Mine is ordered, hopefully on the way soon.

This is EXCELLENT news! I was getting set to order from the link when I noticed mention of the clear ones forthcoming... do you know when those might be available? Any pics of the clear ones installed on the game?

I'm good with the OG blue option but... it might be neat to have an unobstructed view of the pf beneath, and/or make the ball seem more like it's floating in space a bit... would love to see both before choosing if possible.

I ordered the blue. If the clear is really soon it looks good I’ll get it also.

we have clear samples but i didnt install one in a game. Rick is planning on running some clear with the production run. they would be ran this month

If you're looking for someone to demo the clear sample on a game I'm happy to assist, so let me know. My game is in nice shape, and I can take decent pics without "LED blowout".

youd have to ask Rick, Ive got a game here at the shop too and could post pics if needed

Also use a 1/8 drill to drill the rivets from your old mini PFs
changeover is very fast and easy

Ah, the way you described it I thought you didn't have access to the game anymore. Otherwise I guess I could ask Rick but he's not in the business of freebies... so, presuming I wouldn't get to be a "free test guinea pig", it's probably quicker / easier if you could test and show how the clear looks... which would be really appreciated.

Ive owned my space station pin for a long time, sitting right here in my shop and did the test fit for the blue one the same day i got samples from the molder. I was standing right there catching parts as they came off the molding machine! thats my smashed thumb in the pic of the blue PF PPS posted on the website LOL, nailed it when working on my UTV last month!

Here it is, fresh of the truck!

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awesome! get that thing in there, enjoy!

I got my new plastic and decal installed, looks great! There is one thing I didn’t expect though. The decals are printed on a thick material similar to the pinblades I have bought for other games. The material is so thick that my lights behind the 1,2, and 3 are barely visible. I am seeing them more from a reflection off the black board behind it. I did have pretty dim lights in there to begin with but they were fine with the original decal. I’ll try brighter lights in there later tonight otherwise maybe some of the “bendies” will work.

we went off of what my original decals looked like. the first sample decals that are on my test PF were glossy. the decals on my factory PF
were matt finish. they went with the matt finish for the production run. I have not got a sample of the matt so I cant say. In the game all
lit up I would think makes no difference. the 1-2-3 lights up good with the glossy with LED behind them. someone needs to post what the matt looks like or i can try and get a sample

Sorry this looks so washed out from the blue. You can see that #2 is lit more from the reflection than the bulb.
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Are you out of stock already? Looking to order one.

Check with PPS. This is a PPS part they own. We only build the tooling for them.
There was an initial sample test run of about 30 parts then a production run will be made this month. Blue, black and clear will be made. I can ask Rick about the decals, we may have to switch to the glossy as I know the 1-2-3 windows showed good on those.

The original decals are just thin non-glossy paper. Why the change?

I have no control of what they are or are not. I just build molds. My guess is all that information has been lost to time and ricks just trying to get some made for us. The glossy ones I tested and are in the pics seemed fine to me. I’ve sent Rick a email asking about them

Rick says he has held both styles of decal up to the light and they are both fairly transparent in the 1-2-3 area. I would suggest using a led bulb behind those areas.

I am going to order bendable yellow and cool white LEDs from PBL to try in there. I already had LEDs in there and it is 75% dimmer than the original decal was.

I think warm white would be better than cool white.

need some people to do the install and post feed back and pics. mine looked fine with led behind the 1-2-3

Hello Space Station Pinsiders! I need some help with a lighting issue. The five large lights in the back on my Space Station won’t work. Three lines are cut. It’s obvious where the orange line should attach, but I’m not sure about the red and purple line. It seems they should attach at the base of the first bulb. If so, how do I know which side of the base each should go? I’m pretty new at doing repairs on pinball machines. Thanks for any insight!

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The brown-purple and the red make a pair that feeds the yellow lights. The black-green and the orange feed the red lights. Take care with regards to what bulbs you put in, because the reds are a different voltage than the yellows...different type bulbs are used.

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Thanks yendor0! I connected the orange line and now the red lights work. I alligator clamped the other two lines, brown/purple and red, to the first light. Didn’t work. Looking at the manual I realized these are linked to the Q14 transistor, which is shot. One of the bulbs in the three yellow lights is bluish - probably the wrong type of bulb and not the 1251 that should be in there. I’m guessing that caused the problem with the transistor. Thoughts?

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It’s possible that the wrong type bulb caused the transistor to fry. Quite often it happens that a #89 (12v bulb, which is what the red chain uses) gets put into the yellow chain. I would expect the #89 would pop like a fuse before the transistor fried, but I could be wrong. Also could be that the previous owner tried 3 or 4 times with #89 bulbs, stressing the transistor each time until it finally cracked. Do check the other 2 bulbs in the red chain to make sure they are #1251s before powering up with a new transistor.

It still baffles me why they designed those 5 flashers like this. They are essentially only used at the same times with the same effect only changed by the cover so you would have thought they'd have just used the same bulb types.

My back 3 orange lights stay on all the time during game play. The red ones flash.

Yeah, you are right. I had to look. They go off during certain parts, but otherwise on. They all do flash here and there though.

the production order for blue and clear are on the schedule, should be soon and will be plenty of parts for all

Hello!
can anyone tell me where these cables should go?
Or maybe take a picture.

Thanks in advance

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Someone else with the game still may be able to help better, but here are some pics from my tear down. You might be able to find something useful in them.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hLv53eSUceebXZXB9

Green purple and white brown is marked unused in the switch matrix. Was it the switch for the one drop at he back of the machine in the prototype?

Violet/green is solenoid 05A, also unused in the production machine but I think would've been the single drop reset at the back on the prototype.

Is there anywhere to get replacement decals for the SS back box sides?

They're in Germany and sell an entire cabinet decal set - maybe they will sell just the head decals, not sure...

https://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts-by-game/space-station/10267/cabinet-decal-set-for-space-station?c=0

Excited to enter the club tomorrow!

Always had a strange affinity for the space pins: Shuttle, Station, and Black Hole, and now I'm getting a Station!

I'll know more tomorrow, but looks like a very solid example that won't need too much, if any, mechanical work. I have never owned a Williams, so this will all be new to me.

I have an '87 Raven (going to be a top 100 classic one day, just watch), and two newer Sterns (ACDC and Black Knight...so basically I love games where Steve Ritchie is calling out, lol). I don't know anything about Williams quirks, what to look for, what to fix if it hasn't been done, like getting batteries out of the picture and going NVRAM, or grounding issues.

I promise I'll read through this whole thread! Only on page 2 now.

Here I go asking a question before I finish the other 62 pages... but, with the "logic" of the light bulb that represents the flame of the shuttle, on the back glass looking like it flickers fast at times to represent a rocket flame, would it / could it be a good idea to put Comet's fire LED bulb in there to give it a neat look? Might not really make much of a difference, but just curious.

Thanks

The only way it works is if you leave those two lights and add a light that pulls power from another socket in the GI that doesn’t flash that way. I had the same thought a number of years ago haha.

You could hook up a pinduino, a strip of 2812, and program flames into the LEDs

Question that I haven’t researched yet. I have a fairly large collection and SS doesn’t get played a lot. It works correctly and plays great but I can’t get into the menu. This includes sound etc. I have never had this happen on any game. Is there a wiring harness connection between the coin door? Where does that that plug into the board? Thoughts? This is my only system 11 game. So not as knowledgeable.

1) 1st pic. Switch #49 not used.
2) 2nd pic. Solenoid 05A Q31 not used.

Off the top of my head, I believe there's a 4 pin connector top left side of the MPU for the menu buttons.

Thank you

Interesting. Thought it was a good idea...oh well lol

How about for the "windows" of the space station. The owner I'm getting it from looks to have "rainbow" changing bulbs in there. I was thinking that the "cool blue" fire comet bulbs could look really good in the station windows in the backbox.

I realize this is likely a better search for "decal vs stencil", but wanted to see if anyone here has experience with the SS colors/decals for a restore. The cabinet looks fine on the one I'm getting, but the backbox sides do not and they need work.

I have sourced both decals and stencils as an option. I feel like the decal could be easier, but, would it look "wrong" next to the cabinet? Not sure if Williams of this era were decaled or painted from the get-go. At this point, sort of leaning towards the stencil method, but I will have a pretty high heart rate when I start sanding down the thing and hoping it's not going to be a disaster lol

I like green because condition green is the best mode of all time!

I keep them white, but that’s just personal preference. In fact, whe I honed in my back box lighting, I used 3 different white: natural, sunlight and warm, depending on where it fell on the station to help the shading pop. It looked way better than just using one white, of course used color where needed like red on the planet. I miss my Space Station sometimes

Don’t stress, the head stencils are a cinch, mask off the ready of the game, sand, spray black, use a blow dryer or wait a day, then lay on the first stencil, rinse , repeat til done... or touch up with a paint brush

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