A better day than usual

With a semi-working DMD, today I decided to get down to some serious testing. Mainly I wanted to run through the diagnostics and see what's working and what isn't.

I started by making a set of test buttons for the coin door. For the first time in the last 10 years, @$#! Radio Shack had some buttons like I needed at a reasonable price. So I did a half-assed non-soldering job of wiring them up, and I even punched some holes in a piece of cardboard to mount them. Then, again half-assedly, I attached them to the coin interface board and fired up the game. It almost worked, but at least two of the buttons were in contact, which meant that every time I tried to turn down the volume, it just got louder. So I gave up and used my alligator clip again.

I love testing pinball machines. I don't usually like what I find, but the process is enjoyable. This is the first DMD game I've owned, and browsing through the little menus is too fun. I tested the solenoids, switches, and lamps, and found that more stuff is working than not... 4 solenoids/flashers aren't working and 1 works sometimes out of 25 or so, 4 switches out of 64-ish don't register (I didn't test the mini-playfield, though I probably could have by going at it from underneath) including the entire W ramp, and 7 lamps of 56 are out/missing (I didn't look), with 8 lights abstaining because the speaker panel is gone. As a percentage of total assets, it's probably working better than Eight Ball Deluxe.

Then for kicks I dug out some pinballs and fired up a game. The mini-playfield warning ruined the purity of it somewhat, but I rolled the balls around and had a good old time. I should have plugged in the flipper opto boards -- which I got from Bay Area Amusements last week, sorry I forgot to mention it -- so I could play the video mode. Maybe I'll do that later this weekend. I also have to figure out a way to keep that playfield glass switch closed.

And that was my exciting day of pinball testing! Hopefully this weekend I'll keep up the pace I've set and do some more.