Firepower
Williams, 1980You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider ApplePie.
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Following along! Embarking on a full resto up here in the frozen north. Great winter project. Here are my boards in all their glory. Still have a few things to address but have done most of Vids recommendations and Andrews solenoid fuses. This one is a no brainer, Q12 burned clear through the board at some time...
I haven't started a resto thread yet as I'm just getting into this now and want to make a little more progress before writing anything up. I am taking some pictures along the way so will have something reasonably decent to post as I progress. I'll post a note for you guys when I set something up 
Travish, congrats on the CPR playfield! I was watching that one too! And yes, IDC connectors are a pain in the ass. I had several cooked ones on my Sorcerer when I got it, all GI related pins. I haven't really thought about replacing them on Firepower. Did you go the Molex route? Be thankful that these are at lease 0.156" pins. The 0.100" pins on the older Bally and Stern are enough to drive a guy to drink
Quoted from La_Porta:Excellent! How's your cabinet and play field? I'd love to see the rest of the machine. The boards look good...it appears you have done pretty much everything I have as well. I also replaced each and every electrolytic cap that I could on the sound board, as well as the lone ones on the driver and CPU board. What else do you have in store?
Cab and head are pretty rough. I will sand and repaint them for sure. Just a matter of time! Playfield, well that's another story altogether. Will post something on that in a week or two
One thing that drives me bananas is the transformer in the backbox. Not only is it so darn full in the backbox already, it's bloody heavy! I'm going to relocate mine to the cabinet at the back. Molex connectors and some extra wire. Also going to fuse the rectifiers at the same time since it was never done on this pin. Something about a burning pin in the basement doesn't really appeal to me that much...
Quoted from dzorbas:Come one, it's not that frozen! At least not near Toronto! Maybe in Calgary...
You guys are putting me to shame! I've done some odds and ends to my boards but I haven't gone nearly as far as you. My attitude is that if it ain't broke, don't mess with it. I thought about redoing all of my connectors but I've had almost zero issues. I did replace some caps, transistors, resistors, etc. based on Vid's suggestions but nothing like you guys!
ApplePie are you documenting your work in a thread? I love following this stuff!
A chilly minus 16 C here today 
Although it makes for a good "sitting around on your ass with the soldering gun and a table full of electronics" kind of day! I've followed Vid's guides and have incorporated all the fixed that i could find parts for. Just a couple of tricky to locate caps and connectors then the boards should be done. And a few labels as well (can't be the only one who doesn't label the fuses).
Quoted from La_Porta:The rectifier mod was the easies thing that I've done. For the protection it gives, there's no reason not to. What's the issue with your transformer?
No real issues with the transformer. Since I've got the whole thing apart I would rather have it in the cabinet than jamming up the backbox. Did it on an earlier Stern and it is simple when everything is apart.
Quoted from Travish:Yes that's what they are called. Quick and easy for manufacturing but not so good for long term reliability. Molex connectors are cheap and with new turficon pins they will outlast me. I change every one first off. Power supply too.
Good idea. A nice big order to Great Plains Electronics and an evening in front of a hockey game on the tube and that should look after that! Looks like my list keeps growing though!
@ dzorbas :
Quoted from dzorbas:lit ball locks (clear with green lights)
Quoted from dzorbas:post flashers that light up when you hit the pop bumpers and the slings
After I posted I was cruising Marco's website and found the transparent eject hole plastics, sold out of course! Maybe I will start with red and then watch to see if they get clear back in stock sometime. I really like the look of the green. Wiring another bulb in parallel with the lock light makes sense. Thanks!
If anyone happens to recall the post flashers please let me know.
Created a new fuse block to replace the GI/logic fuse block. New one splits the four GI into four individually fused lines (one backbox, one coin door, two playfield) at 5A each rather than one at 20A. Also has the new 8A bridge rectifier fuses. Moving the transformer to the cabinet leaves lots of room in the backbox for this.
Quoted from Skins:Can you point me to where you bought the single plastic fuse holders. Thank you.
https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=354001GY
Single and multiple fuse holders/blocks available from GPE
Quoted from dzorbas:I can provide pictures if you need them.
Thanks for the info on ejects and flashers. I'll chase this stuff down and hit you up later for anything I can't figure out.
I take the complete wiring harness off the playfield. Here is how I do it, others may approach it differently I suspect!
First I snip the solenoid connections leaving 1/8" of colored wire showing at the coil lugs. This helps when you reassemble later, making sure you connect the correct colors again.
I unscrew all the switches and leave them attached to the harness. You will want to tape the switch stacks with some masking tape so they don't fall apart.
The lamps are a combination of GI (yellow and yellow/white wires and lamp sockets without diodes) and controlled lamps. I pull all the staples from the GI braid, cut the pop lamp leads, and unscrew all the lamps.
After this your wiring harness should be free of the playfield. You will notice that there are actually three separate wiring harnesses with a few crossover locations (namely the pop switches and lamps and solenoids plus a few GI connections). If you keep track of the crossover locations it's not too bad to put back together.
Depending on what you have in mind for your resto you can now clean each harness separately and restore or replace components as you see fit.
I should mention that there are a few different approaches to labeling wires and connections. I tend to not label anything until after I have cleaned the harness and replaced components. The wiring diagrams including the switch and lamp matrix diagrams make it pretty easy to label everything after it is cleaned up. Again, personal preference. Here are a couple of pics of my firepower wiring harnesses.
Anything I can help with or if you have any specific questions let me know
Quoted from La_Porta:Very nice technique. With the solder points between the wiring harness and the GI lights, I was planning on just desoldering the the wires from there since I plan on using the harnesses from my current play field. The logic there is that the harnesses currently on the restoration play field are a bit hacked up, so I am looking at where I can use what is on it (like the GI traded wiring) and replace with what I know works. Did you desolder those linkages?
Yes, you can easily desolder the GI lamp wiring from the rest of the harness. Easy way to get the remainder of the harness off for the swap.
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Calgary, AB
Benton, PA