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Author Topic: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate - All Electronics Done!  (Read 47099 times)

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Buddabing

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #120 on: May 14, 2006, 07:06:37 pm »
I think the analogy of classic cars to pinball is extremely apt.

For the time and money I have spent on this project, I definitely could have bought a machine in better condition to start with. But where would the learning experience be?

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #121 on: May 15, 2006, 11:19:38 pm »
While I was on vacation I received the extra wiring harness and connectors that I had ordered. I wired up the knocker and it works. I also wired up the connector for the coin meter. Before I know if that works I'll need to wire up the coin door.

One of the reasons I bought a spare wiring harness is because I wanted the colors of wire to match the original. It would have been easy but sloppy to use T-taps to wire up the knocker instead of the correct Molex connectors like the original used.

One problem I have is that my coin door connector only has one coin slot wire, the others are not in the connector. To fix this I wanted to pull the two missing pins from the corresponding connector on the spare wiring harness. Unfortunately, I have been unable to extract the pins from this molex connector. I'm probably going to dremel the connector apart.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #122 on: May 17, 2006, 12:50:08 am »
Tonight I extracted the pins from the spare wiring harness by dremelling the molex connector apart. Sloppy, but effective. Now my connector has wires for both coin slots.

After I got the pins into the connector, I tried to find my insulated quick disconnects I got from Peale. I couldn't find them!  :angry: All I could find was non-insulated.

Next up is to find the QDs and attach them. I think I will solder and heat shrink the light sockets because the connections are too small for QDs. Oh yeah, I'll also need to change the light socket wiring because the old coin door had only one light.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #123 on: June 02, 2006, 11:20:01 pm »
Reattaching the ramps was somewhat difficult. This is because there were no screw holes for the screws that attach the bottom of the ramp to the playfield. So I took some cardboard and made a template for the existing screw holes on my old playfield. Then I screwed in the screws in the same relative locations on the new playfield. It worked out okay. I've had to take the right ramp off again because there's a plastic that can only be put on if the ramp is off.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #124 on: June 02, 2006, 11:22:13 pm »
In these two pictures, the routed-out areas are where the ramps attach. One picture is on the old playfield and one is on the new playfield.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #125 on: June 02, 2006, 11:23:29 pm »
I have NOS ramps. I will probably just use one because the decal on the other one is messed up. I have new decals, so I may install the other ramp later.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #126 on: June 02, 2006, 11:27:49 pm »
The playfield is back in the machine!

I want to reinstall the plastics after the playfield is in the machine to avoid the risk of dropping the stupid thing again. So I unplugged all the cables from the head and basically reversed the process of taking the playfield out of the machine.

There are a couple of rubber rings still in the bag, I don't know where they go. Oh well.

Next up is reinstalling plastics, ramps, and wireforms.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #127 on: June 05, 2006, 04:20:01 pm »
99% done.

I've installed the wireforms and all the plastic except the ones over the kicking targets. I want to get protective plastic washers for those.

I also installed my new translite.

Usually you have extra screws left over when a project like this is complete, but I am missing several screws.

To do list:
1. Get missing screws at hardware store and install them.
2. Get clear washers and install them with the kicking target plastics.
3. Adjust the flippers again. They don't stay in the down position right, something's wrong with the adjustment.
4. Install protective mylar on the playfield at the sites where the ball drops onto it.
5. Get a new coin meter that starts from zero.
6. Get a new coin box pan that fits the machine, or trim the one that came with my coin door.
7. The coin door wiring is somewhat sloppy, fix and tie-wrap it so that the coin door will open correctly.
7. Clean the exterior of the cabinet.
8. Find out where the extra rubber rings go.
9. Replace coil sleeves that have not already been replaced.
10. Install backbox locking plate. I don't know what screws it used.
11. Diagnose 1 new non-working coil and 2 non-working switches.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2006, 10:43:19 am by Buddabing »
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #128 on: June 11, 2006, 12:17:50 pm »
Two problems cropped up. One is that the glidercraft doesn't work right. The diagnostics and test functions work right, but it doesn't work right in game.

The second problem is that I messed up something during testing yesterday and now the GI doesn't work. I think I shorted something on the coin door.

I've posted on RGP and KLOV for help on the glidercraft issue, I'll probably have to replace a fuse or two to fix the GI.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #129 on: June 12, 2006, 07:33:43 pm »
With the aid of someone from KLOV, I think I figured out what's wrong with the glidercraft. There are three switches associated with the glidercraft, two microswitches and one leaf switch. I believe that the leaf switch, which looks like an EOS for the pyramid flap, is not being closed correctly.

I have not yet looked at the GI.

I've also decided, after doing some research, to wax the playfield with a couple coats of carnauba wax. I did a couple of drop tests when I was placing the mylar on the ball drop areas and airballs are likely to cause small dents in the clearcoat. I think waxing the playfield will help protect it. So, all the plastics, wireforms and ramps have to come off again. Luckily, I know how it works now.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #130 on: June 12, 2006, 11:13:33 pm »
One coat of wax is done. I don't really see much difference between the parts of the playfield that were waxed and the ones that weren't. They're both super-shiny and beautiful.

I'll probably do two more coats and call it quits.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #131 on: June 13, 2006, 10:55:00 pm »
2nd coat of wax done. I see zero difference between the waxed and unwaxed surfaces. It's possible that the clearcoat is so smooth that wax will not stick. So I'm done waxing.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #132 on: June 18, 2006, 12:49:53 pm »
The pyramid is now fixed!

So I reassembled everything and played a test game. The pyramid worked correctly. There were four flaky light sockets which would work if you wiggled the light bulb in them but over time would quit working. So I replaced those from my spare wiring harness.

The slam switch was wired wrong, fixed.

The pendulum tilt switch was not wired, fixed.

During my test game, the VUKs would not kick the ball up correctly. The ball would hit the bottom of the ball guide and bounce down back into the VUK. I adjusted the left VUK and it works correctly now. The right VUK still doesn't kick the ball out about half the time.

The left slingshot kicker sometimes kicks two or three times when a ball hits one of the two switches on it. I've adjusted that switch multiple times, but eventually it still goes back to the semi-machine gunning. It may be time to replace that switch.

The Sarcophagus has an unusual semi-rollover switch. The ball shouldn't roll all the way over the switch, the end of the switch sticks up in the air instead of going back under the playfield. If the switch is not bent at the correct angle, the ball will either roll over the switch, causing it to be blocked between the sarcophagus kicker and the switch, or else will rest against the switch out of range of the kicker. So I've been trying to get that wire bent at exactly the right angle.

Waxing the playfield may have been a mistake. There is wax in some of the hard to reach areas now which will be difficult to get out. My mirror glazed pinballs have wax on them now which makes them not perfectly round. I have two sets of those pinballs, so once the wax is cleaned up I'll use those.

The biggest problem with the machine now is the playfield GI. I was hoping the problem was just the fuse, but the fuse is good. The "T" relay which can also cause the GI to fail is also good. Today I'm going to do some more testing.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate
« Reply #133 on: June 19, 2006, 10:19:28 pm »
The GI works now!!!!

I stupidly checked the GI fuse in-game instead of removing it. When in-game, it checked out, but when out of the game, it failed. The ohmmeter registered maybe 500 ohms, which is small enough to pass a continuity test.

I replaced it (7.5 amps) with an automotive 10 amp fuse temporarily.

I have not worked on the VUKs yet.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate - All Electronics Done!
« Reply #134 on: June 24, 2006, 06:31:28 pm »
The right VUK works perfectly now. There was a wire obstructing it.

The left VUK works part of the time, which can be annoying.

Now that the right VUK works, the game is playable. So I put on the glass and played a real game for the first time since February.

The left flipper still won't stay adjusted. I tightened that thing up pretty good but it won't stay. I'll try again, this time adding more force.

The outhole switch seems to be bouncing. Sometimes, when I have three balls in play and one drains, it'll go back to one-ball mode. Or I'll have two in play, one drains, and I'll get end-of-ball. This doesn't happen all the time. So the outhole switch may need some adjusting.

I also bought some 7.5 amp automotive fuses and installed one instead of the temporary 10 amp fuse.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate - All Electronics Done!
« Reply #135 on: June 25, 2006, 05:02:28 pm »
The left VUK is fixed now. I put in some washers to shim it up a little bit.

What's happening to the outhole is that the outhole kicker is sometimes causing the ball to bounce back. There's a one-way gate that the ball goes through. That gate is not closing fast enough sometimes, and the ball occasionally will get through back through the entrance to the gate. This causes what appears to be multiple drains from one actual ball drain.

For some reason, the game doesn't launch the fourth ball when in multiball mode.

The 40M switch isn't working.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate - All Electronics Done!
« Reply #136 on: June 29, 2006, 10:36:50 pm »
I got the 40M switch working. I haven't solved the bounceback problem yet.
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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate - All Electronics Done!
« Reply #137 on: June 30, 2006, 12:20:54 am »
Seeing as how I need to do a complete swap on my Swords of Fury pin (thankfully I have a sweet NOS playfield, fully populated and original!) I have a general question...

How did you go about learning most of what you did?  I haven't had much chance to research all the mechanics, so I dont know what does what on a lot of my pin.  I know RGP would help me out (when they're not having flame wars with certain Australian business owners), but did you go anywhere else for info?  I'm always looking for good, dedicated pinball websites, but I've never stumbled on a very active board like BYOAC or anything similar.

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Re: My Pinball Playfield Swap - Stargate - All Electronics Done!
« Reply #138 on: June 30, 2006, 10:14:07 am »
I searched for playfield swap web sites and asked questions on RGP, but a lot of stuff I had to learn via trial and error.

Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
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