(Topic ID: 28788)
Calgary, AB
Quoted from algrande:wrong fuse amperage to boot!
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Lol, wtf hahahaha!
Dublin, OH
Quoted from algrande:wrong fuse amperage to boot!
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That's how baby fuses are born.
Quoted from algrande:wrong fuse amperage to boot!
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Piggy back fuse! Common back in the day on the playground.
Quoted from hlaj78:That looks NSFW to me.
Not safe for Williams
Quoted from kevmad:Just why? I keep thinking there can’t be any more crazy hacks, here is a really good (bad) one I never would have thought of.
Don't have the right sized fuse? Solder the wrong sized one onto the blown correct format one and it works. Much like the fuse wire soldered to the outside of blown fuses.
Lempäälä
I've done that before while waiting for the right fuse in order to keep working on a game. I certainly wouldn't leave it in there afterwards though.
Soldering a circuit breaker to the fuse is a similar hack that has a good purpose. It makes a great fuse tester. Once the game is fixed, you shouldn't need a breaker in there anymore, but if you have a machine that mysteriously blows fuses now and then, this might be good.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/making-and-using-a-fuse-breaker#post-1299695
FuseBreakerFromPinside (resized).jpegThis is an older one from 2006 Pinball Expo. I can never forget it, rather ingenious.
https://www.pinballnews.com/shows/expo2006/index5.html
29 (resized).jpgSomeone decided to drill 2 holes through a nice TOTAN playfield. These holes line up with the flipper coil bracket plate underneath. The best way to secure something under the playfield is to use a bolt going through the playfield. Good thinking! Now, how to secure the bracket with the screw holes totally blown out?
Quoted from kevmad:Someone decided to drill 2 holes through a nice TOTAN playfield. These holes line up with the flipper coil bracket plate underneath. The best way to secure something under the playfield is to use a bolt going through the playfield. Good thinking! Now, how to secure the bracket with the screw holes totally blown out?
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You could tap a wooden oak dowel of the same size in diameter into the holes, fill a bit with wood epoxy, and then repair what you can in the paint. This way, you'll be able to redrill mounting holes underneath
Quoted from kevmad:Someone decided to drill 2 holes through a nice TOTAN playfield. These holes line up with the flipper coil bracket plate underneath. The best way to secure something under the playfield is to use a bolt going through the playfield. Good thinking! Now, how to secure the bracket with the screw holes totally blown out?
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Thats easy Roman Noodles.
Quoted from Markharris2000:You could tap a wooden oak dowel of the same size in diameter into the holes, fill a bit with wood epoxy, and then repair what you can in the paint. This way, you'll be able to redrill mounting holes underneath
Oak dowel is great.
Just first drill both holes to larger size to clean them up. Glue in same size dowel into hole and hammer it even. Wipe off the excess glue and let it dry for a couple of days .
Schagen
Wiener Neustadt
Quoted from koen12344:from a Road Show project i'll soon be working on
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that is a ´smart´solution. They even put diodes in parallel to distribute the load 
Quoted from harig:that is a ´smart´solution. They even put diodes in parallel to distribute the load
Wow, wonder if there’s any saving that board...
Quoted from koen12344:from a Road Show project i'll soon be working on
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OMG. Where to start??? uggg
So when you break one of those hook-lamp holders youll be more careful with the next one.. right.. no?
Also mylar on mylar can never have too much mylar protection! As a bonus the heavy wear under the mylar is not adressed at all.. by no means the worst ive seen, just tiresome..
20210101_211904 (resized).jpg20210101_211941 (resized).jpgQuoted from eckelpeckel:So when you break one of those hook-lamp holders youll be more careful with the next one.. right.. no?
To be fair, unfortunately, they sometimes just get brittle. 
Although, I'm accustomed to seeing masking tape, electrical tape, painter's tape, and duct tape to try to secure broken lamp holders. I don't think I've encountered hot glue before.
Quoted from ForceFlow:I don't think I've encountered hot glue before.
That's for professionals!
Quoted from ForceFlow:To be fair, unfortunately, they sometimes just get brittle.
Although, I'm accustomed to seeing masking tape, electrical tape, painter's tape, and duct tape to try to secure broken lamp holders. I don't think I've encountered hot glue before.
Quoted from slochar:That's for professionals!
Off those mentioned, hot glue is probably the best for locking two parts together. if you start buying some of theses mods for your pins, expect to see hot glue being employed.
/sarcasm implied 
On a hot glue related tangent.... lots of hobbyist videos etc. show using hot glue (like portable consoles made from full size units) - and there's a lot of cheaply made retail products made with it as well. It pretty much removes easily repairability IMO and should be avoided.
I don't buy or use mods for the most part except for software. Those who have seen the source to some of my mods would call them the equivalent of hot glue I'd think.
Who needs connectors anyway? Just solder all wires to the board and add some funky hacks! Make sure to cause a short so atleast one of the opto's will blow.
In all seriousness: who does things like these and why are they allowed near pinball machines? 
Found "awesome" solder jobs all over the game.. Luckily the boards in backbox are untouched, as far as I can tell at least..
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Quoted from RobDutch:In all seriousness: who does things like these and why are they allowed near pinball machines?
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Route Operator service technicians do this. Job description is to "Get the machine up and running immediately" to bring income in to pay the technicians, game movers, company vehicle fees, and to fund the owner's new Mercedes.
Remember, a lot of these games were made to last about a year or so on route. Once they were no longer new the coin drops slowed down so they wanted to pull them and get new machines in. If you were going to replace the machine in a month anyhow then you wouldn't bother putting anything more than the most basic repairs into it. Get it making money b again ASAP and when it finally catches fire you can throw it in the dumpster and get something new.
Quoted from RobDutch:Who needs connectors anyway? Just solder all wires to the board and add some funky hacks! Make sure to cause a short so atleast one of the opto's will blow.
In all seriousness: who does things like these and why are they allowed near pinball machines? Found "awesome" solder jobs all over the game.. Luckily the boards in backbox are untouched, as far as I can tell at least..
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Looks like they used paper clips, I am sure they are not, but....
Quoted from ArcadeRaid:Remember, a lot of these games were made to last about a year or so on route. Once they were no longer new the coin drops slowed down so they wanted to pull them and get new machines in. If you were going to replace the machine in a month anyhow then you wouldn't bother putting anything more than the most basic repairs into it. Get it making money b again ASAP and when it finally catches fire you can throw it in the dumpster and get something new.
How many operators actually only kept them for a year or so before getting rid of them? I think many operators ended up rotating them for years as long as they didn't cause too much trouble and kept earning.
I know of at least one arcade owner who has been operating the same two DMD pins for 25-30 years. A few more of his classic arcade/redemption games are even older than that.
Operators can be thrifty. If the game kept earning once it was paid off, there was no reason to get rid of it. It's basically free money at that point.
Quoted from ForceFlow:How many operators actually only kept them for a year or so before getting rid of them? I think many operators ended up rotating them for years as long as they didn't cause too much trouble and kept earning.
I know of at least one arcade owner who has been operating the same two DMD pins for 25-30 years. A few more of his classic arcade/redemption games are even older than that.
Operators can be thrifty. If the game kept earning once it was paid off, there was no reason to get rid of it. It's basically free money at that point.
In France you still see a number of 90s WPC games that are still on route today and have been since they were new.
Quoted from ForceFlow:To be fair, unfortunately, they sometimes just get brittle.
Although, I'm accustomed to seeing masking tape, electrical tape, painter's tape, and duct tape to try to secure broken lamp holders. I don't think I've encountered hot glue before.
"Love using me a hot glue gun. Gits 'er done right and so fun to play with!"
Quoted from Barr993:+1 for a crimp connector into a wire nut
For some reason in my head this sounded like a commentator for Olympic figure skating....”looks like he’s going to try the crimp, straight into a wire nut, followed by a stripped wire on an EOS switch...” and then the crowd makes that noise after a fall.
Quoted from ryan1234:This doesn’t look to bad... until I figured out this is the coil from the knocker that is in pieces on the bottom of the cabinet.
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A high number of the routed project games I've encountered were missing the knocker coil. Operators liked to use it as a spare tire.
Quoted from ForceFlow:A high number of the routed project games I've encountered were missing the knocker coil. Operators liked to use it as a spare tire.
Even crazier- the correct flipper coil was in the bottom cabinet floating around, and it works perfectly. This pin is full of hacks...
I am sure they were doing the best they could.
Quoted from ForceFlow:A high number of the routed project games I've encountered were missing the knocker coil. Operators liked to use it as a spare tire.
In Finland, we have mandatory mechanical coin counters (although I never heard that anybody had their counter readings ever checked), that in WPC games connect to knocker output, leaving the knocker disconnected. Some operators then take out the knocker coil for spares.
Quoted from ryan1234:Even crazier- the correct flipper coil was in the bottom cabinet floating around, and it works perfectly.
Maybe the owner wanted to supercharge the flipper by using the knocker coil?
Quoted from JethroP:Maybe the owner wanted to supercharge the flipper by using the knocker coil?
I'm amazed it lasted at all and isn't burnt to a crisp without a hold winding. What game is that on? Must not be much reason or opportunity to hold or cradle the ball.
Quoted from goingincirclez:I'm amazed it lasted at all and isn't burnt to a crisp without a hold winding.
Probably because players soon found out the flipper is useless, and did not bother to play long enough for the coil to burn out...
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