Theatre of Magic
Bally, 1995You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider joey316g.
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Ok, as I stated in a previous thread, I'm going to start this thread to document the tear down, troubleshoot, prep and restore of the Theatre of Magic I picked up for $500 in a fire sale. It's gonna be a long process as I have many hobbies and tend to flip flop around but it will always move forward. There will be lots of pics and I'll update whenever I do something new. Ill start it off with the pics I took the day I brought it home.
So the machine will not boot. Nothing except the single tone from the soundboard. Of the 3 LEDs on the CPU board, all were on steady. I did the typical troubleshooting in the machine. Pulled all connectors except J210 and same results. I pulled the board and clean it up.. No physical damage that was apparent. I hooked it up to an external power supply from an old PC. Same results. I reseated all the chips and then when powered up, now only D19&d21 are on constant and D20 stayed out. I pulled the ASIC chip and put it in my TZ. It wouldn't boot. Same behavior so I put the ASIC from my TZ on the ToM board with no luck. I did the same with my 6809 chip.. It's good as it worked fine in my TZ. I used Clays guide to run all the tests he had mentioned with no luck. I'm convinced its something minor because like I said no physical damage that's obvious and its definitely never had work done to it. I checked continuity on every resistor and the all read correctly according to their respective color codes. I think I am at my technical limit as far as circuit boards go. I'm going to be sending it to a repairman this week. Here's a couple pics of the board.
Quoted from bballfan:Have fun with the restore!
I think the hardest part you will have is finding the speaker panel plastic.
I said the exact thing in my previous thread. If I can get a clean scan, I will have a graphic screen printing company make me one.. I'm hoping I can find a used one though or someone starts making them in the aftermarket. I may just get the generic Bally one temporarily till I find one. I can't believe the aftermarket doesn't off it with the popularity of this machine.
So today I also made a worst case scenario list of parts priced with replacement of every board in the backbox, full shop material list, restoration materials, new glass, paint, decals... The works. Came to $2138. Add the price of the pin and I have a fully restored, beautiful ToM for under $3000.
Quoted from coasterguy:That is awesome. Not to mention the story behind it. Save what you can to show people how toasty it was.
Will do.... Will do... As mentioned earlier, shadow box framing the speaker panel as its the toastiest!.. Lol
Quoted from NJGecko:And of course your time as a labor of love...priceless!
I love this stuff... When I'm done with them, I really don't even play them all that much... I'm the same way with collectors cars.. I don't even drive that 1991 GMC Syclone one of 2996 made after I got it all fixed up.. Lol.. I just like the satisfaction of doin it.
Quoted from crashnt20:How did you clean the circuit board? It looks brand new. I need to do that to some old boards I have.
I used isopropyl alcohol and a soft tooth brush. Followed that with some purple power cleaner from any auto parts store.
Ok back at it again tonight.. I cleaned the whole machine down externally because I want to get it out of my garage and into my basement where it's warmer. It's really a shame that the side decals bubbled a bit because this thing cleaned up to look kinda decent.
Here's the fliptronic board before and after. After a good cleaning I swapped her into my TZ and guess what boys..... I don't have to get a new fliptronic board.. Works perfect..keeping my fingers crossed for the rest when I get a chance to test them.
I also tested the DMD display and its no good. I'm not surprised at all due to the heat the exterior took in that area...wasn't expecting it to be good. Only $140 so no big deal. My goal is to get all the boards working and then try to play this machine and note what works and what doesn't, repair it all till the game works 100% and them completely rebuild the cabinet and playfield. Another question I had was about the DMD board. Again I wanna test it in my TZ but at the top of the TZ board, there is a chip that is in a socket and the Tom board it's soldered in. Does this make a difference? Can I swap them out and get the ToM board to work to verify its operation? I think my sound board is gonna be ok too because when I first turned the machine on I got the pause and single tone for it. I'd be thrilled if all I had to buy was the CPU and DMD.
Quoted from toyotaboy:god bless you sir for saving another pin, that could have EASILY been tossed and wrote off as insurance claim. That backbox looks the worst of all of it
Yes the backbox took the hit.. From there down its pretty clean.. This is how I like to get them... Messed up and cheap...lol... Just like my project cars.
Quoted from SideTrackTap:How are you cleaning your boards? They sure look good when you're done with them...
Chris
Purple power cleaner in a sprat bottle with a soft tooth brush followed by isopropyl alcohol scrub and then dry compressed air.
Quoted from Joshmx19:Do you have to do anything special with boards that have capacitors on them? I use detergent and water for light boards and such but I'm apprehensive when it comes to back box boards. I usually just alcohol wipe those.
The key is letting them dry out.. That's why I do the water base first then drenxh with isopropyl which acts as a drying agent and blowing off with good clean dry air. Then let them sit out to finish drying.
So in the next day or two, I'll have the power driver board ready to test in my TZ. I am very optimistic that it will work. Now the audio driver board I don't have a machine to put in because its a different sound system but again, I'm quite optimistic that it will work because its one of the only things that responded at all when I first powered the machine up after getting it into the garage with the pause and single reference tone. that's a good sign. The CPU has been on my mind. I ran a few tests and found a bad ASIC that was originally installed a 1/4 turn out. I sent this to a well known repair shop who i will leave unnamed that deemed it irrepairable due to 100% corrosion but with the luck im having, it's hard for me to swallow. I mean this cpu was in the same backbox as the other boards you see in this thread that with just basic cleaning and a few small repairs, are now working fine. I think im gonna take a crack at it myself when I get it back which I should have done in the first place. As a precautionary measure, I did order a brand new unit for Pin-LED. It was very reasonable and came with a new ASIC. Also, as mentioned earlier, the DMD display was a loss so that's gonna need to be replaced. With some luck, I may have this machine doing something in a week or so. Stay tuned.
Total so far: Toasty ToM -$500
Resistors - $1.29
Shipping both ways on old CPU - $25
Pin-LED cpu shipped -$235
Isopropyl alcohol -$2.50
So far: DMD display -bad
Fliptronic board - good
DMD board - good
Speaker panel - so bad.. Lol
I'll make new good and bad lists as I confirm everything. I wanna keep everything tallied which will make it much more rewarding in the end.
So at this point all I have to do is wait for the CPU board to come in and and clean the sound board and inspect it. I'm thrilled that these boards are turning out to be ok. My next order of business is going to be remove the mounting plate in the backbox, clean it and glass bead blast it, get some new ribbon cables, a new game rom and security chip, a new DMD and an interlock switch for the coin door as this one was hijacked. Stay tuned!
Tonight total was $11.51 for resistors and fuses. This brings my grand total to date to $775.30 for this project including the machine.
So far:
DMD display - bad
Fliptronic board - good
DMD board - good
Speaker panel - so bad.. Lol
Power Driver Board - Good
Quoted from Gerry:...
Been following the thread... AWESOME!
Congrats
Thanks.. It's very fun.. The biggest relief will be putting the backbox together temporarily, wiping down the whole playfield quickly, and firing this thing up and have it actually run through a game.. That's when I'll be really happy because then the "magic" can really begin.. Lol
So I took the night off from ToM tonight and ordered some parts. I ordered all new ribbon cables, a new newton ball, a new DMD, and a new interlock switch. I grabbed the ball while it was in stock. I will be grabbing decal kit and translight next just to have it. All the rest of the junk I'm gonna need is common parts from all pins.
Tonight's total was $216.80 bringing the grand total so far to $992.10 including the machine cost.
This cost has now brought me to all boards either new or repaired&tested, a new DMD, new ribbon cables, interlock switch, new newton ball and associated repair materials. The 5 bayonet lamp sockets in the back of the playfield are rusted up. I'm gonna remove them, glass bead them and reinstall them just to keep costs at a minimum. One of the personal challenges for me here is to get this machine done as low cost as I can without cutting corners or cheaping out. If I can restore a part rather than replace it, then that's what I'm gonna do as long as it won't be a problem later. I will be powder coating the legs, lockdown, side rails, wireforms and shooter in translucent gold powder coat as I have the capabilities to do this at home. I'm going to powder coat the coin door, all lag bolts and back box hinges in semi black. The powder is only about $20 to do the gold and they will look new again. I have 2 lbs of semi gloss on hand from old auto projects. Tomorrow I'll probably pull and prep the board mounting panel in the backbox in preparation for setting up the boards and powering this machine up. Stay tuned for updates.
The way I look at it, tonight in about one hour, I saved about $50 toward my project. I sure hope the CPU board and cables get here soon. I honestly don't expect to see them till middle next week. I may start to clean the playfield up while I'm waiting and go over all the pieces to see if everything looks ok for when I try to fire this baby up next week. I'll take some pics of the underside and cabinet interior when I do. I still need to locate a speaker panel or research a graphics design company to make me one. I'm really in no rush to get his done but I'll tell ya what... If this thing comes right on and plays ok, I'm gonna start tearing it down immediately. I may start powder coating some parts soon too.. I can't decide whether I want to do gold legs, lockdown, shooter plate and side rails. It's a tough decision as I could just buff everything and buy new legs. Not sure i love the gold or not... Decisions decisions! Stay tuned
Quoted from Nemesis:Much kudos to your from Cherry Hill. This thread should be stickied permanently - its a marvel of a restoration. If you need any manual labor: ie handing you beers and or cleaning / lifting crap let me know! LOL
Thank you very much..I'm just a regular guy, with a little patience, some decent tools, lots of toys and a desire to fix up jacked up stuff. LOL! I would say come over when you want but I'm very spur of the moment and a shift worker. Sometimes I'm doin this at 4am. Like I said before, I have a lot of hobbies and flip flop all the time.
Quoted from system11:Best of luck with this, it'll be interesting to see how those boards last, smoke fumes are highly corrosive to electronics. I remember a fire in a comms room at my first job, we spent the whole weekend cleaning residue out of network switches so they could run until the replacements arrived.
Ya know I thought about that but even if thy only last for a year and blow one ata time, I'd be ok with it because it wouldn't be all at one time. For what I bought this's machine for, I could buy all new boards and still be way out of market value
Quoted from CFoote:LOVE this thread!!! As others have said, keep up the great work, we are rooting for you...If you don't mind my asking, how much does a small glass bead blasting booth cost? Like the one in your picture that is a table top model?The speaker panel may be tough, but be glad there are translites out there (they used to be impossible to find)... you will get there!Chris
My machine is actually about 5 ft tall.. There are smaller ones..did a tone of research when I bout this one and it was the best bang for the buck.. It was $800 shipped from Ohio.. TP tools is the manufacturer. They are usually at Carlisle Pa car show if you want to pick one up.
Quoted from NJGecko:If it helps at all, I've got a ToM with a decent speaker panel if you want to work out getting a scan of it.Also, with the bead blasting, how do you get a shine on the products in the end?
Thanks.. I may take you up on that offer.. As for the bead blasting and shine, here's the deal.. It does leave a dull finish.. For me I don't mind it for things like bulb sockets and such.. Not if it's something you will see, there's a couple things you can do. If you go to a companies site called Eastwood Company, they have a small and affordable zinc plating kit for small stuff. If you have larger stuff, you can take it to a place that chrome plates. One of the steps in a chroming process is a zinc plating bath. They can zinc plate it for you. That's what you see on these brackets such as the knocker bracket. Hope this helps.
Quoted from MikeO:Thanks for documenting this resurrection in such great detail and sharing it with us.Mike O.
It's my pleasure.. Honestly, I never thought this thread would hey this much hype.. I just wanted to share to maybe give others a little confidence and maybe a guideline to tackle they're own projects.. Good stuff guys.. I love this sh@t!
Quoted from gearheaddropping:Have you found any leads on a TOM speaker bezel? I am keeping my eye out for you.
Also, I know you have a few parts you need but they are scattered all over a couple of posts. You might want to put a concise list together for us if possible. Sorry if you have already done this.
All I need is the speaker panel... Thanks for keeping an eye out.
Quoted from Pafasa:If anyone out there would take 600 dpi full color scans of their TOM speaker panel, I will create a vinyl overlay for Joey. Even if you have to scan it in pieces, I will put it back together and get it done. PM me to get this done.
Wow thank you.. That's a very nice gesture. I can supply exact dimensions for you tommorrow
Been on a holding pattern right now. Still waiting for my CPU BOARD from PinLED...I did get my items I ordered last week from MAD and BAA. They had NOS ASIC chips for $20 so i grabbed one just to have. I wanted to start cleaning up the playfield. A little but damn its cold here... I have to set up the heater in my garage before I do that. I may do that this weekend. Pics of that to follow.. For now, here's some new stuff....
So I have been contacting PinLED about my CPU board and finally yesterday I got an email. They said they never processed my order and apologized. Claimed they shipped it out that day. I would love to see it Saturday but I probably won't see it for at least a week. Grrrr.. This is killing me.. I wanna see this thing fire up for under a grand total!! Lol.. Stay tuned
Well, look what happened today with the assistance of a very important friend.. Paid a little bit more than I wanted to but i got this machine so cheap I really don't mind splurging a little for some stuff. Special thanks to PAFASA for offering to make me a decal for the speaker panel. I really appreciate the offer. Still waiting on the CPU board from PinLED!!!...hopefully it will arrive by the end of the week. I haven't done an initial cleaning of the playfield yet. I may do that tomorrow night.. With this little score at $171.42 with shipping from France, my grand total for this project so far is now $1163.52.
Quoted from NJGecko:Ordered my own board from pinLED yesterday. Based on you mentioning they never got your order I reached out to them today. They didn't get my order, so I had to send them the PayPal confirmation and they said it would go out "tomorrow"
So we will see!
You had a bad CPU as well?
Gotcha.. Well dealing with these guys direct has been a chore.. But they are the only game in town for this board new.. I'll prob wait so long I'll forget what it is when it comes in...lol.. It's a shame no American companies are making this board
Quoted from pzy:Glad you got a speaker panel! I was going to scan mine for you, but I misplaced the stupid backbox keys until today (they were in my car, wtf?)If you still need a scan, let me know!
Thank you very much.. I appreciate it
Quoted from mantz88:Looks like yours is in good shape but this is on CL dallas.craigslist.org link
Yes I can save mine but thanks form the link
This thing is beautiful.. Worth the wait.. At least that's what I'll tell myself...so I tore right into the package, pulled it out.. Swapped the chips, set the dip switches, hooked it up on the bench with an external power supply and............... D20 led is blinking like a champ!!! This weekend I will find out if I have a working TOM for under a thousand bucks!!! Stay tuned!!!! image.jpg image.jpg
Here I'm cleaning up the audio board.. I never really got around to doing it. Everything checked out good on this board that I could test and nothing looked bad on it. Heres a pic of the dirt rolling off and an after pic. Gonna go get my heater and warm up the garage so I can give the playfield a quick cleaning and get the backbox back together. This is better than Christmas.
Shot a lil video for you guys. The game has no error codes except set date and time because if the PINLED CPU board not having batteries. I went over every switch and every solenoid.. 100% working. I'm into this game for $992 to get it working including the price of the game.
Quoted from Crash:Dude this entire story is like being in a theater of magic! I thought you would never find a speaker panel overlay! Where did you find the DMD and ASIC chips so cheap? The cheapest DMD I've found is ~$160 on Pinball Life. And due to the recent supply hiatus it doesn't look like they currently have them.
MAD amusements
Quoted from johnwartjr:Just a heads up, the ASIC chip should *not* be stored in a plastic bag. It needs to be in an anti-static bag or tube at all times!
That's how they shipped it.. It's in the machine now.. The spare is in a case made to store IC'S ... but thank you
Quoted from Pinballgeek:Love to see what you will be doing to the playfield and cabinet
New cabinet decals
Clear coat playfield
New apron
Keep up the good work the machines a bargain
Definitely gonna strip the cabinet, repaint and new decals.. Gonna see if the apron will clean up. I'm not sure about clearing the playfield yet or not.. Still on the fence. Gonna powder coat the rails, legs, lock down, wireforms and shooter in gold. Then I'll do the coin door and hinges in semi black. New playfield and back glass and it should look brand new.
Quoted from Miguel351:This is just so cool on so many levels. I can imagine how proud and happy you must feel about this triumph, but I'm sure I'm not even close.
Congratulations on a great buy and seeing the fruits of your labor of love pay off greatly. Of course, the emotional attachment to this machine will be hard to break if you ever decide to part with this pin down the road, but I'm sure you could find a good home for it here among us Pinsiders.
Thank you.. I'm gonna try to continue working on it at a steady pace but I do have a ton of hobbies and I'm a busy guy. Ill update every time I do anything.
Hey guys... And gals.. Just wanted to stop in to say been busy with other projects but have been playing about 10 games a night.. Identified and adjusted a couple small issues with the eddy sensors on the ball savers.. So far this thing is very solid.. Will be ordering cabinet decals and translite soon.. Ill post up more pics soon!
Hey guys.. No updates yet.. The spring hit and I have been consumed with numerous projects. I will say that I have been playing her every few days and still solid and working 100%. I hope to start stripping the playfield soon to get ready to remove and start stripping the cabinet. I'll keep everyone posted with updates and thanks for the interest.
Quoted from futurepinhead:I'm the one with the toasted Playboy. Good to see you back at it. I have been on a hiatus on my game as well for about 3 or 4 months. Waiting on the funds for all the whitestar boards.
Where did you get the toasted Playboy?
Quoted from Doostur:joey316g, not sure if this was already talked about. But what fire was it in? Fire down by the shore?
I see you're in jersey as well.... I'm curious. Nice job by the way!
Golden Nugget Bar in Berlin, NJ
Hey everyone.. Been tying up some loose odds and ends on a few other projects. In addition to buying more machines and playing with them, I have not forgotten about my ToM. Up until 2 months ago, I still played it once a month and it's still 100%. At the end of the week I will be ordering a translite, shooter rod and decals from Planetary. I have removed the populated playfield and set up on a rotisserie. Will update with pics soon. Next I'm going to take down the cabinet and bring into my garage to do the dirty work of stripping the cabinet and getting it ready for paint. Once I get started its gonna move consistently so I should have this thread active regularly again. Thanks to all who have been following. Let the fun continue.
Just put in an order with Planetary for cabinet decals, shooter rod, translite and ball gate flap for a total of $470.89. This brings me to a grand total of $1634.41 which includes the cost of the machine. At this point all the large ticket or game specific items have been purchased with the exception of the main ramp. I may replace it if I can't make it look perfect again. All I have left is small parts and general pinball items. I still haven't touched the playfield yet but it is out of the machine. Should have some pics of everything next week. This is gonna be a great project.
Hey everyone.. yup it's me., the phantom pinsider.. I'm here to give an update on Toasty ToM. The truth is I haven't done much with it since my last post because well I have about a dozen hobbies and a touch of ADD. I hope to get working on it soon. Just trying to find the time. Thanks to all who followed this thread. I promise it will resume shortly!
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Monroe Township, NJ