What's new
By:
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Complete Pinfest Panic: Mission Complete, Welcome Home Rocket III

Are you going to bond the metal parts, ie legs,lock bar arc.When I've done it at shows before I just use earth cable and ring tags,linking from transformer base as that's normally where mains earth goes.Then link from leg plate to leg plate,to coin door,to lock bar etc
 
Poibug said:
Are you going to bond the metal parts, ie legs,lock bar arc.When I've done it at shows before I just use earth cable and ring tags,linking from transformer base as that's normally where mains earth goes.Then link from leg plate to leg plate,to coin door,to lock bar etc
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I hadn't planned on it. Currently have replaced the line cord with 3-core and earthed it to the transformer base. The transformer is right at the back of the cab and the 240 VAC terminates there (not on coin door switches etc like on some EMs). I would prefer to run the braid around it but not sure I can get some at this later hour. Would something like this be suitable - comes in various gauges
https://www.screwfix.com/p/nexans-conduit-wiring-cable-6491x-1-core-1-5-mm-x-25m-green-yellow/2682t
 
astyy said:
Hmmm, I hadn't planned on it. Currently have replaced the line cord with 3-core and earthed it to the transformer base. The transformer is right at the back of the cab and the 240 VAC terminates there (not on coin door switches etc like on some EMs). I would prefer to run the braid around it but not sure I can get some at this later hour. Would something like this be suitable - comes in various gauges
https://www.screwfix.com/p/nexans-conduit-wiring-cable-6491x-1-core-1-5-mm-x-25m-green-yellow/2682t
Click to expand...

If its good enough for Dave the Taxman...
mb_70.jpg
 
2 days to go...

A few bits done today. Lockdown receiver polished and installed. Shooter rod replaced with a better spare and polished. Motor board installed. Per @Poibug suggestion earth bonding installed linking the transformer, 4x leg brackets, coin door/frame, shooter and lockdown receiver. This isn't clipped yet so holla if I've done anything daft but continuity checks out to the earth pin on the plug.

20180821_170143.jpg

Note: springy bit to transformer so motor board can be raised to service position
20180821_162240.jpg

20180821_162435.jpg

20180821_162448.jpg

20180821_162510.jpg

Once you can see your face you've finished buffing:thumbs:
20180821_170248.jpg
 
1 day to go, test firing the Rocket III engines...

Got some thumbs up for my earthing job so motor board out (again) and earth bonding clipped down to keep it out the way
20180822_093816.jpg

Motor board back in and connected to the new Earthing point
20180822_095942.jpg

Playfield back in, it needs a wax but relatively clean and presentable as I'd left it
20180822_100437.jpg

Backbox on, all Jones plugs connected and time for a test game. GI on with left flipper, Motor starts, motorised trip relay bank resets, all score reels zero (anyone with EM breathes a sigh of relief) then nothing, no ball eject, no rotary bumper flipper motor running, no ball 1 lit - SH*T and minor heart attack occurso_O. Ok keep calm and diagnose which relays are working and not. After some checks I notice that the Zipper flippers don't release on game reset as they should, this has happened previously relating to a loose pin in one of the Jones plugs to the pf at the bottom/back of the motor board. Check that plug and RESULT being an IDIOT I had managed to plug it in offset between the female sockets, which likely caused some sockets to short and some not be connected. These things are bullet proof, I've learned something today about haste and speed, very happy to play a few games:):clap::thumbs:
20180822_130939.jpg
 
A minor thing but I'm pleased to have a decent bb cover that I can print and tape the high scores setting charts - from pics I have seen it's just taped like this. Was well lost on my machine and I tracked the info down from a guy in Australia and then @Inkochnito worked his magic to reproduce from blurry photos.

20180822_204654.jpg

For non EM heads the jumper settings above relate to this bank. I've converted my machine to Add-A-Ball so they set the levels for Shoot Again not Hi-Score which it replaces.

20180822_204726.jpg
 
Great little EM, I had a lot of fun with it. Big thanks for getting it ready, and bringing it to the show!

It was broken when I first saw it, I'm glad you managed to fix it again.
I didn't know about the special flipper trick before I played, so my first thought was 'wow, those flippers are small'. I actually laughed out loud when i saw them move for the first time :)
 
Played on this game a lot, love the flippers coming into the center - fun feature. For me this and circus on the EM front were my favourite.
 
Got a bit of a buzz from playing this at the show ;) Congrats on a great job. I can confirm it was very highly placed on the shortlist for the 'best in show' award, and in any other show would have been a winner for sure.
 
The Epilogue - Mission Complete, Welcome Home Rocket III

Well the Rocket III has splashed down safe after it's inaugural mission and is back in its launch bay. Instrumentation module reports nearly 250 games clocked up whilst in orbit and all crew accounted for.
20180828_123825.jpg20180823_113611.jpg20180828_122917.jpg

On a closing note I spoke to @Neil McRae about the artwork, who identified the rocket as an SA-500 Saturn V Test Vehicle. I found this picture as possibly the inspiration for Christian Marche (the artist).
1535457496933.png

I read up that the SA-500 had undergone a parallel life to my Rocket III. Moved to a museum in 1969 and left outside to the mercy of the elements and local rodents it deteriorated until being fully restored in 2005.
1535457799098.png


Signing out until Pinfest Panic 2019 :thumbs:
20180824_1849432.jpg
 
ah sadly not, the picture is SA-500F - which was a dummy rocket used to test Kennedy Space Centre, Launch Complex 39 and the whole stacking to deployment process and to measure wind sheer at LC-39. The SA-500F was not capable of flight. It was dismantled, the idiots who did the CGI for Apollo XIII mistakenly used the SA-500F for the basis of the artwork which was wrong, SA-500F has a solid black band on its S-IC whereas flight ready S-IC's did not.

S-IC-F - stage one was scrapped
S-IIC-F - stage two was used in the SA-500D
S-IV-B-500F - stage three was used to help Skylab testing and scrapped some time shortly after 1986. The picture above is the SA-500F and that is the right

the restored "rocket" at MSFC/Davidson is SA-500D

SA-500D_in_Dynamic_Test_Stand_Configuration_I.jpg
SA-500D never went to Kennedy or to LC-39 but it was used to test engine fire, vibrations and pressure testing. As noted above stage 2 from the F became stage two for D.

In January 1966, the all-systems test S-II-T was re-designated S-II-T/D, so that it might be used for dynamic testing as well as engine firing. S-II-T/D completed integrated checkout of ground support facilities at MTF on February 3, 1966. S-II-T/D's engines were fired five times at MTF from April to May, including a full-duration test. On May 28, 1966, S-II-T/D was undergoing a pressure test to find a hydrogen leak, but the hydrogen pressure sensors and switches had been disconnected without the second-shift crew knowing when they tried to pressurize the tank. Five technicians sustained minor injuries. MSFC convened an investigation that night, and the team completed the report in two days.

SA-500D_test_article_from_Saturn_V_quarterly_reports.ogv.jpg

They tried to contain knowledge of the Saturn V rocket back then but when SA-500F rolled out of the VAB at 343 feet tall, it could be seen for miles! Visitors to KSC/Cape Canveral Air Force Station would be told not to look in the direction of LC-39!

Neil.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom