Meteor
Stern Electronics, 1979Quoted from bluespin:They sell lots of backglasses and backglass printed films to adhere to backglasses. You can buy a complete backglass or just buy the printed film, strip your old glass ink and apply the film.
Any idea on pricing? I imagine shipping a glass from Europe would be expensive.
In the club, thanks to a fellow Pinsider from Minnesota. Meteor is in solid shape, and only very minor wear on the pf.
Immediately put it on location at The Pinball Room in Sioux Falls. Had a broken meteor drop, but otherwise no other problems so far.
The last comment I'll make is, man these Stern spinners rip! Even shots that aren't completely clean and smooth can still rack up the spins. Crazy good spinners.
Quoted from polyacanthus:Just joined the club- with the ugly duckling shown above! Thanks Jakers
Enjoy and good luck! Lets see some pics of it once you're done with the restore.
Quoted from DakotaMike:In the club, thanks to a fellow Pinsider from Minnesota. Meteor is in solid shape, and only very minor wear on the pf.
[quoted image]
Immediately put it on location at The Pinball Room in Sioux Falls. Had a broken meteor drop, but otherwise no other problems so far.
The last comment I'll make is, man these Stern spinners rip! Even shots that aren't completely clean and smooth can still rack up the spins. Crazy good spinners.
Stern spinners are the best.
Anyone have suggestions for adjusting these drop targets. I am having issues with some of them falling back down when they reset. It is not consistent but usually at least one falls down.
I have taken it apart and a previous owner replaced the actual drop targets. Everything seems okay mechanically and it works on the bench but not when installed. The drop targets seem to be pressing against the front of the wooden slot in the playfield and I am wondering if this is pushing them back. However, I am also hesitant to start trying to shift the whole assembly back in case it is something simple. My only other thought is that the springs pulling back the holding tabs are not in tension and may not be applying sufficient forward force to the drops when they raise. Any advise would be appreciated.
IMG_20221025_175848432_HDR (resized).jpg
Small Springs
IMG_20221025_180015938_HDR (resized).jpg
Targets up
IMG_20221025_180030376_HDR (resized).jpg
Targets down
If it works on the bench and not on the board, the process of elimination tells me that the problem is the board. Drop targets should not touch the front edge of the hole in the playfield. I don't think your bank is in exactly the right place.
Quoted from semicolin:If it works on the bench and not on the board, the process of elimination tells me that the problem is the board. Drop targets should not touch the front edge of the hole in the playfield. I don't think your bank is in exactly the right place.
That was my initial thought but I was hesitant because it either involves slotting the metal holes or filling and re-drilling the playfield which I was hesitant to do.
Quoted from killerrobots:Anyone have suggestions for adjusting these drop targets. I am having issues with some of them falling back down when they reset. It is not consistent but usually at least one falls down.
I went through hell last year getting my METEOR drop target bank to work consistently. Ultimately, I got it dialed in with several assists from fellow pinsiders. You can start reading thru the adjustments I made from here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1979-stern-meteor-project/page/4#post-6750766
Quoted from killerrobots:Anyone have suggestions for adjusting these drop targets. I am having issues with some of them falling back down when they reset. It is not consistent but usually at least one falls down.
I have taken it apart and a previous owner replaced the actual drop targets. Everything seems okay mechanically and it works on the bench but not when installed. The drop targets seem to be pressing against the front of the wooden slot in the playfield and I am wondering if this is pushing them back. However, I am also hesitant to start trying to shift the whole assembly back in case it is something simple. My only other thought is that the springs pulling back the holding tabs are not in tension and may not be applying sufficient forward force to the drops when they raise. Any advise would be appreciated.
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Small Springs
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Targets up
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Targets down
When you say, "works on the bench". Does this mean you have it plugged into the harness and the coil test can drop and reset the targets without issue?
Quoted from Mathazar:I went through hell last year getting my METEOR drop target bank to work consistently. Ultimately, I got it dialed in with several assists from fellow pinsiders. You can start reading thru the adjustments I made from here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1979-stern-meteor-project/page/4#post-6750766
Thanks, I will take a look.
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:When you say, "works on the bench". Does this mean you have it plugged into the harness and the coil test can drop and reset the targets without issue?
Manually, so maybe something is happening "at speed" that I can't see.
Quoted from killerrobots:Thanks, I will take a look.
Manually, so maybe something is happening "at speed" that I can't see.
In order to get mine right I did it on the bench and used my bench power supply. Many will work by hand but not always when powered.
Quoted from Robotworkshop:In order to get mine right I did it on the bench and used my bench power supply. Many will work by hand but not always when powered.
Off hand do you know what voltage it is? If not I can look it up in the manual.
Quoted from killerrobots:Thanks, I will take a look.
Manually, so maybe something is happening "at speed" that I can't see.
Ok - this is what you need to do. Lift the playfield to the angle that you use the prop stick. Get a board that is wider than the cabinet and put it across the opening to make a table. Then unscrew the 6 bank and set it on your makeshift table with the harnesses connected. Now turn on your game and run the coil test. Take note of which ones don't drop and turn off the game. There is a little brass set screw for every memory coil. Lossen the ones that don't drop and twist the coil a little to the right or left, tighten and retry the test. You would think the lugs of the coils should all be in line. That is not the case. Some will be off center to work. Repeat this until they all drop in the game controlled coil test.
Quoted from killerrobots:Anyone have suggestions for adjusting these drop targets. I am having issues with some of them falling back down when they reset. It is not consistent but usually at least one falls down.
I have taken it apart and a previous owner replaced the actual drop targets. Everything seems okay mechanically and it works on the bench but not when installed. The drop targets seem to be pressing against the front of the wooden slot in the playfield and I am wondering if this is pushing them back. However, I am also hesitant to start trying to shift the whole assembly back in case it is something simple. My only other thought is that the springs pulling back the holding tabs are not in tension and may not be applying sufficient forward force to the drops when they raise. Any advise would be appreciated.
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Small Springs
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Targets up
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Targets down
The targets you have in your game are hooded and incorrect for the game but sold as the repros from Planetary and PBR but are actually a little more flexible in the plastic type which does affect the use.
check out this thread for info on the proper reproduction shape which are getting great results.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-tombstone-drop-targets-13a-11-any-interest
I am not trying to sell my targets, rather don't link seeing people have issues with non correct targets - but just good to know your options
Quoted from swinks:The targets you have in your game are hooded and incorrect for the game
Meteor shipped from stern both ways.
I have zero issues with the hooded in mine but they are more vintage than the current crop of regular repros.
Thanks for all the advice. I will try this out tomorrow. Just got back from a long drive to pick up a Spanish Eyes.
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:Ok - this is what you need to do. Lift the playfield to the angle that you use the prop stick. Get a board that is wider than the cabinet and put it across the opening to make a table. Then unscrew the 6 bank and set it on your makeshift table with the harnesses connected. Now turn on your game and run the coil test. Take note of which ones don't drop and turn off the game. There is a little brass set screw for every memory coil. Lossen the ones that don't drop and twist the coil a little to the right or left, tighten and retry the test. You would think the lugs of the coils should all be in line. That is not the case. Some will be off center to work. Repeat this until they all drop in the game controlled coil test.
Well you were right. Even though they work manually they do NOT work reliably when connected. In fact they are pretty random. It is not just one target that fails.
I am going to try Mathazar's fix from his old post first and see if that works for me:
I must've fiddled with adjusting the reset bar a couple dozen times, shimming it, not shimming it, making sure it's not bent, etc. etc. In the end, it was sethbenjamin 's advice to clamp the plunger in the pulled in / up position and adjust the reset bar from there with the targets at a tiny height above the memory coil fingers (instead of adjusting the bar will everything is at rest) that did it. No more randomly falling targets on a reset, but I STILL had one target that would occasionally fall on the first reset, but not subsequent ones.
Well I think I fixed it. I was trying to figure out what to shim and playing around with it and realized that when I manually drove it I was driving it from the right side (opposite coil) and when I tried to manually drive it from the coil side it wouldn't work every time. The long bar that resets the drops has some slack and droops down near the "R". I loosened the shaft collar on that side and biased it up a little and then it seemed to work. I tested again on the machine and it worked every time.
I am happy it works now but am a little skeptical because it wasn't just the O and R on the end that were falling back down but sometimes the M so it doesn't really make sense that the slack bar was causing that. However it seems to be working for whatever reason so I guess I will just leave it. Thanks for the help.
IMG_20221028_132357208 (resized).jpgQuoted from killerrobots:The long bar that resets the drops has some slack and droops down near the "R". I loosened the shaft collar on that side and biased it up a little and then it seemed to work. I tested again on the machine and it worked every time.
That is why the stern round rod has that adjustment. Bally uses a spring as a helper on that side, but the differing heights achievable on stern games due to the twist are helpful. Hopefully you didn't have a divot worn into the round rod as even if you adjust it, it will tend over time to go back to the divot. Just rotate the bar way out of the divot or you can get a new one at home depot, lowe's etc. - it's just a round rod.
I assume you checked as well for any slack in the link... and replacing the original metal coil sleeve in the reset solenoid with a nylon type helps a lot as well. The targets reset better with a nice SNAP vs. a slower stroke.
Quoted from slochar:That is why the stern round rod has that adjustment. Bally uses a spring as a helper on that side, but the differing heights achievable on stern games due to the twist are helpful. Hopefully you didn't have a divot worn into the round rod as even if you adjust it, it will tend over time to go back to the divot. Just rotate the bar way out of the divot or you can get a new one at home depot, lowe's etc. - it's just a round rod.
I assume you checked as well for any slack in the link... and replacing the original metal coil sleeve in the reset solenoid with a nylon type helps a lot as well. The targets reset better with a nice SNAP vs. a slower stroke.
This is a fussy mechanism.
Hi, I'm having an issue where my machine will turn on and looks normal but it won't register any credits so I can start a game. I had someone repair it and rig it so that when you push the metal coin return button, it adds a credit so you don't have to use quarters. Any suggestions on what I should try?
Quoted from t_robertson:Hi, I'm having an issue where my machine will turn on and looks normal but it won't register any credits so I can start a game. I had someone repair it and rig it so that when you push the metal coin return button, it adds a credit so you don't have to use quarters. Any suggestions on what I should try?
I did the same on mine (rig up the coin return plunger to add credits). What happens, with the coin door open, if you manually toggle the credit switch wire on the credit microswitch? Need to determine if the coin return mod doesn't work for some reason, or there is something wrong with the credit micro switch (broken or loose wire), or something else.
Coin Door View 1a (resized).jpg
recently acquired a players meteor. everything works in test mode. game plays 1 or 2 player game just fine. if in a 3 player game once the 3rd player is up all the meteor targets drop before the ball is plunged, switches and drops don't score appropriately and then once drained the outhole doesn't seem to recognize the ball. it would seem this is a rom or pia? any additional thoughts or guidance on where to start? thanks in advance
Quoted from ptrav1:recently acquired a players meteor. everything works in test mode. game plays 1 or 2 player game just fine. if in a 3 player game once the 3rd player is up all the meteor targets drop before the ball is plunged, switches and drops don't score appropriately and then once drained the outhole doesn't seem to recognize the ball. it would seem this is a rom or pia? any additional thoughts or guidance on where to start? thanks in advance
Memory problem, but it would be a really specific one. (And it's passing the bootup memory test.... as well as the rom checksum test though.)
Swap your U8 and U13 5101 chips. Then move onto the roms. It wouldn't be a pia issue.
Quoted from slochar:Memory problem, but it would be a really specific one. (And it's passing the bootup memory test.... as well as the rom checksum test though.)
Swap your U8 and U13 5101 chips. Then move onto the roms. It wouldn't be a pia issue.
I’m a bit of a rookie at this. What is the logic of swapping those chips? Or what should I be looking for after the swap?
Quoted from ptrav1:I’m a bit of a rookie at this. What is the logic of swapping those chips? Or what should I be looking for after the swap?
Those are RAM chips, and they store different information. Swapping them will change how the game acts, and will tell us whether one is bad, or not. So this will rule them out so diagnostics can move on to somewhere else, or, address a bad chip.
Quoted from Coyote:Those are RAM chips, and they store different information. Swapping them will change how the game acts, and will tell us whether one is bad, or not. So this will rule them out so diagnostics can move on to somewhere else, or, address a bad chip.
BOOM! took a U8 chip off of an old Bally board and swapped it. Game is working perfectly now. A few other things I thought were odd, but hadn't dug into yet were also fixed in the process. Thanks a ton for the help. I suppose that chip was bad or the legs were just dirty. Either way it is fixed now. I'm certain I'll be bugging you guys with more questions soon. Have a great night!
Travis
Quoted from ptrav1:BOOM! took a U8 chip off of an old Bally board and swapped it. Game is working perfectly now. A few other things I thought were odd, but hadn't dug into yet were also fixed in the process. Thanks a ton for the help. I suppose that chip was bad or the legs were just dirty. Either way it is fixed now. I'm certain I'll be bugging you guys with more questions soon. Have a great night!
Travis
Don't thank me. I just dumbed it down, because slochar 's the friggin' master with these systems.
Glad that got it though. Relatively easy fix. MAY wanna make sure the battery's not leaking and causing bad connection on one of those RAM chips. In case this hasn't been mentioned before.
My recently rebuilt upper flipper has been sticking in the up position periodically.
Any easy things I should be looking for that might be causing the binding?
Quoted from anathematize:My recently rebuilt upper flipper has been sticking in the up position periodically.
Any easy things I should be looking for that might be causing the binding?
Assuming you changed the coil sleeve, coil spring, coil stop, and plunger during the flipper rebuild, all I can think of is:
- Flipper bat rubbing against playfield (check gap)
- Flipper bat rubber binding up with the plastic post rubber right next to the flipper. If both rubbers are new and thick, I could see this happening.
- Prawl is hitting a screw on the bushing and getting caught up....I could see this happening if maybe you put in new screws during the rebuilt and the new screw heads are bigger than the originals.
Quoted from Mathazar:Assuming you changed the coil sleeve, coil spring, coil stop, and plunger during the flipper rebuild, all I can think of is:
- Flipper bat rubbing against playfield (check gap)
- Flipper bat rubber binding up with the plastic post rubber right next to the flipper. If both rubbers are new and thick, I could see this happening.
- Prawl is hitting a screw on the bushing and getting caught up....I could see this happening if maybe you put in new screws during the rebuilt and the new screw heads are bigger than the originals.
Thanks. Will investigate further. It only happens after a particularly long session on the game (30mins +) so I'll have to try and recreate the conditions.
B3738FA7-E3FB-4F7E-A5FD-E33F57081281 (resized).jpeg in the field hack by someone to keep the ball guide in place
00BD7849-B590-47F3-8266-A51641E2B98E (resized).jpeg the damage
2F7C6B0E-A7CA-453A-B72A-CC699E47B580 (resized).jpegfiberglass resin
74FA57EE-7299-4504-AFFA-72DF1721E14D (resized).jpeg a little paint matching. Not a high end restore but looks better than it did.
Quoted from extraballingtmc:I recently picked up a meteor and would like to convert it to 7 digit scoring. I’m pretty confused on which the correct roms are that I need and also which ones on my board will need to be replaced.
Tia!
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Unless that Alltek MPU has the ROM code for 7 digit you will probably need to go with another MPU.
Another option is to get the Meteor 2021 upgrade which will plug into that Alltek board.
Quoted from extraballingtmc:I recently picked up a meteor and would like to convert it to 7 digit scoring. I’m pretty confused on which the correct roms are that I need and also which ones on my board will need to be replaced.
Tia!
[quoted image]
Yep no custom code for stern on alltek voids their warranty. Get the weebly Andrew can put whatever seven digit variant you want on it... Oliver's, mine....
Quoted from slochar:Yep no custom code for stern on alltek voids their warranty. Get the weebly Andrew can put whatever seven digit variant you want on it... Oliver's, mine....
+1 for Weebly. Cheaper, better built, better support.
Quoted from extraballingtmc:A weebly is a rom? Or a different board instead of the Alltek?
MPU replacement. https://nvram.weebly.com/mpu.html
Ahhhhh I see. Didn’t know about these. Pretty cool.
So I buy the weebly and it looks like it comes with the free play setting and also the 7 digit scoring. Then just need to run wires from display to mpu?
Before you buy a replacement MPU you may want to look at the YouTube Video for Meteor 2021. It is done by plugging in a small daughter board and adding a WAVtrigger for enhanced sound. I seem to recall it can support 6 and 7 digit displays.
Quoted from Robotworkshop:I seem to recall it can support 6 and 7 digit displays.
It does, but you still have to add the wire, and wouldn't help if he wants to play the original code with 7 digit updates. (That might be an interesting project.... recreate the original rulesets in the arduino coding... if nothing else to see how much shorter the source would be in the higher level code.....)
Instructions on adding the wire:
add 7-digit displays for player 1 - 4, add version nummber, recalculate checksum
Installation notes:
1) replace the four player 6-digit displays with 7-digit displays (we test it with orignal bally displays..)
2) Add an additional wire fom A4 (mpu) J1 Pin 7 to every player display pin 12 (for bally displays, don't connect the credit display !).
If you use 7-digit stern displays connect J1 pin 7 to every player display pin 11.
3) burn the files on 2716 eproms
After power on you will see the version number in the player two display
This is for the Oliver Kaegi version from:
https://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html
I do not believe that weebly includes this particular verison in his mpu; he likely uses this version:
http://tsqmadness.com/slochar/ZIP/meteor66-76.zip
which has some more bugfixes (notable the 256x bonus countdown bug) and other things like a spinner counter and a drop sweep award.... I think I made that dip settable (and free play of course). Same wire for the 7 digit.
Quoted from slochar:It does, but you still have to add the wire, and wouldn't help if he wants to play the original code with 7 digit updates. (That might be an interesting project.... recreate the original rulesets in the arduino coding... if nothing else to see how much shorter the source would be in the higher level code.....)
Instructions on adding the wire:
add 7-digit displays for player 1 - 4, add version nummber, recalculate checksum
Installation notes:
1) replace the four player 6-digit displays with 7-digit displays (we test it with orignal bally displays..)
2) Add an additional wire fom A4 (mpu) J1 Pin 7 to every player display pin 12 (for bally displays, don't connect the credit display !).
If you use 7-digit stern displays connect J1 pin 7 to every player display pin 11.
3) burn the files on 2716 eproms
After power on you will see the version number in the player two display
This is for the Oliver Kaegi version from:
https://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html
I do not believe that weebly includes this particular verison in his mpu; he likely uses this version:
http://tsqmadness.com/slochar/ZIP/meteor66-76.zip
which has some more bugfixes (notable the 256x bonus countdown bug) and other things like a spinner counter and a drop sweep award.... I think I made that dip settable (and free play of course). Same wire for the 7 digit.
Definitely will still need the extra wire but the code was setup for both and if I'm not mistaken could display 7 digit scores on 6 digit displays. Which can keep the old displays. Just mentioning options to explore before buying boards.
Quoted from Robotworkshop:Definitely will still need the extra wire but the code was setup for both and if I'm not mistaken could display 7 digit scores on 6 digit displays. Which can keep the old displays. Just mentioning options to explore before buying boards.
yeah, that's right, forgot about the scrolling feature. Thought about adding that to some games for 8 digit scoring....
rarely comes up though.
I wish the bally/stern displays were like the gottlieb ones where you had control over all segments so I could put text on the displays.
Quoted from slochar:yeah, that's right, forgot about the scrolling feature. Thought about adding that to some games for 8 digit scoring....
rarely comes up though.
I wish the bally/stern displays were like the gottlieb ones where you had control over all segments so I could put text on the displays.
Talking about Weebly MPU board, is there a way to update the game code from an older board to the latest version?
Quoted from hisokajp:Talking about Weebly MPU board, is there a way to update the game code from an older board to the latest version?
Reburn the chip I'm sure Andrew would supply the image. It's a bigger chip than I can burn on the minipro but I mostly use the 512 socket due to me unique needs.
Quoted from hisokajp:Talking about Weebly MPU board, is there a way to update the game code from an older board to the latest version?
Quoted from slochar:Reburn the chip I'm sure Andrew would supply the image. It's a bigger chip than I can burn on the minipro but I mostly use the 512 socket due to me unique needs.
Yeah, either use your own EPROM and jumper the board, OR, ask Andrew for an updated master ROM.
Quoted from slochar:Yep no custom code for stern on alltek voids their warranty. Get the weebly Andrew can put whatever seven digit variant you want on it... Oliver's, mine....
Fwiw.
Emailed alltek and was informed the warranty is transferable. Also you can switch roms as you wish, won’t affect warranty.
Quoted from extraballingtmc:Also you can switch roms as you wish, won’t affect warranty.
Well that's new news for sure. Is he sharing the format or the rom itself though? Not that I don't already know the format but I'd assume everyone is on their own regarding putting the customs in.
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