(Topic ID: 65903)

Flash Gordon: Saviors of the Universe Club

By TheShameGovernor

10 years ago


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You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider mkdud.
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#1172 3 years ago

I am the owner of FG # 8396. I have a question about my cabinet volume control. I wondered how many other FG owners might have this same setup. My volume control knob is located on a metal bracket in front of the tilt panel, on the left side frame of where the coin box goes. My coin door had no volume knob mounted to it. The volume control wires (black, orange, & white) were snipped at the molex connector to the coin door. These were tapped to go to the volume control further up the harness. Does anyone else have their cabinet volume control like this?

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2 weeks later
#1210 3 years ago

Hello Saviors Club. I have been at work restoring the cabinet for my FG #8396, and I'm finally ready to start putting it together again. I need help and advice on how to proceed. Please help if you can.

My original playfield was changed to a new CPR playfield over 8 years ago. I did not do the changeover. I paid someone to do it; I didn't have a playfield jig or a proper place to do the work. The new playfield has never been tested in the machine yet. It was stored in a dry heated closet in bubble wrap for the past 8+/- years. I wanted to restore the cabinet before putting in the new playfield. Repainting the cabinet was my "stay at home" activity over the past month or so.

I think some of my star rollovers need the clear cleaned out of them; they don't seem to want to go in all the way. What is the best way to clean these out, and should I do it with the playfield out of the cabinet?

Also, the new CPR playfield has never actually been plugged into the cabinet yet. What things should I check before plugging the playfield in? My boards were all fully working 8 years ago when they were stored with the new CPR playfield. I'm nervous about plugging it in.

I appreciate any advice you can offer! Thank You!

Also, thanks F2k for helping explain my coin door / volume pot

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#1216 3 years ago

Thanks for the responses. I will try to get the lamp cover and I will double the rings on the DT's. I also really appreciate the advice on powering up. When this was done for me 8 years ago, I looked at the top of the PF and thought "how nice! the CPR PF looks so much better than my old worn out original PF".

So, I start taking a good look at the underside of the PF to begin working on the star rollovers.

WOW, I should have looked at the underside before! I am REALLY paranoid about plugging this in. Missing screws, a totally jacked up pop bumper, missing pop bumper mounting screws, I think I'm going to be sick. Bus wires frayed and all over the place, no heat shrink on soldered connections, uggghhhhh!

I spent a chunk ($1000, I believe) to have the changeover done, trusting that they would do a good job. I wish now I would have had a jig and the workspace and time to do it myself. Am I being too picky with this? Is this acceptable?

PLEASE advise how I should go about doing this. PLEASE feel free to call out problem areas you see.

I'm thinking of building myself a jig and just gradually going through the whole thing and trying to do it better than what I'm seeing here. Thanks much, mk

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#1220 3 years ago

Thanks so much for the help and advice! So far I rebuilt the trashed pop bumper - as per Vid1900. Is there a reason that someone would tap the control lamp bus to power a pop bumper bulb? I thought these were to be GI and not controlled lamps. Could it have something to do with their installing these bulbs in the bumpers? One good thing, it appears they put in new lamp sockets in the pops and these kind of bulbs. Are they DC only LED's? hence tapping the controlled lamp bus?

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#1225 3 years ago

Thanks for the response. OK, the top pop is a feature lamp. Given how haphazard the changeover was, I thought this pop was incorrectly being tied to the feature lamp bus.

3 weeks later
#1253 3 years ago

I have been progressing on my FG serial # 8396. Thanks to everyone for the help. This was the wonky CPR playfield changeover that was done for me 8 years ago. Can anybody please tell me where this brown / white wire was supposed to go on my playfield? It was in the wires that go to the lower right flipper assembly and wrapped in black electrical tape. It was connected to nothing. I traced it to the plug that goes to MPU J2 Pin2, which is "ST1 playfield switch strobe" Please help if you can.

I have gradually been going through the playfield wiring and correcting things that seemed poorly done. I bought a Unicatch U-SC/71 long-nose stapler to repair and replace the crappy bus wires. I am re-soldering frayed connections, and trying to make sure I don't have any shorts.

I also had to clean all of the clear out of the star rollovers. I used a cordless dremel and a diamond tipped bit. This was scary, but it worked out well. Again, thanks for the help. I'm not far from gradually plugging this in. I hope to test GI within the next couple days.

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#1255 3 years ago
Quoted from Quench:

According to the playfield switch schematic, MPU J2 pin 2 is an orange wire.
There's a brown-white wire that's listed as going to MPU J2 pin 14. My guess that wire should go to the tilt switch that's on the right side of the right flipper mech. There should also be a loose white-red wire for the tilt switch too.
See here:
https://images.pinside.com/3/03/e7/303e78e6fa20d35936857db3de75b50eb9d4affc.jpg

Thanks so much. So I m missing the slam tilt assembly from under the PF, and the brown-white wire does go to MPU J2 pin 14. I mistakenly thought it was pin 2. Thanks again, mk

#1256 3 years ago

Please help with controlled lamp problem. I was able to get my FG playfield plugged in, and am working through some issues from the wonky PF changeover. The following controlled lamps are not working: 1 Flash Gordon (red/white J2 pin 4 of ALD), Top shooter alley rollover (red/blue J2 pin 14 of ALD), upper top right rollover button (red, J2 pin 7 of ALD).

First, I swapped out my Aux Lamp Driver with another 100% working one from my EBD. Same problem. So, I know the problem is NOT on the Aux Lamp Driver. When I jump the non-working lamps to another working controlled lamp, they work, so the problem is not bulb or socket related.

What should I check next? Please help if you can.

I'm going to try swapping the lamp driver board next to see if this does anything

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#1258 3 years ago

Controlled Lamp Problem SOLVED...Really stupid on my part...

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. So, as per BJM-Maxx's advice, I get the logic probe out to check the J2 pins for signals. I notice Pin 4 is the line that controls the FG 1 lamps in the backbox. I am getting a proper signal here (Lamp test mode, pulsing from 0 to 6.3v) on the board with J2 disconnected. I check continuity from the J2 connector pin 4 (red /white wire) goes to backbox FG1 lamps. Good continuity. And, these lamps work when I jump them to another working controlled lamp, so I know the bulbs, sockets, and buss line are good. )

Turns out, this J2 connector was never keyed. So, I was plugging it in 2 pins low. It properly should sit (see my picture) with 2 pins going past pin 18 on the J2 plug. I feel like a dummy. I figured I better share this, though, because I could see someone else making the same mistake. I've come across many ALD J2 and J3 connectors that didn't have key pins installed.

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1 week later
#1271 3 years ago

Almost there... I finally have installed the CPR playfield into my #8396 cabinet. I have a couple weird minor issues that I need advice on.

Are there supposed to be a total of (5) switch capacitors on the star rolllovers (one on each switch)? Or, since these switches are jumped to each other - (3) on one line and (2) on the other, do they only get (2), which would be one for each group of switches? I currently just have one switch cap on each group for a total of 2.

I wondered if the switch caps are related to this issue:

When I test the plumb tilt in switch test mode, it will occasionally start firing the lower pop bumpers. Then, when I started cleaning the playfield, (game in attract mode) it started racking up credits when I pushed the 2nd star rollover on the shooter lane.

I cant see how the 2nd star rollover switch is related to a credit switch in the matrix.

Please help if you can, Thanks, mk

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1 week later
#1277 3 years ago
Quoted from Nokoro:

The credit button is number 6 on the switch matrix, right above the tilt. It is not labeled.
When you say the lower pop bumpers fire, can you say which one? Is it both or only one? Are any other switches closed on the matrix when this all happens?

I should have explained more clearly; the 2nd rollover in from the shooter lane is racking up credits. This is switch # 2. The unusual thing is that none of the other rollover switches are doing this, just the 2nd one in from the shooter lane. Please help if you can. Thanks, mk

#1290 3 years ago

"If snipping the cap from the 2nd rollover doesn't fix it, try the others. For long-term reliability, i would recommend replacing all the switch caps for any of the switches that use them."

Thanks for the help. The diode on the 2nd star rolllover switch from the shooter lane was pushed funny and was slightly touching the controlled lamp socket. I straightened the diode out, and moved the lamp socket a bit so it is not so close to the switch. This appears to have solved the problem, the switch is no longer racking up credits.

Also, as per ss-pinball's advice, I will be installing caps on all of the star rollover switches. I only have (2) total currently on the star rollover switches. Thanks again, mk

2 weeks later
#1324 3 years ago

Please help. Does anyone know where I can get reproduction backbox cards? I have one (the center one) that is ripped, and mine are pretty beat.

Finally, my FG # 8396 is all back together and is playing awesome. I spent 2 months correcting the wonky pf changeover that was done about 7 years ago. The 2013 CPR playfield is great now! I also repainted the cabinet. I couldn't stand having a new CPR PF and a beat up cabinet.

Thanks to everyone who helped me on this fine Flash Gordon Group.

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2 weeks later
#1364 3 years ago

How does your Squawk and Talk sound overall? Do they all say "Truaa Dell Earthing" at game over? I realize this supposed to be "Try again Earthling", especially after hearing the sounds plus and vocalizer in comparison.

Most everyone's FG S&T speech that I have heard sound similar to mine. I think it is working 100 % properly, fully recapped + new pots. Most all the speech is pretty understandable except the "try again earthling". I just ordered a 250k trimpot to try making r9 variable; perhaps the speech can be a bit better?

Does your FG Squawk & Talk say "Trua Dell Earthling" at game over?

#1367 3 years ago

"I suspect sound roms going bad, replacing mine fixed most of the speech issues.

Easy to convert the board over to eproms, grab the files from the pinball database and burn to chips."

Thanks for the advice. This is enough to convince me to convert the factory proms to Eproms. I will report back the results after I get my burner hooked up and running. Thanks again, mk

1 week later
#1372 3 years ago
Quoted from gdonovan:

I suspect sound roms going bad, replacing mine fixed most of the speech issues.

Easy to convert the board over to eproms, grab the files from the pinball database and burn to chips.

So, I burned and installed 2532's to replace my original proms on the S & T. It still sounds like "Truea Dell Earthling" when the game ends. All other speech and sounds are fine. Maybe my hearing is just bad....

#1373 3 years ago

Is anyone running an Altek MPU with a Sounds Plus and Vocalizer in their Flash Gordon?

#1376 3 years ago
Quoted from vec-tor:

Note: the S&T featured is a 2nd generation S&T. 1st used on EBD.
---- Flash Gordon 1st generation S&T has a flaw with the -5volts.
Thanks for posting the video.

My S&T sounds just like the one in the video when the TMS 5200 is tested, and my S&T has a TMS 5200. So, I guess what I'm hearing as "troya dell earthiling" is how it is supposed to sound.

Please explain the -5v flaw with the 1st gen S&T. My FG is serial # 8396, so I'm guessing my S&T is a later gen model.

1 week later
#1378 3 years ago

Is anybody running the sounds plus and vocalizer in their FG??

I have a question regarding the U9 prom (32x8) on the vocalizer. Is this prom the same on ANY vocalizer, or does it have different code for Xenon and Flash Gordon?

Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks, mk

#1381 3 years ago

OK, so on my working xenon vocalizer, this U9 prom is in a socket. It is labeled the same as the one in Qunech's picture, and is the same as the vocalizer u9 prom I am trying to get going in my FG.

I want to archive this code. I have a GQ4 programmer. What is the device listing for this prom? Is it 8331? 8047? What brand is MMI?

Thanks for the help! -mk

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#1401 3 years ago

"Anyway I've already dumped this PROM. Here's the contents:
"0000: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
0010: FE FE FD FD FB FB F7 F7 EF EF DF DF BF BF 7F FF
The CRC32# of the file is: 7F18F0E4

It should be a simple matter of programming new Flash Gordon speech EPROMs and the sound EPROM on the Sounds Plus board. What problem are you having that you're looking at U9?"

My non-working Vocalizer had Xenon proms, and any that were readable were corrupted. No checksums matched any Xenon images. I was thinking that U9 could be corrupt as well.

Can somebody possibly make me a new U9 that I could buy?

I replaced CR1 through CR3, new C11 and C25, and installed a new 7805. I replaced a crummy looking U12 (74LS04). I rang out all the rom sockets, they are good. I tested the IDE socket (it's good) and bought a new ribbon cable. I don't have any 74LS30's, MC3417's, or MC1403's, so I ordered some.

I made new 7532 FG eproms for the vocalizer, and a u4 7532 for the sounds plus. I tested the roms in a working vocalizer & SP, and they worked great. I know the problem is in the vocalizer, as I repaired the SP and it works fine with my working Xenon vocalizer.

What should I be checking next? Thanks much for the help!

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1 week later
#1411 3 years ago

"I made a mini piggyback board with the resistors and transistors and
reapplied it to the OEM Flash Gordon S&T. I copied EBD S&T schematics.
It Works; and I never had trouble with the Flash Gordon S&T sound board I have."

Can you please show a picture of this daughterboard you made? Sounds like a good idea. Thanks, mk

1 year later
#1930 1 year ago
Quoted from TheLaw:

esu did a CPR swap from overlay and the long road is almost over.

But, I'm left with 2 last decisions and that's outline position? Open is painful but fun, just wondering what other folks do
Gratis!

I've got my posts in the middle position with my CPR FG... Plays really well. I have the tilt set to medium, skillful nudging can give you at least some control over the out lane drains.

1 month later
#1972 1 year ago

Please help if you can. I need advice on how to repair wrecked screw holes and underside wood on my FG #8396 with a CPR gold 2013 playfield.

This PF changeover was pretty wonky and I spent some time correcting things on the PF before installing it. I don't know why, but I totally missed how poorly the "Wood Beast" DTA was installed. 20220704_224122 (resized).jpg20220704_224122 (resized).jpg

How should I prep the damaged area? I was planning on using bondo glass, but is there something else or something better to use? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks, mk

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