Thought I would start a post here on the details around this page. If there's too much peanut gallery will move it to a private group. The first thing I am going to do is transfer the key posts from the Dutch Pinball forum over here as I don't know how long that is going be running. Also going to contact the pinwiki guy to see if we can setup a TBL page.

JustLikeMe r6emperor

Recently people have asked about what preservation steps I've taken. So far:

- Bought a spare PC a year ago.. identical to the existing one. They were $75 at the time on newegg, but looks like it's too old now/not stocked there. Model: ASRock Q1900-ITX Intel Celeron J1900 Motherboard/CPU/VGA Combo. Also got 4GB of ram (2x2GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM ).

There looks like there is a new model for $65 that might be just the next revision of this board; might be close enough that the image will work.. but no guarantee
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157497

- Cloned hard drive. Used clonezilla for that. the gist is you add a second hard drive to the game PC, boot from a clonezilla usb drive, and then tell it to copy the original to the other one.

What I haven't done is actually test the image or the PC in place.. as I am using that PC for my homebrew project. So, I may bump that up on priority list.

Tom's fix / tweak list - copied from my post on DutchPinball.com/forums

Despite all this stuff.. from 2016.. my game has been working 100% for at least a year now. I have to run to work now but will update some of these that say "not resolved" at whatever the current state is

Postby sdtom » September 26th, 2016, 4:38 am
Going to maintain my list of problems/solutions here. Much of this was through use of support tickets with DP; so would ask people still send in tickets so DP knows statistics of how often people are fixing this stuff.

Problem: Right maude ball gate was sticking slightly and letting the ball back out a lot
Symptom: Good maude shots would bounce off donny ball gate and then back down maude shot
Symptom: The long spring traveling through the playfield was dragging on the playfield wood (run up the side of the hole).
Solution: Adjusted ball gate wireform to run clear through the hole / no dragging.

Problem: Mini playfield loop clunky
Symptom: ball would drop from the loop inside the bowling alley building and bobble around a bit longer than necessary before exit
Solution: Adjusted metal ramp inside the bowling alley to point as close to the building exit as possible
Video: showing how much play there is https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EjCEGGwkMhe7EoHEIe9HbeVq_qzSLZLIDQ
Video: best I was able to get https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_ctXNHUBE7f8IG2IhqrYxSYOIlKyW0oTUw

Problem: bowling alley launcher stutters at the edge
Solution: waiting on new cam plate from DP; unresolved
Video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iUTmLDvppBabTlOm4zpV1TcCla1uUf0LmQ
Pic: angle of launcher to find the set screw https://drive.google.com/open?id=1s5oFeZiB-ckfONV9sSk-HOPADMFS9fE6tA

Problem: Rejects at diverter flap / airballs
Symptom: Diverter flap would not rest within the ramp slot; would fall forward of the slot / too tall
Temp Solution: Elongate the adjustment slots to allow the flap to be lower by 2mm for proper operation
Long term Solution: DP is developing a new part
Pic: of resting fwd: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0GLVwN4NItISkdZZWZ6cUdyOGM
Video: of manual operation: https://drive.google.com/open?id=17GAmMzhIdn1rJDVbLBTW98Uzsuntvb2kig
Pic: after being able to lower the flap: https://goo.gl/photos/psxgUgaNBCfMawTy6
Pic: before: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_55cF8xV6321aL4ZT2pJAkj2LkzhiSucWQ
Pic: after: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b5rkTCPc6aeNaYFfzvGrCpPimlN3wNbLCg

Problem: Diverter rams plastic when coil fire
Temp Solution: added a felt dot on the plastic to soften blow
Long term solution: unknown; maybe new diverter stop?
Concern: Unforunately, there's no other coil stop involved other than plastic as far as I can tell
Concern: This goes for the deployment as well; it looks like hitting the bottom of the playfield is the "stop" for the mech

Problem: Rejects at back of ramp scoop
Symptom: Seems like ball was hitting the edge of the scoop due to gap between ramp and scoop
Solution: I developed and 3d printed a little clip to better mate the back of the ramp to the scoop entrance
Link: STL file on Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1786982
Picture: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XVCGK7EQkb095BS4dVOkW9p1hY7ymR4Ndg
Video of installation: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TnsA4tUEfBt1WlRMQLGsP_NkQGQv2_hNUQ

Problem: Jesus VUK too sensitive
Symptom: Occasional double VUK action
Solution: VUK switch was overly sensitive; it should really set with the full / 75% weight of ball. Widenend gap
Video of it being too sensitive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=17f1R38nIpsnh8_m0XLTK1Kew30PEP2sUbw

Problem: Jesus Rejects
Symptom: Shots occasionally come back down the ramp, or into shooter lane
Note: this is after VUK fix
Solution: Still working on it. I added some drop dead foam to back wall of jesus area but it still hasn't eliminated.
Idea: may also figure out if it's possible to reroute that cable somehow, seems wear/tear prone.
Picture: drop dead foam (that honestly, isn't doing much) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1s2g79PtLMeH2DM3bxC101f8LwNMPucOChw

Problem: Rug in wrong place / wrong time
Symptom: "Rug mode ready" when rug was all the way forward
Symptom: Weird homing sequences / going all the way back before going fwd
Solution: Reseated and used a flat head screw driver to re-terminate the stepper motor lines into the IDC connector. So, not a sensor thing but an actuator thing.

Problem: Ball trapped behind flipper on mini playfield
Symptom: Can fire flipper and the ball still stays here
Solution: Used a pair of needle nose to bend wireform slightly so that raising the flipper allows ball to roll away and down the ball return.

Problem: Game resets
Symptom: Game will sit in attact mode for hours, but if start a game, will eventually reset
Solution: Pressed in the 3 P-ROC boards, adjusted mounting nuts to more evenly apply pressure in one case
Concern: This may be just because I raised/lowered playfield a bunch getting tweaks into place, but time will tell if this is an issue just with vibration

Problem: SDTM from rug skill shot
Solution: Leveling

Concern: Experience with stepper screw drive mechanisms (as seen on rug) on 3d-printers says they should be greased for optimum operation
Solution: very lightly greased screw mechanism with Super Lube 21030

Problem: Silkscreen on PCB saying what the color code is; isn't always correct.
I imagine this is fixed in later runs
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jcxG9R405wMHKKhgesouI_rI_GMrtd8jSA

Reflecting there's one 'major' thing that i found later. I was missing the rug rolling pin mounts entirely. Barry had no idea how the game lasted a year this way.. but.. check for these cap nuts of your rug acts funny. they secure the rolling pin rug mech to the moving sled.

capnuts (resized).PNG

Yeah i didn't mention that in my original list but adjusting those was tough. What i eventually decided was that I could not get good results merely taking the roof off the bowling alley.. had to to really take those switches off to get them setup correctly. i can try to get a photo where i ended up.. haven't had to touch it sense

Man your game must have an earlier revision than mine; mine's got silkscreen labels for all fuses. The one in question is F12.

Also attached is general main board with some of the other fuse labels. Ignore the fact that i've voided my warranty by using the J12 mod connector

fuses (resized).jpg

20180529_053735 (resized).jpg

Since it doesn't look like the fuse is the problem, here's the PD-LED page
https://www.multimorphic.com/store/circuit-boards/pd-led/

If it were me (who's very comfortable with electronics and is building a homebrew game with PD-LED boards in it), i'd probably try a few things. Obviously, you do what you're comfortable with.

- replace the fuse and boot up the game without those two ribbon cables that feed the bottom PCB. At least some of those are LED lines (also the switches) and see if that keeps it from blowing. You've at least isolated it to the bottom PCB if that does help.

- Pull the PD-LED off the main board entirely (gentle even pressure as much as possible). Inspect it, and while it is out turn the game on again.. definitely shouldn't have a fuse blow.

- phase 2.. What might be useful is build/buy a set of cables so you can hook up the PD-LED while detached from the main board. And only hook up 1 LED bank(J5-J9) at a time (still need to make a power-J1 and serial-J2, as seen in manual). You can buy the 20-pin ribbon cables prefabricated from digikey. I can look up the part # if interested as i have a few of them. Identifying the bad bank will get you down to 12 LED suspects.. from there it really depends on which one is the bad one.. and how much test harness cabling you want to make to pinpoint the zone where there's something shorting against an LED.

note the comment at the top of the fuse list (I didn't notice it till just now) - All slow blow fuses. maybe someone put a regular one in?

having not done it before what scan quality is needed to make a reproduction?

all 3 boards are in the picture i attached in post #13 above. there is 1 p3-roc in center and two pd-led boards. the p3-roc is the one where there was a mod sent out.. which was just a zip tie and a cable mount sticker. the p3 roc isnt mounted very well so the power and communication ports (the two 2-pin white connectors) can get a poor connection.

can buy a new full set of plastics during their clearance sale right now.

nope sorry. are you sure its out vs cabling? there are a few debugging steps you could try. reseat the pd-led. could pull it off and use ribbon cables to connect a different bank of leds and see if it changes. if all 3 colors are out then it would be the common line between them (forgot if common ground or common positive).

if you go through all that and really think its the LED then would have to find the part on digikey or something. havent looked at all but you're looking for RGB that are driven by 4 independent lines..(R,G,B, common) and have to get the common pin to match, i,e common anode or common cathode. and in the right footprint to surface mount.

given the LEDs are normally good for rrslly long times id still assume its cabling or bad solder job before the led.

its the two targets

didnt realize Pennsylvania was that swampy? mine isnt showing any sign of problems like that.

this thread is for the 50ish people that do have games. go over to any of the other TBL threads to talk about future builds.

yep, talk to pinhead1982

the launcher motor? its a stepper motor, nothing fancy can get a lot of places. see if there is any labeling on it.

also, stepper motors rarely burn out, so doubt that is even the issue. what are symptoms? is it stuttering? the most common thing with that is here: http://www.dutchpinball.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=150

try running it without the orange piece installed and see if its smooth or not.

the bowling alley lighting is mounted to the big playfield pcb above. is it stuck on a particular color (those are RGB) or white?

im bumping this since some games are getting out again

Yeah that's me playing with a mod.. not normal

I haven't had to mess with anything on my game in a year (granted, I haven't been playing as much as this whole situation had soured me on the game a bit).. so, can you refresh my memory on the video you looked at?

hah i dont even remember that one. i think it was one of those things i thought was going to be an issue and hasn't

copying here as its come up lately in a PM and then again in the club thread. you can get to the point of a system error popup from linux. i got this in dec 2016 and worked it out. i reported it to Barry at the time with:

----
In case this comes up for anyone else. I started getting a system program error pop up window every boot and it would pop up over the top of the TBL software.

I just fixed it, using advice here:
https://itsfoss.com/how-to-fix-system-program-problem-detected-ubuntu/

It was a piece of gnome that had crashed. So , not sure how much you want to touch the OS in software updates but maybe disable the notifier as it suggests / or clear out the /var/crash regularly?

For me, I just deleted the file, will see if it comes back (hasnt yet)

----
and i can say here in 2019 it hasn't happened again either.. i never did the extra step of disabling the service. maybe lucky in that aspect.

and given im surprised a URL from 3 years ago wasn't dead already.. the gist was to clean out the crash log directory; open a terminal and run

sudo rm /var/crash/*

latest version 0.51 finally fixed the stuttering on my car ! sweet!

from the other thread, yours looks like it was having different issues. stuttering is vibration of the swing motion itself.. nothing to do with switch registration at either end. if i recall, yours looks like the issue was a with finding home position.

for example, mine was rock solid with both home position and hit position registering perfectly.. just vibrated during transition. now that is gone and the whole thing works 100% now.

one thing i did 3 years ago is at a little teflon grease on the bushing.. i didnt help with stuttering but might help with stiction with your case.

i can probably take a video of me manually moving my car in test mode and show where the switch trips on mine both home and deployed positions.. after Thanksgiving

Here's a video of me trying to illustrate where my switches trip for car deployment and retraction. on deployment, the left trips first.. that stops motion. the right is, i believe, the car hit registration switch.. so, how much later that one trips determines how hard of a hit it takes. You definately want some difference there between the two switches.

Also did the home / retracted switch too

just to add.. it wasn't a fix per say, its how the game came to me.. the left/outer switch has always been bent out farther than the inner/right one. i remember when i first got the game .. 3 years ago now? geez.. i thought the left one being bent out was "bad" (it does look funny) and tried to "correct" it.. that caused tons of issues until i restored it back

interesting. is yours hard to register hits? feels like outer would be better even if the other way works.. but just a feeling.

if it is satisfactory in your setup that's good to know.

a metric allen wrench/hex key

im having trouble visualizing what you are talking about. any way to take a video?

are you talking about the car itself moving relative to the rotating mech it is mounted to or something with the rotating mech? the rod that turns the whole car sits on a bushing in the upper playfield then travels all the way down to stepper motor on the underside od main playfield. i recall when i first got the game some looseness with the rod to stepper mount junction that needed tightening up but not sure at all that sounds like what youre talking about.

also, do the simple thing and make sure the hard drive is plugged into the pc / didnt knock it loose when fiddling with the update

where are they occuring? dude ramp diverter? dude ramp lock?

I don't know if you or a friend has a 3d printer.. but my lock entrance wasn't ever smooth, sometimes rejects.. but i designed a clip that smooths out the transitions from ramp to scoop by pinching the ramp against the scoop. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1786982

don't have this problem on mine. for a while there was an issue with the diverter getting stuck above the cutout for it and causing vibration as it retracted that would cause weird issues but they changed the ramp flap to fix that a while back by changing the flap to have tabs that is always low enough to keep the flap in the cutout.

the ramp plastic is pretty thin so if you bend too far i would think there might be a problem with the diverter

also.. are you sure it has anything to do with the opto. the miss/hit a specific pin is determined by the orange launcher angle. there's some swtiches in that mech that it calibrates off if.

i actually used clear packing tape (almost perfect width) years ago and has worked out well. that's almost mylar right?

i think the USB ports on those AsRock motherboards are kind of flakey in general. I bought a backup one that I use for my garage PC, and things are getting disconnected/connected randomly on that as well. I ended up finding the one port that seemed most reliable, and put a USB hub in that (for garage PC). For the TBL I just don't touch it too much.. the way everything is fixed mounted, less wiggling going on.

So, it could be if you plugged it all in again, it would be fine. There is also USB 3.0 vs USB 2.0 ports which could factor

you mean PyProcGame, or SkeletonGame.. mission pinball didn't exist when TBL first shipped.

secondly, i am not talking about not finding the multimorphic parts.. talking about certain thing not working or cutting out (intermittent). on the non-game ASRock Motherboard i have, it just seems like the usb ports are not well made and allow a lot of wiggling around of usb devices that actually causes things to disconnect.

ASRock Q1900-ITX back panel, and angle very hard to see with the one mounted

the black ones are usb2.0 and the blue ones are usb3.0

Screenshot_20200531-051534_Chrome (resized).jpg

mine had a similar issue and the drop dead foam helped a lot

they are pretty thin yes

A month ago I had the scoop coil start blew a fuse. As I was out of 5amp fast blows I put in a 5a slow blow. Don't do that..the paper turned brown and smoke came out from the scoop. So, while in theme (mind if I do a j?) don't be a dummy like me. Coil replaced and correct fuses used and running fine since.

Dunno what to tell you.. the fuse I pulled out wasn't marked with a T (slow blow). I put in a fuse marked with T and that's when the smoking started. I have since then put in a fuse with the same markings which is a fast blow (F), as well as replaced the coil and good to go since. If I get a minute I will check the rest as all of them were thin wire fuses, expect all of them are fast

I just pulled F02, also supposed to be a 5A Slow just like F03 but it also is labeled as "F5AL250VP" which is fast blow. So, either the silk screen is wrong or ARA put in wrong fuses. given when i put a slow blow in F03 the solenoid smoked without the fuse blowing, seems like fast blow is adequate

#17.. it is ara

In the originals the PROC to MPF connector is janky on the power pins (larger gauge ones on the corner). They later sent out some zip ties to sort of help but if that hasn't been further upgraded in new games then would look at that for intermittent issues.

What's the current troubleshooting steps for proc not found lockups/reboots while playing. Started getting them again after a few years of peace. Before it was the janky power connection between proc and the main pcb. Start there again ? USB cables? ASRock computer USB side?

Note, back in the day I bought another identical ASRock computer that I use in garage for 3d printer and exactly like the one in the game the USB connectors are weak/sensitive and bumping a USB connector can cause the device to temporarily disappear.. maybe just a design flaw with those.

The very first TBLs had a different diverter flap than they do now. What's your serial #?