Robotworkshop Those are great suggestions. I put a label on each of the various connectors that came out of the MPU before I unplugged it and took several before pics to be sure I put it back right. I did note there are actually two cables from the old SB and I labeled them so I would put them in right, but I could be wrong. I did not remove any pins, the last two had been removed by a previous repair (I assume there was some solder in the holes but no pins). I have the game all put to sleep for the night but will be back at it tomorrow afternoon and will take some pictures of the adapter and the MPU itself. This game technically "worked" when we bought it but I have had to do a lot of cleaning and resoldering of connections all over under the playfield. The last week alone I spent fixing stripped post holes (I did at least 10 dowel+glue fixes on the playfield). I also have a half-dozen lights that don't flash or light when they should. Otherwise it did work before today, but I didn't just put in the J5 adapter, I had to remove the board and solder in the two missing pins (I am not the steadiest hand either so who knows).

I will triple check the orientation of all the connectors to the headers and see what I can do then post some pics tomorrow afternoon.

DickHamill Thanks for the speedy reply!

I get 4 flashes and a solid light on the MPU, and the Arduino lights as well like it is booting. When I have the SB-300 only plugged (adapter off) in I get some of the game sounds and boot beeps like normal but only the GI lights . Fortunately this is my "shop" game and even though I have it next to my other machines, it is okay to be offline for a day or so (I can get practice on my Breakshot and Goldeneye )

I am going to check things tomorrow with the multimeter and see if anything is screwed up. I will post pics if I can't get it sorted everyone is so helpful I am confident I will get it there eventually.

DickHamill and Robotworkshop I got to pull out the multimeter and pop open the backbox of the meteor and my suspicion has been confirmed. The 33 and 34 pins at J5 on the MPU200 board have continuity between them . I am pretty sure they should not have a connection. There is definitely NOT a solder bridge on the new pins (checked and if anything there was too little solder but the connection is solid and continuity is good). So, this means (I believe) there is either a short on the MPU itself, or somewhere else in the game. I am sure if I removed those two pins again the game would function fine in "classic" mode, but I would rather solve the problem . . . . or just buy the damn Alltek board, but will try a little longer before I do that.

Anyway, I don't think you need to see pix, it is just a J5 with 34 pins (male) with the key pins cut. I am just wondering if either of you have any suggestions where I could look? I have the manual and schematics so I will sort our where those pins connect etc. but if one of you has a obvious place you would check I would love any advice.

TIA - John

DickHamill I apparently suck at keeping my probes from touching inside the machine on those pins. I pulled the board to retest and potentially remove those pins but they are NOT connected . But, the game hasn't worked right since I put those and otherwise haven't changed anything. I did note that the pins I installed are copper and slightly shorter than the original ones. But, my (fairly ugly) J5 adapter does fit pretty well. I'd rather not remove and put in a new header on the MPU (if the pins are the issue) but can do that if needed.

I did include a few pics below of my MPU and the J5 pins but nothing strikes me as odd.

I am going to try putting it together without the adapter and see if I can get it to boot like normal. If by chance it does I will try the adapter again, if it doesn't I will take careful note of the LED flashes to see if that tells us anything. I would of course like to just replace all the boards with Alltek but would rather not spend a ton more ATM if it not strictly necessary (trying to get another machine because however many we have is never enough).

I will do some more tinkering and again, thanks for ALL your help.

-John

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DickHamill I got it working in "classic" mode without the J5 adapter. I am going to let it be for the time being and will probably try the new code again next weekend. I did get the code to work (the attract mode only) yesterday but nothing more then the game would not work. It could have been something as simple as I didn't reseat all the connectors well enough last time (they looked good but who knows) or something like that.

I have some other new parts coming and will be installing those then I will give the adapter another shot. Maybe I need to order a second board and try and do a better job soldering. It has been a few years and I am older and less steady, but I can do better than the above pictures.

Anyway, for now here is a pic if it running the "classic" code.

Thanks
John

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From the pictures I'm not surprised that it isn't a solid running board. I see oxidation on the pins of several IC's. I'd wash the board, pull out all the IC's, clean the leads on them carefully, test each chip, and for good measure would consider replacing all the DIP sockets. I'd also replace that header on the TOP with a fresh one using the correct longer pins.

Also there are two different 5101 chips (I try to keep them matched) and they need to be fast versions of those chips. One appears to be soldered in which is odd. Both of those would be in sockets and again I would put in new sockets here as well.

DickHamill I definitely see the issues on this MPU, this entire machine was like this when I got it. I have gone through and cleaned out an insane amount of "solder blobs" and terrible joints under the playfield and I know that if I want this MPU to make it much longer it need to be completely cleaned and fixed up. In fact, I am thinking the issues using the J5 adapter may relate to just how iffy the MPU itself is. I think my best option may just be to replace the MPU and the light board (that one is pretty ugly too), or to take them both out and clean them up severely, but that will probably wait until we get another machine so we can leave this one decommissioned longer.

Thanks for your advise, I will probably be back here asking questions in a month or so when I get the Alltek MPU and try again .

Has anyone been able to run this successfully on an MPU200? I only recall the posts where people had issues. I have a stable board I'm excited to try this on but would love to hear that it is working for someone with the same setup that I'll have.

Awesome. Thanks for your continued work on this.

I am having similar issues that Robotworkshop is having. I am curious to see what DickHamill finds with the MPU-200 boards. If you need me to run some test on my board, please let me know. I do have a RoyGBev board and everything is original in the Meteor that I have.

I already sent a spare MPU-200 board that is due to arrive today. I'm sure it will all get sorted out!

Are those having issues with MPU-200 boards running NVRAM on them? I am not so I'm wondering if that might have something to do with it (though you wouldn't think it would since RAM ROM and CPU are bypassed.

I've been playing the heck out of it and loving it.

Charles_Kline hello fellow CO resident and Meteor owner! I do not have NVRAM on my MPU-200 but I also apparently have no battery either. I ordered one of those remote battery holders with the blocking diode and will install that this weekend. I have read some MPU-200 machines will work without a battery for the RAM but will eventually have timing and junk data issues without one. From what I understand most NVRAM solutions don't necessarily help with the memory issues and I don't mind changing batteries every year or so. I did post some pictures of my MPU earlier in this thread and it is pretty rough but seems to work fine without the J5 adapter. The issues started when I plugged in my Bally/Stern OS adapter and all I could see from the new code was a different attract mode, but nothing else loaded. I eventually was able to reseat all the cables just right and my game works but still have not gotten the 2021 code to work . I will probably mess with it some more this weekend after I install the new batteries.

Did you have to change ANYTHING in the code or how it was connected to your MPU-200?

Thanks,
John

Nope, once I got the power jumper on right it fired right up.

No, just the fast 5101 RAM chips with a coin cell. I've always heard there was something odd in the original Meteor code that didn't play nice with NVRAM. Use NVRAM on Flight 2000 just fine.

The NVRAM or RAM shouldn't be an issue as I don't think you even need them. I didn't try just removing them (which would be a good test) to see if the issues cleared up or not. Didn't want to have to go there since you loose the option of switching back the original game easily.

Glad it made it there safe! Hope it helps pinpoint the issue.

They do you have to reset the ram manually one you install it (go to each audit location and clear it). If it's meteor you do need a patched rom or the sound is messed up at bootup, but it wil still work fine.

Yes, something with the sound driver on meteor causes the glitch at bootup with sound. Patched versions available (or already included in recent weebly boards).

Neither of this should affect the arduino add on though, it's not addressing the ram AFAIK.?

This insanely cool. I have a few nanos laying around. I just got my meteor back together after a playfield paint and clear. After I work out a few playfield bugs, I'm doing your conversion. The ever increasing sine waves on Meteor get pretty annoying after a while. I'll post a video when I'm done.

Is mine working just a fluke?

The prior code worked well on an Alltek and Bally -35 board but it had issues on all 4 different MPU-200 boards that I happened to have. So far the update fixed that issue and it seems to be solid on all the boards I've tested with so far!

The update also worked fine for me! I am in the process of shooting a short how-to video on the install and hope it will help other people setting it up. I just ordered the WAV trigger today, and will include that in the video when it comes.

That is awesome news! If you run into any issues with the WAV trigger I can help. I've updated the firmware on a couple of them already.

I had some time over lunch break today so I played some Meteor 2021 and did a Facebook live stream to one of the pinball groups.

https://www.facebook.com/100001036450126/videos/4199095806801593/

Also recorded one to post to Youtube.

Had a pretty decent first game then went downhill from there. I was trying to complete Orpheus mode but kept loosing it right after starting it.

Your call outs really are great.

I think we all wanted to see more of your puppy in the next video...

One thing I've been thinking about with the new sounds is the recognizable Star Wars sounds, the Hyperdrive fail when loosing a ball and the Throne Room/End Title song from A New Hope, its kinda takes you out of the game because they are so recognizable.

I picked up the movie on Laserdisc and I'm going to take notes while watching it, surely there are a few Sean Connery lines we can use as call outs.

One awesome aspect of the project is that if you find sounds you like better you can easily swap them out by replacing the appropriate one on the microSD card. Just remove the existing sound and put a new one in its place with the same first three digits of the sound number. Has to be a WAV file and I think to format is 16-bit at 44.1Khz stereo. I've found the Audacity tool great for converting and editing audio assets for use.

Here is a source that has some other Sci-Fi type sounds: https://www.epidemicsound.com/sound-effects/science-fiction/

I've been wanting to find a Meteor project for almost a year and this sound mod makes me want to step up my search! If anyone has a lead on a sub-$1K project Meteor (doesn't have to work), please PM me. This mod is very cool!

I've only made it about halfway through the movie so far but I had an idea for another mode, if there is room in the code for it.

A "Re-align the Hercules Rockets" mode where it would call out the re-align to 'Angle 31.2' or 'Vector 13.1' (whatever you think sounds coolest) where it could call out a pseudo random combination of the 1,2,3 drop targets and you'd have to hit them in that order to complete the mode. You could flash the lights next to each drop in the sequence.

PLEASE do Galaxy next!!! It’s such a beautiful game and just needs a rule tweak to be perfect.
I’d even lend you mine if it moves it along!

Nice project!

Is this a "kit" with directions that a regular pinball dude can install? I have a new pf coming and my gal would go crazy if I swapped it, did the full restore and fired it up with this awesomeness on it.

Not a "kit" but super easy to do with RoyGBev's board.

Are there plans to add sounds from the Stern soundboard to this game or is it wav trigger only?

This is fantastic! Thank you for all the hard work putting something like this out there for everyone to enjoy and to give some love to some older pins that need it. I just picked up a Meteor yesterday and have ordered the a nano, sparkfun wav board, and Roy G Bev's PCB and am really looking forward to putting it all together and trying this out for myself.

I see the install calling for using PC speakers. Has anyone done a more permanent speaker install? I have had luck in Arcade1UPs using the cheep-o amazon amplifiers. I am planning to pair one plugged into the service outlet with with either inexpensive speakers or exciters that I can hopefully mount inconspicuously in the head, and wire to the boot selector switch so that it toggles with the selection and minimizes any feedback present. (I included links below to what I have used in the past)
- 3.5mm to RCA https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071R4R5B8/ref=ewc_sw
- 2 Channel Amplifier https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C1Q1FPT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01
- Small 3W Speakers https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CHYIU26/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01
- Sound Exciter Pair https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EYEM8C/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_5

Lastly, once I get this up and running, I was thinking about changing some of the background music to pull in some of the Space Mountain queue music, since it feels sufficiently "Spacey" without pulling you into any one particular sci-fi franchise. I added some clips from youtube queued up to memorable parts below incase anyone else wants to go in the same direction.