(Topic ID: 104189)

Comet Club - Admit One

By midcoastsurf

9 years ago


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  • 1,751 posts
  • 189 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 80 days ago by Evlclown
  • Topic is favorited by 88 Pinsiders

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You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider Pablito350.
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#662 4 years ago

Well we joined the club yesterday!

There was an ad on Craigslist 4 hours away for a Comet for $150. My wife Chrissi jumped on it, and sent the seller a few messages saying that we were interested. The poor guy got inundated with calls and texts, and asked Chrissi if he was selling it too low.... thus all the calls. A back and forth went on for a while, and the seller agreed to sell it to us at a price where we'd both be happy.

2 days later I drove the 4 hours to pick it up at the seller's house. Apparently he'd been given this from another family member a year ago, and didn't know much of this machine's history. A short time after he got it one of the flippers broke, along with the drop target so he set it in the garage, and forgot about it.

So I got home late last night with it, and did a quick triage on it to see what it needed, and ordered some parts.

It's a complete machine that's actually in pretty good shape. The cabinet is nice, but has a few bumps and scrapes.
co11 (resized).jpgco11 (resized).jpg
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Inside all of the boards look clean, as does the wiring.
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The backglass looks awesome!
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Here's why the flipper didn't work.
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And why the drop target didn't reset..
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The rest of the underside of the playfield looks nice!
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As does inside the cabinet..
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It had a free play button installed some time in it's past.
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It was removed, and set on free play. (Ya think they could've used a bigger F'in button???)
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The playfield is a little rough. Planking and ballswirls galore!
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I was able to remove some of it, but started removing artwork so I stopped. A little buffing with some compound, and I was able to get a shine on it.
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So.... I think I'm just going to make this a player's machine. Just shop it out, and make it play great. In the future we're thinking about getting a hardtop for it, and some new ramps, but for now we're just going to enjoy it.

When the parts get here in a few days I'll update the progress here.

When this is done it'll look great next to our Cyclone!

-Paul

#665 4 years ago
Quoted from jaytrem:

Thanks for posting the pics. Glad you got it! Looks like I was right about the backglass, it does look super nice.

It does. Thanks to you we really lucked out on this one.

Quoted from Malenko:

That corkscrew ramp looks like its in pretty good shape. I had to replace mine along with the skeeball/motorcycle ramp , they were both broke. freeplay40 's replacement ramps are awesome.

It has some mylar that someone put on it some time ago. It's probably what kept it together for so long. When my parts get here, and I actually start working on it I'll take out the ramp, buff it out, and see about strengthening it up a bit.

-Paul

#666 4 years ago

While I was waiting on parts I figured I'd do a few things with what I had on hand.

First I added fuses to the bridge rectifiers. (Of course I ran out of blue wire...)
IMG_20190823_133022503 (resized).jpgIMG_20190823_133022503 (resized).jpg
I'm going to make up a label that looks factory for the new fuses.

Then I had a bunch of comet 2smd warm whites left over from other projects so I figured I'd replace all of the GI's, and clean up a few things. While I had the ramps out I strengthened them up a bit until we decide on whether we get new ones or not.
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Then I added a few behind the backglass.
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Big improvement!

In a few days my parts should be here to get the game playing 100%, and then I'll order LED's for the controlled lamps.
After that I'll tackle the cabinet, add new legs, and call it done.

-Paul

#667 4 years ago

Just a quick update today..

Took out the MPU and added a battery board (Thanks Todd & Frank!).
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Also reflowed all the solder on all the connections. It didn't really need it, but since it was out I did it.
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Then I slipped in a new sheet of glass, and it's looking great. Just waiting for an order from Comet Pinball for the LED's for all the inserts.
IMG_20190828_123646136 (resized).jpgIMG_20190828_123646136 (resized).jpg

More to come

-Paul

3 months later
#760 4 years ago
Quoted from jaytrem:

The previous owner of my Comet made a cutout from some black plastic that covered the whole cycle jump. It wasn't noticible unless you really looked for it. I still replaced it with a freeplay40 ramp though.
I'd take filpper pics for you, but Comet is at my mom's house. Sorry.

Let the club know how you like the new cycle jump. Ours is shot and would like to get one in the near future. Looks like Starship has theirs back in stock, curious to see how freeplay's ramps might compare.

#762 4 years ago

Cool. We'll probably stick with the black. Nice to know it's kaydex. Side note, we got the original cycle jump penciled engineer drawing and want to put our actual cycle jump in a shadow box with itShould look pretty neat on the wall next to the game.

#764 4 years ago

Why wouldn't you keep one? It's an endlessly fun and changing game in it's simplicity. The music and call outs are unmatched for it's time... let alone 33+ years later. Plus Python's artwork. C'mon man! I have a feeling ours might be bolted to the ground.
-Chrissi

2 months later
#791 4 years ago
Quoted from jaytrem:

Finally got my minty backglass that a friend picked up for me in KY. Seller was super nice. He had posted it for sale on craigslist a hile ago and somebody posted it on pinside (thanks!). The seller held it for me until Christmas week when my friend would be visiting my in-laws. Super excited![quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

That backglass is gorgeous! Congrats!

-Paul

#792 4 years ago
Quoted from jaytrem:

Super excited

Looks great, Jay! We played the snot out of ours tonight! It's always exciting and brutal, a perfect pin! Congrats!
-Chrissi
quick edit- Paul broke more of the cycle jump on a shot, looks like freeplay40 is in our future..

7 months later
#946 3 years ago

For $400 you could do a lot worse. Looks like a nice project.

4 months later
#1084 3 years ago
Quoted from midcoastsurf:

Trying to figure out why the dunk the dummy drop target won't reset. It always stays down. The switch below it is working as the machine scores 1,000 points and he starts yelling at you. If I manually raise the drop target and start a game, no points awarded and no taunting. If I ground Q48 on the CPU/Driver board, the coil fires fine and the drop target stays up. So the coil works, the switch is working, and the transistor to the coil path is fine. What am I missing? Potential chip issue?

Check to see if the little tab is still on the reset plate.
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In the above pic you can see that the tab is missing, and that'll cause the drop target to never reset although the coil fires.

-Paul

1 year later
#1501 1 year ago
Quoted from mof:

What is the proper set of legs for a Comet?
chrome single-rib?
dark grey no rib?
Or are there a few options?
-mof

Chrome no rib I believe.

8 months later
#1659 11 months ago
Quoted from bdash:

New Comet owner here!
A few months ago my wife was telling me all about the pinball machine her family had when she was a kid in the early 90s. After a little research, we eventually realized it had been a Comet. She made a few phone calls and we found that after her parents had parted with it it had been passed between family friends for a while before eventually ending up in the back of a barn at a walnut orchard. And there it sat for around 10 years.
[quoted image]
Having sat in a barn for a decade, with minimal maintenance prior to that, the machine was not in the best shape. The playfield was worn and covered in grime. The alkaline batteries hadn't been removed before it was put into storage so one corner of the MPU board was corroded. The rubber rings were filthy, brittle and falling apart. Ramps were cracked, and plastics were warped or missing. And those were just the issues that were obvious without turning it on!
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Repairing the PCB was first order of business since that would let me determine what else on the game needs work. I've done some electronics repair work before, but nothing quite like this.
I ended up desoldering most of the passives in the power input and sound section of the MPU since they had signs of corrision. The corrosion on the PCB itself was mostly limited to the immediate vicinity of the batteries. I removed that with fine-grit sandpaper and then installed fresh components. Rather than reinstalling batteries I swapped the RAM out for NVRAM.
[quoted image]
Once the PCB was in good shape I was finally able to power the machine on. It booted up without any drama (phew!) and I was able to use game diagnostics to verify that the playfield electronics were in good shape (modulo the few dozen burnt-out lamps).
Next came the clean up of the playfield. This was all entirely new to me, so I roped in my 7yo daughter to help. The playfield itself was dirty but not as bad as I'd first thought, though the paint had worn away in a few high-traffic areas. There's a lot of planking, which I suppose is to be expected after being stored in an unheated barn for a decade, and some paint is flaking off behind the right flipper.
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While replacing burnt-out / missing lamps on the playfield I noticed that none of the general illumination lamps appeared to be working. I probed around with a multimeter for longer than I'd care to admit, then thought to check their connection to the power supply. Low and behold, a pin had broken off the connector. The lights work much better now that they're getting power!
[quoted image]
We installed a playfield protector to limit future damage to the worn and flaking areas, then replaced broken posts, installed fresh rubbers, new plastics, ramps and decals. It's finally starting to look like a real pinball machine!
[quoted image]
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There's a few odds and ends left to do before I declare it done and put the glass back on. The player four score display doesn't work. The Dummy drop target adjustment bracket broke at some point so the target sits below the playfield when dropped, perfect to hang up the ball. The flippers are a little loose and probably need to be rebuilt. I'm sure I'll notice more things the more time I spend with it.
But the important part is that we rescued my wife's childhood pinball machine and restored it to working order! We've put a few dozen games on it in the last few days, and my wife is already plotting which pin we should pick up next
[quoted image]

Best first post on Pinside!

Congrats on saving that Comet. You did excellent work on bringing it back to life. As you'll hear over and over again here, they have a tendency to multiply so be forewarned.

Welcome to the addiction.

-Paul

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