(Topic ID: 262269)

Flash Gordon causing me to Blackout!

By gdonovan

4 years ago


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#1 4 years ago

Going to do something unusual here and post two games being worked on. One needs minor work, the other..

Blackout was picked up a week or two ago, "fully working" well you know how that goes. The machine would reboot itself when the garage furnace kicked in. The power board has a funky remote mounted cap screwed to the backbox and the other board caps are OEM. On the plus side the cabinet and playfield are pretty nice, it has new PinScore LED displays and the sound board had been recapped and has new eproms. The MPU had been worked on at one time and the 5101 is socketed so easy VRAM upgrade is in the future. Flipper links are held in place with machine screws, some plastics are warped, 2 posts are outright missing and the backglass is in need of dire assistance.

I spent the last week slowly going over it and in another week or two touchups should be done. I could have gone with a new backglass but I'm still refining my skills in this area and so far pleased with the results, have at least another week to go though before calling it good and moving on. The last two blackglass pictures were from a few days ago, things have considerably progressed since then. All the area around the space guys is done and I have started on them which is a more delicate area for work to show through.

Caps for the power board and 40 way interconnect on the way from Great Plains and other parts from Pinball Life.

Playfield and backbox lighting already converted over to Comet LEDs. Spent a some time adjusting the backboard to fit proper (someone bent the hell out of the brackets trying when they could have just used the adjusters!) and I flattened all the display cables so they were not rubbing on the glass and casting shadows on the artwork.

Not sure if I like this one; love the art and sound effects but the shot geometry is weird off the flippers. Have to wait and see once it is fully tuned up if it will be around for any period of time.

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#2 4 years ago

Flash Gordon. Played Flash Gordon at Pintastic last year and REALLY liked it so when the opportunity came up I grabbed this one.

Positives: Its all there and the lower playfield is in great shape.

Negatives: The upper playfield which was not mylar'd like the lower is in need of help, cabinet fade with flipper credit button mod, the backglass art is missing a small piece near player four and the electronics are angry.

Initial electrical inspection: a bunch of light sockets need to go in the trash but lamp drivers look good, switch matrix was funky but reflowing headers and playing with the connectors brought all the switches back online but the tension on the headers pins in negligible. Looks like I'm going to be changing out at a bare minimum the J2 and J3 connectors.

A number of the coils exhibit weird or no function. the 2 lower drop target banks don't reset at all, the right popper doesn't operate and when you hit the power switch it triggers the left slingshot! The right sling doesn't work but the MPU is seeing the switch. The single reseting drop target will also drop at when an unrelated switch is tripped. Right now I'm eyeballing U11 as the culprit and may do a quick swap as I have spares and its socketed.

Sound: No background sound at all though you sometimes will hear a faint whiff of it when you go over one of the inner flipper lanes right at the end of the sound effect. The voice is there, it will proclaim FLASH time to time but nothing else. If you press the self test on the squawk and talk it will run through a number of voice files so the voice chip is working.

The plan is to get it working 100% and then disassemble to repair the upper playfield and paint the cabinet. Sound board is getting fully recapped and maybe new sockets and reflowed headers. Solenoid board getting recapped and ground mods done. The MPU has clearly been worked on in the past and already has VRAM. Most of the problems maybe nothing more than really bad connectors.

More pictures tonight, this one is going to be a long haul repair.
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#3 4 years ago

Flash Gordon- Did some poking around after work. The MPU is probably ok as far as the coil firing goes, swapped out U11 as I have plenty about and made no difference. Swapped out the MPU with my spare Star Trek one and the self tests exhibited the same behavior.

Right sling, right thumper, inline reset, outhole, single drop reset and 4 drop reset are not activated by the MPU.

I went over to the solenoid board and started grounding out the transistors one by one. All the coils fired one after another, so the wiring to the malfunctioning devices is good so it has to be a J4 connection issue or one of the chips on the sol. board. Looking at the diagram, no common theme connects U1, U3 and U4 on the sol. board aside from U2 a 74L154 decoder.

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#4 4 years ago

Well against my better judgement I swapped sol boards with Star Trek and Star Trek works fine but Flash does not exhibit any change.

Looks like I'll be order a mess of .100 crimp contacts and check continuity from J4 to J4.

#6 4 years ago
Quoted from Quench:

I presume the top pop bumper isn't working either.

Thanks for the reminder, thats correct it isn't working either.

So if I'm reading the theory of operation manual correct, one of the four lines is not functioning or is open?

#8 4 years ago
Quoted from Quench:

Yes, from the binary table above it's solenoid select line "PB0" that's open circuit (Blue-Yellow wire from MPU J4-4 to SDB J4-6). The default state of the select lines on the solenoid driver board are high, the MPU board pulls them low. The solenoids that aren't working require PB0 to go low which isn't happening.
Having said this you should be noticing when the solenoids you listed aren't working, wrong solenoids should be activating. For example when the "Inline drop target reset" should be activating, the "Saucer kickdown" will instead activate.

You sir are correct, a few items are double activating when going through self test.

#9 4 years ago

Some good news tonight, progress!

1) All the coils are now working as intended! Checking the blue/yellow wire with a meter shows no continuity and I found a poor wiring connection at the MPU end.

2) All the connections are sketchy! Everything has to be "just right" for the switch matrix to work correct. At a bare minimum the MPU is getting done for testing, I don't like the look of these "push on wire connectors" and will end up dumping all of them.

3) The single drop target wasn't popping back up, after adjusting some of the rollovers seems to work proper now though I'm not sure what is the triggering event yet that makes it pop up. Have to print out the manual tomorrow while at work

4) Sound is clearly distressed; "emperor ming awaits" is garbled and some of the other call outs I'm unsure if working. "Flash" and "Lucky shot" comes up as well as "miserable human" but someone else mentioned something about the 15 second timer and death rays and I have not heard it even though they have lit time to time while testing. Some sound effects are missing or "off" which I'm not going to get too excited till recapped and chips cleaned.

The garbled speech sounds just like this one when the machine is in attract mode

#10 4 years ago

Just a small update; yesterday was brutal at work so disinclined to do anything serious last night. I did pull all the chips out of the squawk and talk board, gently clean the black tarnish off and reinstall. Didn't seem to make any difference. About all I can do till cap kit arrives from Big Daddy.

"Emperor Ming awaits" is garbled in the middle.

"Flash" sounds off, the F sounds shortened.

Ming laughing, "15 seconds" and the clip about death rays are missing.

When I pull the board for cap work I'm going to jumper U2 and U5 for 2732's and burn a pair utilizing the ROM files from IPBD.

Other then that, just making a list of stuff to order which is growing by the second. Package came in for Blackout so this weekend will recap power supply board and replace 40 way interconnect.

Gary

#11 4 years ago

Picture of upper playfield.

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#12 4 years ago

Some more FG upper playfield pics.

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#14 4 years ago

You know sometimes a solution is right under ones own nose. I have been looking for an upper playfield scan without luck and it occurred to me all I have to do is scan in my own playfield. I have access to two large high resolution scanners and twenty years experience in Photoshop, it would take little time at all to clean up the scan and then decide how to proceed.

#15 4 years ago

Blackout update; recapped the power board and replaced the forty way and touched up the pins, looking for cold solder joints.

Hakku de-soldering gun is da' bomb! Made short work of the task, wish I purchased one years ago.

Which made not a wit of difference, machine still glitches out when the furnace kicks on. Not too worried about it, won't be in the workshop much longer. Just odd this is the only pin that has done it so far. Should stick a meter on the MPU for entertainment and see what the voltage is dropping too when it happens.

Thanks to Ed at Great Plains for the prompt service! And yes I recapped the high voltage section as well even though it has LED displays, next guy might convert it back and caps that size are pocket change.

Waiting for the post man to come in, he has cap kit for Flash Gordon. Going to recap the sound board and see if the speech problems clear up.
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#16 4 years ago

Flash Gordon; progress!

While waiting for the post man to show up, I converted the squawk and talk board over to 2732's and burned two chips using the files from IPBD

Yes! Most of the sounds are there now (15 seconds, activate death rays and the laugh are now working) but "Emperor Ming Awaits" still has the garbled "ming" in it that other people have reported too and you can hear on the video above. Right after that was done the post man showed up and I pulled the board out and went to town installing caps. Except for "ming" I'd call the sound good aside from I think the speakers are spanked and need replacement.

All in all a pretty good day. I'll post a video in a bit.

#17 4 years ago

Right at the 14-15 second mark you can hear where it states "Emperor Ming Awaits" and the Ming is garbled.

#19 4 years ago
Quoted from Xtraball:

Sounds right to me

Its garbled to my wife and I, have heard other Flash Gordons where the "Ming" is clear as a bell.

The majority of them seem to have the 'glitch' there though.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flash-gordon-wrong-speech

I might play around with the variable resistor as someone mentioned to see if it changes much.

#21 4 years ago
Quoted from Xtraball:

I had a Medusa that had garbled speech only when it was time to plunge the ball. It was supposed to say something like “light Gorgons”, but it was complete gibberish. Other speech in the game was fine. Turned out to have a mangled tooth on one of the speech chips. I think there were 4 of those chips. I pulled them out and found 1 tooth on one of the chips to be bent and not situated in the socket. Straightened it out and it worked. Possibly the same kind of problem?

All the socketed chips were pulled, inspected, cleaned and reinstalled aside from the data proms (U2 and U5) which were replaced.

Some speculation that it could be variances in the speech chip or even some degradation of the chip or circuit over time.

#22 4 years ago

Blackout update; almost done touching up backglass, coming out all right.

Went to start the machine this morning, no boot. Displays would just run a series of numbers but oddly would stop if start button was held. Resettled some board connections and it booted up but locked up again not long after. After that is was fine.

Measured the 5V at the MPU at the cap, only getting 4.93V which is a little low in my book with reset at 4.75V Did some checking around, did find the F5 fuse had a little resistance on it and replaced. Played a few games but will do more in depth voltage checks when I get home this afternoon.

#23 4 years ago

Blackout: Doing some voltage checks, looks like the 12V unregulated off the power board is only putting out 9.6 volts, one of the diodes (which looks perfectly fine) is open. Parts on order from Mouser, here Tuesday.

Flash Gordon: Oddly enough, leaving the machine on while I was painting the phrase "Emperor Ming Awaits" notably improved as the machine warmed up, rather curious. The wife states it still sounds off but better than when it started.

Question; When does Ming laugh? So far aside from the self test I have not heard it do so once.

#25 4 years ago

Flash Gordon:

Did a quick board search, Ming laughs when credited up or tilted, both which work.

One thing that was a curious, I swear "Emperor Ming Awaits" played when the 1st ball was first ejected into shooter lane. I'm going to have to watch some videos and compare since it isn't doing it now that I have swapped roms/eproms.

EDIT: Figured that out quick! One of the drop targets doesn't stay up when reset. So when you first press the start button it resets all the targets, the one drops back down which registers as a target hit which preempts Ming speaking as the ball is pushed out into the lane. Holding the target up and the voice works fine.

Blackout:

Ok here is more or less the final result of the backglass touchup. Enjoyed doing it and learned a few more tricks, might pick at it a bit more but for a player I'm happy with it.

Considerable improvement.
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#27 4 years ago
Quoted from bluebomber:

Here is a video with audio of mine turning on and starting the first ball: https://imgur.com/a/KtWPmP1

All set now, drop target was not resetting correct and interrupting call out.

When I was first testing the machine I had a wedge holding it up and coincidentally removed the wedge when I re-capped the board.

Thanks for the video! Looks sweet!

#29 4 years ago
Quoted from jj44114:

I think only when you add a credit with coins.

Tilt and adding coins. I had not done either yet till I got to that point in testing. Had a bunch of credits on it when picked up.

#30 4 years ago

Blackout-

Tonight compounded the playfield, touched up the area near the saucer, waxed it, placed Mylar on the lower section and shooter lane exit, flattened a plastic that was badly warped, removed the cheesy bolts near the cab door and replaced with something more subtle, did some minor touch up on the cabinet.

Game plays nasty fast now, definitely more difficult with a good cleaning and wax. Just need for the diodes to show up now and I'm done with it.

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#32 4 years ago
Quoted from Schwaggs:

Make sure you take a green scrubby or something to the fuse holder clips and ends of the fuses to improve the connection.
Also loosen and tighten the voltage regulator mounting screws. They are part of the circuit and can cause the 5V to dip under certain situations.

Thanks! I already hit the fuse holders with a brass brush and changed the fuse out with new ones. Good tip on the regulator, when the board is back out tomorrow I'll snug up those mounting screws.

#33 4 years ago
Quoted from Schwaggs:

Make sure you take a green scrubby or something to the fuse holder clips and ends of the fuses to improve the connection.
Also loosen and tighten the voltage regulator mounting screws. They are part of the circuit and can cause the 5V to dip under certain situations.

Blackout-

I replaced the power board diodes and tightened the regulator screws, this netted me over 10.3 volts feeding the MPU and a solid 5.00 volts on the same connector. Much, much improved. I'd like to see at least 11V at the connector but was running ok at 9.3 or so. Is this an acceptable voltage reading on the unregulated 11-12v line?

Effectively I'm done with Blackout at this point aside from the SBA dollar lens for the coin chute from PBR that will be here in a few days. A minor electrical problem I was chasing turned out to be a missing ground which was a quick fix. Adjusted the flippers.. and were good to go.

#34 4 years ago

Nothing too exciting to wrap up my day. Pulled the solenoid board out of Flash and returned it back to Star Trek. Took the Flash Gordon S.B. and replaced the capacitors and did ground mods to it. Took the negative leg of the upper cap and wrapped it right up to the ground plane trace.
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#35 4 years ago
Quoted from gdonovan:

Blackout update; almost done touching up backglass, coming out all right.
Went to start the machine this morning, no boot. Displays would just run a series of numbers but oddly would stop if start button was held. Resettled some board connections and it booted up but locked up again not long after. After that is was fine.

This turned out to be a missing ground strap to the head, flexing the head would cause it lock up. Found the strap in bottom of cabinet, attached it and problem went away.

#36 4 years ago

Backglass ordered from Marco for Flash Gordon.

#37 4 years ago

Peeled off the mylar good and slow with heat, now to get the adhesive goo off. Had some free time so started stripping the playfield to get an idea how far I'm going to go.. Inserts are all in tough shape. Do I want a decent player or am I building a showpiece?

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#39 4 years ago
Quoted from AUKraut:

That FG playfield is not bad at all!! Looks like a perfect candidate to touch up & clearcoat. Mine was much further gone and required the Hardtop....

Oh that is exactly my plan, the question is how far am I going? Almost all the inserts have heat cracks I assume. I'll have to do an inventory and see what is available for sizes and colors..

The upper playfield is going to be a tough go to make look decent, hope to have it scanned in by next week and decide which direction to go.

#41 4 years ago
Quoted from AUKraut:

All inserts are available with exception of the Red & White Arrows, however the ones that are available are not in the original colors and/or patterns. When I hardtop'd my playfield I replaced all my inserts with clear starburst.[quoted image]

That looks great!

#42 4 years ago

Boxes coming in...

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#43 4 years ago

Had a good belly laugh working on Blackout this morning, not only was the wire falling out the 110v plug but wired for the wrong polarity to boot. Always check the other guys work, I failed in following my own mantras. Much less fussy about running when the furnace kicks now.

Installed sunlight white LED's on the playfield GI using Comet 1SMD with clear domes.. A little to overpowering on this playfield, think I'm going to swap them out for warm white retro frosted domes and see how it looks.

Need to wrap up what I'm doing on Robocop and Alien Star and get back on FG, won't get done at this rate.. Stencils on order for FG as is NVRAM for Robocop, Secret Service, Alien Star and Blackout.

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2 weeks later
#44 3 years ago

Should be getting back to FG this week, just waiting for lift table to come in so we can move a dozen pins around. Stencils are in for FG, Robocop got NVRAM this weekend and some minor cab touch ups, Blackout finally received the dual fuse upgrade for the bridges so the wiring doesn't catch fire and Lethal Weapon 3 is done being refurbished which was my big time suck the last 2 weeks.

2 weeks later
#45 3 years ago

One final repair to Blackout before taking up position in the lineup, the plywood channel was ripped out behind the coin door causing the cabinet bottom to sag. Ripped a piece of wood on the table saw, some trimming work, poly glue and clamps and its good as new.

After cutting up 2 cords of wood, back to Flash Gordon. Work tables are setup to spread the parts out, pulled the head off last night. Think I'm going to start by going over the displays and wiring harness and detailing the light board.

LW3 came out great!

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#46 3 years ago

Work is proceeding.

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#47 3 years ago

I feel like a bum if nothing gets done even after a long day at work. Tonight cleaned all five displays and reflowed the connector pins. Very few with cracks under magnification but they all got done regardless.

New paper shields on order.

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#49 3 years ago
Quoted from Quench:

If you're bulletproofing the displays, change the 100k resistors in the digit drive circuits: R1, R3, R5, R7 R9, R11, R58
They're underspec and run close to their wattage rating and eventually fatigue and fail. You can measure them in circuit to see if they're still in spec.
We replace them with higher wattage versions.

I planned on it when my next order for Mouser goes out, be a few weeks. Not a big hurry as it will be a few months till this is completed though the cabinet should be done by the end of the month. Should be.

#50 3 years ago

Busy day yesterday but still took some time to work on FG. Took the backbox light board outside, sprayed it down with Super Purple and gave it a good scrubbing with a brush followed by a through air drying with leaf blower and parked it on top of the furnace to thoroughly dry out.

#51 3 years ago

Light board mostly done, just have to polish a few more bits before moving on.

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1 week later
#53 3 years ago
Quoted from ss-pinball:

I can't find a decent discussion of backglass touchup anywhere.
The attitude seems to be "just buy some paint and get 'er done"
Looks like you did a bang up job on Blackout.
I'm curious about cleaning the grime from the cracked and crazing paint.
Curious about specific brand of paints used.
It seems like Blackout (which I am also slogging through at the moment) is an ideal backglass for touching up...it is so busy and there are lots of colors. It seems like it would be tough to figure out what is original and what isn't if you are just casually looking at it.
Also wondering about the specific set up...did you back light the glass.

I have done a number of backglass touchups over the last 3 years with the process evolving and being refined over that time frame. Here is what I'm currently doing.

1) Prep; This is difficult as you have to assess the condition of the backglass and decide if cleaning is advisable. I have had backglasses the looked fine but after you cleaned them were covered with a spiderweb of cracks that were visible when lit. My advice is to NOT clean the unlit sections at all and clean the lit sections as little as possible using cotton balls with either a mild vinegar or orange based cleaner. Cleaning the lit areas is very much a judgment call on your part, avoid it if you can.

2) Sealing; Triple Thick the backglass first, this will allow you to lock in what you have. And if you are touching up with acrylic paint if you don't like what you see you can always wipe off and try again, same for enamel but you have a shorter window. As I get more practice I have boldly skipped this step and only sealed last but there is little to no margin for error.

3) Lighting; I use a roughly 2.5' x 2.5' box on a mobile cart with two 24" retrofit LED light strips inside. Very, very bright. This lets me place the glass face down on the box and I can work and see what needs to be done.

4) Paint; Start out with your basic acrylic paint set from Hobby Lobby or other craft store. Along with a basic set it would not hurt to get small range of other colors that look close to what you need..

Will follow up with more in a few hours.. lots more thoughts on paint and lighting.

Also review this page if you have not yet- http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/index1.htm#touch

#54 3 years ago

Before going into minutia about touching up various areas lets talk about paint.

1) acrylic.

Cheap, dries fast and forgiving but goes on rather thick and will show brush strokes the most in lighted areas. Great for unlighted sections.

2) Oil in a squeeze tube.

Experimented, decided it was waste of time and money.

3) Spray paint.

Tried it for first time on Blackout as you can see in the red sections as I had a color that was very close match. Tends to spot or mottle into light and dark areas, prone to spotting or fisheye. Tentatively recommend for some areas if used judiciously. Avoid any with built in primer in translucent areas, will really cut down on light transmission. Actually wet sanded down some areas I painted to lighten them back up. Expensive if you don't have a lot on hand already, luck if it happens to be right color.

4) Testors Enamel model paint

My current go to for lighted areas, thins and brushes well and seems to transmit a minimal amount of brush strokes. Lays down nice and levels better than acrylic but less forgiving than acrylic.

5) Latex

Had some that happened to be the right shade or close and mixed it up/down with white or black. Nothing I'd spend a lot time trying to use on a backglass though, definitely not on lighted areas.

--

Near future; I plan on getting a decent airbrush setup and doing more touch up this way. On Blackout experimented with masks and frisket in a few sections, worked well so will move more in this direction. Also will start experimenting with scanning and water slide decals, have seen a places discussing this and wish to explore this avenue of repair.

Advice about touching up- I tend to do the blacks sections first and move towards lighter colors. Have a fine set of exacto razors handy to scrape dried mistakes off. Use a heat gun on low to speed things up. Reds and whites seem to flake first and are difficult to touch up when lit, do so judiciously. If doing reds consider red cellophane and utilizing red leds behind what is lit. I find colored leds are GREAT for blending lighted areas that have been painted. The yellow areas in Blackout have yellow led behind them and the cracked areas with touch ups practically vanished from view. The ball count numbers on Hearts and Spades had a few with cracking in the reds, red leds made the cracking unnoticeable.

I'll post more here if anything pops into mind.

#56 3 years ago
Quoted from ss-pinball:

Gary, you are my hero. Thanks for this info and the link.

No problem.

I have not touched much in regards to paint mixing aside from finding a color that is close to what you have on hand and driving it brighter or darker using different colors. In theory you can take a color and drive it lighter or darker with white or black.. but it really is more of an art form and you may take several tries to find a match you are comfortable with. I will usually take a quarter sized amount of paint and start dropping in other colors and count the number of drops that are placed into it so I can replicate the color if need be.

Some colors it is more prudent to mix a color with more pigment to darken, say if you have light blue and dark blue and to darken the light blue you add a drop or two of dark blue rather than jump to black for a darkening agent. Again you are not using much paint so feel free to experiment. Some people like to paint some thin clear plastic so they can see how close it is by holding it over the work. Acrylic tends to darken when dry so you may wish to take that into account when mixing.

Another trick and warning if you are going to repair an unlit area be aware that if you paint it black to stop light passing through this will tend to darken what you have just painted. Consider a heavy white coat first followed by the black after. Also try if you want to change the color a little of paint that has dried, a white or black masking coat sometimes helps to drive the hue up or down.

#57 3 years ago

Wood piece glued in to repair cabinet came out well, red paint sure is vibrant under the black compared to the rest. Weather was great today.

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8 months later
#58 3 years ago

Removed pictures, I did post them further up!

Going to be heading back in Flash Gordon's direction to start work again.

Plastics arrived a week or two ago!

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1 month later
#59 3 years ago

Ming awaits!

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#60 3 years ago

Lower playfield stripped of hardware.

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#61 3 years ago

Things are starting to speed up.. getting serious now.

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#62 3 years ago

Credit button hole filled, sanded and painted security plate, knocking down paint and cabinet repairs.

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#63 3 years ago

Starting to primer and block sand.

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#64 3 years ago

While primer drying, working on mechs.

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#65 2 years ago

Making the parts shine.

One side of cabinet blocked and done.

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#68 2 years ago
Quoted from rcbrown316:

i bet you are looking forward to those 5 second ball times on this game. Mine is so ridiculously fast that it just makes us laugh. I am going to film it and post it at some point.

She is a tough one for sure, the pops often fatal. One of the few games I have played at a show that was played more than once or twice.

#70 2 years ago
Quoted from Grizlyrig:

Things are coming along. Gonna be sweet when done.
-Mike

Thanks Mike! I'm done repairing the wiring for the door, gave it one last scrub with a toothbrush and set it aside. Laid down some primer last night so I'll be block sanding again when I get home. The cabinet MIGHT be ready for paint tonight, might. Still have to primer and block the backbox which should take less time.

Already eyeballing the transformers to see what I have to do in regards to cleaning, painting and new decals.

1 week later
#71 2 years ago

As you can see I have been keeping busy the last few days.

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#72 2 years ago

Lower power board also saw some love.

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#73 2 years ago

New side rails and braid from PinballLife.

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#74 2 years ago

Looking sweet!

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#75 2 years ago

Doing some test fitting and picking at minor brackets and such.

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#76 2 years ago

Money pit I swear.

Playfield on order.

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#77 2 years ago

You know, I'm actually toying with building a second Flash Gordon.

Pickup a "cheaper pin" like 6 Million Dollar man, Eight Ball or Super Sonic, and move over the old stuff.

I have a playfield, plastics and backglass and spare apron. The donor pin will contribute displays and boards (minus sound of course) and some mechs. I even have a spare strobe unit for backglass.

Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

#78 2 years ago

All I have tonight, cleaned and polished some hardware and installed.

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#79 2 years ago

Tonight's work, almost out of cabinet parts. Door cant go on till final stencil layer is done.

Scrubbed the harness by hand with a toothbrush and Super Purple.

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#81 2 years ago
Quoted from bluebomber:

If you don't end up building another, I would be interested in buying the strobe unit off of you. My machine was missing the strobe and the strobes transformer when I bought it.

I'll keep it in mind but at the moment planning on pressing forward with this idea. Might have already found the drop target assemblies and metal ramps so all I'd need is a donor game.

#82 2 years ago

22ga stapler on order, this far into the program..

#83 2 years ago

Gold paint shoot out!

1) the rustoleum looks the nicest but when I rub gold flake transfers to my fingers.

2) krylon is the 2nd, not as nice shine as number one, but no transfer.

3 ) the rustoleum advance formula went on thin, no transfer, but good gloss with less shine than #2

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#84 2 years ago

Today is the day!

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#85 2 years ago

A most satisfactory conclusion.

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#88 2 years ago
Quoted from Grizlyrig:

Gary, Flash Gordon asked me to tell you that he would like red led lit flipper buttons.
Looks really sweet, great work.
Maybe consider doing restorations on the side.
-Mike

Don't temp me about the flipper buttons.

Maybe when I retire! No time now.

Gary

#89 2 years ago

So last night decided to install legs with cabinet protectors and hook up the electronics. After much stress and shenanigans "Emperor Ming Awaits!" Was finally heard in the workshop after long absence.

Broken wire on J4 of the MPU 12v line really caused some blood pressure issues.

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#90 2 years ago
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#91 2 years ago

Coin door and trim installed (missing a bolt darn it) shooter too. Finished up some minor wiring repair and rerouted the backbox wiring till I was satisfied with it.

Need to install side rails, repin the MPU connectors, print out and attach the tech cards and do a minor bit of braid installation.

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#92 2 years ago

Post office was here, air stapler! You know what that means.. ground braid and tech cards got installed and the new side rails too.

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#93 2 years ago

All MPU connectors replaced and everything checks out. Time to move on the the playfield...

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#94 2 years ago

Testing..

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#95 2 years ago

Plug for Todd at Big Daddy!

Not feeling like going through Mouser search results building an order? Todd has ready to go kits for most of your pinball needs. Couple of quick clicks and.. done!

No more IDC connectors! damn things caused me no small amount of grief.

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#96 2 years ago

My order for Pinball Resource for reference to those doing a playfield swap.

4x LEG-28GR (set of 4 for 1981 Bally)
40x Transparent Red C952-1 Finned posts
15x lamp sockets A1363 (stapled)
8x lamp socket A2913 (lay down)
20x lamp socket A4762 (1/2")
30x lamp socket A2916 (1 1/8" Bracket)
40x white acorn nuts (BLY-POSTCAP)
6x Bally Spool Spacers (Williams reference #03-8371)
8x GTB-D11968 (insert stars)
12x HDW-TEE-8-32 (T-nuts)
4x DE-530-500500 (posts)

#98 2 years ago
Quoted from gdonovan:

My order for Pinball Resource for reference to those doing a playfield swap.
4x LEG-28GR (set of 4 for 1981 Bally)
40x Transparent Red C952-1 Finned posts
15x lamp sockets A1363 (stapled)
8x lamp socket A2913 (lay down)
20x lamp socket A4762 (1/2")
30x lamp socket A2916 (1 1/8" Bracket)
40x white acorn nuts (BLY-POSTCAP)
6x Bally Spool Spacers (Williams reference #03-8371)
8x GTB-D11968 (insert stars)
12x HDW-TEE-8-32 (T-nuts)
4x DE-530-500500 (posts)

Just following up on this.

1) The first number is a set of new legs, not needed for playfield swap =)

2) Some of the numbers are not exact but have a few extra padded in there in case I missed anything while counting. I'll update once the actual work starts for a proper parts list.

3) I need ball wire guides M-121-59, both are broken. Looks like I'm going to be bending stainless wire in the near future..

#99 2 years ago

Almost go time on playfield swap!

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#101 2 years ago
Quoted from bluebomber:

Looks like fun! You've got a nice weekend ahead of you

Still need a few odds and ends, no sense being hasty for no good cause.

#102 2 years ago

Look what got dragged in yesterday...

A friend of mine is Jonesing for it however, told him if he can find a suitable donor in ratty shape but has the parts I need I'll swap out. Took me an hour or two to getting booting up and sorted out so its functioning.

Parts for "The Frankenstein Flash Gordon" would be the lower cabinet (with harness, shooter, coin door, transformer and power board) 7-digit displays, circuit boards (MPU, Solenoid, lamp, aux lamp, Squawk and Talk) 3 flipper mechs, the ball gates and reed switches (for spinners) the dual direction saucer, sling shots mechs, drop target banks (one that will be converted to inline target bank) and various bits and pieces from under and on top of the playfield like posts, outhole ball kicker and standup targets.

So I need upper FG steel ball guides, 3 ramps, single drop target with memory, lower ball guides and ball director under the apron and wood pieces around playfield. Cliffy has some of the parts, I'm going to make the lower ball guides and wood trim myself along with the lower apron piece if need be and have a line on the rest. A local will have upper cabinet in a few months and I'll fabricate a new pedestal base.

Excellent.
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#103 2 years ago

Just a quick update: Still gathering parts so I can do the playfield pretty much in one shot or at least not have to stop and order additional parts.

This is being slowed down slightly as I'm also gathering parts for the next project or fabricating them and I can't assemble the first while using the parts as a guide for the second.

#104 2 years ago

While parts trickle in, Blackout saw some attention. New terminals and connectors for the MPU seems to have cured an intermittent no boot condition and installed NVRAM.

I had tried once before without luck and changed one of the 7404 chips in the memory protect circuit tonight and now the NVRAM works.

Hat tip to Weebly for quality products as usual.

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#105 2 years ago

Well this looks very promising.

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#106 2 years ago

VERY PROMISING INDEED.

Still have some key line work to do and a few odd spots but this will look sweet with clear on it.

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#107 2 years ago

Just some proof of concept work on the second machine while waiting for a few parts.

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#108 2 years ago

More parts on order!

#109 2 years ago

Second machine has been forked off to its own page to avoid any confusion.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flash-gordon-part-ii-

#110 2 years ago

Looks like some woodwork is happening in the near future.. polishing some guides tonight.

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#111 2 years ago

Saw goes brrrrrrrrrrr.

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#112 2 years ago

Oh yeah.

Have some final sanding to finish dimensions to do but came out very nice.

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#113 2 years ago

Test fitting of various bits before paint flies. Some of my work more accurate than Ballys! Sad as I'm only a fair carpenter in my own estimation. I can do decent work but it takes a long time to get there.

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#114 2 years ago

Rails are done!

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#115 2 years ago

Test fitting rails and ramps today!

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#116 2 years ago

Almost time..

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#117 2 years ago

Lower out.

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#119 2 years ago
Quoted from zahner:

Did you know CLIFFY sells new and super shiny ramp sets? Might be worth a look.

Yes, I have been in contact with him.

#120 2 years ago

Slow but steady progress, be happy when this part is in my rearview mirror! This should really pick up once the braid and sockets are in.

All the sockets have tabs on them so they can be swapped out with ease in the future.

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#121 2 years ago

Ok I had a half hour free..

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#122 2 years ago

All braid is done aside from 5 spots on upper playfield I ran out of sockets!

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#123 2 years ago

Some assembly required.

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#125 2 years ago
Quoted from Grizlyrig:

No worries, you got this! Piece of cake.
-Mike

Oh this is the EASY part, its all the prep that is time consuming.

Without the prep it would not be easy

I expect to be doing lamp and switch testing by the end of the day.

#126 2 years ago

My pile of parts grows smaller!

#127 2 years ago

Wanted to push through and wrap up the wiring tonight but discretion the better part of valor when tired.

Did fire up the 2 GI circuits with a 9V battery and was pleased when everything lit up.

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#128 2 years ago

Parts from PBR will be here today! I should have the lighting completed after work.

#129 2 years ago

Glorious!

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#130 2 years ago

Have to tweak some mechs but looking good.

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#131 2 years ago

Easy day; installed the single drop mech, adjusted 2 others, aimed the saucer better, swapped a stand up at lower right. Have one rollover that's sticky, need to pull star out and file a bit more.

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#132 2 years ago

Poppers are in, started working on ramps and posts.

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#133 2 years ago

More progress. Almost all the red posts are done, test fitting with old plastics.

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#134 2 years ago

All posts done. Going to redo spinners, have not decided on pattern yet.

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#135 2 years ago

Almost show time.

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#136 2 years ago

New backglass and trim finally deployed!

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#137 2 years ago

I like it, mean but in a fun way.

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#138 2 years ago

Busy day-

1) Mounted the 2 return lane guides, tried to install the wire guides but one broke! Very brittle! Was able to drive the broken piece out from behind and will make new ones from stainless.

2) New flipper bats and elastics, finished mounting the flipper mechs.

3) Three star roll overs were fussy, fixed. Adjusted several other switches.

4) Installed shooter lane plate and ball stop.

5) Installed hanger brackets. Dropped playfield in.

6) Intermittent Ming lamps, upper. Reflowed headers on Aux lamp board, fixed.

7) Installed new backglass and lift trim.

Still have to install the new plastics, popper caps, apron, legs and levelers, stainless carriage bolts & Bally decal for the coin door, backglass lock mech and some other odds and ends when I'm sure I'm done dinking around.

Things would have gone faster the last two weeks but I'm working on the second FG in parallel which slows down the first while I'm duplicating some part.

Game plays great!

1 week later
#139 2 years ago

Comet order came in so it was time to tweak lighting, install the credit socket, polish brackets and install new apron.

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#140 2 years ago

Assembled adapter board and Nano to run custom game code, see here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flash-gordon-2021-re-imagined-code-for-bally-flash-gordon-1981

A partial win at this point, some compiling error is causing a hang up but further along this morning than I was last night.

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#141 2 years ago

Made my own wire guides from stainless wire I polished and bent, came out great!

Edit: Installed the "biff bars" too.

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#142 2 years ago

Getting serious, time for a punch list!

1) Buff and wax cabinet.
2) New lock for head, install glass lockbar. (DONE)
3) New safety cover for solenoid and power boards. (DONE)
4) Rules cards. (DONE)
5) New legs, bolts and levelers. (DONE)
6) New plastics and caps. (DONE)
7) Paint spinners and install new decals. (DONE)
8) Shim main ramp so smoother entry. (DONE)
9) New cap on tilt bob.
10) Resistors on driver board for LED operation. (DONE)
11) Stainless carriage bolts for door.
12) Polish hanger brackets. (DONE)

#143 2 years ago

Almost there..

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#145 2 years ago
Quoted from Grizlyrig:

You did a great job getting this all together. It's been fun following your progress.
-Mike

I'm hot to get cooking on the second, still some minor stuff going on behind the scenes as time permits.

#146 2 years ago

Plastics, shields and cards done.

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#147 2 years ago

Legs on, tape off.

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#148 2 years ago

Spinners done.

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#149 2 years ago

Driver board complete and installed.

EDIT: In case anyone is wondering, what I have done to the board was added a number of SIP 470 ohm resistors to the board attached to lamp pins. When running LED's on classic Bally's the LED's will flicker, sometimes badly because there is insufficient load on the lamp driver. One end of the resistor is attached to a lamp pin and the common wire is attached to lamp bus power.

You can also attached individual 470 ohm resistors to individual sockets but this is VERY time consuming. Siegecraft also sells adapters that just plug in as well. Bally connectors tend to be fussy due to age and the small pin size so I prefer to use this method to reduce the number of failure points in the lamp chain.

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#151 2 years ago
Quoted from Grizlyrig:

Can't say I have ever seen the homemade approach for led light flicker like this one.
Interesting approach. What made you think of taking this route? Is this experimental or proven working fix?
Sorry if too nosey but I like it.
-Mike

Proven fix, found it on the board a few years ago. Works awesome too!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/classic-ballystern-led-adapter-kit-review

#153 2 years ago
Quoted from radium:

FG looks great. You have me wanting to get my project out off storage and get going on it.
I also have garbled speech, never could fix it last time I tried. I have a couple more S&T boards to try though.

Replacing proms cured my problems, if you need a set of eproms burned let me know.

#154 2 years ago

Punch list, rolled over to new page.

1) Buff and wax cabinet. (DONE)
2) New lock for head, install glass lockbar. (DONE)
3) New safety cover for solenoid and power boards. (DONE)
4) Rules cards. (DONE)
5) New legs, bolts and levelers. (DONE)
6) New plastics and caps. (DONE)
7) Paint spinners and install new decals. (DONE)
8) Shim main ramp so smoother entry. (DONE)
9) New cap on tilt bob. (DONE)
10) Resistors on driver board for LED operation. (DONE)
11) Stainless carriage bolts for door & sidewalls. (DONE)
12) Polish hanger brackets. (DONE)

New lock and backglass lockbar installed.

Caps done.

All done!

#155 2 years ago

Caps were done last night. The rest of the evening was spent taking measurements for the second project.

#156 2 years ago

Stainless fasteners installed and cabinet vacuumed out.

Down to minor work on switch matrix and cab buff and wax.

#157 2 years ago

Ran across this problem:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flash-gordon-target-causes-tilt#post-3219052

After replacing a cap on the tilt board strikes on switch 15 stand up target would cause the machine to tilt! After consulting with Quench and doing some board research turns out the tilt board which is MDF has absorbed too much moisture and starts causing some odd problems due to voltage leakage.

Problem solved by throwing MDF in trash and ripping a new tilt board out of real wood on the table saw.

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#158 2 years ago

Glass on, set for three ball, levelers in rear almost all the way out.

Murder me mode activated! Hahahaha

Just have to make some level adjustments and buff and wax in the morning.

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#160 2 years ago
Quoted from Quench:

I'm surprised this moisture damaged tilt board problem in high humidity doesn't come up more often. Besides having the issue myself (my tilt boards were factory plywood), you're only the third pinsider I've helped with it over the years.
BTW, games looking great!

Thank you for your assistance and kind words and yes I cut a second tilt board out for the second Flash Gordon while the saw was in operation!

#161 2 years ago

Card that is stapled under the backbox..

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#162 2 years ago

Card installed and print made for backbox riser.

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#163 2 years ago

Buff and wax is complete and polished the lockbar for good measure. At this point I'm moving over to the second machine and time to mash the pedal down.

20210624_184438 (resized).jpg20210624_184438 (resized).jpg
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