Besides waiting on a replacement transistor for the 3rd player display, Meteor is fully operational.

I did some rearranging in the game room to put Meteor and Firepower next to each other.
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Quick help - can someone post a picture of the two ribbon cables running from the sound board to the MPU?

Mine are not plugged in properly (wrong pins) and I can't get the machine running correctly, I think that is the problem. Why the hell did they make more pins on the board(s) than the ribbon cables have???? It's driving me crazy.

So if I could get a shot of the ribbon cables showing the clear order of pins used on the sound board, and then a shot of the MPU showing the clear order of connect I would really appreciate it!

One more whole shot of the ribbon cables also, mine appear to "cross" ie: the J1 is on the first row on the sound board but connects to the second row on the MPU and the J2 is on the second row on the sound board but connects to the first row on the MPU.

-Nate

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Pins 33 and 34 are not used. I have seen 16 pin and 17 pin cables on these games. If you have the 16 pin ribbons, leave pins 33 and 34 open on the sound board. Same with the J5 on MPU if it has 34 pins. Make sure the ribbon connectors are matched to the numbers on the connector, pin 1 from sound board to pin 1 on J5 and so on. . Be sure there is no gap between the 2 ribbon connectors.

Also inspect the ribbon where it mates with the connector, if 1 wire breaks or dislodges, no workie. I'm pretty sure Weebly has replacements for these.

Thanks, I will get this into place and report back, it seems like this is making my game act up, I will inspect the wires, although they seem very hard to diagnose since they are very thin and coated with the plastic "ribbon". Urgh.

I do have 17 pin cables.

Nate

Besides a visual inspection, if you have some new .100 header pin strips that you haven't used yet, place them into the connectors on each end and test with VOM. If your meter has a continuity test option with an audible sound, that would be the best, if not I suggest you buy the Fluke 117 for pin work.

I don't have any of those .100 header pins, I do have a continuity setting on my meter. I'm very "green" to this stuff but doing my best to learn. Thank you again, I'm getting ready to reseat those ribbon cables.....

Got the ribbon cables installed correctly.

When I turn on game, it goes through the 7 chimes and all score displays are lit.

Pressing the start button causes the machine to go into a loop of constantly resetting, and I have no reaction in slings pops, etc.

Above link is a video, really appreciate any guidance, I'm ready to play!!

Check and see is trough/outsole switch is stuck closed.

What Lovef2k says.The game is seeing your outhole switch closed when there's no ball there. The game's software will serve the ball back to you if you literally get no points, and that's what's happening here.

On a side note, from factory these games came with the flipper bats resting against the two pins behind them. Your flippers are sitting quite high which will make it difficult to aim at the lower 1 and 3 targets. The flippers on this are not supposed to align straight with the return lanes like other manufacturers do.

Oh, +2 on what Lovef2k and Coyote said about the outhole switch being seen as stuck closed.

Thanks so much Coyote and Lovef2k and Quench!

I have looked at that switch, and it must be broken, it appears working but obviously is not registering. I will order a new one. Is there a substitute that I should know about - I know some parts are hard to obtain if relying on the Stern original parts and numbers......?.....................

Is that switch being unresponsive also related to not having any power at any solenoids?

Quench - thanks for the flipper hint! This is my first early Stern so I had no idea the placement was different - I would definitely be an un-happy flipper not being able to make those shots!!

Appreciate all the help, you guys are great.

Nate

Most likely yes, the game is too busy trying to deal with the "stuck" outhole switch.

Can you post some clear pictures of that outhole switch from a side on view and also how it's been connected?

It is stuck closed, so while a new switch wouldn't hurt, likely it may not be needed - I would check the switch contacts, make sure they're open and not touching, and then work towards the wire of the switch, and make sure there's no shorts (with no ball in the outhole). ..Depending on how expnsive a new switch is, this could save you some time and money.

Care to post a pic of your new and correctly installed sound ribbons Pinball_Nate ?

Ok, damn. I looked at the switch tonight and made sure the contacts were not touching when the ball was not sitting on it. I also re-soldered the wires and checked for any damage. The machine is still going nuts. Here are some photos. Also, I had a WTF!! moment trying to deal with the diagnostic tests Man, I can't keep track of the number appearing on the score display and the "sound" of the solenoid to keep track of anything that wasn't firing?!?!

And the switch test didn't seem to be doing anything........I will post photos of the ribbon cable placement for ss-pinball, and the switch stack.

Video of the test modes may have to wait until tomorrow.

I appreciate you guys helping me - so frustrating to be so close!!

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If you're only pressing the self test switch inside the coin door once, you're running the factory burn in test mode that doesn't do switch tests.
To get to switch test mode, you need to press the self test button 5 times. With all the drop targets raised and the ball removed from the game, the ball in play/match display should show a '0'. Press any switch and its ID number then shows in the player displays.

Can you post a clear picture showing where the brown wire is soldered? I can't quite see which blade it's soldered to.

BTW, you need to put the switch wireform above the upper blade:

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Thanks, that brown wire is soldered to the lowest of the 3 tabs. I tried to get a clear shot a few times of that.

Quench, thanks for the leaf switch catch, I'll adjust that.

I appreciate your help with the diagnosis. Just for fun here is me in the video, to be sure, I had a confused look on my face!!

You can see where it looks to be cycling through the correct steps, pf lights all lit, etc.

I'll go back tonight and try the switch diagnostic again.

Excuse the score displays, I'll fiddle with those later......I guess one digit out could be the molex connector??

Thank you again, I'm trying my best!

--- 1st self test button press starts factory burn in test (lamps flash, solenoids activate in order and displays are all tested simultaneously)

--- 2nd self test button press moves to lamp test mode (all feature lamps flash)

--- 3rd self test button press moves to display test mode

--- 4th self test button press moves to solenoid test mode (they are activated one after the other with respect to the solenoid ID chart in the manual)

--- 5th self test button press moves to switch test mode

--- 6th self test button press onwards goes through score threshold awards and book-keeping audits.

Once you reach switch test mode in your video, it's reporting switch '01' as closed which referring to the switch ID chart in the manual is the coin chute #3 switch (right most coin slot switch). Closely inspect that coin switch and do a continuity test on it to see if it's reading closed.
Alternatively, start a game and then disconnect the J3 connector (cabinet/coin door switch harness) from the MPU board. Does the game still continue to reset the ball in play? If yes, do continuity tests on the the three lugs on the outhole switch. No combinations of the meter leads on those three lugs should give any continuity with the ball removed.

I'm gonna go a different direction...what is going on with your METEOR drop bank? To me, it looks as though the "drop" coil is locked on for the "R" which keeps it stuck in a loop trying to reset that bank which could keep the game from initializing properly. If it were simply a mechanical issue that cause the "R" to drop, the game would just think you hit the "R", give you points and leave the drop down. Yours keeps resetting it (which means it would resets the whole bank) which is very odd. Can you temporarily unhook the small coil for that "R" Drop to see if it would then stay up?

Another option is with game off, manually lift the plunger on the big coil to raise all targets. Does the target then stay up?

Unless the switch is ALSO stuck closed, either on purpose because the previous owner/op couldn't fix the drop target, or there's gneeral switch matrix issues, which would explain the outhole switch looking correct while the game still thinks it's closed.

Now I'm rather curious on switch test results!

Pinball_Nate are those special flashing effect bulbs in your backbox?

so, in the process of reassembling my meteor... any ody know where this piece goes??

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Shooter lane guide. It goes on the pf side rail (wood piece)

I used a few of the Comet Fire/Flame LED's and put one under each rocket exhaust. Pretty cool effect.

Aha! Thank you. I guess I would have realized that if I had kept going haha. Currently waiting on roughly $300 worth of stuff from comet to arrive before finishing assembly though. There are so many freaking lights in this backbox.

Nice. I i tend to sprinkle a few around the backglass and pf too. Comet has fire post lights that im going to use on the surface behind the spinner, where the explosion is on the PF. Also putting a fire in the pop bumper.

Started working on my project meteor. Got it booting
with a working board from a friend. Learning all about
rectifiers .connectors and checking voltages on all the
boards. Got My gi working after replacing 20a fuse that was bad
on rectifier. Trying to go into test mode and can't get into it. I'm assuming these micro switches are bad. Any suggestions?
Thx.

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most multimeters should have a "continuity mode", where it'll beep when there is a low resistance path between the probes. hold probes on opposite terminals on that switch and see if it beeps when you press the switch. Alternatively, just see if the resistance changes when you press the switch.

They are little flasher bulbs that came with the game, "old fashioned" round headed, clear. I'm going to move those two to the tails of the rockets in the foreground backglass.

Thanks everyone for your help! Meteor is finally up and running!!

Now, I don't know exactly what I did (!) but there were obviously some closed/touching switches that I missed first time around.

Lifting the pf, I inspected *everything* and checked wires for breaks, bends, all switches on drop targets, noticed a switch touching on the METEOR target bank. I also noticed the "R" remaining down, so I think fixing the closed switch solved that problem, I was thinking it was mechanical, but it wasn't.

After inspecting I closed the pf, fired it up (Oh, I also fixed that outhole switch so it was not sandwiched between a couple of leaf switches as someone noticed).

Bingo! Whatever I adjusted solved the problem. I did figure out that (to me) hard to follow switch matrix test, and noticed that "01" also displaying. I just touched the coin door switches, but didn't really do anything to them. Those Stern tests had me laughing, you're supposed to follow the numbers while they flip by at a good pace and *listen* for either a mechanical sound or a speaker noise!.........I was laughing trying to follow that, it goes fairly quickly through all the numbers!!!

Anyway, I'm a happy camper. I have a question about the EOS switch opening used in order to have the upper flipper reduce power. How exactly does that work?? Is that done at the right-hand flipper at the bottom or at the upper flipper leaf switch?? Photos if anyone did this would help me.

Thank you again, I appreciate your help, I think you guys are great and patient - you definitely pointed to the right general direction.

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Nate

It's done on the flipper you want to reduce power on - the upper flipper. You adjust the blade that doesn't move so that the one that does move opens up a larger gap than normal - that way the power stroke time gets interrupted earlier, effectively making the flip stroke weaker.

You mean the burn in test? You're not supposed to "follow" anything on that at all. It's there for people to put the game through an extensive workout to make sure nothing dies from repeated activations in a short time.

slochar, thanks for the reply. I got it, and will open that upper fllipper gap so I don't break those targets.

The manual for Meteor says this, "....each solenoid to be energized, one at a time, in a continuous sequence........the number appearing on the Player Score displays is the same as the number assigned to the solenoid. The sound of a solenoid pulling-in as a number appears indicates proper operation. The absence of a sound shows a fault.....see Solenoid ID page in game book for help in Solenoid identification."

Anyway, it's working, thanks for everyone's input.

I'm going through and checking all my boards and voltages and reading pinwiki to help me . My original and another mpu board from a friend won't boot.reliably so I ordered an alltek and thought
I would.try and fix my mpu.(total novice on any board work). Got all my repinning supplies also. Quick question about the sdb board.
I did the mods tp1<>tp3. Neg lead c23<>ground trace.
When I check tp2 and tp4 i get 252 vdc no matter which way
I turn the thumbwheel for high voltage adjust. Does that mean I need.to rebuild my high voltage section on board? Thx for any suggestions.

Yes, you likely have some blown/shorted transistors in the high voltage section. They usually all fail together, sometimes taking out one or more resistors. You'll need to rebuild that circuit.

Thx . I'll order the kit.

It ended up being a bad bridge rectifier BR 1. I changed it out and all the controlled lights are working again. I'll change out the rectifier board with a new replacement next weekend and put the old one up for sale in case someone is looking for an original Bally that needs some TLC.

Good stuff ! Wax it up good and play it like you stole it.

For anyone interested, I managed to get some post lights on the posts behind the 6 drop bank so i didnt have those 2 lamps always blinding me. Had to tweak the PCBs a bit. Post is here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/post-light-mod-mod

Additionally, I tried out that adaptor kit that removes blinking from LEDs being driven by old lamp boards, and I'm sad to repirt that it only worked for about 1/2 of the LEDs that were flashing. I think the resistor values used on the boards are too high valued. One of my LEDs only stopped blinking with a sub 150 ohm resistance in parallel. Unfortunately, a 100 ohm resistor results in about 0.2 Watts of power dissipation, and most surface mount resistors are rated at 0.1 W. I could get some 0.25 W ones, but they would still get too hot for my liking. So in the interest of ease and time, I just bought the alltek lamp driver replacement board. I'll let y'all know how that works after it gets here in a few days.

Seeing the last pic in that linked thread, the back of the PF looks FAR dark now, though.

I had to turn my camera expsoure down so you could actually see the effect of the lights. In person, it looks like something between the last and 2nd to last picture. Admitedly difficult to light the PF without blinding the player. Perhaps i should look into some pinstadiums.

I found a link to the movie that this pin’s theme is based on and there’re a cool couple of pins in the break room in the DC command center.

Space Odyssey and Skylab

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Meteors , viruses... Hey can't we fix this with some nukes ?

Enough nukes and everyone’s problems are vapor

After playing Meteor a lot I'm not sure I understand the red "Collect all Rockets" on the out lanes. You get all the rocket bonus build up every ball so what is that giving when lit?

It awards all of your rocket values, withOUT the multiplier.

Say Rocket 1 is at 3, Rocket 2 is at 2, and Rocket 3 is at 5 - when that's lit, and you roll over it, you'll be awarded 10k. And then at bonus, get 10k times your Bonus.

Ah, so it gives the rocket value in addition to/before it does the rocket x bonus count down. I didn't watch the score close enough just thought it was weird since you get the rocket score when you loose a ball anyway.

Thanks!

It's fast - it's really easy to miss. I only say this because for a while *I* was confused as well.