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Today I worked on......

resistor and the power transistor. replaced both. but they blew again. knocker is shorted. disconnected that and replaced again. transistor is still on. looks like the driver ic further up has blown too. grr grrrr
But this is why we love Pinball! Right?? 😂
 
resistor and the power transistor. replaced both. but they blew again. knocker is shorted. disconnected that and replaced again. transistor is still on. looks like the driver ic further up has blown too. grr grrrr
Sorry for laughing - is typical for board repair. Just as you are convinced you have found and fixed the issue and will have it up and running, something else foobars it up!!
 
I was looking at the underside of playfield and checking some wiring. was working right down by the side of the cab where the mains filter is. managed to touch the fecker. boom 230v through my arm. good job the rcd tripped.

Anyhow the sdb board was the fault not the playfield wiring . the ca381 ic that drives the power transistors was blown on one circuit. this caused the circuit to lock on. it’s fried the knocker coil, but fortunately the zipper flipper release coil was saved. (both are driven by same circuit using the solenoid expander board)

replaced the ic and all is good again.
 
While waiting (still waiting) on parts n that I was racking my brains at other jobs that needed doing.

My Class of 1812 had an average condition playfield, meh they all seem to suffer with a lot of wear and the flipper area and crypt entrance were a bit worn (OK, very worn).
Spent a few hours today tidying this up...

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Some of the above area was from removing the mylar, god that was a horrible job!
It'll all get a lacquer at some point but it can wait as it's all complete and running, I have other playfield touch-ups to do!
 
No me personally, but building work has commenced on extension Number 5 on our house. Pinroom is going to become a storage space for a while during the work.
 

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Set the Creech I bought at the Liverpool auction up today. Had to take the head off to get it through the door to the man cave - my last project was a secret bookcase door, I wasn't planning on buying another pin and Drac is never leaving so I wasn't thinking about pin moving!. I put it back together and gave it the once over to start a parts/mods list for father Christmas 😁

All in all its not bad, playfield is very good with no wear that I can see. Cabinet is OK, the usual scuffs and dings in a couple of places, ramps are all intact, no cracks.. It's a pretty original machine, all incandescent bulbs, no mods. Couple of broken plastics, broken creech mirror and a few bulbs out. Still has the coin mechs and cash box (priced in German Marks) so clearly been on location but no board hacks evident and everything neat and tidy. Came with the original manuals, spare bits envelope and the schematics.

Worst thing so far is some acid damage to the CPU board. Not immediately obvious (there were no batteries in it when I got it, I put these in today when testing but have a remote battery box for permanent use) but had a whole switch column out and traced it back to the U20. Closer look shows the acid damage so a bit of work to do there. Looks saveable though. Not sure whether to have a go or send it out.

It was also filthy so had spent some time in storage. Gave it a cursory clean to get it up and running but planning to do a proper shop job on it in the new year.

Hologram is present - a bit bluey green but hasn't faded to black so that's a bonus.

All in all, just what I was looking for, bit of a project but not a basket case!
 

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Not sure where else to put this, but today I worked on having the world’s youngest IFPA ranked player ;) It’s a work in progress, but we’ve got a while because he’s two months off his third birthday.

He really enjoyed Indianopolis 500, which we don’t have at home, and the shiny AFM (we have one of those). He also liked A:IQ, Junkyard, Scared Stiff and Space Shuttle (although he thought the space shuttle was a Boeing 747). I think his best score was 34 million on Indianopolis and he made a variety of shots - he enjoyed it more than Corvette, which surprised me a little.

He also kept asking where the PinBot was, which also surprised me a bit. I had to inform him that, sadly, Pinball Republic doesn’t have a PinBot.

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Here he is with his older brother (aged six) who has got back into pinball after a break.

157E27CC-891B-4255-87B1-8E560FA312F3.jpeg
 
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Set the Creech I bought at the Liverpool auction up today. Had to take the head off to get it through the door to the man cave - my last project was a secret bookcase door, I wasn't planning on buying another pin and Drac is never leaving so I wasn't thinking about pin moving!. I put it back together and gave it the once over to start a parts/mods list for father Christmas 😁

All in all its not bad, playfield is very good with no wear that I can see. Cabinet is OK, the usual scuffs and dings in a couple of places, ramps are all intact, no cracks.. It's a pretty original machine, all incandescent bulbs, no mods. Couple of broken plastics, broken creech mirror and a few bulbs out. Still has the coin mechs and cash box (priced in German Marks) so clearly been on location but no board hacks evident and everything neat and tidy. Came with the original manuals, spare bits envelope and the schematics.

Worst thing so far is some acid damage to the CPU board. Not immediately obvious (there were no batteries in it when I got it, I put these in today when testing but have a remote battery box for permanent use) but had a whole switch column out and traced it back to the U20. Closer look shows the acid damage so a bit of work to do there. Looks saveable though. Not sure whether to have a go or send it out.

It was also filthy so had spent some time in storage. Gave it a cursory clean to get it up and running but planning to do a proper shop job on it in the new year.

Hologram is present - a bit bluey green but hasn't faded to black so that's a bonus.

All in all, just what I was looking for, bit of a project but not a basket case!
You ever feel like parting with those manuals let me know!
 
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I’ve been working on a few parts for @s000m this week.

Custom Lightbulb shooter rod for his TAF that @Dracoola will paint and finishing off his apron and coin door with acrylic and leds for his BSD.
 

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Bit more work on creech. Had two switch columns out and diagnosed the CPU board as the culprit. It had some battery damage and someone had previously repaired it but looks like it wasn't cleaned properly and there was some corrosion. Swabbed it with white vinegar to counter the alkali, cleaned it up and replaced the two of the socketed chips U20 and U16 but still didn't work. Spent a while testing continuity and discovered a break somewhere between j207 and the resistors on both of the suspect columns. Added jumper wires to the board and hey presto, it still didn't work 😢. To be precise, those columns worked but had a row out as well. Same issue with a broken (most likely battery damaged) trace. Decided to socket and replace u 19 which looked decidedly green and crusty. Haven't done much board work before so was a bit daunting but it worked! Creech is alive. Now to decide what mods before it gets stripped down and properly shopped 😁
 
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Bit more work on creech. Had two switch columns out and diagnosed the CPU board as the culprit. It had some battery damage and someone had previously repaired it but looks like it wasn't cleaned properly and there was some corrosion. Swabbed it with white vinegar to counter the alkali, cleaned it up and replaced the two of the socketed chips U20 and U16 but still didn't work. Spent a while testing continuity and discovered a break somewhere between j207 and the resistors on both of the suspect columns. Added jumper wires to the board and hey presto, it still didn't work 😢. To be precise, those columns worked but had a row out as well. Same issue with a broken (most likely battery damaged) trace. Decided to socket and replace u 19 which looked decidedly green and crusty. Haven't done much board work before so was a bit daunting but it worked! Creech is alive. Now to decide what mods before it gets stripped down and properly shopped 😁
Excellent. You should start a shop log as everybody on her loves ❤️ them.
 
Excellent. You should start a shop log as everybody on her loves ❤️ them.
Yes, will do once all the bits arrive. This was just a shakedown run. Still need to sort one or two things - hologram light doesn't work (it does flash in test but pretty sure it's not supposed to!) and need to make some decisions on pindmd vs Colordmd etc. Tempted to redecal it at some point too, though would need to do the sanding outside and it's a bit cold for that at the moment so that may be phase 2...
 
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