There was no way I was going to let Nico escape before feeding him his favorite vino!
Quoted from NicoVolta:Visit #44 -> Mark Shackelford (pinpilot) in Granbury, TX
The subject: Student Prince, bingo, and fading fast…Mark wins the award for easiest Pinside name to remember: Pinpilot! Not only for having the dual-avocations of flying and pinball… but for LITERALLY FLYING A PINBALL MACHINE ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN THAT THING.
Pinball-by-air? Too cool!!! Shame that Pinflights.com is already taken… it could become the Uber of pinball-by-airplane transportation! But not by parachute, please. Backglasses are a trifle delicate for airdrop delivery. Tends to land with a thud, yanno?Today, a quick four-hour visit only. Poor Mark was getting the nearly-spent version of ol’ Nico. By this point I was coasting on fumes. We had high expectations to get a bingo machine and Student Prince up and running… alas, neither would be fully operational before my departure due to time, lack of bingo experience, and general exhaustion.
I wish I had half the energy ‘lil pinball puppy had to spare!Bingos are… insane. I’ve never owned one. Never rebuilt one. They are the double black diamond run on the slopes of electro-mechanical technology. Peering into a bingo machine is like looking at Babbage’s Difference Engine: Giant camshafts spin, engage, lock, and unlock various wheels and switch stacks at unknown intervals. Or constantly. Or not at all. It’s on another level altogether and, well, as of July 2017 I just don’t have the knowledge yet.
However, I did find a few switches which weren’t switching (basic logic check) and corrected them. Also found several hovering fingers on the reflex stepper unit pictured here. I aligned them with the rivets as they should normally be. Still, the machine wasn’t fully functional.
Nicholas Baldridge (bingopodcast)… host of the “For Amusement Only” show anticipated my troubles and, like Bingo Batman, offered a few troubleshooting tips ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, with only a few hours left (and flagging endurance), the road was a little too steep. We thus detoured to…Student Prince. The 1pt relay was sticking, ball count stepper wasn’t physically able to move, player unit wasn’t advancing correctly, and a few other things weren’t optimal.
Rebuilding the 1pt relay fixed the stuck reel issue and provided a basic introduction to servicing them. We then rebuilt the ball count stepper which was almost totally frozen.
Removing the motherboard allowed us easy access to polish and gap all of the relays. I also serviced some of the motor switches… but dad gum it… in hindsight should have done them all. The ball count stepper was only intermittently working after the rebuild which is most commonly due to a dirty or misaligned motor switch.When rebuilding steppers, don’t forget to give the springs a swipe with alcohol. They work better without the grease and dirt.
Before reassembly, the stepper board received the usual Mother’s polish treatment. Always a beautiful sight.
And thus… four hours gone, game only partially rebuilt, and no schematic on hand we had to hang it up for the evening. Not the ideal ending I had in mind for the final stop on the tour. *sigh*Nevertheless, Mark and his wife were very gracious in providing a home-cooked meal and a bottle of… you guessed it… that infamous wine again. Totally unnecessary but appreciated very much!
I made arrangements to host Mark’s machine in the VECTOR Committee at the Dallas Makerspace for additional fixes and lessons. I’ll get it running yet, and how. Just need to get home and regroup after this… this… hmmmm. I’ll need at least a week to sum up what just happened over the last four months and 15,000 miles.
Hang in there, Mark, and keep flying. We’ll have Student Prince up and running before long!
Final stop -> Epilogue