Tag Archives: stern

Three Generic Modern Stern Mods I Like, and One I Don’t

To my surprise, most of my current collection is Stern games, and I think they can all be improved a little with a few mods.

I’m not a big fan of playfield mods in general, although I have done a few here and there. I find that they make the game harder to work on, they don’t affect play, and a lot of times they’re distracting. But I do have a few generic things I like.

Headphone Jack

On all SPIKE games, Stern has a good kit for headphone jacks. I like these for two reasons. First, headphones work and annoy my family a little less. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, headphone jacks mean the volume control is on the outside of the game, and obvious. SPIKE games differentiate between headphone volume and game volume. The kit is not difficult to install, and is reversible, should you resell the game to an operator (just save the blanking plate in the cash box).

I’ve used some of the aftermarket headphone kits on Whitestar and SAM games. These are good, albeit not as good. In particular, they do not auto-mute when headphones are present, nor do they adjust the volume differently for speakers versus headphones. But they’re still good kits. My kits came from Pinnovators. (Note that these depend on both the board system as well as the coin door. Early games have a different blanking plate.)

(Unfortunately I also bought a volume control gizmo that fits into the tournament button hole. I can’t speak for it, as the headphone kit was better for me.)

Knocker

I’ve written about this elsewhere on previous occasions. I miss real knockers, but since Simpsons Pinball Party, Stern has provided a path for installing a real one. Pinball Life has a knocker kit that I recently installed on my Foo Fighters. (Amusingly, they still refer to this as the “Q24” option, despite the fact that Q24 is a Whitestar relic.)

Tournament Button

Starting from SAM games1 (WPT), Stern added a Tournament Button. On the first few games, like WPT, this was wired into the lockdown bar. Unlike current games, the lockdown bar has to be unplugged before it is removed, which is a real pain when working on a game frequently or even clearing stuck balls.

Cliffy makes a relocation kit that I installed on my WPT that I absolutely loved. (Without this kit, my tournament button spent most of its time simply unplugged.) This also meant putting a blanking plate into the lockdown bar to plug the hole. (At the time, Stern said they would sell a lockdown bar sans hole, but I never found that part before I sold my WPT.)

On later games, including my Star Trek and my Foo Fighters, there is no included button, but the wiring harness has connectors for the button, and a blanking plug is in the cabinet just below the start button. This is a little harder to install since the connectors are pretty well buried in the wiring harness, but I mean it’s a 20 minute job instead of a 5 minute job. The button is somewhat more interesting than the blanking plate.

The buttons are available from the usual suspects. (Note that I have not verified this part is the only part needed, and that the PBL price is currently less than half of the Marco price.)

Note that the tournament buttons don’t do much in home use. I just hate blanking plates for some reason.

I Avoid Shaker Motors

On my Star Trek, I installed a shaker motor. My kids were pretty young when we got the game and the noise bothered them. I didn’t feel that it helped the game experience, so I haven’t bothered with another one.

The kit is easy to install and not expensive, but mine sits in my Star Trek, disabled in software. Neither my Batman 66 (since sold) nor my Foo Fighters have shaker motors, and I don’t expect to install them.

Bonus Other Stuff

I changed the shooter spring in my WPT to the wimpiest one I could find. I sold my WPT to a friend who changed it to an even wimpier spring. But on my Simpsons, I think that it plays better with a stronger spring.

I have yet to replace my fluorescent tubes with LED tubes in my pinballs, but I keep meaning to. I did do this in some video games and I’m very happy with it.

I also generally like LEDs in GI for older games, which tend to be a little dark. Sometimes I stick with incandescent lamps in the switch matrix, and sometimes I change them to LEDs. (I use pink bulbs behind yellow inserts, which look great; otherwise, yellow bulbs behind yellow inserts tend to look washed out. Thanks, TJ!)

  1. The TOPS kit predates even SAM games, so some Whitestar games can maybe also take the button. But the TOPS kits aren’t that common, and I haven’t tried it. ↩︎
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SPP drop targets are too generous

I have more or less finished a shop job on my Simpsons Pinball Party over six years in the waiting. One problem that I have been frustrated with was the drop target bank got confused sometimes and would award “drops completed” several times. Careful observation over an extended period of procrastination and play revealed that the middle target seemed to be at fault.

I actually went as far as buying some new microswitches, just in case one was flaky. Then I remembered to always look for a bad connection first.

The diodes on these switches are mounted on a terminal strip a few inches from the drops. I thought for sure one would be cracked, but they looked fine.

So I pulled the drop target bank out of the game, and one of the QD connectors fell off of its switch lug. I used pliers to squish the switch a little bit together and slid it back on. So far so good!

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Installing a knocker in Stern’s World Poker Tour pinball

I just installed a knocker in my World Poker Tour. I used Stern’s step-up board, the one that is used for the kickout from the bumpers, available from the usual suspects. I got most of my information from this page.

A few random notes:

I used a 520-5254-00, available from Pinball Life, and documented in the WPT manual.  Because the knocker drive transistor can only sink 20V, a step-up board is required.

Three connections to the game are required: +50V, solenoid ground, and signal. Okay, you could probably use +20V if you wanted a wimpy knock from a wimpy coil. You can source the signal from the connector under the playfield that is used to drive the coin counter that nobody installs. +50V and solenoid ground can be found on J10. On WPT, it appears that pin 8 is not used, but it is fused by F7. Great deal! Three pins on J10 offer solenoid ground.  I used pin 2, but 4 and 5 would have worked. (You can pick up ground anywhere, but it is probably better to pick up the officially blessed solenoid ground.)  I happen to have an IDC punch-down tool.  I’ve had it for fourteen years, and now I’ve used it.  I didn’t have to solder anything (other than the coil) because I picked up all of the connections from connectors that already existed, which makes for a nice clean install.

I installed a Williams knocker, in the head. Mine was apparently from a High Speed, but it’s the same mechanism Williams used until they gave up on knockers.  The geometry of the Stern head leaves a lot to be desired from a knocker perspective. I will probably install the next knocker in the cabinet, and even that can be trying as I have discovered previously.

I put the head in the upper-right mounted to the side of the cabinet.  This was a tight squeeze for the assembly, and it was hard to install and it will be hard to remove for service.  I mounted the knocker on a block of scrap wood, then screwed that to the cabinet.  I don’t like the adapter block, but because of the diagonal brace in the corners of the head, a the knocker wouldn’t have clearance if it screwed to the head directly, and there’s no room for it on the back of the head.

I set the Q24 option to “knocker” and the “knocker volume” to off.  I discovered the “knocker” test drives both the real knocker and the fake knocker and it’s loud as hell. There is no other test for Q24.

Next time I install one of these, should I ever get another Stern game, I’ll probably try the Gottlieb knocker.  It doesn’t require a separate strike plate.  Running on +50V, it’s probably not as anemic as in a Gottlieb game. Or, perhaps I’ll mount a Data East-style unit in the head, down below the computers, where there’s space.

A modern Williams knocker fires up and has no spring.  Bally, Data East/Sega, and old Stern Electronics knockers fire at the side of the cabinet.  The bracket used for Data East is the same as Williams, but the plunger is different.  Old Williams knockers, like on Firepower, and Gottlieb knockers fire at their own bracket, and are mounted in the cabinet. Stern Pinball has never used a knocker.

The sound of a Stern knocker is different than a Williams knocker.  It’s more of a thud than a crack.  I suspect the coil pulse is longer. I prefer the knocker on my Twilight Zone, but any mechanical knocker is better than the pop on a Stern game.

Adding a knocker to my Simpsons Pinball Party was similar, but I used a “Data East” knocker assembly (really, it appears to be a kickback assembly) and mounted it in the body. This gets even more of a “thud”, and it’s not nearly as loud, but not as satisfying.  Finding solenoid ground and +50V was more difficult and I did a bad job.  I should clean it up.


Update: there may be two versions of the 520-5254-00 board, one that takes a 20V input and one that doesn’t.  I haven’t used the 20V on yet, but that’s the one I want for future games. I asked about the difference to Stern’s technical support, and they responded:

The newer step up driver boards use 20V and 50V. The coil will fire using the 50V power. The 20V input is used to sense weather or not the voltage is present. This is important because if you have 50V without 20V, the coil will turn on until the fuse blows. I would recommend the new board!

I’m trying to confirm that the two boards have the same part number.  There are pictures of a five-pin version online with the same version number, but the parts sellers only picture the four-pin version.

With the four-pin version, sometimes my games knock on power-on, I assume due to the problem outlined above. (A little like the System 80 thunk, I’m sorry to say.)

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