Ace is the place! We're getting an Ace 2 miles from me and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Working on a Stern 9 Ball for a friend. The game boots with the tones then shows odd numbers on the displays. The game appears to be in attract mode because the playfield controlled lights are dancing around.

When I trigger the coin switches nothing happens, and when I press the start button nothing happens. Only thing noticeable so far is that the self test switch is faulty and slightly touching my finger on the button makes it start self test without actually pressing the button.

Ideas?

20210819_115139 (resized).jpg

20210819_115047 (resized).jpg

All the balls are loaded and switches are in adjustment.

Decided to take a different approach. Installed an alltek board and booted up the game.
Still garbage on the displays.
Still no sounds from any of the coin switches.
BUT.. This time the start button started a game.

When the game starts I hear the background noise but the ball wont eject. So I checked the solenoid fuse on the power supply beneath the playfield and meter says it's got continuity.

I guess it's time to start checking for voltage with the meter.

The solenoid driver board is a rottendog and last time I checked voltages were good. I'll double check again.

Bluespin the original MPU does not have a battery on it. The alltek im sure has NVRAM.

Is there a button to clear the Alltek Audits? With strange displays, im not sure how to get to the audits in the menu.

I dont believe any of the coils are working. As the targets do not reset either.

**edit** I have a memory capacitor I could install on the original MPU. It was supposedly rebuilt and tested in 2017 and has not been used in a game since.

Thank you! I will try this when I get home tonight.

Finally some progress!!! Cleared the audits on the alltek board and now the board boots fine with normal displays now. Woohoo!!

Credit up and start game.... nothing. I found the playfield fuse between the flippers was blown. Changed it out with a 3A fuse breaker for now. First thing I check are the diodes. All diodes are on each coil. None are broken or facing the wrong direction. Decide to check the jones plug for the large 8 bank of drop targets. Bingo.

Game plays fine with the jones plug disconnected. So somewhere on the 8 bank I have a short thats blowing the solenoid fuse. The coil is showing 13 ohms which appears to be about right.

Thoughts?

Can anyone confirm?

I obviously see the one burnt coil. But is there supposed to be 8 coils here? Or is the 7 correct?

Thanks in advance!

20210821_001705 (resized).jpg

I vote Seawitch and Stars.

I was wondering the same. Never played one.

Glad to know someone has recreated these. Any comments on the durability of these?

Working on a nine ball for a friend. Game is finally booting correctly and starting up mostly correct. I'm curious about these drop targets though. Most times when the game starts they wont all reset. As if a few don't catch the little ledge and drop back down. Is there something I'm missing that helps keep them standing better?

They're not nice and straight like drops from Williams machines. It's this the norm for Classc Stern machines?

1635869121257191941654502650493 (resized).jpg

Slow motion video of the drop targets resetting.

I like your clever idea. I think I will try this out and see what happens.

Will report findings afterwards.

I think im following.. Does this adjustment involve tweaking or bending the metal tab up or down slightly to match the others?

Great! Definitely worth a try. These Stern banks are a pain to get working properly.

Thanks for the tip!

frunch Im assuming these are the metal tabs you were referring to? They all seem to be fairly close to the same position.

Or was it something else you were taking about?

20211103_113355 (resized).jpg

Unfortunately none of these drops are working reliably. Most of the time when a reset happens a few fall but its not always the same ones.

Ill play with these tabs and also compare the new drop targets to the originals to see if there's anything that may be out of the ordinary.

Okay so I found a solution that worked great for me. The new drop target is basically identical to the old one aside from being just slightly shorter. A friend said to try shaving a little bit off of the coil stop to see if a little more travel would assist the lift bar in making sure the targets raised high enough.

This has seemed to fix my problem for now.

Hopefully this helps someone else having issues with their drop targets.

received_445524013941204 (resized).jpeg

Anyone looking for a Stargazer? This is a really nice copy.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/KCPinball/permalink/1896144870576304/?ref=facebook_story_share

I seen that! Very cool! Someone had shared some of these photos on the pinball enthusiasts group on Facebook. I'm very intrigued to find out more about the Stern Hypnox machine. IPDB has an excerpt saying it was only ever a prototype but supposedly there were 2 working machines at the factory before they closed their doors.

SmartSelect_20220407-172405_Chrome (resized).jpg

SmartSelect_20220409-060021_Facebook (resized).jpg