So you are supposed to be able to take a playfield out of your game and put it into this contraption?! How will it work without damaging the unique harness of each game?

All of the early Bally and Stern S/S games have the same harness connections with the same key locations. The only real differences are the addition of aux lighting boards and different sound cards.

Shawn

So early testing continues as time allows to find new and interesting problems. Using my Space Invaders as a test bed, I attempted to drop in a Future Spa play field in serious need of overhaul. (Or a hard top. Could go either way.) Problem number one, it will not go all the way in. Why??
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Like a lot of the "newer" games, Bally started pushing mechs to the outer edge. In this case, the kickback for the extreme left lane is resting on the play field support rail. This is one challenge I had already anticipated. The support rails in the final build will be EBD style with the support and tip up area at the back and two short rail stubs at the front. That way nothing will interfere with the play field setting down to the lockbar tabs.
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Speaking of lock bar tabs, there's the next big hurdle. My initial thought was to grind new slots into the lock down bar where the single wide play field tabs would go. But I hate to mess with design and all and besides, if these play fields are only for this game, modifying them would be simpler. I propose moving the tabs to align with the existing holes in the widebody lock down bar as pictured above in the original post. One ends up just to the side of center with the other off to the left. There is nothing under the P/F to be interfered with so that is not an issue.
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The last thing I noticed was something I already have the fix for. Space invaders had the rectifier/transformer in the body and Future Spa had it in the head. This made it impossible to plug in the Future Spa without modifying the harness. Basically one would have to separate the rectifier plug from the others. By putting all the boards in the lower body this problem becomes null and void. I also intend to have a -54 rectifier which means I will have to change the plug for the P/F power.

Final note for today... I anticipated having plenty of room in the widebody for the boards and rectifier but then it occurs that it will be in the way of whatever I come up with to support a single wide game. I'll need to make the boards all fit in the space of a single wide game.

Shawn

Here's the support brackets I was referring to.

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I do not like the circuit boards being in the bottom at all. How would you like to be stooping over all the time when you have to meter some voltages or repin connectors or trace some bootup issues? Oh my aching back.

And what happens when you're soldering a broken off wire back onto a flipper coil and a glob of solder lands across some traces on one of the boards?

Boards belong in the backbox IMO.

The idea is to be able to easily access them when changing out play fields to move plugs and reset the MPU. And my back aches more trying to change the MPU settings in the back box. Plus, there is not enough room in the backbox for multiple sound cards, both aux lighting cards and chimes.

Original prototypes had boards in the cabinet. This was dismissed as metal parts tend to fall off the playfield from time to time landing on boards causing shorts. If you want to do it this way plan on having a breathable cover over the boards to prevent damage.

Finally got some time to put into this. I'll do some experimenting in my Space Invaders cab until I can build a dedicated cab for this. Here's a shot of the basic layout.
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The first step is to do a little rearranging. I'll start by moving the speaker to the space where the coin box would normally set. Eventually I will move the speaker to a pair in the head, Sys 11 style. For now, this will do.
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Now that it is out of the way, I can shift the power supply mount back where the speaker was. Perfect fit!
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So what we are left with is a nice empty space ready for some fresh innovation and ideas. More to follow...
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Shawn

I decided to keep it simpler and trashed the piano hinge. Ordered some simple collapsing shelf brackets and they arrived today. I went ahead and made myself a nice floor for which to mount things on. The real machine will have a 3/4" ply bottom like my '84 EBD.
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The brackets look exactly as expected and went on with no trouble. Next job was to add the play field rails. Once they were secured all I had to do was align the board with the right side of the cab and place it the proper distance away. Once I had it in place I screwed down the bracket bottoms.
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Here's a picture of it folded down.
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I set a single wide empty play field in it and all seemed fine. Then I attempted to put a single wide populated play field in and found the rails on the left to be a tad too high. This will take some adjusting. Time to get out the level...

Also, I had to move the power supply. If there's room, it may just end up back over where it started.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand it works. Lowered the rest rails on the flip up part and the play field dropped right in. I removed both hanger brackets from the head of the play field and replaced one at the right most slot on the widebody lock down bracket. Since I put braces on both sides near the bottom of the play field this should be sufficient. The playfield didn't rock and sat nicely. The only one of a dozen or so play fields I have collected for this project that is near flippable is an old Bally Supersonic. It needs work but actually played decently. With some connector work and switch adjusting it should do well. The only thing missing was the sound. I modified the plug for the sound card so that it matched what Supersonic would have put into the -32 card. The sounds played correctly but whatever tone played last would continue to play until a new sound was called for. Then THAT tone would play continuously. Its kinda annoying. We'll look into that tomorrow. But for now, CONCEPT PROVEN!!!

Here it is at playing position.
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Lifted...
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And at the service position.
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So what's next? Well, I've got those dozen or so play fields to get going on. I have at least one for each sound card Bally used in that era (except for the Cheap Squeak, anyone parting out a Black Pyramid?) a couple of Stern games and even a chime game. The integration of each one will require some sort of compromise in the wiring harness which will give me more insight as to constructing the 'One Harness to Rule Them All.' Two things make this possible and reasonably easy. First and foremost is the Ultimate MPU by Alltek Systems. Without that, this would be near impossible. A close runner up is @barakandl with his awesome Bally replacement sound cards that work the same way. One card, many games. Also worth mentioning is @skypilot and the guys at OutsideEdge who will make some of my junked play fields look and play fantastic. And last but not least, @kevincpr and his team at CPR who are cranking out the repros for guys like me to build a game around when they are hard to find or just down right expensive. Oops, special thanks to my used play field dealer as well. Chris Munro has the best used parts booth at TPF and the HAAG show every year.

I have limited room for a collection and the Multi-Bally concept should let me have a dozen pins in the space of two or three. (Bonus - I'll get in my upper-body workout while changing out play fields.) I'll start on the permanent cab this summer after I rehab my Mom's Bobby Orr.

Play field cue - Bally
KISS
Playboy
Strikes and Spares
Night Rider
Flash Gordon
EBD
Harlem Globetrotters
Frontier
Future Spa
Space Invaders
Silverball Mania

Play field cue - Stern
Star Gazer
Meteor
Memory Lane

Also looking at taking Old Chicago and making it work in there...

(Disclaimer: no cabs were destroyed or even harmed in the making of this product.)

Look at your sound card and turn your Sustain pot down (counter clockwise) and that may clear up the last note holding on forever.

Following your progress...keep posting.

Thanks. I'll give that a shot, and will do.

Shawn

Replace all the crimps which improved play 100%. I messed with the sustain knob which seemed to act more like a volume knob. The volume knob did nothing. I think my next step is to replace the 40 year old pots on the board. I already did the caps and I have the pots around here somewhere...

In between the day job, regular orders and making a dozen and a half Fathom play field harnesses I only get a little time a day to work on this but it will be funner now.

So over the past 4 years a ton has happened and progress has been like molasses in winter. However, I am now getting around to actual progress. The experiments in a single cab for single and widebody didn't really work out as hoped so for the time being I am looking at how far I can go in a single cab with play fields I already have. The cabinet is one of the EZ-Pinball classic Stern models. I had it flat pack shipped to me in Texas and have assembled and painted it. I did some modifying to the front panel as it is difficult to find a classic Stern coin door but I have a plethora of classic Bally coin doors. Frankenpin 1.0.

At the moment I have only installed basic boards to get it up and running. I have played Star Gazer, KISS and EBD in it. Video coming. I have opted to forego multiple rectifier boards as I can build all of my play fields set to work in the much stouter -54 style board. I did not have the proper transformer for a -54 board so I simply did the correct wiring from the lugs of a -131 transformer that used to reside in a Space Invaders. The specs are very similar and so far all is working well.

Sound - Thanks to the great board makers out there I have all I need in a few boards. A Squawk and Talk, a cheap squeak and then the multi boards made by barakandl to cover all of the -32, -50 and -51 games. And an SB-300. There will also be chimes mounted in the lower cab.

Lights - There will be the basic light board plus the two aux light boards (-43 and -52) installed as well. They will only likely be utilized when their output is on the play field. (IE for games like KISS, Space Invaders and Future Spa the output was only for the backbox.) At some point I will install a second light board for my attempt at making Spectrum work in this cab. More to follow -

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