(Topic ID: 123205)

Finally worked on a Stern "The Pin" today

By kbliznick

9 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 4 posts
  • 4 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 9 years ago by Mocean
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    #1 9 years ago

    two actually at two different calls. Both Avengers machines. And what a mistake those are for the price. Sorry if someone else has already done a full review on these, but I though I would post a mini review on my experience from the tech side. These were I believe both floor models as they both failed less than a month after delivery (the one in worse shape I believe was delivered broken only a couple days ago)

    So the pros first:
    -It has the new board set that they introduced into commercial machines on WWE.
    -Full LED
    -Flippers, slingshots, pop bumpers, drop target mech are all commercial grade assemblies.
    -Flipper fuses are under the apron

    And the cons:
    -Only 8 transistors to drive 10 coils!!??? the slingshots are paired together and fire at the same time as are the two bottom pop bumpers.
    -The playfield is not plywood, it's compressed wood or MDF or some other material really not suitable for a playfield. Some of the assemblies were held on with the playfield nails/screws that are used to hold pop bumper assemblies on so they are actually bolted around the playfield, but I didn't notice if all of them are like this.
    -The fuse for the rest of the coils is on the little satellite driver board under the pf. This was a little European 20mm 3 amp guy and was blown in both games. Took a couple minutes to find it. They really should have run a remote fuse holder to the spot under the apron next to the flipper fuses and I will probably retrofit that to any more of these games that I run across.
    -Transistors on satellite board are surface mount, not sure what the values are as I didn't have one handy.
    - And the most fun of all, the pf cannot be lifted up. You have to remove a large fiberboard panel from the bottom of the game (which is not that easy a task with the dowels in the corners) and work on it upside down.

    Now the problem with the first game was just a blown coil fuse. After replacing it with the original 3 amp fuse I found nothing wrong with the game. I upgraded this to a 4 amp fuse after learning that the slings and pops fire together, so during multi-ball is is possibly to have 5-7 coils fire simultaneously, 2 slings, 3 pops, and maybe the drop target bank resetting or lock mech.

    Second game has a blown fuse, blown driver transistor and a melted lock mech coil. After replacing the coil it looked like the mech doesn't allow the plunger to come full stop against the coil stop. I believe this can cause the coil to pull more current through it than normal and suspect that caused the transistor or another part in the circuit to fail.

    Overall these are cute games for the home market and they look shiny and colorful, but can't see the value in these given the cutbacks in quality versus the durability of a used commercial machine for the same price.
    How much money did they save on the MDF playfield instead of plywood? Aside from having fewer satellite boards to drive the coils and lamps it looks like all the cost savings were in the cabinet and a little more with the use of LED alphanumeric displays instead of a DMD.

    #2 9 years ago

    I thought these things would be over engineered from an electronics standpoint, to withstand the lack of troubleshooting/repair capabilities, and they would be under engineered from a fit and finish standpoint since they wouldn't have to withstand the normal wear and tear of being on route.

    Instead it sounds like they're under engineered from every aspect.

    #3 9 years ago

    I wonder how many pins on route have been 'fixed' by fuse upgrades

    #4 9 years ago

    Slings and bumpers firing together is inexcusable. my Zizzle did that at what, 1/12th the retail cost?

    A few more transistors and a second chip to drive them would cost a few dollars. Cheaping out that much on the control system of a machine that was selling for thousands of dollars is literally shameful.

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