I've seen good prices from 7pcb.ca as well as miselectronics.com. ocmmanufacturing.com is local to me but I don't know much about them.

Thanks! Once I finish up the Spinner board, I'll get quotes from them. I'll post results here, too, for comparison down the line later.

Sure, it would be nice to have a comparison. There are so many vendors for this work and once a reliable/affordable one is found then we can all throw them some love. And cash.

Sorry for being a pest about this: I'm an electrician and fairly active in my union local. I try to practice what I preach. The industries we have left that haven't been fully outsourced to the third world, well, we need to keep those jobs here. In North America we've spent the last thirty years kneecapping our own families and neighbours to save a few bucks on underwear and auto parts. Now we're all paying the price.

Whoops, getting political... but if there is one thing that I'd like to think *everyone* can agree on in these divided times it's that spending money in North America is good for North America.

Anyone have a decent meteor backglass for sale? The one I picked up has a terrible BG

What's yours look like? I might be interested in taking if off your hands once you find a better bg.

While I agree with your thoughts, the problem is is that most people vote with their wallet. (And, I do too - often. I ain't immune to it.)

I have the Spinner and Bonus X boards just about done. Once they are, I will get quotes from those above, see what they offer.

On another note, I will admit that I am *quite* surprised by the current company that is making the Rocket LED board. Not only have they worked with me on a couple issues (logistics, clarifications, even helped define and explain a procedure that I hadn't run into with the earlier producer I had (the one that messed up the last board..) On to top that, they have *literally* been sending me daily updates.

A shot of the sample board they're sending me is attached. There IS silk screen on it, but they weren't aware that the red ink isn't fully opaque. Apparently, noone ever ASKED for Red on Black before. So, they refunded me the price of this sample board (essentially getting it for free) and I'll be changing the ink color on the full run. This picture (and a handful of others) were sent on this morning's (their evening) daily update.. The board is finished, now they assemble the parts onto it.

One of the changes I'm going to do is slightly round the corners. They look far too sharp in this image.

IMG_4157 (resized).JPG

IMG_4166 (resized).JPG

That looks sharp. Can't wait to see it in action.

Looking great! I can’t wait to get my hands on a set.

Hey guys -
I posted an update in the thread I started, and will likely try to keep all updates there (because I'm so scatterbrained that if I don't, I'll forget to post, double-post, or just do something crazy.) But, the board is finished and on a slow boat from China. (..Literally.) I'm rather excited. I'm no professional, and this is the first thing I've ever 'mass produced'.

Anyways -
My real reason for this post is to ask -
What is the 'PAA Sticker' on the IPDB Meteor page? Where did it go? My game doesn't have one, and wondering if I should worry about getting a replacement.

--Mike

That was an ad for the Pinball Association of America. Steve Kirk was the founder and president.

My machine has that sticker removed, and whoever removed the solvent also smeared the paint on the apron.

I've searched high and low for a replacement. Putting on a nice mylar sticker would probably be infinitely less trouble than replacing or re-stencilling an apron.

You can see the sticker on the apron in this picture:

http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1580&picno=26032&zoom=1

Did anyone call the hotline # back in the day?

Huh. Mine looks like it was never installed. (Or, was an apron from a different game.)
Thanks guys. I accidentally posted about it in my light board thread as well, d'oh.

I did all the mods to install 7-digit displays and assembled Pinitech kits for the Meteor. It was a lot of work but the Pinitech kits save a ton of money. I think the blue looks great. At some point I will post a detailed list of everything needed to do this mod if anyone is interested.

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I've been interested in doing this for some time and would love to know more.

Hey John, I thought you sold, your Meteor?

Those LED kits look awesome. I'm thinking of an orange set myself.

Joined the club yesterday! She's got a few issues and needs a good cleaning but I think I did pretty well.

The "1" targets reset on a new ball but not when all 3 are down during play. Any ideas where to start?

Check to make sure all three score when they go down, if one of them doesn't, you made need to adjust that switch. That is where I would start.

Also, congrats.

Looking for spring 5A-171 - drop target return springs. They are out of stock at Marco with no "sample" spring to run a comparison, and action pinball they are stupid expensive. Does anyone know of a substitute part number? They are 1" at rest and there are a bunch of parts that look like they might fit the bill (#265-5003-02) but could be thicker, thinner, etc. My google-fu has failed me.

When I get back from NYC this weekend, let me check my past orders. I ordered some at the beginning of this year, and don't remember who I got them from.

epic looking machine!

I was thinking about selling it, but the game keeps growing on me. Plus this one is so nice, I might not find another like it if I want one back. That is especially true now with the new displays.

Cool. Maybe I’ll see it @ FPF again.

I would love to find a really nice condition Meteor
in the Midwest, but every time I find one they are always beat to hell.

You could always pick one up and then wait to see if CPR pulls the trigger on the Meteor playfield.

WHich means -
If you (anyone!) hasn't signed up for a playfield, DO SO!

Not a bad idea.

Just signed up at CPR.

I asked Kevin about a Meteor repro pf, even if they do decide to run it, it will be a long time before they can even get to it. They have many pf's to do before hand. A back glass repro would be nice too. Even my NOS has some issues. At least we have nice repro plastics available!

I just picked up another Meteor with a decent pf. It was running fine until today. I started a game and now the upper flipper is chattering, machine gunning. Any ideas? I'm thinking EOS problem?

Usually a bad coil, or bad secondary switch on lower flipper

Thanks. I'll take a look at it later tonight.

Check for a broken coil wire before adjusting the switch. I spent an hour trying to adjust the switch when I found that the secondary cool wire had broken from the lug.

Looking for someone willing to help me out with a scan of the missiles above the flippers on the playfield. I have a wear spot there I'm working on restoring, but I really need a decent scan. Please let me know if you are willing and able to help.

I'd do it if I had something to scan with.

On my meteor the first two displays take about 5 minutes to warm up after turning on the machine. No display at all, then bam. Same thing on the other displays when using the 1p and 2p harness so it should be something on the board I guess? Anybody seen this before? I couldn't find a similar symptom on google.

Also, what playfield angle are you guys running?

Sounds odd. If the problem stays in the same spot, then the high voltage section of your driver board probably needs rebuilt, or at least new caps. It doesn't sound like a short or you'd pop a fuse, but it might be bad connectors.

You can test the high voltage with a DMM and make sure it is high enough. If it's under 190 you can bump it a little (there is a pot on the board) at a time and see if that helps. Just don't go higher. The lower you can have it and they work the longer the displays will last. And remember it is high voltage and can zap or maybe kill you so be careful. If you have a strong 180-190 on the test, check the display wiring.

Playfield angle I use about 6 for the older games. Might adjust up or down depending on how it plays and how well the flippers are doing.

The HV for all displays comes from the same pin on the driver board, so if some display positions are fine it can't be a driver issue.

That was the part I couldn't remember off the top of my head. I thought it might have been split on the board.

Then I'd suspect connectors first.

Doesn't seem like anything is loose after reseating everything and watching the displays. The first two displays work with the 3p connector so it has to be whatever is feeding the displays, but what part would need to "warm up" for the 1 and 2 player outputs only? They don't start together but usually within a minute or two of each other.

So, I really don't know what's going on with that. My guess if the power is good, then it's signal lines to the displays. Possibly an MPU problem, but I couldn't tell you what on the MPU would affect it.

If it was my game, I'd still check the actual voltage coming out of the driver board and see if that changes over time, just to rule it out.
I'd then check MPU connections (pull and reseat with game off, maybe wiggle some at startup). If the pins look non shiny I'd probably repin them. I quite often repin all the MPU, lamp driver and solenoid pins in the backbox to make things more stable. If I was still having the problem, I'd swap the MPU.

Luckily I keep an extra working MPU around. I usually use an Altek to get games up and running and then fix up the original board if possible so I could try that easily and cheaply.

I hope someone else has a more specific solution for you. Maybe create a thread specifically about the player 1 and 2 needing to warm up before working and you may find someone else that has experienced this and can help out specifically.

So fellow Meteorites, I've got a scoring issue.

A couple of drop targets keep scoring after the initial hit and i'm assuming the capacitor on the switch is going. My question is, should i replace the cap or just cut it out?

Drop targets don't have caps. There is an additional blade that holds the switch closed when the target is down, so no need for a cap to help detect a quick closure. Check the switches and clean and adjust as necessary.

So I forgot to update. The displays warming up problem was due to low voltage from the driver board. Adjusted the pot on that board up to 90 and I'm back in business. Now if I could just figure out the spinner sound issue...

try wiggling the connectors with the game on. particularly the mpu connectors.
If it reboots, repin those connectors.

Yeah, I meant diode and not capacitor; Too many different simultaneous projects. I've cleaned and gapped, but I'll double check.

Weird spinner sounds are due to a CMOS RAM problem. Either you have mismatched chips or they are too slow. Make sure U8 and U13 match and are of the 150ns variety.

Here's the thing though: alltek board in this meteor.

I had the same issue. Do master clear on the board.

I have done that a few times no luck. My suspicion at this point is something on the sound board. Alltek said they'd be happy to check my board out for me to rule it out I just have to get it to them some time. I'm going someone local will have an alltek or a sound board I can swap in to test real quick at some point.

What RAM does it have on the board? My friend had an Alltek with a Zeropower NVRAM (not factory) and it caused issues with the spinner sound.

843240E5-5AAA-41A6-8EE3-7632485B2DDC (resized).jpeg