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In Progress F-14 Tomcat shop log

Look what I found .....

View attachment 11072

Ron Kruzman in the US has this NOS F-14 playfield. It's been cleared previously but needs some more work to get it completely finished. Paid him for it and the work he needs to do, so now I can start planning my winter's work :)



Sweeet
IIRC Telboy but a new pf in his one?
There were,I think 3 F14s at NLP at the weekend,uber fast game
 
Knowing my luck the PPS repro playfields will get released before I get this one (and probably cheaper too), but it's kind of nice that it'll be an original PF. It needs drilling and dimpling too, so definitely one for the winter evenings.
 
I'm posting most of the work on my F-14 over on pinside, but for those who don't tread over there, a quick progress update. The playfield arrived safe and sound and after a lot of work with tracing paper on the old playfield I got all the holes done that needed drilling.

So far I've got most of the bulky mechanisms back underneath the playfield, installed all new lamp sockets and done the lamp wiring.

l9.jpg

The eagle-eyed will notice that a number of the regular #44 lamps have been replaced with RGB LEDs. They're generally in the clear inserts on the playfield so as I develop the new game code I can change the insert colours. There is also an RGB ring mounted in the "radar" insert in the middle.

Here's a couple of short videos of the RGBs being run through a quick test...



Next up is detaching the switch matrix from the old playfield, cleaning it up and transferring it over. If anyone wants to read more details, the thread on pinside is here :

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/t...d-sortie-information-and-on-going-development
 
Hi,

Was the original playfield/machine from early production, like my old one?. During the run, a number of lamp pcb's were produced for use under the playfield, but early games didn't have a single wedge-base bulb anywhere under the playfield, and only one in the whole machine - the 'jet' bumper, which had only changed from a #44 lamp on the previous game.
 
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Yes, it was s one of the early production ones. Got the clear flasher domes at the back, the clear beacons on the top and the playfield flashers that were removed later in the run. I toyed with the idea of trying to find some of the later lamp PCBs for the playfield, but then realised the wiring would be mostly too short to reach the connector without extending them so didn't bother. I think the new shiny sockets look cool, the only pain is all the soldering..
 
It's been a while since my last update here, most of my posts have been over on pinside. But for those who don't indulge over at the "dark side", here's an update. The underneath of the playfield has been fully populated.

l13.jpg
Including the new auto-launch kicker, so that I can start multiball automatically....

t12.jpg

I then spent a few hours sorting out a few lamps and switches that were misbehaving, and am now underway repopulating the topside of the playfield, 2 of the powdercoated habitrails in place so far. New CPR plastics being fitted too, I must have bought those around 2 years ago waiting for today :)

tp3.jpg
 
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So most of my updates have been over on inside, but here's a video of F14 running in attract mode with RGB leds in a bunch of inserts (watch the kill inserts down by the flippers) and in the GI. I think that's all the hardware done now, so time for more coding....

 
Awesome work - how long do you think it will be until you are are happy with your proposed ruleset? I expect there's a lot of work ahead for you but it will be well worth it that's for sure! Amazing!
 
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