In Progress Star Wars (Data East)

[BomberHQ]

I was contacted a few months ago by a friend of a friend who knew I was into pinball. He'd just retrieved a 'Star Wars' pinball from the back of his garage that had been abandoned there in the early 00's after it stopped working. He said there was no obvious signs of damage and it started up OK, so things looked fairly straightforward! I work full time, and dont have much spare, so I offered to clean it up and get it fully functional for the cost of any parts and a small fee.

Discovering it was a Data East from 1992 was a bonus, as my only other solid state machine is a Last Action Hero from 1993, which I bought on eBay a couple of years ago and bought back from the dead.

The machine was dead though. Just a few dim GI and the buzz of the transformer. If it had worked when he first switched it on, it didnt now! It was also really filthy. A torch under the playfield revealed a quantity of wood shavings and mouse poo! Behind the translite revealed Duracell batteries that expired in 2004 but hadnt leaked ... phew!

There were also plenty of blown fuses, so we agreed to transport it back to my house so I could get to work on it ...

 

[BomberHQ]

An embarrassing 6 months later (work, family, house refurbishment ...) I finally have time to start on it ...
Before pics ...
Cabinet

 

[BomberHQ]

Top of Playfield

 

[BomberHQ]

Top of Playfield, cont'd

 

[BomberHQ]

Under Playfield

 

[BomberHQ]

Backbox

 

[BomberHQ]

Had a good weekend pulling the machine apart! Lots of little problems to fix ...

Classic Data East issue with fuse holders snapping at the base. Most of the time the holder looks intact (held by dirt/corrosion), but it doesnt make a good (or any) connection. Here you can see F1 has come away one side. Thankfully there were only a few of these, as they are a pain to remove without damaging the PCB.
I had to change every fuse holder on my Last Action Hero! Around 5 of the fuses were blown, which gives a hint where to look for problems further down the circuit ...


May need a new coil here.


Operator repair at some point?! You only need to shove in one side to make it work!


[Underside of playfield] This solenoid/mechanism fires the ball out of a 'scoop'. The coil plunger is supposed to be fully extended, but theres so much grease on the mechanism its stuck in this position.
None of the mechanisms should need any oil or grease - it hardens/thickens and traps dust over time. There are a couple of exceptions where a little modern Teflon/PTFE lube is OK.
Most of the mechanisms in the Star Wars have been greased, so it will all have to be cleaned off - this was part of the original plan anyway.


Another rushed repair. The purple wire is completely 'dry' and isnt making any electrical contact with the solder tag.


New rubbers?!!!


Bit more cleaning to do (bonus mouse poo to remove!)... Ill replace all the post rubbers too, as they are hard and perished like the bands.


R2D2 will probably get a respray ...


His arms have yellowed too. Theres a great technique for restoring yellowed plastic using hair-dressers hydrogen peroxide cream (in a plastic bag in sunlight for a few days). It worked wonders on my 50 year old EM machines and doesnt make the plastic brittle.
The rest of that filth is just removal and careful / gentle elbow grease to avoid damaging the transfers! The corroded wireforms come up a treat using Autosol chrome cleaner!

 

[Devorian]

Looks like a huge mammoth task you have undertaken there. Definitely will be worth it in the end.

 

[BomberHQ]

So, before I get into the big cleaning job, and as the machine is dead, I thought I'd check if anything expensive needs replacing.

First, I disconnected all connectors from the main boards (including the flipper board in the cabinet) and started checking voltages at the transformer connectors and at the Power Supply. The transformer can be wired for a few different mains voltages, so its worth checking its set to 230V. Our mains is currently sitting at 251VAC (checked on two RMS meters, as I was a bit surprised, even given the 10% tolerance), so the voltages on the secondary windings are well above nominal. But theyre all there at least. The thing hums like a Welsh Choir as well, but it runs cold, so Ill maybe have a look at the hum later.

Transformer connector / Pin	Nominal voltage	Measured Voltage	PSU Function
3 to 5	9V AC	11V AC	+12V DC Unreg' & +5V DC
4 to 5	9V AC	11V AC	+12V DC Unreg' & +5V DC
Separate connector between 3 and 4	18V AC	22V AC	Flipper board
2 to 1	90V AC	100V AC	-98V DC and +68V DC for display
8 to 1	100V AC	124V AC	-110V DC for display
9 to 10	13V AC	15V AC	+18V DC via BR1 & C1 (playfield lamps) and +12VDC for display
6 to 7	25V AC	34V AC	+34 V AC & DC via BR2 (solenoids)
11 & 12	48V AC	58 VAC	Flippers via PPB board
Separate connector	6V AC	7V AC	7VAC via relay to GI lamps

Unregulated voltages at the bridge rectifiers and large barrel/storage capacitor (C1) in the backbox all look sensible. I checked how well the capacitor is smoothing on my trusty £10 handheld scope I built from a kit a couple of years ago ...
So the waveform at C1 is around 18 volts DC with 0.2 volts of ripple at 10ms or 100Hz (fully rectified mains). Astonishingly good, assuming its the original capacitor. The capacitor in my LAH was dry as a bone (really light) which is one way of telling if its had it.

Next, I removed the PSU board for a visual and changed a few fuse holders which had broken (see above). I also did a diode-check on transistor TR5 for the +5v supply, and a few others which all looked OK.
As with my LAH, an innocent looking 100uF capacitor, C2 was completely dry. This will stop the +5v and +12v from working. It looked OK from the top, but unsoldering there were tell-tale deposits on the PCB.

Everything else buzzed out OK on the multimeter, so I put in all the fuses, reconnected the cable looms from the transformer to CN1, CN2, CN9 and CN10 and powered up ... all the correct voltages were present at the output connectors. Happy days!

Next to try out the GI lamps, which means connecting up part of the PPB board ...

 

[BomberHQ]

Oh my word, the schematics for these machines are awful! Ive been reading schematics for 30+ years and these have me scratching my head trying to trace power and signal paths. I suppose should be grateful they are available at least!

So, GI power is 6V AC from the transformer to CN9 on the PSU. The lamp feed goes through the PSU GI relay and out via CN8 to the lamps. The return goes to fuses F1-4 on the PPB board via J5 and then back to the PSU via CN8 again. Nothing else to do but connect it up. Success ... lots of GI lights and fuses intact!

Next, check the display and CPU boards for obvious faults, then connect up CPU connectors CN17 (power) and CN22 (data cable), PSU connectors CN6 (power to CPU) and CN5, which splits to provide power to both the Dot Matrix Controller and Display Driver boards in the front panel.
Leaving all the other CPU connectors floating should be fine at this point.

... power up and we have Blank and +5v LEDs on the CPU (PIA LED goes out) and a working dot-matrix!!! Connecting up CN14 on the PSU also gives you access to the diagnostics buttons inside the coin door.

Sound card next ... CN2 (power to PSU CN6), CN5 (data cable to CPU CN21) and speaker/volume connectors CN3 and CN4 ... and we have sound!

Playfield switches next ... CPU connectors CN8 and CN10, then use the diagnostics to test each switch. All but a couple working!

Finally for today, playfield lamps ... first, do a diode check on all the driver transistors - takes 2 minutes. Multimeter on diode test:
TIP122 - red lead probe on the metal heatsink, then black lead on either of the other 2 - should read around 0.5v
TIP42 - black lead on the metal heatsink, then red lead on either of the other 2 - should read around 0.5v
Amazingly, all the transistors seem to be OK. Then a visual on all the lamp holders, which also look OK.

Connect up CPU connectors CN6 and CN7 for the rows and columns drivers of the lamp matrix, CPU connectors CN4 and CN5 for the lamp power, and PSU connector CN4 for the 18V DC supply to the lamps.

And here it is so far ... a few lamps out, but the TIP122/TIP42 drive transistors for the lamps are all working!

View attachment Pinball.mp4

Tomorrow - Flashers and coils, and problems I imagine!

 

[BomberHQ]

Home stretch on the electrics ...

Thought Id try testing the flashers first, so PPB connector J6 (lamp power via A/B Relay), J9 (lamp returns to PPB), PSU connector CN3 (+34V DC for A/B Relay, bumper and sling power, and PSU GI relay power via CN7) and CPU connector CN11 (lamp sinks) and CN12 (activate A/B relay).

Connecting CPU CN11 and CN12 means bringing a load more TIP122s in-circuit, so out with the diode tester again ... and do CN19 transistors at the same time. Its possible to do a basic check with the board in the cabinet - just measure the resistance from the heat sink to ground - should be >1M Ohm.



This is only part of the story, so best remove the board and measure on the other side. Also an opportunity to re-solder the relay and connectors, which is a known issue.



So, six faulty transistors in total. Time to get an order in! Incidentally, TIP122 should be changed for the higher power TIP102G (~£0.50 each these days from CPC).

Im lucky enough to have a spare CPU board I bought from a guy here on pinballinfo.com so I plugged that in and fired up ... flashers all OK in diagnostics mode.

Now the A/B relay is working I connected up the flipper board - PPB connectors J3 & J4 (50v DC power), J7 (+50V DC to flipper board and 50V coils), CPU connector CN19 (flipper ground and returns for bumpers and slings).

Before switching on, had another look around the coils (measured resistance), cleaned up the stuck mech' for the scoops and replaced a couple of missing screws.

Ball launch needs a bit of attention! This will all be cleaned, rewired and sleeved.

The drop target reset seems to rely on gravity - it flaps around when the targets are up. I'd expect a spring on the plunger, but theres none on the drawing. Theres also a problem here - when adjusted so the targets are just below the playfield, the blue plunger link locks the plunger solid. Seems to be related to slop in the coil sleeve. It'll all be stripped for cleaning and new sleeves anyway.

There's definitely something missing from the VUK. Ah, looking at the drawings its a cap ... 545-5227-00
How on earth did this thing function without it? It was nowhere in the cabinet!

I havent photo'd it, but R2D2 needs a complete strip down before I activate the coil - its really stiff. Ill just disconnect it for now.

Also, the bracket that holds the moving Death Star target is broken ... 545-5351-00 Noone sells it, so Ill have to repair it or make a replacement :-(

OK, all that done I can confirm everything [else!] is now working! Time to start the strip-down ...