Post by Mod City on Mar 6, 2014 20:18:55 GMT -5
Dracula lives
We have wrapped up our shop out and once again have a fully-working, very clean Bram Stoker’s Dracula ready for play. We got the playfield back in two nights ago, and with taking our time and sipping a few beverages, it took us about three hours. When we finally flipped the switch, it kicked on without any problems, a considerable change from what happened when we turned on our other machine after our first shopout. Needless to say, we were super happy nothing started on fire.
There was just a little dialing in that we had to do that night and last night, but now it seems to be working at 99.99 percent. It’s playing extremely fast and extremely smooth – fast and smooth enough to get me actually frustrated trying to play a decent game last night. That’s BSD for you, though, right?
Here are a few pictures. Now, I was hoping to have more of the playfield after some cleaning, but what I have here are just some pictures we took while we were getting it back in the cabinet and after. I was hoping to have some more closeup “after” pictures of the playfield (like the new center targets installed), but we weren’t using my camera so I’m using what I’ve been able to get. If I can get some of those other shots that I know are out there, I’ll post them as well.
Also – next time I will remember to do a final dusting before taking pictures. We did afterward, but you can still see some dust particles in some of these photos.
Let’s start with this, the slide mechanism! In order to get the playfield back on the rails, so to speak, we had to spread the entry point a bit, as it had been crushed somehow the first time we tried to use it. With a helper on each side, we slid the playfield back into cabinet and threaded the rails back onto the pegs. Finally, we heard a very satisfying “click!” as it locked in and we had a working slide mechanism again! This still feels like a huge deal to us.
Overall shot of the playfield back in.
Now for a few quick shots of it lit up. New lamps make such a big different. Here you can see the left ramp lit up from underneath. I don’t think those bulbs have ever worked since I’ve owned the machine. Replaced those with some warm frosted white LEDs so we don’t have to worry about them burning out again. They look good, but they do look a tad brighter than the incandescent lamps. Still, it’s great to see that ramp lit properly for the first time. Really brightens it up over there.
Here you can see the DRACULA fan and the working “A.” It fires perfectly every time now. That’s another thing that rarely, if ever, worked before. The scepter lights are also working nicely. Thanks, solder reflow! Incidentally, the photo makes it look a bit cloudy below the DRACULA fan, but it looks quite nice in person. If I had been more patient, I might have thrown another coat of wax on, but we were trying to maintain a pace.
A reverse angle shot, and yes, we realize now we need to level out the flippers. Didn’t pick up on it until we saw this photo, actually.
Another reverse angle shot.
Can’t get enough of the working “A.”
Kind of a funky exposure here, but still captures the beauty. I’ve seen people who have the blue pop caps and it looks great, but I’m still all for the red original.
Back in service
A few other quick notes:
* We also cleaned the back of the translite with some Simple Green and it really brightened it up quite a bit.
* When we tested our flashers last night, there was one (Right Ramp/Logo) that didn’t seem to fire. We had already put the playfield up and down about a dozen times by that point, so we didn’t lift it again, but we were wondering where the heck that flasher is. The manual labels it as #23 and has is right at the tip of the wall separating the coffin ramp from the video ramp, but there are no lights there. Will have to take a look at that.
* One other problem did arise – we got a few resets over the course of the two nights. We’ve put off repining the J101 connector as well as a few other spots, so we might finally have to do that. Got my pin order in from GPE and may get started on that sooner rather than later.
* A good guy over on pinside.com is sending me one of those broken plastics I need. Not sure when exactly I’ll get it on, but will be great to have one without having to buy a whole darn set!
That’s about all I can think of right off hand. Will try to post a few more pics if I can get my hands on them.
We have wrapped up our shop out and once again have a fully-working, very clean Bram Stoker’s Dracula ready for play. We got the playfield back in two nights ago, and with taking our time and sipping a few beverages, it took us about three hours. When we finally flipped the switch, it kicked on without any problems, a considerable change from what happened when we turned on our other machine after our first shopout. Needless to say, we were super happy nothing started on fire.
There was just a little dialing in that we had to do that night and last night, but now it seems to be working at 99.99 percent. It’s playing extremely fast and extremely smooth – fast and smooth enough to get me actually frustrated trying to play a decent game last night. That’s BSD for you, though, right?
Here are a few pictures. Now, I was hoping to have more of the playfield after some cleaning, but what I have here are just some pictures we took while we were getting it back in the cabinet and after. I was hoping to have some more closeup “after” pictures of the playfield (like the new center targets installed), but we weren’t using my camera so I’m using what I’ve been able to get. If I can get some of those other shots that I know are out there, I’ll post them as well.
Also – next time I will remember to do a final dusting before taking pictures. We did afterward, but you can still see some dust particles in some of these photos.
Let’s start with this, the slide mechanism! In order to get the playfield back on the rails, so to speak, we had to spread the entry point a bit, as it had been crushed somehow the first time we tried to use it. With a helper on each side, we slid the playfield back into cabinet and threaded the rails back onto the pegs. Finally, we heard a very satisfying “click!” as it locked in and we had a working slide mechanism again! This still feels like a huge deal to us.
Overall shot of the playfield back in.
Now for a few quick shots of it lit up. New lamps make such a big different. Here you can see the left ramp lit up from underneath. I don’t think those bulbs have ever worked since I’ve owned the machine. Replaced those with some warm frosted white LEDs so we don’t have to worry about them burning out again. They look good, but they do look a tad brighter than the incandescent lamps. Still, it’s great to see that ramp lit properly for the first time. Really brightens it up over there.
Here you can see the DRACULA fan and the working “A.” It fires perfectly every time now. That’s another thing that rarely, if ever, worked before. The scepter lights are also working nicely. Thanks, solder reflow! Incidentally, the photo makes it look a bit cloudy below the DRACULA fan, but it looks quite nice in person. If I had been more patient, I might have thrown another coat of wax on, but we were trying to maintain a pace.
A reverse angle shot, and yes, we realize now we need to level out the flippers. Didn’t pick up on it until we saw this photo, actually.
Another reverse angle shot.
Can’t get enough of the working “A.”
Kind of a funky exposure here, but still captures the beauty. I’ve seen people who have the blue pop caps and it looks great, but I’m still all for the red original.
Back in service
A few other quick notes:
* We also cleaned the back of the translite with some Simple Green and it really brightened it up quite a bit.
* When we tested our flashers last night, there was one (Right Ramp/Logo) that didn’t seem to fire. We had already put the playfield up and down about a dozen times by that point, so we didn’t lift it again, but we were wondering where the heck that flasher is. The manual labels it as #23 and has is right at the tip of the wall separating the coffin ramp from the video ramp, but there are no lights there. Will have to take a look at that.
* One other problem did arise – we got a few resets over the course of the two nights. We’ve put off repining the J101 connector as well as a few other spots, so we might finally have to do that. Got my pin order in from GPE and may get started on that sooner rather than later.
* A good guy over on pinside.com is sending me one of those broken plastics I need. Not sure when exactly I’ll get it on, but will be great to have one without having to buy a whole darn set!
That’s about all I can think of right off hand. Will try to post a few more pics if I can get my hands on them.