I feel like if there was something around this piece like a plastic housing it would activate the switch better. Just seems like it should be a little thicker..

Should be a simple adjustment. Bend the switch to make more contact. Bend it close to the "body" of the switch.

This tool is good to have in your kit: https://www.pinballlife.com/ultimate-leaf-adjuster-tool.html

What do I need to mount the flying dinosaurs? I assume some kind of stiff wire? I have no idea on specifics l and if I order something online I'm worried it won't be good enough (not stiff like the original stuff).

Try looking on Ebay, you might be able to find an original set with the wires

Someone recommended 20 gauge wire. I just went to my local hardware store and found something that was bendable but stiff enough to hold up the Dino and keep shape.

I made a small loop on one end and put under a nut on the playfield. Another loop on the other end and screwed into the Dino.

Getting my JP next week and buying mod stuff...

Found plenty of palmtrees on amazon Deutschland (located in Belgium) and just wondering how you guys fix these ?

Also wondering what the best scale (size in cm) is for the wrangler jeep on the right side plastic. 1/32 or 1/43 ?

Thx and looking forward to fight the dino's

Hey Everyone, my first post on pinside, and soon to be my first pinball machine! I should be picking up my Jurassic Park on Wednesday or Thursday of this week, super excited! I've tried to read some of the pages in this thread, but obviously not all of them. Any tips or tricks for a new pinball owner and a Jurassic Park?

There are two questionable things about this machine that I noticed during my plays at the seller's home. Nothing bad enough that I wouldn't purchase it, of course. First, it has a pretty loud hum that changes in volume and intensity depending on what's on the DMD. I know this is pretty common for Data East machines, but I'll be looking at ways to make this a little quieter. Definitely not as noticable during play with all the other sounds, but fairly noticeable when it's sitting in attract mode between games. I saw this thread has some ideas, including a little device that supposedly helps with the hum/noise (all sold out now I believe, but more to come) https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/data-east-speaker-noise-ideas-for-a-cure/page/18#post-6860635

Other fixes for the hum I've read about can be grounding issues, rebuilding/servicing power supplies, and/or adding a separate power supply for the audio board. I'll do more investigating when I have the machine.

The other issue was the ball seemed to want to jump off the wireform ramp (habitrail?) after you hit the gate ramp. It jumped off into the middle of the playfield, and twice at the end. Once it bounced in play across the slingshot, the other time (and far more irritating), it bounced right into the outlane. Anyone have this happen, and any easy fixes? This could be cleared up with leveling and such, so I won't really know for sure until I have the machine at my house. Thanks!

Welcome (almost)!

As you said, the hum is VERY common. It seems you've looked at the thread, so you probably know there are multiple causes... and in some cases, people really improve it and in others it never gets better. You'll need to see what works for your specific pin.

For me, I improved it a lot by adding an external power supply (you can seem my web site for info ... I also posted about it in the "noise ideas" thread) for the sound board. HOWEVER, the hum got worse when I recently added a ColorDMD . I haven't spent any time investigating that yet.

The ball jumping off the wireform isn't uncommon either. IMHO, it is more apt to happen if the game isn't leveled properly or if the playfield has recently been waxed. It could also be occurring because someone put a flipper coil in there that's too powerful, but I don't think I've seen that for anything but WMS games.

I taped on short flap to the end of the ramp plastic to prevent balls from flying off wire ramp. Did the same on my Addams Family.

altan Thanks for the info! It's funny, when I was researching this machine before I decided to purchase, I found your website and read all about the work you did on your Jurassic Park. I'll be honest, I don't even know how to solder yet, but I'm excited to learn all that stuff! So adding in external power supplies and changing out capacitors/resistors is a bit beyond my abilities for now, but we'll see how quickly I learn.

Neal_W That's a good idea for the wire ramp, if I can't get it fixed by leveling I'll be trying some fixes like that I'm sure. Thanks!

Hi!

My power switch on my JP just stopped working. So the only way to turn the machine of is to pull the power cord out from the wall socket. When I put it back the machine starts again.

I have had issues with the wall socket fuse (in the house fuse box, a sub fuse not the main ones) blowing sometimes when I turn it on and this happened this time as well. Any thoughts on the matter is highly appreciated!

/J

Replace the switch on the machine - should be able to find something that will fit.

Sent the boards (power, mpu and display) plus dmd away for testing and repair. Only thing that was found to be wrong was corrupt game rom on the mpu. The repair chap tested on a rig all day and did not get video freezing in attract mode nor when he simulated a game being played.

Got the boards back and re-installed. Played one game perfectly. Next game, skill shot did not come up on an extra ball and the mode videos stopped playing. Repeated switches being closed caused the video to jump back to where it should be before then freezing again. 3 and 4 games were worse. One instance, skill shot had trex on left side of screen, then refreshed to just left of the scope and stuck.

Wondering if the game rom is corrupt again and what would cause this. Running out of ideas and may just have to give back to the client. Not great as cannot really play the game properly as you cannot see what you should be doing.

Any thoughts?

Skippy2904

Just an off the wall thought - did you run a switch test?

Also, if the ROM is corrupt again, it must be getting some backfeed from whatever its feeding off of the board - something on the playfield shorting from one voltage to another?

Just ideas, and shooting in the dark. I'm not really sure what to think on this. Following

Have you replaced that any of the ribbon cables?

I definitely would repin that 3 pin (red/black) power connector going to the DMD controller board.

Getting somewhere! The board tech suggested disconnecting the 18v supply from CN4 to CN4 on MPU and trying again. Game ran for an hour with the skill shot sequence running / ball 1 waiting in the plunger lane without any problem and this after it froze after 5 minutes with CN4 connected.

With CN4 on the mpu disconnected, I was able to play a few games without any of the control lamps working and all the correct video sequences playing.

So now we are thinking VR1 on the power board is beginning to fail and the voltage drops causing the problem. Will order a replacement and replace C14 / 15 at the same time and see how we go.

My fallback if that does not resolve it might be to look at the control lamp diodes to see if one of those has failed and is causing some form of feedback.

Will keep you posted.

Skippy2904

Before ordering anything, I see you have a Last Action Hero. Swap power supply boards between the games. So then your LAH should now act up, if that is remotely possible, and JP should then play fine.

This is definitely an uncommon issue. To me, it seems it has to be something other than the boards you sent out for testing.

Just wanted to let you know that Skill Shot does not play during an Extra Ball if you are running the older Game ROM (any version lower than v.6.00). So this part is normal.

If you are running Game ROM v.6.00, then you should get Skill Shot during Extra Ball.

Thanks for that. Interesting that sometimes it awards the skill shot score even without the video running.

Skippy2904

Definitely an odd one. I do not have a LAH though to be able to swap.

Tested again this morning, and with CN4 disconnected still from the mpu, first ball of first game the skill shot video was frozen. Once game got going, all was well and played 7 games without any video symptoms.

Skippy2904

Damn. I must have been looking at someone else's game list.

Any friends with a DE 128x32 DMD sized pin?

This by way of explanation from the board repair chap:
“The symptoms you've described sounds like either a data or power issue. Data is ruled out as I had everything working just fine.

I suspect either the 12V or 5V to the display driver or DMD is dropping below an acceptable voltage.

The 12V regulator (VR1) is supplied from the 18V power rail.

Unplugging CN4 removes some of the load on the 18V rail (more power for the 12V).

VR1 works within a certain voltage/current range. Its 2 filter caps help to maintain a reasonable current. If it's on the way out its acceptable range is narrowed and possibly dropping out.

The 12V powers the DMD decoder ICs (back of DMD) which if dropping out would explain the freezing.

There is the possibility there's a lamp issue somewhere. That's a time consuming one to fix (going lamp by lamp)

99% of the time with these old machines the power supply is the root of the problem(s).“

For the sake of $3 worth of parts, will change out VR1 and the 2 caps.

Skippy2904

You should plug the game into a power strip and turn it on/off with the switch on the power strip until you get a new switch installed.

Plugging in a game while power switch is on creates high surges of current that is not good for the electronics. Soon you will have something else fail that normally would not otherwise.

Apologies if someone did this and posted it already. I did a search and only found someone asking if this would work.

I just installed Pingraffix Powerbladez meant for Stern JP into my DE JP.

Watch "Pingraffix PowerBlades for a Stern Jurassic Park Installed in a Data East Jurassic Park" on YouTube

Yeah, not sure what you mean by a power strip but I’ve not turn the machine on since I discovered the issue. Will replace it. The game used to sometimes blow the fuse in the house. Do you think it’s related to the pin power switch failing? Would be sweet if I solve both these issues.

Thanks for you reply btw

Yeah, I’ll do that. Strangely it seems that the pinball spare parts seller don’t unusually have them. I only found one at Marco for approx 18 dollar. I will try one from a electronics store for 2dollars first. A 240v 10A dp/st

Power strip. I am sure you can get one for 208v.

Have to eliminate one issue at a time.
a2492835868dded95eba9039c8b315483daa61c8_furmanss6b2_3-1 (resized).jpg

I'm attempting to get my JP back to functioning after the raptor pit coil cooked along with the tip36c and surrounding components on the ppb.

It's been a while since I turned on JP, and now I'm noticing there are some coils that fire immediately upon switching the game on and then cut out, like the controlling PIA on the MPU is activating them momentarily. Does this happen to anyone else?

The other issue I'm now having is poor 5v that starts off too low and warms up to a marginally acceptable level after the game has been on I'm going to work on the power supply board to address that.

Yes, sometimes when I turn on my JP, I hear some coil fire 'bang' but it always boots up normally, so I guess it is just a momentary thing and no coils are stuck on. Mine has been working fairly reliably for the 5yrs I have owned it, so I'm not worried about that.

Just got my 2nd JP. This one is a project. Didn't realize until tonight I am completely missing the up/down assembly for the trex. I found the motor, but I cannot find the crank arm or the motor cam assembly anywhere. Does anyone have any leads on where I might be able to find these? Part numbers are 535-6657-00 and 515-5814-00.

Sounds like a shorted 7408 IC that is between the PIA and the driver transistor. You can measure from ground to each pin of the IC and compare to another next to it. Likely you will see at least one pin measure with less than 100 ohms to ground.

Sounds like you need to replace the old capacitors on the original DE power supply. C2 100uf 25v, C3 47uf 63v, C4 1000uf 25v and C7 330uf 25v as all these can leak and cause issues, as these small capacitors are in high heat areas of the board and get dried out.

And do not forget the bridge rectifier on the power board. They can register ok, but in fact be failing.

Skippy2904

A measure on the 12volt rail tells me quite a bit, espec when it under 10.5 volts. I do not change it until I see the results of the capacitor replacements.

Also there is the CN1 with burnt pins to inspect for before changing the hard to replace bridge rectifier.

My power switch is broken/shorted. Its a 20A switch. I’ve talked to 4 different non-pinball owners and they all say that a 5A switch is enough. What do you guys say?

E8DA864E-AC24-4B8E-AFDC-23359FF6D87F (resized).jpeg

You’re voltage 220vac? If so, you could use 5 amp, but 10 amp would give you a lot more room.

Just joined the JP club! This thing is barebones… No LEDs…. No Mods…. Old code…
I could use any tips you guys got as far as bulb selection and I’m a noob so no clue how to update to Chads code.

3F3824EE-8EDB-424C-BF5B-600B172042FE (resized).jpeg

Before installing Chad’s code(which is very easy -power off, remove the original chip, install Chad’s chip), I suggest you play the machine with the original code for awhile so you can really see the difference in codes once you switch.

I got a frw games in today. Definitely a tougher pin than my LW3…. That Raptor shot is fast!!!!
Thanks for the heads up!

Yes, 220V. What will happen if 5A isn’t enough? It will blow? Or would something else blow? When I did some tests the machine used around 200W and a 5A switch can handle 1100W? (220x5=1100) is this “math” correct?

Thanks for the reply btw!

Since you're at 220 VAC, using 200 watts, you would be pulling around 1 amp, so a 5 amp switch would be just fine.

Your math is correct.

If a switch is subject to higher amps than it is rated for it will get hot due to the contacts in the switch melting, and probably start smoking as it continues to burn. By the time the switch starts burning, it likely shorts, and your outlet protection should kick in and trip the house breaker.

I don't think you will need to worry about using the 5 amp switch - just make sure the 5 amps is at 220 VAC.

Hi
So my game did not come with black legs, could someone tell me what length the black legs are?

Thanks Jim

They're 28.5". Good luck finding black legs for cheap though. PBL typically has them for 60 and they were out of stock. I ended up buying red legs and I think they look pretty nice.

Thanks!

Forum has been kind of active lately, check this one out.

So, my JP will randomly fire all coils in place of the flashers. So, in Diagnostic mode (Video Below) when I get to the Flasher Test it will fire all the coils in succession like its firing flashers but it’s not. When you get to the Coil test its works perfectly fine. Sometimes the Flasher test will work properly, and the Flashers will flash during the Flasher test like they are supposed to. I have not been able to determine what makes it change or how to stop it from messing up when it does, but I know it is not a permanent problem. We were thinking that maybe some wires where to close and the signal was jumping over or something, does not really make sense, but idk. I tried just reseating connectors and moving and jostling the wires with no change. It does this during the game when its messing up and it’s a bummer.

Any Ideas?

Well, replaced the VR1 and the 2 capacitors next to it on the power supply board. First game with CN4 (control lamps) plugged in and the game played properly including an extra ball with lots of mods and even the 6 ball multi ball. Game ended with a match. Started a second game straightaway and after the start up sequence, the skill shot was frozen. Flipped the flippers a couple of times and the trex in the skill shot then appeared further across the screen where it stayed even after plunging the first ball. Dis-connected CN4 from the mpu and video continued not to work properly. The game only occasionally suddenly displaying what it was supposed to!

Perplexing.

I have visually checked all diodes are connected and in good shape. Ones on the flippers look to have been replaced or soldered in the past.

Any other thoughts gratefully received?

Skippy2904

something with the relay on page 53/54. I think it would be a problem with the relay, or the signal telling the relay to switch.

edit: the L/R relay, also on page 35 and 88.

Thanks man! Then I don’t need worry any more.

C2 was likely the culprit for failing 5v. I could not tell until I removed it that it leaked underneath. I did replace all the recommended caps and have a reliable 5v instantly at power up.

I analyzed the MPU on the bench and could not pinpoint any issues. The 7408s that drive the coils showed no issues.

I fixed up the PPB, installed it and powered on the game. No coils are firing upon power up like they were and raptor pit is not locked on. Everything seems to be working as it should. Perhaps failing 5v was to blame.

Since I've had the raptor pit cook a couple of times, I installed a fuse for that coil just in case it happens again.

That’s Exactly IT!! The L/R Relay. Thanks!

Good day all. The light issue on my JP is resolved. The wires going to the JP gate and the Control room were mixed up by the pervious owner. The cables for the lights are next to each other and blue trace and the grey trace are almost the same so it is easy to mix them up. I switched the wires and issue now resolved.
I just received my saucer, and the five Trex switches so will replace them one at a time and see if if resolves my Trex issue. Trex always goes to the saucer a second time after eating the ball.