(Topic ID: 225496)

Stern Electronics Club (1977-1984).

By Mitch

5 years ago


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11 key posts have been marked in this topic, showing the first 10 items. (Show topic index)

There are 10,741 posts in this topic. You are on page 87 of 215.
#4301 3 years ago
Quoted from greatwichjohn:

I received a offer of both titles. Nineball looked very good as a file & I did not open the other (stitch scan). I need art ready to print. So all the colors not needed in print would need to be removed & other things fixed. The scan was 600 dpi, & my first printer said 300 dpi is good enough for production. I just confirmed my plastic lense order for 3/4" & 1" blue trans circle lenses. There is a real lense shortage going on!

I have the high res scans of Nineball and Big Game but they're stitches so I would need to verify position of everything with someone who has a stripped version of one of these and can do a ton of measuring for me. That or I would need a roached version to work with for a couple weeks. Even then we're talking about dozens of hours of cleanup to get colors reigned back to their screen printed colors, plus dust management. I have pretty good skills for this but not the time, unfortunately.

11
#4302 3 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

Molex Connectors
When I am crimping pins to install into Molex connector housings sometime the pins slides in and locks tightly into position. And then right next door, the other pin slides in but is all wobbly and will pull out of the connector just bit. They will still plug in and work, but if you are working on a 6-pin connector and a few are loosy goosey it can be a little extra work getting them connected.
Why does this happen? I am using the same crimp tool for each pin. I am using the same brand of pins. This has had me scratching my head since I got started with pins 5 years ago.
With the connector in the pic, one pin is locked in all nice and tight. And the other one is sticking out.
Thanks
[quoted image]
[quoted image]

There is a section in the middle of the Molex round pins that should not be crimped.

A90829B1-7940-42E8-9730-FB261DD8312A (resized).jpegA90829B1-7940-42E8-9730-FB261DD8312A (resized).jpeg

If you crimp this area, the pin will slide all the way through. A properly crimped pin will only have the wire crimped above that area.

5887B86F-2D51-4355-85A2-C31D64DC68F2 (resized).jpeg5887B86F-2D51-4355-85A2-C31D64DC68F2 (resized).jpeg

#4303 3 years ago
Quoted from dothedoo:

There is a section in the middle of the Molex round pins that should not be crimped.
[quoted image]
If you crimp this area, the pin will slide all the way through. A properly crimped pin will only have the wire crimped above that area.
[quoted image]

Thank you. I thought I was being careful with my crimp work. But I sure did not know about this. I have some I am going to new re-do.

Thanks again.

#4304 3 years ago

In case you missed it. Nine Ball reproduction play fields are now available.

But a play field and a set of matched plastics are priced at 949.00 Euros. with the current exchange rate of .82 dollars to 1 Euro, that is a bit of change for spend. But I guess we wait for Mirco to put the on sale on pinside and see the dollar price.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/nine-ball-club-all-welcome/page/17#post-6005357

https://mircoplayfields.com/en/p/nine-ball-mirco-playfield-unbreakable-plastic-set-combo

#4305 3 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

In case you missed it. Nine Ball reproduction play fields are now available.
But a play field and a set of matched plastics are priced at 949.00 Euros. with the current exchange rate of .82 dollars to 1 Euro, that is a bit of change for spend. But I guess we wait for Mirco to put the on sale on pinside and see the dollar price.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/nine-ball-club-all-welcome/page/17#post-6005357
https://mircoplayfields.com/en/p/nine-ball-mirco-playfield-unbreakable-plastic-set-combo

Nice! Just need Cheetah and Big Game and I'm good to go.

#4306 3 years ago

That's outstanding news. So many 9 Ball playfields are blown out. Just need to find these games to restore them

#4307 3 years ago
Quoted from Methos:

Nice! Just need Cheetah and Big Game and I'm good to go.

Cpr will be releasing Cheetah and F2K in the next couple of months.

#4308 3 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

In case you missed it. Nine Ball reproduction play fields are now available.
But a play field and a set of matched plastics are priced at 949.00 Euros. with the current exchange rate of .82 dollars to 1 Euro, that is a bit of change for spend. But I guess we wait for Mirco to put the on sale on pinside and see the dollar price.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/nine-ball-club-all-welcome/page/17#post-6005357
https://mircoplayfields.com/en/p/nine-ball-mirco-playfield-unbreakable-plastic-set-combo

You can buy it in USD through Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1042-mircoplayfields/04587-nine-ball-playfield

#4309 3 years ago

$799 delivered for the playfield above.
$899 delivered for the playfield and plastic set. Seperate listing in Pinside store.

#4310 3 years ago

John please finish the seawitch run before starting another project!

#4311 3 years ago

Holy crap, it's still not done..

#4312 3 years ago
Quoted from hisokajp:

Any chance someone has a spare/used Upper left corner plastic for Stern Lightning?
That's the only broken one and i'd rather bot buy a whole set...

I also installed a CPR plastic set on Lightning. My old ones should be around here somewhere but so far I have been unable to find them.

#4313 3 years ago

Check the artwork!!

#4314 3 years ago
Quoted from LOTR_breath:

I also installed a CPR plastic set on Lightning. My old ones should be around here somewhere but so far I have been unable to find them.

it would be great, i made a fix in acrylic but a plastic would be better

#4317 3 years ago

That is the plan to finish Seawitch. The next 24 Star Gazer will get ready, but only small groups done for demand. I still have to do over the 20 production Seawitch. I thought I had 6 ready for printing. But I need to sand them again & 2 coats of clear. My goal is still to have all 20 to the printer before xmas. I will likely be moving onto custom projects, & doing more production of what I have done. Mirco & CPR seem to want to dominate the market which makes it really hard on the very small manufacturers. So I am no longer interested in any pinball playfield art ready to go.

#4318 3 years ago

Then you’ll need to concentrate on games they have said they have no interest in making. Big game is at the top of the list in that dept. imo. I wish I knew how to get you the proper art files.

#4319 3 years ago

Think it was this thread, someone said replacement mpu boards run different than stock.

So I had my galaxy and just put allteks in to get it playable while I did the kits the the original boards. Selling galaxy so I figured I’d try the original boards and wow, ya, a lot different noise wise. I mean it was noticeable, not in a bad way, just different.

#4320 3 years ago

someone find John an nineball art

those stargazer play fields look awesome!

#4321 3 years ago
Quoted from NeilMcRae:

someone find John an nineball art
those stargazer play fields look awesome!

Mirco has the nine ball playfield you seek.

#4322 3 years ago
Quoted from chuckwurt:

Mirco has the nine ball playfield you seek.

yeah I just saw that and ordered one!

Neil.

#4323 3 years ago

Nice! Man it’s exciting seeing new pf’s and games saved!

#4324 3 years ago

Had an interesting lighting journey with my Seawitch. When I populated my new playfield I decided to install color matched leds from Comet with a set of those little daughter boards to eliminate flicker in the controlled lamps. At first I thought it was working out sorta okay but then I realized that a bunch of lights were always partly on. Then I realized that the bonus count lights were lighting up in odd sequences. I decided to swap out some of the leds for incandescent 47s. That solved not only weird issues with those lights but some of the others as well. So I went through and took out all of the leds, swapping in 47s instead. Now the whole playfield is lit properly, no errors. I miss the color of the leds though. Anyone else run into or have thoughts about this?

#4325 3 years ago

What would cause some sounds to disappear from a Classic Stern? The end of game sounds on my Quicksilver have vanished (and possibly one of two others). I thought it was cable issues (and it still might be), but after giving them the once over, everything appears to be working ok, except the end of game sequence sounds. Any thoughts on how/why it would happen?

#4326 3 years ago
Quoted from Flynnyfalcon:

What would cause some sounds to disappear from a Classic Stern? The end of game sounds on my Quicksilver have vanished (and possibly one of two others). I thought it was cable issues (and it still might be), but after giving them the once over, everything appears to be working ok, except the end of game sequence sounds. Any thoughts on how/why it would happen?

The game never wants you to stop playing..... sounds like a twilight zone episode

#4327 3 years ago

I’m surprised no one has shared this news in here yet: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-replacement-for-vsu-100-speech-board

#4328 3 years ago
Quoted from Flynnyfalcon:

What would cause some sounds to disappear from a Classic Stern? The end of game sounds on my Quicksilver have vanished (and possibly one of two others). I thought it was cable issues (and it still might be), but after giving them the once over, everything appears to be working ok, except the end of game sequence sounds. Any thoughts on how/why it would happen?

I replaced the sound board capacitors in my Nine Ball and starting news sounds. Recommend to replace your caps.

https://www.bigdaddy-enterprises.com/

#4329 3 years ago
Quoted from pinheadpierre:

Had an interesting lighting journey with my Seawitch. When I populated my new playfield I decided to install color matched leds from Comet with a set of those little daughter boards to eliminate flicker in the controlled lamps. At first I thought it was working out sorta okay but then I realized that a bunch of lights were always partly on. Then I realized that the bonus count lights were lighting up in odd sequences. I decided to swap out some of the leds for incandescent 47s. That solved not only weird issues with those lights but some of the others as well. So I went through and took out all of the leds, swapping in 47s instead. Now the whole playfield is lit properly, no errors. I miss the color of the leds though. Anyone else run into or have thoughts about this?

I have some Alltek lamp boards. I also bought two sets of those daughter boards to update the original Stern lamp board. One pin is nothing but problems with . Next time I will spend the extra money and just get the Alltek unit.

#4330 3 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

I replaced the sound board capacitors in my Nine Ball and starting news sounds. Recommend to replace your caps.
https://www.bigdaddy-enterprises.com/

Can’t recommend enough to refresh the old boards with new parts or kits like BDE or GP has. I did all my galaxy boards with the kits and used my solder station and a nice solder sucker, these old through holes are pretty easy to diy!

Also the sound cables, if your game has those, get new ones.

#4331 3 years ago
Quoted from northvibe:

Can’t recommend enough to refresh the old boards with new parts or kits like BDE or GP has. I did all my galaxy boards with the kits and used my solder station and a nice solder sucker, these old through holes are pretty easy to diy!
Also the sound cables, if your game has those, get new ones.

Sound board has had all caps and header pins replaced. The cables buzzed out fine, but I suppose they're the next logical step.

#4332 3 years ago
Quoted from Flynnyfalcon:

Sound board has had all caps and header pins replaced. The cables buzzed out fine, but I suppose they're the next logical step.

Are you running the original mpu-200?

I am and I noticed a big difference in sound when I replaced the capacitors at C14 & C15 on the mpu. They’re speed related but perhaps it’s an mpu issue.

#4333 3 years ago

Clock speed on the mpu200 directly impacts the sound. The timing that changes and values are sent from the sound scripts to the sound board will be affected by the clock speed, as it's not the type of sound board where the mpu tells it "play this sound" - there's a stream of data that has to go to it.

A missing sound might be one of the channels messed up on the sound board - there are 3 distinct sections on it - if you have another sb300 to try that would help you narrow that down.

#4334 3 years ago

I know I have seen a guide someone’s posted before but I can’t seem to find it again. Can anyone please share tips on properly adjusting spinners? I cleaned up my F2K spinners and now they won’t sit level. What’d I screw up?

#4335 3 years ago
Quoted from play_pinball:

I know I have seen a guide someone’s posted before but I can’t seem to find it again. Can anyone please share tips on properly adjusting spinners? I cleaned up my F2K spinners and now they won’t sit level. What’d I screw up?

Pics?

#4336 3 years ago

Photo of each with the underside shown as well. Obviously I’m having trouble with the hook on the right spinner (how do I fix this? Can’t get it to stop getting caught!) but what the heck is going on with the left? The game is set steep but not THAT steep (6.2)

41581598-C5A3-44B1-89BB-DE2E68EABC26 (resized).jpeg41581598-C5A3-44B1-89BB-DE2E68EABC26 (resized).jpeg45346499-FB07-4D97-A16A-C8C238CFC80D (resized).jpeg45346499-FB07-4D97-A16A-C8C238CFC80D (resized).jpeg
#4337 3 years ago
Quoted from play_pinball:

Photo of each with the underside shown as well. Obviously I’m having trouble with the hook on the right spinner (how do I fix this? Can’t get it to stop getting caught!) but what the heck is going on with the left? The game is set steep but not THAT steep (6.2)
[quoted image][quoted image]

The spinner is not weighted. It relies on the switch blade tension to bring it to vertical position. You need more tension on the switch blades.

#4338 3 years ago
Quoted from play_pinball:

Photo of each with the underside shown as well. Obviously I’m having trouble with the hook on the right spinner (how do I fix this? Can’t get it to stop getting caught!) but what the heck is going on with the left? The game is set steep but not THAT steep (6.2)

I have this bookmarked https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/juicing-the-spinner-#post-5824628

#4339 3 years ago

Open the hook up slightly.

Gravity helps get the spinner down as there's only so much tension a lightweight switch blade can provide.

Sometimes you have to bend the spinner wires into the bracket to get fine adjustments - I don't consider straight up and down the "perfect" spinner alignment, I like when the top is very slightly canted forward just a hair, so a ball running into it can't bounce back.

#4340 3 years ago

I also found not over tightening
the screws going through the
Posts holding bracket helped .
Just keep playing with it.....

That's what she said. haha
Good luck.

#4341 3 years ago

Try and visualize the two pivot wires as axles for your car wheels. They need to be centered. But sometimes you cannot center them because the spinner is not balanced.

Disconnect that rod that moves up and down with the biade switch. Let the spinner spin freely.

Trying to find center on a spinner that has been misadjusted and tweaked out of center years ago can be a challenge.

The trick is getting the pivot wires centered on the up and down axis and well as the forward/backward axis. Once centered, you now have to start adjusting to try to find the balance you seek. If you bend pivot wires too far up, or down, or too far forward or backward, you risk the spinner wobbling as you spin it. Pay special attention to the forward/backward position of the pivot points. If you are too far forward or too far back the spinner can sit on its side like a cradle swinging in the breeze.

IMG_5284 (resized).JPGIMG_5284 (resized).JPG

As I look at your pic, it looks like the left pivot point is not lined up forward to back, like your pivot wire is twisted which puts you into a cradle.

Try for center with a free spinning spinner. Spin it and see how it lies. I have had one spinner that I never could get to level out after much adjusting and had to finally pull it in with some light tension with the switch blade. Be carful, too much tension will rob you of spins.

3d0b37a3ab0b372e70732b3b305f7646277c7393.jpeg (resized).jpg3d0b37a3ab0b372e70732b3b305f7646277c7393.jpeg (resized).jpg

#4342 3 years ago
Quoted from lowbeau67:

I also found not over tightening
the screws going through the
Posts holding bracket helped .
Just keep playing with it.....
That's what she said. haha
Good luck.

this

#4343 3 years ago

Something I noticed that may also play a part is weight variation between some spinners. I weighed two different style Classic Stern spinners & their was a variation in weight, the style with the arrows weighed in at 26 grams & the other style with the stars at the back (Quicksilver style) weighed 33 grams. Seven grams is quite a difference.

Bally & williams spinners weighed in all less than 33 grams.

#4344 3 years ago

i wonder if someone had some ideas for me, as I am a little stump?

I have rebuilt one of my QS flipper assembly with a brand new full assembly from PBL. I adjusted the gap between the bat and the bushing using the usual gapping tool and there is some movement but not too much. I made sure the plunger and coil stop were pushed together when i secured the coil stop but I am experiencing some "drag" somehow as the bat does not back down fully, hanging at 95% down.

I doubt using a stronger spring or shortening the spring is the right solution here... maybe a washer between the bat and the bushing for less resistance?

#4345 3 years ago

Do you have the gap throughout the entire stroke? Often it shortens itself up as it flips. I usually set the gap just a hair thicker than the gapping tool to compensate.

Also check to make sure your flipper stop isn't getting magnetized - I love that PBL has remade this stuff, but the parts all seem to pick up residual magnetism that they really shouldn't.

#4346 3 years ago
Quoted from slochar:

Do you have the gap throughout the entire stroke? Often it shortens itself up as it flips. I usually set the gap just a hair thicker than the gapping tool to compensate.

yeah it's a good point, the end of the bat does not seem to touch the PF but the spacing is very small. this is another reason why sometime i like adding that washer between bat and bushing. With the space for the screw to clamp the bottom of the flipper shaft, it sometime is hard to adjust a little higher and have it stick. i'll give it a try though, thanks

#4347 3 years ago

I don't have any direct experience on my own sterns with the PBL flippers, just a few friends, but I understand from them that there's an error in spacing on it too, which makes the throw either long or short, and you to bend the L bracket slightly to compensate. The flipper bats don't have enough meat on them though to allow for just a hair more?

Also do the bats have the correct profile? Genuine Stern ones are a HAIR thinner at the thick end vs. a Bally for instance, and it makes a difference for flipper hop.

#4348 3 years ago
Quoted from slochar:

and you to bend the L bracket slightly to compensate.

the L bracket that hold the coil/coil sleeve on the opposite end of the coil stop you mean?

I have the exact same assembly on the left side by the way, and there is no issue there. No ball hop on the machine with the right adjustment on the inlane return.

#4349 3 years ago

I had the same problem on my left flipper on Lightning. But I didn't use the assys, I just got all the parts from PBL to rebuild. It would work for days or weeks then go back to sticking. I finally went back to the original bats and haven't had a problem since.

#4350 3 years ago

The Stern and Bally flipper bats are slightly different.

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