Nevermind. I found the problem. The wire was broken off the lug to the switch. Thanks!

IMG_1763.jpg

So, I was warming up, playing Stargate at our league night last night, and this happened. One second, I'm at around 200M, then the knocker goes off, I see "Billion" on the screen, then three more knockers and the score says this:

0425051719.jpg

Got a good laugh out of it, and it turned out not to be a one-off occurance. At least two others managed to make the "7 Billion shot" during the evening. None of us could say why it was happening though. Guess I shot the shit out of that pyramid.

Just joined the Stargate club last week with my first pinball machine. After three days of playing, I'm loving this game! Still have missions to accomplish though. My machine was obviously business used at some point in the past. The cabinet is rough with some scratches, the side rails where your hands go are worn, and it has holes from a lockdown bar.

But most recent prior owner really treated the playfield nice, updated with multi-colored LEDs, flippers have enough power for the ramps, and every feature is working great. Even got the original manual.

While it seems easy to get multiball, I find multiball play harder than in most machines. Maybe even to the point that I lose all the balls quicker than if I'd never had multiball. Battle mode has been my best scoring option so far.

I have found on Gottlieb Sys3 games if you have a flaky opto somewhere it can start throwing up billions within a matter of seconds. We had a heck of a time finding it on my Dad's Big Hurt but finally found the one opto that was causing the problem. After it was replaced we haven't had a problem since.

New question please:
The Horus Pivot unit on the left. The coil got extremely hot. I took off the assembly and the switch did not appear to be fully opening when the pivot was up.

I adjusted the switch. I put the assembly back on. The Pivot would not go down when power was turned off. I traced it to the #31233 Link & Plunger assembly rubbing against the wood hole. I slightly bent the #30727 coil assembly bracket such that the entire shaft went up and down without touching the wood.

Once I adjusted this, the switch was not opening. I bent the switch up slightly. It looks like it is opening when testing. But it is still getting warm, but not as hot as it was.

To add some bulk to the rubber pin thing that moves the switch, I wrapped electrical tape around it and snuggly put on a plastic ring that should push the switch open a tiny bit more. The coil is still getting warm after one long ball with the glass off and allowing the Horus target to stay up for several minutes by keeping the ball away from the shot.

Is getting warm normal? (I think the other pivot was also getting warm but maybe not as warm.)

Thanks
Michael

The left pivot target uses coil 31272. Same coil is used on the right pivot target, pyramid and sarcophagus gate. This is a dual winding coil, like a flipper coil, which has both low and high power windings. What this means is that when the target goes up, the end of stroke switch opens cutting out the high power to the coil to keep the target up without burning out the coil. Since this is a coil that can stay energized for a long time, the functioning of the EOS switch is essential to the coil's longivity. And since it stays energized a long time, it will get warm - this is normal.

When the target is up you should have about a 1/8" gap on the EOS switch. If you have the gap set right the coil will still get warm but shouldn't be so hot that it seems like it will catch fire. If it does, check the resistance on the coil - spec says it should be 44.8/268 ohms. If those numbers are way off, you may have a damaged coil that needs replacing.

viperrwk

Thanks. I just wanted to check that a little warm was normal. I believe that the pivot is now opening the switch correctly.
Thanks
Michael

Just found this thread of Stargate lovers. I have to say that it is my favorite game, and I have played most of the "top 10". Mine sits next to a new WOZ, and I play it way more than the WOZ (which is a great game).

Gottlieb did an amazing job with SG and yes, I agree, it is different than most every other game around. Just love it.

Is this also an area to request if anyone has spares for sale? I have a few things I'd like to upgrade, like sling plastics, and if anyone knows of a parts game, I'd like to buy a restorable playfield, and have it done, then do a side by side swap with mine. I figure that would be easier. I've touched mine up a little bit at the sarcophagus ball drop and the bomb, but I can get a little OCD over something I like, and I'd like to get this as good as I can, or find that low play HUO machine : )

You really need to have the flippers in good working order on a Stargate. It took me maybe three months to learn and sort out my game, and after that, the ramp shots, while not easy, are shots that you can make.

I rebuilt all three flippers on my game as a couple had wobbly shafts. One thing I found was that the EOS switches have to be set fairly tight. Mine were easily nearly 1/4" at full throw on the flipper, and it was too much. I set mine at 1/8" +/-. That provided a good bump in performance. I went over them a few times to get it right.

I also found when I got the game that the upper right coil had swelled, so that needed replace, and once replaced, the left ramp from upper right flipper was much easier to do. Check your coil sleeves, if they don't move easily, then replace the coil. PBR has them.

The difference in gameplay is unreal once you get it set up properly!

Glad to see the posts on Stargate flippers, as I'm dealing with weak flippers on mine as well. I have tried adjusting the flippers, cleaning contacts, etc. and think I may need to rebuild the flippers. It looks like Pinball Resource has a complete rebuild or a mini rebuild kit (which is a lot cheaper). This would be my first time working on a flipper rebuild, so I thought I'd check in to see if anybody has a recommendation on which way I should go (complete or mini, http://www.pbresource.com/rebuildkit.html#KT-GFLIP05).

I did a full rebuild on mine, replaced the EOS switches, and also replaced the upper flipper's coil, as the sleeve was tight. Makes a huge difference. The ramp shots on this game are difficult because the ramps are rather steep. After the rebuild, the only ramp shot that remains impossible is the left ramp from the left flipper : ) However, I have made the right ramp from both right flippers on fluke shots. Surprised the hell out of me.

I would say just do a Mylar removal and touch ups on the PLAYFIELD you already have,mthey clear coat it yourself. That's what I did and I don't know anything. So if I can do it, anyone can do it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/clear-coat-time-needed

I would be worried as all hell about playfield art lifting on this game when removing a Mylar.

Love this game btw. It's next to a TAF and a LOTR and I like it just as much as those two A giants.

Some Playfield art lifted when I did it, you can see it in the before shots. There's no doubt it will happen, but if you do it the right way it will be very minimal and easy to cover up. Even I did it, so anyone can.

Would anybody happen to have some snappy custom instruction/pricing cards made up? I printed some that were floating around online, but the PDF must have been distorted because the sizes were way off.

Here's the cards I used on my SG. Not my design. I found them somewhere online.

SG.pdf

SG_Inst.pdf

Cool, thanks kjm! I had found these floating around online, but printed to the wrong size. I'll give these a shot tonight!

I just rebuilt the flippers on this and found that my pin had some really funky wiring. Has anybody taken a picture of their flipper assembly? I would love to make sure I have it wired correctly when I put everything back together. The flippers are working great, but I'm still not entirely sure I soldered the correct wire to the correct lead...so I'm a little hesitant to fire it up until I know.

Another custom card from earlier in this thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stargate-owners-club-shoot-the-pyramid/page/6#post-1578414

Here's the wiring diagram for the coils (including the flippers):

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stargate-coils-wiring#post-1259175

And here's what they look like:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stargate-slightly-weak-flippers#post-703848

viperrwk

Would anyone be interested in a full plastic protector set for stargate? I've been working with Pinbits to make one for every plastic on the machine. The plastic films were destroyed so repo plastic will likely never be made and it is a nice way to keep these rare plastics whole.

I usually design plastic protectors for all my games, but I never bothered with Stargate. Don't recall ever seeing any broken plastics on one.... Seen plenty of skill shot ramps busted up though.

I shared my modified audio ROM (with "SHOOT THE PYRAMID!" removed, see this post: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stargate-owners-club-shoot-the-pyramid/page/9#post-2256297 ) with a couple people here. How are you liking it? I don't miss that callout at all.... I'm actually thinking I might want to remove "in the pyramid, in the pyramid" too (or maybe replace it with something new). That would still leave the occasional "get in the pyramid" and "up the middle".

Does anyone know what plug or fuse controls the backbox lights? My backbox lights are out but the flashers and rope light in the backbox still work?

F8 is a 15A fuse which is for the backbox (A) relay. Could be the fuse, the MOSFET controlling the relay (Q26) or the points on the relay itself.

viperrwk

Thanks a lot man! I checked the fuse and it was ok but the white thing covering the panel said a 10A was suppose to go in there so I put a 10A in. I will clean the relay points and see if that does anything. Where is Q26? This was in real rough shape when I got it and I am doing a full restore on it. When I got it two wires on the middle relay were cut and just hanging there but the game seems to play fine, I don't know what those two wires did? The rope light, flashers and all the lights behind the pharaoh head work fine but none of the other ones.

Oh crap - I was looking at the wrong manual - had SFII open on the desktop when I answered your question, which uses a 15A fuse.

SG is indeed a 10A fuse for the backbox. The reason is there are about 28 or so GI lamps in the backbox and the other 44-type lamps in there are controlled in the lamp matrix. Other Sys3 games typically had 40 or more lamps in the backbox for GI, thus the higher fuse rating on F8. My apologies.

Q26 is located on the driver board in the backbox (lower left corner). When you run the solenoid test you want to test SOL 25. When you press the credit button you should hear the A solenoid click. If it does not when you test, you probably have to replace Q26 with a IRL530/IRL540.

viperrwk

Thanks man! You are the best!

Ok so I went into test mode and tested sol 25 and I heard the click, it seems to be working fine. The fuse is ok and I cleaned the contact points on the leaf switch of the relay. Any other suggestions? I did notice went I manually separated the contact points of the A relay, nothing seemed to happen.

The lightbox illumination runs through the playboard. Check the A9P5/J5 connector which goes from the insert board to the playboard. On the playboard side of the connector you want to see if you're getting AC voltage across pins 1 and 3 and pins 2 and 4 (set meter to AC, one lead on pin 1 and the other on pin 3, repeat for 2 & 4). Pins 1 & 2 are the black wires and pins 3 & 4 are the yellow/grey wires. Pins 1 & 2 are the common wires that go back to the transformer panel. Pins 3 & 4 go to the A(J3/P3 connector at the relay panel. You should check for both voltage and continuity all the way along this circuit as it sounds like you have a wiring problem since the relay seems to be working and you have playfield GI (I assume).

Oh and there are 31 GI lights in the backbox, for the sake of accuracy.

viperrwk

Ok so I finally got the top of the PLAYFIELD populated again. Now that everything is hooked up there are actually a lot of things not working properly and everything worked perfect before the restore. Here is a list of the things not working proper. Maybe they are all connected by one thing somehow?

1) pop bumper #1
2) opto in Horus up kicker. Actually it seems like none of the Optos are working
3) the glider craft. When the glider craft mode activates the pyramid doesn't rise and the glider craft goes back and forth behind it but it doesn't go forward. Which is good at this point because the pyramid doesn't rise.
4) the GI lights in the back box only
5) and as stated above, I don't think any of the Optos are working

I checked in test mode and all the solenoids are working correctly including the pop bumper #1 and Horus upkicker. The pyramid goes up in test mode and the glider craft goes forward in test mode. I don't know how to check the Optos but I don't think any of them are working at this point. Any help to solve this problem would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Optos are switches in the switch matrix. To test the optos all you need to do is break the beam with a ball, your finger or a piece of paper. There are two opto boards under the playfield. Each has four LEDs on the board. When the beam is broken, the LED lights up and the switch is triggered in the switch matrix.

One of the boards (1A25) handles the top left VUK, top left ramp, lower left ramp and top right ramp. The other board handles the top pyramid trough.

Make sure none of the LEDs on the board are locked on and make sure when you trip an opto the LED lights up and when the path is open the LED goes off.

There is a post earlier in this thread where I discuss how to test the pyramid/glidercraft both the solenoids and the switches.

After you run through all that report back your findings.

viperrwk

ok I quickly did what you stated above and the top left VUK, top left ramp, lower left ramp and top right ramp Optos all aren't working. But the top pyramid trough opto does work.

What's happening to the LEDs on the opto boards? Are the locked on or do they not light up at all when you trip the opto?

Swap opto boards and see if that makes a difference.

-Bob-

Ok so this time I actually looked at what the LEDs were doing when I put my finger in the beam

So the big opto board with four LEDs. The first led is lit all the time (I'm assuming that one is for the top left VUK). When I block the beam of the lower left ramp the second led comes on, when I remove my finger it goes off again. The same thing happens with the top left ramp but third led instead. And with the top right ramp but fourth led instead. So it appears the three ramp Optos are working but the VUK just stays on all the time.

When I block the beam on the pyramid through the led on the small opto board comes on and when I remove it the led goes off so it appears to be working too.

****EDIT**** forgot to mention that when I put my finger in front of the opto beams I think are working nothing triggers on the screen of the switch test menu.

But on the switch matrix switch 30 for the glider isn't registering when I hit it and neither is switch 10 for the pop bumper.

image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

So a quick update. After some investigation I found the problem with the VUK opto. It was a bad solder joint on the little opto board attached to the VUK. I just reran the solder and now the first led in the big opto board isn't on all the time anymore, now it behaves like the others where it is always off until the beam is blocked then the led comes on until the beam is unblocked. It seems it is fixed, however, when I am playing a game and get a ball in the pyramid, even thought the opto problem seems fixed the game still doesn't realize the ball is in there and has to do a ball search?

Also the glider switch 30 still doesn't work or the pop bumper switch 10. And although the Optos seem to be behaving like that are suppose to on the opto board itself, none of the Optos on the big opto board register in the switch edge test? I am going to go into the switch edge test again to see if There are any other switches not working.

Ok somebody on a different forum suggested that I check the A1J5 connector for the switches not working, and this is what I found.

image.jpg

After I reconnected the wire, boom all the switches register and work perfect now.

The only thing to fix now is the backbox GI. I will investigate further.

Here's my contribution to the Stargate LED Picture lineup... Just finished this last night.

stargate-afterLED-Full.jpg
stargate-afterLED-Playfield.jpg

I've been thinking about adding one of these GiantDOTs displays from Boston Pinball: http://www.bostonpinballcompany.com/gd.htm

The only mod this pin has apart from the LEDs is a subwoofer. I added a pinball pro subwoofer and actually disconected the backbox speakers completely, making this machine sound a lot better. The next step here is connecting a line-out-converter and plugging into a real external subwoofer for extra bass.

Hi
I have to replace some optos on my Stargate all I can find is Gtb-x0993 and x0094.They look like they are optos only.Are there any tips or tricks for replacing these on the little opto board.This will be first time replacing anything on a board.Going to get a sucker and do some practice before hand.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Scott.

...subscribing...

I'm a member now! I purchased an already torn down Statgate without teardown pictures :p

Thanks to QuarterGrabber though, I have 107 pictures of his teardown to help me out.

Can't wait to get this machine going.

image.jpg

Looks so sad without parts! Good luck!

Nice: Welcome, and have fun with the game!

Does anyone know where I can get the latest roms for stargate? I read in an old thread that rev 5 is the latest rom but I can only find rev 4 for sale. I know the checksum at startup is 89AA for the rev 5 and mine definently doesn't say that at startup. What is the checksum for rev 4? Also if anyone can lead me in the direction of a rev 5 chip or even a download so I can burn it to a chip. Thanks for the help.

Pinball Resource

Checked and couldn't see it there. Do you have a link?

The V5 roms are to fix a garbage/warm boot issue. You have to buy the roms for Gottlieb games. Email PB resource to order them.

I am just trying to get the latest roms for my stargate. I'm not having any issues with my stargate, I just like to have the latest roms installed. I don't know what roms I have installed right now though? Gottliebs are weird and don't tell you what version you have at startup like Williams do.

I actually emailed Pinball Resource and asked them. They provided the part number to order.

Right now my checksum at startup is "99AA". Does anyone know what version that is? Thanks.

Very quickly at boot up...
Game #742/5 so mine has version 5.

I would like to join the club here. I just picked this HUO up 2-3 weeks ago. It is very dirty but very nice. Person I got it from told me the story behind it. His parents bought it from an auction to raise money for the high school he attended. It was donated by a local shop in the area. Did not know if it was true or not till I got home and opened the envelope that came with the game. All documents inside it to confirm his story which is good. Now time to pull the mylar clean and polish and enjoy it. Here are some pics.P1120572.JPGP1120573.JPGP1120574.JPGP1120575.JPGP1120576.JPGP1120577.JPGP1120578.JPGP1120579.JPG