I've ranted once or twice about not liking the sound package on Whoa Nelly. That Melody would sound more Melodious with a real set of chimes. The synthetic sounds - especially the non-chime sounds (special effects, voices, music) were just .. annoying on this particular machine to me.

A while back I started looking into adding chimes, based on comments from Greg and Dennis; and from what I saw in the manual. This thread is about making this happen - nothing too special, but perhaps encouragement for others.

Starting with the manual:

2015-08-28 21.29.27.jpg

We open up to the coils listing; and find 26-1200 coils specified. No diode.
Actually, I lie a bit - Chas at Stern gave me the answer before I saw it in the manual. (ahem)
This also identifies the expected wire colors - which I ordered from BAA.

2015-08-28 21.30.21.jpg

The optional chimes, if attached, hook up to the NODE 11 board.

2015-08-28 21.31.37.jpg

Identifying this board would have been more challenging if Stern didn't include this with the docs:

2015-08-28 21.30.43.jpg

Especially, since it appears that the board already has connectors attached, and there was no obvious "NODE 11" text.

2015-08-28 22.00.25.jpg

Interesting. So, with the connectors already attached ...

2015-08-28 21.31.14.jpg

.. Where do the cables go? Tracing them, I found them already in the cabinet. This cabinet is pre-wired! Unfortunately, two of the wires are towards the back of the cabinet; and 1 wire is up at the front of the cabinet. And, it uses the 2 pin molex collectors that I don't have in my inventory.

2015-08-28 21.34.14.jpg
2015-08-28 21.34.03.jpg

If I had the right connectors I might have used them here after unbundling the wires from the other cables. That'd be too easy, though. Besides, I now had all this extra wire from BAA, that has to go somewhere.

The chimes I ordered from chimeunit.com came in. They were exactly as advertised.

2015-08-28 21.35.28.jpg
2015-08-28 21.34.58.jpg

Hooking them up, I used a 14 pin edge connector, using the matching colored wires.

2015-08-28 21.36.00.jpg

And hooked it up to the NODE11 board - with the old connectors moved to the side.

2015-08-28 22.00.50.jpg

Finally, I mounted the chimes into place. Right side of the cabinet, towards the front, and low.

2015-08-28 21.58.33.jpg

Technically, this worked. Technically, this was a success. Reality? In my cabinet, these chimes were unpleasant. I don't really want to harsh on a product where someone's filling a need, but .. these weren't the solution. I found myself trying to dampen the sound to kill the really bad harmonics, both from multiple bars hit at once as well as even single bars triggering bad harmonics from the nearby bar.

I nearly went back to the sound effects package that comes from Stern.

It took a lot of searching.. but I finally found a source for refurbished Gottlieb chimes. Score!

http://www.crowriver.com/clock/clockparts.htm

They came in the mail today, well wrapped. Clearly refurb - no beauty contest winner. But all the parts are there; and testing with alligator clips worked. Yay! Hooking it up for real:

2015-09-11 18.30.50.jpg
2015-09-11 18.30.46.jpg

I failed to get a picture after I mounted it inside.

BTW: This machine also had the LEDs replaced; see a-warmer-melony-in-wnbjm-stern-spike-led.

2015-09-11 18.41.23.jpg

How does it sound?

No comments on the game play, can't shoot video and play at the same time

Heh, that package is all sorts of mis-matched things. I'm sure that sticker is something the lawyers mandated. Unfortunately, we don't get 50's era lawyers with this machine.

In any case, that's easy enough to remove, and fill/sharpie over. Or perhaps get some plastic cut to size, and ask Greg to sign it next time he's found at a pinball show. Maybe ask him to sign it "Made with Love and Epilepsy, Greg". Though, he might not do it for me, since I've neutered the sound package and replaced it with real chimes..

allknowing2012: The game's dead simple. There are no modes to speak of. No deep rules. Focus on ball handling instead of game strategy.

There's a skill shot that you can try for any time the shooter is used. Doesn't have to be the first plunge of a ball.

The top lanes each will light a bumper. The bumper score is either 1 or 10, depending on whether lit or not.

Old rules: new ball would reset the lights.

New rules: Put the ball into the turkey hole, and get a bonus for each lit bumper. However, if all 4 bumpers are lit, then they all become unlit. New balls do not reset the lights. It is possible via settings to make the old rules back into effect.

You do have some choices when playing.
- Do I go for the skill shot? If I fail, I don't light a bumper, and get no points.
- Do I go for bumpers? I might get one I already lit; or nothing at all. Getting all the bumpers lit can translate into quick points in the pops.
- Do I go for the lit "200"? Doing so, means ignoring lots of other points. But if you can consistently hit the 3 spots for 200, maybe that's fastest.

Will it be fun? Honestly, the only way to find out, is play. Sometimes simple is good. I'm more inclined to share this machine when playing with guests who know nothing about pinball, than anything else.

Look in the shooter lane. About halfway up, is a small plastic covering the shooter lane. That's where the epilepsy warning goes.

Chimes work great. I don’t remember the code version. - not seeing much for updates. Simple game, not a lot of bug fixes needed.

As to Pabst or Primus, I don’t know. Check out the docs for them, see if it’s got the same spare ports. In my photos I highlighted what I found and where.
Enable the chimes in the software, hook up a meter or solenoid to test with.

By request: The chimes I bought I kept the Gottlieb A-1595 coils. I don’t recall if they had diodes; Chas at Stern said “no diode”.

The A-1595 coils are equivalent to 26-1305, and have an impedance of 11.6 ohms. Other 26-1200 coils out there seem to run 10.6 to 12.mubmle ohms looking at the coil equivalents chart.

As to wiring, I’m using mostly 22 gauge, except for one color where I had to go to 18 gauge for color availability.