Gotta add Big Guns and Police Force into it for Mark to get the full story- I'd say Mark Ritchie is definitely underrated- he gets overshadowed by Python's art, which is phenomenal. But I does seem like he tried twice to duplicate Taxi's success with Police Force and Diner... with various degrees of success.

I feel Mark Ritchie is underrated. If I were to choose Taxi as my next game to bring home, all my machines would have been designed by Mark - SlugFest, Police Force, and Taxi.

MPU is good.

Using the information Dumbass provided, I get no reading on the optocoupler on the interconnect board at U1. Looks like that may be my issue!

Chris

Good work!

rd

So, what do you do when you have one of the greatest games ever made (cough) … and it has a broken ramp.

And you can’t buy a new ramp.

And you can’t fix the ramp.

You make a protector to hold it all together!

rd

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First of all - get some 304 Stainless sheet.

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Then, spend an hour mocking it all up so it fits.

Mark it, cut it, file it, bend it, drill it … trial fit it …

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Then grind it some more, file it some more, then polish it up so it’s all nice and shiny.

Booooooya!! Another SYS11 winner!

rd
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Roto you’re like a hybrid cliffy
Nice work bro!

Nice work! Game Show is a fun game. I enjoyed mine while I had it.

Chris

Well...maybe? So plot twist. Before I replaced the Opticoupler, I pulled the fuses and tested them again (I had done this a few days back) and low and behold, the fuse for the right flipper was bad!

replaced the fuse and what do you know, it works! Well, for about 5 min, then the fuse blows again

Would the opticoupler cause a blown fuse? Or should I be looking elsewhere (which I will do anyway).

Chris

The opto isolator is not likely to be the bad pat in this case.
If it was the ic would burn because of the high current.

Check the EOS spacing and correct opening.
Do not push the flipper up by hand, but press the plunger in the coil.
Things may be worn and pushing the flipper up would give a wroung indication.

Check the flipper coil for the correct resistance. (3-4 ohm and 130-160 ohm)
Keep the EOS in mind.
That will short the hold winding.
Put a piece of paper between the contacts when you measure the resistance.

Another thing to check are the disk capasitors at the flipper button switches.
Sometimes they short, creating a nice black spot on the cap.
Sometimes they go up in smoke.

You might also consider replacing the diodes on the coil.
But a measurment of the coil will show if one is bad.

Peter

I have a similar but different problem. My right flipper on earthshaker is dead. I did something stupid. Long story short, I had the playfield resting on a brace across the cabinet. The brace had metal and the game was on. There was a spark and I immediately shut off the game. When I went to play it next the right flipper was dead. There is no power at the coil measured with a DMM and it doesn’t activate when the middle lug is grounded. Fuses are good. Did I blow the coil? Diode? Something on a board? I’m newish to system 11s.

Did you remove and check with a meter?

From memory F4,5,6 on the Aux power board.

rd

Yeah. Checked them several times actually.

Just realized the right flipper switch doesn’t register in switch test. If it was just the coil, would it still register?

You burnt a trace off on the inner connect board. Remove the board and post pics of both sides.

I think you nailed it. This is not exactly my comfort zone. But I’m assuming that red wire has to do with GI. But that burned trace near it is for the right flipper.

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Grumpy is always correct!

The trace is for 2J5-2.

01_front.jpg
02_rear.jpg
03_purpose.jpg

BLU-YEL is the voltage (power) supply for the right flippers.

Thanks so much for the help guys. Added a jumper and we’re all good!

He always nails it. Between Grumpy, Vid and HEP, there should be a Nobel Prize. And most times it's off the top of his head!

///Rich

Good detective work!

rd

Hep would win this hands down. His work is amazing!

Anyone have feedback about why my Grand Lizard might be unexpectedly resetting? It only seems to happen after it’s played continuously for a long period of time.
The power supply has been fully recapped.
I’m eager for any suggestions where to look next.

Well, my Police Force problem seems to be resolved (the flipper anyway).

Even though what was in there looked new, I replaced the coil, EOS switch and the little yellow spark surpressor thingy.

Everything is working good now and no more blown fuses. Not exactly sure what the issue was but I think it was somewhere in that mix for sure.

Thank you everyone for the knowledge!

Chris

Thanks for sharing Dave. That gives me a great idea for fixing my Dr Dude. What material did you use for the protector?

We don’t have anything local now (in the old days I’d scab scraps from my engineeering buddies, but they’re retired now …) so I got some of this on Ali Express sent with another order I’d made.

The 0.5mm is what I used for those, it bends nicely in the vice. The thicker ones don’t bend so well. One $5 sheet made both those protectors.

If you have a workshop close, they probably have small bits in their scrap bin.

Polish it up on the bench grinder with polishing wheels.

rd
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Thank Dave. You're a gem.

Pass on my congrats to Danielle for her recent win too.

My F14 was doing this also. I repinned the 2 connectors that carry the 5v between the power supply and mpu to resolve my resetting problem.

What Flashball said. Plus if it were mine I'd reflow solder on the header pins, scrub them with a fiberglass pen and use deoxit which should clean them up nice. An extreme example of where this helped: I've done that to an arcade board (track and field) and gained almost half a volt at the aux board.

Happy to be adding a nice Bad Cats this weekend, only about an hour away. This one is already a nice example, but comes with a new CPR gold pf, new ramps and plastics. So I’m going to work with a pinball friend to swap the new pf in, and finish with a new Xpin display and probably Radcals. Should be a beauty when it’s done! Technically I’m already in the Sys 11 club with my restored EATPM, which I love. You just don’t see very many Bad Cats out there. Looking forward to this one.

Sanded my scratched up F14 speaker panel. From 320 through 3000, but it still has very fine scratches. I need to buy stuff tomorrow to buff it, hoping that removes the rest of scratches.

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Please do keep us posted on your polishing efforts and progress. So many displays are slightly to highly scratched.

I just bought a repo for my Bad Cats. The colors are almost dull / faded looking, compared to my scratched original. I'll now attempt to sand and polish it back to life... Thanks for the encouragement

Out of curiosity, where did you get the repro?

Chris

Swirl remover (ebony)

Moved all mine into a mini System 11 "row"

Chris

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Is that a product name? I tried meguiars ScratchX but it did nothing.

I really suck at buffing/polishing. Wish someone would make a guide. Not much info out there.

ebay.com link: itm

I've purchased many great products from Classic Arcades. However, this panel is very faded / dull in color, compared to the original. I'm hoping to highly sand and polish out my original display panel, and use it back in my game.

Let me say... I'm very happy to have Vendors like Classic Arcades who offer parts for our old / classic games.

Novus is actually a plastic polish.

You could try some 3 then some 2.

rd

I tried that too. Maybe I need to be more aggressive, I’ll give it another try today. I’m just doing it my hand, maybe I need to buy a buffer but I don’t want to burn it.

Auto paint supply near you tell them your looking to remove swirls !

That's a great idea, thanks.

I tried Novus 3 again and that added scratches, then Novus 2 brought it back to how it was before. So the scratches seem finer than Novus 2 can remove.

This is a GREAT idea! In fact, I'm going to bring my display panel with me. That way they may be able to do a small test on it over the counter.

I actually have (2) professional auto paint stores available to me. I'll probably go to both, for a comparison.

https://www.eastwood.com/greaseless-compound-set-of-4.html
https://www.eastwood.com/chemical-guys-vss-scratch-and-swirl-remover-16-oz.html
This site has all type of buffing a compounds and equipment
Also powdercoating supplies do it your self !

Went to the auto paint store. The lady there seemed like she was guessing at what I should do. She was trying to sell me this 3M 39062 polish for $30 and said to use with a DA and blue foam pad. I didn’t trust her so I passed.

Let me know what you find out please Kerry_Richard

This would have worked well.

Oh ok I’ll go pick some up then. She lost me when she said they use this to polish their DVDs.

A high speed buffer will work quicker, but a lot of experience is needed so not to melt the panel. The DA sander is a safe bet.

I picked up a 8" 3M blue pad (05733) and 3M ultrafine polish (39062). A guy at the shop today knew a bit more and explained there are different steps to the 3M polish line. The blue is a polishing compound (the last step) so its more gentle than the other steps. The first steps are rubbing compounds and are more abrasive and will heat faster and remove more material. The product colors are a hint, so blue polish with blue pad, etc. He said since my DA is not random orbital I need to keep it moving to reduce chances of burning.

Hoping to learn more about all of this. I'd like to try the 3M rubbing compounds on my next playfield clearcoat job. I'm putting a hardtop on my F-14, so I will shoot a couple coats of clear on the sanded playfield so I can test on that without any risk of damaging art.

Did some polishing. It definitely looks better but did not remove the fine scratches. I’m not sure if the problem is my sanding or my polishing.

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Here you can see the fine scratches only in the light angle.

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I only had sanded all the grits, maybe I need to machine sand? I do not have ultra fine grits for my orbital.

I replaced my battery holder on my BK2000. The game adjustments in the coin door do not work properly I can scroll through them but can not change them with the credit button. Also I can start a game with the door open so something is going on with the high power door switch. I checked and reseated connector 1J14 but no go. Thanks