9 replies to this topic

[ThunderFist]

Five years ago, I joined this forum to get some help with a 4 player Pong clone called Flim Flam. I was told I would need to send some pics of the wires that were cut. See, when I first bought this game, it had a note on it saying that it worked, but that it needed wires reattached to the service board. Well, when I inspected the inside, I found a double wire that was cut along with what looks like two single wires - one that goes from the coin door and one that's deeper in, possibly to the board - and I believe that the wires may just need to be reattached somehow. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated! I'll also have a Youtube video up shortly showing the game in more detail and discussing the other issues. It looks like it will need a LOT of work, but hopefully someone out there can guide me in the right direction. The first pic will be the two wires that I mentioned at first, then the single wire by the coin door, and the other wire deeper inside the cabinet.

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[Crazy Climber]

The small single black wire is most likely a ground.

[ThunderFist]

Crazy Climber, on Wed Dec 1, 2010 10:43 PM, said:

The small single black wire is most likely a ground.

Any clue what I need to do with that? I noticed that with the two wires, one is green with a black stripe, and the other is solid green. I'm positive that the solid green single wire, which is located next to the coin counter, I discovered, needs to be reconnected to the solid green wire of those two wires I was holding in the pic. Is it possible that the wire with black striping may need to be reconnected to that black wire? If not, I have yet to find any other wire it could have been cut from.

Oh, and here is the video on Youtube that shows the game in some more detail. You can see the monitor issue in this video... or not. You'll see what I mean.

Edited by ThunderFist, Thu Dec 2, 2010 5:18 AM.

[ThunderFist]

Sorry to bump this up, but I would love to get some info on this game.

[DE2600]

First let me point out I am not a board or chassis expert. Through necessity I have had to figure out and repair several of MY personal arcade and pinball machines on many occasions and after many screw-ups I feel comfortable giving you a few tips. First, never ever assume a black wire is a ground. It could be a hack or the company just happened to use a black wire. Second, does the machine power on? If so, what are you getting on the monitor? Are you getting any sounds at all when powering on? Also, do not worry about wires from coin mech. They are on a different circuit and will not affect game play (generally). Also, when powering up do you see a filament type glow near the flyback? As I am not familiar with this game, how many boards does it have? Have you checked to see if there are any gaps in the board wiring or seperation of board(s)? Have you cleaned and reseated the plugs to the board? If there are chips pull them out gently and see if there is corrosion or missing legs. If there is corrosion, clean them (the legs) and gently reseat them. There are tons more simple things to do, but this should get you started.

Edited by DE2600, Thu Dec 9, 2010 10:46 PM.

[Crazy Climber]

DE2600, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 10:43 PM, said:

First, never ever assume a black wire is a ground. It could be a hack or the company just happened to use a black wire.

Excellent point, I have even personally hacked black wires for non ground leads because it was the only color I had. I suppose it would only make sense that others have done it too.

[DE2600]

Crazy Climber, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 10:53 PM, said:

DE2600, on Thu Dec 9, 2010 10:43 PM, said:

First, never ever assume a black wire is a ground. It could be a hack or the company just happened to use a black wire.

Excellent point, I have even personally hacked black wires for non ground leads because it was the only color I had. I suppose it would only make sense that others have done it too.

I was going to suggest an inline fuse to check that , but I wanted the basics first. I also have used black wire and almost exclusively use it in my repairs as that is what I have on hand.

It is tough to find spooled red wire with a pink strip or some other wierdo wire color combo that I have found in some of my games (Track-n-Field in particular).

Edited by DE2600, Thu Dec 9, 2010 11:44 PM.

[Cassidy Nolen]

Hi all,

Haven't been on in a while (hence the shout out post, good to see you all ) but it seems you have your hands full.

This machine has multiple issues. Might I suggest tackling each separately:
Seems the monitor is going into shut down mode. Generally this happens when something is dead on the chassis, not indicative of a bad tube. You would not get any image on the screen if the tube was bad. With that said you need to source out the type of monitor you have, most likely a Motorola and the manuals are online for that.

Second, most of these early clones were still running 120 volts AC AT the board. You referred to it as a service board, lets call it a PCB as that is more common. The PCB requires 5V DC for this to run properly. Basically the ENTIRE voltage regulation section on that board can be bypassed and a standard power supply could be run in place. In other words, get around the known failure points on these older bronze age classics.

Finally you have the condition issue. Appears to be moisture damage, which in my experience also means chip damage on the legs of the PCB socketed chips. If you are lucky enough to remove, clean each leg and resocket each chip on the board (which is where I would start) you still have the cabinet condition to concern yourself with. Bondo and some elbow grease will polish up the frame nicely then a coat of good ole black spraypaint makes' er purty.

Given what you have in the game, what do you want to spend on it? Even if you find the books on it and can do the work yourself, consider the costs....monitor parts, lets say 50 in parts to replace the bad bits and maybe 4-5 hours spent on the workbench sourcing the problem. Assuming you can borrow something like a Variac (helpful to run the monitor from 100 Volts instead of 120 and keeping it from shutting down!) you can do most of the work. Then the PCB power supply, assuming you install one, would be 25-30. Then the time to wire it all in. Finally the cabinet work.

I'm not looking to rain on your parade, but just realize it's not a super valuable game if it is working. I would say in MINT shape you've got a 350-400 buck piece. That is if she's working all the way. Now, if you had an Atari barrel-cocktail with a low serial number, then you get crackin....

One option might be to gut it and replace the monitor with a standard black and white old-school thrift TV and the PCB with a four player pong machine off of ebay. Nobody would know the difference and it would work forever. Now that cost of repair and time drops off substantially. You could do that all for under 40 bucks!

Just my .25. If you take some pics of the board up where it plugs in I think I can see if it has 120 on board. Those are line voltages mind you, NOT isolated, not filtered. Its like sticking your finger in the electrical socket. Be careful man, they did away with that by the later machines....

Cassidy

[ThunderFist]

Thanks for the info, Cassidy! I've decided to pass the game on to someone with a little more experience than I have, but I printed out this topic to give to the next owner so they'll know where to start. I'm getting another game soon, and will post a topic once I have it so all can see.

[Crazy Climber]

NOOOOOOOO!!!! You gave up on Flim Flam!!!!