EARTHSHAKER is Here! Should It Be Next?

Cary Hardy·video·16m 29s·analyzed·Feb 6, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Earthshaker restoration: systematic troubleshooting brings machine from non-functional to mostly working.

Summary

Cary Hardy documents the acquisition and initial diagnostics of an Earthshaker pinball machine in poor condition. After systematic troubleshooting including fuse replacement, ribbon cable reseating, and switch testing, he identifies and repairs multiple issues: faulty switches, misaligned mechanics, shaker motor connection problems, and incorrect fuses installed by the previous owner. The machine is now mostly functional except for a shaker motor that requires replacement due to missing brush components.

Key Claims

The previous owner had a bad fuse (F4 on auxiliary driver board) that was 2 amp instead of the required 2.5 amp specification
high confidence · Direct observation and manual verification during repair process
Multiple switches were defective: ramp entrance switch and spinner switch both needed replacement due to mechanical failure
high confidence · Testing in switch edge test mode and manual trigger attempts confirmed CPU reading correct input but physical switch failure
The shaker motor brushes are no longer available as replacement parts; entire motor replacement is necessary
high confidence · Direct inspection of motor internals revealed missing brush and research confirmed unavailability
Previous owner had installed three incorrect fuses on the auxiliary driver board (under-fused at 2-2.5 amps instead of correct specifications)
high confidence · Physical inspection of circuit board during troubleshooting
After repairs, the machine functions at nearly 100% except for shaker motor operation
high confidence · Comprehensive testing including game play, light verification, and switch testing

Notable Quotes

“I had one bad fuse right here on the F4 of the auxiliary driver board. It was a 2, and according to the manual, it's supposed to be a 2 1⁄2.”
Cary Hardy@ 4:15 — Identifies root cause of electrical issues; demonstrates methodical diagnostic approach
“for what I can from context clues it would seem to me that the previous owner of this was having difficulties getting this thing to work 100%”
Cary Hardy@ 1:52 — Establishes frame that machine arrived in non-functional state due to prior owner's failed repair attempts
“so now officially the only thing that is not working at 100 is this damn switch right here”
Cary Hardy@ 12:33 — Milestone moment indicating successful troubleshooting of majority of machine issues
“the shaker motor come to find out it's only semi working because one of the brushes on the motor is not there it's missing you can't buy the brushes anymore for this particular motor you have to buy an all-new motor”
Cary Hardy@ 15:35 — Identifies non-repairable component requiring complete replacement decision
“I need to make a decision on whether or not this game or Doctor Who will be my next restoration”
Cary Hardy@ 15:55 — Indicates competing projects in restoration pipeline

Entities

Cary Hardyperson Earthshakergame Doctor Whogame Williamscompany

Signals

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community_signal: Video documentation of restoration process demonstrates educational content strategy for pinball enthusiast audience
high · Detailed narration of troubleshooting steps, testing procedures, and decision-making process throughout video
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design_philosophy: Methodical diagnostic approach: Hardy prioritizes systematic fuse/ribbon cable inspection before powering on, indicating technical best practices in restoration work
high · Fuse checking, ribbon cable reseating, and switch testing all performed before game startup; multiple safety checks implemented
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market_signal: Availability issues for vintage motor brushes indicating obsolescence challenges in maintaining classic pinball machines
high · Shaker motor brushes no longer available for purchase; complete motor replacement required
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product_concern: Cascade of incorrect component specifications by previous owner (wrong fuse ratings, defective switches) suggests poor understanding of machine maintenance standards
high · Multiple under-fused components, bent switches, broken shaker motor brush, faulty switch connections all discovered

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.049

0:00

Earthshaker is in the house and this thing is gonna need some work. At least that's gonna come off real easily.

0:23

That's nice. It would be nice if all of it did that. I don't think that's gonna happen. but i'll tell you what i mean this is gonna need all kinds of work i don't know maybe a whole new bottom because it looks pretty nasty on the inside it might clean up i don't know we'll see let's get it on its legs and here we have earth shaker on all fours back glasses uh it's you know obviously gonna have to be replaced and it's got bubbling right there but I mean first glance looks okay kind of thing but you know it's not gonna be good enough for me uh missing component right here for my coin door playfield has definitely seen better days this is definitely gonna need a replacement as far as the ramps go I mean it wouldn't surprise me if they're cracked somewhere okay well that's always a good sign right there whenever the ramps not screwed down there's all this definitely gonna need a full tear down and clean but the main objective here is to get everything 100% working as per usual so for what I can from context clues it would seem to me that the previous owner of this was having difficulties getting this thing to work 100% I mean it's even got a rotten dog driver board in here in PU power driver board so he replaced that board and evidently there's still some gremlins throughout the machine I had I thinking he's just tired of messing with it something maybe bought beyond his scope but we're gonna take it gander and dig into it and see if we can find what it is working and what is not working so let's get this play filled up it's like we got three pin balls in there right now so shaker motor he says it doesn't work we'll measure that to make sure it's all good to go so do I dare just power this damn thing on I mean it was powered on at his house so there is that so I figured if he powered it on there unless something broke loose in transit which is not too far-fetched then I'm gonna power back on and we'll take the back glass obviously and we're gonna go into settings and see what's working and what's not so this is what we have inside I mean first up I see this and I'm like all right well that can't be good that's not factory obviously so we're gonna look into that and we're gonna be checking all the fuses we're gonna reseat all the ribbon cables before I even power this thing on and we're gonna see if that eradicates any possible abnormalities just to see what happens alright so I reseated all the connections to the display board All the ribbon cables have been reseated I have gone through all the fuses. I had one bad fuse right here on the F4 of the auxiliary driver board. It was a 2, and according to the manual, it's supposed to be a 2 1⁄2. I don't have any 2 1⁄2, So we're going to take it up a little bit of a notch. Not very much. We're going to go with the three, and we'll see if it burns out. All right, so I've got the camera positioned right here. So if it does blow again, then you can see it. So I'm going to turn the machine on now. What am I going to be listening for on my first boot up, especially since we had a burnout fuse? I want to listen for any coils locking on. so I guess it might help if I plug the machine in.

9:19

Outlane works. So we've got a few switches that are not working, so we know that we need to tinker with some stuff. Let's go into test mode and figure out exactly which ones are working and which ones are not. all right so after going into switch edge test mode it looks like the only switches that aren't working are the ramp entrance right here and it looks like the switch itself is defective because I can't manually trigger it and it doesn't look like it's making any kind of clicking sound but I can trigger it manually so that tells me that the connection in the board is CPU is reading it correctly but that switch is faulty so that switch needs to be replaced and I need to look at why my spinner is not activating the switch that could just be the leaf contacts that need to be adjusted on there I got some alligator clips I'm gonna test this spinner switch out yep spinner so So, that switch is obviously faulty as well. I mean, it may just need a really good cleaning, but I'm not hearing any kind of clicking out of it. So, that switch needs to be replaced. Alright, so let me give you an update on where we're at. This thing now fully functions. It was actually a mechanical misalignment. Once it was aligned, then I had to adjust the leaf switch, and now that's fully functioning. and now the spinner is also working the diode wasn't connected very well on the switch the only thing that's not working on this game is this micro switch right here to the ramp entrance that's the only thing that i can see as of right now that is not working on this game majority of the display is working we have like a bit of a loose connection right here once i move that around then it stopped being weird but there is one particular section on the whole bottom row that is not lit up which isn't a major big deal i figure led will fix that so um other than that oh yeah and the shaker motor the shaker motor that's going to be another task i'm going to have to start dealing with i guess i'll mess with that tomorrow but that's where we're at on it now though but it works and we now have a working shaking motor this is just in test mode but let me show you what I had to do to get this damn thing to work so inside your shaker motor I've had to solder this connection right here on this side and this connection here on this side now granted I this is not stable at all I gonna need to do a better job but I was merely just getting it on there to test it to make sure that in fact was the issue because i was getting like no resistance i was like okay well we got a broken connection somewhere in this damn thing so now we're reading at four ohms where we should be so now we have a working shaking motor so now officially the only thing that is not working at 100 is this damn switch right here so that's pretty darn good okay so me and my son just went through the entire game and i believe unless it's underneath the plastic and gi then every bulb should be working these damn things were working so i'm guessing they finally had their they took their toll during the games that we just played and now they're done so except for the pop bumper gis everything else is going good all the gi's lighting up uh we had some more troubles the previous owner not only was the fuse up here bad i had to replace uh he had two or three one two three fuses down here on this board that were not even the correct ones luckily they weren't over fused but they were under fused so the two and a half that i needed up here was over here and i think instead of having five amps they were like twos or two and a halves so got those all upgraded and recording so the only thing that doesn't work is the damn shaker motor audio and everything works all the lights come on let me see if i can get this back up here and we'll see what it looks like in the dark. Hold up.