Re: I hate hackers

I realize that there are economic reasons for doing repairs like that on
site. And I empathize with the operator who is trying to make a buck and
keep his machines working. Sometimes you just have to do it.

I was in a situation like this with a burnt connector for the GI. I think
it was a Dr. Dude. I did not have the replacement connectors and had to get
the pin operating. Rather than pulling out my heater and making a bigger
mess of the situation, I stripped the end of the wires and wrapped them
around the out end of the fuses and snapped the fuses back into place. I
had to be careful to select the correct fuse end so that the circuits were
still protected, but that is not difficult. I also took a second and
labeled each wire as to the original pin location.

This took me less time than the hot hack.

When I got the parts and the time, I fixed it correctly.

In my case here, this pin is old enough so that the head had to be removed
for transportation (not a fold down). Now I have a series of wires that
were cut from the rectifier PCB that go to the playfield and I don't know
which connection to put them. The circuit diagram does not identify the
wires by color, only by function. So I will have to figure out which wire
is GI Buss, Sol Buss, GI Ret, etc. Not insurmountable, but a pain.

[BTW, if anyone knows the pin locations vs. the colors for this '77 Bally
pin for J1, you can save me an hour or so. Bally MPU AS-2518-17]

in article 13n8c9g675c0h65@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Mickey Johnson at
mickster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 12/27/07 3:10 PM:

While you may hate that the repair before you was done this way, there is a
several reasons to do it that way.

1) quicker (when its about making money and not a hobby, quicker is better
than pretty.)

2) more reliable, (while not as handy if the pcb has to be removed,
soldered directly to the board ends connector problems forever (replacing
connectors (even both female and male does not)). It also eliminates poor
connections from idc connectors or poor crimping. It also elimates cracked
solder joints on the pins (from connectors being removed and installed).

3) while their are many boards you would not want to do this to, power
supplies are not usually as much as an issue because they can usually be
fixed within the game (so its not needed to have them be removable).

4) any repair that can be done without parts in hand is usually going to
win out over doing the repair 'right' if the game is on location.

I realize that as a collector, that type of repair is annoying, but to say
that its idiotic really is not the case if you look at where the game was
used before hand. Remember that pinball has a commercial life before it
makes it to the collector. I have fixed machines in all types of situations
(at home with plenty of time, in a hurry with no spare parts, repairs where
money is no object, and repairs where an extra 20 dollars worth of
prevenative maintence is not wanted). There is a big difference when you
are tinkering on a game at home and when you are fixing something that you
didn't even have time to pull the glass to begin with.

Later,
Mickey



"The Hammer" <LHNewsgroup@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C3994B0A.1233E%LHNewsgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am working on an old Mata Hari pin that has almost all the plug
connections to the power supply rectifier board replaced with wires
soldered
directly to the PCB, cursing at the idiot who did this (it is not that
hard
to replace the male and female plugs) and listening to John Lee Hooker's
"The Healer", thinking that at least the music is flipping appropriate.

Dang, I hate hackers


almost as much as I hate run on sentences.




.

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