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Part 2: 1978 Gottlieb Close Encounters of the Third Kind Project. Electronics!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·18m 37s·analyzed·Oct 6, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Gottlieb Close Encounters restoration: power supply, diodes, fuses, connectors, and MPU board work.

Summary

Mike Dus continues restoration of a 1978 Gottlieb Close Encounters of the Third Kind pinball machine, focusing on electronics work. He replaces the 50-year-old power supply with a refurbished unit, swaps corroded diodes, replaces fuses, installs a new power cord with proper grounding, repins connectors, and swaps the MPU board. The machine shows first signs of life after power-up, though further troubleshooting remains.

Key Claims

  • The original power supply was 50 years old and the creator didn't trust it, though it was outputting correct voltages

    high confidence · Mike states this directly when explaining his decision to get a new/refurbished power supply

  • The refurbished power supply was done by Brent Butler

    medium confidence · Mike says 'probably done by Brent Butler' when the refurbished unit arrives, indicating some uncertainty

  • One MPU board had all coils locked on, indicating a driver board problem rather than CPU

    high confidence · Mike tests the board and confirms all coils locking, determining it's unsuitable for use

  • The replacement MPU came from Shiny Boy's old Sinbad machine and was going to game over

    high confidence · Mike explicitly states this when selecting the working board to install

  • One of the original boards has heavy corrosion and backside damage making it unsuitable for parts or repair

    high confidence · Mike inspects the board and shows visible corrosion on capacitors and power input area

Notable Quotes

  • “Close Encounters of the Disgusting Kind”

    Mike Dus @ 0:17 — Humorous reframing of the restoration project title, likely referencing the current condition of the machine

  • “The power supply is outputting correct voltages, but it's 50 years old and I just don't trust it.”

    Mike Dus @ 1:00 — Explains the decision-making for replacing aging electronics even when functionally adequate

  • “I probably called them resistors uh 10 times in the last video... and I've got to do some repinning.”

    Mike Dus @ 1:30 — Self-aware reference to technical terminology errors from previous episode; shows learning curve

  • “All coils lock on. All right. So, that's not going to be a good candidate.”

    Mike Dus @ 13:45 — Diagnostic finding that eliminates one MPU board from consideration

  • “This is what it looks like. Brand new diode there. And then this is the old guy that I'll just clip off. But uh that is resolved.”

    Mike Dus @ 8:20 — Shows completion of diode replacement task with clear visual demonstration

  • “I don't really know what it does, but I'm going to try the old thumbtack method.”

    Mike Dus @ 21:30 — References an established technique for extracting connector terminals from edge connectors

  • “I'm going to try and show you. So, stick in your thumb tack... I take a hammer, get it all the way in there.”

    Mike Dus @ 22:30 — Describes an improvised tool method using hammer and thumbtack for removing stuck connector terminals

Entities

Mike DuspersonClose Encounters of the Third Kind (1978 Gottlieb)gameCorey CookspersonBrent ButlerpersonShiny BoypersonLondon PinballcompanyGottliebcompanyPinball Shenanigansorganization

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Established restoration techniques shared within pinball community: thumbtack method for extracting stuck connector terminals, use of fine sandpaper for contact cleaning, and awareness of spider chip desirability for parts

    high · Mike references 'old thumbtack method' he's had success with before, and notes spider chips are 'kind of desirable for rebuilding old boards'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Systematic approach to connector maintenance: pulling terminals for contact improvement, sanding, and contact cleaner application as alternative to full repinning

    high · Mike describes pulling terminals back, sanding them, and spraying contact cleaner as treatment for edge connector J6 harness before full repinning

  • ?

    product_concern: 1978 Gottlieb Close Encounters power supply showing age-related wear despite correct voltage output; 50-year service life suggests longevity of original designs but advocates for proactive replacement

    high · Mike states 'The power supply is outputting correct voltages, but it's 50 years old and I just don't trust it' and opts for refurbished replacement as preventative measure

  • ?

    technology_signal: Use of trifurcon-style connectors as upgrade to original edge connectors for improved reliability and repairability on vintage machines

    high · Mike upgrades power supply connectors to trifurcon style and explicitly states 'Much better' while noting non-trifurcon style required for edge connectors due to fit constraints

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:04
I'm Mike Dus and this is Pinball Shenanigans. [Music] Okay, round two of uh Close Encounters of the Disgusting Kind. I lost Well, actually, I forgot my old um like cell phone magnet holder in the rental car when we went to freaking Iceland. And I got this new one, but it's got like a swivel head on it, so any frigin pump and the whole camera moved. So, I need to probably return this and get a better one. Anyway, first uh plan of attack is that uh I decided I'm going to get a new power supply. The uh power supply is outputting correct voltages, but it's 50 years old and I just don't trust it. I could rebuild it or I could just get a brand new one. So, I'm going to Corey Cooks of London Pinball to get me a new power supply. And then I got a whole lot of other uh electronics to address. I got to put on a new plug. I got to replace those um diodes. I probably called them resistors uh 10 times in the last video. And I've got to do some repinning. I've got a couple um Niwamp MPUs here. uh one or two. Actually, I think I have three. Two are apparently not working and one is questionable. So, that is basically the plan of attack. Um just kind of like chip away at this one thing at a time and uh yeah. So, off to Cory's. Oh, this stupid camera. Okay, I guess something was a little lost in communication there. I thought I was going over to Cory's to buy a brand new power supply, but what I got instead was a newly refurbished original, probably done by Brent Butler. So, that's okay. This will be uh solid and probably good to go for another 50 years. And uh swapping out these two originals is uh actually a little easier than installing a new power supply. So, I am good with that. Okay, here we are at the machine and uh we can take a look at the difference between the old and new power supply. You can see all the headers have been replaced. All of the capacitors, the two uh blue volume, not volume, but uh uh potentiometers have been changed. probably the uh voltage regulators or transistors or whatever they are. One at the top, one at the bottom. Those are probably new. They do actually look like they got new like paper behind them or whatever they are. Fish paper. But uh yeah, so I'll start with swapping this. Just looks like three screws. Easy breezy. Okay, I got this board installed. checked all the voltages and it is good to go. So I'm going to move on to these um diodes here and according to the schematics they are 1 and 470 and I only have three but I managed to find a few so I'm pretty happy about that. So I'm going to replace whatever is required. I'll measure these guys and see uh what they're supposed to be and compare to what these are and then uh replace whatever's needed. Probably might just replace three of the four. I think this one is in pretty good shape. So, normally with the diode, you just kind of match where the the black end goes compared to the other diodes, but these ones are not very uh intuitive. The new one's got a black end on it. These guys don't really. So, trying to figure out the orientation and then it just dawned on me when you measure these diodes, they're like 300 one way and zero the other way. So, I just, you know, measured which way you're getting the reading and matched the reading with the old multimeter. So, figured that one out. And then um this little thing here is really just a diode holder. And since these terminals are really bad. Uh on a side note, this is the only one that really is testing pretty bad. The rest are perfectly good. So, I think I'm just going to move this diode over to this new terminal and the wires and then um start with some fresh dremelled non-corroded terminals instead of trying to reuse this one that's uh pretty bad. So, I like that strategy. Okay, this is the worst angle ever, but uh I'll show you what it looks like in a second, but let's just run a test here. And I think you can maybe see that. All right. This is pretty bad, but let's see what we got here. Try and get my hands out of the way. All right. What do we got? That is the wrong way. Okay. The first diode
5:47
280 something. Second diode. 280 something. Third diode 27ome. New diode. Please work. Yeah, there we go. Now the diode that I replaced. See if I can get a reading off of it. Yeah, it doesn't really want to give me anything. Oh, wait. There it is. did actually work. It was just uh really corrosive.
6:19
this is what happens when you don't bring your tripod. This is what it looks like. Brand new diode there. And then this is the old guy that I'll just clip off. But uh that is resolved. And since I had my soldering iron out, I went ahead and got rid of these clips and hardwired the speaker. So that that is now good to go. Plus, my battery for my cordless soldering iron was starting to run out. So, thought I'd use it while it was hot. Okay, I found this connector in my stash. Brand new, never used. I thought, hey, why not use it? got system one. MPU to voltage regulator MPU side. So that goes here like so. But that's missing a wire, isn't it? That's got five wires on it. This has got four. And then on this end, this is voltage regulator side. It's missing the two left way now. Yeah, I don't know what's going on with this, but that's how that wants to plug on. So, that is a conundrum. I don't get it. It's uh totally not correct. So, I am not going to use that. Okay. The next thing I'm going to do is check all these fuses. Make sure they are the proper voltage or amperage. And um I do know that this one is blown. So I'll need to replace that. But uh I'll do that next. Okay. So I replaced this fuse. And this was good. This was right. This was right. This was a half amp fuse. It was supposed to be a quarter amp. So I changed that. That guy's good. And I did Dremel all of the fuse clips. So that is done. Okay, I made myself a little workbench. And uh time to change this plug because the ground pin is missing and that is not good. Okay, that went pretty smoothly. We can get rid of this guy. And um the only thing you really have to remember with these types of cords is that the ribbed side is nut uh is neutral and that goes on the silver screw. And I'm pretty sure I screwed that up last time I did one of these. Fortunately, I did not burn my machine to the ground. But uh this should be good to go now. All right. Look at that. back in business. All right. So, next I'm going to repin this connector that goes to the power supply and also this connector that leaves the power supply that goes to the MPU. I think it's just a good thing to do
9:42
just for future proofing, longevity, and solid connection. All right, the deed is done. So, I upgraded obviously all these to trifuricon style connectors. So, that's a nice little upgrade there. Much better. And much better. The other side here, the edge connector, I didn't repin it. I did like just take a tiny nail and pull those connectors out a bit so they're making good contact and took some real fine sandpaper and jammed it in there. So hopefully that's sufficient. If not, I will repin it if I have to. Don't love doing the edge connectors, but uh I did bring a couple MPUs here. two that say they don't work and this one that doesn't really say anything. 2017 Naiwamp. So, wait, this is a driver. Oh that ain't going to work. The boards are the same shape. What is this? So, this is actually a CPU, but uh all coils lock on. All right. So, that's not going to be a good candidate. Uh I've got a good driver. 100% working. So, this was Shiny Boy's old sinbad, but says it was going to game over. I'm not sure if it is a board problem or not for sure. So, I guess this will be the one that I'll stick in for now. All right, so got the old board out
11:34
and someone might be able to restore this possibly. If not, good for some parts. These spider chips, I know, are kind of desirable for rebuilding old boards, but the backside ain't looking too hot.
11:54
Yikes. All the way across the bottom and even where the power goes in. That ain't going to work. So, this is uh going bye-bye. I need to install a couple standoffs cuz the ones in here are garbage. So hopefully I brought the right ones. Oh yeah. So you know what that means? This connector is not used. That means I definitely have to redo this guy and this guy. This is the harness, which I've got one here that I brought from home. And that is this guy here. I did the same treatment with this connector. I um pulled the little terminals back
12:53
and then I sanded them and then I sprayed some um contact cleaner on them. Then I did some more sanding and I'm hoping that should be good. So technically just need to repin these two connectors. Okay, I found me some standoffs. So let's see. Let's put in two for now. Not expecting any earthquakes. Two should be good.
13:31
probably going to need both hands, but uh yeah, that's right. Okay. And that goes like that. Okay. I probably will put on four standoffs, but I feel like I'm going to be swapping boards and uh it's going to be easier to deal with two for now. So, I don't really know what's going to happen, if anything, if I power this on like this. But let's give it a try. Okay, let's see if we get any life at all in one, two, three. Ooh, we do get life.
14:09
Okay, got some blinker bulbs, some general illumination. First signs of life. Okay, well, I've got to figure out what the next step is. All right, I think I'm going to attempt to repin this connector here that plugs into the MPU J6. Goes down to the cabinet through those resistors or uh dodes is what they're actually called and comes around here and over there. So, I don't really know what it does, but I'm going to try the old thumbtack method. I've had success with it before. You just jam it in there. And you kind of just twist and you hope it pops out. Let's see if I can uh have success here. Like so. And you're just kind of trying to push down that little tab there. And hopefully it just yinks out. But can't do it one-handed. So, wish me luck. All right. I've got a new method I invented and you may find this amusing. I'm going to try and show you. So, stick in your thumb tack. Okay. In order to get it in there good, you take a hammer,
15:45
get it all the way in there. I don't know if I'm doing irreparable damage to the connector itself, but look at that. Boom. Try that again. I'm hoping that the new terminals will still latch. Okay. I don't really know if that's going to be the case or not, but I look at that. I didn't have to smash that one as much. But I wanted to make sure I could remove them all before starting to repin them. Make sure that they would all actually come out. These guys are like almost all broken. They're just trash.
16:40
Anyway, that's my method. And I probably Boom. Don't necessarily recommend it, but if I can reuse this housing successfully, then uh we're in business. Okay, I got these guys all crimped on. And you got to use the non trifuricon style for edge connectors, otherwise they just won't fit. So, let's see if they will all lock in nicely. Okay. These guys locked in just fine. Look at that. That's nice. Except the blue and green wire I accidentally put in in reverse, but I was able to get them back out. Bend the little tine back and lock them in. So, no harm there. But yeah, so this guy can now get connected.
17:47
you know, maybe this is wired to the tilt and we'll find out if uh the game goes into tilt possibly, but going to wrap up this video shortly. So, I'm getting hot and the Bengals game is starting pretty shortly. So, I'm going to go home and check that out. But, let's see if anything new happens with that connector installed.
18:18
Okay, nothing is different, but I wasn't so sure that was going to do anything anyway. But that is a uh a good dent for episode number two of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I shall be back.