Don't blame you. I WAS going to order two - one for wall art. Not now.

Quick question...

Are the Meteor Bonus 7k inserts the same color as the Special inserts?

Mine are, yes.

Okay, thanks!

Yes, mine are.

Thank you!

So, I'd love to join the club...where does one find a Meteor?

What are the "achillies heel" parts?

The ones that are hard to replace, never work, etc?

Achilles heel parts seem to be the board connectors simply because of their age. $100 and elbow grease will fix that.

Blown out playfields and cupped inserts seem to be the norm. Rumor has it there is a whole subset of Meteors with incorrect fonts, smeared details and missing playfield text...

On location I've seen trouble with the upper drop bank quite a few times.

IMO it is worth working through those things. The game is pure great.

Not rumour. The main issue with the CPR repro playfields are missing the upper target scores. The font for the text in front of the other drop target banks is a bit light but not too horrendous. Some very fine detail is missing in some parts of artwork but unless you had an original to compare with you'd never notice.

I do love this pin. Like many others I intend for this to fill the "classic Stern" slot in my lineup.
Now I just need to find one....

I don't care for the resistor they use on the upper flipper to drop power - it scorches the under playfield area. You can put a weaker coil up there, and also make the EOS open up quicker to mimic the power level you should have there instead.

The hard to find parts are the chichlet targets on the 1-2-3 banks (and the meteor bank, if it's an earlier one - Meteor came with both chichlet and flattops during its run). I think someone might have a shapeways replacement for them, though.

The other part on classic sterns that can be hard to find are the sling parts - if they have slop in them and 'rock' there's no new replacement in their style, you have to go with Bally or Williams replacements.

Fellas, I need a little help please.

Few years ago I refurbished my playfield and let the guys I work with play the game for a few months in the shop, everything was working fine. It sat for a few More years untouched, now I’ve got it in my game room and it’s got some bugs I’m trying to work out.

I’m using an alltek mpu, new power supply, original lamp board, original driver board. New audio cables from mpu to sound board. New capacitors on sound board.

2 issues:

1. Sound is terrible, nothing missing, but cuts in and out and is scratchy, inconsistent.

2. When the ball has drained, the game takes 10 to 15 seconds to recognize the ball is sitting on the drain switch, I’m pretty sure the switch is good, I could replace the switch, but it ohms out just fine.

Any ideas?

My first guess would be that you need the bug fix rom.

Clean your volume pot first.

Is the game doing anything score-wise as you wait? If not, go into switch mode, make sure all switches are open, and drop the ball in the outhole - see if there's a delay before the switch number pops up on the displays.

It is important to check the switch with a ball to see if it registers with that. You could also try reseating the connector for the switch matrix at the MPU. I’ve had to rep in some of those due to weak and brittle pins.

How do I clean the volume pot?

No scoring is happening during this wait.

I’m checking the switch matrix

Edit: all switches are testing perfectly in switch test, The outhole triggers number 33 immediately as the ball falls into it

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=clean+potentiometer

I didn't watch many of these, but basically you take the cover off and put contact cleaner on it. Sometimes you can spray it in there without taking the cover off. One of the few times contact cleaner is the chemical you want to use in pinball.

Sometimes just moving it back and forth through its full range will get enough of the crud off so that it's clean enough.

The bug fix rom clears the sound ram specifically at bootup, meteor's sound for some reason is sensitive to random values here (why they didn't reset them on bootup I don't know originally, but they didn't.... later games don't either, but they don't have issues.) Unfortunately not available on Alltek.... Weebly's MPU includes it though.

Is the bug fix rom for the sound board?

Where do I find it to purchase?

No, it's for the mpu board. There are no sound roms on stern sb-300 boards, it's programmed externally by the mpu with data (it's basically a big timer with a simple D/A convertor)

I stuck the bugfixed meteor rom here:
https://sites.google.com/site/allentownpinball/galaxy-asm/meteora2.zip?attredirects=0&d=1

It's the factory fixed rom for the bonus bug with the added code to specifically clear the sound ram at bootup, and should be the version that Andrew has on his board.

Thank you for the link! Pardon my ignorance, is this rom for the alltek mpu?

I pulled the sound pot, took it apart, cleaned it, put it back together. Sounds are still inconsistent, but less scratchy and now volume is not all over the place, sounds cut in and out regularly

Nope, Alltek stated to me that changing the eprom on their board voids their lifetime warranty. They do not support 'custom' roms in anyway (despite having a couple on their boards already). The link is for original mpu200 roms.

Ok, I had a doh! Moment.

I finally located a manual for the allTech MPU, For some reason the jumpers on clock speed were never moved for the correct clock speeds for Mpu 200.

I guess that fixed the sound problem, but I still think the game sounds like crap and not like it’s supposed to with the original MPU.

The out hole switch issue is fixed as well

Doh!

Thank you for the super fast help guys!

Perhaps it's time to re-cap that sound board. Easy job if you have basic soldering skills and a de-soldering tool as well.

At one point I had about 8 SB-300's and was testing them all in the same game, it's amazing how some of them have a different sound, some were pitchy and some seem to play back in different speeds.

May want to check the speaker too. I had to replace the one on my game. Helped a lot!

Thank you for the suggestion. I recapped the sb300 before I posted.

Big maybe, I know it’s old, but i get clear dings and everything else including the windup of the low to high tone as the game progresses... I’ll find a suitable replacement and do that this week.

I’m not getting the spinner sound, I hear the first blip of it, but then it just glitches out.

I’m wandering if it’s the alltek mpu.

I have a flight2k in storage, I may unwrap it and grab it’s sb300 and swap it in :-/

The speaker could still be bad. Only certain frequencies may cause distortion. It could also be a bad output amplifier transistor going bad or connector issue at the SB-300. Just an FYI, F2K's sound board has a jumper wire on the back side because the game has speech. That will still work in Meteor, but not vise versa.

Honestly, likely it's the MPU and the version of the software it's running. Since you can't change it, you may be SOL.

Imagine if Henry Fonda really would come on the TV and tell us the danger has past. I think it would be appreciated

Couldn't be any more strange than what we are living now

This game theme is a relevant as any nowadays. Unless there is a virus pinball of some sort? Audience?

My Meteor was built in the 1st week of 1980. I found it where it was for sitting for 18 years unused in a sewing room and brought it home... for free ! It has the tournament play sticker on it with the 24/7 number to call

Using the information here. I have it playing just fine. Even the original battery was happily sitting in its place with no damage to the board. Boom, cut that off before I even lifted it from its spot. I keep it stock and can make it sing the high pitched panic sound till my dog starts howling along. Replacing the caps in the sound board does make it sound less coarse.

Oh Henry. Where are you?

You know, I have yet to see the movie.

Stuck at home now.. I may torture myself.

I found a few 4 ohm speakers that might be fine. I’ll try one in tonight.

Certainly someone would report this with alltek, if not I will if the speaker or amplifier isn’t bad

I refuse to use Alltek MPU's in any of my early Stern machines, I had two sound boards stuffed because of them as well as other issues, one in a Trident, and one in a Quicksilver, and they were installed correctly. Nothing but issues with them. Just my experience and my opinion of them.

I have an Alltek in my Meteor and it runs and sounds fine. I think it is one of the later Alltek boards since it doesn’t have batteries. It was in the machine when I bought it.

I’ve since been able to get a hold of the correct MPU-200 and am going to get that back in the game. I’ll be able to use the updated code with that. Not an option for the Alltek. Just going to reserve that Alltek for testing.

I haven't heard of any issues with people using the nvram-weebly mpus, in fact The Sanctum only uses nvram-weebly mpus in their classic Sterns on location and I haven't heard of them having any issues with the boards. Alltek MPUs are $199 plus S&H, and Nvram-weebly are $153 plus S&H ($7 within US).

Whridlsoncestood

+1 for Weebly - awesome dude, and his replacement MPUs not only can work with custom code, but opens up more RAM space for future development and modifications to existing game software. Seriously, can NOT get better than that.

Reports have stated, too, the the Alltek guy just refuses to modify or update the software in his boards, so the fact that Weebly likes to work with us collectors (and customers) and Alltek doesn't speaks volumes to me.

Yes, barakandl is good people. He's even chimed in many many (many) times to help people with their electronics issues, even if they aren't using his boards.

Whenever I need a reproduction board or kit, I check to see if he sells it first before looking elsewhere.

I do. What's up?

Mine had an 8 ohm speaker. I've seen both 4 and 8 ohm speakers in games so I would double check. This is the one I installed and it sounds great.

20200329_194518 (resized).jpg

I've installed these with the original Lamp driver boards on both Meteor and Flight 2000 and they look great!

https://www.cometpinball.com/products/1flux-bulbs

Color matched the inserts for the controlled lights. Made a big difference on Meteor.

I also used a few of these in the backbox GI behind the rocket exhaust:

https://www.cometpinball.com/products/fire-bulbs

It is a very nice effect!

Backbox on Meteor still has lamps but I moved to frosted white (not Super Bright) on the Flight 2000 backglass and will probably do the same on Meteor. I don't try to color match backbox GI since that usually turns out bad.

Yup, no issue here.

Note that because of Meteor's light timing, it's possible that the first handful of bulbs (on Meteor, it's the 1st Rocket Bonus) may still strobe without an extra resistor to bring current up even more..)

I replaced the amp on the sound board, now I get a hum and no sound.

Before, sound was working, but the spinner sound was crapping out.

Any ideas?

(In the pic, the brass one is the old amp)
D911958E-FFEB-4C8B-A5E6-2FE959BB0C15 (resized).jpegEA7CC8B5-F635-4875-827F-E354EEF68A66 (resized).jpeg

You likely replaced a working amp. The spinner sound cutting out is a known rom issue. There is a fixed rom that Stern released. You may have damaged a trace. Recheck your work and see if the traces go where they should. Maybe put the old amp back in.

Where did the new amp come from? Was it from ebay? There are fake parts out there and many just don't work.

Were those caps part of a cap kit? That board usually had axial capacitors. I've seen boards that had radials installed instead and I usually pull all those out and put axials back in.

Traces are good

I only had access to radials when I replaced the caps. New amp came from eBay , I’ll put the old one back in

If you can get the proper axial caps (there are several places that carry them) I would swap them out. With all the vibrations, etc of the machine it isn't good to have the large body of the cap just hanging free by the leads. If the board was meant for radial leads and the spacing matches then the are usually tight against the board and it isn't an issue.

You can try Great Plains Electronics, Big Daddy, Digikey, or Mouser and they all should have the right caps. First two may have cap kits.

Thank you bud, I usually order from mouser, Digikey , or jameco, I’ll put radials in, I’m just trying to get everything fixed on this machine with what I have on hand.

Putting the old amp back in fixed the sound again, guess I’ll be hunting down an mpu 200, alltek just sucks for meteor I guess

Can you you post a picture on your Alltek MPU and a close up that shows what ROM version is in it? I have an Alltek in mine and it works ok. Plan on pulling it out and switching back to an MPU-200

Maybe you have an older ROM on your Alltek that just needs an upgrade.