Revenge From Mars (Your Advice Appreciated)

My second thread on pinside - first was to intro the fact that I just bought my first table and it is an RFM.

Spending my first weekend with it, and I'm getting the hang of inspecting it. Read the f'ing manual and ran the game's excellent diagnostics. There are a handful of lights out and switches that won't fire. I think those should be easy, but there are a few things that are a little more serious.

The Drop Target is disabled. The switch that is part of the assembly is missing along with the connector wires and socket.

The Light and dome on top of the popper are both missing. I'm not sure what bulb goes in there as I can't seem to figure it out from the manual, but I think I found the dome.

I think someone started harvesting parts from this machine as the components went bad. I suspect the opto trans or receiver is out on the popper and one of the coils is out on the drop. I guess I'll learn something new there as I investigate what is wrong with those.

Light column 4b is out. This is a light string on the biggest lamp pcb plate. I get continuity between all the individual lights, but not back to the razor clip where this line is supposed to be connected to the rest of the machine. It's like the clip for this line has somehow been disconnected from the line in the PCB - weird. Nothing really looks scorched or damaged on the board. It could be a defect of some kind in the PCB. I think I might need to resort to connecting a wire from the last light in the string to the razor clamp or post.

So how do you guys work on these? Replacing lights and switches with the playfield vertical might be easy but soldering a wire to a PCB is going to test my ability (and patience) if I don't have a flat surface. I guess I'll have to disconnect the playfield completely, pull it out and lay it on its side?

Well I connected a wire to try and fix column 4b. The connection was a success but the column is still out. I guess there is another problem somewhere.

Well, I know computers and not pinball so that part actually scares me the least. This machine has some problems but the monitor seems fine - ish. You can get an amp for it that I'm going to look into.

I've been looking for this machine basically for 3 years and it came up in my area.

My only problem is this is my first machine and it's gonna take me some time to get up to speed with it. Any help is appreciated.

The header pins . . . It's a razor clamp connector and the pins are forced through the board. They stick out a decent amount on the underside of the board, so I guess I could try to flow solder around the problematic pin, but I think there would be a good chance that I'd flow too much and solder the next pin too . . . maybe not. That would certainly be easy and involve only one solder point.

To replace the connector, I guess I'd need to cut the pins off as pulling it back through would tear up the board. How would you go about removing a connector like that?

I've ordered the microswitch and it was easy to find. It's the connector that is making me scratch my head. The original has two wires coming off with a plastic connector. I'm just really bad at finding stuff like that on digikey. I'll try to post a pic and someone can tell me what the connector is actually called.

Ok, I want to replace the ramp. I have a new ramp, but I don't know how to safely remove it and how to replace it so that the fasteners aren't raised and interfere with play. It is fastened in place with fastening pins like this (not actually the ramp):

RFMGrommet.jpg

Here's the actual ramp from the top:

RFMRamp.jpg

Good advice guys. I haven't done anything about the connection to the header pin yet. The wire I connected was just a test and it stumped me because it restored connectivity but did not result in the lights on that column working. My "hack" was just held in place with a clip and not soldered.

To make sure we are talking about the same thing, I'll take a picture when I get back to working on that part. I'm willing to buy SOME tools, but I'm not going to crazy. Most of the electronics work I do is for classic gaming and not pinball.

As I've been cleaning the thing off, I've noticed a lot of little hacky repairs. It'll probably take me years to undo all of them if I ever even get there.

I ordered the rivet kit you recommended. Kinda fun to learn how to use a new tool. Thanks for the tip!

Ok, I've really cleaned it A LOT and now waxed it.

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Here's what I did to get at the underside.

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The foam elevates so the playfield elements still attached don't get damaged. it also gives a little so what it is touching doesn't get smooshed. I can now get at the switches that are out and maybe some of those that have been replaced with the "wrong" switch.

Here's the main pcb with the wire I paper clipped connecting 4b to it's post.

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It's an Ultimarc amp. I found a link to it on these boards somewhere:

http://www.ultimarc.com/vidamp.html

Here are more pictures of the PCB. I don't see any solder anywhere that I could remove. This connector appears to have been pushed through the board and not soldered on. This is why I was confused at the recommendation to flow solder in there. In where? There is no solder joint. I don't know how this type of connector is installed, but I really don't think a soldering iron is involved - at least not one operated by a human being. This is why my first thought was to connect a wire.

RFMPCBUnder.jpgRFMPCBSide.jpg

Why would someone have cut the wires to the connectors to both saucer lamp sockets?

RFMSaucerRepair.jpg

Were they just being careless? Seems unlikely that both would be cut on accident. Did they replace the sockets with something non-standard? As you can see, their repair failed on one of the saucers and they left me millimeters of wire to try and re-connect. When I removed the ramp, I had to disconnect a butt connector that had the wires crimped together. They made another cut on the corresponding connector from the wire harness to hack it together.

Regarding the drop target switch. Here's what it looks like right now

DropAssmb.jpg

The target will move up and down and lock into place. It's possible the only thing wrong is the switch is missing. In order to connect the switch I need a wired connector like this one. It's opening is 3/4". What are these called?

DropSwitchConnex.jpg

Finally, they've disconnected the EOS switches on purpose. I don't really understand what the EOS switches are, but in this case, I think they just removed the common wire as there is a "loose" wire that is black with a blue stripe. I thought I'd just connect it to the common point, but before I do that, I wanted to ask someone who has RFM to check the EOS switch wiring and tell me what the wire colors are.

I was actually able to simply pinch my wire in place without soldering anything and that restored the light column. I'm going to leave it like that for now as it can be removed by just taking out a single light. If I get adventurous enough, I'll pry up the thin plastic and try to find the solder points.

Here are some pictures of my repair work. This is the work I did to reconnect the saucer light (the one where I had a mil of wire). I used an exacto to carefully remove some of the plastic and soldered a wire onto the connector. I like to use stripped wire casing and super glue instead of tape, so that's what you see in the pic. Turns out there is a diode right next to the connector in the other saucer which probably explains why this one was cut so close. Diode went and they had to trim it. Probably couldn't do the fine repair upright, so they hacked it together. If I'd known about the diode, I could have included it in my repair, but I didn't discover it until later - still works.

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Here is my switch soldering station that I rigged up to solder diodes onto new switches. At first I was confused about why the diodes were needed, but when I got a close look, I realized it was between NC and ground and the wires are actually connected to NO and NC. If you are reading this and that doesn't make sense then just do exactly what was already in place and it will work. I reused the old diodes . . . sue me

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Finally, here is my new ramp riveted in place. I used a drill to drill out the old rivets, but I still had to use a screwdriver to push the backs of the rivets in so that the drilled rivet would pop out. Took me a while to figure out which drill bit to use. Using the press kit referenced earlier ended up being straightforward. I didn't waste any clips, but it took more force than I thought it would to get them hammered into place.

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I didn't reconnect the EOS switches yet. I'll leave that for now.

The next thing for this RFM is to improve the movement of the martian solenoids. I don't know anything about solenoid maintenance, but I've seen reference to replacing sleeves (don't know what that is). Right now it/they move but they look kinda weak. If they are as dirty as everything else then they need to be cleaned. Is there a simply way to clean them up?

Excellent suggestion - I will look for that as those items could help with a lot of projects.

From what I've read - lube is a bad thing. . . .

Can I just open up the assembly, clean the plunger (5) with alcohol and replace the tubing (7)?

RFMMartian.png

Has anyone added this specific hole guard: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/HG-19 ?

If so, how is it?

Thanks! I haven't been able to find the Cliffy protector on sale for this game anywhere (yet)

Awesome, I've already sent him an email.

Mine looks about as bad as the one in the "before" picture on that site.

PM'd

I replaced the power supply and CPU fan last night. I had an AT power supply (knew I was saving that for something) and I bought a 50x10mm CPU fan at Fry's. The new PSU didn't fit quite right, so I had to put it in upside down which means it's only attached with 2 screws. I also cleaned the CPU and added heat xfer compound to the heatsink before putting it back on. Here's a picture of the computer with the CPU fan off. I actually have the new supply connected in this pic, but it is off camera.

RFM_Computer.jpg

I also re-glued the foam that is attached to the top of the case. I thought about removing it, but it wasn't obstructing the CPU fan (yet) and it took like 10 seconds to stick back on with spray adhesive.

I played the game A LOT this weekend. I've still got some maintenance to do, and I need to get a 10 pin molex connector to add my amp, but I've really been able to enjoy the game.

I had to replace some optos, and the coin door mech freaked out on me - I just disconnected it. It seems my cab is from France and so is my coin door - weird.

One thing I've noticed that I can't explain is that sometimes after the ball is ejected from SofLuck, the eject sound effect plays about 10x. The popper doesn't fire after the ball is ejected - the sound effect just plays 10x in a row. Anyone ever hit that problem?

I'm on software ver 1.5. I wasn't in a hurry to update to 1.6 because someone indicate it only fixes a restart bug. That was actually the first thing I thought of to address the issue.

Regarding the "memory dimm," Do you mean in the PC or on the main board? Both?

I probably had RAM to upgrade this PC at one point, but I bet that stuff is long gone now.

Edit - I looked at the Opto schematic in the manual. I did have to replace the Jet Exit optos which shares some wiring with the Popper that seems to be triggering the sound effect. I may test disconnecting the jet exit optos and see if the problem will still replicate. I guess it is possible that as part of my replacement, I caused this. If disconnecting the jet exit works then I'll have to think harder about that.

Also - one of the rivets on my ramp came off, so I'll need to hammer that back on . . . .

Well, I broke it. I mentioned above that the coin door "freaked out." It was triggering a switch that is not used by the game. I unplugged it on Saturday and just kept going. Tonight I was troubleshooting the eject sound effect that keeps playing after the ball is ejected and I decided to re-connect the coin door. I did this because it seems the coin door mech connects to the same board as the optos. I was thinking that it might help my sound effect problem somehow to reconnect.

After I did that very bad things happened. The game now acts like the door is always open and none of the diagnostic buttons work. I actually did read some troubleshooting about this problem. I think I'm going to start with fuses. Because I can't restore high voltage, I can't tell if any of the high volt fuses are blown, but I'm pretty sure there should be a green one lighting that isn't now. Can anyone tell me which fuse lights are on with the coin door open on a completely working machine for reference? A picture would be nice if you can snap one for me.

Edit - I'm stuck at work so can't do any testing. The game did the same thing this morning as it did last night - acts like coin door is open and none of the diag buttons work. Here is a thread on another site that I found about a similar problem: http://pinball.gamehourz.com/TECH-2000-Revenge-Mars-ftopict215020.html

Also, the coin door board has nothing to do with the optos. That was just a misunderstanding by me . . . ugh

I really hope this is a fuse . . . .

Awesome! This thread is now becoming a repository for RFM troubleshooting in itself.

Edit: I replaced Fuse 108 (the green one) and the game came back to life. What a relief.

"One thing I've noticed that I can't explain is that sometimes after the ball is ejected from SofLuck, the eject sound effect plays about 10x. The popper doesn't fire after the ball is ejected - the sound effect just plays 10x in a row. Anyone ever hit that problem? "

All I had to do was play the game with the glass off to discover that this seems to be happening because the plunger doesn't go back down after ejecting the ball. My next move is to clean all the solenoids, so I guess I'll start with this one.