This repair is way more expensive than the actual fix!

That's what I was thinking.

That was a very common route repair to keep the games running. Yes, why bother taking the board out since the wires weren't long enough to work with on a removed board.

Heck, the instructors at the Williams service schools even suggested this since they knew no money in meant fewer machine sales.

Man I wish I would have taken pic's of the Taxi pin I fixed about a year ago. Every (and I mean every) fuse was wrapped in tin foil.

I actually went and saw this game, a Pinbot and a Big Guns the seller had. They all had this power supply "repair" done to them along with strange connectors and cut wires that were no longer needed. The pinbot had some silicon repairs made to broken plastics. They apparently were stored in moist conditions. Some battery acid damage too. They all seem to want to reset or not boot. I have too many projects to even consider them plus they are looking for top dollar so I walked.

Not the worse hack compared to many in this thread, but it is a hack. this is a Stern Hot Hand I recently bought. Now I have to try and figure out where all these wires go.

Here is J-3

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And the rest.

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Yikes. Too much mess there. You definitely got some work cut out for you. I would start out with a fresh rectifier board. I like the one GPE sells. Very solid. Good luck!

Verify the wiring in the games' schematic, but this should be pretty close.

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I hate it when idiots solder wires directly on boards. A new connector and pins are really cheap.

Don't be hatin'. That was a common practice for route operators. Even suggested by the Bally & Stern service schools as not every technician carried connectors, pins and the proper crimp tool in the late '70's to mid '80's....

As I read this I'm trying to picture some poor tech in a dark arcade fixing the big money maker of the week as the owner/operator is breathing down his neck. I imagine it would be a lot quicker and easier to just solder to the board than trim/strip/crimp/plug all the wires.

I have heard that. I also know in the late 70's during the golden years operators had to empty the coin boxes sometimes twice a day. Machine down was $$$ not collected. Still hate it when I have to deal with it though.

An experienced tech can crimp pins pretty quickly.

It's mainly about not having the right components on-hand.

I know I can redo a connector with a whole lot less aggravation and quicker than soldering to the board. I think the only reasoning for that would be lack of supplies in the moment. If you need the game running and don't have connectors or pins you would do that to keep making coin.

Ms Pac Man & Asteroids required twice a week collections. Thus, all games were collected on location. Earlier, for the original Space Invaders, we were modifying cabinets so we could put a larger cash box inside. The OEM ones filled up too fast.

I'd love to see that problem today.

That's why asteroids deluxe came out but they made it to hard. I could play asteroids for hours and they didn't like that. Deluxe came out and although very cool black light and graphics we would walk on by.

I will give props for creativeness, attractiveness and functionality...but still a hack none-the-less.

I guess it steals the title of the "first pinball with a newton ball" away from ToM.

Yeah, I have the only 2 pins on location in a city of 50,000 people, well maintained and in a popular microbrewery, and I figure I could go 3 or 4 months without emptying Theatre of Magic, and 8 months for whatever I put beside it.

Space Invaders Deluxe came out. (IIRC, first video you could enter your name on) but it was a dog compared to the original. Plus, as soon as kids figured out the high score name could be "FCUK YOU", we had to put electrical tape over the monitor as it was non-disableable.

That's hilarious

And I'm sure the kids thought so too.

Asteroids followed with initials. Kids were quite creative with three letter versions of their favorite words. Fuk etc.
But the best was when either Exidy or Gremlin allowed a list of high score names on the monitor. They were writing stories at bowling alley arcades such as:
Betty at the
counter has a
nice ass and
will swallow
your load

Sorry if I shocked and offended anyone.

That might be a brilliant revenue generation strategy. If you screw up and score too high or too low, or if someone beats even one of your scores, your message is screwed up and you have to play until you refresh the entire top score board.

This King of Diamonds uses real playing cards! Very authentic!

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That's not a hack, it's a mod.

King of Diamonds mod...that's a winner. I like it. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.ChrisHiblerPinball.com/Contact
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info

Not the worse hack I've seen..... Its working fairly well - the flipper feels fine. It's on Meteor. I'll have to see if the owner wants to get it fixed properly.

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Some of the worst hacks I've seen are on these classic Bally and Stern power supply boards. I found this one in my Nitro Ground Shaker. Hacked in 2 ways.

Hack #1: I sure hope this heat sink wil dispose of the extreme heat that bridge produces...

Hack #2: the wires that are supposed be on the connectors have been soldered directly onto the back of the board...

argh...

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I love this topic. I was missing the plumb bob + wire from my Airborne, but my supplier only had the bob, so I went ahead and fabricated one myself from a cloth hanger.

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It is a temporary solution, but hey, so is life.

In the same machine, I also fabricated a new metal frame to hold the flasher behind the injector. If I ever need to rebuild the flippers, I am going to go ahead with Sega and WMS parts, thus creating a real Frankenpin.

Looks factory to me.

Acquired this sweet Student Prince today. Totally unexpected cabinet art. I'm amazed Williams went in this direction, considering the theme.IMG_20170220_102157368 (resized).jpg

I wonder if it sat in a school's art department or something...

Williams system 3 - 7 diver board. Was in a working game I picked up. Yeah it still works.

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Eeep

does that hot glue re-melt every time you play it for a while? LOL Cant believe its not oozing down the board yet.

Ok I am actually impressed

Looks like hot glue melts at 248'F. I'm not sure what temperature the resistors on the board get up to when something goes awry.

Good point. Guess I should have researched the melting point, but it was a fun thought.

That is for low-temp hot glue used more for sensitive fabrics and fragile crafts. I only use the hi-temp stuff and it melts around 400 deg. F

Looks like it could be High Temp silicone to me similar to link below. That would seal the board after a last ditch repair effort. I have used it in engine bay applications. Says its good to 650 degrees. Apparently its doing its job!

https://www.amazon.com/Permatex-81160-High-Temp-Silicone-Gasket/dp/B0002UEN1A

What is it's job? I love this thread, but sometimes it is hard to follow along or know exactly what I am looking at because I am not as savvy as a lot of members here, especially with board repair. What is the actual function of this hot glue and why was it used? I am so curious.

The glue is basically holding the repair together. There is probably severe damage to the PCB traces underneath, if not the actual PCB itself. The green wires are replacement for damaged or missing traces and the hot glue ties it all together.

That's no hot glue, that's silicone rubber sealant. I see it on boards all the time and it's totally pointless unless you plan on having it in a damp location lol. Most people put it all over and around electrolytic caps.

Ok, here it is. It's silicone not hot glue. From what I can see the board fried and burnt a hole about 1-1/2 inch by 2-1/2. All the electronic components include the traces are just free-hanging and held together by the silicone. Going to get a backlight picture in a minute.

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ball through opto board and reciever on sttng,
reciever working good , one bad opto so double ball launch
a little reflow fixed it but i'm ordering a new one annyhow.

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And from the backside. You can see right through it.

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Whoa, that is quite the hack!!! A for effort

I've got a similar thing on my Black Knight, but with black silicone so I'm not actually sure how big the hole is... Was a lot of fun replacing a bad transistor suspended in the middle

Guess that was appropriate for the game?

Ghost Kitty?

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