Highland Heights, OH
Since you are doing all new sockets (I'll be doing the same), what do you intend to use for ground braid? Equivalent to original, or something better?
(Topic ID: 60560)
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Star Gazer
Stern Electronics, 1980
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Quoted from mof:Look at that wall of tools... jealous!
-mof
Haha! I was going to say "How Organized!!" Looks like a store display!! 
Excellent work! Wow.
Laval, QC
What type of metal is that picture wire? I was going to try that years ago and found the resistance of the wire was way more than tinned copper. I didn't use it in fear of overloading the lamp circuits. Also, was it hard to solder it?
That's good to hear. Just for future use though, I would stay with tinned copper over the stainless steel.
Looks great so far though. Is that a repro pf or restored original?
Quoted from Redketchup:It's a repro from john, look real good... He did and awesome job
,
Nice, how many did he make? I'm waiting for seawitch from John.
Quoted from Redketchup:Very easy to solder
Any tricks for soldering the braid to the lamp sockets? Do the sockets have to be "scuffed" or anything first?
What socket did you use under the star rollovers? I couldn't find an exact replacement when shopping with PBR.
Nothing special to do for soldering... I used my temp controled iron pretty hot and it work good. The socket for the star rollover is 1 5/8 socket and nobody seem to carry idem. I have a friend who have a couple from an old gottlieb playfield.
I think john made 40 playfield...
These work well for star roll over inserts. http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/E-120-99
Some people call them "lay down" sockets. Also good for tight places.
I use a 60 watt iron to solder the buss wire to the sockets. Like the OP said, you need to get them really hot.
Marco Specialties still hasn't inventoried the 2 playfields without white. I asked them at TPF. 40 playfields & I asked for 12 more to be cut. Seawitch will be in production hopefully in April.
Just a little advice, I have done 7 seven swaps now. I would wait until you are ready to return the wire loom to the pf before soldering in the caps and diodes. You may be making more work for yourself because some of the wires will be soldered to those diodes and caps. Also it looks like you're not getting the solder hot enough on those switches, the solder shouldn't bead up, it should spread out a little more. When it beads, there'e chance that the solder joint is not fully melted to the metal. I know it's tricky because the solder wants to fall through the little holes on the tabs but it's all about timing with the soldering iron.
Rich
It will be a lot of work one way or the other, because I have to recreate the wiring harness... it's not a swap, but a complete built! 
I made a lot of swap before (6 swap) and never had an issue... I will keep this in mind for the futur.
Thank's
Salisbury
I just look at a bunch of photo from IPDB and some have it some don't... so I don't know why.
I'm pretty sure i have it on my big game, F2K and Iron maiden... Can't remember for Quicksilver and Catacomb...
My friend Stargazer have it for sure cause i take some pics last week and they are there
Quoted from j_m_:I've got to check my SW when I get home. I don't remember seeing those side rails on my playfield
I have seen some with the rails and some without, F2K, Meteor, seawitch etc.
Yesterday was a big day. I start the playfeild harness construction with HPR pinball. Everything went smooth.
First we installed all the wire clip to run the new harness and keep everything organise.
We start with the playfeild fuse and flipper.
After that we did the solenoids power daisy chains and the signal.
And to finish the first day of harness construction, we did half part of the switch matrix.
Everything we did is soldering and ready to go! We try to keep everything as close as possible like the schematics regarding color code.
A pretty good and contructive day!
Today I manage to run the power for the comtrolled lamp. This was the last part i was not sure how is done... There is two wire coming from the power supply and two circuit for that.
I have a stargazer playfeild on hand to copy and understand how the wiring harness is done. It's help me a lot, but it's still a big enterprise!
Quoted from Redketchup:I have a stargazer playfeild on hand to copy and understand how the wiring harness is done. It's help me a lot, but it's still a big enterprise!
You're right, it is a big undertaking. Wiring the return paths for all those lamps is going to be a lot of work! What's going on with the wires through the flipper bushings? New mod, perhaps?
Quoted from dothedoo:You're right, it is a big undertaking. Wiring the return paths for all those lamps is going to be a lot of work! What's going on with the wires through the flipper bushings? New mod, perhaps?
Just a nice place to put flipper wire before soldering! :-p
Larodde
Quoted from j_m_:yep, I can verify that my SW has no rails
I have seen Seawitches with and without side rails. I think the ones built in Australia probably did not have but that is a guess.
Quoted from Redketchup:Switch matrix done! Next controlled lamp...
I'm curious, what amount of testing are you doing on the wiring "as you go" rather than when all wiring is completed?
I will test everything in the game... I just test the GI with battery pack, but for the rest, i will test it in the game.
I'm pretty confident because i have a complete working stargazer playfield for reference. We check the continuity for each wire we did to be sure where it start and where it goes. After that, we did this wire on my strgazer. Look more complicated then it's seem, but it's pretty straight foreward.
Quoted from Redketchup:Yes! Now i have a complete harness! Next... Fun part... Top playfeild!
image.jpg (Click image to enlarge)
image-957.jpg (Click image to enlarge)
Incredible.
-mof
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