Hey Everyone,

Just joined the club the other day and we love our TAF so far. Finally something my wife and I can both agree on!

I went to install a ColorDMD and immediately ran into the issue with the "THING" light board being in the way. Looked through this forum and found that it can be installed in the highest position but you will have to monkey around with closing the backbox light panel first and removing one of the lamps in order to install the display panel. I am in and out of my backbox enough that to me this is just too much of a PITA. Then I read through some more posts and saw that there was a company that made an aftermarket board.. but the link to their website doesn't seem to work any more. I also saw that CLEllison was attempting to make one but looks like he wasn't able to finish it.

Anyways, I decided to design and create my own. Below are some pictures of the finished board. I chose to use 3000k warm white LEDs to try and mimic the original incandescent look, however I am also ordering a batch with 5700k cool white LEDs. It fits flush with a black colored PCB so there is no light that bleeds through back onto the DMD. I updated the design so that it will fit with a set of Flipper Fidelity or Pinball Pro speakers without having to remove them. There is some slight ghosting though, but it isn't too bad IMO. I believe there is a solution to fix ghosting LEDs... OCD LED Board... and it should work with this thing light board however I do not have one to test it.

If anyone wants one just let me know with a PM including (Subject: TAF Thing Board, Quantity, Full Mailing Address). Not looking to make anything off these, just trying to help others out. Also not trying to step on anyone else's toes.. e.g. CLEllison or that other company that made them, or anyone else planning to in the future. The price per unit should only be about $10-$15 plus shipping and will come fully assembled and ready to plug and play. The manufacturer I am using is closed until Feb 1st, and they are about a 3 week turn-around so expect them in stock around the middle to end of February.

All that being said I am thrilled to be apart of the club. We have already installed one of our shaker kits in the machine and it is amazing. Got it set to trigger with the topper lightning flasher. We are also planning to bring the machine with us to Pinfest for everyone to play at our booth.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com
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Ok looks like there is enough of a need to go ahead and order a batch of these. I will do so today. I don't expect them to come in though till the end of February because the manufacturer is closed till Feb 1st and they are typically a 3 week turnaround. I am going to try and tweak the shape of the board so that the end where the connector is will fit without having to remove a Pinball Pro or Flipper Fidelity speaker if you have one there.

I don't want to hijack this thread with order requests so please do me a favor and send me a PM if you want me to hold one for you along with the following:

-Subject: TAF Thing Board
-Quantity Requesting
-Full mailing address

When they come in I will let you know and send you a paypal invoice for the total with shipping. Any extras will go onto my pinside shop.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

After doing some further research I have decided not to put any kind of anti-ghosting filters on the board. It is just not cost effective to do so. So if you do have the LED OCD board it should be fine with this light board. If you don't have one, and really want a non-ghosting solution, then it sounds like you may need to purchase one of those OCD boards.

Also, I have been getting several requests for a cool white version. I will put in an order for a batch with the Warm White 3000k lamps, and a batch of the Cool White 5700k lamps. When they get in stock, I will post photos of each so you can choose which one you like better. When I send you the paypal invoice I will ask which version you want at that time.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

They are soldered SMD components.

Rob

Thanks for this.. I was going to ask if there were other machines that have this same issue. I have no problem adapting the board for other titles.

Rob

Here is where I would start.. this is pulled form Clay's troubleshooting steps for a Non-Booting machine...

Dead CPU Step One: Remove the Ribbon Cables.
Before you do anything, turn the game off and remove all the ribbon cables from the
CPU. This will issolate the CPU from the driver board, the dot matrix display board,
the sound board, the fliptronic board (if your game has one), and any other
connecting boards. The ribbon cables are at connectors J201, J202, J211, and J204
(on some games). While you're at it, you might as well remove the switch
connectors at J205 to J209, and J212. The only connector still attached is J210 (the
power connector).
After everything is removed but connector J210, turn the game on. If the CPU board
boots correctly, the lower LED (+5 volts) should be on, the middle LED (diagnostics)
should be blinking continually, and the top LED (blanking) should be off. If this is the
case, turn the game off and replace the ribbon cables, one at a time, and turn the
game back on.
Start with replacing the the driver board to CPU board ribbon cable first. Chances
are good the CPU board will still boot with this cable connected. Next try the other
ribbon cables. If connecting the other ribbon cables stops the CPU board from
booting, chances are good the TTL chips across the top of the CPU board are the
problem (U1,U2,U3 on all WPC revisions).

That or you can try swapping the display board with the FT to see if it boots.

Did you swap out the MPU from your FT? If so, are you getting the same results?

Rob

Not sure I follow...

So you pulled the MPU out of the FT, replaced ONLY the game rom, and put it in TAF with everything connected and still won't boot correct?

Then you put what "boards" from TAF into your FT to cause it to not boot? What happens when you only put the MPU from TAF into the FT after installing the FT rom on it?

Rob

So when you removed the TAF MPU and swapped just the game from from the FT to the TAF MPU and put it in the FT.. dead game.

Were you ever able to try the FT MPU with just the TAF game rom in the TAF to see if it would boot or did your ROM break before you were able to test that?

The other easy things you can try in the meantime are:

Take the TAF MPU and install the FT game rom. Also swap over the large 6809 U4 chip from the FT and test in the FT. Next try swapping U8 ram chip and test. Last, if you have the proper tool to remove the large ASIC chip at U9 and re-seat it.. I would try that.

The answer to this question, (unless someone else has a better response), is you would need a logic probe to test these.

That means the other TAF game ROM isn't the culprit.

Did you try swapping U4 and U8 and re-seating U9 to see if you can get it to boot in the FT?

Maybe... maybe not. Did you try my suggestions about U4, U8 and U9?

I wouldn't advise it... here is one from Amazon though..

PHONSUN PLCC IC Chip Extractor Motherboard Circuit Board Component Puller and U Shape IC Chip Extractor Puller ROM Extraction Tool Kit + PHONSUN Portable Cellphone Holder USA https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071HW5FV5/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_DGJlEb7AE312R

Hello,

The TAF Thing Boards are now in production. Should only take them about 3 weeks to get them completed. The total cost of the boards minus shipping will be $17ea.

I am going to be sending out paypal invoices soon that will include the shipping charge for USPS priority mail.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

Hi Bernardspop ,

Please PM me the following:

-Full Mailing Address
-Paypal Email Address
-Number of Boards
-Color of the board you want (Cool/Warm... you can wait until they get in stock if you aren't sure yet and I have posted photos of what each one looks like)

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

Hello,

I managed to assemble another prototype with the Cool White 5700K leds. Here is a photo of the two versions side by side. If you are on the list to purchase one and haven't told me yet which color you want, please pm me with your preference. If you have no preference, then please let me know you would take either one. That will help out in case I get short stock on one of the colors.

The first batch is still in production, should be in stock by the end of the month.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

TAF Thing Board Comparison Small (resized).jpg

Hello,

Just a quick update on the Thing light boards. The manufacturer is shipping me out 10 of them next week. I ordered them in batches. I am hoping the next few batches will be arriving during the first two weeks of March. They are pumping these orders out slowly at the moment because of all the issues they are facing with the Coronavirus. I guess they have some huge backlogs.

I will be shipping them out in the order in which I received the request.. not payment. If you know you are further down on the list and don't want to wait, I do have several of the prototype boards on hand that I can assemble and send you in place of the production ones. These prototypes are exactly like the ones I showed pictures of.. without the cutout for upgraded speakers. So if you have original speakers in your TAF, or if you don't care about having to remove the speaker in order to install the light boards, let me know and I will be happy to assemble a prototype for you.

For everyone else, as soon as the boards come in and ship out I will send you a PM with the tracking information.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

Hello,

Quick update on the Thing Boards. Got 40 (20 Warm and 20 Cool) of them in over the weekend... FINALLY! So sorry for the delay on this. I am in the process of testing each one. They will be shipping out this week, if you are getting one from this batch I will let you know with tracking info.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

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Hello, if you want a board then please PM me the following information to get on the list. If you don't make it in this batch then there will be more available next week. These boards are not going to be a one time offering, as long as there is a demand for them I will continue to produce them.

-Full Mailing Address
-# of boards and LED temp (Warm White or Cool White)
-Paypal Email Address

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

This batch is all packaged up and is shipping out today. The post office clerk is gonna hate me!

Please be careful when you open the box, the board(s) are taped to one of the sides of the triangles.

If you are in this batch then you should have received an email from paypal with tracking info. If you didn't make the cut I should have another batch going out next week.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshaker
www.pinshakers.com

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Yes the ghosting in attract mode was there for me as well, that is what I was talking about in my original post. There was some discussion following that and the consensus is not to do anything about it as some people have the LED OCD boards and it was unclear how they would effect this one.

One thing I notice is that there isn't any ghosting while playing a game.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

Thanks Durzel, I am glad you like our TAF Thing light board.

Guys I just added these to our pinside shop. We are no longer taking direct requests, so you will need to go through the pinside shop to purchase one of our light boards. The price has been increased slightly to cover an increase in manufacturing costs as well as the pinside and paypal fees.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1206-pinshakers/03613-the-addams-family-thing-led-light-board

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

Glad you like it! I am not aware of this afterglow board you are speaking of. Would you mind sending me some pictures of it and what you had to do to make it all fit. Perhaps I can make changes to the light board so that other people with that afterglow board wouldn't have to move things around.

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers
www.pinshakers.com

Hello,

I have a customer with a TAF that just sent me this image. There is a blue wire cable going from J206/J207 on his MPU to J133/J136 on his PDB. Why on earth would someone put a direct connection with his switch matrix and lamp matrix like that? Is this part of some mod or something, maybe I am not seeing the entire picture of where that blue connector is going?

Thanks,

Rob

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Hello,

I had to create a schematic for a customer so he could create a new wire harness for his "Thing" light board. There isn't a good one in the manual so hopefully this will help anybody else who is missing their original wire harness and needs to create a new one.

Regards,

Robert

TAF Wire Harness Schematic.pdf

Good Morning,

Looks like there is a large enough demand for us to make another run of these boards. I will get ahold of our distributor "Pinball Life" and see if they would want to start carrying them.

I will post an update if they do and timeline of when they will have them in stock.

Also looking into upgrading the board so that you can choose between Warm or Cool lighting with a switch on the board, which would alleviate the need to choose what kind of lighting you want when you purchase the board. These are the LEDs we are looking to use, if anyone has a better suggestion we would be open to ideas:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/quelighting-corp/QLSP05WCWW/15848702

Best Regards,

Robert Goebel
Pinshakers LLC

HSA pinball is now Las Vegas Playfields https://www.lasvegasplayfields.com/. I believe it is under new ownership however they seem to do just as good of a job on playfields as HSA did. I recently had a MM playfield restored and clear-coated by them and it came out amazing.

Regards,

Rob

I think it all depends on the condition of your playfield. If I remember correctly I sent them a bunch of detailed photos and they were able to give me a quote before I sent them the playfield.

I believe they do EM playfields as well based on their photo gallery of past restorations.

Best Regards,

Rob