Close Encounters pinball

VECTOR
#1

A couple of years ago I bought a Close Encounters pinball at a local auction and it has been sitting ever since. I bought a replacement aftermarket motherboard from France and it has been sitting here. The original motherboard had been a victim of a leaking battery, causing tremendous damage and the game has been a work in progress for a long time, sitting in the game room mocking me. It has been taunting me and my lack of knowledge on using the crimpers I bought in Akihabara a couple of years ago.

Well… I opened the 2nd crimper package and lo and behold! Instructions in English!

That let me get started on this project and turn these…

IMG_20161115_200834693[1].jpg4160×2340 1.85 MB

IMG_20161115_201206574[2].jpg1872×3328 1.37 MB

IMG_20161115_201409594[1].jpg1872×3328 1.41 MB

IMG_20161115_201531064[1].jpg1872×3328 1.33 MB

Into nice, shiny connections like this one:

IMG_20161115_200947559[1].jpg4160×2340 1.88 MB

Replacing these tarnished and corroded connectors in the shells:

IMG_20161114_192554705[1].jpg2340×4160 1.57 MB

Making them look new again:

IMG_20161115_202644653[1].jpg2340×4160 1.75 MB

3 Likes
#2

And tonight I installed a replacement leaf switch for the right flipper (thanks @nickdangerous!), replaced all the playfield lights with LEDs, replaced one dead GI light bulb, and a couple of bulbs in the head unit. The game type has been set on the new motherboard and set for both free play and 5 balls in play. I also adjusted one playfield switch and cleaned/lubed the roto target.

The result?

It lives again! And it plays great! :smiley:

IMG_20161123_172251324[1].jpg1872×3328 1.64 MB

Here is the new CPU board. It replaces the 3 original game boards in the head unit AND the sound board in the body:

IMG_20161123_172338417[1].jpg3328×1872 1.64 MB

(I still need to take the power supply board out.)

The backglass looks great and is in almost perfect shape:

IMG_20161123_172416756[1].jpg1872×3328 1.43 MB

1 Like
#3

Here’s the crimping tool:

IMG_20161123_174657296[1].jpg2340×4160 1.77 MB

#4

I’m great with a logic probe and fixing video game boards and have a business doing that, but am pretty new at pins. Thanks @engpin @nickdangerous, @Shawn_Christian for the help in learning the ins and outs of all the mechanical pieces. I’ve taken what I’ve learned from Blackwater 100 and applied it here.

Now to clean and polish the playfield… but that will come another day.

#5

Oh, and these are the nasty gunked up Q-Tips that I used to clean the roto target…

IMG_20161123_175721363[1].jpg4160×2340 1.82 MB

My cleaner of choice for everything NON-plastic:

IMG_20161123_175734508[1].jpg1872×3328 1.34 MB

And what I used to lubricate the assembly. I’ve had this tube of stuff since I was in high school. That’ll tell you how old it is, yet it still works perfectly.

IMG_20161123_175907146[1].jpg2340×4160 1.79 MB

1 Like
#6

Wow! Thanks for the blast of memory that created!