Working on a Bally Star Trek Pinball Machine 4 - Lights, Flippers, & Switches

[@mikequenzer9100]

Three eras of Trek on that machine, Motion picture and the original, the drop targets are Next Generation.... yea I'm a Treker nerd! it's looking good!!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you for watching Mike!

[@wirekat]

Thanks so much. I had a bad cap on one of the switches and was stuck on. Cut the cap off and all good. Awesome!

[@LyonsArcade]

Very cool :) Crazy how one little thing can mess it up :)

[@ChadAmI80]

Great video. I always learn something new from your videos.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you for watching ChadAml!

[@gingertom64]

I don't own a pinball, but I find your video's really interesting. Keep them up and thank you.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Tom, we appreciate you watching!

[@FreezerBurn.]

I know this is a billion years late as i’m new to this channel but what does a 4 episode job like this ball park in at and how long does this actually take to do?. So much work and dedication! Truly amazing!

[@LyonsArcade]

It takes quite awhile :) I'm working on an old pinball right now that's probably gonna end up being 15 hours or so of work, this Star Trek may have been more than that.

[@crapcbm]

would be a dream to own one like this ;)

[@LyonsArcade]

Man they're out there, look around you might be able to find one that needs some work and save it :)

[@crapcbm]

​@@LyonsArcade yes the mission is to find them ;) But have not seen a StarTrek theme one here in Germany. I look 1-2 times a year thru the web, but always only find overpriced newer ones or ones they need not only work, they need a wonder :D But if the fortune stands good, it will happen one day ;-)

[@crapcbm]

@@LyonsArcade you were so right, like you knew it ... and now you don't believe that I again just look around in the web and - I still can't believe it - I found exactly this flipper! (1.300 bugs) not far away from my home ... new offer from today ... that is like winning in the lottery ... have wrote an email to the seller (it is 1 AM in G.) let's hope I can catch it :D

[@whitecastle323]

Did my research, I don’t care for Bally total fitness, I wish we had more pinball machines.

[@LyonsArcade]

What kind of killed them off was they take a lot of maintenance to keep running right... which operators wouldn't do... so most machines on location were in poor shape. Arcade Games could be installed and just left to play but Pinballs needed weekly cleaning, things adjusted, broken parts replaced, etc. and Ops would just let them sit like arcade games. Eventually this kind of made the public weary of putting their money in one (it would have a broke flipper, etc.) and the revenue dropped. Bally ended up in a situation where they could make more money off slot machines (and fitness centers) then their historic pinball company so the latest investors boarded it up.

[@ArcadeFreak-gw5rp]

Good job the game came out alot better than i thought it would. When i saw the wear on the play field i said no way is he gonna make that thing look good but you proved me wrong. Great job looking forward to the final video of it playing.

[@LyonsArcade]

Oh Ye of little faith :)

[@ArcadeFreak-gw5rp]

Joe's Classic Video Games oh trust me i have alot of faith now. Lol from now on i will not second guess you. I still cant believe how it looks from what it was.

[@LyonsArcade]

We've got some more playlists on our channel here of other pinballs we've repainted if you get time check some of them out. This was probably the worst shape though.

[@ArcadeFreak-gw5rp]

Joe's Classic Video Games i am going to do that. Im gonna check out all of the videos. You do fantastic work.

[@ltsiver]

5:29, can hear sonic in the background, and what sounds like the wii menu music....

[@LyonsArcade]

Good ears, Andrew!

[@tlaim]

Are those type 44 bulbs?

[@LyonsArcade]

Yes, but we always use 47's because they use less wattage and make less heat.

[@billwilliams6338]

JOES CLASSIC, I'm not sure if you know the answer to this question. all microcontroller pinball games have different light sequences depending where the ball is hitting, the score, end of game. Are these light sequences stored in a ROM chip because all pinball games have a Light lamp matrix board on the back of the backdoor when your swing it open. The older pinball games used TTL counter chips to do the lamp sequencing but others use PIA chips. So I'm confused how the microcontroller knows to play a certain light lamp sequence when the ball hits a target, gets a score, or ends the game. The PIA chips is connected to the Light lamp matrix and another PIA chip is connect to the Switch Matrix so how when the ball hits a switch/target it sends a signal to the PIA chip to tell the microcontroller to tell the ROM chip that has the stored light lamp sequences to play a certain light lamp sequence to tell the lamp light matrix which lamps light to turn on and off? I'm not sure how it really works just guessing.

[@LyonsArcade]

Hi Bill; Yes the gameboards run a code that is programmed by the designer of the game, they have a special code that runs on the boards and is capable of telling when a switch has been hit as an input, and then can make the game do outputs based on which input was hit. so when you hit the switch, the game responds with an output like turning on lights in a certain sequence, or making coils fire, etc.

[@billwilliams6338]

@@LyonsArcade thanks for the help, so the switch matrix circuit outputs a special "encoded signal" to the Microcontroller to tell it a switch has been hit? I don't think i have seen any videos you have troubleshooting pinball switch matrix circuits or lamp matrix circuits you have been lucky in the pinball repairs if they have been always working good. I'm not sure how pinball games switch matrix circuits work or lamp light matrix circuits work. It seems that there is an encoded signal that goes to the PIA chips and the PIA chips sends out an IRQ signal to the Microcontrollers when a switch has been hit to tell the microcontroller to play a certain light sequence or making coils fire.

[@JohnDoe-uq3mx]

i stripped an already pre stripped pinball. what was left of it was a bally and a stern score number board, a bally transformer, and a stern cpu board. i still don't know what the game was.

[@LyonsArcade]

At least you saved what you could!

[@JohnDoe-uq3mx]

@@LyonsArcade, i still got the part of the headpiece where the lights mount on. i'm playing guess this game with it.

[@user-vd4ew9fg8l]

ピンボールには 今の通信で 電波と 電磁波には弱いですか？

[@LyonsArcade]

信じられませんが、米国政府は干渉を受けた場合に干渉を受け入れるように設計させています。

[@user-vd4ew9fg8l]

@@LyonsArcade さん なるほど 勉強なりましたφ(．．) たのしむなら 地域に失礼の ないように 注意が必要なんですね。