Usually the clock test in diagnostics allows you to find anything strange with the clock.

My problems with a new clock board have always been an opto not triggering correctly because the wiper on the minutes hand wasn't deep enough to trigger the opto sensor every time.

It's also possible that you have the hour hand on wrong. Take the minute hand off and turn the hour hand around 180 degrees and re-assemble. I'm pretty sure the diagnostic tells you what time the system thinks it is... this can point you to a solution.

The manual has a section that tells you which optos should be active at which time.

https://www.ipdb.org/files/2684/Bally_1993_Twilight_Zone_Operations_Manual_OCR_searchable.pdf

I've put the gears together and ended up with the wrong time. When you install the gears and the two clock hands, they have to be on the 12 o'clock position. This isn't hard to fix.

The thread for 'wrong time' is this one:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-clock-shows-wrong-time

Let us know what you find!

All,

On a side note involving the clock, there is a metal bracket on the back.

The official part name is called "bracket clock ball trap."

I just got my machine, so I am not sure how it is to be mounted. Currently it is screwed onto the back of the clock, but the screw is lose. The bracket just hangs there, so I am not sure what it does.

It doesnt seem to trap any ball as far as I see.

Any help is appreciated.

Rite

It's so balls don't get stuck behind the clock.

LTG : )

DSC00654 (resized).JPG

This is expected. This is normal. The minutes hand was NOT backwards - put it back.
The hour optos should change about the thirty minute time.

Put the clock test in slow forward, and get a video of it going through a couple hours.

The motor power goes through a DC Motor Control Assembly board under the playfield.

This gets it's 12v power from J118 in the lower corner of the Power Driver board, J118 is one of three identical power plugs, so it might be plugged into any of the three plugs in that corner, don't expect it to be on J118.

I don't expect it to be a problem with the 12v, but you never know.

When I have a motor not turning fast, the first thing I look at is mechanical binding. Do the gears in the clock box seem to be very smooth running, or is there something that is tight, binding or too much friction?

Here is a link to the thread about super lube grease that some people use on the gears:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-clock-grease

Then I would pull the DC Motor Control Assembly board, and resolder the big coils underneath. These coils very slightly flex, and they are a common source of cracked/broken solder that can steal power from the motor. While I'm there I would reflow the solder to the connectors.

Let us know what you find!

Isn't that supposed to be on the opposite side of the clock? I.e. left hand rear upper corner as you're looking at the face of the clock.

The image you've posted seems to show it on the upper right?

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Aah.. "Examined" by the software. 'Examined' does NOT mean 'when they change'.

Depends - The "fast" in the test is NOT the fastes tthe clock will spin. This is odd, and I don't know why Ted did it this way, but the 'Fast' in the Test Menu is still pulsed, and is slower than when the games is trying to reset the clock.
Now, if you're comparing oranges to oranges - (Sorry, I missed the video link, if it was posted), and the video is showing it in the test menu, then could be a number of things.. the board driver PCB, the gears are really gunked up, motor going bad.. I would clean the clock completely first, if you haven't already.

The picture you posted is correct - that metal bracket was added after prototypes to stop balls that would fly off the Power ramp from getting stuck between clock and ramp there.

You may be right. It was a NOS clock I picked up and added a couple years ago. I didn't pay it any mind being NOS.

LTG : )

Your clock is running FAR, FAR too slow - that's likely why the game's flagging it as bad.
If you cleaned everything, including the gears, check wiring to the motor, to the motor control board (under the playfield). It should be going at least twice that speed, if not a little faster.

That is odd. It certainly can spin the clock at a faster rate, but for whatever reason isn't during the clock test. Does it spin at the same speed when you move to the Fwd Slow test? How about the Reverse tests (both)?

Yup, way too slow.

Verify that to your motor control board under the playfield, that you have the Flasher +20v feed going to it, and NOT the +12v feed.

If someone had to rewire it or something, it's possible they ran the wrong wire. That would explain the slower speed.

I guess I don't see how that's the issue, since the clock clearly moves at the Fwd Fast speed (faster) at boot. Just not during the test.

That's why I asked to see the test run at the 3 other speeds (Fwd slow/Rev Fast/Rev slow). Are all the test speeds slower than expected?

If the clock had been totally disassembled then remove the clock and inspect it for an error in assembly or binding.. Or what I would do is disassemble it and try again.

I've found the wire bend to molex plug on the clock has been a problem on a few TZs I've worked on.
Broken wires to the clock itself.

Okay -
to summarize -
The clock is speed-controlled by a very slow PWM type drive. (You can see this in the test modes - the motor 'pulses'.)
During power-on, and when the game is trying to set a time (i.e. reset to 12:00, or fast-forward to 06:00), it turns on the associated drive constantly. NOT pulsed. THIS is the real 'fast'. In TEST MODE, the 'FAST' speeds are NOT this constant drive, but are the fasted 'PWM' mode. So, in other words - Test 'FAST' mode is NOT the fastest. Clock resetting IS the fastest.

And his 'fastest' is still very, very slow. For example, I will post a video shortly showing mine. (Which, despite the test result, works fine. I have a prox sensor needing adjustment.)

Edit: Link to video: https://i.imgur.com/vBsp89L.mp4
Order of operations: Game bootup, clock resets to 12:00. Go into test mode. Forward Slow. Then Forward Fast. Then back to Forward Slow, then Reverse Fast, and then Reverse Slow.

Ah, so I did not realize that it was being driven differently outside of test mode. Thanks for that!

I agree, it's strange - I asked Ted about it MANY years ago, and sadly... I can't remember what the reasoning was.

In my game - an early sample game - my Motor Control board that works the clock motor - had a factory +12v wire going to the harness plug of the board in the wire harness. But then, it had a jumper wire that was done at the factory, but not part of the wire-bundle, that ran the flasher +20v over to the same motor control board. (My guess is that since it's a 12v motor, original designs had it powerd by a 12v source. But when 'stepping' it in game - to adjust speed - it was moving too slow, so they decided to feed it +20v to speed up the motor.. since the 'stepping' is done the MOST in the game, the motor could take getting over-driven. I BELIEVE the manual still states that the control board is taking +12v and not+20v, but I could be wrong; I don't remember right now..)

My guess is if the manual's wrong, someone connect +12v up to the control board thinking that that was correct, OR, the board's driving transistor is going bad - which can happen often..

i disabled my clock 10 years ago because of the racket it makes.

I see 'gulf pinball'. Kind of appropriate IMO that you misspelled information as 'infuriation'.

I'm not impressed with their gottlieb stuff.

Yeah, that's not OEM, and that could be your issue.

Check voltage between the "B+" and "G" pins on J1 there. It looks like that may be a +12v feed..

Yeah, like previously mentioned, game design changed that feed.

Note: I need to double-check this once I'm home. The more I think about it, the less certain I am. Won't hurt to check voltage at the moment, but my guess is that your 3rd party board is defective at least.

Check fuses. If the original board is bad, it may have popped the +12v fuse. (Assuming the game's not booting up.) Or the plug was popped in one off and shorted one of the voltage feeds to ground. In either case - the DMD shouldn't have been directly affected, unless game's not booting.

Edit to add: If the motor driver transistor is bad, then the board can be repaired, which is maybe why it wasn't tossed when a replacement was purchased. Unless you ask previous owner, you'll never know there, sadly.

Check +12 on the power driver board. May have blown the fuse.

You live relatively close to me. If nothing else, buy lunch and I can come over for a day and help you poke at it.

Likely not since it's all surface mount.

No - not OEM. However, it's new, and it's from Marco. I would order it and test it - if you get the same result, return it (as it means your original 3d party board is good, something else is causing the slowness - and you don't need a replacement)..

Please don’t operate this way. It’s not respectful of the supplier. This puts a burden on the supplier as they can no longer sell the board as new and eat time and “materials” from their budget. I realize that this is an actual business model for some but I don’t believe Marco is advocating this. I.e. not using their stock as a testing source.

You should be evaluating the problem and buy to replace if you feel it is the problem.

IMHO anyway.

Off-topic, but I have none for Marco. Hence, why I mentioned it.

But, you're right, it's not all kosher to do that.

Ok everyone I am having the EXACT same problem that PlagueMarmot was having with his TZ clock. I mean exactly. Clocks works in test mode but is going very very slow as Coyote said in his post. Both forward, backward, slow and fast mode. I took the clock apart, cleaned it well and made sure it is put back exactly as it should (I followed another post that I found here to the tee on that matter) making sure the line on the large black gear is lined up correctly.

So without re hashing your entire post, I don’t understand why my brand new Gulf pinball motor board doesn’t convert the incoming +12.7vdc to the required +20vdc that Coyote says it needs? What am I missing?

The reason I bought a new A-16120 board is because I just bought this game and the oem board was toast. There was a lot of black marks on it and the clock only ran backwards. So I couldn’t get through clock test. I’ve purchased power supply and other boards from Don at Gulf Pinball in the past and never once had a problem with his boards. So now with the new Gulf board, the clock works and tests but runs very very slow.

I also don’t understand how PlagueMarmot got his game working just by switching to the Pinball Life board.

What should I do? Is buying the Pinball Life motor board the answer or do I need to somehow get a +20vdc input to the board I have?

BTW the clock board that was in the game is a fairly new Rottendog board so I’m assuming previous owner has issues too.

Thanks! Ed