tried that this morning, no difference with new EOS and new flipper SW. I'll try the shielded wire and ceramic cap when i receive them.

i have been using those for my replacement flipper switch, i assume they should work just fine?
https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-flipper-leaf-switch-single-contact.html

Two blades and two contacts. Looks like they will do the job.

that's what i thought, but at this point, i am just questioning everything

Anyone with a Stars able to snap a quick picture of the left flipper coil wiring? Getting dangerously close to having my up and flipping but I need to put the left flipper mech together.

Stars flipper see if this helps

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The left flipper will be wired just like the right flipper. Except the orange wire used on the right flipper is green on the left.

The blue-white power wire from rectifier J-1-6 solders to the banded side of the diode. The green wire goes to the non-banded side.

If by some chance your diodes are reversed with the banded side to the left, then the blue-white and green wires would be reversed, also.

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From the Stars manual:
( yellow does not scan very well. The yellow wiring is represented with orange )

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Thanks to you both, just what I needed!

Got a Star Gazer question. Is this rail straight cut, angle cut or rounded originally?I have seen it all 3 ways. Which one is correct?

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I made mine rounded. I don't know what is factory and not sure that it matters since the ball is supposed to go only one way.

On my Seawitch, this rail comes to a point. This point has been beaten up pretty bad with ball impacts thru the years.

A few weeks ago I asked if it would help anybody if I were to make up a switch matrix or solenoid matrix "in the flesh". 1 or 2 people said it would help.

Here is my first try at this. I'll do something with a play field when I get more time.

Since so many ask to see how the flipper solenoids are wired, I figure this might open some doors and help with understanding the matrix drawings.

This is the solenoid matrix for Quicksilver (To my knowledge, the flipper wiring is going to be the same across all of the classic Sterns).

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We are going to home in on the upper left portion of the solenoid matrix. But before I get started, this portion is taken from the Seawitch manual. The EOS switches are drawn incorrectly on the Quicksilver drawing above. Study these two drawings to see how the EOS switches are drawn. Once again, the EOS switches are drawn incorrectly in the top drawing.

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So, let's start with the diode which can be confusing to understand when you are new to this stuff. Diodes have a silver band embossed on one end of the diode. This band is represented by the small triangle and line on the drawings.

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Here it is in real time ( NOTE: On the left lug I have soldered on both a green and an orange wire for visual purposes only. Left is green flipper wire and orange is right flipper wire). Yellow wire is for the EOS switch.

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Here is how it is represented in the drawing ( Yellow color does not usually scan very well so i have the EOS switch highlighted in both yellow and some orange.

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These 2 wires, the green and the orange travel up to the SDU to A3-J1-8 ( green ) and A3-J1-9 (orange).

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OK. That's it for the flippers. Once you understand this you will never need to ask for pictures on how the flipper solenoids are wired.
=======================================

There are 2 more items that can be talked here.

Let's talk about the black/blue wire that is at SDU A3-J1-5.

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That black/blue wire at A3-J1-5 is the trigger wire for the center drop target.

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=============================

Over on the right side you see the Blue-white wire hi-lighted in blue. That wire is called out for connector A2-J1-6

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The rectifier board is called A2. The connector is called J1. And pin #6 is the sixth pin to the right.

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That's it for the flippers wiring.

If this has helped you out, give it a thumbs up so I know I am on the right track. When I get to a play field it will be along these same lines.

If you see something I have done wrong, please speak up so I an make any corrections. There is already enough stuff wrong with Stern drawings that I don't need to be adding to the mix.
=============================================

This is a road map I drew up for the circuit boards.

The MPU is called. A4 (multi processor board )
The SDU is...........A3 ( Solenoid Driver board )
The LDA is ...........A5 ( Lamp Driver board )
Rectifier is............A2 ( rectifier )

So, if I say to you, that such and such wire goes to A5-J1-1, you can see that A5 is the lamp board. And that connector J1 is in the upper right hand corner. The keyway blocker is the #20 pin. And pin #1 is on the bottom. And there are 28 pins total.

So now, go find A3-J1-1. Pin #1 is on the top. And there are 9 pins.

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The one I have is rounded and black inked to cover the exposed wood.

I am no Stern expert, so I don't know all Stern games of this era always used the same flipper coils. Or have the aftermarket suppliers gone to a single style universal coil to reduce inventory. The reason I say this is the Quicksilver drawing will work as drawn if the diodes are flipped 180 degrees on the coil. The key to the EOS switch is that it is wired across the heavy gauge winding on the coil.

Yes. If the diodes were reversed on the drawing then the EOS switch as drawn would be correct. But with the diodes drawn as they currently are drawn, the drawing is not correct. Yes?

From my years of working on games, the EOS switch is jumped/bypassed over the holding winding.
The current is forced to go through the pull winding and EOS switch.
When the EOS switch is open, the current is forced through the holding winding and
the pull winding.. Thus, adding resistance to the overall coil.

I am beginning to dig into repurposing my Meteor playfield harness to become my new Star Gazer harness. Does everyone use the schematics to do this? The feature lamps are easy. Everything else is making my head hurt. Anybody got a cheat sheet of what goes where? Any documentation should greatly be appreciated.

The switches are not much different than the feature lights.

Start with the yellow-red wire and run the y-r wire to all points. I recommend starting at the outhole and then working towards the back of the play field. Make damn sure you have enough wire; It takes a whole lot more wire to go from the back of the play field up to the back box than you think.

Then repeat with the white-yellow wire.

One wire at a time.

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You will have to figure out what Stern is calling some things sometimes.

Also, you need a printout of the signs of the Zodiac. There are many styles of the Zodiac symbols and you may find a different drawing easier to read.

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This request came from out of the blue. It was a surprise.

I have been requested to make a Nine Ball lamp board for a guy who scored a populated NB play field (nice score). I have made the template and will cut a NB lamp board in a couple of days. Does anybody else need a NB lamp board while I am at it?

You mean the backbox illumination panel? Yes please.

Yes. The back box illumination panel.

You want to have one?

I'll make you one.

Dropped in the playfield tonight for a test fit. Star Gazer is a good looking game. Can't wait to play it. Still have a lot of work ahead of me.

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SG is such a deservedly sought after game. I only played one once, and it absolutely delighted me. You’re making me want to do a scratch build now! Dammit!!

Do it. It is both aggravating and rewarding at the same time.

Put me in for one, please!

OK. Please send me a PM.

Where is everyone getting the drop target banks for these scratch builds? Are there remakes?

I got mine from Steve at the Pinball Resource. Star Gazer drops have the hat design and Steve has the dies for doing the hot stamp. Not really reproduction. More like new production OEM. That being said, the old OEM ones sure drop nice but they are getting old and brittle.

Pretty sure he meant the mechs, not the targets.

And pretty sure they are all from someone somewhere parting out a machine, sometimes the person building the new one sometimes ebay or where ever. Scratch build really isn't.

Yeah, I know. That’s why I deleted my response.

There are some parts available from Marco, but not all of the parts you need to make one from scratch. Bally drop target assemblies will work just by rotating one bracket 180 degrees and then you can install Stern drop targets and be rolling.

I tried modifying a Bally 4-bank unit on a Star Gazer build and the clearance wasn't right for the switch holes behind it. Luckily a local friend had a Seawitch bank in his parts stash.

For my upcoming build, I was initially interested in seeing if 100% off the shelf new parts could be made to work, either by altering their mounting brackets or by filling and relocating the pre-drilled mounting holes on the playfield. My reasoning was along the lines of what BorgDog said - I was hoping to build a "true" scratch-build that didn't depend on cannibalizing any prior game. But at $200 for just one 3-bank mech from Pinball Life, I gave that plan up and bought used mechs from parted out machines like everyone else. For just $70 spent, I have two 3-banks and two 4-banks to choose from.

I know you can buy a cabinet flatpack somewhere, but is there a detailed set of cabinet plans/dimensions for these machines? I can make one myself for much less but I don't have a reference.

Thanks for the responses on sourcing drop target mechs. I have a second stars project that is missing all mechs so figured the drops were the hardest to find.

Will hunt around for the 3 banks and pop. I’ve already had to build a set of slings from WPC parts and they work well since the arms are NLA

I do the reproduction tombstone drops as PBR and Marco sell a incorrect period reproduction that is a little more flexible.

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It's a widebody so some measurements are longer than a standard but the general design is the same. Awesome work by whoever made it: https://www.ipdb.org/files/887/Stern_1980_Flight_2000_Graphic_Cabinet_Measurements_includes_playfield_and_playfield_glass.pdf

If you have a table saw I can measure out the dimensions you need to cut. It won't be hard. All you are doing is building a box. While you do not need a Dado blade set to cut the grooves for the floor, having one would be nice to have.

Two key measurements:

1) The internal width of the cab needs to be around 1/4" wider than your play field. This leaves you 1/8" free space on each side of the play field.

2) The width of the back box needs to be 1/8" to 1/4" wider than your back glass with the beauty channels mounted on the back glass.

This is why Stern has stayed in business all these years after Williams, Bally, and Gottlieb left the pin industry.

I just noticed this today after owning Dragonfist for 4 years.

This is the light board pull handle on Seawitch and Catacomb.

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And now, Dragonfist

One item I discovered 3 years ago is that the star rollover was not lit from under the play field.

And I just noticed this.

Instead of a door pull for the light board, there is just a hole for you to pull the board open with. It works well and I never really noticed it until now. All it is is one screw, one spacer, and one washer---and drilling a hole was cheaper.

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I'm setting up to make 4 Dragonfist light boards. I am not going to drill this hole; My buyers can do that.

OMG accurate

Forget most of what I said in this post above. I am going to ask the mods to let me edit it or just rewrite it so someone does not get confused in the future.

The problem: I have the coil EOS wired incorrectly. Quench pointed this out to me on another post.

This is the way I had the coil wired. The EOS wiring is not correct.

This is the wrong way to wire an EOS.

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The EOS wire on the left at the green wire (left hand coil ) or orange wire( right hand coil ) needs to be moved over to the blue-white flipper power wire.

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Our set up at the Dory Hill pinball camp out

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I'd be hanging at this tent. It sounds like such a cool event. I have dreams of doing something like that on the east coast.

The camp out is Far Out! It's also Far UP! Do you guys build rest breaks into the day's activities for people to catch their breath?

Having a weird issue with my Stern Ali… all insert lights are always on. Game plays as it should no issues, but the inserts lights all stay on constantly.

Any ideas on what could be causing this problem?

I’ve already reseated all of the connectors, nothing looks out of place or misaligned. Thanks.

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Problem solved.

The lamp driver board jumper wire was soldered to a GI lamp forcing the inserts to always stay on. I resoldered the wire to the correct lamp socket and the issue went away.

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I like the apron cards, where did you get those?

Thanks! You can get them on eBay:

ebay.com link: itm

I put a new CPR playfield in my basket case Stars project and it is playing sweet so Im going to try and take it with a few other games to my local show so Im doing more work and have a few questions for Stern people

1 I just replaced the burned knocker and it is as lame as system 3-6 knockers which are 28 VDC. I tested and have 46 VDC at the coil is this just how it is or is something wrong or I can do something to be able to hear it ? A lot of WPC knockers are in the head and same voltage and rock so I think something is wrong.

2 Coin door is the most rusted of all the games I have had, are there any threads on options to make presentable. Probably not worth it as I love how battle worn the cabinet is but curious what I can do.

3 A few people have said it is too steep at 7 degrees so what is the recommended pitch for Sterns. I figure as steep as it can shoot but also want to try the recommendation.

4 most important, for those that take Stern games to shows what do you recommend I bring as backup for boards and parts?

Thanks,

Kenny

There are things you can do. I'll get some pics in the morning to show you some options.

Also check @tractordoc's thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/classic-bally-stern-coin-doors-step-by-step-guide-to-restoration#post-4978415

The steeper you set your playfield, the faster the ball will move downward (toward the flippers) and slower it will move upward. If your playfield has slingshot kickers that face each other, like Flight 2000, steep playfields goof up how those kickers interact.

It's my preference to set the playfield angle lower, to allow kickers and pop bumpers to work the ball back-and-forth faster. Everyone (honest!) who plays my 70s-vintage games comments on how fast they play, and they're all set so the bottom of the cabinet is nearly level.

Experiment with lower angles and see what you think.