Thanks for the info cotton, I believe I only have the alltek lamp board.
(Topic ID: 228596)
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Orbitor 1
Stern Electronics, 1982
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Wichita, KS
Quoted from KJS:Thanks for the info cotton, I believe I only have the alltek lamp board.
OK. Just for grins, on page 4 of the lamp board instructions, it matters which control lamp wire you attach the supplied jump wire to. Each control lamp is going to have one striped wire and one solid color wire. The instructions specify to attach the jumper to the solid color wire.
I doubt this is your problem and you are probably jumped correctly but this is the last item I know of that might help you.
Quoted from KJS:...Did my own drain hole repairs and came up pretty nice...
Are you saying that these two pics are of the same drain hole?
If so, please tell us more!
Quoted from cottonm4:OK. Just for grins, on page 4 of the lamp board instructions, it matters which control lamp wire you attach the supplied jump wire to. Each control lamp is going to have one striped wire and one solid color wire. The instructions specify to attach the jumper to the solid color wire.
I doubt this is your problem and you are probably jumped correctly but this is the last item I know of that might help you.
Thank you I will check it tonight
With the hole repair it came to me at work...I looked down at my desk and there it was - the cable gland in the desktop!
I basically carefully drilled the clear top out with a hole saw, sanded and polished.
Bought an angled black funnel and used a section of it epoxied and screwed to the gland and then shaped the whole bottom section with water based construction adhesive to suit the metal trough. Really happy with the result.
Quoted from KJS:With the hole repair it came to me at work...I looked down at my desk and there it was - the cable gland in the desktop!
I basically carefully drilled the clear top out with a hole saw, sanded and polished.
Bought an angled black funnel and used a section of it epoxied and screwed to the gland and then shaped the whole bottom section with water based construction adhesive to suit the metal trough. Really happy with the result.
Now that is desperation and ingenuity! Give me some of that magic to make some replacement for these damn spinning bumpers. They’re impossible.
Quoted from KJS:With the hole repair it came to me at work...I looked down at my desk and there it was - the cable gland in the desktop!
I basically carefully drilled the clear top out with a hole saw, sanded and polished.
Bought an angled black funnel and used a section of it epoxied and screwed to the gland and then shaped the whole bottom section with water based construction adhesive to suit the metal trough. Really happy with the result.
Is it possible to see a pic from the underside, that looks incredibly well done....
Quoted from jeffc:** googles "cable gland" **
LOL. I did too. Funny thing is I've used those at my job before a bunch of times... never knew their name. 
Quoted from cosmokramer:Is it possible to see a pic from the underside, that looks incredibly well done....
Here you go
20190814_124907 (resized).jpg 2 weeks later
UPDATES
From my first post to now it's come a long way!!!
Here is my new list of completed objectives and pending parts/objectives:
• Backglass and bubble
• O1 Cabinet
• Complete board-set and displays
• speech board
• O1 Populated playfield
• Black Stern coin door
• Wiring harness + Cab harness
• lockdown bar
• transformer assembly
• O1 Head
• Spinning Bumper parts
• Cabinet assembled, boards in place, new ROMs burned.
• MPU needs reset section rebuilt.
• Rectifier board needs to be replaced, it works but heats up too much
Still needed:
• Display and Speech board cables/connectors
• Metal flipper brackets/supports (The flippers on this game have large metal supports that hold up plastic Wico flipper assemblies they will have to be made)
• Spinning bumpers (I would still buy broken ones, or parts or any pieces someone may have. Currently I am having a new bracket fabricated)
• tilt assembly
• New rectifier board
• eventually new cabinet wiring harness (currently using a lightning harness that does the job)
• shooter rod + honeycomb
• DE receiver should fit
• SPEAKER REPLACEMENT Need to figure out what speaker I can use for this game.
All in all I've learned A TON so far and definitely cobbled things together as I went along. Although my "Still need" list keeps "growing" it really is very minor and just the finishing touches at this point. My most major setback has been the MPU working for the first dozen tests and then locking up.
It appears the aged reset section has croaked and will be rebuilt. The Rectifier board was a Stern M-100 so it was older but supposedly works with the M-200's. Well the board smelt like it was burning and I couldn't pinpoint the source. Turns out somehow the GI fuse got so hot it sucked the solder right out off the fuse clip. Never seen anything like it. Needless to say I'm buying a new board instead. Once the MPU is fixed and it successfully boots, I can post a video of the game's first moments alive. I'm very excited!
Thanks so much to all the Pinsiders who've been helping me along the way, this journey is almost complete and I'm very excited to see it come to fruition. I honestly can't believe that in less than I year I've been able to put together a friggin' Orbitor 1, the wildest game pinball has ever seen!
E3FFBD88-C527-4583-A75A-7A88EA39656C.jpeg
Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:It appears the aged reset section has croaked and will be rebuilt.
Here's the reset generator I mentioned: http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bally/Stern#Using_the_Dallas.2FMaxim_DS1811_Reset_Generator_on_Bally_and_Stern_MPUs
It saves you the effort of repopulating most of the components in the reset area.
Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:The Rectifier board was a Stern M-100 so it was older but supposedly works with the M-200's.
Stern never made any other rectifier board other than the M-100. There's 2 different transformers that attach to it, there's a couple revisions of lamp and solenoid driver boards, and 2 different MPU boards.... but every one of their pinballs uses the M-100 rectifier board.
Quoted from slochar:Stern never made any other rectifier board other than the M-100. There's 2 different transformers that attach to it, there's a couple revisions of lamp and solenoid driver boards, and 2 different MPU boards.... but every one of their pinballs uses the M-100 rectifier board.
It looks a lot different in later Stern games, I wasn’t aware it was considered the same board
Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:It looks a lot different in later Stern games, I wasn’t aware it was considered the same board
What looks different on it? At one time I had all the mpu200 games except for Ali and Iron Maiden and as I recall, they were all the same board. If they'd been reworked over the years there's probably bridge rectifiers mounted on top instead of the smaller vj248 style... that's certainly different, but not factory.
They moved them from the head to the body starting with Hot Hand (pretty sure), and there's mounting differences, but the board itself is the same.
Quoted from slochar:What looks different on it? At one time I had all the mpu200 games except for Ali and Iron Maiden and as I recall, they were all the same board. If they'd been reworked over the years there's probably bridge rectifiers mounted on top instead of the smaller vj248 style... that's certainly different, but not factory.
They moved them from the head to the body starting with Hot Hand (pretty sure), and there's mounting differences, but the board itself is the same.
Orbitor and Ali versus what I have currently
4F96DA1F-9918-4A58-BAEC-F2F4584F70CE.jpegEA1729B6-CA91-452F-AB54-16160496B18B.png8DACFE14-E775-4A29-8A84-67878C1D69C3.pngCA9A4D92-DE61-48D1-AEEA-F47750599CD5.pngWow, I can't believe how I haven't stumbled on this thread earlier. I applaud you for bringing an Orbitor 1 back to life. It's an awesome game. Don't let the haters (of which there are -a lot- for this game) tell you otherwise.
I've owned and shopped two O1's during the years. Made a video on gameplay a few years ago too.
Hopefully you'll find everything you need to get your game up and running. I think you will. And I'm very curious on how it'll look with your plans on lighting the game. Best of luck!
Quoted from Jappie:Wow, I can't believe how I haven't stumbled on this thread earlier. I applaud you for bringing an Orbitor 1 back to life. It's an awesome game. Don't let the haters (of which there are -a lot- for this game) tell you otherwise.
I've owned and shopped two O1's during the years. Made a video on gameplay a few years ago too.Hopefully you'll find everything you need to get your game up and running. I think you will. And I'm very curious on how it'll look with your plans on lighting the game. Best of luck!
Thanks Jappie!
I’m honored to have you here! Your video was actually one of my biggest inspirations for even wanting an Orbitor 1! You captured it amazingly and explained it in a way no one else has! I think even though people love deep rulesets, they dismiss O1 because they don’t want to understand it. It’s pretty damn complicated and requires some insane precision on a game that is very hard to trap on.
Check your PMs I actually have some questions for ya!
At least it is a fairly simplistic board! I am sure it could be remade.
Unobtanium you say! Congrats on obtaining it then
1 week later
Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:Behold, the rarest Opto in pinball!
Pure, raw, Unobtainium.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
I’ve had the schematics for this the entire time and I never noticed...
When I received the box of random parts the bottom was lined with some Stern Electronics paperwork.
Well look what it happens to be!
Also attached to it due to the sticky part getting glued together is a cool little “test game report” to send back to Stern. I wonder if all games came with this or if this really came out of a prototype Orbitor?
image.jpgimage.jpg
Iso dig through all the pics I sent you... I sent so many schematic pics! Looking like it is still progressing! Glad to see it!
Quoted from Shoot_Again:Iso dig through all the pics I sent you... I sent so many schematic pics! Looking like it is still progressing! Glad to see it!
I’ve still got them! It looks like I’m gonna be getting this dumb little opto board made 
Kinda expensive but it’s my only option for this!
1 month later
The welder/metal fab guy who was making the brackets for me was apparently fired! No wonder I hadn’t heard back in a month! Thankfully I didn’t leave my only one with him!
Anyone know a machinist who can punch out some custom metal for me?
5 months later
This just popped up if interested - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/orbitor-1-reproduction-pf-plexiglass-bubble-backglass-interest
Quoted from tjw998:This just popped up if interested - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/orbitor-1-reproduction-pf-plexiglass-bubble-backglass-interest
Thank you! Saw your post, you reminded me to let everyone know, Opto board is out will be duped soon! Orbitor replacement bumper assemblies are moving forward!
I know some of you were looking for motors for the spinner. I "think" that the motor was the same as a Seeburg APC unit as it was Stern Seeburg at the time. Only makes sense. I can't find the seeburg motors much but this looks the same and there are several on ebay: ebay.com link: ROCKOLA 474 JUKEBOX part Tested Working WRITE IN MOTOR part 39149 1
Give it a "whirl".
Woolgoolga
Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:Thank you! Saw your post, you reminded me to let everyone know, Opto board is out will be duped soon! Orbitor replacement bumper assemblies are moving forward!
Put me on the list for a couple of the boards (these are for the spinning bumpers right?). I have a lead on a nice machine here in Aus but it's missing a complete motor/braket/board.
Quoted from BSavage:I know some of you were looking for motors for the spinner. I "think" that the motor was the same as a Seeburg APC unit as it was Stern Seeburg at the time. Only makes sense. I can't find the seeburg motors much but this looks the same and there are several on ebay: ebay.com link » Rockola 474 Jukebox Part Tested Working Write In Motor Part 39149 1
Give it a "whirl".
This isn’t it, the motor they use has dual axles, it has made it very tricky to track down!
Quoted from punkin:Put me on the list for a couple of the boards (these are for the spinning bumpers right?). I have a lead on a nice machine here in Aus but it's missing a complete motor/braket/board.
Will do, this is the opto board for the spinning bumpers. I am trying to build the entire spinner unit because so many were robbed for parts to fix these games. There are a lot of great Orbitors out there just missing the bumpers!
Just curious about the spinning bumper motor. It looks like it is direct drive as I don’t see a gearbox in the picture. It also looks like it’s 110 v.a.c. but that would make it 1750 rpm which seems way to fast or there has to be some wild ball action!
So what is the motor voltage and what is the rpm?
Quoted from 29REO:Just curious about the spinning bumper motor. It looks like it is direct drive as I don’t see a gearbox in the picture. It also looks like it’s 110 v.a.c. but that would make it 1750 rpm which seems way to fast or there has to be some wild ball action!
So what is the motor voltage and what is the rpm?
Yes that’s correct, I had heard it is between 1800-2000 rpm. It is direct 120v pretty wild. Watch the videos!! Orbitor is amazing.
That’s interesting. So then the shaft extends through the underside, is that for a cooling fan? I would think that if that motor runs continuously for extended periods of time that it would tend to run hot making it somewhat failure prone.
Quoted from 29REO:That’s interesting. So then the shaft extends through the underside, is that for a cooling fan? I would think that if that motor runs continuously for extended periods of time that it would tend to run hot making it somewhat failure prone.
It's more interesting than you might realize.
The motor only runs during a game and only drives the rubber bumper and the clear disc under the playfield so the load is pretty small. The bumper doesn't really kick the ball but it can give the ball a really good spin or english that affects both its travel and how it bounces off the next thing it touches. Many assume that there must be magnets below the playfield but it's really just the side spin on the ball and the topology of the playfield that makes the ball do the wacky things it can do on Orbitor 1.
The clear disc on the motor shaft has black stripes around its edge that pass through an opto. The disc and opto feed the rotor sensor board shown in the schematic above. The pulses generated by the black stripes passing through the opto are fed into an LM2907-N which essentially converts frequency to voltage. That's how the game knows when the ball has hit the bumper and should make sounds and award points.
Whenever the ball touches the bumper the motor slows down a bit as angular momentum is transferred from the motor to the ball. The LM2907 detects this because as the motor slows down the pulses generated by the black stripes moving though the opto slow down too. The lower pulse frequency into the LM2907 produces a lower voltage into the Q1 PNP transistor which starts conducting and looks like a closed switch to the rest of the game. The "closed switch" triggers the sounds and points.
It's a pretty clever way of detecting when the ball hits the bumper without having to modify the motor to close switches mechanically like a pop bumper.
/Mark
Napier
Quoted from DDDwingmaster:Thanks for the explanation.That is a very nifty ball detection approach. This could be a nice feature in a home build pinball.
I’ve gotten a surprising amount of interest from people doing home brew projects!
I’m glad to sell boards for homebrewers all the same, the spinning bumpers Orbitor were an innovative and unique invention that didn’t get a fair shake due to the pinball and video crash of the 80’s nearly killing them.
Can’t wait to see what the community comes up with!
1 month later
Quoted from acaciolo:I need one of the disks that goes on the motor. Anybody have a source for 1?
What happened to yours? They’re an odd part to break.
I will be reproducing those in the coming months.
Looking forward to it. The tech that has my new machine has made a new board to replace the missing scoring board (still put me down for two new ones depending on cost) but says he can't make the disc or the shaft that is missing from one of the bumpers.
6 months later
How is the project going?
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.ChrisHiblerPinball.com/Contact ... for board repairs
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info
1 week later
Quoted from ChrisHibler:How is the project going?
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.ChrisHiblerPinball.com/Contact ... for board repairs
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info
Just got a new job, and have been looking at houses, so I haven’t really gotten much progress done on this. I’ve got the playfield apart again cleaning it and I’m going to take the outhole protector off and try to find someone who does 3D printing to help make copies.
I did find out from someone who worked at the Stern factory back in the day, that Stern DID produce the last 20 or 30 Orbitor’s with a special plastic outhole protector that my machine has on it, and they sent it out as a recommended service bulletin, but Stern was going under and pinball was at its most dire around that time so it was largely ignored.
Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:I did find out from someone who worked at the Stern factory back in the day, that Stern DID produce the last 20 or 30 Orbitor’s with a special plastic outhole protector that my machine has on it, and they sent it out as a recommended service bulletin, but Stern was going under and pinball was at its most dire around that time so it was largely ignored.
Replicating an OEM in-tact hole protector would be awesome. Although, it might be a booger to install.
Good Luck in the new job!
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://www.ChrisHiblerPinball.com/Contact ... for board repairs
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info
2 weeks later
1 week later
Hello all , yes I’m in for those 2 optics for the spinning bumpers for the nice orbitor of got off punkin , just a question , is it best to still have what looks like a cooling fan still on the under side of the bumper to keep the motor cool ? Even though I don’t have the optic disc for scoring or sound, also has anyone tried to remake the small bushes that support the axle on the motor to stop the bumpers excess side movement , thanks everyone
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