SF2: cleaning under the hood

I had wanted to get deep under SF2 for a while.  The car-crash playfield needed some work, and the subways under the playfield were black with filth.  They are supposed to be translucent.

right subway

left subway and car-crush playfield

First thing I did was the easiest:  completely remove the right subway and clean it, with excellent results:

The car-crush playfield has a few connectors that I labelled and disconnected, then 8 screws to remove it.  Well actually, just 4 screws.  Seems a prior owner had borrowed half the screws for other applications!  Thank goodness I had sought out backups of the exact type in weeks prior.

Here it is on my freezer workbench.

There should be a spring on either side, meaning the car crush was easier due to less resistance.

Both springs re-affixed, everything cleaned, and flipper rubber changed.  Time to re-attached the plastic ceiling plate.

I took the car off for later repairs.  I will see if I can render a new front bumper to it.  As you can see, the red remnants are snapped off and stuck at the front car-crash plate.


Now it was time for the difficult task:  cleaning that left subway!

getting closer...

Taking the car crush off was essential.  I then had to remove the left VUK to get at 3 fastening screws under there.

VUK removed.  Getting closer...

And then...  damn OK this ramp isn't coming off.  Look at the image of the whole under-side playfield.  The wiring harness has securely trapped the winding plastic and even after removing some lights and drop targets, could not find a reasonable way to get the plastic out without detaching the massive wiring harness.  #uggh.

So what to do then?  IMPROVISE!
No way I am letting that filthy ramp survive unattended.

a drain clog cleaner I picked up last week

I then folded paper towels around it, secured with a rubber band, covered in Windex, and then forced down the plastic at the VUK opening.  It would come back filthy each time.  PROGRESS!

It's not perfect, but it is MUCH BETTER.

So. Much. Better.

Right now my big problem with SF2 is getting in to the flippers.  Anyone have any advice for loosing those 2 bolts?  I tried with all of my strength but couldn't get them to budge.

My nemesis.  well, that and my allen key.  You are all my... nemesi?

I have the flipper rebuild kit, but that doesn't help if I can't get in to it!


STREET FIGHTER 2

TODO
install cliffy protectors
get non-ghosting LEDs (and replacing dead bulbs)
clean + adjust the flippers
adjust left extra ball center target
fix car + reattach
deep clean of playfield, removing all plastics + replace upper-playfield rubbers
replace playfield glass

DONE
clean car-crash mech and replace flipper rubber
cleaning the under-playfield troughs
got flipper replacement kit (holding on to it, will use it when needed)
got stargate ramp coils (but not reason to do it yet though)
fix 2 out lights in backbox
secure coin door
solder diode across the right slingshot coil.  Replace Q3 transistor on driver board.
left VUK: new spring, new plunger
get replacement fuses for under the PF
re-secured VUK mounts to provide extra-strong kicks + added extra screws
installed lower playfield rubbers
installed new power module
replaced Q3 transistor to solve right slingshot issue
reattached ground wires
replaced VUK solenoid to correct one
replaced fuse for stargate ramps
reattach tilt mechanism
bend left playfield bracket back in to proper place
new beer seal
Flipper rubber for Chun Li
Replaced flipper rubbers (except car crash flipper)
Cleaned backbox charring + replaced dead + charred lightbulbs
initial basic playfield cleaning 

playfields on the wall

Newly adorning the game room walls...

And, one more on the way!!!
I love the art specific to playfields.


I used these to secure them:

Heavier ones on the bottom, each is rated for 25 pounds.
Then a single smaller one to secure it at the top so it doesn't topple.

learning the ins and outs of LEDs

My order arrived, brimming with LEDs to experiment with!   Rocky & Bullwinkle has some dim lights near the back, so I definitely wanted to give them a POP.
SF2 is pretty bright as-is, but I was hoping to play around with it a bunch.

First issue:  The manual for R+B is a terrible representation of the actual lighting.  Light type are WRONG in a bunch of spots, and a few lights are omitted.
I ordered coloured LEDs for the B-O-M-B targets, according to the manual, but oh hey, they are ACTUALLY 44s, not 555s.  grrrrr

Here is the lighting under the 8 WABAC values.  we have 6 #555 bulbs on the board, with the last 2 as #44s.  The blue and yellow upright target lights are also #44s.   The manual?  Said they were all #555s...  *uggh*

2nd issue:  A while back I had noticed that the left "Aesop" scoop can also be used to light the WABAC value, just like the shot up the center, but alas the light was out!  Now with LEDs in hand I went in to fix it and....  ummm.  Wait.

It looks like an insert from a distance,but on closer examination, it isn't!  Did they forget to cut it out?

 So, not REALLY an issue, but certainly a curiousity.

Underneath, you can see there aren't even any markings for it, but certainly there would have been enough room had they wanted to.  So weird.

I popped LEDs in to the WABAC awards, the rollovers at the top, and a few of the upper flashers, and at least those look good.
One thing to note is that after inserting they aren't as stable it seems, and I had to go back in 2 or 3 times too wiggle the connection.  I wonder if there will be intermittentcy issues with them due to repeated openings of the playfield?

I did finally get an LED in to the Boris button / plunge button.   The issue before was that the domed LEDs I had were a TOUCH too long to fit in to the chassis.  I swapped out a low-clearance LED from the Flintstones (popped a domed LED in to there and you can't tell the difference,) put that one in to the lamp socket and...  gah I had broken a wire.  The hack-ful button strikes again!  I had figured the capacitor had branched of it, meeting with the wire at the cabinet as part of grounding.  My multimeter confirmed otherwise:  their junction point wasn't connected to ground, despite being super close.  So I ended up stripping the wire a bit and soldering it direct to the capacitor that branched off of the launch button.
In the end?  It was cleaner and more accessible than what was there before.
And the Boris target button?  GLOWS.  :)

it doesn't look like much, but the domed one on the left just didn't quite fit.

SF2 gave me a sad discovery, learning what "ghosting was.  I had always assumed ghosting was a property of the electrical system that the LED didn't turn off fast enough, thus leaving a ghost impression.  But I was wrong.
When the LEDs were off, they were still on.  Barely.  Gah, so annoying.  So I will have to make another order for SF2 for specific non-ghosting LEDs.
For most of the PF inserts, much of it is bright enough with incandescent, so I might leave much of it and just replace the green and purple lights with LEDs.
SF2 has the potential to be comically blinding with full LED treatments...


Also picked up this cute guy, to wrap around parts and get lighting in hard-to-see places while working...

On the to-do list front, I'm going to give up on the line item of "try and reduce speaker hum" because with the high voltages and the inability to industrial shield the audio circuits, it's really not worth the bother to investigate.


ROCKY & BULLWINKLE

STUFF TO DO
adjust flippers to the dots
replacing the SAVED decals.
find a replacement ramps / repair ramps
deep disassemble-everything clean (including under-playfield trough)
add more LEDs

DONE
clean flippers
get/install a Boris button
reconnect CN1 connector to increase reliability
install new levellers + casters, level the legs
wire Lion to 32 V instead of 50 V
replace the back box hat trick padding
Replace plastic Lion in hat trick
replace ball drain kicker
Update ROMs to 1.3
remove pop bumper screw.
repair first left orbit (hat trick) switch so that the diverter can work
CLEAN ALL THE THINGS.
replace beer seal


STREET FIGHTER 2

TODO
install cliffy protectors
get non-ghosting LEDs (and replacing dead bulbs)
clean + adjust the flippers
adjust left extra ball center target
deep clean of playfield, removing all plastics + replace upper-playfield rubbers
cleaning the under-playfield troughs
clean car-crash mech and re-affix car
replace playfield glass
Replace car crash flipper rubber + glue car to crash mechanism

DONE
got flipper replacement kit (holding on to it, will use it when needed)
got stargate ramp coils (but not reason to do it yet though)
fix 2 out lights in backbox
secure coin door
solder diode across the right slingshot coil.  Replace Q3 transistor on driver board.
left VUK: new spring, new plunger
get replacement fuses for under the PF
 re-secured VUK mounts to provide extra-strong kicks + added extra screws
installed lower playfield rubbers
installed new power module
replaced Q3 transistor to solve right slingshot issue
reattached ground wires
replaced VUK solenoid to correct one
replaced fuse for stargate ramps
reattach tilt mechanism
bend left playfield bracket back in to proper place
new beer seal
Flipper rubber for Chun Li
Replaced flipper rubbers (except car crash flipper)
Cleaned backbox charring + replaced dead + charred lightbulbs
initial basic playfield cleaning

my inexperience shows

It is important to remember that things I thought were a problem weren't actually that problem.

Spring for Break Shot not holding the up-post?  Actually a bent bar.
Slingshot misalignment for Break Shot?  Actually broken clip on the slingshot.
Cold soldering on R+B power board?  Actually just a single loose wire in a connector.
Dead switch on R+B?  Just a bad connector.
Dead switch on Break shot?  misaligned lane switch.
Dirty rails on the SF2 cab?  a huge issue was the bent metal at the back of the playfield!





My old Breakshot is now back how with its loving new/old owner, and he was kind enough to email me an update about it.  He filed the switch inside the cabinet and now the upper flipper plays brilliantly, able to return a Super Cue shot from the left back to the right!  It never did that for me, and I assumed dirty coil.  But nope, he fixed parts I hadn't considered, and it's better than ever now.

So to remember:  Stop and take a pause when I THINK I know what the issue is.  Or worse, consider an alternative if I think something is NOT an issue...

Kind of sad I got rid of Break Shot, but Flintstones is certainly worth it.  Mind you, the question is should I have gotten rid of Rocky + Bullwinkle instead?  But, the guy was lined up, ready to pick up, so it was certainly the most manageable thing to do, to sell Break Shot.

A quick digression, where I wanted to talk about how amazing the guy who bought my Break Shot is.
HE MADE A TRIPLE-HEADED PINBALL MACHINE!  Check game play here. 
And here is a vid on how it works:

(he also shows off his amazing Rat Race!)


I took some time tonight to take out the coils for R+B and give it all a good cleaning.  Put it back and WOW, yep, a noticeable difference.  I was thinking I had the slope too high on the game, but now that the flippers were cleaned and filed, the game plays that much better and that right ramp isn't prohibitive.  I did file the metal rods in the flipper coil a touch.  They weren't super mushroomed or anything at the end, but every little bit helps I imagine.

I think my goal for the time being will try and "dial in" Rocky + Bullwinkle as much as possible to see if I can get it notched above Street Fighter 2 in my fave column.
Heck, Rocky + Bullwinkle would be better than SF2 if I could run a trace on the ROM and find the variable countdown timer for ball-save and put it to something sane like every other game.


I would like to end by pointing out the fabulous progress on the Skit-B Pinball Predator game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-Pop41otk
So excited for all of those of you that are getting one!

Rocky & Bullwinkle: adding a Boris button!

My R&B had been routed and had a few non-original parts installed as fixes, and I've done a pretty good job of getting it closer to it's original state.
I will never bother hunting for a Nell mechanism, but that is a pretty useless toy as far as I'm concerned.  But from a presentation standpoint, I had always wanted to get the original Boris target button on the start button.

the old green button with the NOS Boris button that just arrived!

The old switch had been hacked in to place.  The backs of these normally have 5 plugs, but mine only had 2, and then 3 wires soldered.
Well OK one was a wire that had a diode that attached at the left, the other had a wire that went to one plug, and then had a diode running to another plug.  Then 2 normal plugs.

I didn't have any plugs or anything, and so I too would have to hack along if I wanted to get this installed!
 First up was getting the white bit away from the black bit.  On the NOS button, it was an effortless click.  On this old one is was a battle of will and strength I had to walk away from twice until I could finally dislodge it.
The white piece slides out with a bulb on the end for easy replacement.

I noted the wires + connector locations, desoldered the wires from the connectors, and prepped to get my new switch wired up.  I would have loved to just use this old switch, but it just didn't quite fit in to the new button chasis correctly.

Soldering is hard enough, but bending over in to the machine to do it certainly doesn't help!
I attached this clip to give added weight to the dangling mechanism while I worked on it.

rawwrrr, stay put!

And shockingly, I managed to reconnect it faster than taking it apart!

sure it's a hack, but it's MY hack.

They totally ripped that off of Public Enemy.

In the end the light isn't that bright, but when my LEDs come I will try putting an LED 555 in there.
It might have something to do with the hackzilla of wires in there?  But ahh well, it's working fine at least.


Oh what's that?  LEDs?  Yes, I placed an order for some treats!
I am going to put LEDs at strategic places in SF2 and R+B.  I also ordered Cliffy Protectors for SF2, as well a Gottlieb flipper rebuild kit.  I maybe should have looked in to one that included the upper flipper as well, but at least having the bottom flippers rebuilt will be nice.  Maybe with the know-how acquired form that endeavor I will be able to clean + tweak that upper SF2 slipper.
OK, I should stop talking about SF2, this is R+B's time to shine!  Oh right, I also ordered the SAVED decals for R+B since one is missing on mine.

I am not sure if I will ever bother replacing the cracks in the R+B ramps since replacing them is costly and they don't damper game play.  I might look in to restoring them, though.

Flintstones quick update

I popped open the playfield today to look at the drop targets and it was an easy fix.  The plastic bottom of the 'K' drop had slipped below the bar, thus never letting it get back to reset position.
The plastic is a bit malleable, so I was able to flex it a bit and get the bar back under it.


Then there is the mystery 800,000 points scored every time I was hitting a flipper.
Mind you, not EVERY time.  Some times it didn't award it, so a mystery was afoot!

Googling for Flintstones and 800,00 I found this post about a Flintstones repair and they had something similar occur.


 From their repair notes:

10/21/2012 15:38:06  All 3 flippers rebuilt, repaired fliptronic board - replaced 2x TIP36C transistors, repaired left 3 bank target pcb - bottom target opto was scoring on any drop in voltage due to coils firing or other loads on the 110v ac line. My heat gun made it score 800,000 points when turned on! This was interesting, never seen that before. Replaced swelled upper right flipper coil - swelled up - over heated. Broken micro-switch on the "Machine" toy. Repaired play-field slide mechanism - missing collar nut made whole play-field tilted to the left and darn hard to pull out for service. Painted inside left cabinet wall - where the play-field was digging in during lift. Fixed a lot of light sockets, bad solder and many minor issues under the play-field. Fixed the trans-light bubble on back-glass. New inst cards. Almost done.... the gold legs are ugly, oh joy, we get to clean the legs.

for me, it was the middle target, the 'E' drop.  When it was down it can't score any more, and so the coils firing weren't scoring the extra 800,000 points.
The shooter coil and flippers were causing this voltage drop, but the pops weren't.

So I can take a look at the PCB, or worst case scenario, you can get new ones for $33.

DONE
fix always-down 'K' drop target
TODO
Get metal plate for underneath pop bumper bakelight
File down mushrooming on upper flipper (bottom two were done)
extra GI mods:  lights in the city plastics, dinosaur plastic
Fix broken 3-bank drop target PCB, scores 800,000 points when flipper/shooter solenoids drop the voltage.

the OTHER game room

...AKA my office/studio space.

I got an X-Arcade Tankstick last year and have finally set things up to be perfect for it, prompted by the release of The Pinball Arcade for PC (via Steam).
I moved my 24" wide screen to a vertical position to best hold Pinball Arcade.  I had a 19" monitor as my secondary, and just today bought a 22" widescreen for $50.

Pinball Arcade:  THE THEATRE

The dual setup is great for MAME as well.  I have my horizontal games configed for the left monitor, and the vertical games configed for the right.

Contra!

Toki!

I had a bunch of issue with the mouse aspects of the Tankstick, but the tech people were super helpful and the issue was the plastic sleeves of the spare cables inside the stick had slipped, closing connections.
I retaped the ends on and it worked perfectly.
Pinball Arcade still needs to implement mouse options properly so I can assign the left and right mouse buttons to nudges.  THEN, the setup will be pretty much perfect.

this is what the tankstick looks like on the inside

It is cool to see how plug-and-play the setup is.  Inspiring!

These are the spare cables.  Some of the sleeves had slipped, so I just taped the loose end.s

SF2: my second soldering success!

While to most people in this hobby, soldering is old hat.  But for me, getting back in to it means I can celebrate every tiny soldering victory (I almost typed 'victim'), no matter how banal.

Case and point, I got my backbox fully lit again.  Thank you soldering iron!

From the back, the upper left and lower right lights weren't working.
I got a new DMM recently with little hooked leads to allow for easy clipping on to wires.  I set the DMM to continuity test, and with my ground hook on one of the wires I should be able to touch the other part anywhere and get a beep, meaning they are connected.
Touching the lower screws on those two light assemblies resulted in no beep, meaning the solder connecting the wire to the metal plate had either gotten cold and separated, or was never properly attached.

While much of that scorching was already there in the lower right, I do fully expect the Soldering Gods to turn away in shame as I do my thing.

Instead of reposting the TODO list, I will just go update last post's list with this achievement.

introducing... The Flintstones!

OH HEY, IT'S THE FLINTSTONES!

The opportunity came up to get a beautiful copy of The Flintstones and I had to go for it.
Breakshot is still here, off camera, and sold already.  (So don't ask, sorry)

I came to the idea I really wanted to push towards kids-friendly pins to make things as fun as possible for my daughter and friends for the next few years.  Eventually she will have niche tastes, and HEY if she loves dinosaurs, I can get a Jurassic Park or something like that.
My next focus?  MOUSIN' AROUND.
Others on the wish-list?  No Good Gophers and World Cup Soccer.



BUT BACK TO THE FLINTSTONES!

My first Bally!  After a Gottlieb EM, a Data East, a Capcom, and a Gottlieb DMD, I finally see the light:  it feels damn nice to own a Bally.

Of course I had to do the usual thing:  photograph the boards,  label all connectors, unplug them all, remove the head, take all pieces down the stairs separately, and the reassemble.
The guy I bought it from was scheduled to help me get it down, but was in a rush and so had to cancel that part.  While I was disconnecting things in the garage, I had the garage door open and some construction (sewer replacement) was taking place on my street.  The foreman came over to take a look at what I was doing.
After talking for a while, he offered to help get it down!  After they were done their work, and I was done mine, he grabbed a worker and those two guys brought the body down my difficult stairs!!!
What a blessing those men were.

I got it all reconnected, flipped the switch and...  POP.  After my SF2 incident, I powered it up with the backbox open, and so saw the F112 fuse go out like a camera flash.  Turned the power off right away.
I soon discovered I had mis-attached a connector.  Don't ever do this.

awwww damn.  Always spend the extra time to get up on a chair and inspect from all angles.  Slacker.

 Here's a clip from the manual of that area:

F112 is common to the bridge rectifier, feeding to more than just F104.
I went through and checked fuses at this point and found F104 was WAAAAY overfused.  15A in there when it should be 3A.  holy crap.
I decided to check all of them.  The Flippertronics II board should be 4 x 3A.  It was 10, 10, 10 and 7.  W. T. F.
A disaster waiting to happen.

After properly setting the connector, getting proper fuses and replacing the blown one, I turned it on again:  F112 popped again, right away.

I read that F112 shouldn't really be popping here unless BR3 is bad (most common scenario,) so I got Geoff my repair tech in since he's a whiz at board work.

He checked BR3 and it wasn't shorted!  Before turning anything on he did a major inspection under the playfield and found that one of the flippers did not have a diode across the coil.
It makes sense that at initial power-on my misplaced connector could have put the flipper "hold" (EOS) power to ground and caused F112 to pop, especially since F104 was over-fused to 15A.
But it is a headscratcher that with a proper 3A in F104, with the connector in proper position, and with BR3 NOT shorting, that F112 would be the one to pop and not another fuse.

I had a hard time accepting that THIS was the cause of my woes, but well....  I am playing the game now.

But, that seems to be the case.  After attaching the diode, the game works fine.
He also noticed the knocker was totally fried and stuck, so we disconnected that.  The traces for the knocker on the board are even fried, but oddly enough, the transistor that controlled it was totaly fine.  What is up with that?
Quick and dirty, unplugged the knocker.  They aren't even relevant in home games anyway.


He did notice a pop bumper solenoid missing a metal plate against the bakelite:

QUICK NOTE:  WILLIAMS MANUALS SUCK COMPARED TO GOTTLIEB!  They do not have the full board schematics like a Gottlieb or Data East manual.
The WPC schematics come in OTHER special books, because, I am told, the field instructions for board issues was to swap in a new board.


TODO
special + bowling lights out
Get metal plate for underneath pop bumper bakelight
File down upper flipper (bottom two were done)
extra GI mods:  lights in the city plastics, dinosaur plastic
something scores for 800,000 points when the right flippers flip


Flintstones is super fun.  Enough of this blogging, back to playing it.

SF2: pretty darn close to playing 100%!

A small flurry of progress with SF2:

I had my local tech in to attach a new 12N10L transistor in the Q3 spot on the driver board.   You might remember that the right slingshot coil had no diode across it, so was frying the Q3 transistor, resulting in the coil staying on.  Luckily I caught it before it burnt.  Popped out the F17 fuse and was still enjoying my game enough.
Now with diode on coil and the transistors arriving from marcospec, he swapped in the board component and voila, that's done.

Geoff, my lovely repair tech, has a great web site up at http://www.pinhead.ca/
I highly recommend him.
Oh hey and he brought old door parts and was able to secure the coin door!  Hurray for it not popping outward from the pressure of the interlock swithc and threatening to totally fall off without the lockdown bar in place.


I also have totally fixed the left VUK.  Previously I had a proper coil put in there so at least it could limp the balls out of the hole.  I also needed to re-affix the mount under the playfield as it was missing many screws.
The final steps was replacing the plunger and spring.  Here is what the old one looked like after I removed it:

so. sad.

Swapping it in was pretty easy.  It involved loosening the hole's switch to get access to the nuts for a plate that held the coil in position, then everything slides out cleanly.
The hardest part was finding the courage to trust the playfield in the upright position.  I didn't find it.  I did the whole repair with one firm hand keeping it vertical.


I also swapped in proper fuses for the few remaining ill-fused stragglers.  Right now the only incorrect fuse is F4, which has a 1/2 instead of 3/8.  Not sweating that one too much, but do still have some 3/8 ones on the way!

I reattached the subwoofer in a test, but it is so BUZZY.  I play my games with the volume somewhat low, so screw it, no sub.

So a few small things remain, but when the biggest issue is that you maybe want to replace the flippers?  NONE TOO SHABBY.


TODO
get flipper replacement kit
adjust left extra ball center target
deep clean of playfield, removing all plastics and cleaning the screws + replace upper-playfield rubbers
cleaning the under-playfield troughs
replace playfield glass
get cliffy protectors
Replace car crash flipper rubber + glue car to crash mechanism
replace stargate ramp coils (but not reason to do it yet though)replace upper left flipper solenoid with correct one  (should be A-25959) (have it, no reason to do it yet though)

DONE
fix 2 out lights in backbox
secure coin door
solder diode across the right slingshot coil.  Replace Q3 transistor on driver board.
left VUK: new spring, new plunger
get replacement fuses for under the PF
 re-secured VUK mounts to provide extra-strong kicks + added extra screws
installed lower playfield rubbers
installed new power module
replaced Q3 transistor to solve right slingshot issue
reattached ground wires
replaced VUK solenoid to correct one
replaced fuse for stargate ramps
reattach tilt mechanism
bend left playfield bracket back in to proper place
new beer seal
Flipper rubber for Chun Li
Replaced flipper rubbers (except car crash flipper)
Cleaned backbox charring + replaced dead + charred lightbulbs
initial basic playfield cleaning

SF2: VUK mounts + outlane kicker

Problems found, problems fixed!

VUK MOUNTS
SF2 has 2 VUK units and they are one of the most heavily used components on the game, after the flippers themselves.  50% of all shots feed right to them.  E Honda, Zangief, Sagat, Ken & Ryu, M Bison, Balrog: each of those shots uses the VUK to get the ball back out.
SO when they are off, you REALLY feel it.  The VUKs were limping a bit so I checked under the PF and the mounting mechanisms for them were loose.  Tightening them up made the kickers play pretty much perfect!

But inspection gave rise to another head-scratcher:  Why are there so many screws missing???

SO. MANY. MISSING. SCREWS.

I went to Home Depot with screws from the machine in hand, and a lovely man in the screws isle helped me find replacements.
For your reference and mine, these are the screws that are used:

I added all missing screws and got it all tightened up.  Hopefully with a full set of screws in there things will come loose less quickly.



 
SAME PLAYER SHOOT AGAIN ISSUE
While playing the game a problem would occur erratically. (and erratic is the WORST type of problem.  Next to "thing catching on fire".)
A ball would enter the outhole, a new ball would be released to the shooter lane and then the machine says "SAME PLAYER SHOOT AGAIN!" over and over again.  Uh oh!

here is the outhole mechanism

2 balls loaded, 3rd ball would depress the switch

This is the kind of issue that I would love to work on with an EM, because you know that by looking at the schematics you can unveil the procession of logic that results in any state.
On a DMD, I was worried it'd be a bit more mysterious.  But luckily, I was able to solve it.

When the "Same player shoot again" would happen, I would note there was a ball still in the outhole.  Why was it still there?  Did the coil fail at kicking it out?  Did the coil fail to fire?
I took off the apron and figured out the issue:  there is a switch under there that indicates if a 3rd ball is loaded.  When a ball is released in to the shooter lane, the other 2 balls are supposed to roll forward.
The switch was bent in such a way that a ball could be precariously balanced in there to have not quite enough gravity to overcome the switch's resistance.  I think this is related to the fact I have the machine now set to maximum slant.
I was able to use needle-nose pliers to bend the switch a bit and so far so good:  the ball is not getting stuck in there any more.

here is ball 3, resting perfectly on the switch, thus causing the issue.  BEND THAT ISH!

Problems solved!

SF2 manual scan

I spent some times this week scanning in the SF2 manual. It might also be of interest to anyone who owns a Gottlieb System 3 game.
http://thetastates.com/pinball/Street_Fighter_2_pinball_manual.pdf

All of the schematics had to be re-assembled from 3 different scans, so they're not perfect, but all very good. And apparently the digital copy of this manual going around already wasn't so hot.
It is formatted to be optimized for digital viewing, not reprinting. I wanted all of the schematics as seamless as possible.

SF2: installed some rubbers

I took some time and started installing a "rubber ring kit" in to Street Fight 2.

Lo and behold, I found another problem from the operators "handbook of things you really shouldn't do".

that white ring is for to go around those 3 posts.  Instead someone but tiny rubbers on 2 of the posts, and let the metal bar get SLAMMED in to the up/down post there.
I bent the metal piece away from the post and installed the proper rubber.

The upper area of the playfield is a pandora's box.  I can't quite figure out all of the screws to get in to it!  In order to finish my rubber replacing I will need to spend a day trying to get in there.
I will procrastinate on this, no doubt, but one day when I decide to do a DEEPER playfield clean I will eye tearing all the upper playfield mechs out and getting in there.  I can change the remaining rubbers then.

While getting to the lower playfield rubbers (and really most of the rubbers are in that lower playfield) I had to unscrew much of the metal ramps.  I took the opportunity to soak the screws and washers in Evapo-Rust and got much of their crusty rust off.  They don't all look pretty, but they do look less gnarly now.  Maybe I'll replace them, they are just screws, but if I can salvage the old parts, why not!

Look at those new white rubbers just GLOW!

In testing afterwards I did notice that the flipper rubbers aren't bouncing the ball well, a symptom of how they are a touch loose, so the ball loses momentum when colliding with them.
I have fresh flipper bats to install, so will add to the todo list:  replace flipper bats, and tighten/secure the flippers.



TODO
get replacement fuses for under the PF
also check the fuses at the transformer
left VUK: get new spring, new plunger
solder diode across the right slingshot coil.  Replace Q3 transistor on driver board.
replace stargate ramp coils
replace flipper bats, and tighten/secure the flippers.
deep clean of playfield, removing all plastics and cleaning the screws + replace upper-playfield rubbers
replace upper left flipper solenoid with correct one  (should be A-25959) (have it, no reason to do it yet though)
cleaning the under-playfield troughs
secure coin door
replace coon door lock
replace playfield glass
get cliffy protectors
Replace car crash flipper rubber + glue car to crash mechanism
reattach subwoofer
fix 2 out lights in backbox (wiring issue?)

DONE
re-secured VUK mounts to provide extra-strong kicks (though they need more screws!)
installed lower playfield rubbers
installed new power module
replaced Q3 transistor to solve right slingshot issue
reattached ground wires
replaced VUK solenoid to correct one
replaced fuse for stargate ramps
reattach tilt mechanism
bend left playfield bracket back in to proper place
new beer seal
Flipper rubber for Chun Li
Replaced flipper rubbers (except car crash flipper)
Cleaned backbox charring + replaced dead + charred lightbulbs
initial basic playfield cleaning

marquees installed!

Still looking for original marquees from...
Rampage
Marble Madness
Metamorphic Force
Cameltry
Smash TV
Crystal Castles
Karnov

Pinrepair tech session #2

My repair guy came back the other day with a spare sleeve for the left VUK coil on SF2!
The plunger still needs to be replaced (the old one is really misshapen,) but lo' the ball gets kicked up now.  Not 100%, but 80%, so fine by me if there is an occasional misfire.  We'll have it fixed with the new plunger.

After testing it, we noticed the right slingshot was constantly engaged again.  ACK!  That means the Q3 transistor was once again blown, implying it was not a random failure.
He said "sometimes the diodes across the coil fail or crack".  So we looked under and hey, there was NO DIODE there.  Did it fall off?  How long had it been that way?
Anyways, add that to the list:
solder diode across the right slingshot coil.  Replace Q3 transistor on driver board.
IF we get that taken care of, it should stop blowing the transistor.

I had also made note in last post's todo list to replace the stargate ramp coils.  I only recently discovered this little tidbit about how the original ones aren't right for the job.

While waiting for him to arrive I decided to check the fuses under the playboard.  I found 1 under-fused and 2 over-fused!
get replacement fuses for under the PF
also check the fuses at the transformer

He also attached the new interlock switch to the cabinet, and bent the other door switch in to place so it registered properly.
The only issue with this is that the door is super loose, so these switches are basically pushing the coin door open/off.  He says he has spare door parts to secure it in place, as well I will look in to getting a proper lock for sealing it closed.  This will allow me to not have to rely on the steel bar....
secure coin door
replace coon door lock

updating the todo lists...

ROCKY & BULLWINKLE

STUFF TO DO
adjust flippers to the dots
try troubleshooting audio connections: excessive hum + hum sound oscillating with light show
replacing the SAVED decals.
find a replacement WABAC ramp.
get/install a Boris button
deep disassemble-everything clean

DONE
reconnect CN1 connector to increase reliability
install new levellers + casters, level the legs
wire Lion to 32 V instead of 50 V
replace the back box hat trick padding
Replace plastic Lion in hat trick
replace ball drain kicker
Update ROMs to 1.3
remove pop bumper screw.
repair first left orbit (hat trick) switch so that the diverter can work
CLEAN ALL THE THINGS.
replace beer seal


STREET FIGHTER 2

TODO
verify ratings of all fuses
left VUK: get new spring, new plunger
replace stargate ramp coils
deep clean of playfield, removing all plastics and cleaning the screws
replace upper left flipper solenoid with correct one  (should be A-25959) (have it, no reason to do it yet though)
cleaning the under-playfield troughs
firmly attaching the coin door
replace playfield glass
replace all playfield rubbers (have a rubber set)
get cliffy protectors
replace 3 Gottlieb flipper bats (have them)
Replace car crash flipper rubber + glue car to crash mechanism
reattach subwoofer
fix 2 out lights in backbox (wiring issue?)

DONE
installed new power module
replaced Q3 transistor to solve right slingshot issue
reattached ground wires
replaced VUK solenoid to correct one
replaced fuse for stargate ramps
reattach tilt mechanism
bend left playfield bracket back in to proper place
new beer seal
Flipper rubber for Chun Li
Replaced flipper rubbers (except car crash flipper)
Cleaned backbox charring + replaced dead + charred lightbulbs
initial basic playfield cleaning


BREAKSHOT

TODO
replace clip on left slingshot
replace upper-right flipper coil with replacement we have
replace/fix latch on center post locking mechanism

reduce strength of pop bumpers, if possible
level the legs (not pressing)
adjust flipper position to the dots
 
DONE
Add rubber casters to legs and drink holder to front right leg.
install the extra rubber pieces we received
Oiled upper right miniflipper.  Got it working, then learned you shouldn't do that.
Found out why machine freezes when at TILT:  was acting as an electromagnet
clean and wax
Fixed left outlane switch (adjusted height)
replace compression spring in center post.  discovered issue was more the ledge plate.
replaced beer seal
adjusted right inline switch so it registered

pinball repair tech session #1

I had the pinball tech over today and it was a bit of a whirlwind!  I am still a bit of a deer-in-headlights with lots of stuff, it being all new to me, so it was amazing to see the speed and confidence that only so many years of work can condition.

Long story short:  he got so many things taken care of, and even some stuff that wasn't on my wish-list.  I didn't quite order all of the parts properly though, so he'll be back around on Monday to finish up the VUK.
As luck would have it, he recently took 2 dead Stargate machines and assembled one, thanks in part to the great accessibility of Gottlieb System 3 parts from Pinball Resource.  When I exclaimed that it was great so much was available, he reminded me that SO MANY System 3 machines have been scrapped.
They had major issues when they were released, and are really not too popular in the secondary market.  Check the games list.  Recognize any of these from the IPDB top 50 games?  Top 150?  Just Stargate, really.  SMB: Mushroom World gets a bit of love since it's a younger kid-oriented game.

Short story long:  Here's what he got up to.  (Down to?)

First thing he did was take the front apron off to remove the balls completely.  I hadn't taken it off before, so here's a shot of the ball mech for posterity:

Top priority:  inspecting Street Fighter 2 for damage from the big drop.  He found a coil at the back with a bent bracket, and aligned that with a quick bend.  No shorts, nothing else noticeably busted.

Instead of trying it then and there, he went straight to the other items I had mentioned.



The "stargate ramp" coil on the left was crispy and brown, but still seemingly functional.  He pulled it out and cleaned it a tad.  I will order a replacement but he got it going.  Popped in the new fuse, and another note on the hacks from the past operator:  the entirely wrong fuse was used.  As he noted, "an amp off can mean the difference between operating normally and a house burning down".  True that.

this is pretty much how I like my campfire marshmallows

Next up was putting in my power line module that I had bought (NOS) from Pinball Resource.  First there was the horror that when I got the machine it wasn't connected to ground.  Then there was the sigh of relief that while the F1 fuse was MELTED, they had hacked a fuse in on the backside.  Then the horror again, as we realized it was 2 amps over....

yeah, nuts to this.  I don't play around with line voltage.  goodbye, old power unit.

While at that part of the cap he got the ground wires reconnected.  Stripped each  side of the snip, soldering them together, and applied heat shrink tubing. 

tilt bob was reconnected shortly after photo was taken.  I suddenly have an appreciation for the inside-cabinet paint job!  Kinda psychedelic.

When "the accident" happened, I had been cleaning the inner-cabinet rails that held up the playfield, in hopes of making it more accessible.  He was having none of this nonsense and quickly spotted a critical offender.  The back-left playfield bracket was severely warped and causing major issues with sliding the playfield.  He removed it and bent it back in to shape with 2 wrenches and some muscle.

Experience counts.  I never would know, looking a this, that it was horribly wrong.  But it is.  Oh so wrong.

He took out the Williams coil on the VUK and put in the new one I had ordered.  Problem is, I didn't have the correct sleeve for it.  I did not know!  Alas...  While he got it in OK, it's misaligned, a touch loose, and doesn't get the ball up and out OK.
He will be returning Monday with some other Stargate spare parts to fix that last little bit.  It took a while to get to this point, a few fuses were popped, but we now have a plan of action.

This is the Williams coil that causes the ball to slam in to the glass.  Note the spring is bunk and needs replacing too, but as he mentioned, gravity is on our side.

My "mystery of the right slingshot" wasn't actually much of the mystery.  Looking at the schematics I posted, all fingers pointed to the Q3 transistor.  He took the board out, tested it with his DMM, and yup.   Failed.  Always on.
This part became another long part in the repair.   He initially soldered in replacement transistors, but they weren't the correct ones.    Luckily he had brought his spare Stargate driver board, and was able to use transistors from there.

His soldering was meticulous, barely discernible from the factory solder, except by brightness of the shine.

When the pin was turned on it was incredible to see it alive and not on fire!  Huzzah!

All the while during tests we had issues of it saying "same player shoot again", thus registering the outhole over and over again.  This was fixed by moving the balls around and avoiding triggering the outhole switch.  I might have to balance the machine better to avoid this, but we eventually got it to stop occurring.






Considering the level of carelessness the past operator displayed, something to do soon:  CHECK ALL FUSES TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE ACCURATE.  I am not trusting anything else about this machine.


He then moved on to Rocky & Bullwinkle.  I had whittled the problem down to the CN1 power connector, and he took it out, properly re-set the one wire, and now it seems to be aces.  We'll see how long the reliability holds, but so far so good.

Then, Break Shot, where I wanted him to look at the alignment of the left slingshot.  I was curious about how to move/realign it.
he took a gander and discovered alignment wasn't the issue at all, but a clip connecting the sling to the solenoid was busted.  Sure, I might have discovered this eventually, but it's another example of experience solving in 5 seconds what an amateur things about working on for weeks.


I am incredibly happy I made this one final pinball expenditure and will get all the big things taken off the list.
I am very much looking forward to Monday afternoon when I can finally play SF2 with all of the features 100%.