Rescue 911- The Journey

Tech Help, Restorations, Refurbishments, "Shop Out" Photos, Notes
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ralphwiggum
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Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

So there were three machines together in my Student Union in College- Rescue 911, Fishtales, and Creature From The Black Lagoon. I have been collecting since 1999, and my goal was to always recreate my college lineup. Things didn't go as planned, as I owned Fishtales 4 times, Creature 3 times, and Rescue 911 once. It was always the chase for Rescue 911 that always haunted me.

So in 2006(ish- been a long time), this machine came along with this description-

Folks, it's not as bad as I first thought it to be - but it's not a
creampuff either. It has it's good and bad. We now know the DMD is
working, but not well (looks like gassing out).

I have started to clean and polish it and it's coming along great.

It is missing the arm w/coptor. I have 2 'cities' - one is really broken up - one is presentable (actually, if you were handy - probably could make one out of 2). Also MIA is the revolving light on top. Missing the 4 system 3 boards in the head. Power supply boards are present. Mechs look good and move freely (drop target, VUKs, coptor lower assy, etc).

Playfield itself - evidently someone started to do their version of touching up - by using a thick enamel paint. Not the best solution.

It is a re-import pin. It has some rust/tarnish here and there - again, not bad. Worst may be the underfield ramp - but haven't taken it off yet to confirm. Some shiny curved pf pieces have some rust. No pf glass - it had plate glass - got rid of that first thing.

High points - beautiful cab, backglass, speaker covers. Plastics are great, ramps are good. Apron is decent. Wiring harness looks good. Most
pf things are good to great shape. Shooter assy in excellent shape.

If you have a broken/faded/beatup 911...this probably would be ideal.

Asking $200 obo. Will send pics to interested parties. Prefer local pickup.



I grabbed the pin at Expo, brought it home, opened it up, and immediately folded it back up.... This was a parts machine through and through. It sat in my storage for 7 years while I started finding all the parts needed to bring it back to life. The biggest challenges right out of the gate were finding a playfield and helicopter...... So here we go...
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ralphwiggum
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

The Upper playfield is DESTROYED. There isnt anything that is going to save this one.
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Cool, I bought a Rescue 911 Whitewood!
Cool, I bought a Rescue 911 Whitewood!
Uh oh, that German Enamel wasn't covering any artwork
Uh oh, that German Enamel wasn't covering any artwork
Blue and yellow German enamel, that will come up easy
Blue and yellow German enamel, that will come up easy
A helicopter should be in front of this busted up cityscape
A helicopter should be in front of this busted up cityscape
Hmm..... there should be a car under that grey paint
Hmm..... there should be a car under that grey paint
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ralphwiggum
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

The under playfield was equally awesome. This thing was straight from Germany, apparently living its former life in the nastiest bar imaginable, it certainly looked and smelled like it! There was rust EVERYWHERE. I am pretty sure that it wasn't in a German bar, but actually lived on a German ship it's whole life!
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I really to verify that I am current with my tetanus shots!
I really to verify that I am current with my tetanus shots!
Cool, this one has those rare German fuses that are soldered bridged together!
Cool, this one has those rare German fuses that are soldered bridged together!
220, this service outlet has to go!
220, this service outlet has to go!
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

I am not saying the original ad was a lie, I saw pictures of everything beforehand, I knew (for the most part) what I was getting into. The ad was certainly optimistic though. I will say this, the cabinet, while filthy and disgusting, was actually pretty nice, so I have that going for me!
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PDR_1054.JPG
PDR_1053.JPG
PDR_1052.JPG
Last edited by ralphwiggum on Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

So lets review, I have no boards, the display is bad (tested it in another machine), the playfield is destroyed, and I am missing the helicopter assembly, the beacon on the top, and a I missing a few of the aux boards underneath the playfield. I should probably walk away..... Screw it, I like a challenge....


Fast forward 3 years, a machine shows up on Mr. Pinball that has been in a fire, thats okay, lets see what I can grab..... I managed to get a playfield, beacon, 110 outlet assembly, and copter assembly, the playfield is rough, and the mylar basically has melted itself off, but it is restorable. In the meantime, I contacted Florida Pinball Salvage for a set of boards, he has all of them, and none of them were functional (which is how he advertised them). He is a great guy with many parts, I am lucky I was able to grab all of the boards at once.

The playfield that survived the fire-
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PDR_1428.JPG
PDR_1427.JPG
PDR_1426.JPG
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

So I managed to have a kid since the beginning of this project, and that pretty much brought it to a screeching halt..... This ended up being a good thing. An even nicer playfield popped up on Ebay, that just needed some minor touchups and clear- Done! This really got the ball rolling. Playfield touched up, cleared, everything underneath cleaned up and de-rusted, and the cabinet was completely cleaned out. Put the playfield on a rotisserie, swapped everything over, and dropped it into the cab- Progress! Then child number 2 came along..... And the machine sat in this state for 2 more years in storage.

A couple of photos from storage-
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upper playfield.jpg
r911_pf_.jpg
Last edited by ralphwiggum on Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

Fast forward couple of more years, and a third child (I should have paid more attention to that "How babies are made" video in school) has shown up. At this point, I have cleared out all of my storage (had 2 cars and 15 games in there), and have Rescue 911 setup in my basement, but completely unplayable. I don't make New Years resolutions, but I did this year- Get all of my games restored before taking on anyone else's games for them.

So two weeks ago my goal was to bring this thing back to life.... Lets start with the basics... Lets check all cabinet fuses, transformer voltages, and rectifier voltages before hooking anything up. It is important to approach this systematically, as it was hacked to hell and overfused in a German dive bar somewhere.....

First up transformer voltages- all good, yes! Next up, rectifier measurements... Uh oh, all three bridge rectifiers are shot. No biggie, I have a stash of these on hand. Replaced all three, and all three were in spec.... Progress!

Moving on up- need to make sure my power supply is taking my 12 volt and turning it into a solid 5 volt..... Nope (of course not!), bad pot, two shot resistors, and a bad voltage regulator... Mouser order number 1- replace all power supply components- Grand total- $8.00. I love board work!

Mouser order comes in, pot is adjusted, and now I have solid 5 volts. Moving on, next up- CPU and DMD driver board, if these don't boot, nothing does.
DMD board is missing voltages to drive the display, high voltage kit thrown in, good to go. U8 GAL chip was bad, replaced, fixed! CPU had some crap caps keeping it from booting. Replaced, plugged into the DMD board, turn on the switch, I have a working CPU, DMD driver, and a new display (with proper new red filter missing on most of these games)
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Drugs are bad.... MMMMkay?
Drugs are bad.... MMMMkay?
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

Lets see if we can get it to make noise.... Nope, sound boards are dead. After testing, the main sound board had some corrupt 6116s, the aux sound board had a bad cap, and the aux power supply (that supplies voltages for both boards) was not throwing out the proper voltages. I replaced the two large caps on this board, and all voltages were in spec. After replacing all the components on these boards and burning new roms, I fire up the machine and double screech.... Success!

Only one thing left- all of the playfield... I checked all the coils with my meter during my playfield swap, had to replace a couple of shorted ones, but overall I was comfortable with the condition of all of these. My only unknowns were the copter lift and the copter itself. I tested all the transistors on the driverboard before install, and replaced a couple, but overall, I was ready to provide power and fuses to everything under the playfield.

I fused everything up, plugged in the board and started running through the tests. Missing coils 1-8. I check U4 (this drives all of these) and it tests fine. Just in case, I socketed and replaced U4... still no coils.... Strange. No voltages present either. Wire break? Nope, everything meters out. Only one other coil is not testing properly in the tests- the game over relay. This has to be it! This kills the power to these coils when the game is over. Even though I tested all transistors, the transistor for this one tested good, but was actually bad. Dropped in a new one, and everything passes the test.

Moment of truth- Press the start button. Nothing happens. Hmmm..... I dont read German, but I can read an English display- Load FOUR balls, not three.... throw one more in there.... We have a game!

I only needed to adjust two switches, everything else is working perfectly..... This is crazy. I haven't felt accomplishment like this since my very first game in 1999..., A completely dead Lethal Weapon 3. I have owned over 150 machines over the years, and none of them needed near the amount of work that this one did (and i have done a lot of complete teardowns)....

Would I do it again? NOPE.... Dedicated blocks of time are getting harder to come by. What a crazy journey!
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IMG_20160113_230541191.jpg
IMG_20160120_225127542.jpg
IMG_20160120_225108598.jpg
IMG_20160120_225122029.jpg
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Hilton
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by Hilton »

congrats and thanks for the documentation!

Would love to get a hands on board work tutorial from you Tim! I know dedicated blocks of time are tough to come by but if you ever plan to sit down and do a bunch of board work on a day, let me know.

Would be great to help build confidence with hands on watching of diagnosis of issues and fixing them. I struggle with this the most but am challenging myself to learn anf build more confidence.
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

Yeah, boardwork is my absolute favorite thing to do on pinball machines. There is essentially two sides to most boards.... The logic side and the power side. The power side is usually very simple to verify, all of the components are very easy to test and follow. The logic side is where things get tricky. I use a logic probe quite a bit, but testing boards on a work bench can be a challenge when data is not being fed through them to verify that they are signaling like they are supposed to.

I have a bunch of boards on the bench right now, but nothing to be repaired, right now it is just a bunch of NVRAM solders for Chris. Pretty vanilla stuff. When I make my way to Simpsons Pinball party, I am fairly certain I will have a bunch of boardwork to do on those. Whitestar stuff isn't bad, but some of the surface mount crap is a little tedious to do with a traditional iron (I should get a hot air rework station).

All of my boardwork is done between 9pm and 2am on weeknights, sort of tough to do much else with three kids sleeping.
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Re: Rescue 911- The Journey

Post by ralphwiggum »

DOH! I almost forgot about this seizure inducing mod. I removed the beacon and replaced it with this..... :shock:
http://1drv.ms/1VcyaeC
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