pin board repair

[StatFreak]

...
So, while playing it, you get goosebumps knowing what's going to happen if
you keep the ball on the table long enough and keep striking certain targets to get your reward.
I actually got excited when I was close to setting off the ambulance light!
When I finally got a "free ball" and the ambulance light went on, I was jumping around and
then proceeded to lose the ball in the gutter!
Oh well, I least I had a "Free Ball" !...

That's what makes pinball fun to play, and what designers try to achieve when they create a game. The good pins have enough challenges and rewards to keep a player interested for a long time.

Thanks for keeping us up to speed on all of your experiments. It has helped many of us learn more about basic electronics. K+


Now, with regard to the loss of your ball, you've got to learn to control your outbursts!   

"Control, control. You MUST learn control... A Jedi can FEEL the force flowing through him...
"You must SEE the force between you and the pinball...
"And you must HEAR the force when the ball bounces off of a bumper...
"And you must SMELL the force when you screw up and fry something that you shouldn't have...   
"And you must TASTE the force when you taste the agony of defeat... 

USE THE FORCE, STOUT" 

[stayouttadabunker]

Last night I must of played about 40 games or so and
finally got the ambulance to light up! ("Mark jumping around...")
It was such a blast!...I was nervous as heck when I had one last target to knock down...
I missed it like 3 times before I finally smacked it at full speed right in the middle!
 
Beforehand, I made this short clip to try and show you guys how to get the ambulance light to go off.
You have to knock down the targets 3 times to get a "free ball" and light up the "Shoot Again" playfield light.
When you do that- the ambulance light comes on...
it feels great when you get something to work the way you want it to!
I let go of the record button on my camera. So, it's in 2 video parts...
I don't really know how to edit video clips yet...LOL
I'll try to make a better one tonight...>>>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/dvLBoez24Fs&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/dvLBoez24Fs&rel=0</a>&

[galahad]

Stayouttabunker! Good Job!! Very interesting thread. I think it's great when somebody adds their own personal touch to a machine. Looks and works good! Thats the fun of tiinkering!!!
Am presently working on an old egg dispencing arcade machine which has a moveable chicken when you turn the coin mech and produces a clucking sound. The old sound box was bad so now am trying a limit sw activated when you turn the coin mech and then setting off a recording I make on an old telepnone answering machine.
Keep Tinkering!

[CaptainHappy]

Bunker,

COOL, and thanks for sharing the video!!! 

It was worth the wait! 

CH

[stayouttadabunker]

I want to make another video,
but this one, I hope, showed the point of what I was trying to accomplish....
I want to repaint the old , blue paint around the back-glass to make it look better...
It's going to take a while to get the exact match...
I'd also like to retouch up the playfield where it looks a little worn before it goes entirely and
wax the heck out of it to protect it.
even the front coin door door looks like a barn dog was pawing it....

[StatFreak]

Stout, again, thanks for posting your electronic restoration efforts.
It's been great to follow all of your work on the machine. 

Sooo, now we know the secret of all of those high scores that you're going be posting in the coming months. It's EASY to get 26 credits and a score of 237,780 when you have no glass in place. (sorry, couldn't resist)

[Ron (r273)]

Stout, again, thanks for posting your electronic restoration efforts.
It's been great to follow all of your work on the machine. 

Sooo, now we know the secret of all of those high scores that you're going be posting in the coming months. It's EASY to get 26 credits and a score of 237,780 when you have no glass in place. (sorry, couldn't resist)

Yeah he probably going to put hidden hinges on that glass top.

Ron

[stayouttadabunker]

Nutty guys...
I am toying with the idea of having the option of a multi-ball capabilities... 
But for my next trick, I would like to install miniature SMD LEDs
alongside the main #47 bulbs inside their respective light shadow boxes in the backglass to make the "stars"
appear to twinkle when you knock down all the targets and get a "Free Game".

I think it would be a very easy addition and visually exciting!
The trigger to set this off ?......It would be simple!>>>the KNOCKER solenoid!

The thing is, these SMD LEDs are extremely tiny and really are made to be installed on boards.
I've seen them on boards in certain toppers such as the Las Vegas topper.
This one needs a few lamps to complete it as I've already change the "flasher" chip behind the board.
These SMD LEDs lamps are only found cheaply from China...
They sort of look like this>>>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/d0n84t3j4dI&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/d0n84t3j4dI&rel=0</a>

[stayouttadabunker]

This is a small board I removed from a destroyed mini helicopter my niece had.
It was a "battery indicator" light.
Basically, it would change colors from red to green when the battery was charged in her helicopter.
It's brightest (according to my benchtop DC power supply) is peaked at about 2-1/2 VDC.
It would dim at anything over 3 volts DC.
I don't know how it changes colors because it would not light up if the leads are reversed from the power supply.
I understand that LEDs are polarity sensitive...
If you click on the photo and enlarge it with a "microscope",
you will see how small this light really is on the board
The entire bulb itself is actually smaller than the 22 guage wires going to the board!>>>

[Op-Bell]

Basically, it would change colors from red to green when the battery was charged in her helicopter.
It's brightest (according to my benchtop DC power supply) is peaked at about 2-1/2 VDC.
It would dim at anything over 3 volts DC.
I don't know how it changes colors because it would not light up if the leads are reversed from the power supply.
I understand that LEDs are polarity sensitive...

There is a clue in the "small print" on the board. It is laid out for different kinds of LED, that's why it says "LED" three times, except that two of those times it says "LED1" and the other just says "LED". From my inspection of the traces it appears that LED1 + goes to LED -, and LED1 - goes to LED +. That's how you would get a color change - have a red LED backwards in parallel with a green one, so that with one polarity the red lights up and when reversed, the green lights up.

Cranking up my magic microscope, I can see there are actually two LED chips inside that grain of sugar -    - I know, just take my word for it. One is red and the other will be green, connected back to back in parallel. You probably blew out the green LED by connecting it to the power supply without a series resistor to limit the current. When you connect up LEDs, assume that the LED wants 2V, take this off the supply voltage and put in a resistor to limit the current to 10 milliamps or less. That's 100 ohms per volt. So in this example, LED on 6VDC, LED wants 2V, 6V-2V=4V, 100 ohms per volt, series resistor wants to be about 400 ohms. Nearest standard values are 390 ohms and 430 ohms - use what you can get, it's not critical.

[stayouttadabunker]

I noticed the Hong Kong guys on fleabay sometimes sell their LEDs  with certain resistors pre-soldered...
I ordered 50pcs  of white SMD LEDs size 1206 (They are popular in 605, 803...) These things are tiny as heck...
I bought the white ones in BOLD for $9.00,
These things are like 4 times the price in the States.
One thing for sure ,they're bright as heck and some toy hobbyists stick them in their trains as headlights.
You know those tiny little "passenger trains"? They use these lights as overhead cabin lights "inside" the tiny models>>>

ForwardVoltage(V) Dominant wavelength(mm) Luminous Flux(Lm) (MCD) Reverse current(uA) 50% Power Angle (deg)
　 If=20mA                    If=20mA                      If=20mA                            Vr=5V

　       Min    Typ             Min    Typ               Min    Typ                         Max
Red       2.1    2.3             615    625               150    180                          10                        125˚
Yellow   2.1    2.3             587    595               120    140                          10                        125˚
Brite     
Green   3        3.3             515    520               350    380                          10                        125˚
Blue     3        3.2             460    465               150    180                          10                        125˚
White   3.2    3.4    　       X=0.31
                                        Y=0.32               310    360                          10                       125˚
Pink       3.2    3.4             515    465               300    350                          10                        125˚

ADD>> I noticed they like to hawk sell 370ohm resistors
plus I did a dummy move and turned on the bench top power supply first before turning the voltage down...I noticed that it was set at 16.4VDC from something I was doing earlier...you maybe right...I could have blown it out before I had a chance to see what real voltage it would take.