Repair & Maintenance Log
11/04/16: Acquired game.
11/20/16: New instruction and pricing cards. Installed standard-keyed (751) lock on coin door. Replaced existing Super-Bands with conventional red flipper rubber. Technically I should replace the yellow flipper bats with white. But I kinda like how the yellow goes with the other playfield colors.
New cards and flipper rubber.
11/20/16: The M and N stationary targets had been reversed (e.g. hitting M would lite N and vice versa). I was warming up the soldering iron before it occurred to me that I only had to swap the targets back to their proper positions.
M and N targets were reversed.
11/27/16: New legs.
11/27/16: Replaced Gold/Silver stationary target. The old target was round with damaged edges. The game flyer shows a rectangular target. I couldn't find any reference to the part number shown in the manual (D-11584-1). So I ordered something similar looking from Marco. What I got was a little too wide to fit through the playfield opening. Fortunately the target was disassembled and went together with screws instead of rivets. I installed the target blade from the top and assembled the rest of the target components in place. It was tedious, but possible.
New target assembled in place.
Old round target and new rectangular target.
12/16: Retrofitting a rotary beacon. According to IPDB, export Millionaires were equipped with a rotary beacon similar to High Speed or F-14 Tomcat. I have not seen any explanation as to why this feature was not included on domestic games. In fact I never was able to find any technical information regarding the export Millionaire's beacon. This project was based on educated guesses I made by studying High Speed and F-14 pictures and schematics.
My only hardware hint to the beacon's existence was a connector and some pre-punched holes in the backbox. But my first step was to determine if my domestic game even had the supporting software. The domestic manual showed a blank space on the solenoid driver table at function 10 (transistor Q9). But "ROTARY BEACON" was displayed for function 10 during a solenoid driver test. So I rigged a temporary test lamp to function 10 and confirmed that the output was driven at various times during game play. Millionaire does not appear to have any game adjustments related to the beacon whereas both High Speed and F-14 do have beacon game adjustments.
My "REV 3" ROMs included supporting software for the rotary beacon.
"ROTARY BEACON" was displayed for function 10 during a solenoid driver test.
Five pre-punched holes (red arrows) in the backbox and a four-pin connector (green arrow) located between the sound board and the power supply board.
The existing four-pin connector.
Based on the arrangement of the pre-punched holes and the four-pin corrector I guessed that the export's electrical arrangement was similar to F-14. The lower four holes are for a relay board and the top hole is for a fuse holder. Two of the connector wires (wht/blu) supply 24 vac from the transformer, one wire (red) supplies +34v solenoid power and the fourth wire (brn/red) is the control wire from function 10 (transistor Q9). I guessed that physical arrangement of the export's single beacon was similar to High Speed.
F-14 schematic showing relay, fuse, motor and lamp circuitry. My domestic Millionaire had the same four-pin connector.
Just for reference, the High Speed beacon schematic is shown below. I highly recommend NOT wiring your beacon as shown. WTF?
High Speed schematic; what not to do.
Next I went shopping. I mostly used High Speed as my guide. The reflector is a reproduction part from someone called Tilted Pinball which may be listed on Pinside and/or eBay. The rest of the components were had from Marco under the High Speed or Millionaire categories.
Gathering supplies.
Connector parts.
Connector and wiring.
F-14 pictures show a C-11232-1 relay board. I couldn't find a C-11232-1 or a C-11232 or a C-11232-2. So I bought a Great Lakes Modular relay snubber board and removed all the snubber components.
Original relay board schematic.
Great Lakes Modular relay snubber board.
Snubber components removed.
Circuit board mounting standoffs.
Wiring, relay board and fuse holder installed using the five pre-punched holes between the sound board and power supply board.
The triple dome/lamp arrangement of F-14 calls for a 4 amp slow-blow fuse. The single dome/lamp arrangement of High Speed calls for a 1 amp slow-blow fuse. My actual current measurements were about 1 amp for the 1683 lamp and about .2 amps for the motor. But so far the 1 amp slow-blow fuse has held.
1 amp slow-blow fuse.
Technically I should have mounted the beacon mechanism directly into the backbox like High Speed. But I really had no interest in cutting a hole through the top of my backbox. Plus I may have had to relocate the backbox lock. So I made a housing from ¾" plywood. I used a router to round the corners and make a shallow recess for the dome. I worked it over with spot putty and primer and then sprayed it with some hardware store navy blue. The color match was pretty close.
Inside the beacon mechanism housing.
Beacon mechanism with 1683 lamp installed.
Beacon dome in place.
Export Millionaires appear to have had an offset backbox lock. My lock was centered and was in the way. So I mounted the beacon housing to the backbox with a pair of small hinges such that I can lift the housing to get at the key.
Housing mounted to the backbox.
Backbox key access.
I bought a clear beacon dome based on pictures shown on IPDB. The dome has an insert with a pattern of what looks like yellow Mercury dimes on a black background. I didn't know what sort of material the original art was printed on. Paper? Decal? Transparency? I also don't know what an ancient Mercury dime has to do with being a 1980s millionaire. Nevertheless, ancient Mercury dimes were what I set out to reproduce. Photo editing isn't my thing, but I gave it a shot starting with a picture I found on IPDB. I found only one coin that wasn't at least partially obscured. I squashed the original picture to try and make the coin look a little more round. Then I cropped it out and pasted a bunch of copies on a black background. The full image is below and should be printed to a width of 17". When it was up on top of the game and four feet from the eye, it didn't look entirely terrible.
Beacon art. Click picture for full size image and print to a width of 17".
I took the image to Staples and had it printed on regular 11" x 17" copy paper. The beacon dome had a slight conical shape so I trimmed the top of my image to a shallow arc. I braced the ends of a flexible piece of metal (a yard stick would work too) between two screws, pushed the middle into the image and cut and an arc with a razor blade. Next I put the paper in the dome and taped the ends together. The bottom edge was trimmed in place with a razor.
Image printed on 11" x 17" copy paper.
Cutting an arc across the top edge of the image.
Paper in place and ready to trim the bottom edge.
Finished.
Finished.
Click image to view a brief YouTube video of the finished beacon.
Beacon Update 09/19/18: A few months ago someone sent me a scan of the original beacon art. I touched up a few scratches and dust marks. My edited 300 dpi image can be had by clicking this link. As before I took the file to Staples and had it printed on regular 11" x 17" copy paper. I trimmed the top and right sides of my print. I left a tab along left side to provide some overlap when taping the ends together. The taped seam went toward the back of the dome and was unseen. I left a margin along the bottom edge for final trimming with a razor blade after the print was installed in the dome. My dome was slightly taller than the print so I used a black Sharpie to add a line along the bottom edge. You might want to experiment with printing the image at slightly more than 100%. But the back line was not visible from any normal viewing angle.
Beacon art print cut and ready to install.
Print installed.
I liked this new image better than my old homemade image because the new image was more authentic. But also because the yellow was more pale and the image had less black. It all let more light shine through. The person who emailed me the original beacon art scan indicated that the art was printed on a transparency or translite type material. I haven't yet figured out how to do that.
Beacon Update 12/19/19: I've been thinking about revamping this entire beacon project to give it a more factory look. In the meantime I went to eBay and found a C-11232-1 relay board that was the actual beacon relay from an F-14. The board included all the associated wiring, connectors and fuse holder. This assembly will drop right into my Millionaire and look a lot more authentic than what I had previously cobbled together.
F-14 beacon relay assembly.
Beacon Update 12/20/20: Integration! Having lived with my rotary beacon for a few years I decided to scrap my homemade enclosure and build the beacon into the game. NEVER have I cut a hole into a pinball machine. This was one of the most never-racking projects ever. But with a lot of thinking and careful measuring, it worked out. First I made a paper template of the motor mounting plate so I could transfer the mounting hole locations to the inside of the backbox.
Motor mounting plate template.
Next I used a scrap of plywood and my drill press to make an 1⁄8" drill bit guide. Everything centers on this drill bit and the block made sure I drilled perfectly perpendicular through the top of the back box. In studying pictures of High Speed and F-14 games, the beacon dome looked to be about ½" from the rear outside edge of the back box. Accordingly, I drilled my center hole 3 7⁄8" from the rear outside edge of the backbox.
1⁄8" drill bit and guide block.
After drilling through the top of the back box, I used the drill bit and my template to mark the locations of the motor plate mounting holes.
I ended up having to remove the power supply board in order to drill one of the motor plate mounting holes. Otherwise, this project didn't require much disassembly. I removed the backglass and put a blanket over the playfield glass. Then I folded the backbox down onto some blocks. In this way I was able to work horizontally and most all the debris simply fell onto the blanket. I thought about plugging the old lock hole. But most of the hole was going to be cut away so I just left it. Note that this backbox appears to have been plugged just behind the existing lock hole. My 1⁄8" center hole is just behind the plug.
Sizing up the top of the backbox.
Next I cut the beacon dome recess with my router and a circle jig. I didn't actually have a circle jig. I simply drilled a 1⁄8" hole in the adjustable edge guide that came with my router. It was clunky, but it worked. The router revolved around the same 1⁄8 drill bit that I used to put the center hole in the backbox. The recess is 1⁄8" deep and I made mutiple concentric passes using a ½" plunge bit.
Beacon dome recess.
Here's my compact router with its adjustable edge guide installed upside down. I carefully drilled a 1⁄8" perpendicular hole through the guide and used the same drill bit as my center pivot.
Next I switched to a ¼" plunge bit and set about cutting out the opening which is 4 ¼" in diameter. You can't just rip out the opening because as soon as the middle breaks away the center reference is lost. I worked my way down with the router until only two thin tabs remained. Then I did the final cutting with a sharp knife.
Ready to cut away the opening with a knife.
Next I drilled three holes for the beacon dome mounting screws and cut a new lock hole. The lock hole center is 5 13⁄16" from the rear outside edge of the backbox. I put the lock hole close to the beacon so as to not interfere with the existing backglass guide blocking.
New lock hole.
To cover over my work I used the same navy blue spray paint I used before. I simply sprayed the paint into a paper bowl and brushed it on.
Painted.
I reworked the beacon mechanism with a three-position .093" connector to mate up with the F-14 beacon relay assembly. I had some scrap wire harnesses and found some wht/blu wire that more or less matched the game's other wht/blu ac wires.
Beacon rewired with a proper connector.
F-14 beacon relay assembly installed.
I didn't bother cutting a recess for the lock's toothed washer and nut which made the nut a bit more difficult to thread. I had to do some bending and trimming on the cam so I guess my new lock hole wasn't as accurate as it could have been.
Beacon and lock installed.
Beacon and lock installed.
Dome installed.
Done!
Beacon Update 11/19/21: Here's the problem: without an insert the transparent dome makes the beacon too harsh. Including the insert makes the beacon a bit unimpressive. Just for fun I tried a blue dome with no insert. The beacon intensity was just right and it looked great. Unfortunately the game is not supposed to have a blue dome. I probably won't be able to tolerate this lack of authenticity.
Blue dome.
Beacon Update 01/27/22: I bought same acetate transparency film that is made especially for inkjet printers. Unfortunately my printer won't do more than an 8.5" x 11" sheet. So I had to print the insert in two pieces and tape them together. The print let though lots of light from the beacon, but was perhaps not sufficiently opaque when unlit. Still, I like it better than my earlier copy paper examples. I printed the insert as a mirror image so the ink is on the inside and not rubbing against the dome. I also printed the image at 105% which did a better job of vertically filling the dome.
8.5" x 11" acetate sheet.
Click image to view a brief YouTube video of the end result.
03/11/17: Drop target opto interrupter board repair. My first or lower drop target was no longer registering. I didn't find much of any information on the target's C-11319 opto interrupter circuit board so I was on my own for troubleshooting. I didn't have an IR sensor card and my digital camera didn't pick up any IR emissions one way or another. Here's what I did...
First I doodled my own schematic since I couldn't find one.
I measured about 1 volt across the transmitter. That seemed like an okay value.
I measured about 1 volt across the receiver while open to the transmitter. That value seemed okay.
I measured about 12 volts across the receiver when blocked. That value seemed okay.
Next I shorted the column terminal C to the banded side of diode D1 which triggered a switch edge. That seemed encouraging.
That eliminated about everything but the transistor Q1. I tested the transistor and it looked to have an open emitter.
A closer look at the board shows that the transistor Q1 had already been replaced once before. So now I'm waiting for an order of transistors. I also ordered some extra opto interrupters. I also ordered some extra E-clip board retainers because they're easily lost (like I lost the one for this board).
My C-11319 opto interrupter board schematic.
Component side of the C-11319 opto interrupter board.
Solder side of the C-11319. Note that Q1 is not original.
A new 2N3906 did the trick. There's supposed to be a blob of silicone between the board and transistor to help protect the transistor from board vibration. The previous repair person did not replace the silicone and the old transistor emitter lead broke. I added a small dab of silicone. I wanted some level of protection without making the new transistor impossible to replace in the future.
A new 2N3906 with a small dab of silicone.
Notes on history and compatibility... Millionaire may have been the first game to replace drop target switches with opto interrupters and, accordingly, the first game with the C-11319 opto interrupter board. This board appears to have been quickly superseded by the C-11903-R which is physically longer and has a connector, but may be backwards compatible with the C-11319. As of 2017 the C-11319 does not appear to have been reproduced. However, Great Lakes Modular does make a replacement for the C-11903-R.
03/17/17: The left eject hole mechanism had become a bit wobbly because the pivot pin broke loose from the mounting bracket. I couldn't find an A-6950-R, but I used an A-8268 which appears to be the same thing.
Pivot pin broke loose from the mounting bracket (green arrow).
Replacement part A-8268.
09/08/17: I replaced both lower flippers after the right bat cracked at the shaft and broke free from the shaft. I stuck with yellow because I like how the color goes with the rest of the playfield. The flyer shows white.
New lower flipper bats.
05/12/18: New playfield glass.
09/20/18: Reproduced a plastic. The little blue plastic in front of the middle jet bumper broke. It was already broke and glued to another fragment of scrap plastic. I traced the original piece and sketched what was missing. Using spray adhesive, I glued my pattern to a piece of 1⁄8" Lexan (polycarbonate). I cut it out on a scroll saw and smoothed the edges with fine sandpaper. After confirming I had the right shape and fit, I peeled away the protective film on each side of the part and lightly flame polished the edges. I paid special attention to the front edge of the part which faces the player. I tried to make the edge as straight and smooth and transparent as possible. This is a small detail part that will look best if it doesn't draw attention to itself.
Tracing/sketching a pattern.
Test fit.
Finished Lexan part.
Next I scanned the original plastic to hopefully get a reasonable color match. This was the easiest photo edit ever. It's a part number and a blob of blue. I flipped the image since I was going to use water side decal material. For what it's worth, the RGB values for my blue are 1 70 125.
Test print.
I made the plastic using water slide decal material. I bought packages of both clear and white sheets for this project. I made sure to buy material that was compatible with my inkjet printer. The clear and white sheets look the same before use. So keep the packaging and don't mix things up. I used a Sharpie to write a small "W" on the white sheet I was using. The image is printed on the clear material. Use the best printer settings. The decal goes on the underside of the Lexan part with the adhesive side up. This is why a mirror image is necessary. This is why clear decal material is necessary. The image will be viewed through the decal. Moreover, the image will be viewed through the adhesion interface between the decal and the Lexan. Any imperfections in the decal application process will be glaringly obvious. If you've never done this, make extra parts and practice.
After printing the image and allowing the ink to dry for a few minutes, I sprayed the image with four light to medium coats of clear acrylic. The first coats should be the lightest. I used Krylon Crystal Clear. The acrylic seals the ink so it won't run when the decal is applied. The acrylic also seemed to strengthen the decal. So I sprayed the white material as well even though there's no printing on the white.
The next day I cut out the decal and applied it to the Lexan part as per instructions. I traced around the Lexan part and tried to cut the decal as close as possible to its final shape. I found it easier to line up a cut edge of the decal with a transparent edge of the Lexan. That is, cutting the decal oversized doesn't help. Also, an oversized decal makes it more difficult to blot excess water away from the edges of the plastic. If there is any excess decal material, it can be trimmed with a razor when dry. Think about how the decal and Lexan are oriented. Remember that it's all going together upside down.
Here's the critical step. The decal must be applied as perfectly as possible. As the decal was soaking for a minute in warm water I applied a decal setting solution to the Lexan. I placed the decal on the Lexan, lined it up and then carefully worked on blotting up excess water and working out any bubbles. Apparently there's some sort of squeegee available for just this purpose. Instead I used a small soft-bristle paint brush. The trick is to work the decal down flat, but don't work it to the point of destroying the decal. Then walk away. The next day I applied the white decal layer in a similar manner.
The white backing has several purposes. It helps protect the printing on the clear decal. It fills in any areas of the clear decal that were supposed to be white. Printers don't print white. And the white brings out the colors printed on the clear decal. By itself the clear decal looks terrible. So you have to finish the whole process before you know if you've made something that looks good. Note that if you're making a plastic with transparent areas, you'd have to pre-cut the white decal accordingly. That wasn't the case with the part I made here.
The top part in the picture below is the new plastic made by the water slide decal method described here. The middle part is the original plastic. The bottom part is another plastic I made using the photo paper method. See my Bad Cats repair page for info on the photo paper method. The adhesion process gives the photo paper part an undesirable cloudy/matte appearance that doesn't quite look right. The water slide decal method looks better, but is much more tedious to produce. The water side method also produces a more translucent part which should look better if the part is backlit. That wasn't really an issue here since this particular plastic is not backlit.
A comparison of parts.
Done.
11/24/18: The switch actuator occasionally jumped off the rollunder wire. Eventually it occurred to me that the actuator was upside down. The square end goes on the switch. The round end goes on the rollunder wire.
Upside down actuator.
Right side up actuator.
12/16/18: New launch ramp plastic. I decided to replace the plastics over the E and Y targets using the same water side decal process explained above. These plastics are so often broke that it's hard to know their original shape. My right side plastic appeared to be intact. The left side plastic appears to have been an "L" shape, but the whole long side of my "L" was gone. I thought this area would look better if both plastics were replaced with one continuous part. Some previous person added a post stud behind and between the two targets. I got rid of that.
A before view of the broken left plastic. Note the extraneous post stud.
A random Internet picture of another Millionaire showing the "L" shape of the left plastic.
I started with a series of paper templates to determine my shape. The original plastics were riveted to the flasher domes. But since this plastic is in a high risk area and may need to be replaced again, I used screws and nylon lock nuts for reassembly.
An early iteration of my paper template.
Finished Lexan part. Note the use of screws instead of rivets.
Click for a 300 dpi scan of the finished part which may be used for a cutting template. Click for a 300 dpi image to print the clear decal. Don't forget, this is a mirror image of the finished part.
My previous attempts at this process worked reasonably well. But this decal was a disaster. As soon as I put the decal in water the acrylic would crack and ruin the ink. The cracks were always perpendicular to the long dimension of the decal. After lots of experimenting and a lot of wasted ink and decal sheets, I determined that the decal can't be significantly narrower than it is long. It's easier to trim the decal to size before applying, but that wasn't going to work here. I trimmed the convex side of the decal to size, but left lots of extra material along the concave side. I also extended the ink into the concave areas, but that probably wasn't necessary. The excess material that doesn't contact the Lexan wants to curl up which is one more challenge to control while also trying to squeegee away bubbles and blot up water. Next I let the decal dry. Before trimming I applied a similarly shaped white layer. Having two adhered layers makes final trimming easier, but it's still tedious. Avoid booze and coffee.
Clear decal applied.
Shown below is the finished plastic compared to the two original fragments. I ended up with three small wrinkles in the white layer (red arrow). I worked the wrinkles with some Micro Sol, but couldn't fully flatten them out. And there's still one small crack in the acrylic (green arrow). With all the trouble I had, I'm calling this part good enough.
Finished plastic.
Two bulky assemblies become one bulkier assembly.
The end result is shown below. I'm not completely happy with it. This was my first attempt at making a backlit plastic. There's a GI bulb on the left and the plastic seems too translucent. The picture makes it look better than it is. Another minor complaint is that the lower left curve of the plastic is too sweeping. I should have squared up that corner a bit more when I made my cutting template.
Done (maybe).
12/19/18: One more experiment... I thought I could make my plastic less translucent by adding more layers of white decal material. I decided to be more scientific this time and make a small test piece that I could easily compare to my new plastic which already had one white layer. But first I noticed that the offending GI bulb was a #44. I swapped in a #47.
The pictures below show an original plastic and then my new plastic (top) with one layer of white decal material compared to my test piece (bottom) with three layers of white decal material. There's no noticeable difference between one and three layers. The dimmer #47 bulb did, however, make a noticeable difference. So I reassembled my new plastic without further modification and I'm calling this project done.
Original plastic over a #47 bulb.
One white layer (top piece) compared to three white layers (bottom piece) over a #47 bulb.
Finished assembly with a #47 bulb and no further modifications to the plastic.
I'll reiterate the importance of adding a few coats of acrylic to the white decal material. If nothing else, it seals in the adhesive and makes squeegeeing a bit easier and less messy. I may also rethink my ideas about closely trimming the decals before application. Once two layers are applied and dry, they collectively become easier to trim in place. Allow 24 hours between applications of each decal layer. Perhaps another possibility would be to spray the white decal material with white acrylic. Perhaps the acrylic would block more light than the decal itself.
1/19/19: Fixed left outlane gate. The left outlane gate would stick open on occasion. The roll pin had worn a shallow divot into the slot in the armature assembly. The roll pin also had a worn grove. I ever so slightly filed the slot (I didn't want to add more slop to the mechanism). And I moved the grove by using a bench vice to press the roll pin a bit deeper into the collar.
Divot in the armature assembly.
Pressing the roll pin further into the collar.