Marshall Sutherland

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 15:30:39 -0500

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Mission accomplished!

The "assembled" picture isn't really assembled, just more or less close together. Thus, the misalignment.

#skeeball

skeeball

show all 23 comments

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 18:17:42 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Woohoo!!;

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 20:30:20 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Should clean up nicely. Does all the circuits work for scoring?

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 21:04:28 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

One of the optical sensors wasn't screwed in, but we got that fixed, so it scores properly now. We can't use free play because the start button isn't connected to anything and there seems nothing for it to connect to. So, for the moment, we have to trigger the coin mechanism manually to play.

There is one piece missing. There is a big gaping hole at the bottom of the cage and there should be a piece across it to prevent the balls from coming back out instead of going in the gutter. Oh, and the light bulb over the playing field is out.

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 21:11:42 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Not bad!

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 21:47:17 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Light bulb replaced. The play field could use a lot of cleaning.

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 21:59:13 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

If it actually has a PCB, I'd give it a good blowing off too.

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 22:35:32 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Good point. It does and it is pretty dusty. I finally rolled a 31 up the middle and a 36 rolling for hundos, so I'm scoring about the same on this machine as the ones the league uses.

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 22:38:10 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

One for picture for tonight...

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 12:34:20 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

The guy we bought it from has an entertainment center. Trampolines are their main thing, but they also have a good-sized arcade. They have one refurbished iceball machine in service and are working on another. They wanted to show off the one they had in service to us. It looks really nice, but I gotta say that ours already plays better. Something was off with either the ramp or the play field of theirs. My wife played a couple frames. The ball should pop up and come down somewhat perpendicular to the playing field. Whatever was wrong was resulting in the balls having a low trajectory over the play field instead of a high one. Either the ramp wasn't popping the ball up properly or the play field was positioned wrong. Their machine also had some "smearing" in the digital display while ours is displaying properly. After seeing what I assumed was their best machine, I was a bit worried about what we were getting. But, in the end, their machine may be prettier, but ours is more functional.

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 16:18:41 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Nice, I looked online at a few restored machines and your play field uprisings look in better shape than the restored ones.

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 12:51:10 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Last night, we rigged up a replacement start button so we can put it in free play mode and close the coin box section (where we were having to flip a lever to play). Today, I cleaned up the main board, replaced the battery, replaced the missing standoffs (it was down to 1 keeping it from resting on a metal tray.

Last night, it started triggering extra 100 scores during games. Since it hadn't been doing that the day before and it had been on longer, I suspected maybe heat was an issue. That is what prompted today's cleaning. But when I put it back together, it had extra scores on the very first game. Not heat.

We are used to having to keep track of our scores in case of malfunction in the league, so this just gives more practice at doing that. Still, it is annoying and disappointing. Maybe after playing more, I mean collecting more data, we will discover a pattern that could help us investigate cause.

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 12:55:51 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Maybe the sensors need replacement/clean/refurbishment?

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 13:24:49 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

I got it fixed. impacts on the back board triggered it. I figured out which sensor it was and discovered that it was slightly loose. Tightened it up and now it seems fine.

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 13:49:23 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Now the only issue is that sometimes it doesn't feed the right number of balls. I don't understand all the ball tracking processes yet, but when the gate opens, it knocks the balls back a bit and it must double count a ball and close the gate before all 9 come down. I know if must count, because if you have less than 9 (or whatever the programmed amount it), it will allow more balls to come down until it thinks you've gotten 9 to roll. I guess this is the next thing to try to fix. Maybe something got reassembled wrong, causing the gate to push the balls back when it shouldn't. Not that I have any sort of diagrams showing what things are supposed to look like.

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 15:44:00 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

The extra hundo issue is merely reduced, not eliminated. But at least we know what causes it.

Sun, 24 Dec 2023 15:25:27 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Any changes updates on restoration? Good enough to play on for now?

Sun, 24 Dec 2023 15:45:13 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Actually, yes! I found that part of one of the hundred sensors was not tightened down all the way. After tightening it up, spurious 100's seem to have stopped. I also adjusted the sensor on the ball feed and now it gives the right number of balls. You might not get them right away, but it knows you are short by one and will keep trying until you get the right number. I have only noticed one case of a double-count. Maybe it was another case of a bounce in the chute. If that is a problem, we can add some more material in their to absorb the shock and prevent bounce.

We still need to order a replacement start button to replace the makeshift button we are using. At the bottom of the ball feed chute, the bumper is worn on the top, causing the first ball to sometimes get knocked out. I think I might be able to just rotate the bumper so the worn side is on top to fix that. So, we are down to just some minor issues at this point.

I've been getting some rolling in every day to improve my game. Still experimenting. Trying different ways I've seen others roll in the league (some of them make it look so easy) to see what works for me. I guess I need to start tracking my scores to see if I am improving. I have to say that this machine is a lot less forgiving. I guess is is the different materials of the balls and cups, but this thing will spit out a ball that was definitely in the cup. So, I'm hoping what that means is that I will score better on the league machines than I do on this.

Sun, 24 Dec 2023 22:39:37 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

I rotated that bumper today. Not perfect, but maybe it will keep any balls from getting completely bumped out as sometimes happened before.

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 10:32:48 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Well, crap, today it was throwing in extra scores. Probably because I was rolling 50's. The mechanics of the 50 score are unusual. The chute is Y shaped. The 100's are at the tops of the Y and the 50 is just above the joint. While the lower scores break a beam when they go through the hole, the 50 and 100's break beams in the channel. There are two crossing beams. Each 100 will break 1 beam but a 50 will break both. The first problem was that only 1 beam was lined up, so one 100 gave no score and both the 50 and the other 100 scored 100. Then there was the problem that impacts neat the top of the play field would cause one of the sensor to trigger, which has gotten better as I found lose things to tighten. The 3rd problem is the ball bouncing in the chute and also triggering the 40 on the way down. I think the 2nd problem is recurring based on how high the scores went. I'll have to pay closer attention now that I know it is happening again.

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 13:05:48 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Good to know it is using optics rather than mechanical sensors.

Do you have a manual for it online or physical?

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 14:01:43 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

We have both physical and online versions of the same manual. I went to try swapping in the spare sensor only to finally realize that it is for newer machines that have 4-pin connectors instead of 3. I'm starting to this it isn't a matter of the alignment being off causing vibration to trigger it. The physical mounting feels too sturdy. Now, I wonder if maybe there is a hairline break on one of the PCBs (or component on it) that a vibration is enough to break. We just had one ball trigger 6 scores. They do sell spare parts, so we may need to add a sensor to our future order.

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 18:32:01 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Push on each chip, the PCB , and connectors in various places. That should help isolate. Also feel the heat of the chips as you press, that can be telling as well.

Careful to avoid electric shock on the hot side of things.

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 16:49:38 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

A co-worker came over with better diagnostic tools (which, in the end, probably didn't matter all that much). We determined that it was the emitter which was flaky. Looking at it through a cell phone camera, you could actually tell if it was on or off. In this case, if we tapped the little board (which only had the incoming wires, the LED, and traces between them on it), we could see if change between being fully on, partially on, and off when it should always be fully on. The incompatible spare sensor we had appeared to have the same emitter, so we cut the wires between the sensor and emitter boards and wired in the spare emitter in place of the busted one. Works great now!