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Quoted from Jaeg:I was able to have our only NE astronaut sign my Shuttle.
Sweet! Clayton's a nice guy, naturally. I supported a few of his missions.
Quoted from Jaeg:Do you have access to any shuttle astronauts?
I certainly did, back in the day -- I'd meet the crews for each mission I was supporting; we'd give them a briefing when they came out for launch "dress rehearsal". Typically they'd hang out at a local bar with us either before and/or after the mission too as thanks for prepping the vehicle. Obviously, since we haven't been launching humans from Kennedy Space Center recently, they don't come around here much -- but some do, on occasion. I plan to acquire some autographs whenever I can, probably in silver on the plastics like Ed Cheung did.
Quoted from MustangPaul:I LOVE that. Can you get any more? I'd like one for my game.
Sure can. How's $7 shipped? I can ship today and it'll even come postmarked from the Kennedy Space Center. 
3 weeks later
Not to steal 20eyes's thunder (those are some sweet ramp protectors), but I incorporated another NASA meatball mod today.
First: I found this nice keychain. VERY nice, it has some depth, and when the light hits it, the blue shimmers.
The Keychain
Just so happens, it's a PERFECT fit for that middle spot on the coin door. So...
Next: I trimmed the chain portion off:
Trimmed off the chain
And, simple as that, a little fun-tac on the the back, and voila!
Here are the BEFORE pictures, with flash then without flash:
Before, with flash then without
....and don't judge my green START button sticker. I put them on all my machines, because often times friends come play and don't know what button is where. lol
Quoted from MustangPaul:Hey that works slick. You should put a lit start button on like beatmaster and I.
Sweet. Pics / DIY?
1 week later
1 week later
Quoted from Harvs:All gone! I will update everyone by Monday on shipping costs. My only fee is a thumbs up!
Enjoy, Crew Members!
Figures, the one day I haven't been on... 
1 week later
Quoted from Crispin:It's really cool knowing that they are official and come from someone who was involved with the shuttle program. I missed it earlier in the thread but learned through corresponding with Andy that he was an Orbiter Structures Engineer on the space shuttle program (for United Space Alliance, NASA's prime contractor for processing the space shuttle) from 2003 - 2012 (missions STS-114 thru -135, and Transition & Retirement). My machine just got cooler! Thanks man!
Quoted from MustangPaul:It looks like you got another one. Andy has more smarts in his pinky finger then I have in my whole body. I'd LOVE to see how he could shoot down the clown on FB that say the Shuttle was fake and that all of our rocket launches have gone in the drink. "Look how the smoke trail curves till it disapeares into the sea so see it never went up, it crashed into the sea". These damn people are dumber then mud. Another good one is "the Shuttle is fake because look how skinny the metal is that holds the nose to the rocket, that's not strong enough to hold it to the rocket".
Thanks guys. Of course, being in Structures means that I'm no sparky, which is why I still have so much to learn about reading these electrical / electronic schematics!
Wow, do people really say stuff like that...? Oy, super facepalm...
Of course, if anyone wants to get up close and personal, the three space-flown orbiters are on display now so I definitely recommend checking them out. I'm biased, but the setup and corresponding informational displays we have for Atlantis down here in FL are amazing. You physically get really close to her so you can see all the amazing detail -- plus if you contact me ahead of time and if I'm available, I'll go with you to give you the structures engineer's tour, with better detail on the vehicle and her parts/components. 
Quoted from MustangPaul:Have you seen any of the tiles from a shuttle for sale on ebay, are the legit?
It depends how they were originally excessed. Usually the small "souvenir" style pieces are typically kosher. A few years back, some folks in my town got busted for taking scrap tiles and trying to sell them. No, no, no! Trash or not, still government property...
1 week later
Quoted from comment23:4. Lane change on U,S,A from flippers not working. Is this part of the EOS switch having issues?
Firstly, as djreddog said, only the right flipper controls the U-S-A position. Second, there's a diode on the EOS switch stackup for the right flipper (just compare to the left flipper EOS switches) -- if this diode comes loose (broken solder), this feature won't work. (I ran onto this on my machine.) So I'd recommend you be sure to check this too.
Quoted from KillerQ:I. Never realized that the right flipper initiated a lane change in this game... Would someone be so awesome as to shoot a quick video showing what hitting the right flipper for the lane change actually does? Is there a ramp that moves? Some sort of fun that changes position?
If you could toss it on YouTube, and post a link, that would ROCK!
It's not as fancy as you're making it sound, lol. Above the pop bumpers, there are the three rollover lanes, labeled U, S, and A. When the ball rolls through a lane, its corresponding letter lights up. When you light all three, the bonus multiplier increases and the U/S/A lights turn off again (so you can try to repeat the process). The "lane change" we're describing is simply changing which lane is lit (if you've already lit one or two of them). For example, if the ball rolls down the U lane, U lights up. Then maybe the pop bumper hits the ball back up the S lane, so S lights up. (Now U and S are lit.) Then maybe it looks like the ball will come back down the S lane again -- but it's already lit, so by hitting the right flipper button, you "move" the lights around so now U and A are lit instead, so when the ball rolls down the S lane, it completes the set of three lights and the bonus multiplier increases.
Simply put: you're just using the flipper button to change which rollover lane(s) are lit and which are not.
Quoted from KillerQ:Haha... Still cool, so I suppose the hydraulic fin that rose up from beneath the playfield and magnetically derailed the ball to a secondary lane was just wishful thinking...lol.
Thanks again for the info!
Cool idea ... I wonder if there are any pins out there with something sorta like that...?
3 months later
Quoted from dr_spidey:How do you light the inlanes? And what does "Spot Shuttle" do?
Does it just change the Shuttle Value?
Get bonus multiplier (via U-S-A lanes) up to 4x, and that will light the inlanes. Roll into the inlane, and "Spot Shuttle" will light the next SHUTTLE letter for you without having to hit its target.
Just added to my astronaut autograph collection on my plastics; met retired astronaut Mike Massimino today. (You may recognize him from his guest appearances on The Big Bang Theory. He flew on the space shuttle on two Hubble repair missions.)
4 weeks later
Added yet another shuttle astronaut autograph to my plastics today. Met Dr. Stan Love, who flew on Atlantis on STS-122.
I asked him if he'd ever seen/played the Space Shuttle pin, to which he said, yeah, a couple hundred times, as they had one where he went to college. He also said he'd signed a backglass for someone who lived in Portland, Oregon. (Anyone on here?)
Not that anyone's really keeping track but me, but FYI that brings my autograph total up to seven. At this rate I'm going to run out of room on the plastics, then what?!
astronaut autographs on my space shuttle pin
Clockwise from lower left:
Doug Hurley, STS-127, -135
Bob Cabana, STS-41, -53, -65, -88
Andy Allen, STS-46, -62, -75
Robert Behnken, STS-123, -130
Stan Love, STS-122
Mike Massimino, STS-109, -125
Rick Searfoss, STS-58, -76, -90
I also realized I could've had Dr. Love sign the right slingshot plastic -- he worked three EVAs on his mission, so he'd be perfect to sign by that spacewalking astronaut on there.
Quoted from MustangPaul:There's always the bg.
True, though it'll be much more of challenge to haul that thing around!
Quoted from djreddog:The shuttle has plenty of space too!
Also true, but I think I want to keep that clean.
I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
3 months later
Acquired another astronaut for my ever-growing autograph collection on my plastics. Today's addition - Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who flew aboard Discovery on STS-114, the first mission after the Columbia accident. I like the little Japanese flag he drew with it!
Quoted from MustangPaul:Way cool. How many more ya got to go?
As many more as I can fit! Looks like I could fit a few on the large plastic from under/behind the shuttle yet, I'll probably pull that one next.
I'm up to nine so far, btw:
Doug Hurley, STS-127, -135
Bob Cabana, STS-41, -53, -65, -88
Mike Massimino, STS-109, -125
Andy Allen, STS-46, -62, -75
Robert Behnken, STS-123, -130
Stan Love, STS-122
Rick Searfoss, STS-58, -76, -90
Tony Antonelli, STS-119, -132
Soichi Noguchi, STS-114
Quoted from MustangPaul:That's really neat, but no women yet I see, they must not visit the cape very often I guess.
Well, the first consideration here is the overwhelmingly-male number of astronauts -- I haven't verified the exact figures, but it's in the neighborhood of ~300 men and ~50 women flew aboard the shuttle. So the probability of running into one of the women is significantly less.
Another consideration is whether I'll know in advance I'm going to run into them! I don't keep the plastics here at my desk -- obviously, I keep them at home, installed in the machine. I recall running into Nicole Stott a few months back -- I hadn't known she was going to be there. Oh well. Eventually maybe I'll get a few.
Quoted from MustangPaul:It's just insane that some people think NASA is fake. You could take them up and they would still probably say it was fake.
Don't even get me started on this. I recently had a long conversation with a Flat Earther. (The conversation was only long because I couldn't leave where I was posted, and at least the guy was polite and respectful, so civilized conversation was possible.) I simply can't wrap my head around such blatant ignorance of scientific fact. It's an impossible debate, because they reject everything spaceflight-related as "faked", and ignore basic scientific principles.
3 months later
Quoted from Piratedan200:Only issue so far is the lane change almost never works, anyone know the common causes before I dive into the schematics?
Right flipper only (since only right flipper activates lane change) ... take a look at the flipper coil & mechanism under the playfield, IIRC there's a switch on there which drives the lane change. I had this same issue pop up once, and turns out the diode on the switch had come loose ... once I reconnected the diode the lane change functioned normally.
2 months later
Added a few more astronaut autographs on my plastics (Don Thomas STS-65, -70, -83, -94, and John Herrington STS-113), bringing my total now to 11.
Here's the wicked cool thing: a friend got Don Thomas to sign the plastic for me (I was unavailable), and took a photo with it ... then my friend printed the photo, and had Don sign the PHOTO too -- including the fantastic inscription you see here!!!
So... the astronaut autograph tally just jumped from 11 to 18... just acquired:
Scott Altman - STS-90, 106, 109, 125
Tom Akers - STS-41, 49, 61, 79
Curt Brown - STS-47, 66, 77, 85, 95, 103
Jim Wetherbee - STS-32, 52, 63, 86, 102, 113
Brian Duffy - STS-45, 57, 72, 92
Hoot Gibson - STS-41B, 61C, 27, 47, 71
Mike McCulley - STS-34
3 months later
2 weeks later
I'm repeatedly having issues where, if the ball goes up the ramp, but not all the way (so it rolls back down), the ball then gets hung up on the wireform under the shuttle. I've adjusted the shuttle position this way and that but it seems to continue happening. Anyone else run into this? If so, how did you resolve?
Ok thanks. I'll do some tinkering as soon as I have a chance. I have a party/tournament coming up in a few weeks, so I'd like to have it fixed before then!
2 weeks later
Quoted from SeaOttre:Sorry. Wrong pic. Dimensions here. Right angle bend needed to prevent the gate from rotating past and going under the switch on ball entry going up the ramp.
Thanks for the help. I looked a little closer at mine, and determined what was happening: sometimes, the wireform would swing/bounce back (after ball plowed through it) fast enough, that it would flip all the way around and land on TOP of the switch. Then, if the ball rolled back down, the wireform couldn't rotate in that direction to allow the ball to pass through.
I went low-tech on a solution ... I simply taped a piece of paper plate under there, positioned such that it stops the wireform from swinging up and over on the rebound.
3 months later
Quoted from mastercello:Paid only 350 USD for it, so i guess it was a good buy....oh, and yes it starts up and is playable.
At 350, that's a steal, especially in that condition!!! Congrats, welcome to the club!
3 weeks later
2 months later
Quoted from calico1997:What a difference a new playfield and new set of plastics makes.
2 months later
Quoted from SkyKing2301:Just met a few more of the STS-88 crew; already had Bob Cabana but now have added Jerry Ross (dude's amazing, flew SEVEN shuttle missions), Dr. Nancy Currie(-Gregg), and Dr. Jim Newman to my collection!
[quoted image]
I lost track and had to recount -- this brings my total up to 28 astronauts.
Quoted from pinheadpierre:It's supposed to do that if you hit the target (and thereby change the shuttle award) when extra ball or special are lit for the award.
This. Same for when you drain down an outlane when extra ball or special are lit. In all of these situations, you're missing out on the extra ball or the special -- "aaaaaggghh!!!"
2 months later
Quoted from Ive:Just had the call, joining the club ! .............. lift off is 0900 hours tomorrow !
Godspeed ... hope the launch doesn't get scrubbed!
2 months later
Quoted from WeLoveScott:Can I also add that this is one of my favorite shots in all of pinball. It's so satisfying.
Kkkkewww kkew kkew [clunk]
4 weeks later
Quoted from Apinjunkie:laser mod
Cool idea. I wanted to comment on your blue USA & Multiplier lights, I do really like that. I might be stealing this idea, matches the art/plastics/machine more overall!
2 months later
Quoted from MoSeS_1592:Just picked up my first SS at a show yesterday! It's a fixer upper for sure so I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions here in the coming months.
My first is regarding the right flipper button does not trigger the lane change feature. I did notice the ceramic disc cap at the switch was cut. Does anyone know off the top of their heads what the specs on that cap are, and is there some first spot to check for a likely culprit to the problem? Thanks!
At the EOS switch for the right flipper is a second switch that triggers the lane change. Check this switch, and be sure to specifically look at the diode. My diode came loose a couple times and that disrupted the lane change. Resolder, good to go.
Quoted from MoSeS_1592:The switch was bent so it was permanently closed. Adjusted it and now it works great. Thanks!
Even better. Glad I could get you pointed in the right direction!
1 month later
Quoted from MoSeS_1592:Apologies if this has already been asked, but does anyone else notice excessive speaker hum that fluctuates with the blinking of the playfield lights during attract mode?
I have this exact same issue but haven't made it a priority to resolve; looking forward to a response.
2 months later
Quoted from iamdrunker:speech test 1-6 seems to be fine than it hits # 7 and sounds like a scream?
Isn't that just the astronaut scream sound from when you lose it down the outland or change the shuttle bonus while Extra Ball or Special are lit?
1 week later
I have the bent plastic glare guards (sourced elsewhere), which work great for me. My kids hate them though, because from their low angle it partially blocks the display on DMD games. I can always tell what game they've been playing by whether the glare guard is still installed.
So, something to keep in mind if you have little ones or vertically challenged guests.
1 week later
Quoted from Heaterguy:Well as I suspected the ball hit the airplane when it bounced off the yellow rubber post and ripped the wing I should have known better, seen it coming....DAMMMIT[quoted image]
As an engineer once responsible for the airframe of the space shuttle, this pains me deeply
3 weeks later
3 weeks later
Quoted from KSUWildcatFan:Your high scores... My God...
Seriously!!! Mine is on 5-ball and my high is still only 3.2M
Quoted from Apinjunkie:the extra ball frequency setting is it at the most liberal, and specials are set for extra balls as well. However you don't get the extraball lit for multiplier bonus option until your multiplier reaches what would be 8x.(gotta work for that one). Extra balls can be earned at 1200000,3500000,500000 and 7500000.keep flippen!
Yeah that'll definitely make a difference.
Personally, I don't like the idea of rewarding an Extra Ball for a score milestone; that just further skews the high scores even further in favor of more advanced players. Since a Replay has no value in Free Play settings, your reward for a score milestone is the rush of hearing that sweet, sweet knocker and knowing you're having an awesome game!
For the Special, I have my home games set to award Points (when they can be). Think about it ... you definitely completed some specific action/sequence to earn that Special so you SHOULD get rewarded. But again, a Replay has no value in Free Play. Since there's generally a separate way to earn an extra ball, then the most logical prize in this scenario is Points.
Anyway, those are just my preferences. You do you -- go find out what happens if you roll it!
Quoted from SkyKing2301:I have this exact same issue but haven't made it a priority to resolve; looking forward to a response.
Well, I FINALLY got around to trying to eliminate the 'humming' during the attract lightshow. Some folks had reported success by tightening down the MPU and/or adding missing screws. Mine had all its screws and all were fairly snug, but I tightened them down further anyway...
No more humming.
Silly electrons! So if any of you get that humming in sync with the lightshow, just tighten those MPU screws...
Quoted from Apinjunkie:Thanks for the kick in the ass, I reset the high scores and dialed everything back to the original Factory presets, except for I'm still shooting five balls. Set up like this, it really forces you to work the whole table to set up the money shots. Got to admit, points that come with the special now are a lot more rewarding than I thought they were going to be. I think I'll be sticking with these settings for a while. Again thanks for the push.
You're welcome! (?) Glad you like the new settings. Mine's on five ball too, as mine plays very fast and can be brutal, so five gives people a chance, lol
1 month later
Quoted from Chisel:Looking for opinions on Replay settings. Do you give extra balls or credits? At what levels, etc?
Please share any settings you feel make the game measurably better than default and if you don't mind a brief explanation why you feel that way.
Personally, my policy for all my games in the home free play environment is:
- Special earned via playfield objectives should be Points (when possible). A Replay is (technically) worthless in the free play environment -- so you just worked really hard to achieve a challenging set of shots in the game, and got nothing to show for it. If you set the Special to Points, then at least you've earned something -- you deserve it! If Points is not an option, then Extra Ball is the next choice. (Usually Extra Balls can be achieved via other playfield objectives, so that's why it's my second choice.)
- Special earned via score milestone should be a Replay. I know this sounds somewhat contradictory, but score milestones are arbitrary and don't really require/deserve any award in the home free play environment. In the arcade where it's pay-to-play, sure -- you achieved a high score, congrats, have a free game on the house! But not at home. In my opinion, you should NOT earn an extra ball nor extra points for reaching an arbitrary score milestone, because that ultimately skews the high scores even further in favor of better players. The knocker/bells/lightshow (and satisfaction that come with it) are your reward.
1 week later
Quoted from Apinjunkie:anyway good news, we won't have to wait for the library as pinsider SkyKing2301 has already stepped up. Still an open invitation though for anyone else who wants to print one of these in exchange for running one for me as well. I'm really curious to see how it prints in different mediums, transparent, translucent, nylon, carbon fiber etc.
Quoted from Chisel:So If SkyKing has stepped up, is he not printing you one as well?
Yes, I will be printing Apinjunkie one as well (rather, my local friend with the 3D printer will be) -- presuming the first attempt fits well and doesn't require modification. I'm asked my friend to print it in white. Stay tuned!
Here's the update from my friend who printed... has a whole lot of support material to remove...
Despite the measurement discrepancy noted above, I'll still have him drop it off so I can take a pic and give a feel for what it'll look like installed when printed in white.
20200524_073347 (resized).jpgSince I asked John_I to print mine in white, it'll match the white plastic bumper caps well, so I might consider just attaching it directly to the caps (with velcro or non-permanent double-sided tape) and see how that looks.
Not to change the recent subject, but on the eve of the first crewed flight from American soil since 2011 -- Demo Mission 2, launching Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on the SpaceX Falcon 9 -- I just wanted to point out I have both these guys' autographs on my Space Shuttle pin.
20200523_203556 (resized).jpg20200523_203613 (resized).jpgQuoted from stoptap:Could somebody measure the centre of their pop bumper to the centre of the mounting hole please (The DZ measurement on this grab) ?
[quoted image]
I grabbed my digital calipers to measure this for you but found the battery dead. Rather than trust my eyeball on a scale down to 0.Xmm, let's wait for someone who can be more exact.
Quoted from Apinjunkie:Not changing the subject at all for me, was just watching the pre-flight special on Discovery Channel. Hope the weather is good for the launch tomorrow. I knew you had a lot of signatures on that machine, are there any on the plastic over the pop bumpers ?
As of matter of fact, there is: Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle commander. The problem is, I'd cleaned that plastic with Novus before I had her sign it, but apparently the Novus leaves behind a surface that's not very conducive to sharpie marker. As such, the autograph turned out very faint and not really visible/legible. Cmdr Collins felt bad about it, so she also the piece of cardboard I'd brought it in (with the same marker, yet notice the difference in quality). IIRC, I purchased a replacement pop bumper plastic, so that next time I run into her we could have try again. (I leave this and one other extra piece at my desk at work, since sometimes an astronaut(s) may visit the center without my having prior warning.)
So -- as I know this was the intent of your question -- since the autograph isn't really visible, it's really not a big loss to remove it and/or cover it up to incorporate this 3D truss mod.
20200527_081404 (resized).jpg20200527_085456 (resized).jpgQuoted from Apinjunkie:Yes, that is exactly why I asked. Lucky for us it's not John Young's signature on that plastic. Enjoy the lunch today. I used to live in Orlando and watched many a launch from my backyard as well as the Indian River. Even got to see a couple Saturn V launches when we first moved there as a kid in the early 70s.
Haha, while I didn't get John Young's autograph, I did at least get to meet him back in my whippersnapper early career days on the shuttle program. And this certainly isn't to downplay Cmdr Collins's accomplishments either! But I see what you're saying.
Also, when I finally got to meet Bob Crippen, it was still about three months before I acquired my space shuttle pinball ... so I had him autograph a Columbia bookmark I had at the office at the time.
Quoted from Apinjunkie:Funny you say that about the female astronauts, as I danced around how to word that so it wouldn't sound like that. Neat to see the photos of you rubbing shoulders with true Trailblazers though. And back to female astronauts , both the astronauts going up today are married to astronauts in the program. Do you have either of their signatures?
Yes, I do have Karen Nyberg's autograph, as I supported the STS-124 mission. I met the entire crew and had them sign my photo you see attached here. (I do photography on the side, and so had fantastic opportunities to photograph the space shuttle during my time on that program.) It was such a treat for them to autograph one of my own photos -- in fact, one of them loved the photo so much, he asked for a copy, so I matted up another and sent it to him. (You can see more of my photos on turbofoxphotography.com, including my pinball shots too )
Of the autographs on my space shuttle pin, only four are women: Eileen Collins, Wendy Lawrence, Nicole Stott, and Nancy Currie-Gregg.
pasted_image (resized).pngQuoted from Apinjunkie:just took a peek at your site and the first 20 images knocked my socks off. I'll revisit when I have more time to appreciate them.
Thank you, much appreciated! I participate in juried art shows and have won a handful of awards. I certainly won't be quitting my day job though ... my moderate success at those shows allows me to occasionally buy new equipment or siphon off funds for pinball machines, lol.
Quoted from John_I:Not saying this is the right way to do it, but it printed nicely and was a fun experiment that I learned a lot from. I was surprised it fits together tightly too! You can see a line where is was split but it kind of looks natural like it was built that way.
Looks awesome, John! Can't wait to see how it looks in my machine!
Quoted from John_I:Though my photos can't match Skyking's, I did come across this video I made after the Space Shuttle program shut down. We were allowed to go out and take photos and video with the Shuttle Discovery and a few astronauts before it left on top of the 747 for the museum.
Great video, John! As you'd probably guess, I have a lot of photos from those few days.
Quoted from misterhare:We also got to finally visit KSC a few years ago and had a great time. The shuttle museum was awesome. The Atlantis reveal is excellent showmanship/staging.
Chokes me up every time. I was in love with the Space Shuttle ever since I was old enough to be in love with anything. Spending the first nine years of my career working on it was a dream come true.
If any of you folks make it down here to FL and plan to do KSC, let me know -- I'll meet you out at Atlantis and will walk you around her for a tour of the airframe and answer questions and whatnot.
Quoted from John_I:Though my photos can't match Skyking's
Quoted from SkyKing2301:As you'd probably guess, I have a lot of photos from those few days.
That sounded like a tease, so here are a few I shot during those last few days before Discovery headed up to the Smithsonian:
103SCAB&W_Discovery (resized).jpg
FuselageReflection (resized).jpg
HitchingARide_Discovery (resized).jpg
Sendoff (Discovery) (resized).jpg
This one below is my favorite though -- got a sweet shot with my car I had at the time. I have a big print of this hanging in my garage.
So John came by earlier today and we played around with the truss. Using his modular setup shown in previous posts, he printed white caps and white trusses, and clear ones as well. We tried them atop the original caps and then removed the caps and tried again -- wow, check this out!!!
This setup is with clear printed caps and a white truss. (Clear truss disappeared too much, so white looks better -- but the clear bases light up so well, it looks amazing!)
John is going to enlarge the cap diameter -- and will have to have incorporate a little dome clearance for the bulb -- but then these will just fully replace the original bumper caps.
20200606_144607 (resized).jpg20200606_144610 (resized).jpg20200606_144630 (resized).jpg
Just to hold it until John makes the new caps, I attached it with double sided tape and played a game to see how it looks. Here are some videos...
Quoted from Apinjunkie:How difficult would it be to change the posts on the bumper caps to hollow tubing to allow for light transference up to the nibs?
We did put clear nibs in the setup shown, they don't appear to light up very much. A hollow shaft in the posts might help a little but it'll probably still be pretty subtle. I could be wrong though!
Quoted from Apinjunkie:But seriously guys, that looks really cool. That said, do those caps align with the screw holes on the existing bumper caps?
Derp, I hadn't checked that and could use that to hold em on, just without fully seating them. Yep, screw hole alignment seems just right.
1591491602986178131595974396901 (resized).jpgQuoted from Apinjunkie:Looks sharp Andy, did they interfere with being able to see the ball going through the USA Lanes?
Not at all. Granted, I'm tall.
Quoted from Apinjunkie:That reminds me SkyKing2301 , if you have a chance you might appreciate his page as well. He's got a collection of astronaut signatures all over his Plastics that would rival yours.
http://www.edcheung.com/album/album05/pinball/shuttlepin.htm
Haha, looks like he and I both have Scott Altman and Mike Massimino. Perhaps these are the only two astronauts to autograph two separate Space Shuttle pinball machines. lol
Quoted from KSUWildcatFan:Definitely love the clear, although I'm not sure how my r/w/b theme would look with it.
Quoted from Apinjunkie:You could print a red, a white and a blue base. Problem solved.
I do believe they make transparent colored filament, so that's one option. But really, the cheaper option, is to just print the clear ones and use colored LEDs!
Quoted from SkyKing2301:I do believe they make transparent colored filament, so that's one option. But really, the cheaper option, is to just print the clear ones and use colored LEDs!
Stand by, video uploading
Quoted from Apinjunkie:Another good and informative video Andy. I like the way that the Playfield artwork now looks like a reflection of the physical model. Very cool.
Haha yeah I hadn't really noticed that, good observation!
Now that I just finally got my own 3D printer, I was messing around and executed a goofy little mod John and I were joking about -- I printed a vertical stabilizer, painted it (sloppily, I'll probably try again), and stuck it to the glass with some fun-tac.
It took a few tries to get the size to look just right; the toy on the playfield obviously isn't exactly high fidelity for accurate scaling.
I kinda hate to admit it, but I actually really like it!
20200616_130431 (resized).jpg20200616_114823 (resized).jpg20200616_114815 (resized).jpgQuoted from misterhare:That is amazing. You are right to hate to love it.
Quoted from Apinjunkie:I love it, and here's why , here's my origami business card and Sharpie version from a year ago.
[quoted image]
Quoted from jasonbar:Goofy?
Messing around?
Joking?
Admit?
Proudly own this concept and execution of genius!
I want to make a bunch of fake Pinside accounts so I can upvote this more than only once.
From the moment I first saw this game in the arcades when it was new, the missing vertical stabilizer has always bugged me.
Brilliant to make an over-glass mod.
How much $ do you want to make another for a fan?
Thanks,
Jason
Haha, thanks for all the great feedback, guys. I wasn't sure how this would be received -- though there's probably a lot of people who hate it who are kindly keeping their opinions to themselves, lol.
I couldn't possibly charge for this, considering:
- I didn't even model the stabilizer myself -- I extracted it from an amazing space shuttle model someone else posted on the Thingiverse, and then just resized it a few times ( original source: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2825854 )
- I certainly couldn't follow up a free mod whose design actually took time and effort (read: the 3D truss) by charging for something simple like this
- The only thing 'worth' anything here is the time/effort to paint it, but I'll honest -- my paint job sucks. The painting method needs refinement, as the paint has a tendency to wick into the material grooves; I need to try printing at higher resolution and/or be thinner with the paint and/or use sharpie.
All that being said:
- For those who have a 3D printer, here is the stl file, scaled to the size I printed: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E3PdsBX3sU-ffuhUQ0WuOWyFL45ms6Ph ...if for some reason your software auto-scales it when you open it, the X length (fwd to aft) should be 80.82mm. You're welcome to resize it to your preference, of course. Just know the vertical stabilizer on the real-life orbiters are a lot bigger than you might realize.
- For those who don't have a 3D printer, I'd be happy to fire off a unit or two for you if you would cover materials and shipping. I will leave it unpainted so you can do that yourself, as that's the most time-consuming part.
1 week later
Quoted from jasonbar:SkyKing2301 for President 2020.
I love it.
-Jason
Bwahaha, thanks Jason. It turned out great!
1 week later
Quoted from iamdrunker:Amazing material.
It's 90% air!
Doing this demo, all I can think of now is, "Hold out your hand, Frodo; it's quite cool."
3 weeks later
Quoted from Apinjunkie:Okay,I think I'm done playing in the sandbox for a little while. Proper installation only took 10 minutes. Here's a quick video of the way the lights play off that speaker panel from a player's perspective. I couldn't be happier!
Sounds like you need to tighten down the screws on the MPU -- better grounding there will reduce that hum that's in sync with the lights.
Quoted from dzorbas:Of course you want to keep knocking the targets down to increase the spinner value but getting that right hand gate open is just as important. That eliminates one possible drain. And every shot around the top gives you a chance to work on increasing the multiplier. I find that strategy works really well. I don't worry too much about multi-ball. I'll take the locks when I get them but I don't particularly aim for them. The drop target in the middle can be a death shot.
I'm a nudger for sure.
This has been my strategy too -- smash those drop targets to keep the airlock open and increase the spinner value, then keep ripping that spinner and build the multiplier. I'll shoot for the shuttle ramp when it happens to be open (balls locked or not), or shoot for the SHUTTLE targets if a major prize is lit, but otherwise ... as someone said to me when I bought the game, "just rip that spinner all day long"!
2 weeks later
Quoted from crussell:When you start the first game after powering on it acts like it’s trying to play every sound in the game at the same time, full volume. Hit the reset and it just loses all sound (just some static you can hear) Tried reseating the ribbon cable to the speech board with no luck (only 1 side is pin connectors) will try the connectors leading to the speakers next.
Any other thought?
Have you tried fiddling with the volume knob, inside the lower cabinet? Sometimes that clears up volume problems, it can behave strangely if the knob is right on the hairy edge of max or min -- and it can find its way there on its own via cabinet vibration.
I've been watching Rick and Morty since playing (and enjoying) the pinball recently. Being a Space Shuttle owner, I picked up on this little tidbit last night...
In Rick and Morty, Season 2 Episode 2 'Mortynight Run', R&M visit the intergalactic arcade Blips & Chitz. In the background, you can see what looks sorta like a pinball machine -- kinda Banzai Run style. While it's obviously a fictitious machine -- and not conclusively a pinball anyway -- I did notice that you can HEAR the sound/'music' from Space Shuttle! Listen closely to the background noise in this clip from 0:13 - 0:26 --
-- you all Space Shuttle aficionados will hear it. (I don't know if this same sound was used in other video arcade games but that's definitely possible too.)
Granted, we can't conclusively say that sound is coming from that specific 'pinball machine' visible behind R&M, but still -- I can hear Space Shuttle in the audio and wanted to share!
1 week later
On the 3 vs 5 discussion... mine plays fast and mean about can be pretty brutal (especially for guests) so I keep mine on 5.
3 weeks later
Just to circle back to the 5 ball discussion... my Space Shuttle (and also High Speed) are absolutely brutal -- they play fast and mean -- so ball times can be very short for the family/friends/visitors who come over to play. I have both of these games on 5 ball to ease the pain a little.
1 month later
I've been making custom color posts lately (reference http://rocketcitypinball.com), and so I decided to put black ones in my Space Shuttle. I think the black ones look great on space themes (and card game themes too). I also should be receiving some new filament today that's black with sparkles in it -- could be space post with stars! I'll print some of those and you can see what you think there too.
For Space Shuttle, I left the red ones in up by the rollover lanes since they light up well and match the lane guides, and I left a few that were inaccessible under the ramp (didn't want to tear the whole machine apart right now), but replaced all the others. I like it!
I also noticed after to taking these pics that the right side of my ramp entry is cracking, eesh...
Black (resized).jpgSSAfter4 (resized).jpgSSBeforeAfter1 (resized).jpgSSBeforeAfter2 (resized).jpgSSBeforeAfter3 (resized).jpgSSBeforeAfter4 (resized).jpg 6 months later
Had to come share here, since you'll love these as much as I do ...
3D Coin Entry Plates for Space Shuttle!
3D-printed with multiple filaments, featuring a space shuttle orbiter printed in black for its bottom few layers then white for the rest, then accented with ink & paint for the remaining details. The filament changes happen mid-print, so the button & shuttle are permanently fused together.
SpaceShuttle_RCP (resized).jpg
But, the best part -- with the plate/button printed in clear, install a 'Fire' LED (from Comet) behind them and you get a flickering fiery atmospheric reentry effect! See it in action:
Pinside shop: https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1282-rocket-city-pinball/05086-3d-coin-entry-plates-space-shuttle
Facebook: https://facebook.com/RocketCityPinball
Website: https://rocketcitypinball.com
Quoted from jetmechinnc:OK, that looks cool. May have to get this for my shuttle. Nice work.
Thanks, I'm really pleased with these too! They take a little more post-printing detail work than most of my other ones ... but if I set one of these without details, and set it next to one WITH details, it's like night & day. GOTTA be detailed.
Let me know!
Quoted from SWMurphy:Anyone use the rocket city playfield posts on their machine and have some pictures of how it turned out?
@SWMurphy, I did, obviously, lol ... I put black ones in mine and I love it. (Though I did opt to leave the translucent red ones at the rollover lanes, I like the overall fiery look there.)
16217820628718960166904542541820 (resized).jpg16217822170321849596233866343141 (resized).jpg16217822496701728947729942357863 (resized).jpg16217823085294642324120305161729 (resized).jpg
Quoted from SWMurphy:Thanks for the pictures, i was going to try some blue in the lower areas by the slings and i was debating about black or black sparkle for the black areas.
Ah, I like what you're thinking! Match the 'background' of the playfield in those areas. Cool. Let me know what you decide!
1 week later
Quoted from Apinjunkie:Special shout-out to fellow shuttle head Andy over at Rocket City pinball. These coin insert covers are absolutely amazing. The 3D print on the prism background is flawless and the detail paint on the shuttle bring it to another level. Well done sir. Kicking myself in the ass because I thought I had two of those fire bulbs from comet but turns out one of them was a wedge base. To anyone who might be on the fence about these, hop over it, they're well done and a great addition to this machine.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Hey thanks for the shoutout Larry! I appreciate it, and I'm so glad you love them!
Quoted from Apinjunkie:I really do love them Andy and the truss prints are exceptional as well, it'll be a little while before I get to installing them. I have my head Way too far up Elektra's ass right now. Which brings me to this, I'm thinking of doing the lower playfield in Elektra with UV lights and UV reactive Plastics and paints. Have you printed any of your starposts with UV reactive filament? Is that even a thing?
Actually yes, I just never got around to posting them in my shop. See pics below -- the one with it casting a shadow is with a blacklight flashlight shining on it. The other is after shutting the light off.
20210416_223347 (resized).jpg20210416_223353 (resized).jpg 1 month later
Since I've been working from home for well over a year now, I haven't had many opportunities to add astronaut autographs to my machine. Well today I got to break that streak and added astronauts (and current NASA administrator and deputy administrator, respectively) Bill Nelson and Pam Melroy! I believe that brings my total up to 32. Time for a recount!
20210727_104923 (resized).jpg 2 months later
Quoted from MoSeS_1592:Found this shuttle model and mounted it to back box as a topper. I may illuminate it at some point with the flickering of the rocket in the back box lighting. Model came with 3 astronaut figurines perfect size for playfield. See photo.
[quoted image]
With as wild as toppers are getting these days, I fully expect you to hook up a fog/steam machine to this thing to create a large steam cloud during multiball countdown.
3 months later
Quoted from MoSeS_1592:I think this is the coin insert you need...
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/16C-8715-3
I think you meant this one, wink wink
6 months later
Hey guys, having an annoying issue with my drop targets, when you strafe all three sometimes they jump and/or trigger multiple times. Adjusted the switches and reflowed solder, no dice. Any suggestions?
Quoted from dr_spidey:Replace the coil sleeves
And a good cleaning.
There's only one coil here, with a plate that lifts the targets back up. The whole mech (drop targets, coil, switches) looks pretty clean and everything operates smoothly with no resistance, so it may not be mechanical. I'll do some additional cleaning anyway, but I'm curious if anyone else has run into this and/or has other suggestions?
Might start another thread just to ping other non-shuttle-owner techie types involved too. Hoping to get this resolved before the weekend if I can. Might order replacement switches in the meantime.
Quoted from Charles_Kline:It kinda seems like a mechanical issue of the targets are not latching in the up position but when you bumped the back target and it reset right away (shouldn't do that) it tells me switch adjustment issue.
Yeah that threw me too (the back target resetting on its own), as it usually doesn't do that. I've got new switches on order but will tinker with them in the meantime.
Quoted from Charles_Kline:I can't rememver is there is an end of stroke switch on that or not, but watching the video in 1/4 speed its apparent that the targets are only getting half of the way up when they drop again and get sent back up. It's like the power to the coil is being interrupted like an EOS switch is being opened too soon. If there is not an EOS (i've been working on a lot of EMs lately so there very well may not be one here) then I would look at wiring to the coil, you may have a nearly broken wire that is loosing contact when the coil shakes. Or its possible the driver on the board is half dying and flaking out when the coil is drawing full juice.
Let us know what you find out.
That's a really great observation! If power were interrupted, the coil would stop pushing the bank up, and so the targets would get pulled back down by their springs, which would trigger the switches again, telling the game to fire the coil again. So this is definitely a plausible explanation. (There is no EOS switch for the reset bracket, btw.) In my troubleshooting I had reflowed the solder on the switches, but not the coil. I'll look more closely at the coil wires and resolder and get back to you.
Quoted from Charles_Kline:I can't rememver is there is an end of stroke switch on that or not, but watching the video in 1/4 speed its apparent that the targets are only getting half of the way up when they drop again and get sent back up. It's like the power to the coil is being interrupted like an EOS switch is being opened too soon. If there is not an EOS (i've been working on a lot of EMs lately so there very well may not be one here) then I would look at wiring to the coil, you may have a nearly broken wire that is loosing contact when the coil shakes. Or its possible the driver on the board is half dying and flaking out when the coil is drawing full juice.
Let us know what you find out.
Quoted from SkyKing2301:That's a really great observation! If power were interrupted, the coil would stop pushing the bank up, and so the targets would get pulled back down by their springs, which would trigger the switches again, telling the game to fire the coil again. So this is definitely a plausible explanation. (There is no EOS switch for the reset bracket, btw.) In my troubleshooting I had reflowed the solder on the switches, but not the coil. I'll look more closely at the coil wires and resolder and get back to you.
Cautiously optimistic update: I reflowed the solder on the coil lugs and it's definitely working much more reliably. I then had a few incidences (when testnig them one at a time) where one particular target (the left one) didn't seem to register or seemed to have a 'delay', so I made an adjustment to that switch and it appears to be behaving properly for now.
After that, I went through several cycles of strafing them 10+ times and they responded properyl each time. Also ran several cycles (in all possible orders) of one at a time, and they're behaving properly also. I'll put several games on it later tonight, to give it a full shakedown, and will report back again.
Great eyes, Charles_Kline !
Quoted from SkyKing2301:Cautiously optimistic update: I reflowed the solder on the coil lugs and it's definitely working much more reliably. I then had a few incidences (when testnig them one at a time) where one particular target (the left one) didn't seem to register or seemed to have a 'delay', so I made an adjustment to that switch and it appears to be behaving properly for now.
After that, I went through several cycles of strafing them 10+ times and they responded properyl each time. Also ran several cycles (in all possible orders) of one at a time, and they're behaving properly also. I'll put several games on it later tonight, to give it a full shakedown, and will report back again.
Great eyes, Charles_Kline !
Played several games on it tonight and had zero issues with the drop targets. No stutters, value increasing one step at a time, resetting properly when strafed or when hit one at a time. I'll play a few more times over the next couple days just to be sure, but it's looking like we got this one sorted out!
Thanks so much for the help -- that was a great catch and another useful experience to file away in the ol' memory bank!
Quoted from MoSeS_1592:I have this exact same problem intermittently on my pinbot drop target bank and taxi Lola drop. Let me know if you find a definitive solution. Thanks!
Reflowing the solder on the reset coil lugs seemed to do it -- https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/drop-target-bank-reset-stutters-repeats-1984-space-shuttle
Quoted from MoSeS_1592:Thanks! I'm going to do this.
Lmk how it goes. The issue resurfaced after a long day of heavy play (hosted tournament), but thoroughly reflowing (and adding a little extra for good measure) seemed to eliminate it again. Inspected all the other shared ground wire connections too (double red wires) just in case one of those was loose and possibly contributing but didn't find any issues.
Quoted from Viggin900:I have a question. I just did a flipper rebuild. I noticed the lane change isn't working. Does that switch come from the right flipper or the button? Not sure what could have changed?
There's a second switch adjacent to the right flipper's EOS switch. That second switch -- closed simultaneously when the EOS switch is opened -- is what triggers the lane change. Check your wiring & diode there. My lane change stopped working once and turned out the diode on that switch had come loose.
16606255196844287511073561252271 (resized).jpg 1 month later
Quoted from jk:Hello, I’m wondering if anyone can make the topper feet/stand for a reasonable price with lettermail shipping to me in Canada? The ones on Ebay to display the topper are crazy expensive. It’s annoying CPR doesn’t include them with their plastics set. Thanks
[quoted image][quoted image]
It'd be an easy 3D print, but I'd need to know dimensions.
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