Author Topic: Barracora pinball restoration - Now with Picture Goodness! (Read 25918 times)

PetitMorte · « **Reply #40 on:** March 08, 2006, 11:13:32 pm »

Blah. The only soldering "station" that they had was a Variable power unit that had 2 settings, 25 watts and 40 watts. No temperature control at all. Blah again.

Anyhoo, I gave the playfield one more good novusing, and then put on my very first coat of wax. That thing is teh shiny!

I do notice that after waxing, some of the crazing in the paint isn't as visible as before. We'll see how it looks after many more coats.

I picked up most all of the fuses that I need... all except the .25 one. Fortunately the power supply I got came with a new set of fuses, so that won't start out being a problem.

I tested all of the coils for shorts, but I didn't find any. I'll find out which coils those 2 burnt transistors control, and triple-check those coils.

In the meantime, I should probably sit down and clean all of the little playfield bits that I removed earlier.

Oh, my new rubber set arrived, from Marco, and it had some mistakes in it. I ordered the Barracora kit, but it came with too many of some rings, not enough of others, and had the tapered-cone post guards instead of the cylindar ones. I gave Marco a call, and their customer service person transferred me right to "the owner". She and I went over my manual, and the IPBD pictures, and came up with what should be in the "correct" set. And then she dropped one of those in the mail that same day, gratis! Now *that*'s customer service! w00t!

So tomorrow, playfield waxing, cleaning playfield bits, and more waxing.

ChadTower · « **Reply #41 on:** March 09, 2006, 10:04:32 am »

I use thiswith a cheap (i.e. low RPM) cordless drill for cleaning and waxing... makes it very fast and effective. Just be careful on spots with excessive wear that you don't make it worse by pressing too hard.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #42 on:** March 09, 2006, 01:32:54 pm »

Amazing! That's exactly the same set that showed up the the mail yesterday.

And, as a bonus, one of the RGP folks emailed me some very nice PDFs of the Barracora Instruction cards for the skirt! w00t!

ChadTower · « **Reply #43 on:** March 09, 2006, 02:50:44 pm »

Nice... I may make up some custom cards for the Laser Cue, shouldn't be hard.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #44 on:** March 09, 2006, 03:04:05 pm »

Check out Ken's instruction card site. He's got scans of the origional Laser Que cards there.

ChadTower · « **Reply #45 on:** March 09, 2006, 03:09:36 pm »

Thanks... better than the ones I have but still not that pretty.

ClubNinja · « **Reply #46 on:** March 10, 2006, 09:50:57 am »

Bummer - no Time Fantasy card on there. Need that one.

ChadTower · « **Reply #47 on:** March 10, 2006, 10:08:16 am »

Well, if you look at the Laser Cue card, you'll see it would take about 10 minutes to create a similar one for Time Fantasy, and that includes a trip to the fridge for a beer.

ClubNinja · « **Reply #48 on:** March 10, 2006, 11:14:56 am »

Quote from: ChadTower on March 10, 2006, 10:08:16 am

Well, if you look at the Laser Cue card, you'll see it would take about 10 minutes to create a similar one for Time Fantasy, and that includes a trip to the fridge for a beer.

Yeah. Maybe I should try to find out what's supposed to be written on it.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #49 on:** March 12, 2006, 09:20:54 pm »

Woohoo!!! It's Alive!!!

It has some issues, but it lives, and it lives enough to be played!

This weekend, I finished The 5th coat of wax, and then cleaned all of the playfield items and plastics. Reinstalled everything, replacing all of the general illumination bulbs (on the playfield, not under) with #47 bulbs instead of #44s. #47s burn slightly dimmer, but also burn cooler and suck less electricity, which makes it easier on the circuits. Put in the new set of rubbers, all clean and spiffy, and replaced all of the lock-nuts on top of the plastics with those little rubber cylinder things.

The machine, it is teh Shiny!!! Even though I didn't touch up the playfield, there's still a huge difference between what I brought home and what's there now. Once the thing was back together, and I slid in the glass and locked down the bottom bar, and stood back to take a good look at it. ...sweet...

Anyhoo, after that, I put the head on the machine for the first time, connected a few of the cables, being VERY CAREFUL TO MATCH THE COLOR OF THE CONNECTORS AND THEIR WIRES TOGETHER. heeheehee.

I replaced several fuses that were missing, turned the machine on, and ... no smoke!!! The power supply's voltages all tested good ( kudos to Keith of K's Arcade for the board.) so I connected everything else, turned it back on, and it came right up into Game Over mode, no problem! Lights under the playfield blinking and spinning, it was so cool. No sound, and no general illumination, but still very cool. It's alive!!!

I used the manual to put it through it's self-tests and found some problems right off. First and formost, the credit/ball display doesn't light. That makes some of the other tests, like the switch test useless 'cause I can't see the results. Still, all of the other displays work fine. I temporarily plugged one of the other displays into the credit/ball slot on the display board, and it did show a changing set of hieroglyphics, so I think it's the display itself that's broken, not the display board.

The machine didn't want to produce any sounds, aside from the occasional bell ring, so I fiddled with the sound board connectors... cleaned off the contacts, reseated the fuses, reconnected everything, and viola! Sound!

* Just a side note, as it turns out Barracora evidently uses a lot of the sounds from the Defender arcade!

At the urging of my wife from the other side of the house, I quickly located the volume control and turned the sounds down to a much less house-shaking level.

Only one of the coils on the playfield refused to fire during the coil test. The right side pop up for the last R in Barracora. Checking the manual shows that that coil is driven by transistor Q27 on the CPU... Check the schematics... as it turns out Q27 is THAT one:

Ok, so far so good. I have replacements on hand, a little soldering and it should be fine. What's really cool, is that the system seems to *know* that the drop target is broken, and doesn't actually require you to hit the R to complete a set! I had read that System 7s had broken part work-arounds, but it's kinda cool to see it in action.

The light Matrix test showed several dead lights, but they were quickly replaced with good bulbs, and now everything blinks on command.

The other problem that I've discovered is the coin switches themselves. Dropping coins into the machine doesn't add credits, and pretty much it's because someone seems to have tried to "fix" the delicate wire, and has it bent all out of shape. Supposedly there's a spring in there attached to the wire, but it's not really connecting to anything at all, so the coin switches just flop around. If I want to add a credit, I have to use the credit button inside the door.

One last problem that I've got will be fixed by a quick stop at Radio Shack tomorrow. The General Illumination wire that comes into the head doesn't have the same connector as the GI socket on the power board. That means that so far, all of the GI lights are just dead. Well, not really dead... just "waiting". Evidently when Keith was rebuilding the power supply, he upgraded that socket to a more current, more robust molex connector. It's good, because the old connectors would burn quite frequently. I'll just stop in and pick up the new connector tomorrow.

Although... I noticed that the connector that I need to fix this problem is the same one that powers the monitor of the RoadBlasters machine... Hmmm.... No! Bad! No stripping the Road Blasters for parts!! You can wait until tomorrow.

Heh. So the quick list of things to be fixed: ball/credit display, Transistor Q27, the coin switches, and the GI connector. Other than that, it's working fine! I played a few games, and I'm very happy!

Hey Chad, What sort of coin switches does your Que have? Could I get a closeup pic of the mechanism?

Thanks.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #50 on:** March 12, 2006, 09:33:25 pm »

Shnikeys.. Pinball Medic has the ball/credit display for $65. That's a tad rich for my blood at the moment. I may have to wait until after tax time to slide that by my wife.

ChadTower · « **Reply #51 on:** March 12, 2006, 10:37:37 pm »

Yeah, those displays are pricey, as they are a pretty specialized part now. Try Betson, maybe they have some. they seem to have everything else, and if they don't, try Marco Specialties or Pinball Life. Or hell try RGP again.

I fired up Barracorra in Visual Pinball and was pretty surprised to hear that the play sounds, at least the background "music", is identical to Laser Cue.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #52 on:** March 13, 2006, 01:42:41 pm »

ZzzzzhhoooooomZzzzzhhoooooomZzzzzhhoooooomZzzzzhhoooooomZzzzzhhoooooom!

ChadTower · « **Reply #53 on:** March 13, 2006, 01:59:33 pm »

Yep, that same urgency based cycling... the further into the ruleset you get, the faster it cycles.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #54 on:** March 14, 2006, 07:02:58 am »

Stopped at the shack, no connector... Bought a nice male/female set of 2-pin molex connectors.

Canabalized the RoadBlaster's monitor power connection,

replaced it with the shack connector, RoadBlaster continues to function fine.

A few quick passes with the soldering iron and ka-bam! General Illumination works!!!

Again... Schweet!

Het Chad, you get to be right again...

That corner on the black area on the backglass? You CAN see all the little cracks around the edges of the fix when the GI lights kick in. I know I've got one of those silver paint pens around here somewhere... That ought to handle it.

Piccy goodness pending.

Next on the list, replacing that transistor on the driver board. *IN THEORY*... it should be as easy as popping out the board, desoldering the pins (I absolutely LOVE my soldapult!), dropping in the new component and soldering it back up. We'll see what happens in reality.

Also, it's suprizing how *quiet* the machine gets when you put the glass on the field! All of the loud THACKs and POWs of the solenoids get muffled to relatively quiet thumps and bangs. Huh...

ChadTower · « **Reply #55 on:** March 14, 2006, 08:36:45 am »

The beauty of the Triple Thick here is that if you did it right, it helps with the touchups. If you mess up, you can carefully remove your touchup and try again.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #56 on:** March 14, 2006, 09:16:41 am »

Just for fun, this morning, I removed the ball/credit display from the machine and removed the display glass from the board. I cleaned off the old rosin and removed all of the old solder. The soldapult removes almost all of the solder from the pins, and a quick swipe with the copper braid removes the rest. Then the display glass pins just slide out of their holes as easy as pie. A quick swipe with goof-off removes all of the old burnt looking rosin, and leaves the board nice and clean and shiny... and ready to be re-soldered.

Worst case, I burn myself with the soldering iron, scorch the table, and the display continues to not work.

Best case, it fires up and works fine. Either way, I have gotten in more soldering/unsoldering practice.

I've found a couple of ball/credit displays for sale, with just the display glass going for around $50. Once I get that taken care of, I can find out which switches are getting stuck.

In between balls, the machine will just sit, as if it's waiting for something, without resetting and spitting out the next ball. Sometimes it goes thru the drop-target reset 2-3 times. And on rare occasion, it won't start a new game. To me, it sounds like there's a switch closed or open somewhere where it shouldn't be.

Tonight, transistor Q27 gets replaced.

ChadTower · « **Reply #57 on:** March 14, 2006, 09:33:24 am »

Check the trough sensor switches. It sounds like it doesn't know the ball drained. The drop target reset you see is a sort of "where did the ball go, fire all solenoids and maybe it will pop loose from its location". A pin in play will do that after a while when no switches have been hit under the assumption that the ball is stuck somewhere.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #58 on:** March 14, 2006, 11:39:33 am »

You're probably right about the trough sensor.

When a ball drains in Barracora, it kicks the ball into the waiting trough, the table resets it's lights for the new ball, drops all of it's drop targets and then re-lifts all of the targets that should be up. Then, all that done happily, it kicks a ball into the shooter.

It's kind of a happy little dance it does with the drop targets to get ready for the new ball... ThunkThunk.. thak!thak!thak!...thak!thak!thak!thak!thak!

What I noticed when playing yesterday is that the ball would drain, and then I'd wait. Thrumthrumthrumthrum No happy drop target dance. thrumthrum. If hit the flippers a few times, it might start it's dance and kick out a new ball. Sometimes it would dance more than once. Either way, I don't remember if it kicked the ball into the trough or not.

Diagnosing this would be so much easier with a working ball/credit display.

ChadTower · « **Reply #59 on:** March 14, 2006, 11:49:52 am »

Shouldn't be that hard without the display... take a good look at the trough sensor lever and the switch itself. That switch is a low traffic switch so odds are it's only misaligned or the lever itself is bent and not hitting it. It could be just dirty or has a broken solder joint. Check all of those common things.

Is this a new problem or is this a problem you're just now uncovering?

PetitMorte · « **Reply #60 on:** March 14, 2006, 01:15:42 pm »

Probably one that I'm uncovering. Now that the thing is playable, quirks in gameplay are going to start coming out. I figure I'll fix those as they pop up.

ChadTower · « **Reply #61 on:** March 14, 2006, 01:56:51 pm »

That's pretty much how it will work, until you get sick of it, and then decide you're going to rebuild all the flippers, retin the edge connectors, and repin the connectors, and replace all the IDC connectors because it keeps popping random issues.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #62 on:** March 15, 2006, 12:34:24 am »

Well, resoldering the display glass didn't work. It's still dead. I did, however give my soldapult quite a workout and I believe that I've got the hang of the thing.

So I put my m4d l337 new soldapult skillz to work, and replaced transistor Q27. For all intents and purposes, it looks like a success... except for the fact that the coil still isn't firing. So I put the machine into test mode, firing off the coils, and pause it on the non-working coil, intending to grab my meter and check if it's getting any voltage... and all of a sudden, *twitch*, *twitch*, *twitch*, the coil starts jumping just a little bit, then BAM! it fires! BAM! BAM! BAM! just like it's supposed to... then *twitch* BAM! *twitch* *twitch* *twitch*... nothing. So I wait, and after 15-20 seconds, it starts up again! Same routine, twitching, then firing, then fading back out again. (sigh) weird. I'll have to look into this one, and ask on RGP.

One of the drop targets in the same set seems to have a "falling down on its own" problem. After fiddling with it, it does seem to slide up as easily as the other targets. In all probability, taking that set or targets off (or both!) and disassembling and cleaning it wouldn't be a bad idea.

Another of the annoyances that I've found, the right flipper doesn't activate the top lane change. A quick look under the playfield shows it's missing a diode, and without that, no circuit for the lane change switch to close. (mumble mumble radio shack mumble) Easy fix, as soon as I get a diode.

Like you suggested, Chad, I took a look at the trough sensor switches. When the ball drains, the machine DOES recognize it, and kicks it into the trough... but the switch there counting the balls, specifically the third ball doesn't seem to register. That'd be why it wouldn't start a game before too! Can't play without 3 balls. So I rubbed it down with alcohol, and flipped it up and down a lot, and now it senses ball 3 just fine. Starts games, no waiting between balls.

So far, so good. I've found a few ball/credit displays for sale... for the most part, $50 for the display glass, and $65 for the whole thing.

All in all, it's coming along nicely. I'll put a flipper rebuild kit on my wishlist for my birthday.

SirPeale · « **Reply #63 on:** March 15, 2006, 07:55:41 am »

Quote from: PetitMorte on March 15, 2006, 12:34:24 am

...and all of a sudden, *twitch*, *twitch*, *twitch*, the coil starts jumping just a little bit, then BAM! it fires! BAM! BAM! BAM! just like it's supposed to... then *twitch* BAM! *twitch* *twitch* *twitch*... nothing. So I wait, and after 15-20 seconds, it starts up again! Same routine, twitching, then firing, then fading back out again. (sigh) weird. I'll have to look into this one, and ask on RGP.

Something's dragging. Disassemble and clean. Replace the sleeve if you have to.

ChadTower · « **Reply #64 on:** March 15, 2006, 02:26:23 pm »

Didn't he already replace all the coil sleeves? I thought he had but maybe I'm just assuming.

Definitely disassemble and clean those drop targets. They need it, plus if you don't, all the crap in there is going to get on your playfield.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #65 on:** March 15, 2006, 05:18:02 pm »

No, i haven't replaced any of the coil sleeves as yet.

I've got an order in for some, but they haven't arrived yet.

I soldered in that diode on the right flipper, and now the 1-2-3 lane change works again.

ChadTower · « **Reply #66 on:** March 16, 2006, 09:13:26 am »

ah, well that's your problem. You definitely should have done that before cleaning the playfield. Now you may get black dusty crap from the coils up there.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #67 on:** March 17, 2006, 10:14:04 am »

not much progress of late. My wife is in the hospital with a blood clot in her leg. Since she's going to be in there for a few days, I may take the opportunity to buy another pinball machine.

I wish I had a pinball parts store local to me. Paying $6 shipping for 12 more sleeves just hurts, and it makes me want to buy more stuff to justify the shipping charges.

ChadTower · « **Reply #68 on:** March 17, 2006, 10:43:36 am »

Dude that's retarded. Figure out all of the supplies you'll need, triple the figure since you're going to get another pin before long, and order it all at once. Don't pay $6 shipping for 12 sleeves. At least order 60 short and 60 long if you want sleeves only.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #69 on:** March 19, 2006, 11:16:05 pm »

DOH!

I think I may have found the source of weirdness with my only-sometimes-working drop target solenoid. I was cleaning up my workbench today, and was going thru my receipts to see how much I've put into the thing so far. One of the receipts for Radio Shack had the transistor that I used to replace that broken one on it. The receipt said TIN120... not TIN102. And the schematic says it wants TIN122s.

I checked the part that I installed, and the recipts is right. It's a 120, not a 102.

I'll replace that as soon as my next parts shipment arrives. Chad, I took your advice and ordered a bunch of small stuff that I'll probably use.

On the plus side, I cleaned up my computer room, and made a nice big space for a pinball machine in one corner. I also scored a new second-hand PC to upgrade my MAME machine with! Going from a PIII 700, to a 900MHz, and upgrading to a GeForce2 card! w00t!

ChadTower · « **Reply #70 on:** March 20, 2006, 07:47:59 am »

Doh... that stuff happens.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #71 on:** March 20, 2006, 11:46:48 am »

Weirdly, the right flipper has started to stick in the Up position. The first couple of times I saw this, I freaked out thinking "Burning Coil!!! Burning Coil!!!"

As it turns out, it seems to be a friction thing, and not a stuck coil (whew!) It's still annoying though, and definitely affects gameplay. When the right flipper sticks, you can get it to release by flipping the left flipper, or by hitting it with a ball. Fortunately that parts shipment I'm waiting for includes a flipper rebuild kit.

I was so glad I added that one in after having friends over and hearing comments about the flippers seeming "a bit weak" or "kinda squishy"... and they're right. There's a good deal of play in the flipper linkages, and they do seem to be cobbled together out of whatever random screws and bolts were laying around.

So... the to do list:

1) replace TIN120 with TIN 102
2) rebuild flippers
3) replace all coil sleeves
4) take apart and clean all drop-targets
5) replace the ball/credit display
6) figure out how to "tune" the bumpers so that they fire faster and more consistently. Maybe do the same thing to the slingshots.

ChadTower · « **Reply #72 on:** March 20, 2006, 11:58:24 am »

Bumper tuning is easy... it's only a simple mechanical device.

Replace coil sleeve, clean all parts well. Replace disc (the part the ball hits to activate bumper), clean/adjust leaf switch, reassemble.

Slingshot is even easier... replace rubber ring, clean/adjust leaf switch.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #73 on:** March 21, 2006, 04:12:58 pm »

The new ball/credit display arrived today! Scored it off Ebay for about $20.
popped it in, fired it up, and it works just fine. schweet.

Pics will be posted when I get home from work.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #74 on:** March 22, 2006, 12:14:44 am »

As promised, Piccy Goodness!

If you look, you can see the places where the paint has come off the bottom of the backglass.

All in all, it looks a hell of a lot better than it did when I brought it home!

F1r3f1ght3r · « **Reply #75 on:** March 22, 2006, 08:36:42 am »

Awsome job! man that sure looks sharp.

ChadTower · « **Reply #76 on:** March 22, 2006, 09:18:28 am »

Pretty sweet. Did you get the pop bumpers rebuilt?

PetitMorte · « **Reply #77 on:** March 22, 2006, 10:26:59 am »

Thanks F1r3f1ght3r! but there's a lot left to be done!

I haven't rebuilt the pop bumpers yet. Still waiting for that shipment of coil sleves to come in. The left bumper, when I took it off the playfield for the waxing, had a broken metal plate... the one that the solenoid core attaches to... that he bumper's "thumper" rods screw into? It had snapped in half, and the parts were just held in place by the thumper bolts.

In the shipment coming, I've got a replacement for that, so I've been holding off onm doing anything just yet.

I did, however, talk my wife into bringing the pin inside from the garage.

The master bedroom is actually above the garage, so last night when she went to bed early, I went out in the garage and started playing. After a few games, she gently and delicately let me know that she could hear the pin from the bedroom, and that it was keeping her from falling asleep.

I explained that it would probably be much quieter inside the house, back in the computer room where the MAME machine is, and she agreed with me.

I think the machine will like it indoors much better than in the unheated garage.

ChadTower · « **Reply #78 on:** March 22, 2006, 11:15:00 am »

How cold does it get there? I've read that really bad things happen when you let a Triple Thicked BG get too cold.

PetitMorte · « **Reply #79 on:** March 22, 2006, 02:44:47 pm »

Evidently it doesn't get *that* cold.


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