Looking into restoring my Data East - Star Wars

[Dimsims]

I'm pretty happy the way its come up with the wax, I've done a layer over the whole cab and 2 layers on one of the sides.
Ill finish doing the second layer and hopefully with a third layer, I wont see anymore paint coming off when waxing off.


I had a closer look at the coin door and noticed it has the wrong coin mech, you can see its mounted behind the door.
This is a picture before the cab was pulled apart:


I did a bit of research and found the right one that's supposed to be there and thought to myself "I've seen one of them around before"
Went out to the garage opened up one of my arcade machines (where I had seen a face plate before, sitting on the floor of the cab),
picked it up and it was the exact one I needed  
Its only the face plate with no mech or anything, but will do for now until I find a complete one.



It also has no coin return flap to cover the hole, so ill make a cover out of steel and mount it behind, just so ya cant see inside the cab.

I haven't painted the coin door as yet, just gave it a quick clean, was actually thinking of getting it powder coated black ?
Has anyone here done that before ?
I have a few things going in for powder coating soon, so it wouldn't cost anymore to get this done  

[Dimsims]

Gees !

Its been a while since I posted here and was about the last time I worked on this.

Time to get back to it and finish it off 

I bought a proper trolley the other day from a guy in Hallam:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271652709688?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
make life so much easier, I can now work on it at different heights and move it around with ease.

Things that still need to be done:

1. Some touch ups on the head box (need to learn how to mix colours lol)
2. Fix & Paint R2D2's head (Cracks in plastic & Chrome was very pitted / chipped)
3. Work to the circuit boards (Reheat solder joints & replace whats needed)
4. The left slingshot not working (I think this is due to the board work I did earlier ?)
5. Adjust the Death Star drop target, may need a new motor ?
6. New speakers (8" speaker is ripped & head box speakers are rusty)
7. New decal set
8. Install new ROM (20th Anniversary)

I think that's it 

Anyway looking forward to finishing this and being able to play it again !!

[Dimsims]

Hey all,

Been working on this last night and today...
I'm trying to get the Death Star drop target to work as it should 

Every time the death star opens, it should be go down until I get a ball in there, then it goes back up.
Well this is going down, up, down.
Then when I get a ball in it goes up, down up.

Its basically doing what it should be doing twice pretty much every time 

I've down all I can think of... Replaced the switches and so on.

Anyone had this issue ?

[Crashramp]

I don't know if it'll be a switch or possibly the motor. It does tend to have a mind of its own when the motors go on these targets.

[Dimsims]

After a little think, I lifter the playfield and I can see whats going on now.
When one of the switches has been switched "ON" and stops the motor, the next time the motor either goes up or down, the motor runs in reverse until it hits a lever from the switch, stops and goes forward again.
Is this whats its supposed to do and I just need to adjust the lever ?
Or should the motor not run in reverse at all ?

[Dimsims]

Problem resolved 

It ended up just needing the levers on the micro switches adjusted so the cam could trigger the switch when the motor is in reverse.

The game is pretty much 100% now, although I had the right slingshot out that I haven't fixed yet.
The problem is on the CPU board so I just stole the CPU board out of Maverick until I find whats wrong with it.
Its most likely a transistor or along that line somewhere ?

[Dimsims]

Resolved another issue late last night, that I was having with the slingshot on the SW CPU board

I went back to the repair I did when the POP Bumper's transistors blew to high heaven.
There were 2 IC's that I replaced and put it sockets, in case they ever blew again.
I did a bit of testing with the multimeter around the IC sockets and found that this IC socket had a bad connection:


Desoldered the socket and soldered in a new one making sure that each leg on the socket had a good connection both on top & bottom of the board.

Reinstalled into machine and BAM ! The right sling now works as it should 

A word of advice when buying IC sockets:
You can see the difference in the picture below, the one on the left is the one to go for when you need a connection on both side of the board.
I tried to get them, but where I went didn't have them, so I got the ones on the right.
If I had of got the ones on the left, I wouldn't have had any troubles.

[DSB]

Some good info. Thanks for sharing.

[barthead88]

Just finished reading your restoration work. Good effort. Im overseas at the moment but looking at picking a up a minor restore job when I'm back in aus. Good to something to keep me busy.

What's left to go? Would like to see the playfield in all its restored glory.

[koops]

Had some time to get the paint & artwork finished on the cab (still have head box to go).

The front side stripped back with a couple of the repairs I did:

After:

Not sure if the author is still around or not but ... what type of paint did you use and how did you get the colors to match?

Cheers.

[koops]

nevermind, I found my own answer, which was  "mix and match your own" from scratch.

[andypinboy]

nevermind, I found my own answer, which was  "mix and match your own" from scratch.

He - it was a help yourself answer. How did it turn out?

[Dimsims]

nevermind, I found my own answer, which was  "mix and match your own" from scratch.

Sorry koops, just seen this 
I took a piece of the cab to the paint shop and they mixed some up for me.
Trouble is apparently blue is the hardest to get a match, it was as close as they could get it.

[Dimsims]

Just finished reading your restoration work. Good effort. Im overseas at the moment but looking at picking a up a minor restore job when I'm back in aus. Good to something to keep me busy.

What's left to go? Would like to see the playfield in all its restored glory.

There is a few little finishing touches to go (when I get around to it), just waiting to do a parts order for another machine as I need a few little items to finish.
But will definitely post some more pics when its done 

[koops]

nevermind, I found my own answer, which was  "mix and match your own" from scratch.

He - it was a help yourself answer. How did it turn out?

I havn't actually "done it". More of a case in that i was doing research on the "how" :)

Had anyone performed a lead test on swde cabinets? I saw in the pinside "vids guide" that games made up until the early 2000's had lead based paint on cabinets. I think i'll grab one of these (http://www.bunnings.com.au/3m-instant-lead-test-kit-2-swabs_p1560254) and check before doing anything.
As someone that would have blindly bogged up the holes and then sanded it I am quite surprised/shocked that I hadn't seen it mentioned more.

Should probably be added to other restoration safety concerns such as using 2pac, natha (all known carcinogenics) etc.  There should be a big a warning regarding this sort of things for noobs :)