Author Archives: tjs

Jan 12 2014
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My Games, Tech Tips

Williams EMs Sometimes Have Interlock Switches

I decided to spend a few minutes trying to fix my Spanish Eyes.  It just wasn’t getting power at all.

I stared at the schematic for a while and chatted with Chris a bit, and he said, “Is there an interlock switch?”

Yep, sure enough, there is.

Gottlieb and Williams games, particularly those with three-prong power cords, have interlock switches and the coin door must be closed for operation. It is even rarer to find one that has not been bypassed.

And it’s not in my schematic!  I don’t know why.  I might guess that it was a factory option, on some games, but I know of other Spanish Eyes that don’t have the interlock switch. It looks factory, and I can’t imagine anyone ADDING an interlock switch.

(An interlock switch cuts power when the coin door.  Most video games have them on the back panel, and some games, particularly early ’80s Atari games, have them on the coin door.)

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Jul 18 2013
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My Games, Tech Tips

Spring Break restoration notes

Old notes are bulleted, with inner bullets updating the work I did:

  • Battery corrosion.  This had one of the “DataSentry” style black batteries of doom.  … I have so far removed the battery but not cleaned the damage.
    • Ultimately, I just stopped.  I have parts to rebuild the reset section, but it’s working; why fight with it?
  • Computer has been trashed.  Like every 80B computer, this has a piggyback board arrangement where the solder joints fatigue and crack. … [T]his involves desoldering the board so I can work on the underside.  Unfortunately someone decided to go to war with the thing on the top side.  I did finally get the board off, but I am afraid I have damaged the plated-through holes.  I obliterated at least one pad on the bottom and damaged another.
    • I bought one of the GPE daughterboards.  Highly recommended.  The redundancy that this board adds helps make up for my mistakes, and Gottlieb’s mistakes.
  • Ramp cracked at entrance badly.
    • I have a new ramp, but it’s not installed.
  • Sounds lacking.  So I can hear some correct sounds, but mostly it’s static.  Can’t hear the music. I want to take a look at this, but there’s no reason to until grounds are verified.
    • I did put this off until after the ground mods, but the ground mods weren’t required.  All the grounds in this game are one big common (eventually) and that was easy to verify.
    • The actual problem was one or more bad ROMs on the sound board. I verified this by swapping parts with my Monte Carlo, which had a working sound board. This was much easier than trying to go at it with an oscilloscope… which I also did.
  • Ground mods not done.  I suspect this is causing sound problems.  At least one set of pins (this game has five) is burned badly.
    • I did the major ground mods.  Didn’t fix the sound (not surprising).  I’m not happy with them, though, because it means permanently rerouting a cable in a way I just don’t love.  I may try and come up with another method the next time I do this.
  • Lots of lamps missing.
    • Bad sockets and bad bulbs. I need to solder some sockets “shut”, but that’s about it.
  • Driver board has transistors replaced with the twisted-leg hack.
    • Replaced with CEN-U45.
  • Black rubber on playfield.  Ew.
    • Yeah, still haven’t had time to shop the game.
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May 13 2013
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Tech Tips

Maybe they’re all blown.

In the vein of the Maybe they’re all burnt out rule, I recently got a Gottlieb Monte Carlo  and none of the pop bumpers worked.

I got really lucky with this one. Each pop bumper is fused separately, but each and every one of them was blown individually. I could have gone checking the power train back to the transformer, but I was sort of smart and checked the fuses first. I say sort of smart because if I was legitimately smart, I would already have pulled every fuse on the game and made sure they were as originally specified, and I haven’t.

All of that said, why did three fuses die simultaneously? Well, the game was moved several hundred miles on the back of a truck. The drop target reset fuse had also blown. Maybe the fuses were just old, or perhaps I have another problem. In any case, though, they certainly needed to be replaced.

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May 13 2013
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My Games

I bought a Spring Break

Chris goes to the Captain’s Auction Warehouse coin-op auction regularly, at least recently. I started getting some bids in on some weirder titles that are going for reasonable prices. First I got a Spanish Eyes, then a Monte Carlo.  Most recently I picked up a Spring Break for $500, plus premiums and tax, which are actually pretty steep.

But I was happy to get it. The game is complete. The playfield is a little rough, but they’re still available. The cabinet is very good.

So far, I’ve found the following problems with it:

  • +5v regulator pot was bad.  They’re all bad, unless they have been replaced.  Mine was running a little north of +5v and the adjustment pot just didn’t work.  I replaced it, and it’s OK.
  • Battery corrosion.  This had one of the “DataSentry” style black batteries of doom.  Unlike my Monte Carlo, which is a few months older and had a beautiful, clean computer, this one has some damage in the reset section.  I have so far removed the battery but not cleaned the damage.
  • Computer has been trashed.  Like every 80B computer, this has a piggyback board arrangement where the solder joints fatigue and crack.  The solution is straightforward: resolder the pins.  The difficulty is that this involves desoldering the board so I can work on the underside.  Unfortunately someone decided to go to war with the thing on the top side.  I did finally get the board off, but I am afraid I have damaged the plated-through holes.  I obliterated at least one pad on the bottom and damaged another.  This won’t be too hard to mitigate, but it probably would not have happened had someone done good work to begin with.
  • Ramp cracked at entrance badly.
  • Sounds lacking.  So I can hear some correct sounds, but mostly it’s static.  Can’t hear the music. I want to take a look at this, but there’s no reason to until grounds are verified.
  • Ground mods not done.  I suspect this is causing sound problems.  At least one set of pins (this game has five) is burned badly.
  • Lots of lamps missing.
  • Driver board has transistors replaced with the twisted-leg hack.  I have the right transistors and I’ll fix that.
  • Black rubber on playfield.  Ew.

On the upside, a lot of lamps DO work.  The flippers are pretty strong.  The cabinet is very good, other than some duck tape glue that should be pretty easy to clean off.  The translite is a little faded, but not too bad.  I dropped in the regulator and computer from my Monte Carlo, and that gave a lot of hope.

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Mar 10 2013
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Collecting

You don’t play the paint.

Want to save a lot of bucks buying a pinball?  Look for a “player’s” game, not a “collector’s” game.

Collectors worry about numbers of plays, scratches on the cabinet, “orange peel” effects on the playfield, “ball swirl” marks. They ask, “Is it home use only?”

I suggest asking instead: “Is it fun?”

Always remember: You don’t play the paint. A little wear around scoops, inserts, or a few cracks in the paint can bring down the value, sure, but it generally doesn’t affect play at al.

Massive damage to the paint, or a completely worn out playfield, could seriously affect play. And it’s OK to worry about cosmetics. But it can become an obsession, and it’s not worth it.

Related, You don’t play the cabinet. It is crucial that the cabinet is square, and also important that it keeps out pets, spilled drinks, and dust. Does it matter if the cabinet is faded? Well, sure. It affects the value. If ugly enough, it can annoy one’s spouse.

My Kings of Steel has some cabinet damage. Is it obvious? Not really, because it is cleverly hidden by Black Knight 2000 and High Speed..

That said, I have games where I would swap the playfield, or touch up the cabinet. There is heavy damage and it would improve the cosmetics. But there’s a cost to these, both in money and time. It’s OK if they are not cosmetically perfect.

It’s a pinball machine – not a shrine. – “Shaggy”

Jan 04 2013
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Tech Tips

Maybe they’re all burnt out.

I powered up my Twilight Zone after moving to a new house and none of the flashers worked. I started checking voltages and cabling. What could have happened?

Flasher bulbs are a bit delicate. The move broke all of them. They were burned out.

When I bought my High Speed, none of the flashers worked. We started checking the large under-playfield resistors. We broke one in the process. Replacing it fixed nothing.

Flasher bulbs burn out and on High Speed, some are wired in series. They were burned out.

Chris told me about working on a home-model game that was showing some massive failure in the lighting, but on closer examination, all the bulbs were burned out.

Always check the easy stuff first!

Jul 07 2012
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Site

welcome to ty-ffasi.com

This is a little blog about pinball and arcade video games. There’s an old version at old.ty-ffasi.com that lingers on for unknown reasons.

In particular, a friend has said nice things about the coin door identification guide. I mean, one friend, and just the once, but it was very kind. You may find that useful, although PinWiki is a lot more organized and complete.

What does TY-FFASI mean?

I’m sure it was just a typo.

Who is to blame for this site?

Tim Showalter with considerable, and occasionally involuntary, help from friends.

Aw, c’mon, what does TY-FFASI mean?

It’s something that appears on the Data East/Sega solid-state flipper parts, and I needed a domain name, so here we are.

WHAT DOES TY-FFASI MEAN?

According to legend, and Clay’s repair guide, it means, “Take your f—ing flippers and stick it”. Apparently they were getting sued by Williams at the time over flipper designs at the time.

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