I have a Duckscan as well. I'd appreciate it if you can report back on how this mod works with this monitor...and approx. how much time it takes to install. Thanks.

My RFM has a Duckscan monitor and the previous owner (turbo20lbs) installed the mod. The monitor looks great and it's definitely worth it. I can't take any pics at the moment because it's in storage, but turbo20lbs might be able to add some input onto how the install went. I believe he posted about it at the time on the RGP if you care to search over there.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/rfm-video-amp-install-advise-ducksan

Alright gang. Got mine done today. Really took longer to shoot the video than it did to do the upgrade, and that included creating a new wiring harness. You could surely cut the VGA cable at the computer end and just jam the wires into the adapter from there, but I didn't want to risk a known working cable and also have to deal w/ stuffing three ground wires into a single screw down.

I got interrupted a couple times, most importantly by my Dad informing me that my grandmother is in the hospital recovering from pneumonia and the flu (wish her well please), so I have broken this into 4 short segments.

I keep my gameroom fairly dim, but there was a DEFINITELY increase in brightness after the upgrade, so much so that the exposure of my video is blown out (over exposed) in my final video. Looks great in person, and I imagine if your monitor has suffered far more long term use than my HUO game, it may very well see even greater improvements. Of course in another 10-15 years of these will need cap kits anyways.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Enjoy!

Bump. Given all the requests, either the instructional video sucks or it slipped under the radar

Nice video....... I will check the make of my monitor this week and order soon after.

Thanks,

Chris

Excellent video my man! Thank you again for posting this as I wanted to save a few bucks on hauling my tech out here to do something so simple. Here goes nothing!

Awesome tutorial, wxforecaster!

Keep in mind that it's possible to find any 19" raster arcade monitor in there. They came with Ducksans and a specific WG from the factory but many have had other monitors swapped in over the years. All of the rasters work just fine. The difference is the monitor mounts and the video cable but those can be adapted to whatever the op had on hand at the time.

-Wxforecaster-

What size of Trifercon pins did you use for your molex connector? I purchased the same 10-point pin molex connector but the trifercon pins that I bought from my local radio shack are too big to fit into the connector itself. I have it all rigged up just like you do but can not get the wires into that darn molex cable without wondering if the connection would be bad. Any advice or wisdom would help. Thanks.

PinJer, I think the connector takes the standard .156 pins.

I would use something like:

http://www.bigdaddy-enterprises.com/electronics/e_connectors-156.htm

CONN-156BT -- Get a 100 of these (trust me, if you enjoy Bally/Williams games, you'll need em eventually).

CONN-156/13 13-pin lock ramp housing. Get a bunch of these and just cut them down to size. I've never dealt w/ more than a 13-pin connector, so this seems to work well for all applications

John's got a bunch of great stuff on his site for general pinball repair. I assume you have a crimper already.

Like I said in the video, you don't have to create a new wiring harness, but I just didn't want to destroy the working VGA cable. You could just as easily cut the cable at the PC end just before the connector and screw down the appropriate wires. The one benefit of doing your own harness (other than it's fun) is you reduce the # of ground wires from 3 to 2.

Evan

Thank you Evan for pointing me in the right direction. I agree with you that I too do not want to cut up the original harness just in case. I ordered both parts you recommended above and when they arrive, I will crimp it all together and let you know how it works! If all else fails, I'll send it up to you for the expert to Frankenstein together. haha. I'd pay you. Thank you again for all of your help and support.

Great vids, wx!

You guys are wholly welcome. I started with ZERO electrical knowledge when I got my first pin (WW), so it's the community (first RGP, then pinrepair.com, then KLOV and now here) that taught me what I know and any way I can give back, it's a nice feeling. Thanks also to the OPs who pointed out there was a way to boost the monitor. Now the real question is, when will Wizard Blocks ever come out?

Thanks to the fast shipping of Big Daddy Pinball parts, my molex connectors and trifercon pins came in tonight. As others have stated, the video amplifier by Ultimarc is the greatest $20 modification you can buy... It looks so much better in person but wanted to post a few pictures. Thanks again to Evan for the video and all who helped!

2.jpg RFM_3.jpg RFM_1.jpg

AHHH your colors are washed out now Just kidding (all in the instant you took the shot). Your exposures look very similar which shows just in the star field how much brighter it is. Really tough to do a before and after w/ a picture or even video, but it's definitely an improvement.

Yes, and the picture on the right is when I first plugged it in with my old seting so the settings were blasted. Now, I have everything aligned, adjusted, and it is so sweeeet!

Heh, it's damn near impossible to get a clean picture of a reflection of a CRT on a half silvered mirror in a questionably lit room. I'm surprised he got one that good.

Would you take that same picture now that you have adjusted it? I'm tempted to do this mod, but not if I lose details or colors or if the black backgrounds look washed out. I simply want it to pop more.

I installed it without any problem using a .156 connector and colored wire on my WG monitor. The difference was astounding, especially the definition in the Mars planet and such. It made a huge difference in my game, but I think my tube has a lot to be desired since I capped the board as well. If you still have a tube monitor in your game, you really need one of these!

-Al-

Yes, I will post it up here in about an hour or so. Like I shared with Evan, once you get it adjusted correctly, the colors "pop" more and give the machine a better overall appeal. I will take photos of the different scenes and let you base your judgement on them. For $20 + shipping, a few dollars in molex connectors and trifercon pins, find some wire, and throw it together and it is the best mod for the machine (imo), excluding those sweet rotating saucers ($250). If you make your own harness and realize that the brightness is not for you, just plug the old one back in, and keep flippin' away.

The photo's below were taken with an Iphone 5 camera so they give you an idea of a sharper, bolder image. As many have said, you really have to see it in person to see the real proof in the pudding with the modification. I will post a video on YouTube (and here) in a little bit.

7.jpg 1.jpg 3.jpg 6.jpg 5.jpg 4.jpg

That does look really nice! Thanks for the pics. Great scores, too!

Thanks man! I enjoy playing the machine and it helps me lock down my flipper skills for this years tournaments. I was playing with my left hand and trying to snap pics with my phone with my right so you can see that some of them are a tad blurry.

so I'm the one who does the video tutorial and didn't even think about the adjustment knobs behind the translite. Derrrrrrrrrp. I changed the brightness/contrast and shifted the physical picture and got mine dialed in this morning. Wow! Even I was amazed

NOTE: This mod does not change gameplay. I still suck at RFM. I swear after almost owning it for 9 years I still haven't seen half the game. I constantly side drain balls bouncing off the post.

Nice!
Thanks for the pics PinJer. (As well as the rest of the posts/vids, wxforecaster... )

I'm looking forward to pimping out my "freshly acquired", hitchhiker as well...

IMG_0946.JPG

It fits!

IMG_0945.JPG

Can't wait to see for myself (in person) the difference the amplifier kit makes!

Thanks for the pics PinJer, looks good!

I had the opportunity to post up a video real quick showing a little bit of the Ultimarc Monitor, as well as some of the extra's on my RFM. Hope this helps with giving you an idea of what it looks like.

<---- Video Link

I did this mod this week and the results were AMAZING! I can't believe how great it looks.

I have the WG 7300 but was missing the 5V from the video card. So, I tapped into the PC's power supply.

I filmed the entire process and put up a vid on my channel including the 5V mod.

Check it:

Your "Launch Ball", button needs a new bulb PinJer...

PinJer, could you post or PM me your LED list?

http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pinball_2000_Repair#Video_Amplifier

Installed a video amplifier in my SWE1 today. HO-LEE CRAP. Huge difference.

Got an RFM headed my way hopefully this week! Hoping I have teh wells gardner and 5v's coming from VGA not sure what determines that kinda luck! I may go ahead and order this thing ahead of time.

What is going on my man? To be honest with you, I turned on my machine and just wrote down how many reds, clears, greens, etc... I wish I still had the list but it consisted of 3 post it notes that I threw away. lol.

I know, right!? I have a new start button I need to put on and I need to put 2 LED's in both the launch button and start button. I appreciate you looking at the video.

I just hooked mine up and it looks fantastic! Many thanks to the contributors on this thread, especially wxforecaster for a concise video (I like to be spoon fed when it comes to electrical stuff).

Just a note for the newbies as I didn't see this anywhere. I went with 16 gauge wire but it was almost too thick for the ground and sync inputs on the board. I'm sure 18 or maybe even higher gauge wire is what you should probably use for this.

I just did this too...unforutnately on a DucSan..much more work!

I would like to see a few pics..I find it look amazing aside from the very small text ex. where is says "Free Play" and not quite as bad the score. Perhaps it wasnt so great before either and I never noticed

Here is mine..I have since turned down the contrast a touch which makes it a little better.

photo.JPG

I had to turn my brightness and contrast down to get the bright stuff to look right. Everything was too "blown out" at first. Based on your video it looks like maybe you need to turn up the brightness a touch if you can. Look at Pinjer's pic of the scene select and you can see the blues and purples of the galaxy in the background. Of course it all comes down to personal preference.

Yea now I can see the galaxy in mine... Overall everything looks good only the small bright text could be a touch better. On the ducsan I had to mess with other knobs on the back of the monitor too but of a pain it's def an improvement as before the Martians in the bar for example were hard to see now I see them great. It's a 15 year old CGA monitor , it can only do so much

The bar scene was the main reason I decided to do the mod. I couldn't make out any details before even with brightness and contrast on max. I have SWEP1 in my cabinet right now, but I will be curious to see the improvement in that scene.

Big improvement there...its a very dark scene so they are still not super bright..but I can see them now before I could barely see them and if I turned up the brightness I got lines. I think overall it really improves all of the "graphics" the text looked a tad better the old way if you ask me but who looks at that My calibration screen looks perfect so I think I have it tuned well.

In PinJers the aliens really stick out..but seems like its a bit too bright as the "Kegs" holding gas, propane, kerosine are all washed out Maybe its just the pic.

Figured I would bump this thread as another had messaged me about it. Everything said here about how much better it looks can't be more true. Even my non pin wife was impressed. FWIW, my video card DID have the 5V so I didn't need to add it...

Pics below but really hard to capture the overall improvement. I'm glad I did it and at one point never saw the real need.

IMG_3844.JPG IMG_3845.JPG IMG_3850.JPG

The video amp makes a HUGE difference.
If your board and chassis has the original caps I would suggest re-capping your chassis & neck board then do the amplifier. You should have years of a nice picture to enjoy.

Mine had the Ducksan (?) chassis with a Samsung tube monitor and for a chassis and tube that gets ragged on a lot for poor quality and performance mine was bullet proof for years.

I agree with all that has been said. Just ordered mine, 3 day turnaround to Australia. Spent $5 on some wires and an connector, fitted it, worked first time. Luckily, didn't need to do the 5v add on bit for some reason.
Just a tip for those who watch the video (with the appropriate swearing) there is a plastic clip holding the connector which you prise open to remove it, not just brute force

picture has detail I didn't know was there (ropes holding up tower have stripes, aliens at bar much clearer).

Grab this mod if you have a P2000!

Just finished my amp mod and just like everyone else........ it's amazing! I spent $20 for the mod, $16 for shipping and $10 for the wire and connectors so for $46 I have in stalled what I would call "the single best mod I have ever installed" on a pinball machine.

If you've got a P2000, you gotta do this mod.... yes you do.

QSS

how is this different from turning up the screen on the flyback?

It's a voltage thing flecom...
The original video feed to the monitor on the P2K was around 1.5V; since they were using an arcade monitor and not an LCD for the display, the amp mod simply brings the voltage back up to the recommended 5V so the monitor can be as bright; balanced/beautiful as it was originally intended to be.

Like so...
IMG_1874.jpg
Nice and bright, see?