(Topic ID: 186679)
Linked Games
Firepower
Williams, 1980
Topic Gallery
Calgary, AB
Seattle, WA
Quoted from ApplePie:The cabinet itself is going to take a little work. Strangely enough, when I see something like this that needs repair I don't usually reach for the staple gun...
Yeah -- wow no kidding, way overkill with the staples, looks like a hot glue repair to me lol
This is awesome. I am thinking about picking up a Firepower myself that needs some playfield repair... You may be convincing me 
Quoted from xeneize:AMAZING! Those stencils need to be mass produced!
That's a great idea. I'm pretty sure there are some folks on Pinside who make excellent stencils.
The way I did it with frisket is way way way too labor intensive. Pretty neat end results though
I love the custom artwork too. Pinball Pimp would make excellent stencils. I wonder if he'd kickback a percentage of the profits for using your artwork.
LOVE the job you did on the head...looks similar to what I posted earlier in the thread.
What are your plans for the artwork on the body?
This is one cool re-do.
Quoted from dothedoo:I love the custom artwork too. Pinball Pimp would make excellent stencils. I wonder if he'd kickback a percentage of the profits for using your artwork.
I think I saw some of the custom stencils he did for a Flash restoration on Pinside somewhere. Looked fantastic. And for the record, this is certainly not my artwork! I totally got this from the poster on firepowerpinball.com (what a great resource for us Firepower owners).
Quoted from Adrift:What are your plans for the artwork on the body?
I've got the lower cabinet prepped and painted black. I really don't have anything concrete yet for the artwork and I need a break from painting for a bit (it's time consuming and occasionally frustrating when things don't go right). So I'm going to work on assembling some of the electrical for the next bit.
I'll try to come up with something that's interesting and manageable for the cabinet. The frisket work on the head just about drove me bonkers 
Ideas welcome!!!
Quoted from ApplePie:I think I saw some of the custom stencils he did for a Flash restoration on Pinside somewhere. Looked fantastic. And for the record, this is certainly not my artwork! I totally got this from the poster on firepowerpinball.com (what a great resource for us Firepower owners).
Well, right, the artwork isn't yours. So let's go with layout instead. You do all the work to come up with a very cool custom layout and you should be rewarded for it.
Just want to briefly interrupt this thread to say THANK YOU to the op, ApplePie, for sending me 3 targets to replace 1 that broke on my Firepower. He paid for the shipping and really helped me out, going above and beyond what I was asking of him. Paul, if you're ever coming to Connecticut, gotta let me know. Although my machine won't hold a candle to yours once yours is done, you're still welcome to come on over and play it along with my other games. Thank you again kind sir!
Oh one other thing, taking the left upper gate off the playfield makes the game a completely different, much more difficult game. I love it and highly recommend everyone to try it, you'll like it.
Man, I'm in the middle of a firepower restoration with a few ideas of my own but damn this is going to be crazy cool.
Following.
So I've been fiddling with the electrical side of things for the past few days. Here are a few pics of the controlled RGB LED's that are going to be the playfield GI circuit. I'll control these with the Pinduino, mostly defaulting white with a few color flashes or shifts when certain solenoids are triggered, like locks or pops. I'll post a demo video with some sample code when I get it tested out.
Next step is figuring out the playfield led strips and associated wiring.
And I've managed to put the head back together with the updated boards, special solenoid fuse upgrade, a reworked fuse block system, one pinduino, and the new pinscore displays. Here is how I mounted the special solenoid fuse block, and the pinduino (which didn't have any mounting holes so I made a wooden mounting bracket of sorts)
I will post more information on how I adapt the pinduino to this system 6 game after I get it all set up and working.
1 week later
And the red powder coated parts have been completed for a few days now. I have decided to keep assembling the pin and work on some artwork ideas for the side cabinet to complete a little bit later. It won't be difficult to mask off what I need to in order to complete the painting later. I'm quite liking the black and red combination so far. I decided to prime and paint the inside of the cabinet as well in order to get rid of the smoke smell. Looks nice and tidy now. Pretty much everything has been updated in the cabinet. New speaker (this isn't the correct one, it's 4 ohm instead of the required 8 ohm which is enroute), new ground braid, new line filter, and everything else disassembled and cleaned. The transformer sits nicely near the back now as well.
At some previous point in this firepowers life a lower than average intelligence individual thought it would be a good idea to try to get into the coin box via the coin return slot using a crowbar. Needless to say this didn't do any favors to the coin mechs at all. So I ended up pulling the coin mechs and rigging a momentary switch on one of the credit switches. Should work, I think...
I also wired up a couple more GI lights for the transparent blue and red flipper buttons. Hopefully these light them up well enough. We'll see in time I guess.
One benefit of pulling the coin mech is that I now have a solution for my "controlled upper gate". I'm going to use the coin door reject solenoid to activate the gate. I've mocked it up and I think it should work. This will be controlled by an arduino and an IRL540N transistor plus some code that I haven't given one single bit of thought to yet!
Napier
Fantastic work, ApplePie! And I love how you are adapting the pinduino to work on other games. If you want to send measurements of where you have the pinduino connected on system 6 games, I'll see if I can make a board that will plug directly on the headers (and send you a couple to test). Usually, they are connected to the power driver board.
EDIT:
Looks like you are connecting to J11 and J12 on the power driver board. I have a board from which I can take measurements on their distance from one another, but need to know the amount of space between the edge of the board and the left side of the back box. Looks like it may be tight.
Quoted from lyonsden:I have a board from which I can take measurements on their distance from one another, but need to know the amount of space between the edge of the board and the left side of the back box. Looks like it may be tight.
It is quite tight. I measure 2 5/8" from the backbox side wall to the center line of the header pins.
Quoted from ApplePie:It is quite tight. I measure 2 5/8" from the backbox side wall to the center line of the header pins.
I have it at 2.5" from edge to edge of the board, so with a bit more room from the center of the top header, it should work.
1 month later
So I've finally got the playfield back in house fully completed now. The clear coat is beautiful to say the least. I'm really happy the way everything has turned out. Pinball is really a winter hobby for me so I'm going to enjoy our short summer season up here before hitting the home stretch for this project.
This looks fantastic! You've done an amazing job. I absolutely love your choice of using the starburst inserts. I know some people don't care for them but they just dazzle with the right LEDs behind them. Looking forward to the rest of the rebuild. Yes, I know we have a short summer up here but there's always a few hours here and there to get some work done!
1 week later
Thanks for all the compliments guys, it means a lot to me 
I've really enjoyed this resto project but I have to say I underestimated how long it would take by a factor of two or three!
Quoted from canoncitypb:Looks incredible. What Airbrush set up are you using?
Quoted from dzorbas:This looks fantastic! You've done an amazing job. I absolutely love your choice of using the starburst inserts. I know some people don't care for them but they just dazzle with the right LEDs behind them.
Quoted from La_Porta:This is incredible work. You need to set up a how-to guide with some of these techniques.
2 months later
Ok, I'm back at it again! Summer was great, but since it just snowed on the weekend I guess that means it's time to get back to some pinball
I started by installing the drop target mod that lots of pinsiders have completed. Took a bit of creativity sourcing the parts on eBay but it all came together in the end. A few of the topside components and rails installed then over to the backside for the mechs and wiring. There are a few things to work around now based on the changes I've made to the pin so it's a little slower than usual. Working around the playfield led strips and the drop targets means repositioning a few things. And the new controlled GI uses different wiring so I need to pull the old GI from the wiring harness and use the RGB wiring instead. Details, details, details...
Hopefully I'll have the basics completed in a week or two then start the commissioning process ...
I can't come up with enough superlatives for you and your Firepower. This is what makes Pinside great.
Great thread! I appreciate that you share both your cool mods and some of the mistakes along the way. I'm on month 4 of my restoration and it's a crazy experience where so many things can go wrong!
Quoted from dzorbas:Those pop bumper caps look a little familiar!
» YouTube video
I'm giving these colored ones a try since the original yellowed ones really look out of place now. I also have similar led's for the pop caps so it should look pretty much the same as yours!
Quoted from quinntopia:Great thread! I appreciate that you share both your cool mods and some of the mistakes along the way. I'm on month 4 of my restoration and it's a crazy experience where so many things can go wrong!
I haven't shared half of the mistakes I've made
Quoted from ApplePie:I'm giving these colored ones a try since the original yellowed ones really look out of place now. I also have similar led's for the pop caps so it should look pretty much the same as yours!
Given that you are far from doing a "traditional" restore, I think the coloured pops with the LEDs look a million times better than those boring original caps. I apologize to the traditionalists but I like the way they look!
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