(Topic ID: 68586)

Williams Space Station (1987). Rebuilding & modding

By Fred558

10 years ago


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  • 44 posts
  • 13 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 10 years ago by mof
  • Topic is favorited by 4 Pinsiders

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#1 10 years ago

Hello,

Just started my mission to get rid of my bad mylar layer. (first time I try something like this)

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In this picture where you see bubbles is the main reason for removing the mylar. These bubbles cause the ball to change course or even jump against the glass.

I'll post more pictures when I dare to start the job.

1 week later
#2 10 years ago

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Before removal

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Half way

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Finished removing the mylar.
(pretty scary, with every pull after freezing I thought I would take my whole paintjob with it)

I managed to remove it with only minimal loss of decals on some inserts.

On a side note. I found using a bottle of compressed air (up side down) to have better effect than a bottle of freeze spray.

Now to remove the glue layer.
I found some movies where people are using flour and alcohol to remove it pretty easily.
I have 2 bottles of Goo-Gone, but it seems the other option is much simpler so tomorrow i'll get a bottle of alcohol and start rubbing.

I'll post my findings here.

#4 10 years ago

Thanks for the tip.

I'll first try the flour one. I hope it will work for me.
Otherwise I'll hit it with the goo-gone.

I'll give your way a shot to.

#6 10 years ago

Well, the flour method is going pretty well.
It takes some practice to find the right amount of flour and alcohol to make it work to your liking. And I found that pushing the glue in one direction works better than making rotating movements.

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I put a thin layer of flour all over the glue so you can see what is clear and what still has to be done.
This was about an hour of work. So it goes faster than I thought.

#7 10 years ago

All the glue is gone. My inserts decals seem more damaged than I first thought.
But I don't think I will replace them.

I pushed the inserts down again.
I heated the glue with a hairdryer and pushed them down. Seems to hold over the night.
Anyone have any tips on this? Is there need for new glue?

I'll post some more pictures of it all soon.

#11 10 years ago

Thanks for the tips and advice.
But it's not that the inserts are not there. They are just damaged.

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#12 10 years ago

Putting it back together again.

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#15 10 years ago
Quoted from DennisAZ:

Have you thought about putting in green LEDs for "Condition Green"?

It has a complete LED set on the whole playfield. Looks great indeed.

I'm just not completely sure what lights to place in the backbox. When I bought this pinball the backboard had a discolored backbox image.
The new one I ordered came with cut-outs on the space station ring. I put green LEDs under the cut-outs, but it feels that they are a little to bright.

#16 10 years ago
Quoted from vid1900:

Yes, glue them with epoxy from behind.

If you don't add glue, they rise up again.

I guess at some point I will have to do this again then, because I had the idea they were staying down.
I'll wait for a while, and score some new insert decals so I can change those also.

#17 10 years ago

I added a blue led backlighting.

DSC_0053.jpgDSC_0053.jpg

I was also installing all the leds on the playfield, but I noticed that in attract mode the green leds on the right side of the playfield are also constantly on.
On the left side only the normal lights are on, but the greens are off.
They were working normally before i took it apart. Could I have connected one of the wires to the backbox wrong? I checked it a couple of times, but they all seem to be in order.

#19 10 years ago
Quoted from vid1900:

See if the lights are stuck on with normal bulbs.

If not, try some "non-ghosting" LEDs.

Thanks for the tip. But normal bulbs also burn.
So they are getting power when they should not.

I guess it has to be a wiring thing. It's only the green lights on the right side of the playfield which are on together with the normal lights.

#21 10 years ago
Quoted from DennisAZ:

There are 2 general illumination relays

This sounds like a good tip.
I did not have time to go at it with my multimeter though.

I did check the manual to see how these relays are connected. From what I can figure out they are connected to connection J11 on the aux. power board. They should get 25v power which goes through fuse F1.

I guess I'll start by checking if the fuse is not broken.

#23 10 years ago
Quoted from PEN:

My favorite music in a pin.

It sure is.

Quoted from Fred558:

I guess I'll start by checking if the fuse is not broken.

Well, all the fuses are fine.
I did however check what happens if I leave out fuse F1. The situation with the lights is the same then. I'll have to start measuring some voltages to see if everything is correct on the aux drive board.

#24 10 years ago
Quoted from DennisAZ:

There are 2 general illumination relays. The one closest to the front activates the green lights when the solenoid is powered. The second one just a little toward the back switches the white GI off when the solenoid is powered on.

The relays are working good.
In test mode I can turn off the gi lamps, and also switch green mode on and off.

The problem with the right side green lights remains though. They are switches off and on together with the gi lights.
I have to find where they are connected wrong. It must be some connector which I connected wrong.

The rest of the solenoids seem to be working as they should.
Only the three orange lamps in the back stay off. But that is another problem I'll sort out later. (since they don't effect the gameplay itself)

#25 10 years ago

Pretty difficult to locate the source of this problem.
I started following some wires today to see if I could a possible source.

At least I found out all the green lights which are connected through yellow/green wire are the ones that are also burning along the general illumination. The ones which work good are connected with purple/green.

But I could not find a point where I might have switched some wires, or why the green lights get power along with the gi.

I switched the relays boards to test if one of them might be bad. But they seem to be working properly.

I did found that in testmode if I test the general illumination i the relay closest to the front clicks. And according to DennisAZ (and the manual) this should be the one that switches the green lights on and of.
When testing green lights the back one switches.

Could someone with a Space Station check if that also happens with their station?
I also have some pictures of what my lights look like during the test modes.

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This is general GI. On the right side you can see the green leds are also on.
In this test the lights flash on and off, and you can hear SOL10 relay clicking.

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In green mode all the general GI is on, and the left side green lights are also on.
in this mode all the light is continuously on and not flashing.
SOL09 switched one time.

I hope someone can shed some light on this.

#29 10 years ago
Quoted from DennisAZ:

It sounds like somewhere on the board, that the green lights (yellow/green) are shorted to the GI bulbs. They do share a common ground. So someplace the (+) green is touching the (+) GI.

I also had this idea. Maybe something during transport caused this.
The machine is at work, and I took the playfield home with me to take the mylar off.

I'll have to start checking every connection then. The jacks seem to be in order, so if some green light + is touching a normal GI + it should be a visible connection. (I hope)

Quoted from DennisAZ:

Did you see my latest mod?

Now I did. Looks great.
I was thinking to make something like that with my backlight. in GI mode it's blue, with greenlight it should switch to green.

But first fix this greenlight issue.

#30 10 years ago
Quoted from DennisAZ:

So someplace the (+) green is touching the (+) GI.

So to narrow down the problem to the playfield I could disconnect the greenlight (+) power pin from the jack leading to the backbox. (correct me if I'm wrong)

If the green lights are still on then I know for sure some GI (+) is touching my green (+) somewhere on the playfield bottom.

#32 10 years ago

Thanks for the tip Dennis.
These are the results.

Pin 1 - 4: GI=ON (only left side playfield), Green=OFF

Pin 1 - 6: GI=OFF, Green=ON (only left side of playfield)

Pin 2 - 5: GI=ON (only right side playfield), Green=ON (only right side playfield)

Pin 2 - 7: GI=ON (only right side playfield), Green=ON (only right side playfield)

I also disconnected the yel/green wire (Green right side +) from the connector which connects playfield to backbox. With this wire disconnected the green lights on the right side of the playfield are still on together with the normal GI. So they must be getting power from somewhere on the playfield.

I thought that I found the problem. The front popbumper assembly was touching a gi and green light socket. But when I removed it the problem was still there.

Inspection of the sockets do not show any + hitting another +.
I could start cutting wires to isolate the problem, but I'd rather not start doing that yet. Don't want to have a whole bunch of connected wires down there later.

#34 10 years ago

Thank you for your help Dennis.

I found the problem.

I removed the 7-pin connector from the rear relay board and no lights were on.
A collegue asked me what i was doing, so I started to explain to him the problem, and then I saw it.

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These two brackets were touching. But you could only see it from a certain angle.

Really great that it's solved. Now I can get back to rebuilding.
Not much time this week though.

I'll update in this post as I continue.

#38 10 years ago
Quoted from Slate:

Launch Button

I'm also thinking to put a launch button and different start button.
But my housing is in fairly good shape, and somehow I don't want to make any changes which can't be reverted to original.

Quoted from pinballpete:

Launch button totally makes sense on this game.

On the other hand. The launch button indeed makes total sense.

#40 10 years ago

Installed the first LED starpost.

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#43 10 years ago

Got the lights working in the station.
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I made a sort of connection on the bottom of the station. I still need to refine the construction, but it basicly works.

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