yup...reseated the cables and tried to smooth out the kinks a little..that seems to have done the trick for now

Good news. If it happens again just fit a new cable.

The work continues on restoring the machine. Thanks to the prior user who suggested that the flickering Star Wars letters were probably ghosting LEDs. Unfortunately it has become a weak flipper problem and I was hoping for some thoughts.

Both flippers are weak but flip freely. I have rebuilt the flippers and changed coils. Game is appropriate level/angle. Everything else works without issue. Have tried both a new rotten dog flipper board and the original flipper board which looked fine but I still ended up picking up a RD board anyway.

Things I have tested so far by tracing the voltage from PPB board to the flipper coils in this order

1. JN4 connector on the PPB gets +50v AC, actually more like 75v per my multimeter
2. JN7 connector on the PPB shows 75v DC
3. CN2-8,9 connectors on the flipper board show 75v DC
4. CN2-6,7 connectors on the flipper board show 9v AC
5. Fuse F2 and F4 on the flipper board (AC fuses) see 9v AC when I press the flipper buttons both left and right
6. Fuse F1 and F3 don't see 50v but it looks like the most I have seen on multiple tests has been maybe 20v (maybe 40ms is too fast for the volt meter to show 50v?)
7. Flipper coils both left and right see the same thing around 20v and hold at 9v. At rest (no flipper button pressed) there is not voltage at the coils.

So it looks like both the appropriate AC and DC voltage is getting to the flipper board but from here its a bit confusing. Should the coil be seeing any voltage when the button is not activated. I have seen in some post that the 50v should be there all the time but is cleary not the case on my game. Is there something here that I am missing because as is, the ball barely makes it up the ramp entrance and sometimes mid ramp at best.

Having a couple issues.

First: both slingshots aren't kicking. Went out at the same time. Both metal prongs on each side behind the rubbers acknowledge contact but won't activate the kicker.

Second: Have a pop bumper that's not activating fully. Southern most pop bumper won't pop unless the ball rolls on the left side of the plastic ring. Anything on the right does't seem to be allowing that plastic piece to push down and activate. Is this normally because of a worn spring or plastic ring or something else? I can push it down with my finger and make it pop properly but the weight of the ball just isn't cutting it any longer.

Third: (and most annoying and probably hardest to pinpoint. Bought a Pinsound plus board for this machine. First one was faulty and had awful sound quality and had to send it back. They sent me a new board and it's still not what i envisioned. It acts better than this first board they game me but still really muddy sound and seems to sound distant. I have Pyle speakers and sub that sound good with the factory board but so far don't jive with Pinsound +. I have all the positive negatives connected properly on the speakers. Everything is connected properly to the pinsound +. Have adjusted all audio dials. I even have the extra pinsound power cable that they suggest getting to ensure there is no loss of power. Didn't know if anyone here has a pinsound plus in theirs or have had any similar issues? At this point I'll probably pull it back out take the loss and try to recoup as much of my $400 plus as I can. Super frustrating.

Check for broken common wire.
The wire could be broken at the pop/thumper bumpers
or any +28 volt dc solenoid on the playfield.
I believe the wire is color coded red.

Interesting. I'm going to go take a look at it tomorrow. Machine is on route. So do you have your speakers and sub hooked up through the line out or just one or the other? Just trying to wrap my head around the setup. Pinsound has not been very helpful in troubleshooting. They rather have just blamed me for hooking it up wrong. I'm done with them.

I don't know if this helps or is worse, but I have a Tommy and love the Pinsound board's ability to customize the music, but I found the sound quality to be good, just not awesome - only okay. I would not have described the sound as muddy or distance, just kind of "eh..." I added a pinwoofer set of speakers [two top and a sub - that were Pyle] and the amps. I had to add a separate power supply to power the amps since they wouldn't integrate into the pinsound board for power, and it improved things ten-fold. The support from pinwoofer was great. However, this would mean that you have to spend more money ... ugh. BUT, might be worth an email to the pinwoofer fellow - he's very helpful.

Thanks, it was helpful because it gives me some options to ponder. Are you saying that you had some pyle speakers in yours and then you upgraded to the Pinwoofer? I have a pinwoofer in my Walking Dead that sounds awesome. And, yes he was very helpful. My amp had a bad power cord but he quickly got me a new power cord.

I guess im probably at the point where im not going to sink any more money into the sound system in that machine. Not sure what's causing it not to jive as well as it should but there is something. I have hooked it up with and without the added power cord and I hear no difference in quality. Just real muddy, and alot of mid despite recalibrating the pinsound every possible way. I have the same Pyle speakers in my Iron Maiden with no added power or amp upgrades and it sounds great.

I'll try another pair that i was going to throw in Walking Dead but these are less than a year old and they sound fine with the original sound card. Not hearing or any fuzz or static or anything but ill try the other ones just to rule that out.

Yeah if you don’t have the Data East Power booster (which you have to buy separately from Pinsound) your going to have audio cut out. It’s not an option, it’s required

Ok now having all sorts of other issues all the sudden.

Death Star motor and door motor both quit. The Death Star motor has been replaced in the last year. I find it hard to believe it’s bad already. Door motor is original. Door still acknowledging hits. Sensor works properly but door won’t raise or lower. Motor not spinning under play field.

Have gone through all fuses. Have resoldered flimsy connection points on coils.

Still nothing. Flashers still dead. Kickers still dead and dead in coil test.

Beyond frustrated.

Did R2D2 also stop spinning?

If the game starts, then that should rule out power issues to the MPU. What does your driver board look like? Check to make sure the connectors are not baked. They look brown/black if they are.

If a connector is cooked, both the male and female pins will need to be replaced.

If you can, post a few pics of the circuit boards in the head.

Unfortunately R2 has never spun. He hops though. The motor and another piece inside was missing when i bought it. I bought the motor to replace, that's when i learned there was another connector type piece inside missing and I just scrapped the idea because i have no idea what other piece was missing to connect to the motor.

I'll post some pics of everything in the head here in the next day or so.

Ok, well R2D2 & the Deathstar are connected to the same relay under the PF (don’t remember what number, look it up). You may either need to reflow the solder on it (most likely) or replace it/rebuild it

Does anyone know where to find the ribbon cables for the dmd? I checked marco and didn't see them listed

https://www.pinballlife.com/ribbon-cables.html

Sorry for my ignorance, but which one or ones am I looking for?

Check the length of the one you have, it will be either one of the 14pin cables listed at the top.

Hello all,

I'd like to change my scratched DESW translite, but I'd prefer to make it print by a local printer.
Does any of you have an high res scan of the translite and would be ok to share it with me ?

Thanks in advance.

Do you want a scan of the original or the alternate?

I'd prefer the original.

Ok, trying to get some pinball fun on Christmas and of course something critical goes out.

So question regarding the Outhole Coil. Outhole switch works fine, no fuses blown, wires trace back to J2 PPB (Purple/Brown) for low power & J6 PPB (Brown) for high power but isn’t firing. Hooking up a multimeter I can seem to get any voltage readings when I run the Outhole coil test. Diode on coil checks out and as you can see coil is new.

All the other coils work (laser kick, trough eject, ball launcher). The multimeter shows 1.7-2.2 when running tests on the laser kick coil. But the Outhole doesn’t show anything so I’m guessing something on the board(s)

The brown/high power is definitely working. I might try connecting this coil/diode to the trough eject wires to 100% guarantee the coil & diode is working. Otherwise it’s the purple/brown wire/power that isn’t working

Any suggestions?
1F1DF39F-EEF6-4BF3-BE82-EB977CA75F34 (resized).jpeg

Hey pahuffman, is that Photoshop file still available? I have sent 3 PM's with no response. I thought by your post you were willing to share it. You did nice work on the alternate translite, I think it would be cool to have with my black cabinet. As long as I can find someone to print it on backlit material

Run a jumper wire to ground and ground the violet wire on the coil out to see if it works. This is the return to the board. If it works, check the drive transistor for that coil, I think it is Q46 from reading the diagram.

The coil works. I jumpered the vio/red from the trough eject and ran that test, coil kicks fine. It comes down to why the Outhole vio/brown isn’t sending power. I’ll check the q46 transistor but not really sure how to test it.

Is there another schematic I should be looking at?

C1B12B50-10A1-4883-B9A0-9D157B80DA18 (resized).jpeg

Hi guys I need a photo of the adjustment switches wiring I can’t get into settings to check switches I want to check some switches but doesn’t matter if the switch is up or down so I probably will have to replace it but o want check first to see if it’s wired properly first

That is the right schematic. I use my logic probe to check out transistors to see if they are working properly. If you don't have one, and have spare transistors, I would just swap that one out to start with. They are so cheap and you can't properly test a transistor in the boardset. So if you are removing it, just put a new one in.

Also, Violet brown isn't sending power to the coil, the coil has power going to it all the time. The violet brown just completes the circuit back to ground to fire the coil when needed.

I sent you an email. Like most folks, I don't regularly check my email during the holidays.

It's going to look great with the black!

Ok, that makes sense. So that vio/brn isn’t completing the circuit. I did replace the q46 transistor and got nothing. I’ve check the resisters in the Outhole path up the MPU and got nothing.

Gonna wave the flag and call in the pros. Thanks for the info, was worth the attempt to get some pinball going for Christmas.

With the Chad roms can you change the special to an extra ball?

What are Chad roms??

PinballCode.com - SW104
http://www.pinballcode.com/sw104

ChadH Is the man who made the 1.07 code update.

Maybe he’s working on a 1.08 with the new release of Star Wars?

(IE one with a ball save triggered by the outlanes in addition to Outhole switch). And of course Speeder Mode fully working

Am I asking too much?

Does anyone have a second flipper button on the left side, what does it do?

The one like on this machine:

Machine - For Sale

Star Wars

Functional - needs minor work - “Nice play field. Plays good. Sound cuts out on startup "may the/ force be with you", then works fine after that. Believe it needs a cap on sound board or power supply to be 100%.”

4 years ago

Geneva, OH

Pvidmar85

Expired!

Seems like something ghetto, maybe ask the dude but it appears to be sold. Decent price but hard to tell from the pics

Here is a link on DESW Prototypes and I don’t see that. Who knows tho

http://www.pinballcode.com/gallery/

Maybe someone wired up the button to the plunger so they didn't have to take their hands of the flippers for the stormtrooper shoot-out?

Probably didn't realize that's what knees are for.

Got the answer back from the seller. It is the right flipper button which allows for one handed play.
Accessibility feature, or drinking feature?

I would have made foot pedals, then you could double fist a pair of beers

Most likely accessibility, but I like the way you think as a drinking feature

i am having an issue when the ball accidentally pops back into the shooter lane, the switch doesnt detect it to make it shoot back out on the playfield. I.e. i have to wait till the game realizes there is no action before it starts shooting all the coils. i did recently change to chads code, not sure if that is the issue. When i go to switch menu and drop the ball back in the shooter lane, it does detect the switch. Not sure if it always did this, cause i hadnt played it in a while before i switched code.

Hello all, had my SW for a week now and not had that many games as haven’t told the missus yet and it’s hidden in the garage lol. Is the chip with the sticker on, my Game ROM and does that mean it’s version 1.02 ???

Also although the sound works ok if at some stage I upgrade to a pinsound, is there any value in the old sound card ?? Thanks Mark
4F69FC13-1516-444A-B356-795380300EA5 (resized).jpeg

When you turn the game on the display will show you what version roms you are running for both the sound and cpu code. Really no value in a sound rom maybe $5.

As far as the code, if you turn the game on and confirm it’s 1.02 that’s the original code. I highly recommend getting the ChadH 1.07 code and keep your old chip for collectors sake.

As far as Pinsound, yes get one - it’s a must on this. You can still play the original sounds but the John Williams tracks and movie Callouts are the key. Vader’s mix is the best (including his disco mix).

And keep the old sound card. Collectors like to have the original parts when it comes time to sell it.

As far as your wife goes, if you don’t invite her to play then she’s gonna find another man. But maybe that’s your plan so you can play more pinball alone?