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STERN COSMIC PRINCESS RESTORATION


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STERN COSMIC PRINCESS RESTORATION

 

Hi all, good to be back on the updating!

 

UPDATE AUGUST 2019:

 

It’s been a while since I’ve got back to documenting this resto, mainly because I’ve been spending my spare time working on it!

 

Sooo, I pulled the coin door apart, took the legs off and soaked them all in the vinegar bath to get rid of the rust. I painstakingly photographed the dismantling of the coin door as it was quite the jigsaw puzzle!

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The coin door also needed a few extra days in the bath as I realised it had been sprayed with silver paint and started to flake away. After a number of days I ended up using paint remover and it accelerated the process considerably! Both bits came up very nicely, not perfect, but aged and presentable, just the way I likes it!

 

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Fixed the lock down bar as well, the handle was missing but I found it rattling around in the cabinet. After a vinegar soak and metal polish it works really well, very toit!

 

 

I also made some new spinner decals, the left one was very worn and the right one was non existent. I photographed the old ones, Photoshopped the hell out of it and printed out new ones on sticker/decal paper. I only had the matte type around and (although it still looks pretty good I reckon) I’ll get full gloss if I have to redo them. I also think they will wear away quite quickly, so in the future I’ll either put Mylar over the top as well or make mini stencils and attempt painting....

 

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Next I tackled the drop target bank. I knew this was gong to be a mission and that it would need some serious love being such an integral part of the game. I haven’t owned a machine where the targets are coil controlled and I love the concept. [emoji16]

 

When I pulled it apart I primarily found bits not screwed down properly and screws missing.

 

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I also found that the 4th and 5th target were missing their clevis pins. The 4th was affixed with a cable tie and the fifth loose! [emoji33]

 

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I had trouble sourcing clevis pins of this size locally so I sorted a work around from a hardware store. Hopefully the e-clip and screw will suffice until I order the correct parts....

 

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Sent from my iPad using Aussie Arcade

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Edited by Muzac
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Next it was time to rebuild the flippers, always satisfying and probably the most important part of the machine in my humble opinion!

 

I had pulled all the old bits off a few weeks back and discovered one of the flipper bats was cracked. I ordered flipper bats and flipper rebuild kits from RTBB. It all installed without too much of a fuss except one of the coils wouldn’t give up it’s coil sleeve without a fight. Must’ve overheated at some stage but a bit of careful sanding did the trick. Coil tests ok so hopefully it’ll be good looking forward🤞

 

 

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Then I got into the fun part, putting all the bits back onto the playfield. It was a great night, I scoured through my reference pics and re-attached the bits back in while my wife played Donkey Kong and lots of Cactus Jack’s. Many drinks were had and the playfield was re-populated successfully. [emoji482]

 

 

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Now to push forward to the big power up. I made an executive decision to replace the rectifier board. All knowledgeable pinball techs seem to think that this is “the” board in this era of machine that is always worth replacing. This was an easy experience, the RTBB kit sent with the board was excellent. It included connectors, stressing how important it is to repin and change them.

 

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On the more cosmetic side of things I wanted to prevent the backglass from degrading further. It’s in an “ok” condition but the ladies are looking a bit scaly! My father-in-law is a excellent picture framer and has a hot press that can melt plastic onto glass (amongst other things). I did a similar thing when I restored my Sinbad a few years back and it worked a treat.

 

You basically cut out a sheet of this specialised plastic film and place it over the rear of the glass. You then lay it in the machine and (like the name suggests) it vacuum seals and heats at the same time.

 

This particular plastic film melts and then sticks down as it cools. It’s a pretty stressful process to watch and worry is that the pressure will crack the glass. [emoji51] Luckily Murray is an expert at his craft and knows how to approach it cautiously. Total legend!

 

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He also came up with an elegant solution for the display windows. I find this process isn’t exact and that the film tends to wrinkle a bit. It’s fine generally but I’ve always been a bit displeased with the display windows on my Sinbad because of this. So Murray cut out rectangles of paper and we melted the plastic over the top. They were then expertly cut out with a sharp razor blade and voila! No plastic film remains. [emoji16]

 

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Then the moment of truth/the big power up arrived! I put all the boards back in (thanks @Skybeaux) and the sweet new LED displays from Tangles.......

SUCCESS! No explosions or fire, we have lights and sound and some working coils!

 

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The backglass will probably need replacing at some stage but it will do for now in all it’s flaky glory!

 

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Now that we have power, the new problems begin:

 

Display are all over the place, flickering and displaying odd numbers

Flippers work but only a selection of playfield coils active when hit

Self test button doesn’t work

Rectifier board blows display fuse on power up (yet displays still work??)

Outhole won’t kick out the ball into the shooter lane

 

 

 

Fast forward to today (Sunday 18th August) and extremely pleased to say that to date I have ironed out all these issues! Hooray!

No small thanks to all the great techs and contributors on the wonderful Aussie Arcade forum. They were so unbelievably helpful I am at a loss to adequately thank them[emoji18]

 

Rectifier display fuse blowing:

 

I am 98% sure this is a short from the transformer itself

I had a loose lug on the transformer that I was concerned about that appears to be directly related to this circuit.

Lucky for me I apparently don’t need it (or the fuse) thanks to the new LED displays that don’t require as much power as the old gas ones [emoji28]

I don’t fancy messing with a transformer in a hurry but have earmarked this to address in the future.

 

Self Test Button:

 

One thing I have learnt a lot about in this process is the importance of understanding schematics. I now have a far greater grasp of how to trace wire diagrams from the component to the backbox etc and boy howdy it saves sooo much time! (I know that’s the idea!)

I have also learnt that if you are careful you can get into the self test without the use of the button at a pinch. This was achieved by attaching a crocodile clip to the ground braid and briefly touching the other end to pin 1 of connector J3 on the MPU.

 

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After testing for continuity I primarily discovered that a squashed pin in the Molex connector by the coin door was interrupting the signal flow. I hard wired this connection (for now) and that wire tested positive in continuity[emoji16] (I will repin the connector when I get the new bits.)

I traced both wires back to the head box and re-pinned the respective connector pins.

The button itself looked a bit iffy as did the wiring.

At first I re-attached the wires and affixed with new solder but that didn’t work.

I was the. advised on the AA forum (cheers @Autosteve!) to replace the switch entirely as they aren’t very good quality.

Once I did all this the buttons worked!

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Aussie Arcade

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STERN COSMIC PRINCESS RESTORATION

 

Coil problems:

 

This is a cautionary tale.

When I initially re-pinned all the connectors on the rectifier board I painstakingly copied the old ones wire by wire to make sure I didn’t screw it up. I (surprisingly) didn’t screw theta up up but the original connector must have been plugged in slightly offset. So it was basically shifted one pin to the left not neatly lined up with the male pins like you would expect🤯

This was pointed out to me when I posted a pic (tanks @wiredoug!) and was causing the under playfield coil fuse to blow. This fix brought the coil circuit back to life.

 

I still had odd things happening though... In the coil test only a few would fire and some were firing more than once under different coil numbers.

After consulting the oracle (AA) the chant again was “connectors, connectors!”

I was advised to repin the main players in this circuit (J4 on the MPU and SDB)

 

 

Huzzah! All the coils worked........except one....the outhole kicker[emoji33]

 

This was a very frustrating problem[emoji35] I had the game basically all working except it wouldn’t kick out the ball into the plunger lane and also wouldn’t register ball two upon draining.

It was intermittent also, the best type of issue! Sometimes it would kick the ball one out and other times it wouldn’t. It would then work fine for a game and then totally stop working. [emoji50]

When it didn’t kick the ball out the drop target bank would reset and over.

I initially thought (as did others) that the outhole switch was to blame. I plugged it out of the machine and it tested fine. I put a new diode on it and re-attached the wires (I also did this with another start target switch that wasn’t working (while I was in the neighbourhood).

 

 

This immensely helped the reliability of the switches, the star rollover was brought back to life and they both tested positively in the switch test. The outhole problem still remained.

So after checking the wiring and switches, I was advised to look at the boards (thanks again @Quench you guru!).

Looking at the outhole kicker circuit there is a transistor, diode and resistor that can fail in the chain.

Eureka! It turned out that the diode had developed a cold solder joint (no doubt thanks to my freezing shed where it lives 🥶). I reflowed the solder on both sides of the board and the problem was solved!

 

 

I now have a functioning, beautiful pinball machine! [emoji7]My lovely wife and I gave it a thrashing last night and the outhole kicker didn’t skip a beat!

 

I can summarise the lesson from this whole experience in three words:

 

Connectors, connectors, CONNECTORS!

 

The importance of repinning connectors on a pinny project has been drilled into me throughout this whole process.

 

I have also worked out that my display issues will be solved by repinning J1 on the MPU, one of the few connectors I have left to repin.....

 

 

I am extremely pleased to get to this point but I still have work to do:

 

The game is waaay to easy and needs to be set-up correctly. I jacked up the legs as high as they could go and the pitch is still only 5.5 degrees. It may be my shed floor but I think wood chocks are in order...

There is a stuck switch that needs addressing. It gives you many points without doing anything (I suspect rollover no#5).

Plunger spring needs replacing, my Bunnings solution is to strong!

The incandescent lamps need to be replaced with LED’s, only 80% of globes are working currently.

A custom rubber kit would be good. I cobbled together enough rubbers from my collection but they aren’t all correct and it’s causing game quirks that are annoying!

Repro backglass, I have an idea in the pipelines for this.......

 

 

Again, a huge thanks to all the great people on this forum. (Especially @Quench who is still giving me advice and assistance[emoji106]). The pinball community is a welcoming and friendly and I love being a part of it!

 

Still much to do, onwards and upwards! Cheers. [emoji482]

 

(FYI good people I’m having trouble posting photos now and will have to look at posting a final glorious pic when it starts working again!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Aussie Arcade

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  • 3 months later...

Re the game being waaaay to easy, just take out the posts above the inlane/outlane wire guides. I did this one mine and it is now as tough as Paragon. I absolutely love it this way. I have also set specs to 100K. Also juice up the spinners, balance them and put silicon spray on the fulcrum. When lit for 2k one can score 60-80K on a good spin, this balances the game nicely and makes the 1-5 kanes worth going for. It is a ripper game this tough.

 

What’s yr plan w the backglass, I’m in need, as is a mate in Adelaide.

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STERN COSMIC PRINCESS RESTORATION

 

Only just realised it is you, Zac! If this is going in your bar, then take the posts out as I suggest but set it to 5 ball (ball times will be v short) and make specs worth a credit, with no limit on them (but limit max credits in general settings to 5). This way you will get people hooked with the rush of winning free games. This is the machine I learnt on as a 12yo and boy did I get hooked on the sight of that bright red light. Better than sex!

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STERN COSMIC PRINCESS RESTORATION

 

Only just realised it is you, Zac! If this is going in your bar, then take the posts out as I suggest but set it to 5 ball (ball times will be v short) and make specs worth a credit, with no limit on them (but limit max credits in general settings to 5). This way you will get people hooked with the rush of winning free games. This is the machine I learnt on as a 12yo and boy did I get hooked on the sight of that bright red light. Better than sex!

 

Hey my good man!

 

It is indeed I, what gave me away! It took me a while with your avatar too mate...

 

Thanks for your sage advice. My CP actually came without posts above the inlane/outlane wireform so it looks as though someone has the same idea. I was going to have that conversation with you about this as I wasn’t sure how it effects the game. I have already juiced the spinners too, loving that! I have a custom ROM in mine too that allows a bunch of tweaks including divide by 10 scoring (which helps if you crack a million) and I’m loving this game.

 

I’m also working on a translite and had you in my thoughts @onetaste regarding that. Doing it for all the CP owners out there staring at flaking lady skin! I’ll keep you posted mate!

 

Cheers!

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  • 3 weeks later...
Nice work on your resto. We had one of these on location when we were operators. I think we last had it in a coin laundry here in Melbourne. It was always a solid earner. We even had a brand new spare back glass for it. You may realise, or it may have been stated somewhere here already, that this was an Australian game made by LAI. Stern made most of the parts and sent them to the LAI factory in Perth for assembly. It did not release in the US. LAI were selling heaps of every pinball they could get back then. Our best earning Stern game of that era was Memory Lane.
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