Deep Schematic Repair Of A 1976 Gottlieb TARGET ALPHA E.M. Pinball Machine - Startup Issues 

It's amazing how they did this stuff back then. Before CPUs, ROMs and PLCs. All hard-wired logic with switches and relays. Crazy man. It's a work of art and electro-mechanical genius on the inside.

So far, this is the best video I’ve seen to help get through learning the schematics. It’s a steep curve but videos like this help a lot.

I was a pinball snob back in the day, I always preferred the Gottlieb machines.

Extra thumbs up for Mr Minges..conspicuous by his absence 😂

Great video Ronnie. I mean Dr. Ronnie man that wiring is crazy. For a 1976 game there that is a lot of wiring and switches on this one. I am always amazed that none of the switches have to be replaced. Thanks for filming, see you on the next video.

Great show. One if my favorite table layouts. Thanks.

I've been binge watching Donnie for days now but the moment Joe's classic video games comes up, I'm right there 😂

I tried to stay with you, … and mostly I got what you were saying. …but now my head hurts….I’m going through a “Far Out” at present, which has a lot of similarities to this game. It takes me about 15 minutes to properly clean one relay on the motor board….and there are 15 relays on the game. You need a lot of time to get these machines back to playing correctly and reliably. Really enjoying you work through this mighty machine from Gottlieb. What a great game it is!

Thanks for taking the time to film this Ronnie. I've been enjoying all the older videos between the latest ones. They're all great!

You missed my lunch time. I’m going to be forced to watch this on the clock 😂. Thanks for filming it.

Although a good chunk goes over my head I'm completely addicted to watching the channel. Determined to get myself a pinball machine once I've got all the kids through university! Thanks for the vids and all the best.

Brilliant - I wish I had this video when I was working through scoring issues on my Solar City. There is a definitely a timing to all the stuff, even having bonus unit rivets and shoes slightly misaligned when it’s going at that speed can cause issues. Great video on a very cool game.

I thought this one would be an easy one, since it is in such good shape. Looks like somebody has been in there "fixing" stuff that wasn't broken. I like the longer videos. You see more of the work, you really convey the "it was working yesterday" feeling that we all despise. Keep 'em coming.

We do appreciate all the time you spend videoing all the repairs Ron, we like the end product just like you.

I love the sound of the score bells - Old EM machines are the best!! Thanks for the video!!

I remember playing Royal Flush when I was a kid on location, and I loved the startup sequence, I thought it was a song. (Just resetting the game, resetting the scores etc). I could hear the stepper units going almost to the beat of the "song". 40 years later, we were trying to fix a Crescendo, and a buddy was working on the player unit, but couldn't figure out how it was supposed to step up. I remembered the "song" and at a certain point the stepper stepped 4 times, when my buddy swore it was 5. We figured out why it was doing it one too many, and fixed the game. They're really neat. These games are so, so, so interesting just because of the engineering behind them. By the way, your thousands chime sounds like it doesn't have any beer seal, or rubber underneath the plunger. It's clacking when the plunger comes back down. :) Also it sounds like the lower 5 bank drop targets aren't doing what they are supposed to with the bonus. It's like it's skipping one or two or 3 of them.

There is a difference between complex and complicated. A complex design, that is not complicated, can be a very good design. Complicated designs, not so good :). This one is coming up beautifully. Thanks for taking us on the journey.

I love the dot matrix era games but it is so interesting how these EMs were designed to work before microchips

Not going to lie... this EM would push my patience when troubleshooting the logic. Almost too complicated. Thank you for sharing your pain with us Ron.

Looks pretty good.

No ball in the out hole, LOL. Very cool that Ron show that. I like the new way of doing video, more problems to show us how to fix. I get your point just have a cleaning party, and clean all switches. Great job of playfield, if I didn't know you fix it I couldn't tell. Will your Easter video have any Easter eggs?

You guys rock. This game turned out great . The honor will be proud .

I love the playfield on this classic. So cool. I bet its so fun to play.

Hay Ron. Thanks for sharing. There a lot of switches in there. And it’s amazing how they all work together or against each other if not quite right. Great work. Glad you feeling better. You sound all right. Big👍

I love it. Someday I will own one.

Reminds me of the desktop adding machines.

I'm in the camp of wanting to clean on all the drop down target switches next.

I’m with you on yr clues👍

I think I like working on them just as much as posting because of how they made it happen and the quality was just inherent. I don't see the newer games lasting nearly as long.

Wow! The 10-point relay reminds me of how computer communication works. I mean, there is a request and an acknowledge line. And in software, I think they call that the client-server model. So it latches on until the score reel acknowledges that it is finished. It really is amazing that relays and switches can do the same things that logic gates can do. I once worked out how to do all the boolean logic using switches. Some are obvious like AND which would be 2 switches wired in series, and OR which are 2 switches in parallel. I guess for the "NOT" versions of those (NAND/NOR), you'd switch from using the N.O. to the N.C. contacts. And then XOR stumped me for a while until I thought about how "3-way" light switches work. So you have 2 double-throw switches where the N.O. contacts of each are tied together, and the N.C. contacts are tied together. Then the power and load go through the Common connections. Technically, that is XNOR, while XOR would mean you would wire the N.C. contact of one switch to the N.O. of the other switch. I say that because XOR means different bits in give you a 1, and the same bits give you a 0. You can even use a relay as an inverter too. That just means the coil is the input, and you get the output between the Common and N.C. contacts. So on turns it off and off turns it on. Now, the inverter aspect of relays means you can do one other thing with them. If you wire an inverter output to its input, you have an oscillator. So if you wire a relay coil through the Common and N.C. connections, you have a buzzer. Since Off with an N.C. switch means you have voltage output through the contacts. That voltage pulls in the relay which kills the power and the Common arm returns to the N.C. position which means the relay can pull in again. And if you put a capacitor across the relay coil, you can increase the hold time and slow down the oscillations. That is how a clock circuit in a computer works. Before there were oscillator cans, they used an inverter IC, some capacitors, some resistors, and a clock crystal. Then, you'd send the output that is being recycled as the input into another inverter channel or a buffer to amplify it. That is so you can take a load from that without detuning your oscillator. With a relay used this way, one could use the N.O. connection and preferably another power rail for that, assuming that the relay swings that far.

26:15 I want a modern pinball to have the bumper and drop target sounds reprogrammed to be replaced with Ron's "Chikka chikka chikka, and dooongs!"

JOE, When the 1st ball goes into the out-hole switch the bonus unit is like a machine gun counting, when the 2nd ball goes into the out-hole switch the bonus unit is HALF of the counting. How does the pinball game know to make the bonus unit count like a machine gun Many pulses or HALF of its pulses? there must be some switch or something that is telling the bonus unit

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAhahahaaaa "So we find two little things - we've got two, he only had one (of course he was fake but whatever, you get what I'm saying) - " I nearly choked on my coffee, Ron! Thanks for the laff

Joe, I have a Solar City that has many of the issues you show here. I was excited when your ball didn't kick out. Too bad mine has a ball in it and doesn't kick out. I have tracked it back to the O relay which also has a wire that goes to the bonus relay (add) solenoid which also is not firing. Any ideas? I don't have a schematic yet so my diagnosis is using a meter and eyeballs.

Hey Ron!!

Film every little thing

I'm loving the electromechanical pinball repair videos, keep it up! I do wonder why you always plug your brother's RU-vid channel but don't say the name of his channel. Is that some kind of inside joke?

How do you clean the rivets? A file?

Deep in the Weeds of schematics LOL....

👍😎

Old mc donnie has a farm... e.. i .. e.. i .. ooooo... with a house flip here.. and a car video there..

Lots of drop targets. That's most of the game. Simple enough.

Channel name - "As The Motor Turns".

oh, Lord. i'm guessing that something could be characterized as broke. tracing down failures is always an adventure to see

Maybe the machine (and you) need some chicken soup to feel better. ;)

Yodelayheehoo