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Thread: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    We just moved, and could finally take delivery of this one from a friend who didn't want for it and gave us right of first refusal for free.

    The only problem is, while it seems to boot up, it's basically "dead to the world" in terms of won't take credits, won't start a game. Some of the head box lights do flash, the scores come up to 000,000, but don't cycle. The story is it just "tilt locked" in the middle of a game one day. We've already replaced a coin door diode (diode was actually broken in half), to no change in behavior.

    Information out there is either light on troubleshooting, or a huge multi-scroll webpage.

    Yes, the battery was removed at some point in the past, so that's not the worry.

    Anyone have any ideas of what we should be looking for, assuming we can get it working without starting to replace the boards with modern drop-in replacement boards? We'd like to get the machine running again, because it's a really nice example of the type.
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    Chicken Fried Steak takethecastle57's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    Howdy

    great looking machine but did you get a pinball manual for that specific machine ? and have the battery back up been removed from the main computer board and a remote battery pack install off the board ?

    here's the Solar Ride pinball ebay search

    http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...nball&_sacat=0
    When things don't go right the 1st time , Step back ,Take a break and come back renewed. RGS

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    Chicken Fried Steak takethecastle57's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    When things don't go right the 1st time , Step back ,Take a break and come back renewed. RGS

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    Chicken Fried Steak takethecastle57's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    When things don't go right the 1st time , Step back ,Take a break and come back renewed. RGS

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    Backup battery was already removed well before we got the machine. No replacement installed, I'll probably do that at some point once we get it working. And we have the manual, it's currently in a box, I'll need to dig it out.

    I'm probably going to set my oscilloscope up and do some silicon checking tonight. Odds are pretty good that if some of the silicon is dead, we'll investigate when we can order a Ni-Wumpf board for it.

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    OK, did some probing with the oscilloscope, I can see pulses on all the chips in the switch matrix area, so that's out.

    Checked the power supply, reads 5V and -12V like it should for the CPU.

    And I double checked the coin switches for shorts.

    The only thing I can still do is check for continuity on the harness from the coin door to the MCU unit, see if there's some sort of break.

    The specific symptom is that it just won't talk to the coin door switches. I can't even call up the rudimentary diagnostics the machine comes with. A secondary "might be related" symptom is I don't hear the Tilt and Game Over relays clicking on start-up. I can manually close the Game Over relay and get the flippers and pop bumpers to fire, and the kick-out holes will fire at any time, so it's not a total failure of the driver board.

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    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    the best sites for pinball tech info are going to be pinside and even better is the usenet: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!fo....games.pinball
    EM Pinballs & Arrangeballs

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    I did sign up for an account on Pinside. Some implications there - I've called Game Exchange here in Denver, and I'll be taking the MCU in with me during a lunch break this week so that they can plug it into their tester there, and save me a lot of time trying to troubleshoot. Basically, is the board bad, or is something else going seriously wrong?

    If it's the board, we can deal with it... albeit we won't be able to order the replacement MCU (the "Ni Wumpf" board, if we have to replace it, we're going with something built inside the last five years) for a few more months.

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    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    Recgroupspinball is your best bet as far as online help. it's been around for many years, way before the overly moderated Pinside website. What this means is that all the old timers/experts that can answer your questions are still found on that website.
    EM Pinballs & Arrangeballs

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    Pulled the boards and stuck them in an antistatic bag for transport. The lower edge connectors on the MCU look awful. I'm also pretty much guaranteed of having to "repin" the harness connectors.

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    AND WE HAVE A WORKING MACHINE!

    I bent the pins back in the connector for the MCU power, and sanded the black fingers of the edge connector, and I can get it to coin up and play. The test switch still doesn't work, but I think I can attribute that to a bad pin in the connector. The displays are also showing some bright in the "off" segments. But my husband and I played a few games to make sure it works.

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    Blind Shooter driph's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    Congrats! :]

    Just in case you haven't seen it yet, pinrepair.com is a great resource for earlier EM and SS pins. Here's the guide you'd want:

    http://www.pinrepair.com/sys1/

    (he's got some solid restoration writeups, too)

    If you want modern guts to spice the game up a bit, pick up one of Pascal Janin's all-in-one boards. I've got a PI-1/X4 board that's been rock solid so far.

    http://www.flippp.fr/guide.php?game=Solar%20Ride

    I've got a 1979 Gottlieb Count-Down, and it's a lot of fun. Welcome to the club!
    Chris

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    Quote Originally Posted by driph View Post
    Congrats! :]

    Just in case you haven't seen it yet, pinrepair.com is a great resource for earlier EM and SS pins. Here's the guide you'd want:

    http://www.pinrepair.com/sys1/

    (he's got some solid restoration writeups, too)

    If you want modern guts to spice the game up a bit, pick up one of Pascal Janin's all-in-one boards. I've got a PI-1/X4 board that's been rock solid so far.

    http://www.flippp.fr/guide.php?game=Solar%20Ride

    I've got a 1979 Gottlieb Count-Down, and it's a lot of fun. Welcome to the club!
    Already got the repair guide bookmarked, it was one of the first pages I found when we got offered the machine.

    I've been looking at the Ni-Wumpf board, actually, although the Pascal offering had already crossed my radar.

  19. #14
    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    As an update, we got a bag of about 300 molex pins to redo all the backbox connectors in the game. Been playing it a little bit, it's going to be good for my overall pinball abilities working with something so simple.

    The displays have some sort of "echo" going on, each one faintly echoing the other three. It might be a reference voltage issue. I have to ruminate whether I take the pains of getting the power supply board out, rebuilding it, and reinstalling it, or getting it out to replace it with a modern alternative, if repinning doesn't clear that up.

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    Got the displays cleared up... in a long story made short, I attempted to rebuild the power supply, failed, had to order fuses (no one carries 1 amp slow blow in this damned city) and a used replacement power supply (TNT Amusements), and got it all back up and running tonight.

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    Fever Hunter Super Dave Osbourne's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    Good to see you taking a serious project on, and making it work. TNT (Todd), PinRepair (Clay), Pinside (ouch), RGP (as mentioned the good old timers with knowledge) are there to help. Keep up the great posts, and good dedication to the pingames!

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    So before I blew up the original power supply, I did install a "mod" of sorts, consisting of an IKEA RGB LED strip set, taped to the underside of the body, with the control and power pack taped to the backside. Right now, it's set for subtle color shifting.

    The next big plan, post housewarming, will be to order some LED lights to replace the incandescents, a box or two of flasher incandescents for the backglass title, and a brand new set of rubber rings.
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    Fever Hunter Super Dave Osbourne's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    Lynn, a neat fun underneath mod. Reality is the designer and manufacture are long gone and forgotten by most (except maybe Solar Ride owners). For ~$30 clams, not a bad fun mod that doesn't distract from the game playfield itself. Certainly bright and stimulating, not relaxing at all. Thank you for sharing and keep up the great work in restorations!

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    Blind Shooter LynnInDenver's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Some Help RE: 1979 Gottlieb Solar Ride

    OK, a quick update: I've had to replace my first coil on the machine; the upper left pop bumper looks like the coil had developed an internal short, and finally "seized" up and started cooking. I've also fitted a 2032 with blocking diode so it can retain "bookkeeping" data including scores. For cosmetics, a full set of LEDs (the machine has no incandescents anywhere in it now), new pop bumper caps, coin door plates, and red lane guides. I also got a complete set of competition rubbers from a place called Titan Pinball, which has brought performance to near factory on the playfield.

    We're pretty much done spending money on the machine at this point - anything else is going to be the occasional repair. As long as it doesn't require a repair a month to keep things moving.


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