Tonight I was watching yet another playfield on eBay... this time it was a Medusa in Richmond. It spent the whole week with no bids at $100, but tonight people started bidding and it went for $200. I would have liked it... I like Medusa a lot. I played it back in the day and at a recent pinball show. Oh well... it was a bit rich for my blood. My adjusted max was $175.
I listen to a public radio show called Calling All Pets about pet stuff, and in this weeks show they talked about animal hoarders... like the old ladies who have 60 cats. Honestly, I recognized a lot of my own traits in the hoarder description... I've always collected things. Like when I was a kid, I collected baseball, football, basketball, and hockey cards, even though I didn't care much for sports. I collected Partridge Family trading cards even though I didn't care much for David Cassidy (though I was partial to Susan Dey). I started playing Neopets largely because I like collecting items. I spent about $1000 amassing and refurbishing a complete set of Colorforms Outer Space Men, of which I had all but three as a kid (and I still can't find my originals...). I just collect things. On the show they said that the urge to hoard is probably instinctual -- most likely a survival reflex -- and tightly bound to the limbic system. That probably explains why buying playfields is so much fun... they are just the latest in a long line of stuff my brain tells me I gotta have.
Anyway, the experiment: This week's obsession is fixing the lights in EBD. In the past I've tried replacing bulbs, and that's no good. Some of them used to work, so the wiring & socket should be OK. So I was reading the lights section in the repair guide and found the part about testing the components on the Lamp Driver Board. I realized that I had bought an Auxiliary Lamp Driver Board a few years ago to practice circuit board repair (it's actually the one they used in KISS to run the KISS lights on the backglass). I tested a bunch of the SCRs following the instructions, and all the ones I tried failed the test... the values were higher than they should have been. But, it was kind of fun testing them. Last night I located my bad lights on a schematic, and this weekend I plan to go in and see if I can figure out what's wrong with all those lights.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Bonus!
Early morning post! I just noticed that the DW parts monkey I bought last night includes the 2-10W Resistor board that I don't have in my game, which I think deals with the Dalek head. I was reminded of this when I saw an eBay auction for same this morning from the imo overpriced and too expensive shipping European pinball magnate Duke of Pinball. I checked the pictures of my newly one game and it's the only board in the head. Bueno!
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Hey, watch me buy more stuff!
Tonight I bought another Doctor Who parts machine. Ideally, I will get a better looking cabinet (the red has not faded, but there may be some scuff marks on the side), a Dalek topper (hopefully with all the parts), a playfield, and a bunch of stuff that I can sell. Probably I'll do the classic parts machine shuffle... keep the best and sell the rest.
I was bidding by proxy tonight. We had driven my daughter back to school after her Spring Break, and we ended up leaving about an hour late. So we got up there an hour late, and didn't leave until about 8:30. The auction ended at ~9:45, and I knew that we probably couldn't make it back home by then, so we had my daughter login to our account and directed her to bid using our secret bidding techniques over the phone (she has actually started using simplified versions of these techniques for her own auction purchases). I won it for just over $200, which is about $100 less than I would have paid. It's in PA, and I'll probably try to pick it up next weekend. Then we'll find out if I'm a champ or a chump...
I was bidding by proxy tonight. We had driven my daughter back to school after her Spring Break, and we ended up leaving about an hour late. So we got up there an hour late, and didn't leave until about 8:30. The auction ended at ~9:45, and I knew that we probably couldn't make it back home by then, so we had my daughter login to our account and directed her to bid using our secret bidding techniques over the phone (she has actually started using simplified versions of these techniques for her own auction purchases). I won it for just over $200, which is about $100 less than I would have paid. It's in PA, and I'll probably try to pick it up next weekend. Then we'll find out if I'm a champ or a chump...
At last: A victory that's NOT Pyrrhic!
This is a pinball weekend. Wanting to accomplish something other than Doctor Who this weekend, I turned my baleful eye and expanded brain on Eight Ball Deluxe. Last night, while my wife was watching Looney Toons: Back in Action (which was surprisingly good, especially in light of the incredibly average and not very Looney Toony Space Jam [but to be fair and on topic, there is a Space Jam pinball game]), I used my newly discovered knowledge with flippers to replace the coil on the chattering left flipper. This time, though, I soldered it and everything. It was a small consolation that my soldering job was better than the one that was in there, but since those solders sucked that's not much to crow about.
Today I was after the non-working switches... the left bumper and both slingshots. I read the pinball repair guide for 80's Bally games, and since there wasn't an entire row or column of switches out, I figured it had to be either a broken wire or disconnected diode. I looked around under the playfield near the left bumper -- you really learn to appreciate newer fold-up playfields after wedging yourself into those older games -- but didn't see anything. Then I had the bright idea to look at the other bumpers... and there was a broken wire on the switch for the center bumper! A quick experiment with the switch test indicated that connecting the wire solved my switch problems. So out came the soldering iron and I attached the wire.
Now Eight Ball Deluxe is fully functional (except for lamps)!!! That's the first game that I have completely brought from mostly non-working to completely working! I played a few games and suffered NO disappointments!
But that can't last, of course. One of my daughter's friends was over, and I mentioned that DW was marginally working, so her and my daughter played it. Boy, what a disaster. The mini-playfield seems to have recessed in the night, so pretty much any hit to the gray buttons causes the ball to stick. Also, my unqualified success with the outhole kicker has now been qualified. It is sticking again, so I'll probably have to lubricate it in some way.
Here's a picture of the cleaned up outhole kicker... I wish I had a "before" picture... it would be unabashed pinball restoration porn. The mounting plate, the ball hitting thing, and the post it rotates on were filthy and disgusting. Even though it doesn't work, I'm still really happy with the cleanliness.
And here's some fun. Here's a picture of Rosie, our remaining cat, sitting on Doctor Who. Actually, I had a bit of a scare with her today... I was setting DW on free play -- with a slight detour when I changed the languages to French and German to see what the mini-playfield warning sounds like (the French voice is female, or extremely effeminate! Cool!) -- and she jumped in the open coin door. I didn't want her to zap herself on any exposed wires -- my game is not exactly up to code -- so I turned it off asap.
Today I was after the non-working switches... the left bumper and both slingshots. I read the pinball repair guide for 80's Bally games, and since there wasn't an entire row or column of switches out, I figured it had to be either a broken wire or disconnected diode. I looked around under the playfield near the left bumper -- you really learn to appreciate newer fold-up playfields after wedging yourself into those older games -- but didn't see anything. Then I had the bright idea to look at the other bumpers... and there was a broken wire on the switch for the center bumper! A quick experiment with the switch test indicated that connecting the wire solved my switch problems. So out came the soldering iron and I attached the wire.
Now Eight Ball Deluxe is fully functional (except for lamps)!!! That's the first game that I have completely brought from mostly non-working to completely working! I played a few games and suffered NO disappointments!
But that can't last, of course. One of my daughter's friends was over, and I mentioned that DW was marginally working, so her and my daughter played it. Boy, what a disaster. The mini-playfield seems to have recessed in the night, so pretty much any hit to the gray buttons causes the ball to stick. Also, my unqualified success with the outhole kicker has now been qualified. It is sticking again, so I'll probably have to lubricate it in some way.
Here's a picture of the cleaned up outhole kicker... I wish I had a "before" picture... it would be unabashed pinball restoration porn. The mounting plate, the ball hitting thing, and the post it rotates on were filthy and disgusting. Even though it doesn't work, I'm still really happy with the cleanliness.And here's some fun. Here's a picture of Rosie, our remaining cat, sitting on Doctor Who. Actually, I had a bit of a scare with her today... I was setting DW on free play -- with a slight detour when I changed the languages to French and German to see what the mini-playfield warning sounds like (the French voice is female, or extremely effeminate! Cool!) -- and she jumped in the open coin door. I didn't want her to zap herself on any exposed wires -- my game is not exactly up to code -- so I turned it off asap.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Doctor Who, Hey! Doctor Who
Yes, the long national nightmare is finally over. I just finished playing my first complete game of Doctor Who.
While my wife watched the commentary on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest... not only are we big Disney fans, especially myself as a former Disneyland employee -- somewhere, I should have a sword and some coins I stole from the ride when I worked there 27 years ago -- but I went to school from elementary through college with the guy who plays Pintel... and he actually knew who I was, unlike Emilio Estevez, who I went to high school with but didn't realize it until about 5 years later. Lee knew me long enough that (the last time I spoke to him when we were at UCLA) he still called me by the diminutive form of my name, which for the purposes of this blog is "Joey" (you should have figured out by now that Joe Entropy is not my real name).
Anyway, I reassembled the sticking right flipper, replacing the plastic thing that contacts the EOS switch with electrical tape, hoping it would provide less friction. Not so much. Then I tried a new spring from the flipper rebuild kit. No. Then I attached to spring to the far side of the switch mount. Oho! That didn't do the trick entirely, but it did more of the trick than anything I've already tried did. So now the flipper still sticks every so often, but usually contact with the ball will push it down. And it does hold properly, as does the upper left flipper, which kind of surprised me, since neither of them do so in test mode.
So, how does it play? Like a crappy game that's been on location for a year and the operator has forgotten about it. The Tardis switch is back to not working reliably, so whenever the ball goes there you have to wait for the ball search... but usually the randomly firing kicker will get it first. You really have to whack the Escape targets or they won't register... I think I lit video mode twice during four or five games, and never got it. The mini-playfield was fine for the first couple of games, but now it stops at random points, which doesn't really help. And there are a handful of lines out on the edges of the display. BUT... I completed all the games I played, and my daughter even played one, too. And it only took me just over a year.
So was it worth it? Probably not... but in some future post, I'll have to total up all the money I spent getting to this point. Obviously I still have some work to do. But I have learned a lot... certainly enough to fix the chattering flipper in Eight Ball Deluxe, which I think is my next job. I really would like to put some distance between the Doctor and I for a few weeks. ^_^;
Hey, last thing: I was searching for something Who-related last night and found the history of the game written by Pfutz, the designer. Really interesting reading for someone who's spent so much time with the game. And inside was a link to the Williams promotional video for the game! Neat.
While my wife watched the commentary on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest... not only are we big Disney fans, especially myself as a former Disneyland employee -- somewhere, I should have a sword and some coins I stole from the ride when I worked there 27 years ago -- but I went to school from elementary through college with the guy who plays Pintel... and he actually knew who I was, unlike Emilio Estevez, who I went to high school with but didn't realize it until about 5 years later. Lee knew me long enough that (the last time I spoke to him when we were at UCLA) he still called me by the diminutive form of my name, which for the purposes of this blog is "Joey" (you should have figured out by now that Joe Entropy is not my real name).
Anyway, I reassembled the sticking right flipper, replacing the plastic thing that contacts the EOS switch with electrical tape, hoping it would provide less friction. Not so much. Then I tried a new spring from the flipper rebuild kit. No. Then I attached to spring to the far side of the switch mount. Oho! That didn't do the trick entirely, but it did more of the trick than anything I've already tried did. So now the flipper still sticks every so often, but usually contact with the ball will push it down. And it does hold properly, as does the upper left flipper, which kind of surprised me, since neither of them do so in test mode.
So, how does it play? Like a crappy game that's been on location for a year and the operator has forgotten about it. The Tardis switch is back to not working reliably, so whenever the ball goes there you have to wait for the ball search... but usually the randomly firing kicker will get it first. You really have to whack the Escape targets or they won't register... I think I lit video mode twice during four or five games, and never got it. The mini-playfield was fine for the first couple of games, but now it stops at random points, which doesn't really help. And there are a handful of lines out on the edges of the display. BUT... I completed all the games I played, and my daughter even played one, too. And it only took me just over a year.
So was it worth it? Probably not... but in some future post, I'll have to total up all the money I spent getting to this point. Obviously I still have some work to do. But I have learned a lot... certainly enough to fix the chattering flipper in Eight Ball Deluxe, which I think is my next job. I really would like to put some distance between the Doctor and I for a few weeks. ^_^;
Hey, last thing: I was searching for something Who-related last night and found the history of the game written by Pfutz, the designer. Really interesting reading for someone who's spent so much time with the game. And inside was a link to the Williams promotional video for the game! Neat.
Eegah!
I was so close! Tonight, I actually got to play one complete ball on Doctor Who.
While my wife watched the commentary on Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, I replaced the switch on the right flipper because the thing that closes the EOS switch kept hanging up on the switch. That took a while, but I got it back together and ran through the flipper test and it worked fine. The upper left flipper still won't hold, but holding really doesn't do you a lot of good on a vertical flipper anyway. Then I loaded the balls -- the outhole kicker loaded the balls oh so sweetly -- ran a rag over the playfield to get the accumulated dust off, and tied down the slingshot rubbers. It was time to play!
So as I said, I got through one ball fine. The Tardis kicker seems to fire every few seconds, so we'll probably need to take care of that at some point. My second ball started, I was doing OK, then the right flipper stuck. >:(
I took the flipper apart again and took out the entire thing that closes the EOS switch assembly. I intended to replace it with the new one from the flipper rebuild kit, but after I put it on I remembered that it was for a left flipper. So what I'll probably do is use the one from the Hurricane flipper set that I got the coils from. I didn't feel like staying up later, so that'll have to be tomorrow.
There are some interesting eBays going on in the upcoming week. Actually, I think the same clown who tried to sell the Dalek head for $100 is at it again. This time, he's selling a ramp for $100 (which one? probably the big one, but who knows? He has no pictures!) with $25 shipping. He selling some other crap for too much money as well. I hope nobody buys from him again, since it just rewards bad behavior.
While my wife watched the commentary on Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, I replaced the switch on the right flipper because the thing that closes the EOS switch kept hanging up on the switch. That took a while, but I got it back together and ran through the flipper test and it worked fine. The upper left flipper still won't hold, but holding really doesn't do you a lot of good on a vertical flipper anyway. Then I loaded the balls -- the outhole kicker loaded the balls oh so sweetly -- ran a rag over the playfield to get the accumulated dust off, and tied down the slingshot rubbers. It was time to play!
So as I said, I got through one ball fine. The Tardis kicker seems to fire every few seconds, so we'll probably need to take care of that at some point. My second ball started, I was doing OK, then the right flipper stuck. >:(
I took the flipper apart again and took out the entire thing that closes the EOS switch assembly. I intended to replace it with the new one from the flipper rebuild kit, but after I put it on I remembered that it was for a left flipper. So what I'll probably do is use the one from the Hurricane flipper set that I got the coils from. I didn't feel like staying up later, so that'll have to be tomorrow.
There are some interesting eBays going on in the upcoming week. Actually, I think the same clown who tried to sell the Dalek head for $100 is at it again. This time, he's selling a ramp for $100 (which one? probably the big one, but who knows? He has no pictures!) with $25 shipping. He selling some other crap for too much money as well. I hope nobody buys from him again, since it just rewards bad behavior.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Progress with a Capital P!
Again, real life intrudes on the light frothiness of the blog... our cat Ryo-ohki had a really bad day Monday, so we decided it was time to put her to sleep. I really didn't feel much like doing anything for a couple of days, but now I've got a few more things to write about. Again, this is going to be one of the more sedate entries. Sorry, no links either... but I've linked to everything in here before, anyway.
Last weekend my daughter came home for her first Spring Break, and I kind of vowed to have Doctor Who working by the time she went back. When I went up, we ate at Pizza House which has replaced Medieval Madness with NASCAR. That would have been fine, but it wasn't turned on. We'll see if it's been fixed when we go up Sunday.
Over the weekend it was time to do some work. The flippers were the major stumbling block, so on Sunday I had at it. First I tried to replace the Mini-playfield optos to see if a new one would help, but it didn't.
Looking carefully at the flipper mechanisms, I found that all three were just missing the coils, except for one which lacked the coil stop. I used the coils from the flippers I bought on eBay, and installed the coil and stop from the rebuild kit I got from Pinball Resource. Still unsure of my soldering skills, I just twisted the wires together and taped them up. I used a diagram from a repair guide to match the wires to their proper shunts on the coil. That worked out surprisingly well, and got me a completely
working left flipper, an upper left that works but doesn't hold, and a right that get stuck in the up position. It got stuck because the thing that closes the EOS switch was bending the switch blade to the point where it trapped the thing. I tried bending the switch blade but it would just rebend and get stuck. I have a new switch from the rebuild kit, but that requires me to desolder the old switch, so I'll do that this weekend.
Yesterday I found that working keeps me from thinking about the cat, so I tackled the outhole. It has always had very poor action... sticking, not hitting the ball hard enough to send it into the trough, etc. At first I thought the coil itself was weak, but an in depth investigation showed that the kicker assembly wasn't moving on its post very well. It was surprisingly easy to detach and take apart -- I love it when it's easy -- and it turns out some smarty-pants had greased the mechanism at some point. The repair guide said you should almost never have to lubricate a pin, and the grease had coagulated into a sticky goo. So tonight I sat down with some paper towels, q-tips, and 409 and started cleaning the gunk off. I was amazed at the results... not only did the mechanism look almost new, the degunked assembly actuated like a dream. I put it back together, ran the solenoid test, and it worked perfectly. One of my few unqualified successes.
So, if all goes well, this weekend could be the first game. I will ritually sacrifice some leprechauns to St. Patrick to hasten the inevitable.
Last weekend my daughter came home for her first Spring Break, and I kind of vowed to have Doctor Who working by the time she went back. When I went up, we ate at Pizza House which has replaced Medieval Madness with NASCAR. That would have been fine, but it wasn't turned on. We'll see if it's been fixed when we go up Sunday.
Over the weekend it was time to do some work. The flippers were the major stumbling block, so on Sunday I had at it. First I tried to replace the Mini-playfield optos to see if a new one would help, but it didn't.
Looking carefully at the flipper mechanisms, I found that all three were just missing the coils, except for one which lacked the coil stop. I used the coils from the flippers I bought on eBay, and installed the coil and stop from the rebuild kit I got from Pinball Resource. Still unsure of my soldering skills, I just twisted the wires together and taped them up. I used a diagram from a repair guide to match the wires to their proper shunts on the coil. That worked out surprisingly well, and got me a completely
working left flipper, an upper left that works but doesn't hold, and a right that get stuck in the up position. It got stuck because the thing that closes the EOS switch was bending the switch blade to the point where it trapped the thing. I tried bending the switch blade but it would just rebend and get stuck. I have a new switch from the rebuild kit, but that requires me to desolder the old switch, so I'll do that this weekend.
Yesterday I found that working keeps me from thinking about the cat, so I tackled the outhole. It has always had very poor action... sticking, not hitting the ball hard enough to send it into the trough, etc. At first I thought the coil itself was weak, but an in depth investigation showed that the kicker assembly wasn't moving on its post very well. It was surprisingly easy to detach and take apart -- I love it when it's easy -- and it turns out some smarty-pants had greased the mechanism at some point. The repair guide said you should almost never have to lubricate a pin, and the grease had coagulated into a sticky goo. So tonight I sat down with some paper towels, q-tips, and 409 and started cleaning the gunk off. I was amazed at the results... not only did the mechanism look almost new, the degunked assembly actuated like a dream. I put it back together, ran the solenoid test, and it worked perfectly. One of my few unqualified successes.
So, if all goes well, this weekend could be the first game. I will ritually sacrifice some leprechauns to St. Patrick to hasten the inevitable.
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