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In Progress Twister - A complete rebuild from ground up

myPinballs

myPinballs

Site Supporter
Joined
Nov 19, 2011
Messages
5,428
Location
Pudsey UK
Alias
Jim
So as you may have seen i'm starting a new rewrite journey - http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/twister-a-rewrite-journey.39429/ so i'm taking the opportunity to do a full playfield restoration on this now. Will be a complete strip down both sides and will also be fitting as many new parts as i can find (pops, posts, bolts, screws, nuts, plastics, switches, coil sleeves, flippers etc). Haven't done a full tear down on a modern game for awhile so this will be a fun project.

The game is a keeper for me so i want to give it the tic it deserves. The game played ok when i got it, but not to the standard i want. Will be swapping to clear standup posts instead of the factory black to bring it more up to date. Also may use a few purple stand ups in places. I did a similar restoration on my indy playfield before working on that rewrite to.

So, on with the tear down! (pic heavy!)

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And so the cleaning starts. Around 4 hours of cleaning so far. Including cleaning every routed out hole to bring back the plywood edge stripes, every switch, target, coil, wire, playfield surface (both sides)

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Condition wise on the playfields is looking pretty sweet.
Look forward to the progress on this and how much better the game will be with a code re write.
G
Keep up the good work Jim. :thumbs:
 
replicas said:
Condition wise on the playfields is looking pretty sweet.
Look forward to the progress on this and how much better the game will be with a code re write.
G
Keep up the good work Jim. :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Cheers mate,

I have quite a few ideas for rules including some rgb updates for the compass inserts. Interestingly the inserts were clear, but sega fitted green leds underneath. I'm thinking there's quite a lot of potential here. I also want to add some rgb lamps to indy at some point to

The question at the mo on the restoration though is whether or not to take off the mylar. Normally (and in past sega restorationns - > apollo 13 x 2, starship troopers, xfiles x2) i've just gone for it, but this time i'm not so sure, as its on pretty good and has polished up with t-cut pretty nicely. There's one area of damage though on the car no 1. insert that could do with a retry on sorting out, but i'm not 100% sure it'll end up any better, plus theres the risk of lifting other inserts. There was some bad mylar at the back on the million inserts, but i took that off straight away with no problems. Think that was a later addition though

hmmmm.

Also on the parts front, i'm amassing quite a large lot of nos and new stuff!! ha ha ha I think i'm ordering from pretty much everywhere! PH, best of pinball, andy n, pinball centre, marco, pinball daze !!!!
 
Bought myself an ultrasonic cleaner which has turned out to be bloody amazing. Sped my way through all the mech and plastic part cleaning (except the playfield plastics )

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Playfield is cleaned and polished.

Refitted the first few parts - playfield switches and targets. This is what i want to see on a restoration when i look close. Everything shiny and new!

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Lots of new parts arriving today hopefully.
 
What ultrasonic cleaner did you buy? Had limited success with them in the past.
 
Have had an ultrasonic cleaner for ages and to be honest even with proper cleaning solution found it to be useless on pinball parts....
.. however great on Jewelery and glasses!
 
I've found that using a few cups of mr muscle (degreaser) in clean water with it helps for metal parts. Using the additive (sea clean) was no good for plated metals as it reacted with the zinc plating, but was good for brass bulb holders and any plastics. (star posts, lane guides, sega target arms, even nasty old coil sleeves (not that i would reuse old ones!) etc)

The heater helps a lot to and most metal parts dry pretty quick once removed, though i do what i've always done and dry them first then leave on a hot radiator to thoroughly dry. Never had any trouble with this method.

I also found that anything that wasn't able to be removed was much easier to remove with magic eraser once it had gone through a 5 minute cycle than before

The best thing about it for me is 1 the speed of it, 5 minutes sorts out most things and 2 my hands are no longer sore or painful for days afterwards after a long cleaning session with degreasers etc (mr muscle etc)
 
More reassembly pics. More new parts going on. Fitted some factory connectors on certain mechs to for ease of reassembly and any future servicing needs.

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Also, i have created a small side project related to twister for a replacement magnet processor pcb. The one i have is working but has been messed about with, so its time to make something better and solve the scary prospect of an unobtanium board. Hoping to add some improvements and use mosfet control in the redesign.

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Trough mechanism rebuilt. New opto boards and top metal form

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New clear plastic posts, bolts and screws going in

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This one looks mint. Good to see another Sega getting the love. Great job [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Finished the first part of the assembly now. I am assembling the processor section and the disc magnet drive and control section first. Then after this is tested i will assemble the diverter section. There's a few things i learnt today to about how the diverter section is controlled which i'll talk about later.

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Here's a video on my instagram page of the first board test.


Notice that there are now more leds to help you understand what the board is doing. Red led for 5v. Green led below that which tell you when the board is enabled and out of reset. And then the mag2 led which is more like a status led and blinks 3 times when the board is enabled. Previously though it was hard to know whether the board was enabled or idle as the mag2 led flashes then goes off. Now its easy to see.
 
Some good progress today. The board is fully working. Both magnets work in game and i was able to test the diverter magnet in test to. (Something that did not work with my original board). Not without a lot of head scratching during the day though and plenty of swearing!, but my design is now proven icon_smile.gif

Pic of the fully assembled board

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Some videos of testing on my instagram page



I've also learnt a few more things today on what needs to be functional and installed for the board to work at all. Even though the board has 2 mirrored sections, one section is more important than the other and must be functional before the other will work etc. I believe this is because only 1 section is used to create the references after the board comes out of reset. If this initialisation doesn't not pass then the board will do nothing.

I have a question for owners of original boards. How many pins is the j1 connector on your game. 14 pins or 15 pins? The schematic says 14, but the original board i have has 15, but my connector only has 14. Possibly pin15 should be another +5v (same as pin14) Let me know what you board and connector is like. Also send pic of how your board mounts to your playfield underside.
 
Amazing work as ever Jim!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Ramp cleanup. I came up with a nice method to assist the shine on the ramp in a similar way to flame polishing but with boiling water. Worked well, and ramp is now crystal clear again. It was basically to have a large sink full of hot water then run boiling water over the surface quickly and plunge into the hot sink water.

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Canister clean up and better lamp colours used. If i can get a new decal i may replace all the rivots, bulb holders and respray the thing. Some things though aren't available currently. May be a job for a later date.

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Game back together and playing

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Now turning my attention to the backboard. @replicas has planted a seed in my head about making this thing light up with flashers and or bulbs to be more like whirlwind/ a real storm. Would look super cool. I can get a new wooden part made with lamp holes etc no problem, but the question is what to do with the formed plastic as its made from black plastic and then painted.

Ideas welcome on what to do??

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