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Gottlieb Arena

JMP said:
Pm'd ya. Looks a likely candidate.... Daughterboard/chip pressing appears to bring more of the game back to life. Nothing from the display though.... At least I can get on with cleaning, polishing and vacuuming the spiders and cobwebs in the meantime. Looks like it's been 'stored' a long time.... Playfield and plastics good though and cab/art doable so looking forward to restoring it. Not sure all can be done in time for the Slam though.... :confused:
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Damn Gottlieb displays! At least I believe yours will use the more common type with the edge connectors, so you'll have more chance of getting it tested.

Do not disconnect the displays or wiggle the connectors when the machine is powered up as it apparently kills alot of IC's if you do. Mine arrived with all the display buffers dead so the previous owner probably tried wiggling the connectors to get the display working un sucessfully
 
Thanks, no I've switched off at wall each time before disconnecting/wiggling etc. Started off with static lit lights, now got (it appears) attract mode lighting to playfield.

Was watching this last night:


Re-soldering required in more places than one then.... Will clean all edge connectors tonight to start with.
 
I've not seen the above video yet, but be very weary of some of TNT's repair tips.

Definitely do not use "silver sodder"
Don't fit a replacement battery on the CPU board
And no, there is not a single wire modification between the CPU board and Driver board that makes up for all the missing grounds

Also don't poke the high voltage capacitors with your finger, while the game is powered up like he always does :rofl:
 
Really grinds my gears when he touches stuff with his fingers.

Apart from that though, i do like his vids.
 
When its turned off yet, but not when its on no?
 
lukewells said:
I've not seen the above video yet, but be very weary of some of TNT's repair tips.

Definitely do not use "silver sodder"
Don't fit a replacement battery on the CPU board
And no, there is not a single wire modification between the CPU board and Driver board that makes up for all the missing grounds

Also don't poke the high voltage capacitors with your finger, while the game is powered up like he always does :rofl:
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Not strictly true,you can double up on the power and ground lines on the interconnects,using the spare spaces in the connectors that could help.Tho extra grounds help on htese games
 
TYHO said:
Not strictly true,you can double up on the power and ground lines on the interconnects,using the spare spaces in the connectors that could help.Tho extra grounds help on htese games
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In one of TNT's videos, he says, All you need to do is this one wire mod (points to extra ground on loom between cpu and driver) and then you don't need to bother with all those other ground modifications that people are doing.



My nightmoves has the transformer brick with all molex .156 grounds and the ground were floating all over the place. I cut them all off and bonded them to the transformer frame and that sorted out 50 problems. Without doing that it would not be working at all still and the extra ground between cpu and driver would make no difference
 
Hah! I just watched his Arena video above and he says it on that one as well, that the one extra ground wire "ensures that nothing goes wrong":rofl:

Also don't do what he says "Move the pot on the power supply up and down, up and down"

- It will die, they are crap pots and the track wears away in a few turns. New pot or fixed resistor is needed as a replacement.

I've seen the pots bad on sys3 power supplies and the voltage jumps all around when you try and adjust it.
I tried adjusting mine with the power off and the meter clipped on and the resistance was jumping all over after I turned it a couple of times.
 
lukewells said:
Hah! I just watched his Arena video above and he says it on that one as well, that the one extra ground wire "ensures that nothing goes wrong":rofl:

Also don't do what he says "Move the pot on the power supply up and down, up and down"

- It will die, they are crap pots and the track wears away in a few turns. New pot or fixed resistor is needed as a replacement.

I've seen the pots bad on sys3 power supplies and the voltage jumps all around when you try and adjust it.
I tried adjusting mine with the power off and the meter clipped on and the resistance was jumping all over after I turned it a couple of times.
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It sure as hell wont fix all,but may help,it will certainly do no harm
 
Power brick grounds and fuses done. Capacitor was good as already replaced (tested low AC ripple)

All boards modded with common ground wires.

PSU new connectors and modified to fixed value resistor.

PSU tested good

Pluged in a new @myPinballs 80B CPU board (with the appropriate roms) and it all fired up nice and easy! :thumbs:



The synths on the sound board dont work (just the DAC) so might be one CPU not running.

One coil (drop target bank) not firing so probably driver board transistor (awaiting manual)

Some lamps out (maybe just bulbs?)

Looking good :clap:
 
Thanks to Jim and Luke today the machine got a huge step forward on the workings. Mypinballs CPU board working great. :)... replacing the tampered with and bodged original.

Have spent all week stripping down, cleaning and re-rubbering the Arena and it's come up real nice. Bonus is virtually no playfield wear and no broken plastics.... but unfortunately a cracked ramp (unobtanium to replace) and broken holders for the LED bars. New bars coming from Marco (as only one light works!) but going to have to improvise on the plastic holding brackets or it's a blu-tack fix for now.

Desperate need for the manual now to get the last electrical fixes sorted.... a patient wait from the US.
 
Thumbs up to Jim, he's done some good work on those 80B boards, and they take alot of the hassle out of getting a dead Gottlieb up and running

John's original CPU board is completely trucked. A bunch of tracks have been ripped off by a previous bodged repair, the addressing has been altered and there has been battery corrosion, which has then been repaired with new components and a new battery, which has then leaked over he new components so now it has a whole second wave of battery corrosion! hah! never seen that before
 
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JMP said:
but unfortunately a cracked ramp (unobtanium to replace) and broken holders for the LED bars.
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I take it you're saying that after checking with PBR by email that they don't have those part numbers in stock...? :suspect:
 
Moonraker said:
I take it you're saying that after checking with PBR by email that they don't have those part numbers in stock...? :suspect:
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Sent an email at weekend and waiting for reply, I wasn't that hopeful though. Been reading stuff online about these being cracked and no replacements.....
 
lukewells said:
One coil (drop target bank) not firing so probably driver board transistor (awaiting manual)
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May be also worth checking for the extra transistor driver board (usually under playfield) as often heavy duty coils can be sent off to these additional boards when they run out of drives on the main board (or use them all up with classic gottlieb 'burn my playfield' flashers ! !)
 
John, have a check with Mark. He has a rake load or used ramps from all makes, you never know you might hit lucky.
 
GrizZ said:
Awesome.Slamward bound ???? :D
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Had thought it may be possible but not having a manual and stuff awaited from US is holding us up now, you know how long that takes.... Could always be in the nick of time. ;)
 
lukewells said:
Thumbs up to Jim, he's done some good work on those 80B boards, and they take alot of the hassle out of getting a dead Gottlieb up and running
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JMP said:
Thanks to Jim and Luke today the machine got a huge step forward on the workings. Mypinballs CPU board working great. :)... replacing the tampered with and bodged original.
Click to expand...

Cheers guys. :) Now to assemble a couple more!
 
Ah Jim, I would have had that ! Have got new LED tubes coming from Marco anyway and managed to find the holding bracket at PBR (ordering via Andy N.) but another would have been handy and probably arrived a lot quicker.... never mind.

I've actually managed to find the ramp too on a French pinball site. No response to my English email yet... but know a French speaking guy that can hopefully order it. :)

Shame I've not managed to get parts and manual in time to bring it along to the Slam this weekend.
 
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