Repair & Maintenance Log
10/13/06: Acquired game at the Whiterose Gameroom Show in York, Pennsylvania.
10/26/06: Re-soldered bad solder joints at the left coin switch (o6) and the ramp entrance switch (40).
11/07/06: New pair of matched locks.
02/04/07: Rebuilt high-voltage section of the power supply. All the displays suddenly died and I determined that I lost -100 volts. As usual I turned to the repair manuals at marvin3m.com. Look under the display section of the System 11 manuals. Once I got the power supply board out of the machine I determined that the 39k resistor R4 failed, but by then I had already got a complete rebuilt kit from Great Plains Electrinics (www.greatplainselectronics.com). I replaced all the components in the high-voltage section. The new set of components outputs about +/-91 volts as opposed to the original +/- 100 volts. The displays are a bit dimmer, however, their life span should be considerably increased. While I was at it I also replaced the big +5 volt filter cap.
Before (left) and after showing all new high-voltage components.
The original high-voltage output transistors are no longer available and the replacements have a different pin-out. The leads need to be crossed as shown. This only applies to the D-8345 power supplies found in sys-11 and sys-11a games.
02/11/07: Added remote battery backup. Instead of permanently soldering some sort of remote battery setup to the CPU board I made battery place-holders from 1/2 inch dowel. This method requires no board modifications. And no connectors are needed between the board and the battery pack. The battery pack is from Great Plains Electronics. I like that the pack is fully enclosed. I don't like that it has an integral ON/OFF switch. I set the switch to ON and put a blob of silicone caulk over it. The battery wires are mounted to an end of each dowel with a screw and crimp terminal. The screw head becomes the "battery terminal". Don't forget to account for the height of the screw head when figuring the length of the dowel. Also shown is a plastic tool I got from Home Depot. The tool is for pulling large inline fuses, but is also great for pulling AA batteries.
Battery place-holders and remote battery pack. Note the blob of silicone over the battery pack switch.
The CPU board shows how each battery must be oriented, but does not show the location of +4.5 volts. Before removing the old batteries I used my volt meter to confirm that the lower-left terminal of the battery holder is +4.5 volts. The orientation shown here is correct for most System-11 CPU boards. Grand Lizard is at least one exception. Grand Lizard and the previous System-9 CPU boards (along with their battery holders) are oriented 180 degrees from that shown here.
Dowel sticks in place.
01/15/12 - Battery Pack Update: I rewired all my remote battery packs with 8' leads. Instead of placing the battery pack in the head, I drop it down into the body and place it next to the cash box. Opening the coin door is easier than opening the head. The idea is that I'll be better motivated to replace the batteries more often.
Remote battery packs with 8' leads. Scruffy gives each assembly a quality control check.