Not an error just poor choices on the modifiers part. There are at least six different Pinbot tournament roms in existence and that one is the worst choice IMO.

This is REALLY interesting. My knocker was working perfectly then next thing you know I'm diagnosing an issue and I find that it basically looks glued shut. I wonder if whatever broke caused the knocker to lock on and melt that sleave? Currently it is locking on the outhole coil which shares the same transistor as the knocker.

I'm going to do more digging tonight and I'll report back if I find anything.

I’ve maybe made progress, or made things worse. I am going to post a video showing exactly what is going on now. GRUMPY if you have a few minutes, maybe you could check it out and let me know if this looks like anything you’ve ever seen.

Changes since last time…I really didn’t like that the diodes D1 and D9 on the diode board under the playfield tested incorrectly with my multimeter. So I pulled them out and tested them on the bench. Well, magically they tested fine. So I put them back into the board and…wait for it…they test fine in the circuit now. Since that made no sense to me, I decided to replace the snubber/relay board I installed originally with the backup one I bought. Interestingly, now it is “working” although wrong. That leads me to this video where you can see how it is firing the outhole and knocker with every a/c side change.

I smoked a buck on the way to work the other day, so I have been a bit busy.

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It looks like the Q-33 transistor is shorted, but if it was shorted then the outhole coil would stay locked in attract mode. The video shows the outhole not locked during attract mode which is interesting.

Has there been any battery acid damage?

Hope you're OK!
Is your car totalled or being repaired?

Oh no! Fix it up, or get a new one?

I spilled my coffee!

8100.00 estimate. I think they are going to total it.

Oh man! Sorry to hear that. No rush on my issue. I’ll keep grinding on it as much as possible.

There is no battery damage (as I put in nvram a long time ago). I replaced Q33 and like you said, nothing is locking on currently.

Update: So the drop targets are now working. Turns out they needed to get lubed up. Pinbot should be working 100% now

JCO25 : I never “lubed” drop targets on any of my games. Is that a thing to do?

I never have either. These mechs are supposed to be dry systems. Lube may help temporarily but will eventually gum them up and cause trouble later.

Best method I've found for drop targets that won't fall or fall too slowly, is to remove the drop target assembly from the machine, sit down at a bench, and take the whole thing apart and clean each part of the assembly individually.

Flaked graphite was the only thing I ever read on that from the manufacturers' and it was likely not in conjunction with drop targets, but I don't remember for sure.

If drops don't work 'dry' there's something wrong.

Mrg50 @flashball: The tech used something called dry-slick. Not a lube, but some fluid to help the drop targets. He did that and since then, they have been playing normally. He said you can find it on Marco.

Yes…oil the pivot points… CAREFULLY!!! I suggest dielectric grease. Take them all the way apart, clean everything shiny new like, and then just a touch of the grease. Work the pivots and wipe away any excess that squeezes out. Do this for your Pinbot face and 5 bank target set as well. It runs super smooth!
Ironically I am currently working on a Bally Mata Hari with overlubed drop targets!
To be honest, EVERYTHING was overlubed!!!!
Someone had put 3 in 1 oil in all the original metal coil sleeves, which caused the right drop target coil to burn up, blew a tip 102, and caused a small wire fire near the rectifier board. The playfield fuse used to prevent such damage was a burned out one amp SB wrapped in foil!!!
Come on now people…
People…
People???
Come on now!!!
What are you doing?!
That’s the state I bought it in. It’s got a perfect playfield and cabinet though and it’s a personal favorite machine of mine so I am resurrecting it.
Got it to start and play for the first time two days ago, now just waiting on one drop target coil I didn’t have any extras of. That’s frustrating!!!
Also, GRUMPY I feel your pain man, Last weekend I bought a cute little Mini Cooper for gas mileage (double of my Ram 1500!) and the very next day a big buck ran into me. The (expletives deleted) Deer got away, no venison for me. We counted 117 deaduns along I94 from wWisconsin exit 45 to the Minnesota border and back yesterday.. a little more than a deer a mile. My son calls them big delicious rats.

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I went to Oshkosh fly-in one year. I drove through late at night and it looked like a grave yard of dead animals. My wife stopped counting when she got to 100 dead deer.

Back in the club with a working Pinbot for the first time! I had the 2 pinbots for $1600 a few years ago https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-2-pinbots-for-2000 but went for a fully working pinbot this time. I traded a very nice Sorcerer for it. There is a world of difference between a 1985 Sorcerer and a 1986 Pinbot. You would think they were 10 years apart, not 10 months. Awesome game and I'm really enjoying it so far. Am changing out the lights to LEDs, refreshing rubbers and dropping in some new plastics and plastic protectors. The flippers on my example are zippy. Love the topper. Only negatives on mine are the ugly lock bar remains on the front of mine and the mylar lifting around a few of the inserts as is common on these titles. Great game!

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Nice Pinbot! The Wifebot abides!
You made me think of something, remember how many locations (not all) had big ugly lock bars attached to the front of the machines?
How about locks and chains attached to the rear to prevent them from, I guess, easily being stolen.
(How easy did they really think it would be???)
“Randy! Grab your brother and cousins we are stealing the Gilligan’s Island from B.A.’s bar and grille tonight before they close. Don’t forget the chain cutter!”
Anyway, I am quite surprised (now that I think of it) how people who are DEEP into perfect period correct restoration and such don’t look appreciatively upon those big ugly lock bars with the dirty dull grey master lock dangling from it. After all, it was probably installed before the game was ever set up on location.
Also, you can’t have a real pinball experience without the sweet stinging sensation in your knee when you whack it against a big ugly lock bar during over spirited play!!!
No, I am not a fan either, and many years ago spent hours filling my very first set of lock bar holes and cabinet damage, while poorly matching paint color on a Tales of the Arabian Nights that lived in a saloon for about 15 years.
As for your Sorcerer to Pinbot comparison, Pinbot and the other System 11 games were truly revolutionary. Those of us who grew up then remember it very well. It’s why Pinbot has haunted both me and my Wifebot for years before we broke down and bought one. I didn’t want to own one. I had very bad memories of Pinbot beating me up in junior high and stealing my lunch money, and then my parents punishing me for allowing Pinbot to steal my lunch money.
That’s not how parents should deal with kids who are being bullied!!!
If you look at what Bally, Gottlieb, Williams, and Stern were offering from 1984 to 1986. There were some incredibly great games, sure, but nothing like what Williams System 11A was about to release. The other companies were all still trying to make games based on electronics used in their very first SS games. In other words, almost all of the boards and parts from Bally’s Six Million Dollar Man work in a Xenon or Fathom machine with little or no changes. Even after that the architecture was still very similar and compatible.
On the other hand, Williams was constantly changing things around and improving it. A swap between a system 11 and a System 9 Space Shuttle or Sorcerer is near impossible, at least not without modern knowledge and extreme skills… and the same goes with the system 9 to the System 3 - 7. In six years they went from Gorgar to Pinbot, five years after that The Addams Family came along. Wow!
Thirty years on and the biggest innovation in pinball has been online connectivity, shaker motors, a constant stream of product placement licensed machines with no original concepts, and remakes of the past.
Kind of sad, isn’t it?

Tri 555

Like I just removed? Honestly, I obtained the game in June and just took this off. While I have been working on it, it came in handy as a handle for opening the door... which is snug due to the traditional kicking of the coin door at some point. LOL! I will fill the hole per the dowel rod method I read about here somewhere at some point during the winter.

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Love, love, love Pinbot! I am so happy to be in the club so thank you for having me.

I obtained mine in June and have been shopping and tweaking it since and this thread has been a huge help! Thank you all. Mine was a great survivor from a great guy.

Original factory mylar is in place so everything is looking good outside of the wear spots by the eyes and under the mini playfield by the pops where there is no mylar.

The ADV. "X" sticker on the ramp was the usually faded into to oblivion color (or lack of) so I started my quest to find one. While some folks have made some, I wasn't able to get a hold of anyone with one - so I made my own! Being kind of ocd, I wanted it to emulate the original as much as possible... including being a front adhesive clear sticker with a white outline around the letters that you have to apply on the back/under the ramp so the ball never touches it... just like the original. Given your home inkjet isn't going to print white on clear, I had to find a vendor to print a front adhesive clear vinyl sticker with white outlined text via an AI file. The red color was my best guess since stuff fades. I kept the original for size/font/spacing comparison. I think it turned out pretty well. Now, I just have to wait for my planetary pinball order and I shall attack the vortex ramp and cover (both cracked) next.

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Vortex ramp and ramp cover replaced! Thank you planetary pinball for the fast order... my first time riveting! Also, kudos on the ramp stickers as they are incredibly forgiving without rips or tears from applying and adjusting.

Look at that color difference..35 years of fade... like new now! Notice the space shuttle is printed in a slightly different spot on the cover, but who cares! Pinbot is awesome.

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Nice

Hi guys,

I need some help with my Pinbot wiring. I did a playfield swap and now the right side of the playfield GI won’t work. The fuse blows. I suspect an issue with the wirering. I connected one of the pop bumpers wires to a different GI wire because after testing with a battery the middle pop bumper would not lid up, but connecting it to the other GI wire, made all bulbs light up when I did a battery test.

I wonder if someone here is willing and able to check (see attached sketch) if my wiring is wrong and can tell me what to change.

Help is much appreciated

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Just to verify, and this may sound like a dumb suggestion, but it happened to me before, are you sure your wires from the playfield all the way to the GI plug in the backbox are in the correct order, no hidden frayed wires and not cross connected to something else.
Easy tests to make sure things are correct: multimeter continuity test from the backbox terminal plug wires to the positive and negative GI wires on the playfield, a short will make the multimeter go “Beeeeeeee!!!” Love that sound!!
If you are using incandescent lights, you may have found one of those brand new out of the box shorted bulbs. Just go back in this forum to see what happened when my Wifebot used a brand new Eico shorted bulb! (Defective LEDs can do this too)
One last thing to check and this is rare, but the GI flasher unit that runs the attract mode lights could be incorrectly installed or bad. The one on our backbox was slowly dying, the lights stopped working but didn’t blow the fuse, so if there is an issue with the flasher unit it would be in the wiring.
I am sure that GRUMPY will have better suggestions than mine, but it’s a start!

You also need to remember that there is a limit to the number of lights that each string can power and not pop the fuse unless you are going to LEDs.

Ow! My knee!!!

Darn it... Just switched out all the plastics and rubbers, game was great for 3 days and now the visor just opens and shuts continuously on power on. I opened it up and looked at the switches next to the motor. Neither one register, but also neither register if you complete the switch with a wire bypassing the circuit. I'm at a loss now. Any suggestions or next troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated.

45 second troubleshooting video follows.

After a few hours of troubleshooting I repeated the connectors in the backbox and tightened the mpu grounding screws and it magically works. Not sure what happened. Keeping this here in case it helps future folks.

Thanks!

Can someone confirm if 89’s are the bulbs needed for topper- plan to place an order if Marco has them - thanks!

Have the topper domes ever been reproduced or any for sale? Been looking for a long time with no luck.

Yes, 89s

Yes. A guy on here was selling them recently.

Found it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/98819

I'm not sure what the manual calls for but I used 7/16" OD in clear, purple and black.

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Thanks!

Slingshot plastics replaced. The right one was kind of a pita, but wow... look at the difference! I placed the old ones on top of the glass next to the newly installed versions. This is a fairly accurate comparison in terms of light and fade. I didn't even realize there was any red on the left one at all. Comet warm white btw.

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Picked up a Pinbot a few weeks ago and I am loving it. My 3 year old loves it too lol! I enjoyed reading through this entire thread. It’s helped me troubleshoot a few minor issues with my machine. So much helpful stuff in here.

A few questions. Where can I get the decal that goes on top of the target bank? The one with the stripes to match the playfield when the bank is down?

Where can I get the “advance X” decal?

Has anyone thought to backlight the two plastics that float above the playfield near the front of the machine? The 2 plastics of the control pods with the astronauts? I think these would look really cool if they were back lit. I just ordered a bunch of led bulbs from Comet. I also ordered some small lighting strips and I am going to try and get them under these particular pieces.

Got mine from pinball.center. They are located in Germany

I got my advance X from Freeplay40 with the new ramp I purchased.

Got my new ramp from Freeplay40 too. Mine came without the X… he must have forgotten to put one on. Only recently realized that the X was supposed to be there. Even though I like to restore my machine as close as possible to what it looked like originally, this X is not a real miss for me. Yes, would like to have it but happy not to have it too

Hmm I'm not seeing that decal on their site. Anyone else have any leads on the target bank decal?

it’s still there:

https://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts-by-game/pin-bot/6510/visor-decal-for-pin-bot?c=0

Isn’t this what your looking for?

Got all my decals from them.. was the only shop that I could find that sells all of them. You will get 21% discount as you won’t pay gst

No that’s the visor. I’m talking about the one that goes on top of the target bank. It’s a mod, not factory. See the thread below for pics:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-mod-pinbot-target-bank-decal

Oh that one… no sorry can’t help you with that one. Apologies for the misunderstanding.

Let us know if you do find one. I kind of like the idea of having one on my visor. I have a cliffy on it and not to sure if it will still have the desired effect in combo with the cliffy

I’ve never seen that one before. If you find a source for those please post here. I’d like one too.

Naturally, we come across #89 bulbs in Pinbot where there should be #1251s. However, while replacing plastics I came across this #67 bulb. Now that must have been hot, check out that scorching.

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When they become burnt like that, I've been told it creates a greenhouse effect and gets VERY hot.

These are called death stars... Def crazy to see the wood like that!.. but nice that it is in a less visible location... when under plastics or behind glass, this is when they do serious damage.. their smaller compatriots anyway.

So for black friday, I ordered a bunch of parts and bulbs for my Pinbot. I LED'd the machine with cool white, which I think looks really good on this machine. I did not color bomb the backglass, as personally, I really don't care for that look. Also did a few star post lights. In an earlier post, I had asked if anyone had tried to backlight the cool plastic pieces of the astronauts in the small pods at on the sides of the playfield towards the front. Well I attempted to do it and I think it looks really good. The couple of the pics make the lighting look a little bit brighter than it really is btw.

My 3 old helping dad LED the machine

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Good job.. how did you back lid them?