👏 Thank you Adelaide! We are finally back from the Australian Pinball Expo, where we were looking after 200+ games over the course of the weekend! While it was full on, we got to do some pretty special stuff.
🏗️ Worked on an Atari Hercules. Largest pinball machine ever made. Only a handful of people on the planet have ever worked on one.
🕺 Set up and fixed some rare 1960s electromechanical games. These games are almost as old as my parents and are in way better condition! Fantastic pieces of pinball history.
🕹️ Played some cool games I've not seen much of before. Gold Wings: awesome soundtrack and a fun layout. Al's Garage Band: not many of these Alvin G games around. Whoa Nellie: love the retro-style playfield. Funny, too!
👨🔧 But of course, we spent most of the weekend repairing games as they broke down. Do you know what's involved in looking after this many games over the course of a weekend? Now you do, because below is my repair log (not counting the 50 or so stuck balls we had to attend to)!
Swords of Fury. Lost settings. Text in German and not in free play. Verified battery voltages and changed settings as required.
Strikes and Spares. Mid pop bumper not activating. Switch adjusted.
Sinbad. No free play. Test button not responding. Wires from coin door to MPU board were hacked up. Dodgy connection identified and fixed. Set back to free play.
Supersonic. Slingshot kicker not returning. Loose assembly under playfield. Right sling not registering either. Diode broke off. Soldered back on.
Harry Potter. I/O board issue. Reconnected USB at PC and driver board.
Central Park. Flipper movement was hesitant going both up and down. Retensioned spring. Still a bit lame. Gunk built up in flipper bushing. Needs clean out.
Elton John. Lamp board comm issue. Replugged I/O board.
Fire. Slingshots not working. Coil fuse blown. Upper ones locked on. Disconnected them. Attempt transistor repair but did not stop them locking on. Likely CPU issue related to battery corrosion (extensive).
Star Trek TNG. Left launcher coil not working. Broken wire. New wire run and repinned connector.
Devil Riders. No sound. Sounds board not plugged in and volume pot set too low.
Duotron. Ball stuck in centre hole and would not eject. Game not sensing ball due to dirty switch contact.
Hurricane. Ball stuck on Ferris wheel. Belt had lost tension and was slipping. Retensioned.
DE Simpsons. Ball stuck. Broken plastic on left side was letting balls fly past it after hitting the drop targets. Repositioned plastic and cable tied to make secure.
Venom. Right VUK not working. Wire came off coil. Resoldered.
Elvira HOH. Cellar door malfunction reported. Opto board under playfield was intermittent. Dodgy solder joint somewhere. Wire connections and opto resoldered.
Queen. Autolaunch assembly broken at weld point. Repaired with bolt and nut. Will need replacement for long term reliability.
Flintstones. Leg bolts were loose. Leg bracket threads had been stripped. Installed nuts on inside of leg bolts.
Hercules. Loose left flipper bat. Added Loctite and reinstalled screw.
Stern Playboy. Rubber had broken off and was blocking VUK. Removed broken rubber; installed new one.
Sorcerer. Binding flipper bat. Flipper assy. cleaned, reassembled with proper gaps.
Rollercoaster Tycoon. Display showing garbled data. Likely poor tension on display board power connector. Replugged ribbon and power cables.
Queen. Drop target not dropping. Spring was broken. Installed new one. Also found a loose connector on lamp boards. Replugged. Also fixed a wire that had come out of one of the drop target connectors.
Godzilla. Flipper no worky. Broken flipper link. New link installed.
Portal. VUK 3 was not kicking out balls. Increased VUK strength in settings.
DE Simpsons. Displays showing segments locked on when they shouldn't be. Replugged ribbon cables to no effect. Likely a board issue at this point; but did not proceed further as it was perfectly playabe.
Alice in Wonderland. Saucer eject on mini playfield was too weak. Ball was stuck. Decreased coil pulse timing.
Top Score. Ball was lost. It was stuck on a pop bumper which had a misadjusted wafer. Adjusted switch for proper operation.
Pro Football. Flipper was machine gunning when held in. EOS switch was misadjusted. In additin, flipper hold winding was broken. Resoldered coil wires and terminals and winding was repaired.
Gold Wings. Display was blank. Likely due to failing edge connector pins on the display board. Pins were cleaned and connector checked.
Banzai Run. Sticking flipper button. Cleaned out and adjusted.
Shaq Attaq. Post came loose from above playfield left outlane. Reinstalled post.
Alligator. Non responsive to credit button. Relay ladder had fallen off one of the relays. The score motor was unable to reset. Adjusted relay switch leaves and reattached the relay ladder.
Jurassic Park Lost World. Balls stuck in egg kickout. Removed balls and adjusted assembly.
ACDC. Rubber was broken near pop bumpers, blocking balls. Replaced. Also found the N in TNT switch not registering. Bad connection at opto board. Replugged. Also found the right slingshot not registering. Diode broke off. Resoldered.
3 Musketeers. VUK at top of playfield not ejecting properly. Wireform needed adjustment. Up post was also trapping balls. Needed adjustment to sit level with playfield.
Joker Poker. Blowing coil fuse. Upper right flipper coil was burned up due to badly adjusted EOS switch. New coil installed and EOS adjusted properly.
El Dorado. Not completing reset. Start relay switch contact was bad. Adjusted.
Duotron. Pop bumper was not working. Poor switch contact. Adjusted.
Cross Town. Not resetting properly. 1 point relay was stuck on. Leaf blades had fallen out of the switch ladder, causing them to bind. Reinstalled.
Shadow. Sticking right flipper. Cleaned and realigned.
Howzat. Sticking flipper button. Cleaned and reinstalled.
Total Nuclear Annihilation. Pop bumper not working. Wire had come loose from coil. Upper right slingshot was also machine gunning and adding score when flipper was activated. Poorly adjusted switch.
Stern Star Trek. Kicking out too many balls into the trough. Trough switch 1 not working. Readjusted trough board and replugged.
Hercules. Lamp issues. Replaced some burned out bulbs. Some sockets will need replacing.
Queen. Ball shooter bracket loose again. Bolt had come loose. Reinstalled bolt and nut. Game was also not registering ball falling into outhole. Trough switches needed adjustment.
Space Invaders. Wire ball guide came loose. Reinstalled.
Hobbit. Opto boards caught fire. Short from coil power circuit to switch matrix due to loose shooter lane switch. Catastrophic failure; opto boards need replacement and driver board needs repair. Could not do on site.
Road Show. Ted's mouth not working. Fault on motor driver board. Inductor had broken off the board. Resoldered. Eddy switches also needed adjustment.
Champion Pub. Up post coil had melted. Loose ground braid had contacted coil lugs and locked the coil on. Dressed ground braid properly and replaced coil.
