New Moderator

[JonPurpleHaze]

Please join me in welcoming a new moderator to the site!

[color=#008000]spalmer[/COLO"]Pinball Nirvana Forums - View Profile: spalmer

spalmer

Pinball Troubleshooter



There has been an increase in the activity of the

Maintenance & Repair

Maintenance & Repair

forums and he's been a huge help to other members seeking repair information.

Thanks spalmer!

[tiltjlp]

Good move JPH. I've noticed that spalmer is PN's Answer Man.

[Ike Savage]

and he's also a quality author of VPM's, no?

[spalmer]

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

and he's also a quality author of VPM's, no?

I have contributed to a couple for tables. I co-authored Farfella a few years ago. I am not good enough with graphics quite yet to create an entire table.

[ruby651]

Congrats, spalmer! You do seem to have your finger on the pulse of the queries that pop up in the "hardware" section... a great kind of expertise to have around here!

[spalmer]

Originally Posted by ruby651

Congrats, spalmer! You do seem to have your finger on the pulse of the queries that pop up in the "hardware" section... a great kind of expertise to have around here!

Thanks!! I have been wanting to get more involved for sometime now.

[Ike Savage]

spalmer- what would you say your biggest success was on the pinball fixit front?

[sleepy]

Hey spalmer, you are the one that I always hope shows up when people are having technical difficulties with their machines and I am truly glad to see you onboard.

Will your duties include zapping the Bots that frequent PN?

[tiltjlp]

Originally Posted by sleepy

Will your duties include zapping the Bots that frequent PN?

Only if he's faster on the trigger than I am.

[1234fd]

Congratulatios Spalmer !

Do you fix laptops too ?

[spalmer]

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

spalmer- what would you say your biggest success was on the pinball fixit front?

Not getting ELECTROCUTED! Actually the most chalenging issue that I ever resolved was working on a Johnny Mnemonic. For a short time, "until the mall closes" I worked for an arcade in Arlington, TX. They had gotten a brand new Johnny Mnemonic. The machine worked great for about 4 months. It then started having random issues with the glove toy not working. When you would go into test mode it would show that opto that tracked the y-axis movment of the glove was not working. If might work great for 2 or three games and then quite. The Manager of the arcade was about ready to haul the thing out to the middle of I-20 and let it get ran over. We checked the wiring, we checked the opto board, swapped driver boards with a couple of over machines we had, nothing worked. Finally I got the idea to double check the connector that attached to the opto board and bingo, found the problem. As the gloved moved and of course the wiring harness moved as when, one of the little spring clips up in the molex connector was a little sprung so to speak and would not hold a tight connection to the pin on the opto board. Replaced the connector and saved it from been hit my a truck.

I am by no means an expert. I still have my Homer Simpson moments, but I have been around the block with a few. I have not worked on enough EM machines to say that I fully understand them. I mainly have worked on Williams/Bally machines.

I appreciate all of the kind comments.

[spalmer]

Originally Posted by sleepy

Hey spalmer, you are the one that I always hope shows up when people are having technical difficulties with their machines and I am truly glad to see you onboard.

Will your duties include zapping the Bots that frequent PN?

Thanks sleepy. I will be helping out as much as I can once I get comfortable with everything.

Originally Posted by tiltjlp

Only if he's faster on the trigger than I am.

I have to find the trigger first to pull it. Everything else seems to have change except I can not find the "mod" link on any of the forum pages?

[druadic]

Originally Posted by JonPurpleHaze

Please join me in welcoming a new moderator to the site!
[color=#008000]spalmer[/COLO"]Pinball Nirvana Forums - View Profile: spalmer
Pinball Troubleshooter



There has been an increase in the activity of the Maintenance & Repair forums and he's been a huge help to other members seeking repair information.

Thanks spalmer!

AWESOME! congrats!

[spalmer]

Originally Posted by 1234fd

Congratulatios Spalmer !

Do you fix laptops too ?

I have but parts are hard to find. Sometime cheaper in the long run to replace rather than repair. Depends on the problem.

[1234fd]

Graphic glitches, "cannot create" , "VP stoppped working" , ball stuttering, invisible flippers, no sound, etc, etc................

[spalmer]

Nothing that a sledgehammer can not fix!

[Ike Savage]

Originally Posted by spalmer

Not getting ELECTROCUTED! Actually the most chalenging issue that I ever resolved was working on a Johnny Mnemonic. For a short time, "until the mall closes" I worked for an arcade in Arlington, TX. They had gotten a brand new Johnny Mnemonic. The machine worked great for about 4 months. It then started having random issues with the glove toy not working. When you would go into test mode it would show that opto that tracked the y-axis movment of the glove was not working. If might work great for 2 or three games and then quite. The Manager of the arcade was about ready to haul the thing out to the middle of I-20 and let it get ran over. We checked the wiring, we checked the opto board, swapped driver boards with a couple of over machines we had, nothing worked. Finally I got the idea to double check the connector that attached to the opto board and bingo, found the problem. As the gloved moved and of course the wiring harness moved as when, one of the little spring clips up in the molex connector was a little sprung so to speak and would not hold a tight connection to the pin on the opto board. Replaced the connector and saved it from been hit my a truck.

I am by no means an expert. I still have my Homer Simpson moments, but I have been around the block with a few. I have not worked on enough EM machines to say that I fully understand them. I mainly have worked on Williams/Bally machines.

thanks, pretty fun story. although maybe the JM would have been worth putting on the highway just to see if the special glove would have reached out somehow and saved itself.

if you have space for it, i recommend you get a couple fixer-upper EM's to play with. i've found it really fun to putter around with them in the past, maybe because you can fix so many of their issues just with the tools and supplies that an average man might have handy. who knows though, maybe such machines cost a lot more than the $100 - $150 per that i paid back in the mid 90's...

[Ike Savage]

btw- all the questions regularly pouring in here made me slightly curious about where all the people are coming from. seemingly first or second-time posters who may or may not have even heard of VP / simulated pinball.

only ideas i have at the moment are the retror0m's listed link and WP's link from their VP page. maybe usenet as well.

yea, merely curious.... and i probably asked this question in the past, too. *forehead smack*

[spalmer]

Originally Posted by Ike Savage

if you have space for it, i recommend you get a couple fixer-upper EM's to play with. i've found it really fun to putter around with them in the past, maybe because you can fix so many of their issues just with the tools and supplies that an average man might have handy. who knows though, maybe such machines cost a lot more than the $100 - $150 per that i paid back in the mid 90's...

I am going to the Texas Pinball Festival in March. I have two machines right now, a Black Knight Limited Edition and Rollergames. I got lucky last year and the Black Knight for an even swap for a Firepower and got Steve Ritchie to autograph the machine. I am going to look. The usually have a few EM machines at the swap meet. I only have room for 1 or two more machines. We will see what I can find. Would love to get my hands on a Toledo. I case you are wondering, the difference between regular and LE Black Knight is that they used microswitches instead of leaf switched in the upper and lower ball trough. Only 600 LE machines were built. Mine is almost perfect. Most of these have a lot of playfield wear one the Magna Save circles. Mine was zero! I will post a picture or two when I have time.