New arrival over the weekend.
20171125_173102 (resized).jpg

There's a few issues, but nothing unfixable so far. It's obviously had a bit of a life though.

Playfield is decent except that every triangular insert needs to be reseated and reglued. Most of the plastics are ok. The entrance on the right ramp is a bit iffy and might need to be replaced at some stage. There's some very small gaps at the 1, 2, 3 lights in the upper PF which line up with my eye line when playing but my wife can't see them.

Electronically, I need to sort out an issue with special #5 (left jet doesn't fire), the top left flasher's wire has come unseated from the molex plug, the back panel orange flashers aren't working (I haven't looked yet so that could just be the #1251 bulbs are blown), the right ramp switch has a loose wire (currently under the pf) but the switch doesn't click either so it might need to be swapped out. [edit: nope, it's a leaf switch. Resoldered the detached wire and it should be all good. ]

I have the original displays as well as the replacement. Trying to determine what the actual fault was that motivated the previous owner to swap them out. He said it just stopped working one day and his repair guy said to go with the replacement displays. The HV side of the PS had a blown 3/8amp fuse at F1. I don't have the correct replacement on hand so I'm waiting on that before I go any further.

I did look at the PS input voltages from the transformer seem high. The white wires from the transformer are 100vac, not 88vac. The test points on the PS board give +13v and -15v to the centre so +28v across the outside.

At first glance things looked ok, but I'd seen the ramp rattle when the ball hit it 20171127_142605 (resized).jpg
It came off without removing the lower screws :-/ 20171127_143154 (resized).jpg
Switch was easy to fix at least:20171127_143257 (resized).jpg
The top exit is a little beat too? 20171127_143410 (resized).jpg

On mine, contrary to page 69 of the manual, that's on the same fuse as the jet bumpers. Red/white power wire.

Could be the fuse, could be the drivers in the top right corner of the CPU board. From memory F3 on the Aux Driver Board. Is the fuse blown?

Before replacing the fuse I'd at least visually check all the transistors around Q77, Q79 and Q73.

Does the switch click? Is is still attached under the playfield?

I'm in the same boat:
20171202_192824 (resized).jpg
From memory, Hairdryer, block, clamp and then reglue the insert from behind. I think it's covered in detail in vid's ultimate playfield restoration thread which I intend to reread before I have a go.

The switch with the spoon doesn't register in the switch tests as it's a special solenoid switch. The scoring switch (which the yoke of the jet bumper hits when the jet fires) should.

I'd check that the jet bumper special switches (the ones with the spoons) are all open before I changed the fuse. It could well be that one locked on a bit too much and that's what popped the fuse.

Eye ball or put meter across each under the playfield.

Retro Refurbs have mentioned that they are trying to organise licensing for Bally/Williams decals (https://www.aussiearcade.com/showthread.php/90625-Best-place-for-decals). I wonder if they'd do decals or stencils for Space Station.

I'd also check the manual... F1 and F3 are listed as 2 amp slow blow in mine and on the cabinet.

That is a good point. I went through a printed copy of the manual when I got the game and made those amendments, and my cabinet documentation has stickers over the fuses changed. F1 and F3 were not changed. That said, the manual only has the jets on that circuit protected by F3, but the machine has the right dock too, so there's some potential if the jets are active and the right dock fires at the same time (during multiball?) to possibly blow that fuse.

If they blow at 2 amp I wouldn't be too worried about using 2.5 amp - later games did in those positions (eg Taxi).

I use calipers to measure the diameter of the wire then purchase appropriate SS TIG wire from my local welding supplier to make gates like this. Music wire from hobby shops also works. There should be a similar gate somewhere on the playfield to model from.

eg. on Radical, old busted non-locking gate that gouged the ball guide behind it:
20170401_213203 (resized).jpg
New hotness made from $2 piece of SS TIG welding rod:
20170401_220847 (resized).jpg

Letter?

I'll have to wait until I've cleaned my machine up properly before I comment on how difficult it is. It doesn't seem too bad to me, but the left flipper was an FL-11629, not FL-11630, so that might've been an unfair advantage.

Could it have come loose from the USA lanes and rattled down? 2.4mm or so for wire ball guides vs 1.6mm for the gates.

Also, what's a solenoid saver?

If it's been stuck on the coil might've got too hot and the resistance might have dropped? Should be around 4.2 ohm I think, but worth checking against the other 2. I'd look at the switch gap too and the action and make sure it all looks similar to the other 2.

I have eight:
20171202_192444 (resized).jpg

Two left folks: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/freeplay40-ramps/page/35#post-4121182

Super excited.

Is Adjustment 13 "highest scores" set to on?

Just to confirm the locks are working as expected, it might be worth starting a game with the glass off, lock a ball in the left and then tap switch #48 on the habitrail. If the ball kicks out, the game is seeing the lock fine. Likewise, if you lock a ball in the right lock and tap switch #46, it should eject the ball from the lock.

If it says "Docked" and the light on the playfield lights and the kick out all works, it's registering the ball in the lock fine. If it doesn't kick out another ball into the shooter lane, it already thinks another ball is in play. The machine keeps track of how many balls are in play by counting how many it can see in the locks and the trough. If it happens with both docks, it would be something common to both sets of logic. I'd check the trough switches first.

If it doesn't say docked, I'd check the column 6 switches.

On a different note unrelated the the previous post, does the top left roll under (switch #37) do anything? I've not been able to determine it having any effect on play.

Sweet. Glad I was able to help.

It's possible to reach the the 1251s when the platforms is up on the prop.

They're probably a bit more of a bastard to get to. It is possible to pull the playfield forward a bit to make access easier back there, but I've never found a good way to prop the playfield while it's forward.

Maybe one of the other more experience members has a good method?

If A/C switching is working (and it sounds like it is), A side functions work but C side of a pair doesn't, I'd be looking at continuity of wiring first as there's not a great deal that's common to the C side but not the A side.

What about the flasher top left of the mini playfield? For me that flashes with the upper one you circled.

The top left blue flasher has black yellow and orange both daisy chain to the upper flasher you circled. The Orange continues down the playfield, via left dock coil, via left flashers, via relaunch flashers, then to the bottom right flasher with black orange ground. Both then Daisy chain to the upper right flasher you circled.

As the top left flasher and almost everything else on the orange works, the orange cable to the central flasher at least has continuity. The upper left blue and the central flasher are installed in parallel so I'd check the black yellow and make sure the orange hasn't come loose at either the top left connector or the socket. Check the orange is connected too.

As the upper right flasher is at the end of the chain I can't make any guesses about what is and isn't connected, but it's installed in parallel to the lower right flasher, so of that's working, wiring seems likely.

Thanks for posting by the way.

I hadn't noticed the upper of my right flashers wasn't working. Pulled the bulb, it checks OK with a meter. Check continuity to the lower right flasher and is ok on the tabs. The socket itself however wasn't electrically connected to the tab anymore. Rotated the socket a bit and it came good.

I'll put a dab of solder between the tab and the body of the socket to ensure continuity.

NFI. Looking at the manual R1-R6 should be the same.

Seems weird that they put resistors in front of #89s for flashers, yet the 3 #1251s they didn't put a resistor in front of and use #89s? Would that be because the duty cycle would have been too high in that usage?

My understanding is there's a resistor in circuit with the #89s to drop the voltage and if you took the resistor out of the circuit, the #89s would blow, right?

I'm wondering why they didn't put a resistor in front of the orange panel lights and use #89s. With the duty cycle those lights have the resistors would generate a lot of heat? Or just that #1251 was cheaper than a resistor?

Also thinking about whether I could mod mine to use #89 LEDs instead of #1251 by adding a resistor in series with each of those 3 sockets.

Thanks for putting up with my spit balling.

What if the 3 sockets were rewired in series instead of parallel? I realise one bulb blowing would render all three out, but would that effectively drop the voltage to something an #89 could handle? Would heat dissipation still be an issue?

I notice those 3 sockets do not sit inside the domes - I assume because they got too hot or are 1251s just too big?

I assume this is the correct pairing:

They can go in either way as resistors aren't polarised. Mount them slightly off the board to allow air flow for cooling.

The tolerance % is the allowed difference from the marked resistance to the actual resistance. eg. A resistor marked 100 ohm 5% could actually be 95-105 ohm. If it was 10% it could measure anywhere between 90-110 ohm.

A tighter tolerance is fine, just slightly more expensive.

Pics?

I haven't watched this yet, but Colorado Pinball streamed Space Station (or tried to and the internet crapped out so they uploaded it later): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/216829732

All good. I live in the land of expensive, crap internet so I totally understand.

There's a saying that a picture is worth 1000 words. When asking for help this is definitely true and gets around a lot of the problems with terminology. I'll try to find some.

First things first - does the flipper plunger move into the coil freely when you push it in by hand? Does it feel the same as the other flipper? If they feel different, it could be a mechanical issue, not and electrical one.

If it's electrical...

There's two switches for each flipper. The cabinet switch, and the End of Stroke (EOS) switch on each flipper. If either of these is burned, pitted, not making contact, etc your flipper will be weak.

Cabinet switch:
The cabinet switch is easy to check as you can see it when you've lifted the playfield.

• Are the screws tight?
• Is the capacitor (usually brown disk) still attached to the switch?
• When you press the button do the contacts meet before the button is all the way in? The contacts should rub together slightly when the button is fully pressed. If they don't, carefully bend the shorter arm of the switch closer. If you're adjusting the switch, use an adjustment tool close to the switch stack (either a proper tool or the blade blade screwdriver).
• Are the contacts really burnt and pitted? If they are, you can try burnishing or sanding them as they are high voltage contacts (never file low voltage ones). It's often better to replace them if they are burnt.
• If you have a multimeter, it's useful to measure the resistance across the switch when it's closed. It should be really low. If it's not, it's sapping power.
• Is the plastic button firmly attached to the cabinet, not broken, etc (check against the other button)

Here's my flippers which work, but could use rebuild:
left right

EOS switch:
The EOS is located on the flippers. There's two switches on each flipper. The switch closest to the coil and directly connected to the coil is the EOS switch. This is a high voltage switch. The second switch which is stacked with the triangular nylon spacer is the lane change switch. It is low switch connected to the switch matrix. Do not allow these to short together or the switch matrix won't work any more.

• The EOS switch is on the flipper and should only be open when the flipper is fully plunged and it should be closed the rest of the time.
• When you press the flipper plunger in do the contacts open just before the plunger is all the way in? The contacts should rub together slightly when the switch closes. If they don't, carefully adjust the switch. If you're adjusting the switch, use an adjustment tool close to the switch stack (either a proper tool or the blade blade screwdriver).
• You should see the sliding of the contacts past each other as the switch is opened and closed.
• Are the contacts really burnt and pitted? If they are, you can try filing or sanding them as they are high voltage contacts (never file low voltage ones). It's often better to replace them if they are really burnt.
• If you have a multimeter, it's useful to measure the resistance across the switch when it's closed. It should be really low. If it's not, it's sapping power.

I like these, but I don't remember where I found them... Somewhere in this thread probably:
instruction-cards.jpg
[edit: I use the thread gallery function to hunt for things like this: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/space-station-club-members-only?gallery

The cards above came from this post from Chosen_S https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/space-station-club-members-only/page/11#post-2427031

There's more from goingincirclez here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/space-station-club-members-only/page/22#post-3086556 ]

Anyone else have issues with the post below the left jet getting chewed?
pasted_image (resized).png

Is my post bent?

pasted_image (resized).png pasted_image (resized).png

Sorry, got a call while I was adding that post and forgot to add the text.

The ring sits against the post and there's a fair bit of front to back play in it so I guess every time the ball hits the top side of it the ring jams down that rubber. Weirdly the balls eye view on ipdb has a wide rubber on that post (http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2261&picno=9154&zoom=1) which would surely get chewed out? Dave Santoto's page has a good shot of the post with a sleeve on it, but the ring seems to be chewing that out too: http://spacestation.santoro.com/files/2012/10/P1020885.jpg
pasted_image (resized).png

Hopefully something like Cliffy sleeves will stay out of the way of that ring? Maybe a different post would work better there?

I do plan to change out all the rubbers. The whole thing will be stripped at some stage in the next few months as I'd really like to try to level all the inserts. It's hard to see , but a few are a bit above the surface:
pasted_image (resized).png
When I've got it all apart, I'll make a list, check it twice and then order a bunch of stuff.

I'm wondering if a different post style might work better. For instance, Radical uses this and the ring never seems to hit the rubber (though perhaps it's just further away):
20180113_062714 (resized).jpg

They are wired straight through so as long as both 4 pins connectors at the top match, it'd work.

Mine are:

1 brown
2 white brown
3 green
4 white green

20180122_133043 (resized).jpg

Most welcome. Do you know what switch 37/top left roll under does? I can't figure it out.

What are the switch errors?

What's wrong with your Lane change switches?

pasted_image (resized).png
I think you are missing a whole column - 7. I'll just go have a look and double check how that is wired.

Given you are missing the whole column it might be something as simple as a disconnected wire - especially since it happened since moving the machine. The column 7 switches all connect to a green wire with violet. I'd start by looking at the MPU board. 1J8 is the switch columns. Pin 8 (counting right to left, pin 1 is marked on the right) should have a green/violet wire attached:
pasted_image (resized).png

If it doesn't have a wire there, that's your problem.

If it looks ok, with the power off, reseating the connector may help.

If there is a wire there, and reseating the connector didn't help, it's probably worth testing the MPU board. With the power off, disconnect 1J8 and 1J10. Get a diode and an alligator lead. Clip one end of the alligator to the problem column (1J8-8) and the other to the banded end of the diode. Power up, go in to switch edges and tap the unbanded end of the diode to the pins of 1J10. You should see switch closures register.
pasted_image (resized).png

If you don't see switch closures, the problem is in the MPU board. Hopefully not.

If the MPU is ok, the issue is either the connector itself or in the playfield.

If you're hunting for a issue in the wiring, the green/violet heads from the connector housing to the back left corner, towards the flippers, then loops back up the right side of the playfield. There should be two green/violet wires attached to the lane change switch on the right flipper (56). There's also a jumper from that to the left flipper's lane change switch (55) - on my machine it's yellow. From the right flipper the wire goes to the lower 10 point contact (54), then the upper 10 point contact (50) and then to a molex plug that heads up to through the playfield to the space station board with opto switches 52 and 53.

I would use my multimeter to trace that continuity and go from there.

Yeah, just unplug it and replug it.

Sure you could.

The opto board is at the very far end of the cable from the backbox. I would expect the lane change switches and everything else to register regardless of what the opto board was up to.

The game will run without the opto board connected, if you unplug 6 pin connector underneath the playfield at the back right. the game will power on fine - the space station will spin a little longer than usual until it figures out the board isn't there.

Actually, that's a good question, how long does your space station spin for at power up? 1-2 seconds or a good deal longer than that? I'd guess longer, because that's what it does when the space station opto switches aren't closing.

I'm starting to think it's an MPU problem though (Q42 and friends) and perhaps it might be better to get someone like GRUMPY to take a look?

The scoring switch or the activation? Both are listed on page 50 of the manual. #63 and #64 are the scoring switches sw-1a-122. The activation switches are listed in the note at the bottom of the page as A-48340H/B-8734 w/RC.

Neither seem to be readily available from my quick look around.

Correct, the opto board shouldn't affect the other switches. The station spins and doesn't line up because the optos aren't reporting the position back to the MPU or they are an the MPU can't 'hear' it. Given that the whole column is missing, I suspect the latter. It's probably worth checking the integrity of the EOS switches, the nylon separators, etc and making sure there's no way the EOS switch or wiring can touch the switch matrix switch. I know bad things can happen if they ever touch as the switch matrix doesn't like getting 50v.

Missing a whole column is not something I've had to debug before but I'm happy to muddle along a bit if you are. The relevant part of the MPU schematic is the top left corner of the 75 page of the pdf on ipdb:
pasted_image (resized).png
The Switch Matrix Drives on the left are the columns. ST(robe)7 is column 7, 1J8-8 - Q42 - Pin 12 U40.

First thing I'd do is check continuity from useful point through the IDC connector, say the collector of Q42 through to the green/violet wire on the playfield. It'd be awesome if it was that simple.

I'd do a visual check on that area of the board too.

I'd look at the voltage that point with a DMM (or a logic probe if you've got one) and see if it's pulsing the same and the similar point on a working column's transistor like Q47. Likewise pin 12 of U40 vs say pin 7.

No need to check voltages as the visual test shows that Q42 is FUBAR. It needs to be replaced (and potentially other components in the path), but as grumpy suggests before it's replaced you need to ensure there's no connectivity between the high voltage and the switch matrix.

The lane change switches on the flippers are the most likely candidate. The EOS switch should be electrically isolated from the lane change switch. Check that the nylon spacer is intact. Check that the tabs of the switches haven't been bent. Check with a meter that there's no connectivity between the two switches for the whole range of motion of the flippers. Etc

I'd just be looking for a lack of continuity. There should be no connection between the EOS switch and the lane change switches. The fault suggests that at some stage there was.

I'd use my eyes too, but I'd rely on a meter measuring continuity or resistance more. There might be a path between them that's not obvious visually. eg through the base plate or something. Hopefully it's something really obvious like the nylon triangle spacer is missing or that the tabs between the outer leaf of the EOS and the inner leaf of the lane change switch are too close. The spacer should look something like this:
pasted_image (resized).png

If soldering isn't your thing, I'd find something to practise on first.

If I know the part is fried, I usually:

• cut the legs close to the body of the part
• desolder the remaining leg parts
• clean up with solder sucker
• fit new part and solder

The parts breakdown of the System 11b MPU on page 38 of the manual lists Q1, Q40, Q42-Q49 and Transistor, NPN, 2N3904, TO-92.

This agrees with the schematic above which notes the transistors are 2N3904.

So this one: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/2N3904

I wouldn't order them from Marco, but that's partially because I'm on the other side of the world. I'd use a regular electronics supplier like rs-online as they are cheaper (but you often have to order a bunch): https://au.rs-online.com/web/p/bipolar-transistors/7390442/

Yup. I started desoldering old boards for my grandpa in the holidays. My first assembly projects were little Dick Smith funways projects. Wireless fm microphones, electronic dice, etc.

Rather than adding a screw into the playfield, I drill a small hole in the flipper bracket as per vid1900 's thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-upgradingrebuilding-flippers#post-284661

Trivial to do, looks better and makes the spring pull in the same plane as the flipper plunger.

I'll answer the second question first.

It looks like it's previously kamikazed itself and then replaced.

If you look at the second page of the manual, there's a list of solenoids and which transistors are their drivers:
Space Station Solenoid Table (resized).png
Q77 is a special solenoid #5, the left jet bumper. Special Solenoids are a bit special, in both complementary and derogatory senses of the word. They can be controlled by the CPU, and they are also controlled by a direct switch that comes in through 1J18. Because there's a single fuse for multiple coils that might fire almost at the same time (eg all the jets) if a single switch gets stuck on, the coil, driver, etc are all candidates to burn. It's enough of a problem that people sometimes add individual fuses for the special solenoids and this guy made a nice board to hold them that I keep meaning to buy: http://nvram.weebly.com/repair--conversion-kits.html

Why was it designed that way? I guess the original intent was that things that needed super snappy response would be Specials. As there's a direct switch, the coil is activated without waiting for the CPU to see the switch is close and fire the coil. Later, they realised the delay of a switch hit to the CPU triggering the coil wasn't long enough to outweigh the problems and through the System 11B machines the use of 1J18 was phased out. Special solenoids still exist in System 11C boards, but the switches to 1J18 are never connected. If you hold down a switch on a System 11C special, the coil fires once and then the CPU ignores it.

My #5 was cooked when I got my #space station so I wonder if it's a common fault with the way the playfield is setup - perhaps that post rubber that gets chewed out eventually holds the switch down.

Go through the switch test, tap every switch in the column to test. I think that'll make the dot go away.

I'd clear the high scores.
A) it'll be a different game now
B) with no lane change you couldn't have put your initials in anyway
C) any excuse to hear that tune and get the light show

Doesn't need to be flush does it? The ball immediately enters a gate so it can't come back and hit the ends of the wireform.

Having a quick look at mine, the wireform sits proud of the surface of the upper playfield.

I wonder how it would perform without the curved section of the front wall. The ball should fall in the hole anyway most of the time, shouldn't it?

Could the back wall be a second flat piece sitting in the same plane as the other two and the ball just rolls along the edge of it? Wouldn't look the same as the original, but wouldn't need curving? Kind of like the ball guides near the flippers. You could use standard post and separators to connect the pieces.

I mean rather than having the vertical piece you have for the back wall, cut another the same as the top flat piece, stack them with spacers and attach to the bottom piece (potentially by extending the bottom piece all the way to the back).

The curve of the wall is then the edge of the middle piece rather than a flat piece you have to flex into shape. Like the metal slice in the flipper lane guides.

They would.

But I mean at the back, where the flasher is.

So I noticed that I don't have this post behind the left standup target:
pasted_image (resized).png

I do have a hole into the playfield:
pasted_image (resized).png

There's no tee-nut. It looks like a nut would clash with the light socket for the green GI bulb:
pasted_image (resized).png

Does anyone have a part number for the part that fits here? A picture of the underside would be great too.

Quick question. I'm about to try getting the HV displays back up and running.I'm not 100% sure of the value of the two fuses in the middle of the backbox which is the HV power to the display. The manual says 1/10 amp slow blow. The stickers in the backbox say 1/10 amp but don't specify fast or slow whereas all the others explicit say slow blow:
20180215_181434 (resized).jpg

Should it be fast or slow?

Thanks @grumpy. I was guessing they ran out of space on the labels.

So.... The slow blow fuses... didn't. The power supply fuse went first. That's not the way that should work is it?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/testing-williams-hv-display-board#post-4232780

I'm hoping for a light blue to match the super awesome ramps Freeplay40 makes... but my upper playfield is still intact, so I guess my vote doesn't mean much.

Would be good if it was transparent enough to see the USA lights without hunching down though.

None of the test points are on the GI circuits. You need to look at the 6v AC feed which goes from the transformer in to the bottom right corner of the power supply board via 2 yellow and 2 yellow white wires, that feeds straight out of 3J8 to the 4 fuses on the right side of the backbox. All the connectors on the GI circuits have the habit of cooking themselves, both the two on the power supply board and those on the interconnect boards and the GI relay boards. The GI relay boards also have a habit of cracking their solder joints.

Are you having issues with one particular strand or just various sockets on in various places?

Nice work! The only downside I can see of the layered back section is that the bulbs might be awkwardly exposed?

I do that too...

https://www.instagram.com/p/Be4hGxdnRWq/

I would recommend understanding how the primary power winding and secondary hold winding work and then where the EOS switch and capacitor wires go will make perfect sense.

If you look at the diagram on top of the coil:
pasted_image (resized).png

Power comes in on terminal 3. So where does the ground go? If we attach the ground to 2, the primary winding will always be used. That's not what we want so ground must be terminal 1.

At this stage, with no EOS attached, electricity will only flow from 3 to 1 via the secondary. The idea of the EOS is that when it is closed the electricity should travel through the primary winding and when it is open, the power should travel through the secondary winding.

There's 3 possible places you could attach the EOS:

3+1 : Power will flow directly from +50v to the EOS and then ground, blowing the fuse
3+2 : Power can only reach ground via the secondary coil
2+1 : Power will flow through the primary then the EOS to ground when the EOS is closed, and via the secondary when the EOS is open.

The capacitor is to protect the EOS, not the coil, and is always directly attached to the EOS.

If your coil doesn't have a diagram on the top, the terminals with fat wires are the ends of the primary winding and the terminals with the thin wires are the ends of the secondary winding.

I have a related question. I find sometimes my machine doesn't pay the Stop and Go award. It also seems to turn the Space Station more than is needed. eg. I hit the left VUK, it kicks the ball, then turns the station, then realised it's lined the right ramp up to the now occupied dock and turns the station again.

I assume these two things mean that the optos either aren;t always lined up right, or the interrupter is possibly borked?

I know a guy in Europe that's got one. PM me if you want details.

Speaking of kickbacks, the manual says 24-900, but it always seems to be a 23-800 which would be slightly stronger. Thoughts?

Candidate for a 3d printed copy?

Does the power wiring diagram at the back of the manual have the required information?

From the copy on ipdb.org:
output.jpg

They look great @bpull. Is the model file available somewhere?

Also check all the solder joints on the GI relay boards. They are notorious for cracked solder joints which stops everything working.

Give it a bit of a stretch.

My memory says 152mm x 82mm which is 5.98" x 3.23".

If the 1/4 amp fuse on the PSU is now blowing, yes, it's likely that one of the transistors has shorted or there's some other issue in the high voltage side of things. You can rebuild it, but if you have an xpin display coming, don't stress about it as the xpin doesn't need the high voltage side of the PSU. Leave the F1 fuse on the PSU empty, take out the two in the centre of the back box (1/10 amp), and sell the remains of your high voltage displays on to help subsidise the cost of the xpin.

I've gone the other way and rebuilt the HV side of the PSU, but I still have issues with my HV display board itself. Even once I've fixed that I'm pretty sure I've only got 2 or 3 working displays. Comparatively it's a lot of work to get the HV displays working, and they eventually stop working anyway.

What's the open box switch?

The 6 pin power connector to the left display board carries:

1 -100vdc
2 Not connected
3 +100vdc
4 key
5 ground
6 +5vdc

The fuses in the backbox are directly inline with pins 1 and 3. As the LED board only needs the +5vdc connection, it's safe to leave those fuses out.

You mean the switch on the top left corner of the coin door? That's the memory protect switch mentioned on page 2 of the manual:

The memory protect switch is on the inside frame of the coin door. This interlock switch mst be open to clear bookkeeping totals, and to make game adjustments. It automatically opens, when the coin door opens.

It doesn't matter if it's broken. One of my system 11 machines it's completely missing:
pasted_image (resized).png
The black/red and white never connect anymore, so the memory is never protected.

Does the switch register in the switch test?

Does the coil fire in the coil test?

If you have voltage at the coil, I'd check continuity from the coil back to the connector at the MPU.

Yup, two pages back.

I'll find them. Hang two.
[edit: actually it was 7 pages: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/space-station-club-members-only/page/41#post-4171043 ]

That interconnect board has two wires cut on the top connector already:

https://images.pinside.com/c/e2/ce2dbb751d6f1a54df61209855b89d363dcd473c/resized/large/ce2dbb751d6f1a54df61209855b89d363dcd473c.jpg

Tell me what you need and I'll take as many pictures as you want @grumpy. You've been a huge help to me so it'd be nice to return the favour.

Purple/yellow with brown/green go through a hole to the topside of the playfield, to the kickback coil on the left outlane:
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You can also fix just the two pins that burnt like someone did with mine:
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That's really cool. Did you ask him what the switch on the left orbit does (or was supposed to do)?

Not sure if this has been mentioned before in here. Episode 36 of TOP Cast (http://www.pinrepair.com/topcast/past.php) is an interview with Barry. There's not a huge amount on Space Station, but there's a little:

TOPcast Show 35 - entire show (MP3 audio, 26meg, 75mins).
Sunday night show 5/20/07. Special guest Barry Oursler, Williams game designers from 1978 to 1996. Barry designed 35 games including Gorgar, Joust, Space Shuttle, Space Station, Comet, Pinbot, Fire, Space Station, Cyclone, Bad Cats, Harley Davidson, Dr.Who, BS Dracula, Dirty Harry, Junkyard, and many others. Barry sold over 135,000 pinball games of his design for Williams during his tenure.

http://www.pinrepair.com/topcast/showget.php?id=35

Almost wonder if it's worth making a thread for the TopCast episode and then linking all the games to it.

The board under the Power Supply is the Auxiliary Power Driver Board:pasted_image (resized).png

It's home to the A/C select relay.

The smaller board on the insert is a GI relay board that controls the flashing of the insert GI:
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Do they work?

The A/C relay selects between the A and C solenoid banks:
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Symptoms of malfunction would be one column or the other not working (and the other side firing in its place).

The Insert GI should flash the GI during the coil test.

To make life easier, use the diagnostic modes. Here's a video I made going through the display test:

Do that, have a look at what the display does. While you're in there, run the coil test and see what each coil does.

I'm going to guess that the battery damage is most of the issue though.

I'm still trying to rebuild the HV display as the missing segment on this one shit me to tears even though it's only visible twice in the whole game.

It does. It's a Rottendog. I have a few queries around the quality though. That segment went out within 6 months of it being made, but they haven't answered any of my emails asking for support. The screw tighten down onto tracks on one edge because they didn't leave enough clearance and none of the legs on the LEDs are trimmed off:
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Pics or it didn't happen.

Getting there. I got 7something at one stage, but I found someone had put an fl-11629 on the left flipper instead of a 11630 so the right ramp was a doddle to hit. Since replacing the flipper coil with the correct one, my best is 6.6m.

Just reminded me that I need to update my score on here... https://pinside.com/pinball/archive/space-station/scores

This is not the case with Space Station, one of the last machines in the System 11s to use the Special Solenoid Activation Switches. The switch test only tests the scoring switch on the Special Solenoids - pop bumpers and the slingshots. It does not tell you if the activation switches are stuck.

If you look at the pop bumpers you'll see there's two switches. The spoon is the activation switch which has a resistor and capacitor across it as an RC debounce. When the pop fires, the fibre yoke will close a second switch - this is the scoring switch in the switch matrix.

There's a similar arrangement with the slingshots - the switches on the playfield are directly connected to the MPU and there's a second switch activated by the mechanism itself in the switch matrix.

Special solenoids switches connect to the MPU via 1J18 (the first vertical connector at the top right of the MPU board with mostly orange wires):
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If you disconnect that, go in to test mode or game mode and the pop bumper fires, you have an MPU board issue.

If you disconnect that, go in to test mode or game mode and the pop bumper doesn't fire, you have a short in the activation switch's wiring.

GRUMPY might be able to give some more experienced specific guidance, but to me that still sounds like a board issue, given that the commonality between those is U52, except that you haven't coloured the 3 lamps in the insert, 46, 47 and 48. Do they not light? If they don't light like the rest, it probably isn't an MPU issue.

The first step I'd do is to divide the problem in half - is it a board issue, or playfield.

You could test the playfield wiring If you disconnect 1J7 and then check there's no continuity between pins 9,8,7,6 of the connector (not the header in the PCB).

I'd check the MPU side of things by going in to single lamp test mode, selecting one of the problematic lamps and checking the voltages on pins 3 6 8 and 11 of U52. If they are all high, I'd check the remain pins in pairs 1&2, 4&5, 9&10, 12&13. If they are also high, the problem is further upstream (U54?).

Depending on your insert they are in different places. The manual says Williams in the bottom right corner of the insert, but on most machines the controlled globes are actually the lights around the station. From memory the test mode uses the correct names for the lamps for the machines when the Williams lights are GI.

See https://www.jeff-z.com/pinball/spacestation/pics/pics.html for more details.

[edit: here's the bit I was thinking of from the above page]

The game manual was written for the "Williams Version" whereas the lamp test software was written for the "Wheel Version". Pertinent entries from the game manual's lamp matrix table are shown below.

37 - Little Shuttle
41 - Not Used
46 - Williams (left)
47 - Williams (middle)
48 - Williams (right)
49 - Big Flame (single lamp)
57 - Big Flame (lamp pair)

And here are the corresponding entries shown by the game during lamp test.

37 - Station Wheel 4
41 - Station Wheel 6
46 - Station Wheel 3
47 - Station Wheel 2
48 - Station Wheel 1
49 - Flame 1 (lamp pair)
57 - Station Wheel 5

There's more to that quote, but the site is eating it so you'll need to go the the source for now.