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Quoted from CNKay:Give him an A for effort and F for neatness. Did it work better than the others?
Nice and snappy. When I removed it, the kicker couldn't get the ball out of the trough and, unable to find any explanation, I neatened it up and put it back
Quoted from Atari_Daze: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
Quoted from Cheddar:So when the middle saucer doesn't fire just hold down the right flipper and press the button to fire the solenoid.
Nice! I did a similar thing using the credit button a previous owner installed hooked up to the upkicker on my black hole so that I didn't have to keep opening the whole game up to get a ball out while I was stress testing + diagnosing why the upkicker transistor kept failing
Quoted from 64bsstp:Got this one to repair recently. Still laughing.
I've got a Sys6 driver board where they did the same thing to a random logic IC. No idea why..
Quoted from skywalker:OMFG, I cant explain this one
People don't know that Jones plugs are plugs. Had a seller recently tell me "all the wires are soldered to the head, bring a wire cutter"
Quoted from polyacanthus:Here's one. Is there some reason for this I'm not aware of or did they just not know how to operate their cutters? I was going to start a thread for this question but I believe it belongs here.
Edit: also notice the resistor clot in the background.
I've got the same thing on one of my system 6 driver boards. Makes me wonder, why are sockets that tall made in the first place?
Quoted from polyacanthus:That's what I thought at first until I pulled the board and they appear to be in the holes.
Fair question. I don't think anyone is using 1" thick PCBs.
I made use of one of these once when a previous person had replaced the cmos ram, but not socketed it (ugh) and lifted many traces in the process. I happened to have a tall 22 pin socket around, so I raised it up a half inch off the board, allowing me to solder from the top side as well as the bottom so I could get all the traces. Doesn't look like this was done on my other board or yours though, from what I can tell
Quoted from CNKay:Gottlieb mechs are built like tanks! Good upgrade.
The only problem I see in that picture is that someone installed a Williams flipper mech on one side...
Quoted from SUPERBEE:Looks like they might have had a bad rollover switch and decided to omit it rather than fix it.
Bad... rollover? I'm not sure I understand what you mean
Quoted from CNKay:A bridge recifier to make flippers DC ?
That'd be interesting... But, It's a solid state game, they're already dc. Hopefully. If not, I'm concerned.
Further observation: at first I assumed they'd moved the diodes off the coils for some reason, but then I noted that the coils still had diodes, so that couldn't be it. Then I noticed, these coils have *two* diodes on them. And they're not the right number per the parts manual, or like on my other Hot Tip. Should be a 20-300/28-400 DC, with one diode. These are 20-300/33-1500 DC. Marco shows these as having two diodes, but I can't see any reference to where these coils might be used. They seem to be the same strength, but with a weaker hold. Maybe these are parallel wound? Still doesn't explain the little diode board....
Quoted from Fortytwo:I forget the coils in my ss hot tip. But all coils are original and have a diode on both windings. Aka two per flipper coil.
Strange. My other SS hot tip definitely doesn't have two diodes per coil. Its coil numbers match the parts manual, which is the only place I've found the coil numbers listed on older Williams SS games
Quoted from sohchx:Found this on a Blue Chip. It looks to be machined or something. It's definitely made out of metal and I can't get it out any further than what you see in the pic. It's a good thing that I'm replacing it entirely anyway.
Most Williams from that era used metal sleeves originally
Quoted from CNKay:And pretty soon all the hacks will be fixed
We owe it to future generations to lower our repair quality...
Quoted from Colsond3:For sale again? That one's been posted on here before. It is very innovative...in a MacGyver kind of way. I would actually buy it if it were local. The rest of the game looks pretty damn nice. Just buy a coin door...and I would definitely keep that door just to have it for storytelling purposes.
They still asking $5k?
What the hell happened to that other board that made cutting it up to fix this one the better option?!
Quoted from schudel5:I do this whenever the original trace is ruined or missing. I don't think that's really a hack when you consider a jumper wire looks way worse.
Yeah I would totally do this over installing a wire
Quoted from pintechev:I don’t have the right fuse; hold my beer.
I opened up one of my first games recently where I had had the same problem (wrong size fuse). Two years later my wrong length fuse ("just for testing!") was still hanging by two alligator clips.
Quoted from uncivil_engineer:Ok, that is an impressive amount a work to go to for replacing one plug.
To be fair, I can't seem to locate the plug anywhere online. Will probably have to split it in two...
Quoted from Dono:Mata Hari EM playfield...Ive seen a bunch of post additions between the flippers but never one in the middle of a playfield...geez...
Looks like an improvement to me....
Quoted from igo4rams:Can anyone tell me what this extra lock was for? Key switch for on/off or credits? Don’t see signs of extra wires but do see two screw holes under the lock on the inside.
That round label looks a lot like one on my Gamatron, it says something about some electronic security lock, though I didn't see anything on the inside related to it. I'll try to grab a pic tonight for comparison
Quoted from zacaj:That round label looks a lot like one on my Gamatron, it says something about some electronic security lock, though I didn't see anything on the inside related to it. I'll try to grab a pic tonight for comparison
Quoted from igo4rams:Yes, that looks like the sticker. Interesting? So not for credits! Wonder how and why it was on the game/s?
Maybe there's a second switch that would detect when the coin door opened, and if it was opened without turning off the alarm key, it'd go off? And the OP had matching keys on their coin doors so installed the lock disable elsewhere or something?
Quoted from songofsixpence:LOL - that didn't take long!
Careful for what you are offering:I can't tell if the previous owner of this Solar Ride was a genius, or a madman. The experience on resurrecting this machine does deserve it's own thread. I'll be following up with more details there.
Do they actually work? Impressive if so.
Quoted from MrBally:If that works, it is awesome.
I had a future spa where every single drop had q-tips hot glued to it to hold them together. Played fine
I had a Blue Chip one time where they'd installed a switch on the front of the machine, below the shooter rod... despite there being a power switch directly below it on the bottom. I asked the seller and they said they knew about the power switch, but didn't feel like bending down to hit it, so they drilled a hole in the front and installed another there
Quoted from vec-tor:Sadly, the two small screws that kept the cap on are missing.
There are no screws on dead bumper caps. Any time you see any screw on there, that's an operator 'hack'
Quoted from slochar:There is a hole in the dead bumper caps to add a screw if you want. I don't know if they ever came with them - it's on the side vs. the top for pops.
Many caps I've seen don't have those side holes. I think people just drilled them. The stock bodies don't have holes for them either
Quoted from Apex:I imagine this was done to protect the chime coils in the event of a stuck switch.
There's a service bulletin for early sterns to add a fuse there. That's not a stern, but I assume the same issue applied
Quoted from AUKraut:Wouldn't help, the layout being what it is on Ghostbusters it would *STILL* drain SDTM.......
If you're going to ruin your playfield, seems like it'd have been way more effective to add mini posts above the outlanes
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:I’m trying to figure out what the game is. It isn’t a Party Zone.
Party Animal
Quoted from undrdog:What did it sound like? Did they have custom sounds for each title?
I've got a board in one of my EMs that seems to be semi-programmable via jumper wires. It's got a giant grid of holes that someone has hand jumped shut in some way, and it can make a variety of simple synth sounds, but not just one-off things. Some even have their own patterns, or can play little multi-note tunes. All done without a CPU somehow. Wish I had a manual
Quoted from Markharris2000:It looks home-made. The traces seem hand drawn or created using adhesive tape then the PCB etched...
Most early PCBs I've seen look the same. Don't think it's home made, just hand plotted
Quoted from FlippinJB:Please excuse my ignorance, but we did not need fans to cool flipper coils in the '90s. It was just fine. Why do we need them now? Not being a smartass, BTW.
Many games like Segas do heat up quickly when playing long games. It seems to be caused by using single wound coils instead of dual wound, or adding big filter caps to the power supplies. WPC don't have the issue that much but any manufacturer that doesn't recreate the exact systems that williams used tends to have issues or weak flippers
Quoted from phishrace:Easily fixed without any need for fans.
https://www.pinballlife.com/lotr-special-flipper-coil-090-5020-2ot.html
Even those coils get hot after a long game and lose power...
Quoted from cottonm4:Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. How functional does a table have to be? It looks like you could eat your dinner on it, place your drink on it, and get in a game of solitaire, too.
3076 produced. Only 8 people want one. Not like it is a great loss in the pinball world.
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"63 known to exist, 8 people want one" would be more accurate given the data...
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