Sure I'll shoot you a pm.

I just fired up Meteor and was thinking about converting the coin reject to add-a-credit and guess what?! It added a credit! Someone already did it and I had no idea. Funny but I feel kind of stupid.

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OK, this works at TPF and other pin shows. But what if you want to coin up and play with 4 players?

There are 7000 posts in this thread. No need to feel stupid.

Wouldn't it also set off the knocker seconds after the start of every game? Not the hugest deal, but I'd prefer to reserve that sound for major in-game events

After you set the replay value at 10,000, use your finger to trigger the credit wire on the bottom of a coin mech until you reach 40 credits. Start a four player game and credits fall to 36, then as each player reaches 10,000 points it adds back a credit until it returns to 40 credits.

These are the ones I went with (the original style). I want them to be blue but also look factory. Last time I bought displays they were pre-assembled. These are DIY. No big deal but I am wondering how long it is going to take me to assemble them. I guess I'll find out when they arrive.

They are not hard to assemble. But watch out with the instructions! I managed to install a resistor in incorrect position my first time out; Basically, I was working ahead of the instructions and hosed myself.

I was impressed with the fit and finish. Everything fell into place and fit like it was blueprint perfect.

I did not time myself when assembling them but 3-4 hours and loafing a bit , too.

A wizard followed me home today

Quicksilver, Cheetah & Nine Ball….. I think my Classic Stern collection is complete!

This one will be getting the full 5* restore someday, but boy I’ve been away from this thread a long time. Gonna put the Cheetah in the shop & dive back in!

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i wish my list only had 3 in in add SG, Seawitch, BG and Meteor and then the one still missing DragonFist-

Question about Quicksilver...I recently moved one and from what I could tell it wasn't possible to completely remove the head without removing the display panel wiring from the display panel, as it was basically wired (in part) into the rest of the harness that goes down into the cabinet.

I'm debating adding a Molex connector to the harness (where my hand is in the below image) to make it a bit easier to remove the head. Has anyone else tried this? Perhaps I am missing something obvious. Thanks!

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You can remove the head but you do need to get into the cabinet to do so. You need to pull back a couple wires from the power rectifier board. No need to add an extra connector.

Sterns are different from Bally.

Remove the J-3 connector from the rectifier board. Roll this harness up into the back box. Also check that the harnesses have not been tie wrapped together

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Thanks for clarifying that. I did trace that part of the harness back to the rectifier and assumed that was an option. I recently worked on a Big Game and I think that one had a Molex connector for the cab harness into the backbox...I'll have to go back and look at my images.

You will run into some strange factory work on different Sterns. But my Big Game does not have what you mention. It could be some work someone else has done.

agreed with Cotton here, you can add a connector yourself else it is not factory on the games i have seen either?

Problem solved, just do what this previous owner did.

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Some test leads to the rescue.

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Picked up a donor game and pf today! Now to figure out what to build out of them. I’m doing a star gazer for sure but I have enough parts to probably build a 2nd game as well.

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are you guys converting the meteor playfield harness to work with other titles, or are you building new ones out right.

I was actually curious to see if you can convert a meteor harness to work with a star gazer

for my QS and SG scratch build i bought a new PF harness but converted backbox harness. Making new PF harness from scratch is a whole different ball game...

It may work to start with the each of the backbox connectors pre-populated with the appropriate crimped wires (say 10-foot flying leads), then you could route them from the backbox to the playfield, creating your playfield harness as you go?

You will be able to convert one Stern wire harness to a different Stern wire harness---with difficulty. I'm too busy to talk about it right now. Back later.

Here is these main thoughts: Measure the harness from the edge of the play field to the wire connectors that go to the boards. This is the length of harness you have to maintain when you start moving wires around.

I made a Seawitch harness from scratch using a Last Action Hero harness as a donor.

But I'm a lunatic.

Here is a pic of the feature light wiring on Star Gazer and Meteor. There are 3 connectors associated with the feature light wiring. All 3 connectors, J-1,J-2, and J-3 connect to the LDA, or lamp driver board.

I mapped three wires.

1) J-1, pin 18 ( highlighted in green on both pin drawings ), calls out for BRN-B wire on both connectors at J1-18.

2) J1-17 ( highlighted in blue ), calls out for a Purple PUR wire at pin 17 on both connectors.

3) J1-11 ( highlighted in pink), calls out for a Black-Orange B-O wire on pin 11 at both connectors.

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You will need to map every wire and assure the same color is called out for on both drawings. If there is a difference you will need to do some swapping around. But since you are going to be using a 40 year old wire harness you should consider replacing every pin, so swapping wire colors around to get the right color on the correct pin is not extra work.

What you will not know until you starting working it is if the wire is going to be long enough. Here is an exaggerated explanation: J1-11 on Meteor might be close to the flippers, while J1-11 on Star Gazer might be located near the back of the play field; In this instance, your wire will be long enough with some left over.

However, on Meteor J1-18 might be located close the the back box while on Star Gazer J1-18 is down by the flippers. NOw you have a problem; Your wire is now too short. So, you will need to buy some longer length of wire or start doing some splicing and shrink wrap ( which should be for repair purposes only ).

The switch wiring will be just like the feature wiring.

ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION to the length of the wire from the edge of the play field to the connectors. It takes a lot more wire than you think.

EDIT: 3-4 years ago I would have not been able to say all that I said above, but here is the wiring for the Quicksilver I am building. This is the original QS wire harness but I have rerouted all of the play field wiring. I am not going to lead you astray.

From this:

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To this:

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This does sound like Lunacy.

Like gdonovan said awhile back: One wire at a time. That is all it is.

Once you completely understand the switch matrix and solenoid matrix, it all falls into place. It took me awhile to get there but after a long time of study, one day it all fell into place.

Came out great!

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pretty cool man, when DF pfs eventually drop I'm going to donor up my meteor, so good to know it's been done from other harnesses for other games.

Its too bad So many meteors and galaxies are being
Frankensteined into stargazers,quicksilvers etc.

None of my business but I hate to see an original game from the past essentially erased.

Just my opinion and I'll take the arrows.

I'm right behind you, lowbeau67 - I'll take what arrows don't hit you first. We have, and enjoy, a pretty old Flash. Talk about an underappreciated game!

My Seawitch was built from scratch from a playfield destined to be a wall hanger. No pins were deconstructed by my hand in its resurrection.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/seawitch-from-scratch-allentown-edition

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How does one test a transformer to see if it’s good? Just installed a new rectifier board in a project Split Second I picked up a few weeks ago and J3 pins 5 & 6 lit up like a Christmas tree. I had checked continuity between these two. I also only had J2 hooked up to test the voltages.

Looks like the transformer is set up for 115v and my wall is putting out 122v.

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Should not make a difference there in regards to the fireworks.

I understand your misgivings, but 5100 Galaxies were produced, and 8100 Meteors.

1200 Quicksilvers, 879 Star Gazers were produced.

So, one has been traded for another.

Some Meteors have been sacrificed and the remaining ones are going up in price. That will slow down the sacrifice.

If we manage to over do it, someday there will be meteor and galaxy rescue / deconversion threads

Funny, isn't it. The market is sort of self-leveling. When we restored our Bally Sea Ray, we used parts from a dead Circus. It donated its backglass to someone else and its cabinet to yet a third collector. It lives on, so to speak, in the form of a bunch of organ transplants.

Some people are building new pins from scratch which is exciting too.

I bought a Hot Hand for a sacrifice. The boards were were bad. The back glass was fair, the play field was very nice. The back glass went to a guy with no back glass. The play field went to another guy who’s HH play field was blown out. The transformer went to Gdonovan for his scratch build Seawitch for his wall hanger play field.

The game referenced, Meteor, is a special case. The free play version I have includes a bug where you can underflow the bonus X to 255 and it counts for seemingly ever so I normally set Meteor requested MPUs to the stock, but bug fixed version without free play. There is also a custom home ROM for meteor in the combo ROM that has the bug fixed and free play.

If more people start playing Meteor and Galaxy with the Dick Hamill code, they might take a greater interest in those games. I have them and Stars in the lineup and love them all; I play Galaxy and Meteor on the new code exclusively.

But it is true that the low production numbers are something to consider. I *love* Star Gazer based on the one time I got to play one, but with pricing being what it is these days, the only way I will own one is if I scratch build it. I’ve already decided to go scratch built for Nine Ball - these old machines just aren’t *worth* paying $5k-$7k just to get a hold of one that then needs to be restored. It’s a pity that the only model for reissuing an early solid state classic is that absurdly overpriced Bally Fathom a couple years back. A Classic Stern reissue line would be fantastic, but then of course it would be all the issues of having enough pre-orders to make it worth the effort, etc.

(Arrows presumably coming my way for dissing the Bally Fathom reissue price point. I have counter-arguments prepared, lol.)

NB is the special case. You need the single target drop target and the 8 position memory drop target. You can sacrifice a Flight 2000 to get the needed 8 position target but no one had talked of another source. If you can come up with the answer for these 2 parts---and the special drop target---you can do it. Without these 3 items NB is a no-go. And don't forget the transformer.

Almost like you are throwing me a challenge bro.

Do it!

I seem to be missing a playfield.

I am pretty sure my Meteor identifies as a Star Gazer.

I have all of these things, plus two sets of 3-bank drops, light/score panel wiring harness, cabinet harness, apron, shooter cover, and the oddball outhole/ball trough setup. Been collecting parts for over a year. Will need to figure out something for the playfield harness, but many people have solved that in different ways so I’m not
letting that discourage me.

Next phase is building new cabinets, which I want to start doing on most of the classic sterns I see. (All of my cabinets are real dogs.) I have a friend who works for a CNC company and his shop is at-home. Just waiting for him to get the newly upgraded machine installed.

I’m sure someone in the group bought a new playfield from Mirco and could sell you their used playfield.

NB will use the same displays harness as Seawitch and Catacomb. Try to have Third Coast build you the displays harness and cabinet harness if you do not already have those. You can make a cab harness easily enough, but what is your time worth?

For the play field, all you need is the wiring; You needs lots of long pieces. Wiring up the play field can eat some time, but if you take your time it is very easy to figure out. I mean, gdonovan built a harness from scratch; How hard can it be .

Once I get this Quicksilver finished I am going to make a training aid to walk everybody through the mysteries of the switch harness.