Popeye and Mae West

[pfurman]

Ok. There's really no direct connection between Popeye and Mae West. (At least none that I am aware of. ) So let me explain. Earlier, I posted a review of Popeye in the museum. http://www.pachitalk.com/4images/det...0718a1a094ea11
So now I just wanted to update that a bit. The machine is loads of fun. I hit a couple of BB's, one regular bonus, and was able to see Sweet Pea, but no sign of Wimpy (yet).

But the same old issue of volume came up, only with this machine it's unbelievable. And, unlike other Sammy machines, it's not a matter of just disconnecting the big loud speaker on the bottom; this machine "only" has 2 speakers, and they have to be amongst the loudest speakers I've ever heard in my life. So, (here's where the connection starts between Popeye and Mae West) instead of stuffing cotton balls in between the speakers and their respective grills, I decided to take an inverted approach: I stuffed some pretty heavy duty noise reducing ear plugs into my ears instead. The frightening thing is that even though they have a very high noise cancellation rating, they really didn't do all that much to reduce the volume on that Popeye machine.

They were effective, however, in blocking out a lot of what my b/f was saying to me while I was wearing them.

(That brings us even closer to the Mae West line.) You see, most of the time I'm really good. But sometimes...

to quote Mae West: "When I'm good, I'm VERY VERY GOOD. But when I'm bad...I'm better".

:lmao:

[Tulsa]

(That brings us even closer to the Mae West line.) You see, most of the time I'm really good. But sometimes...
to quote Mae West: "When I'm good, I'm VERY VERY GOOD. But when I'm bad...I'm better".

To steal a line from Azlew...
So, you're going to post some videos of this, right?

[pfurman]

To steal a line from Azlew...
So, you're going to post some videos of this, right?

Videos of the Popeye machine? I was trying to figure out how to do that. I have some still shots I can post, if that will help?

[azlew]

To steal a line from Azlew...
So, you're going to post some videos of this, right?

pfurman : anything you can post is appreciated by all.

[arbycoffee]

Mae West said a hard man was good to find

[pfurman]

Mae West said a hard man was good to find

Well, Mae West sure knew what she was talkin about.

She also said (in one of her movies), in response to a hatcheck girl who exclaimed "Oh my goodness, LOOK at those diamonds"!!

"Honey....goddness had nothing to do with it"

[cwstnsko]

All the Sammy machines seem to be bizarre loud. when I tried to quite down my 1st Sammy Pachislo with cotton balls, it didn't do anything to cut the noise, and I thought it was going to blow cotton shreds all over the room

[pfurman]

Wheeeee! I just saw the cameo appearance of Wimpy!!!! (He popped up in a "Sea" scene, right before the bean stalk grew. Once the stalk was fully grown, he disappeared from the scene. I wanted to try to grab a photo but he was gone before I could capture it.)

[pfurman]

All the Sammy machines seem to be bizarre loud. when I tried to quite down my 1st Sammy Pachislo with cotton balls, it didn't do anything to cut the noise, and I thought it was going to blow cotton shreds all over the room

Yeah. Cotton balls. Feh. B/F suggested I put on a pair of Sennheiser 280 headphones because they fully surround your ears and do a halfway decent job at blocking out at least some of the decibels generated by that adorable Popeye behemoth. (If it weren't for the loudness of the machine Popeye'd get a 10!!!) The headphones worked very well. Of course, they don't do much for the neighbors. I mean, this thing is REALLY LOUD!!! I thought Terminator and the BB in Nidaime Goemon were loud. But this is WAY LOUD!!!

Also, the reason B/F suggested that I try the headphones is because...well, this is really embarrassing....but...Remember I said before about using those foam ear plugs? And, well, this IS tiny marshmallow season, what with it just passing Thanksgiving and heading into Christmas, and everybody (including me) making those great candied yam dishes that would be totally naked without the cute little tiny marshmallows, right? (Everybody sees where this one is heading, correct?) Yep. B/F left a bag of those cute little tiny marshmallows on top of "I'm Angel". He ALSO left a set of those foam ear plugs right next to the bag. I got so caught up in playing "I'm Angel" that, without really paying attention to what I was doing, I reached up, grabbed a couple of what I was sure were tiny marshmallows, and stuck em in my mouth. Turns out, they were the two foam ear plugs. :embarasse

EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

So, that's why he suggested I use the Sennheiser's instead.

Disclaimer note: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS, I am NOT a professional!!!

Final Note: B/F thought it was really really funny and he just kept laughing and laughing....
However, after I pointed out to him the error of his ways, several times, he eventually stopped laughing.

[pfurman]

Oh well. I was going to post an attachment of the WIN after Popeye climbed the beanstalk but for some reason I am no longer able to post attachments.

[DrDark]

As a temporary measure try DUCT TAPE. Place a strip over the speaker grill.
It reduces the sound by about one third. It was my only solution till Arby told us about volume controls. Now ALL my machines are "ear friendly".

[pfurman]

As a temporary measure try DUCT TAPE. Place a strip over the speaker grill.
It reduces the sound by about one third. It was my only solution till Arby told us about volume controls. Now ALL my machines are "ear friendly".

Thanks, Doc. But in this instance, trust me, duct tape is definitely not strong enough to deal with the volume problem. (I'm not even sure Get Smart's "cone of silence" would be adequate enough. In fact, I think this machine has somehow managed to break the sound barrier without even going anywhere!!) I wish I had one of those decibel tester thingies to see just how loud this really is. If anyone out there has a Popeye AND a decibel tester thingie, feel free to jump right in.

[SteveFoxUK]

I got a couple of volume mods from Gaku a month ago - 5 mins each to solder in and things are now much quieter than before. Thankfully! (As it originally arrived at my office, I had to totally disconnect the speakers to save deafening the boss.... who sits miles over the other side of the office to me!!)

Cheers,

Foxy

PS: Still no sign of Wimpey on my machine yet - any suggestions on a decent skill setting from anyone?

[pfurman]

I got a couple of volume mods from Gaku a month ago - 5 mins each to solder in and things are now much quieter than before. Thankfully! (As it originally arrived at my office, I had to totally disconnect the speakers to save deafening the boss.... who sits miles over the other side of the office to me!!)

Cheers,

Foxy

PS: Still no sign of Wimpey on my machine yet - any suggestions on a decent skill setting from anyone?

We always use "6" to start, and work from there, based on Gaku's recommendations. (We've set Super Blackjack to "5" because it was just givin it up too easy. lol) For Wimpy you have to look quick, because he disappears shortly after he appears. We spotted him at the start of the growing of the bean stalk scene. If you remember having watched that scene, then he was there.

Now, you say you soldered your pots from Gaku. Ok, here are my questions:

1. What wattage soldering gun did you use? (We got a soldering stand from Radio Shack that has either 20 or 40. Great. But most guides I've seen suggest 30W for electronics/PCB's. The volume controllers we got from Syscom are TINY. I have yet to figure out just how this is going to work out, but I am determined to come up with some sort of fix.

2. What diameter solder did you use, and what ratio? (i.e. 50/50, 60/40, etc.) I already know to use rosin core, and not acid core.

3. Did you use any clips or anything else to secure the speaker wires or the pot or both?

4. Do you know the wattage (usually 1/4 or 1/2 Watt) and the Ohm rating (from 10k to 100K and beyond) for the pots you got from Gaku?

Thanks. (And good luck tryin to find ol Wimpy)

Note: If I ever get a response as to why I'm no longer able to post attachments, and/or if I'm ever able to post attachments again, then I'll post some of the shots I got from Popeye. (Sorry, Foxy dude, no Wimpy shots. Yet.)

[arbycoffee]

maybe trying to big a size ?

[pfurman]

maybe trying to big a size ?

I've rarely found that to be the problem, a.c.

[SteveFoxUK]

Right, you'll have to bear with me as my brain stopped working about 24 hours ago and im running on caffine and innuendo from Sid alone!! (Damn the office!)

I unwittingly credited the wrong supplier for my volume controls so apologies for the confusion - they actually came from Syscom - doh! Simply marked '501', I soldered them im myself.

Now the science bit - I confess I usually just grab the first thing around the house in order to get the job done and this wasnt an exception... I used Ersin 'Savbit alloy' multicore 1.22mm solder along with a gas-powered 'Solderpro70'. I love gas irons but learnt an expensive lesson when I melted the first one - the tip fell off and rolled across the carpet leaving a molten trail behind it... dont ever ever EVER use a conventional iron holder as heat always travels up towards the gas tank!!!

As I recall, I measured where I wanted the mods to go, disconnected the speaker wires from the main board and unscrewed the speakers from the machine so I could do a steady job on my workbeanch rather than risk jabbing things with my soldering iron - it actually turned out to be a really quick and easy job. Just clip and strip the coloured wires, thread em through the holes and solder them on. (Theres such a large area to solder onto that its difficult to bodge it up.)

I do have a pic but the posting rules on the forum currently state that I 'may not post attachments' so I will have to describe where I put em instead. As you open the machine and look at the inside of the door there is a small PCB connector just to the left of the main window.. To the immediate left of that there is a clip holding the main loom coming down from top to bottom. I soldered my mods in just above that clip.

I didnt use any additional clips as the speaker wires run down the same side as the main loom so there are already clips there to hold them in place and there is enough slack to ensure that theres no undue stress or pulls.

As other people have commented in other threads regarding these particular mods, you need to find a happy medium on the volume rather than opening the machine up every five minutes to fiddle with them. Id say this is true with any sort of volume mod but you need a cross-headed screwdriver to change these particular ones.

With warranties in mind I guess Id always advise to get these sort of mods done by the vendor but these seem to be the best for the money at post-sale... I suppose they can always be taken out if you wanted to sell the machine on but Id actually use the mod as a positive selling point!

Hope you find all this of some use - good luck!!

Cheers,

Foxy

PS: Still no sign of Wimpey, dammit!!!!

[arbycoffee]

I passed the question on to those on a higher plane

[d mowery]

Go to any good RC hobby store and tell them you need some solder for hooking up some RC wiring and they will sell ya the rite stuff mostly comes in a round plastic tube and you pull out as much as you need , Your soldreing iron will work , Is it the pencel type with a pointed end ( these are bestfor what you are doing) or the gun type with a trigger? these will work but from the watt you said I think you have the rite one

[pfurman]

Right, you'll have to bear with me as my brain stopped working about 24 hours ago and im running on caffine and innuendo from Sid alone!! (Damn the office!)

I unwittingly credited the wrong supplier for my volume controls so apologies for the confusion - they actually came from Syscom - doh! Simply marked '501', I soldered them im myself.

Now the science bit - I confess I usually just grab the first thing around the house in order to get the job done and this wasnt an exception... I used Ersin 'Savbit alloy' multicore 1.22mm solder along with a gas-powered 'Solderpro70'. I love gas irons but learnt an expensive lesson when I melted the first one - the tip fell off and rolled across the carpet leaving a molten trail behind it... dont ever ever EVER use a conventional iron holder as heat always travels up towards the gas tank!!!

As I recall, I measured where I wanted the mods to go, disconnected the speaker wires from the main board and unscrewed the speakers from the machine so I could do a steady job on my workbeanch rather than risk jabbing things with my soldering iron - it actually turned out to be a really quick and easy job. Just clip and strip the coloured wires, thread em through the holes and solder them on. (Theres such a large area to solder onto that its difficult to bodge it up.)

I do have a pic but the posting rules on the forum currently state that I 'may not post attachments' so I will have to describe where I put em instead. As you open the machine and look at the inside of the door there is a small PCB connector just to the left of the main window.. To the immediate left of that there is a clip holding the main loom coming down from top to bottom. I soldered my mods in just above that clip.

I didnt use any additional clips as the speaker wires run down the same side as the main loom so there are already clips there to hold them in place and there is enough slack to ensure that theres no undue stress or pulls.

As other people have commented in other threads regarding these particular mods, you need to find a happy medium on the volume rather than opening the machine up every five minutes to fiddle with them. Id say this is true with any sort of volume mod but you need a cross-headed screwdriver to change these particular ones.

First of all Steve, Thanks!!

Second, you got me thinking a little differently when you talked about taking the speaker and the speaker wires completely out of the machine. Somehow, that led to the following idea: Why not just solder 4-6" of new speaker wire (I got 3 rolls in 3 different colors when I got the soldering iron) to each side of the Syscom volume controllers, out on a workbench, away from the machine, then simply add that completed "unit" (controller and already soldered-in wires) in-line to the positive speaker wire for each speaker, the same way Milt suggests adding his rotary pots. All I'd have to do would be to cut each positive wire to each speaker, strip the ends about an inch or so, twist them together with the stripped end of the wire I soldered onto the volume controller, and either use a 2-1 shrink insulation, or a twist on nut, and VOILA! Done. That seems to make the most sense to me. That way I could do all the volume controllers at one time, have them ready to install in any machine, and basically pick whichever spot along the path of the speaker wires that was the most convenient.

With regard to which wattage should I use, I don't think anybody said whether the 20 or the 40 is better, or if it makes any difference.