solenoids
Gorgar: We Finally Fixed Him!
If you remember, some of my earliest posts are about Gorgar. My dad picked up this pinball machine for next to nothing, rescuing it from the scrap yard. During this winter break, we moved the machine over to my dad’s house, in order to have more room to work on it. Today, we made a breakthrough: we fixed the biggest issue, and now it is 99% functional (all we need is a solenoid coil to fix the center drop targets.)
Read on for a timeline detailing the work done on this machine since we received it.
Piano, transistors
I’ve posted, on the Music page, a new song I started a few nights ago. A sad but hopeful piano song, that seems to pull you up and down. This is definitely a pre-release version, of course, but it’s there for all to enjoy!
I haven’t played much with the pinball machine since, however, I believe I know what the cause of the problem with the middle GAR drop-targets: because no power is coming from the board itself, I know it’s not a problem with wires between the board and the solenoid. On the board where it connect to, there are a whole bunch of transistors and triacs: relays. I’m 75% sure that these relays control lights and solenoids, so chances are good that one of the transistors are blown that are in charge of sending current to the solenoid. It’s just a matter of finding which one is it, and finding a suitable replacement part.
I’ve gone through my first MP3-player-to-tape-deck-adapter, which I knew would happen eventually. Luckily I’ve got a second one, but it has given me renewed desire to hack into my car’s stereo console and wire-up an Aux input. If only it weren’t so damned cold outside.
😛