guy~ just got him to autograph my AGB instruction card. I hope in time to present part two of that interview thats forgotten elsewhere.~SpOoKs

Please do! I just checked last week if it was up and saw that the PBC site was gone

John, any chance I could get the serial number from your Mystery Castle to add it to the database?

BR3 is a 4 Amp bridge. Here's a link to one that should work just fine:

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/FWB-46/4_Amp_600_Volt_Bridge_Rectifier/1.html?gclid=CIqUzanWp7QCFYVFMgodGiQAXw

Such a shame that Alvin G didn't survive longer I honestly think that when you're sat there playing, they fill the gap between Williams and Gottlieb in how a game feels.

Just an FYI for future adjusting, that other pot (VR1) is for the 12V line.

No problem, John. Glad I could help.

Good luck on getting her going, and do try to score a Pistol Poker. I love all my Alvin G's, but IMHO, Pistol Poker is their best game! The rules are actually very good, but most people don't give the game enough time to figure that out.

Here's some info from The Ninja:

"But the interesting thing about Alvin G games is the 5 volts on the power supply is adjustable via a small pot. Ninja turned the voltage up to 5.40 volts, and the flipper resets disappeared. Now at this point some ninjas may just walk away and call it “fixed.” But not this Ninja. Because the problem will come back. The issue was the 12/5 volt regulation caps were drying out and not doing their job. So when the flippers are pressed (putting stress on the transformer and effecting the other voltages), the 5 volts would dip, and the game would reset. If the filter caps were good, this would not be a problem.

The right solution is to fix the power supply. And that involves replacing the 15,000mfd filter cap for the unregulated 12 volts (which ultimately becomes the regulated 5 volts.) Also replace cap C5, which is a small 100mfd cap. This small C5 capacitor is wired after the voltage regulator (where the big 15,000mfd cap is wired before the regulator.) It’s important to replace both caps, which the Ninja did."

If the BR turns out to be good, definitely consider reap lacing those 2 caps. I've had a similar issue on a couple of Bally pins where replacing the big cap did the trick. They only last so long...

No Thanks, I got a line on two of them as we speak and thats plenty.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836

Wow it sure seems like there are more than 200 of them in the wild still but its fits the theme down here and that one was out on location for years.
Still might like to see you. I took the truck today to get the 4 form Trent not sure if text went thru I am now just coming up in the minivan to get the two to bring back the ACDC Pro and IM. I would not have minded at all to take back to OH as gas money comes in very handy as the box truck vans get terrible gas mileage. The minivan gets 17 most days compared to 10 or 12 depending upon gas or diesel box truck.

844.jpg 850.jpg 840.jpg

How hard is it to find parts for these games? Are the boards easy to work on?

John, You can take the bridge rectifier off of any Williams early sound board that you have in your board collection and it will solve your rectifier problem. It will fit and has ample amps to do the job.

Does that game use the same power supply board as Punchy the Clown?

Yes, both those games use the more common PCA-019A PSB.

Does anyone sell this board? My Al's garage band has a burned up 9 pin. Not sure the traces aren't wasted headed to the GI fuses. I might have to change the I entire board.

Chris

I also have a M/C that is currently up for sale on Craigslist. Would you like to serials before it sells?
Doc

John, you may want to contact Pinball Spare Parts Australia. They have had many Alvin G boards for sale on their site in the past, many of which they posted on eBay over the years. They don't show any available on their site right now, but I know they have tons of stuff for Alvin G games that they don't advertise.

That would be great! I have been collecting serial numbers for years, which I think has added a lot of credibility to the 200 unit estimate. You can see all the info here:
http://www.tristatechapter.com/arcade/alving/mysterycastle.html

I sent you my # awhile ago via PM...Don't see it listed

Sorry Robert, I've been slacking. ...There ya go! I added you and John's serial numbers. Have you added a review on Pinside yet?

Mark sold out of these early on, but maybe he'll find some more. I'm kicking myself now for not buying a bunch of them, but I kind of shyed away from them after checking them out at Gene's place before they left for OZ. All of those were in boxes that said either "need repaired", or "repaired". I'm guessing they were pulled from the line at Alvin G back in the day. Now that they're super hard to find, though, a pile that need repairs would be better than nothing. You know what they say about hindsight....

There are a couple of places with experience repairing Alvin G boards. Maybe try sending it out?

Coin Op Cauldron:
http://webpages.charter.net/coinopcauldron/brepairs.html

K's Arcade:
http://webpages.charter.net/coinopcauldron/brepairs.html

Hi Betelgeuse, I just picked up 3410 today

Yep clive has done work on my Alvin G. Pins before. Still have to look at the original company that made these after Gottlieb shot down the first attempt after they thought (Premiere) it was too much of a clone to the system 3 board sets that Mike said were overworked and layered badly. Still looking for a site to host the complete interview.~SpOoKs

You bought James' machine? I thought he was going to fix it and keep it....I just sent him a part last week.

Yes I have, I expect it will end up back with him one day, his stargate was sold to me and now he has it back!