Recently did EBD playfield. For the star rollover I used the Dremel with a burr bit I had gotten from my dentist. I asked him one visit what he did with old handpiece burrs, and he said he throws them away. I asked for them instead and he gave me an assortment which I used frequently. The one in this picture worked perfectly on the star rollover, and no wire brushing was necessary. Cleanly trims away the excess clear coat in the slot. Ask your dentist for your free supply of burrs!

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Both my father and grandfather were dentists and I inherited a ton of dental tools including a lathe that I use all the time. But one thing I'm not sure I have are burr bits

Can anyone tell me what size T-Nuts are used on FG? I purchased #8-32 from Pinball Life but they are slightly too large for the posts. I'm thinking I need #6-32.

Yeah, 6-32

I'm a bit stumped here on how to solve this problem; the CPR pf is pre-drilled for the wood rails and as you can see in the picture, the upper is not aligned with the edge of the pf - it hangs over. Any thoughts on how to fix this short of fabricating a new rail? Maybe I could fill the screw holes in the rail with wood filler and drill new holes?

Update: I see that Pinball Rails does repros for FG. I think that's my best option. Plus, they should look really nice!

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Just drill new holes in the rails. No need to fill the old ones -- they won't show. Or am I missing something here?

I would first measure the area against the OEM to make sure the playfield is not foreshortened.
If not, then adjust as above.

We're talking maybe 1/8" shift, so the new holes would be too close to the existing holes. I guess I could drill entirely new holes through the pf.

Either fill rail holes or get new ones made; don't drill new holes in the PF. That's the hard to replace part....

Fill the hole with toothpick, or slice of popsicle stick and wood glue. Then drill new hole.

In the past I've mixed sawdust with wood glue. But toothpicks work also.

Bamboo skewer myself

I finally got my HardTop put on. I was worried that the adhesive might not work because I have had it in a box for 4 plus years. Lucky for me it was fine. I do regret not replacing my transparent inserts, but it still looks good. I put black vinyl rings around all my inserts and clear coated the playfield first with automotive clear. The HardTop alignment was pretty good but not perfect, which I expected. Overall very pleased. Now to put the playfield back together and paint the cabinet.

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Can anyone tell my why the ball eject coil suddenly isn't working? The under the playfield fuse is good as flippers flip and pops pop. Was completly fine yesterday.

Could be any number of things. Run switch test to see if outhole switch working, run coil test to see if it fires.

Thanks for the advice. It was a switch issue. My saucer switch was stuck shut and eventually did blow the fuse. I'm back to saving the universe.

I finally got the 5x 5x shot! Spinner was lit but my score went from 680k to almost 1.2m. No clue on the math there.

Scores 25x

Definitely the money shot in this game

I'm very happy to be back in the club after a few years! With Tron and Iron Man gone, this is by far the hardest game I own, but it's one of the best.

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Looks like a nice example!

Hi guys- I'm trying to get parts order ready and don't have the machine in my possession yet. Does anyone have a bulb count for FG? My searches aren't really coming up with anything.

Thanks

I just replaced all GI on the playfield, with 25 bulbs. Had a couple left over.

Finally got my video player installed and running! And it looks amazing:

This was a crazy difficult project. If you're interested in following it step by step, I put together a YouTube video. Everything you need to buy, everything you need to do:

That was very nice of you to make the thoughtful video walk through. Well done.

Hi all, I just replaced the isolation transformer for the strobe in a friend’s FG, if anyone needs part references , or advice on how to replace it let me know.

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Just post your details here so it's always available for reference.

I'd be interested in this as well - the more info the better.

I'm about to work on a FG and I don't believe the strobe has worked in a while. Trying to see what's all involved and see if I can revive what's there, or if a modern aftermarket replacement is going to be the best route.

My experience it's either the caps or flash unit, both which are readily available and cheap.

I fixed mine with a flash unit from a $5 disposable camera purchased at a gas station.

That straight forward huh? I've read of people grabbing polaroid 600 cameras off ebay for cheap, but that was likely an older post because they seemed to have jumped in price quite a bit.

Has anyone tried these from Big Daddy?

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Yup, 3 wires and hot glued in place.

Runs off controlled insert voltage so no more than 5-6 volts. If you have nothing at all, better than nothing.

gdonovan I need to get my flash unit working. I think I've done the easy stuff like rebuilding the connectors and converting them to molex. Would you be able to post a photo of the type of disposable camera you are talking about?

It really does not seem to matter. Used one from a professional camera and another from a gas station throw away.

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Thanks! I definitely will give it a try.

To start off, I want to preface that my friend had already bought the replacement board from "Big Daddy" that uses an authentic flash, not LEDs (Pictured Below)

https://www.bigdaddy-enterprises.com/ProductPages/BigDaddySignatureItems.html

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When I went to install the new board, I found that the required 115V AC was not getting to it.

I traced it back to the "Isolation Transformer" in the base of the cabinet and found that the transformer itself was bad. (No continuity on the input side)

After doing a ton of research, including emailing with "Big Daddy" themselves, I found the correct modern replacement transformer to use on "DigiKey". (Link and photo below)

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/triad-magnetics/N-68X/1887210

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To complete the installation, you will need the following connectors, fuse holder, and crimping tool, all can be found on "Amazon.com" (links below) In hindsight I probably could have found all of these cheaper on "DigiKey" as well and ordered them with the transformer, but I wasn't sure where I was getting the transformer when I ordered the other parts and Amazon could get me these the next day.

2 Pin Molex Connector
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085MSKD11

In Line Fuse Holder
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083BGR14X

9 Pin Molex Connector
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B6FF8CW

Molex Pin Crimping Tool
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06VWLW11G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00

The Transformer Primary (input) can be wired in Parallel (115V AC) or in Series (230V AC), because I am in the US, I wired it in Parallel. This meant I had to tie the Red/Black wire to the Black wire and the Yellow/Black wire to the Green/Black wire. I then attached these pairs to some wire I had already that was of the same thickness, using Black and Yellow for consistency.

Now that the transformer is ready, you will need to wire it to the connectors, pay close attention to the orientation of the pinout of the factory plug to make sure your connection is correct, having the dead transformer to reference was helpful with this. (The factory transformer has a bunch of input wires to accommodate for different region requirements, however only two are actually connected to the mains power coming from the switch through the in-line fuse holder. The 9-pin connector is keyed, so it is pretty easy to figure out where to put the pins. I used the original fuse in the new fuse holder because it was still good. (Photos of the factory connector coming from the switch below)

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On the Output side of the Transformer there are three wires, the two red wires are your 115V AC lines that you will wire to the 2-pin Molex connector, orientation does not matter. the third white wire is a "Shield Ground", I connected this to a ring terminal and used the factory screw from the original transformer mounting location to attach it to the metal base in the cabinet.

To mount the transformer i used one of the original screws and a self-tapping screw as the replacement transformer is a little shorter than the original. (pictures below)

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Assuming you have wired everything correctly you should now be getting 115-130v AC to your strobe board.

I am by no means an expert, but I just wanted to share what I learned because it was hard for me to find info when researching how to fix this. Hope this helps someone else with their game, and feel free to comment on any changes you think I should make or a better way to do this.

The total cost of the transformer, connectors, and shipping was right around $38. You might even have a lot of the parts you already need.

Cheers, Keep Flipping.

Excellent write-up! I'm sure it will help some in future particularly those missing the 115V transformer which I have come across.

My Flash Gordon did not have a strobe board when I bought it. I've since made two videos on how to replace it cheaply, one using a $12 strobe light and your Geeteoh board's relays, and the other on how to make your own from spare junk you probably have around the workshop!

Pinball Repair - Strobe Replacement

Pinball Repair - Strobe Replacement Part 2

Managed to get this strobe working.

Went to a photo supply place that developed disposable cameras, asked if I could grab a few if the used cameras.

Pried them apart and robbed the bulbs. Got a Kodak and a Fujifilm.

Just a heads up if you’re buying one or doing what I did, the Kodak setup worked super easy to remove and solder new leads to. Fujifilm internals we’re a little different, I’m sure you could get it to work but the Kodak was pretty well the same bulb only slightly smaller.

I ended up taking the original lamp housing apart and reused the front lense, glued the new bulb housing inside the old one with a couple dabs of hot glue so it would fit in the original bulb holder. Reflowed the header pins in the board connector for good measure.

Worked right away. Only got shocked 3 times haha

mad_carl I need to try that disposable camera situation for my strobe unit.

DanMarino Know you are local to me, I am happy to work on your strobe board, I even have a extra BigDaddy board that I bought and used for a week or two until I fixed my original board.

Thanks Joel. I appreciate the offer of help. I've messed around with reflowing header pins and I might have even repinned the connector to a molex housing. I will give it another shot on my own to see if the trouble is just the flash bulb. But if I still can't get it working I'll let you know.

Yup. Was as simple as gdonovan said it was.

The left inlane/outlane rail on my original FG pf was broken. Since this part seems unobtainable, I was unsure how to proceed. Then I looked at the old Flash pf hanging on my wall. And look at that, aside from not having the small spikes, they are a perfect match!

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Can someone tell me what Bally called the little metal tabs that were apparently used to join/extend wires like the two shown in this picture. These two are on my Flash Gordon playfield. Think they were also used on several other Bally pins of that era.

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technically they are called grounding lugs.

ebay.com link: itm

How many do you need? If just a few I'll drop them in the mail.

We called them terminal mounting lugs. Nothing special, generic parts found at the hardware store.

So what is a good score for you guys? I consider any game where I score over 500,000 points to be a good game. I end up having tons of quick games below 500,000 and every once in a while I'll get over that. A really good game for me is 1,000,000 or above.

Thanks Gary but now that I know what they're called I can buy a small supply.