Thank you very much for the detailed write up. Been a busy week so I’m just getting to the troubleshooting now.

I did as you suggested and measured the DC voltage at the globes and for whatever reason, I get 42 volts. 42 volts on the feed side of each globe but zero on the other side of each. Can that be right? What’s that telling me?

That the bulbs are blown. If you take them out, you should be able to measure continuity between the nipple and the sleeve. I imagine yours do not.

I'll double check when I get home, but 48v sounds way too high. They're 28v globes. Punching 48v through they would blow them quickly.

I would check the voltages at the Aux Driver board 5J11-8,9 and 10. Should be 25V ish. 5J11-11 and 12 should be purple/yellow and measure at 50V ish.

With the machine off: I'd check continuity between the 25V pins and the sockets. I'd also check the 50V power is not connected between 5J11-11 and 12 and the sockets. and for good measure between 5J11-8,9,10 should all be connected, 11 and 12 should be connected to each other, but the two groups should not.

A couple of pictures of the sockets and their wiring might help too, just to make sure it's still factoryish.

Not letting this go! Go for it! Make a spacey one and a station mechanical one! Let’s see the spacey one first!

My though is perhaps something that continues the art of the plastics either side and the playfield at the front... Maybe it could even be an extra plastic that fits across the gap and a decal that matches the swirls across the entry? That way the exposed coil and so on might blend in more? And/or a wrapper/cover for the coil to make it fit the theme better?

I'll have a think and when I get Dr Dude out of the house I'll have a play.

Sweet!

Getting some weird spinning going on with the diverter toy. Spins and seems to calibrate ish at start up but as soon as you start a game it spins for a while, then stops at the wrong spot blocking all ramps. Opto issue or power board issue? I did a search on the club for it but i couldn't find those specific symptoms.

Watch which direction the station rotates. Should only rotate counter-clockwise. If it goes clockwise, replace station motor. Had to do this on mine years ago.

I’m back in the club! This was my first pinballs machine purchased 6 years ago. The hit that started the addiction. Sold it last year thinking it was time, and regretted it. Super happy to find one again!

Anyone have an idea as to why fuse F8 (5A) would keep blowing? This is the second time its blown on me. I believe it it protects a bunch of the coils (the two VUKs, shooter lane feeder, drop targets, etc.)

Can anyone give me an idea of the backbox height on SS?

It’s basically identical to other Williams Bally games. Slight differences for height of adjusted leg levellers but otherwise the same.

Measured at the back, floor to top edge, 75-1/8”.

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Thanks for the info!

You're correct that next to WPC (and even an Alvin G) DMD machines, the Williams System11s are about the same height:
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The Bally System 11's with the speakers above the backglass are taller though. Not a great picture, but you can see the top of space station here, Radical is out of shot:pasted_image (resized).png

Question - I’m thinking of going either clear or blue with the pop bumper caps. I saw a little while back someone did clear, has anyone done blue?

So after many years, I'm now having troubles with the station diverter. It's not positioning itself correctly, and sometimes will just keep spinning. I replaced both the optos on the opto board, as well as the connector to the board, but still has not resolved the issue. The station is rotating correctly counter-clockwise, so have no reason to think it's a motor issue.

Are there upstream electronics associated with just those opto switches? The manual provides no information on the wiring to that opto board and what it connects to. Perhaps a 12V power problem? Though would think this would also manifest elsewhere. All other switches are working ok. Just struggling to find the right troubleshooting path.

Randy

Have you tested that the switches register correctly in the switch test?

There's a small amount of additional info in the manual additions: https://www.ipdb.org/files/2261/Williams_1987_Space_Station_Operations_Manual_Amendments_and_Additions.pdf

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I'd also be checking that the interrupters actually make it between the optos etc.

I’m not an expert, but I’ve heard that it is known to have cold solder joints. I would check and reflow solder on everything you can regarding that.

I had the same problem on a space station I purchased, seemed to have gone through 2 owners till it got to me to resolve it. The opto section on the CPU had a bad transistor (Q42)and basically wasnt telling the motor to stop... so it kept on rotating. Not sure what would take out the transistor in the way that it did. I also replaced the resistors R13 R14 and R71. I might not have had to (R13 reading was off)but they were burnt and didnt want future issues. I would check that if you checked the connectors on the CPU and the connector for the optos and motor.

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That was the issue on my first Soace Station - Q42 had blown somehow. Did the suggested above before I found it, reflowed solder, I even bought a new motor, but it was just the transistor, which didn’t look bad just looking at it until I multimetered it.

If Q42 is dead, all of the follow will be too:
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Note the lane change switches are on this column. This is how problems happen.
EOS switch is closest to the coil, large HV contacts, then the nylon spacer, then the outer switch matrix switch
They're stacked with the EOS switches on the flippers. Sometimes the two meet for various reasons (the nylon spacer breaks, someone is a moron and puts something across them, the tabs get bent, etc) and flipper voltage (50v) makes its way into the switch matrix (5v). Pop. Later System 11 interconnect board feature optocouplers that do this instead.

Easiest test that the lane change switches are registering, in game, both flippers at the same time should toggle the orange and white arrows on the far right target.

How did I not know this?
Learn something new every day, I guess.

I'm having a very similar issue on mine still, it's really weird. I could manually get the switches to register with the opto board off and using a diode attached to a wire. So naturally I assumed the opto board was bad. Nope, new opto board, same issue, no switches registering. I'll report back once I figure it out this weekend.

Wait, so the flipper buttons change the 1,2,3 lights AND change the Shuttle and Station arrows at the right target? You have to hit them at the same time? I never knew this.

Yes. If you hold one flipper button and then press the other flipper button that changes it. Or you can press both at the same time.

If you've ruled out the CPU board and the opto board, I'd be looking at continuity issues. Poor termination on the molex plugs, breaks in the harness, etc. Be worth checking that the 12v is making to the board too.

Wow I did not know that either, I thought it was just switching between station and shuttle randomly

I've added it to pintips: https://pintips.net/games/207

Are there any space, space station or space shuttle themed custom shooter rods out there for sale?

So as an update: the problem with the station rotating endlessly or stopping in the wrong position is intermittent. I have checked and the (recently replaced) station optos are working fine in switch edges test. However I've noticed a couple of other oddities: when the single drop target is down, I get spurious 'bay doors are open' calls. And once when the 3-bank was down, it didn't immediately register and reset. So looks like the problem is something common to all the opto switches (which are not on a common row or column). Is there any other common logic other than the 12V power? At the moment I'm thinking this has to be a power issue.

I've measured and monitored (while playing) 12V at the test point on the power supply board and it's fine. I had previously already replaced the output connector on the power supply board to get rid of the crappy IDC connector. Have also replaced the connectors to the station and single-drop opto boards. I'm thinking I will have to trace the 12V wiring from the power supply board and see if I can find some downstream issue. Will post what I find.

As update to prior post on station misaligning or continuously rotating: Problem solved! It was indeed an issue with the 12V. As reference, from the power supply board it's 3J6 pin 3 (GRY/YEL) which is the 12V wire that provides power to all the opto boards. 3J6 Pin 1 (BLK/YEL) is the ground wire. From the power supply board it connects to the 3-bank drop target board first, then then single drop target, then to the station.

After wasting more time than I should have troubleshooting the playfield side only to find no problems there, I returned to the power supply board and did a simple test I should have from the start: with the machine in switch edge test mode, I jiggled the 3J6 wires and connector...and sure enough I could get intermittent opto switch activation. So clearly that was the source of the problem. I had previously replaced the old IDC connector to 3J6 with a new molex and trifurcon pins, so I was sure I was good there, but I had (stupidly) failed to replace the header on the board. I might have been able to get away with just reflowing the solder on the header, but given the problem I decided to go ahead and just put in a brand new 15-pin header. That has done the trick!

Excellent! Sadly the way they put the headers in seems really prone to cracked solder joints and such. I just found half a dozen in the Dr Dude I'm working on.

Usually a reflow is enough, but replacement can't hurt if you do a good removal. Here's a classic example on a relay board from a Radical:
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Selling a set of upper playfield decals from Retro Refurbs (no longer available on their site). Will ship international with Ebays Global Shipping Programme.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334573012463

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Working on this Space Station I recently traded for. One of the coils under the pop bumpers is fried and locked up. (Part #AE-23-800). My question is, that one had a diode on it (bottom right pop if you are under the playfield, top right above the playfield), but the other two don’t have a diode. I want to be sure I buy the right coil, can someone tell me if it is supposed to have a diode or not?

Also, what’s with the fin shank screws being unobtanium? I broke two of them unfortunately…

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The diodes for the coils are on the aux board. It is safe to cut the diode from the coil. You can also leave it if you're 100% sure it's the right way around relative to your wiring.

The special solenoids are directly triggered by the spoon switch. If something happens there, they lock on. There's a range of solutions for this issue. e.g.

https://nvram.weebly.com/wms-sss.html

I think DumbAss has a mod too: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dumbass-test-and-reproduction-pcbs/

Not sure about the screw sorry. There's some fin screws on Marco.

That’s good to know, that maybe The switch at the spoon is what I initially locked it on. I think it’s been this way since I’ve got it, I don’t think it happened when I turned it on. And I’ll check there, because it’s locked up even when the game is off. So I’m thinking the coil is burned up as well, but I’m taking it apart tonight to know for sure.

Waiting for the front bumper coil to come in, but rebuilt the front pop bumper. It was my first time in 6 years and 40 machines I’ve had to do it, so I screwed up a bunch of times, even with following Vids guide haha. Almost there, but flipped my pop bumpers to clear caps, and cut the angle off the front one using the original red as a guide. Once I get it all sorted I’ll take a pic lit up, but love how it brightens up the plastics above the pops. .

Hopefully I get it working next week to snap a follow up pic after the parts arrive.

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Do any of you here have a clear picture of the solder side of the power supply? If you can post it here or pm me I would really appreciate it. The one that came with mine has had a bunch of real bad work done on it. There are several solder bridges that I’m not sure if their supposed to be there. I bought a rebuild kit for it but just wanted to see someone else’s for reference.

This is what I found on mine in 2017...
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It took me a ridiculously long time to get back to the Space Station troubleshooting, so hopefully you all still might be able to offer some more advice.

Ok, so some of the confirmations I did today:

All three bulbs in those orange dome locations are blown. No continuity when tested. All the bulbs were 1251's though.

I checked the voltages on the Aux Driver board at J11 and all five of those pins measure around 40 volts. I got about 38 volts momentarily when the game was doing one of it's attract mode things and assumingly a couple flashers were going off, so it appears the overall voltage fluctuates slightly when it's being used by the game. In any event, all five of those pins are 40 volts and the 8,9,10 ones in particular are definitely not 25 volts.

I took some pictures of the bulb holders and wiring underneath. I also took one of the board and wanted to ask about the jumpers on the board. From the schematic, note 6, it mentions how the jumpers can change whether the pins on J11 are 50 volts or something else. I see that I have W1, W3 and W4 jumpered. I found a couple other photos of people posting what their board looks like and they have the jumpers in the same spots. Could one of these jumpers have gone bad somehow? And if it did, could it be sending 50 volts to the 8,9,10 pins instead of the 25 volts I need? Would I be able to test for continuity with the game off across each of those jumpers to tell me if the jumper is still good and not failed internally somehow?

Thanks again and sorry for the two month delay!

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No.

38 volts is normal for the 25 volt power supply.

This is very common as these bulbs burn very bright when flashed at 38 volts. Just replace them and enjoy.

Awesome! Thanks a lot. I'll get a 10-pack of these bulbs on my next parts order.

Hi all, need some help on this one. I just got my pop bumpers put back together, and fired it up to test them out. But on start up, there’s a constant clicking happening, I think it’s coming from the Backbox? Anyone know what that could be? About 5 seconds apart each click.

Ball search?

Might be that back VUK with the switch stuck down so it keeps trying to kick the ball out. That kind of switch is like a little pitch fork shape and can get caught on the sides of the plunger stem.

You can go into test mode too and see what switches might be engaged.

New 1251 bulbs arrived in the mail and now they're in the game. And that was all it was. And holy crap... "these bulbs burn very bright".... you were not kidding sir!!!!

Hello and thank you for this great topic!

New owner of this awesome flipp, it won't be too much to help me tame the whims of the beasts!

Looking forward to reading you !

I put in a new coil for the pop bumper that was burned up. Now when the ball hits any pop once the fuse blows. I am wondering if this means I needed the coil with the diode?

Space station has an aux power supply which has the diodes for the coils mounted on it. Which pop coil did you replace?

When the playfield is up vertical it’s the one furthest down towards the bottom.

Hello,

I have a problem with the left docking. When the ball is docked and I lose the next one, both are ejected (new ball & left docked ball). Attached is a video of the problem in question. Any ideas please?

If any of the A-side/C-side blocking diodes (D31 - D46) are bad on the Aux Power Driver Board it could allow a path for other coils to fire. These diodes take a lot of abuse due to the design of the A/C split, that is why they are quite large, but after 30+ years it's likely some may have broken-down. You may be able to reproduce this in the coil tests. When the ball feed coil fires can you see other coils (ie. the dock kickers) fire at the same time?