Cabinet repair, ready for paint

The lower Cabinet was in rough condition.  It was stored up ended in a damp or wet basement or location.  I cut about five inches off and totally rebuilt the end of lower cabinet with matching plywood.  I was careful to match the size and cuts of original.  Now ready for paint.

This what I started with

made this jig to drill leg bolt holes, worked awesome

Head fits nice, level and solid, now to get it ready for paint.

Backglass repaired

After sealing the backglass, I had it scanned by a company near me.  They have one of only 5 large high end flat bed scanners in the US.  The scan used 1 G of space on a thump drive.  The scan was awesome.  After that my son who works with Photoshop all day for a living, spent 10 hours fixing and cleaning up the scan.  He also made three layers for the print shop.  The three layers are as follows: 1 for color 2 for white 3 for shading or blocking.  We are very happy with the finished product.  Even made a coffee cup of the print.

Backglass before sealing.

Backglass after sealing.

New Finish Backglass

Back of New Backglass

Test print a mini glass.

Coffee cup

Testing an Alltek MPU board

I have an Alltek MPU that has the LazerLord option/programming.  I wanted to see if the few minor game play glitches would stay or go away with the Alltek board.  The game play is exactly the same, no different.  They (Stern) never made the corrections and went right into making the other LazerLord.  Hope to find someone that can make the corrections and post the new programming?

New Drop targets

If I have not said this before I will say it now.  The game is real fast.  So fast and strong it is breaking all the old plastic parts.  First parts to replace are the drop targets.  Really did not like the blue blank targets so went with white with yellow Stern S.

Old target blue, New targets white with yellow S

New targets installed

Stern Solenoid Driver Board

Some time on or after 1992 the solenoid driver board was replaced with a Bally driver board.  There is evidence of smoke above the location of the driver board.  Picked up a real clean Stern SDU-100 Driver Board on ebay for a good price but untested.  Did all the ground modes and replaced the two large caps as recommended C23 and C26.  Tested all outputs and then did a solenoid test and tested out good.

Update on LEDs

There is four solutions to the strobing issue on the controlled lamps with LEDs. NOTE: Some info is from users at Pinside.com find more info here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/classic-ballystern-led-adapter-kit-review  Thank you, vid1900

1. Remove the LEDs and use florescent lamps #44 as intended.  Pros: No mods needed and will have a retro look.  Cons: Run hot and draws the most current, also not as bright and can heat up and warp insert plastics.

2. Add a resistor to each lamp socket. Solder a 470 ohm resistor to each controlled lamp socket under the playfield so that the lighting circuits see enough current draw to stay latched on.  Pros: Inexpensive ($2.50 for 100 resistors shipped) Cons:  May take hours of soldering.

3. Buy 3 small daughter boards that attach to the original lamp driver board.  These boards have resistors built in, saving the time of soldering them at each socket.  Find boards at:www.siegecraft.us cost around $50.00 for all three.  Pros: easy to install, low cost and can be easily removed and reused.  Cons: Cost, some soldering and more connections that can go bad and if you remove the board you need to remove the LEDs.

4. Replace the lamp driver board with an alltek "Ultimate LED/Lamp Driver Board" for $120.  Pros: This board allows you to use LEDs and gives you an entirely new lamp driver board.  If you old board is missing, hacked up, burnt or corroded, this is your best option.  Life time warranty too.  Find it here:http://www.allteksystems.com/products-mpu-replacements.html#lamp  Cons; Cost, some soldering, if you remove the board you will need to remove the LEDs.

I elected to go with option #2.  I soldered a reisstor to each controlled lamp socket.  Took about 1.5 hours of time.  Cost was $1.25 for 50 resistors.  I can remove the resistors if I ever want but don't see that ever happening.  The LEDs look great and work very well.  I really like the look of the LEDs on this game.

All new lamp sockets and LEDs

Replaced all the Lamp sockets in the playfield.  Big job but had to be done.  Put LEDs in all new sockets.  Game looks awesome but having a strobing problem.  In contact with Comet Pinball and should find a solution soon.  Here is a video that shows the strobing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el734R4C5Y0

Here are some pics: