Looking into restoring my Data East - Star Wars

[Crashramp]

Great work so far, good luck with it and keep the updates coming. DE Star Wars is a great game.

[Dimsims]

Had the weekend off this, due to other plans so haven't got far since my last post.

Yesterday I build a rough trolley to sit the machine on while I work on  it, just so I can move it around as my back dont like pinball machines 



Also I was able to pick the ramp up today and very happy with it 
I expected it to have the heat stain in the metal but they polished it out, total cost was $35.
Pretty damn good a thought 




Onto sanding and painting the inside of the cab now.
I found blue paint that looks to be an exact match and can get it in either a pressure can or 1/2L tin

[Dimsims]

Hey guys, Ive been doing a little here and there, ive pretty much ordered everything I need, it has all arrived except the order from Mad Amusements  
They were the only ones that had the Cliffy hole protectors in stock and also had the plastics I needed.
I ordered everything pretty much at the same time, everything else turned up last week, but I have no clue on where the Mad Amusements order is ?
Ive emailed them a couple of times with no response  

Anyway ive managed to fix the death star drop target, I used the soldering iron to weld the plastic, then glued over the top and also added a support bar.
I think I worked out why it broke, there was a nut and bolt missing that acts as a stopper on the other side of the drop target, making it sort of twist and over time it must have broke ?
Added a new target and the missing nut and bolt:



Cleaned & rebuilt the other drop targets, I have new targets but no one has a sticker kit in stock, so ill had to clean up the old ones for now:


Also put new springs in.

Cleaned and rebuilt the POP bumpers with new parts, here is one of them:



Painted the upper inside of the cabinet:

[Dimsims]

Before with standard globs                                                                                                  After: cleaned with LED's installed 

[Pintoxicated]

Unfortunately your experience with MAD Amusements is more the norm than a one off.  Dare I say it, you were warned.  It is hard when nobody else has what you want but there are too many guys around the world that have been burnt by this schmuck.  Your order will turn up eventually, it is just a waiting game now to see when he feels like sending it.

[swinks]

alternatively contact cliffy directly as often he has sets at home that he hasn't sent to distributors and his postage is great - $2 for 4 cliffy protectors.

[Mr Pinbologist]

How long ago did you place the order with Mad Amusements? And when you placed the order did you receive an email from them giving the shipping options etc? normally this email can take up to a few days.

Also when he actually sends the order you should receive an email from USPS with tracking info. Once you have THAT email you know you're going to receive your order  

As others have said he IS slow to send anything, but if you've had the emails sent to you as i mentioned above you should receive your parts   I've had no problems so far with him, everything has turned up, albeit not as quick as i would like!!

I dont know if it actually helps but if i ever have any queries about an order i always make sure to be polite in the emails i send (i've only needed to do this once that i can remember with Mad btw) and i've never had to wait long for a reply. From what i've learned of other peoples experiences of him he seems like someone who would probably ignore abusive emails.

[Crashramp]

From what i've learned of other peoples experiences of him he seems like someone who would probably ignore abusive emails.

Defiantly agree here unfortunately in my experience he ignores the polite ones as well.

[Dimsims]

alternatively contact cliffy directly as often he has sets at home that he hasn't sent to distributors and his postage is great - $2 for 4 cliffy protectors.

Thanks for the tip, I will do if this doesn't work out.

How long ago did you place the order with Mad Amusements? And when you placed the order did you receive an email from them giving the shipping options etc? normally this email can take up to a few days.

Also when he actually sends the order you should receive an email from USPS with tracking info. Once you have THAT email you know you're going to receive your order  

As others have said he IS slow to send anything, but if you've had the emails sent to you as i mentioned above you should receive your parts   I've had no problems so far with him, everything has turned up, albeit not as quick as i would like!!

I dont know if it actually helps but if i ever have any queries about an order i always make sure to be polite in the emails i send (i've only needed to do this once that i can remember with Mad btw) and i've never had to wait long for a reply. From what i've learned of other peoples experiences of him he seems like someone who would probably ignore abusive emails.

I placed the order about the 31st of last month, so about 11 days ago, but no emails from USPS.
I did get one about the shipping details, which I answered straight away and chose the Express option  
Then they had to send a paypal invoice so I can pay the difference for the Express post, in which I payed straight away.
To get to this point 6 days had gone past and I haven't heard from them since   All of my email have been polite.

I think they have a bad system for the shipping side of thing, a customer should be able to choose what shipping they what in the checkout process.
This would have cut out 6 days in my case, anyway I think it will be my first and last order with them.

[Dimsims]

Well the Mad Amusement order still no show  but he did finally get back to me, saying he had problems with his email system 

Ive replaced some lamp holders (took a few hours)


Once I did that I installed the rest of the LED's and wanted to see how they were looking.
I turned the machine on was all looking good then all of a sudden FIRE WORKS !! came from the back box 
Quickly turned off the machine and I found this on the CPU board:



I had a think for a while what could have caused this and had a look in the manual.
The manual says they are for the 4 bumpers and thats where my problem was 
Some how when looking at the photos I got the wires around the wrong way    lol
So ive fixed that now and on to fixing the board 

Ive managed to get the same TIP122 transistors, but the 2N4401 transistors next to them seem to be harder to find
I have some PN100 transistors here, will they do the job ?
Ive looked then up and says they can be used as a replacement: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ZT2283

[dealers choice]

It looks like your doing a great job on your restore so far    . with the stickers your having trouble geting. In the past I have carefully removed them and sent them to a sign writer that specializes in sticker work. Ive had great results and couldnt tell the diferance. I Hope this helps

[Dimsims]

It looks like your doing a great job on your restore so far    . with the stickers your having trouble geting. In the past I have carefully removed them and sent them to a sign writer that specializes in sticker work. Ive had great results and couldnt tell the diferance. I Hope this helps

Cheers for that, also looks like Marco has just restocked:
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/820-6090-00

[Mr Pinbologist]

Ive managed to get the same TIP122 transistors, but the 2N4401 transistors next to them seem to be harder to find Confused
I have some PN100 transistors here, will they do the job ?
Ive looked then up and says they can be used as a replacement: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ZT2283

The PN100 has a slightly lower collector current (500mA as opposed to 600mA for the 2N4401) but slightly higher voltage ratings so it should work ok.

[dealers choice]

Ive found marcos postage to be out of this world. I personally would get them made here for less than his postage cost alone.

[Dimsims]

The PN100 has a slightly lower collector current (500mA as opposed to 600mA for the 2N4401) but slightly higher voltage ratings so it should work ok.

Cheers for that I have used the PN100's and once installed where reading on the multimeter the same as the others 

Ive found marcos postage to be out of this world. I personally would get them made here for less than his postage cost alone.

Yes I did think that when I put an order through last time, I wish he had them in stock then
One thing though, the service was lightning fast, from memory I had my order 5-6 days later.