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Author Topic: Import duties and customs on pins.  (Read 863 times)

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Offline Caveoftreasures

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Re: Import duties and customs on pins.
« Reply #30 on: June 25, 2011, 01:07:37 PM »
Ant68 (Tony) must know what he is doing, since he has bought a whack of NIB Sterns and has visited the STERN factory a few times and knows Gary Stern well.
Tony travels to the USA quite a bit and has a large import business for a living so he is geared well to do imports, but i think for anyone else, the Aussie distributor would be a easier option.   Also, Mr Tilt has bought a whack of NIB Sterns as well locally from Australian distributors and has also done well.  ^^^ Both members would probably have the two best NIB Stern collections in Australia by the sounds of it.  ^^^ ^^^

I think Beaky hit the nail on the head as well, Gary Stern isnt stupid and has obviously designed the power issue into the machine so Aussies buy NIB Sterns from Aussie distrubutors which is one of Gary's main overseas markets with decently high sales.
At the end of the day, it doesnt matter how you get a NIB Stern pinball, but having one in your line up would be an absolute blast.
I have always had my eye on a BNIB Shrek or Family Guy. Both machines are very appealing to the eye. So many great Stern titles to choose from now.  $#$
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Offline pinnies4me

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Re: Import duties and customs on pins.
« Reply #31 on: June 25, 2011, 01:36:47 PM »
As Nino mentioned, unless its a "classic" it will not be worth the cost and problems, particularly with the current Stern firmware. The only games I've self-imported were Greg and my BBBs, but that was obviously a special case.
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Offline Caveoftreasures

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Re: Import duties and customs on pins.
« Reply #32 on: June 25, 2011, 02:38:16 PM »
Nick, Is it possible, just for arguments sake to buy a USA delivered brand new machine, and do what i did with my Star Trek Voyager machine and just purchase a 240volt to 110 volt converter. (forgetting the hassle of not just buying a NIB Stern locally from say AMD).

That worked a treat for my Star Trek Voyager machine. Isnt it possible to buy one of those converters and make a USA machine work ? maybe thats what ANT has done ?

Importing just one machine isnt financially worth it, but the converter would get past the firmware etc with the voltage difference.
The machine with converter attached would still think its getting plugged into a USA power point. My external transformer/converter was $220 from Dick Smiths.  !@#
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Behind every garage door could be a pinball collectors
"Cave of Treasures" 55 in my collection

Into  Stern -JJP - Cars , Road Bikes- Jet Skis - Star Trek n Sci-Fi & Electronics    
Beware of Stalkers & Walkers when playing The Walking Dead

My 7yr old son Hunter is my best mate in the world !

Offline Homepin

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Re: Import duties and customs on pins.
« Reply #33 on: June 25, 2011, 02:42:28 PM »
Quote from: Caveoftreasures on June 25, 2011, 02:38:16 PM
Nick, Is it possible, just for arguments sake to buy a USA delivered brand new machine, and do what i did with my Star Trek Voyager machine and just purchase a 240volt to 110 volt converter. (forgetting the hassle of not just buying a NIB Stern locally from say AMD).

That worked a treat for my Star Trek Voyager machine. Isnt it possible to buy one of those converters and make a USA machine work ? maybe thats what ANT has done ?

Importing just one machine isnt financially worth it, but the converter would get past the firmware etc with the voltage difference.
The machine with converter attached would still think its getting plugged into a USA power point. My external transformer/converter was $220 from Dick Smiths.  !@#

Sorry but no! This issue has nothing to do with the voltage - it is the frequency of the mains power - USA is 60Hz and Australia is 50Hz.

The MPU 'looks' at the incoming mains frequency and determines if the machine can operate or not.

I could most likely design a workaround - add on - PCB if this ever really becomes a concern. At this early stage it's not much of a problem because people are mainly buying AU delivered machines.
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Offline pinnies4me

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Re: Import duties and customs on pins.
« Reply #34 on: June 25, 2011, 03:48:19 PM »
Mike's right, and in any event, most other pins can be jumpered for local voltages so no need for a step down. It's just the newer Sterns that have made use of the frequency difference to make self-importation difficult.
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Offline Caveoftreasures

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Re: Import duties and customs on pins.
« Reply #35 on: June 25, 2011, 04:37:11 PM »
Yep, u are correct Gav.I just had a look on the back of my Star Trek Voyager machine and it says 110 -120 VAC/ HZ 50 - 60/ 3 amps. Thats why the converter worked in this application but not for the new Sterns. Surely, there must be a way around it.  What has ANT (Tony) done then to overcome the firmware issue ? Interesting, it must run somehow ?

I wonder if the difference between 50 and 60 HZ would be picked up or not, every time, every new Stern USA machine.  !@#

« Last Edit: June 25, 2011, 04:55:27 PM by Caveoftreasures »
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Behind every garage door could be a pinball collectors
"Cave of Treasures" 55 in my collection

Into  Stern -JJP - Cars , Road Bikes- Jet Skis - Star Trek n Sci-Fi & Electronics    
Beware of Stalkers & Walkers when playing The Walking Dead

My 7yr old son Hunter is my best mate in the world !

Offline Homepin

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Re: Import duties and customs on pins.
« Reply #36 on: June 25, 2011, 05:00:03 PM »
I have just had a close study of the Shrek schematics and after my brief look I suspect it has something to do with the zero crossing detector circuit.

Now the problem here is that the entire machine relies on 'knowing' when the AC waveform 'crosses zero' and the processor uses this information to dim lamps smoothly, fire solenoids for an exact time, clear lamps and probably zillions of other things I haven't thought.

A very complex fix I'm afraid and probably could only be fixed by replacing the entire SAM MPU board which would probably be an expensive exercise?///
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