Hah... my older girl has the earlier birthday, so for one week a year she can pretend to be "4 years older" ha ha. Poor little sis will never catch up!

In fairness they get along well and would compromise if we made them - we shared most of their birthdays for many years - but they're now old enough where the age difference means their individual interests, tastes, and especially friends don't always comingle well. I figured they did great sharing when they were younger (they even shared a room), so it's fair (arguably necessary) to let them indulge their individual personalities when it matters. Which is great but the downside for me is it's beyond crazy that time of year. Hopefuily will subside soon; the older is turning 15 so a traditional "party" will soon be less important than just letting her have friends over to hang out and keep to themselves... it was almost like that last year.

Dang it, if I'd realized it sooner I guess I could've tried to bring enough games to just have her party at Pinci, ha ha

goingincirclez yep, that was me w/ FP, HS2G, TMNT. Hope you can make it out for a day but totally understand the family commitments. My FP has been pretty solid since the last show. The only thing I added to it was some Lexan protectors I made and put under each plastic. Actually, I had a plastic break and while locating a replacement, I made protectors to prevent it from happening again.

Anyone have a picture of 3J3 on the power supply or can confirm my wiring? Schematics show another red wire at pin 8 but not a specific reason for it. Thanks.

IMG_2426[1] (resized).JPG

Looks similiar, just took this.

IMG_20190911_204026 (resized).jpg

Hi Firepower members! I wanted to let you know we are getting back up to speed with Hardtop production slowly. We have 2 in stock ready to ship if anyone has an interest. Since we will not be going live on our site for a bit yet... just PM me with your email address, ship to address and name. Cost is still 298.00

Thanks!

Is there any chance you would consider doing a FP2? I know there are a few of us that would be an auto buy.

How do you accommodate the star rollovers with the hard top?

Do I need to do anything special with rollovers?
Yes. Rollovers will need to be popped out, and have some small manual work done on the Hardtop hole after installation. You will then use a 2-part epoxy to glue them back in.

Vid has great instructions for installing the star rollovers here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-hardtop-restoration-comet#post-4470140

I made a short post on installing the rollovers on my firepower hardtop here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/firepower-hardtop-restoration#post-4698514

My top right pop bumper locks on when I switch Firepower on and blows the solenoid fuse. I've replaced the diodes and the coils okay so would it be a transistor on the driver board? Can anyone pinpoint which transistor handles that pop bumper? Any help would be appreciated.

Top right jet bumper is solenoid #19, which is in the special solenoid group, Special #3.

Driven by transistors Q5 and Q6, special solenoid logic driven by IC6 and IC2.
Most likely the transistors, but could also be either two of those logic IC's.

-hans

If your looking for a Hard Top for your fire power. Outside Edge has them and is shipping. Just bought mine

Thanks mate.

Turned out to be transistor Q6.

I had a bad diode on a pop bumper coil blow a transistor on a brand new Rottendog board earlier this year. After replacing the transistor (and diode on the coil), I went ahead and replaced all the diodes on every coil. A little hassle, but hopefully preventing another transistor blow due to a soon-to-fail diode.

I had the same issue. my coil locked up and cooked during play. When I checked the transisitor it read the same as the others in the special solenoid group.
If the transistors are good on the board, could it be the blue resistor on the switch? There are 2 resistors and a diode on the pop switch, probably makes sense to replace them all.

Easy enough to test. Just pull J13 off the driver board (special solenoid inputs).

If the coil still locks on, it is not the switch inputs and is most likely a board problem. Driver and pre-driver replacement unless you have a logic probe and want to see if the logic gate in front of the transistors is the cause.

If the coil no longer locks on - the problem is with the switch and or wiring. First check that the switch is gapped properly (not too tight). Then check the capacitor on the switch. These are known to fail shorted from old age and make the switch look permanently closed (locking the coil on).

Is that bluish green component a cap not a resistor? I had not looked closely at it
thanks that will make the diagnosis easier

Yes. But there is actually both on the pops and the slings. A 100 ohm resistor and a 22uf capacitor. The green/blue component is the cap.

If you replace the capacitor, make sure to get the polarity in the same orientation as the old one.

is it ok to go 50V on the cap?

No problem. You can always go higher on the voltage rating without problems.

hey all,
just picked up this FP & noticed this wire un connected,
brown/white, one wire coming off each score display & all soldered together.
looks like its got to go to 4P7 ??
any idea where that location is ??

TIA

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IMG_4128 (resized).JPG

Great info regarding the pop bumper locking on, thanks. Are all the resistors the same throughout...the 1N4004 ? I didn't realise the third on the switch was a capacitor, lucky I hadn't changed it yet as I wasn't sure of the part number. Meanwhile, another glitch has reared its ugly head... where the ball goes into the left lock but isn't recognised and so doesn't release or lock properly. At the end of the game it releases the ball though. I've been using four balls just so I can have a game without the glass off

Any good mods for this classic besides... led’s/target decals/topper?

Did some searching... looks like there are some cool roms that change the game up in fun ways.

If you have a RottenDog board, the alternate roms are already there. Need to just adjust the dipswitch.

My Firepower started acting weird mid-game yesterday, symptoms make me believe it should be an easy fix but I don’t know where to start looking. I pulled the glass off and found three things that aren’t working correctly.

The lane change stopped working for the “fire” lanes.
The left saucer isn’t kicking out the ball
The star rollover into the left saucer isn’t registering

Also, the center target above the pops isn’t registering but I think that’s just an adjustment problem.

Does anyone know if these issues are related to a single board problem? Since all three happened simultaneously, leads me to believe they are related.

Any help would be appreciated

Does the top center and the "4" targets work?

If not, you have a problem with row 5. Might be wiring, might be driver board issue.

If they do, you probably have a broken White w/Green switch matrix wire. Trace it from switch to switch and give a gentile tug on the wires to see if one is broken along the path.

That is all covered via youtube at this point. It actually is quite simple. Any star rollover is final sized post install for a perfect fit. We ship any star rollover hole undersized to be finished by the installer.

By “4” targets do mean ‘fire’ targets?

.

The target behind the 4th yellow arrow.

The white green switch matrix makes sense but some of the items on that row are working. Sorry for the newbie questions but, does the switch matrix translate to the boards in some way so connections and circuits can be identified? I tried reseating all my connectors but that had no effect. I tried tracing the wiring and cannot find a broken connection. Of the items on that row of the switch matrix the “4” and the lower right stand up work but the lane change, left saucer rollover, saucer switch and the lane changes don’t work.

With them all stopping together it would make sense to me that the issue is connected in some way. Any suggestions for next steps? I’m going to go and chase wiring again to double check

Thanks for the direction so far, it has created some good learning.

Yes, the switch rows and columns have specific circuitry on the driver board. If all the switches in a column or row went out, you would suspect the board or its connectors.

Locate all the switches in the white/green row and tug on each white/green wire separately. When several switches in a row suddenly go out like this, its almost away a wire that fell off.

My Firepower isn't releasing the ball from the left kicker still. I replaced the transistor and the diode and the wires are securely attached to clean switches. It has the green wire with red stripe and I noticed that my unused switches for drop targets have the same wires. Could this have something to do with it not working?

Well, I cannot find a loose wire, I’m stuck at this point, I guess it’s time for some professional help. Bummer, it seems like I should have been able to figure it out.

The wire may be broken in the insulation. Test for continuity between its connection on the driver board and each point where this wire is connected under the playfield.

I’ll try that...

I think I figured it out, I have a broken connection between the star rollover and the “4” target. Can I just run a jumper or should I pull that wire out of the bundle? I’m thinking a jumper between the two should do it. I have continuity both sides of that, (from the four to the board and from the star rollover to the center target). The one thing I don’t see how to check is the lane change with the right flipper. Hopefully fixing the broken connection will make that work. Does anyone know how to troubleshoot that part of the circuit?

Hey just maybe carefully use a jumper wire with a couple small alligator clips to see what it fixes before soldering.

Fixed! Thanks for the help, especially Schwaggs, it was a wire the wasn’t disconnected but must have been broken somewhere and not visible. A lot of the wiring take some big direction changes, after 40 years of vibrating around I’m surprised I don’t have more jumpered wiring under the play field. Now back to trying to roll over the score...

AWESOME! Congratulations on the fix! Game on!

The bottoms appear to have been made by whatever paneling they could buy on the cheap. I've seen other pictures of brick patterned bottoms but never what you have...

That prop plate is not stock. Seems your game may be a movie or TV star! VERY cool! I would be preserving that provenance!

it's usually the brick pattern panel.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-firepower-club/page/2#post-1574679

The power cord is coming out through the left side vent hole which is not correct as it should go through the backbox neck with cord having a loose loop knot to catch in case it's pulled - that most likely routed through there as it's easier when someone replaced the cord.

I'm pretty sure I saw a Firepower in a couple episodes of Entourage. That would have been filmed in California though.

Most likely "prop" is just short for "property" ... it's an asset tag.

Richard