Kruzman produces the nicest playfields I have ever seen. Bought a couple off of him over the years. The crate is worth the price and of admission, alone.

Hi

Hope I can get some help, I was so close to getting my TAF 100% working, thought we had it and now have an issue which means I can't even start a game ;-(

Previously we had one issue which shows on the test screen, this is for Opto 4 on the bookcase, has been like this for years and since the only way to get to the receiver board is a pain we have left it..

Games has worked for for many weeks, then all of a sudden 'Ball Missing', thats strange all the balls are there and accounted for, on testing the switched under the 3 balls we found that SW 16 (Center) wasn't working. We then proceeded to work our way round the other switched in that row ... suddenly loads aren't working, this makes sense and suggests a wire has fallen off somewhere.

Where I'm confused is that I would expect a sequence of switches in order to not be working, but in this case some switches in that row still work ..

SW16 - No (Center Trough)
SW26 - No (Right Outlane)
SW36 - No (Left Slingshot)
SW46 - NOT USED
SW56 - No (Bookcase Opto 4)
SW66 - Yes (Left Ramp Top)
SW76 - No (Left Flipper Lane 2)
SW86 - Yes (Grave A)

I'm clearly missing something obvious, I've looked at all the switches and cannot see any obvious loose wires, or wires that have fallen off ..Do I have multiple issues or is this something simple to diagnose ? Every other time ive had an issue like this its been obvious where the loose wire is and an easy fix ..

I do not understand why SW66 work, SW76 doesn't work and SW86 does work ?

Would love some assistance, I need to order a multi-meter obviously ..

Thanks

He sure does, the clear on my TAF is beautiful

There IS a sequence, just not what you're expecting.
There's a break or disconnect in your White-Blue wire. The order of the working switches are the switches in the line BEFORE the break. The switches that aren't working are BEHIND the break.
Before/Behind is in the order of how the wire was routed. (Wires are not routed from 1 to 8 - they're routed from where the harness reaches the playfield, in order, closest to the end of the harness, to next, to next, and so on.)

100% agree. The clear on my Kruzman TAF playfield looks so good.

Well thats certainly helped, thanks, here is me assuming the table in the manual was how everything is wired in, I managed two trace the issue almost immediately. For those wondering check every single switch in the row (or column) whether they are working or not, turns out that the Grave A, although working actually had 2 wires disconnected, I assume I had caught them when taking the bookcase out. Quick soldering adventure and we are back up and running.

Thanks for your assistance, its always obvious once you have the answer, so to re-cap>>

Although the manual shows switches in order, they may not be attached in that order.
Check all switches the Row, do not assume a working switch isn't the culprit.
If you have been working on a specific area, then its likely the issue is near there..

Fantastic! Glad you found it and got it working. Having that many switches out makes the game unplayable, so the easiest you can find it and fix it, the better.

Have you guys noticed that sometimes on the switch matrix they put two of the white and striped wires together. For example on two of my switches I have a white and blue and a white and grey wire attached to the non banded lug of the switch. I traced them back to the column and row and think I figured out that the two grey wires are on a “not used” in the matrix. I guess my question is why bother having the wire at all. Is it because it comes off of one branch and it would not be possible to eliminate it?

... Uh, no. This would cause cross-row ghost switches being read by the software. Where/what switches do you see this one? (Both, White-Blue and White-Grey have active switches on them, so there is no completely 'unused'row or column on TZ..)

So for example the right outline switch which is on the white and blue row and red and green column had a white and grey wire soldered to it.

I also noticed the same thing with the Grave A.

The interesting on both of those columns the white and grey that corresponded to them are labeled as not used.

This game has been in pieces for a couple years and I am putting it back together so just trying to figure it out.

I thought it was kind of odd myself. The other thing I can think of I wonder if the blue stripes on that wire faded a bit.

First, apologies about the Not Used comment - I completely forgot that we were talking TAF, and NOT TZ. D'oh.

It's possible that the blue they used faded, or someone loaded the wrong color in, or those are jumper wires. LTG may have some input on that. Personally, I'd follow the white/gry wire and see where it went next. That would be a clue.

Ha no worries it was just really strange to me. By the time I noticed it was 2 AM and I was fading fast

Followed the wire it’s on the blue and white string either they used a very light banded wire or it faded over the years. Picture for reference you can see how it can be mistaken for grey

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You should use WHT-BLU not BLU-WHT. They are different. WHT-BLU is a white wire with a blue tracer. BLU-WHT is a blue wire with a white tracer.

That looks gray to me. Without any evidence, I bet the factory ran out of WHT-BLU and used WHT-GRY to get the machine built. 20,000 machines built in one calendar year (365 days) is ~54 per day (even working through the weekends). That's a lot to build and a lot of wire needed. Again, just a guess without evidence.

That’s crazy because it’s so confusing since white-grey is used elsewhere, especially for anybody trying to repair a game. Not sure how often that would have came up in the operator world for Bally to think about it. Obviously they didn’t have restoration in mind for collectors when they did that

These machines were built to make money. Not to last. They were expected to last maybe one to two years, possibly up to five. Definitely not 30 years and definitely not to be disassembled and reassembled (restoration).

The premise was probably "a machine delivered and making money is better than no machine not making any money". Once the machine was wired and operating correctly, the odds of a failure in the wiring was next to none. Machine delivered and making money.

Again, I have no evidence for any of this speculation. Just trying to think of reasons WHY something is the way it is,.

Yeah pretty much much in line with what I was thinking too

Anybody have any opinions on the jet bumper skirts. I am pretty sure I am definitely ruling out the solid green, but can’t decide which looks the best out of the others.

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Transparent looks great but how will the material hold up ?

Not a clue it’s supposed to be a hard material the transparent version. It’s going to be in joke environment if that helps

I like the look of the transparent green. What colour caps are you thinking?

Was thinking standard colors for TAF

Definitely the transparent green.

Granted this is always going to be personal opinion and your own choice, but here is my $0.02.

I wouldn't do transparent. The playfield artwork was designed in a way that there is no artwork under the bumper skirts since it was covered up from the factory. So having transparent skirts is going to show nothing other than bare wood and holes...looks odd to me.

As far color choice, that's certainly personal preference. I personally like to stick with the factory look.

I always match the skirt color to whatever color I am using for the top/cap color. On the Addams Family I did blue, purple, green, red and orange. I liked how it turned out.

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Im thinking of doing all black or red on mine.

Factory color caps, 11 LED inserts.

Im swaying heavily to black as Im doing black armor and wireforms.

The bodies look perfect.

Some of what you guys do to your TAF’s is sacrilegious!

This isn’t a my little pony!

LOL

Once you go black...

Black all the way! That’s exactly what I’ve done in mine

The manual says they are all red skirts, with colored caps.

I think black looks good too, on a lot of games.

In some cases "Rainbow Bright" !

It’s like fucking with a 69 Camaro!

You just don’t do that!

I cant wait for a 69 camaro "Donkey Cart" edition...

Thanks for the advice on the bodies can’t wait to see them lit up

They are gonna be AWESOME !

Camaros suck. But they’re not the worst. I’m on our local Mustang club board so I have to say that. Right freddy

I'm working on a TAF restoration right now, and I went with Green caps and bodies with black skirts. I think it matches the theme better than the rainbow caps.

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HEP did one this way and it looked really good.

It has begun. Holy shit drilling out the clear to countersink the jet bumper screws was a bitch. Definitely ghosted the clear in a few spots. Thankfully a couple of the spots were able to be glued back down and the rest are hidden

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Hi. Who did the playfield you’re using? Ty

It’s was a NOS Bally playfield I picked up about 5 years ago. Ron Kruzman did the clear coat on it

NOS, how lucky!

Took a lot of persistence to get that damn playfield

FORD = Fast Only Rolling Downhill, LOL !

Does anyone know where to buy this exact polar bear rug figure for less than $114? TIA.
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"Does anyone know where to buy this exact polar bear rug figure for less than $114? TIA."

I used one from ebay. Search for "Playmobil Large Dark Brown Bear Skin Rug". I painted mine white and added black for the eyes, ears, and claws. $8

Not exact, but for 1/10th the cost, it's really damn close.

Chris

Awesome, thank you!

Ha, that’s what I did too

Fwiw, we offer a lighted version for $40, it’s not the playmobil bear as they don’t take paint well, it’s one we make ourselves.

https://lermods.com/products/the-addams-family-pinball-illuminated-bear-rug-mod

If anyone thinks this is pricey @$40 my opinion is that it is good value; It will save you hours of time messing with paint and is a very easy install (5-10 minutes) and a great product. Personally I have the eyes hooked up to the "Bear Kick" insert and they work great.