Heres a bit of a random question that I’m hoping someone might be able to answer.
I recently picked up a hot shots. It plays great, minus the accelerator. The previous owner removed the accelerator motor, but he just found it so I’m going back to get it tomorrow. It looks like it was removed due to the fan blades breaking off the Center (I’ll attach pics as it sounds odd).
My question is, do I need to weld the fan blades back on? My dad is a great welder and said it would be no problem to do so, I’m just questioning if it’s actually necessary. Do you suppose that the motor / inside the cabinet actually gets that hot?

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Welding would get things pretty out of balance, I'd remove the fan and mount a unit below it.

Plenty of computer case fans or squirrel cage blowers running at a variety of voltages that would work fine.

Gottlieb, being notoriously more frugal than Bally or Williams when it came to product cost control, would not have installed such an expensive part were it not necessary. If you try and weld/solder the blades back on, you can't get them perfect so the motor will shake and make a lot of noise.
Get a new or good used one.

Hi all,

My Countdown's displays are starting to pulsate and the ball in play / number to match displays aren't lit at all.

Any thoughts?

Power supply, connectors anything else?

thx

Thanks for the quick responses.
With me being in Canada, and this being a fan that will likely be hard/costly to find and ship, it sounds like my best bet is to install a tiny fan in the cabinet and point it at the motor. I'll try that route first.
Thanks again!

If you find a good replacemet fan that is the best option. But, if it is unobtainable then if the welds are done carefully you should be ok. You'd just need to straighten the blades and balance it once done. That can take time but you could do it. Just look at ways people balance armatures or model airplane fans/propellers.

I did a quick search of Ebay, very possible to find something that could work.

ebay.com link: sch

Search for Aluminum fan blade turns up lots.

I have a Hot Shots game too.
I had a hard time finding the rubbers for the accelerator.
Now I've found them in France.
The game is located in a somewhat cold envirement (not moist, just colder than home play).
The rubbers are too hard for this colder place.
They work fine around 20 degrees C, but under 15C it does not let the ball through.
Anyone had this problem too?

Pinball Resource sells them.

You could also make some new ones by turning or shaving down the originals and using Titan bands around the circumference.

I'd try welding it... he should just make sure he tacks symetrically... every 120 degrees for a total of three tacks should do it. These motors were never all that well balanced in the first place.

Motor cooling fans are actually not an unusual part and I've had to replace them a couple of times in my work as an electrician. If the weld doesn't balance out for you, bring the whole assembly to a local electric motor shop (every city has at least one) and they'll find you something that will fit. It won't be expensive.

$5-$10 a pop shipped on Ebay, cost you 5x as much to have a welder take a stab at it unless you have a buddy do it for free.

Not worth it when you can get one so cheap.

Thanks for the advice about it everyone.
My dad is a very experienced welder, so I think I'll have him try to weld it. I really want to have the accelerator running asap, as I have the pin set up at my parents place for the Christmas holidays, and everyone is excited to play it there.
With Christmas being a day away, I don't have time to order a fan off ebay, and I live in a small town so am not likely to find anything local. If it doesn't work, I'll look at getting a small computer style fan rigged below the motor to blow air on it, and then possibly ordering a proper replacement fan in the new year.
Thanks again for all the input everyone, I appreciate it.

sixtyfourbits dad is his welder and I'm my own, but I hear you. I'm always going to give it the college try if I can.

I never thought about the temperature.. but I have had some issues with the ball accelerator on mine. Mine had the rubbers replaced by the previous owner and with the glass removed I had the ball shooting completely out of the cabinet onto the floor. After I removed the whole assembly to do a tear down and cleanup I couldn't get the ball accelerator to work properly anymore. I did some adjusting of the height of them but still doesn't launch right the ball just kind of pops through. I was going to try replacing the rubbers again but I never thought about the temperature... Mine in out in the garage and it was probably fall when I was messing with it.

That fan looks like a shaft cooling fan for a draft inducer.
In HVAC, fan motors that move combustion products use shaft cooling fans to protect the motors from the heat.
Is that a 1/8" shaft?

Alright gang,

Has anybody ever modified/swapped their volume pot? A few things I've wanted to change:
*the taper of the stock pot is all wrong for home use, where I would love a less linear (ideally reverse audio log) slope of the volume control for finer tuning of the lower volume positions.
*Pot detents. for games like Black Hole and Spirit, where the knocker is on the same panel as the volume pot, every time the knocker fires, the volume jumps up dramatically. Detents in the potentiometer should change that.

Thoughts? Doesn't seem like a whole ton of options for 5W 100ohm resistors. Curious if anybody's had any luck modding these.

Anyone interested in a system 1 ni wumpf Mark II that was in my close encounters for about 2 weeks before I sold it. I would probably let it go for 175 shipped. I have the invoice and all the paperwork for it.

There is a good chance you have something going on with one of Z11/Z12/Z13/Z14 on the MPU. I don't have a book in front of me to check, but a logic probe will help you narrow it down once you have the schematic in front of you.

You don't need a 5W pot- the original was rated at 2W.

I would suggest this ten-turn pot. It's linear, but because each turn represents ten ohms, you get far more accuracy at lower levels when dialing it in. https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/bourns-inc/3590S-2-101L/3590S-2-101L-ND/2534352

Because it also requires far more motion in order to shift the level, it's less susceptible to knocker vibration as well. It's larger and may require a standoff.

Otherwise, for anyone looking, this should adequately replace the original on a budget: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/cts-electrocomponents/026TB32R101B1A1/CT2154-ND/203775

Try Z11 (7404 chip)
These chips are easily damaged.

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I've got a Close Encounters that is stuck in Tilt. It happened during game play, and now when if I power cycle it stays that way - tilt and game over relays locked on. A game will start, and score, but no high voltage and the lights and sounds are weird, like there's a bad connection. Relays stay locked on after starting a game.

Can't find any bad fuses or loose connections.

Thanks

Here you go guys, build your own Alien Star some assembly and parts required.

ebay.com link: Alien Star Playfield

Is this a basic issue I should be reading about somewhere?

Just re-joined the club.

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There’s not much in a system 1 game, so start with the basics: are the ground mods complete, and are there any issues with the card edge connectors?

Here is a great resource to start
https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_1

You’ll want to check all tilt and slam switches. There are a few, coin door, under pf and the one with the ball rolling on the left of the cab. Then as mbaumle says, start with grounds and connectors.

.

it was a slam switch. I had already checked and cleaned it, but as soon as I alligator clipped it, problem solved.

Hey Guys,

This post is almost a duplicate for the one I made in the Data East forum, except this is related to my Gottlieb ASM.

Has anyone here added spotlights to their Amazing Spider-Man playfield? I'm trying to research a good spotlight kit for my ASM pin. Comet has some nice kits with single and double options. Do you guys have any recommendations for this particular pin? My initial thought is adding one spotlight at the top of each pop bumper, and have them point towards middle of playfield. I know this is all a matter of opinion, but it's nice to know what you all have tried out so far.

Also, I know my playfield is not in the best condition. The paint has a light coat of clear, and a playfield protector is on top which does create some spotting, especially where "perfect" contact is made between the clear and protector. Anyway, spotlights may end up showing more playfield flaws versus complementing the artwork. Just thinking aloud.

Thanks!

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Crap! Just realized there isn't much headroom for the spotlights. The single level playfield seems too shallow. Oh well.

Spotlights usually go on the sling plastics.

Just inspecting Volcano and found all 4 pop bumper driver boards appear different.

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I see a two early ones that have not been revised to the newer spec, nothing unusual. Make sure all the solder joints are good, common failure.

The upper one (MA992) probably comes from a Bone Busters (kickback, left-below) and has a different timing and a jumper in stead of a diode.

Change:

resistor 33k (triple orange) -> 12k
resistor 150 Ohms (brown - green - brown) -> 220 Ohms
Cap should be 4u7
replace jumper wire for diode

I'll probably re-cap and upgrade them all. One less potential problem.

I also have two cabinet speakers. Is that standard?

A friend has a solid state Joker Poker with a fairly new Ni-Wumpf MPU and Rottendog driver and power supply boards. The cpu does not fully boot at power up and the displays are out. But when turning off the machine the displays come on for about two seconds and go out. Don't know if ground mods have been done or any connector re-pinning, but what could cause this and where do you guys think I should start looking?

Thanks,

Alan

I was told that the Niwumph mpu doesn't always play well with the rottendog driver board. I would check with Ace at Niwumph. he has always been super helpful when I have had issues.

Need a little advice on my Genie with some locked on coils. I already stared a topic on it here before I remembered this group

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-gottlieb-genie-system-1-three-coils-locking-on-power-up#post-5401849

If anyone can help I would appreciate it.

I'm in!!...again!!

For me pinball is 90% nostalgia based and the arcade i spent the most time at growing up had mainly all the 80B and early system 11 games. So i got a chance to play most of these when they were brand new, or still super new!

I went through an 80B phase about 15 years ago when you could pick them up for practically nothing....I had Gold Wings, Hollywood Heat, Spring Break and Genesis. Then I sold them off....went through a system 11 phase, and i'm back to 80B. Way more pricey now in comparison with 15 years ago, but still obtainable for close to a grand or under if you search and don't mind doing some work to them.

These are my latest 2. I picked up Arena about 2 months ago, followed by Bad Girls about a month later (when it rains, it pours!!). I love how odd the layouts are on these. It makes having a small collection easier to swallow. Both great games, both completely different beasts. Arena was solid and well cared for, Bad girls had some odd electrical issues and needed re pinning of most of the connectors but it's squeaky clean and probably has the best condition playfield on this title I've seen in a long time! I was also able to grab NOS translites for them both (at a substantial cost, but so worth it)!

On the lookout for a cheap Gold Wings next!
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So i'm sure this has already been covered somewhere, but since these seem to suffer from UV fading of the translites so bad, i figured i'd post this here too. When i got the new OEM translites for my Arena and Bad GirlsI picked up these LED replacement tubes for the back box off amazon....
( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XC8C222/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00 )

I'm SUPER happy with them, the color temperature is spot on with the OEM cool white fluorescent bulbs, and they run off 120. You just need to cut the wire going to the starter and ballast, and then twist it together and feed the 120VAC to the left bulb holder. That's it (I can take pics and describe better if anyoen needs it)!! Only drawback is it's a tad too bright, so i just took some white printer paper and wrapped it around the bulb once and taped it in place.....cheesy, but it made it perfect, and the bulb doesn't get hot or really even warm so no fire hazard!

Welcome back in! I agree that 80b is still best bang for buck. Just hope others dont realize this. As there is like 4 more I wanna pick up.

I just picked up a Gold Wings for $300. It has been raining and snowing so still sitting in the wife's SUV. I hope it doesn't give me as much of a headache as my Hollywood Heat did...lol.

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Lucky you, congrats and enjoy!!!! I May be grabbing a Raven soon...still would rather have a Gold Wings though.

My GW in mid rebuild a couple years ago. Probably my favorite 80B at this point. This was before I started making the ramps for it...my original was actually pretty decent.

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Looks great! Is the PF cleared, or did you put a protector over it?

Long shot but If you ever decide to sell or wanna trade let me know since you're relatively close to me.

I owned gold wings for about 7 years.
It is a fun game and can be addictive.

Maybe a stupid question. But is there a way to skip the end bonus on 80b games.

Example- today on hollywood heat I put up a monster score 25mill overall. 9 mill was in the end of game multiball bonus. I was afraid something was going to melt down after the high pitched adding points sound for what seemed like forever.

I Had enough time to go grab my phone off the charger, turn it on, boot up and take video of it adding points still. By time phone was turned on ready to go was still in the low 5 mill left of bonus.

Not with a standard board but I believe Pascal's PI-80 has an option for this? Correct me if I'm wrong PI-80 owners?