Quick question- Does GI-OCD work properly on Twilight Zone with the Rottendog replacement clock board? I read that the Lizard one has issues, and that the German Pinball one works fine, but haven't seen anything about the rottendog board, which is what I have.

And No, please don't say ditch the rottendog board and get the Ingo one!

EDIT: I have a set of boards for TZ (LED & GI OCD) and was about to install them, but read about the clock board issues and wanted to address the clock if I have to before I install the new OCD boards

Assuming the Rottendog LEDs are installed with the same polarity as the schematic shows, they will not light. Worst case, you could reverse the LEDs on the clock board.

Edit: I just wanted to mention that the Rottendog LEDs are reversed when compared to diodes in series with the lamps on the stock clock board.

Thanks for the update!

Just put in an order for two more LED OCD boards, one for Spider Man and one for Tommy. Absolute best mod around, a must have if you're going to LED a machine.

Have to do a lot more work on my Dredd and then I'll be getting a board for that as well!

I just did my TOTAN and it looks unbelievable. I have all Comet LEDs throughout...

I think for now I will install the LED OCD board only on my TZ, and look to upgrade to the Ingo board & Noflix blinker bulbs at a future date before installing the GI OCD board...

For LEDs, use pretty much any LED without non-ghosting or premium features. My favorites are:
http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/1smd5050.htm
http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/2smd-ct-ft.htm
I would recommend going through single lamp test, select a lamp, and noted which extra lamps light, if any. Do this for every lamp in the game. Usually, a pattern will develop that can be used to track down the problem.

I wanted to thank Herg. He suggested the above LEDs to solve my ghosting SM insert problem and they worked like a charm. Thanks again and sorry it took so long to report back but I don't have much time for projects with my family commitments.

Hmm. Just installed the LED and GI OCD in my BoP. Everything was LEDs when I installed it. Things were working great.

Yesterday I installed incandescents into the helmet. It worked great for about 24 hours. I noticed tonight the helmet lights not on. I tracked it to a blown fuse in F2. I replaced the fuse with the same (2A SB) and it blew almost immediately.

@herg, do you recommend I replace the fuse in F2 with a 4A SB, or should I be looking elsewhere? Why would the first fuse last a day and the new one burn out after a few seconds?

GI OCD is really designed to be used with LEDs, not incandescents. You can use some incandescent, but if you have a string full of them, you will normally end up blowing the fuse, as you have seen.

BoP is a special case since the helmet lights are not directly controlled by the GI circuits. They get power from GI, but they have an extra level of control in between. Your best option, technically, is to move that one string back to the stock power driver board. This would require some custom cabling, though.

You can probably get away with increasing that fuse value as long as your total current draw (from all 5 strings) is not too high. The string drivers can handle much more than 2A, but the main power input is a bottleneck. There is a 2A fuse on each string, and 10A fuse on the main input. DO NOT increase the value of F1, the 10A one.

Oh, a couple of items to note:

1. Spooky boards arrived yesterday, and they're now available for purchase.
http://ledocd.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=25

2. I'm down to 9 GIzmo boards, and I don't plan on restocking them any time soon. If you want one, these or the few that resellers have are the last that will be available for quite a while.

Herg will the OCD board work with the wood bb version of Met?

It works with all versions of Met Pro, including LED. It will not work with any Premium or LE.

Of course, the decision to put incandescents in there was based on earlier posts where you indicated the helmet lights weren't controlled directly the same way, so there would be no way to dim/anti-ghost those lights.

This is what I want to do. I'm up for the challenge. Can you give me some direction on how to achieve this?

Basically, you would have to build a splitter for the power input so that the transformer could be connected to the GI OCD and the power driver board at the same time. Then, you would build another splitter that would let you connect the helmet GI string to the power driver output while leaving the rest of the strings connected to the GI OCD outputs.

Here is a post where Patofnaud did a very similar mod to a STTNG, GI OCD, and KBOP mod.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-mixing-gi-ocd-and-kbop-mods-issue

If you need more guidance, I will have to wait until I have more time to write more complete instructions.

FWIW... Metallica seems to do very well without any OCD Board. No ghosting and reasonable lighting effects. I have standard cointakers in and didn't need an OCD to get satisfactory results. Of course you don't have the customization.. but that game I'd call it a marginal improvement. LOTR on the other hand... mandatory

Newer versions of Metallica software have an option to use "LED lighting effects" or some similar wording. If you select that option, it will avoid using effects that cause LEDs to react poorly. This is now the default setting, so unless you specifically set it to "incandescent effects", it will limit the effects to those that work well.

I think I got it. Does it make sense to reconnect all the lines (except the ground) or just a few? Trying to be as minimalist as possible. I suppose re-using the existing 9 wire cable is pretty clean anyway, since it remains in the machine where it was disconnected.

Before I start down this project rat hole, I'm going to try a 4amp fuse and see if it's enough.

I would connect all of them (except the ground). Only 2 wires would be used in this case, but the connectors are still the same regardless of whether you connect the wires or not. If you don't connect the wires, then someone tries to use them later, it could confuse them and waste a lot of time. ...and yes, I would reuse the existing cable. All you would need is a splitter than uses that square molex connector in the bottom of the cabinet.

Sure, if the 4A fuse gets you to where you want, it would be much easier. Be aware that that 10A SB on the input is not a commonly available fuse. You'll likely have to order it from somewhere like Mouser if you blow it.

I hate to ask such a noob question, but is there a simple way I can measure the draw on that fuse before I do this?

Replace the fuse with your DMM. Current has to flow through the meter so just touching it at the ends won't work.

TimeBandit is correct. You have to set the DMM to current, insert the DMM probes into the correct holes on the DMM, remove the fuse, and touch the probes to each of the two fuse holder contacts. It is AC current at F1, DC current (PWM'd) through F2-F6.

I got a consistent reading of 3.6 amps, and it dropped as the control cycle on the helmet changed, but nothing higher. Does this imply we can do a 4amp fuse and we're good, or is 3.6 amps on F2 going to push the whole thing over the edge?

What do the other strings (F3-F6) measure? 3.6A is pretty high for one string, but should not cause any problems with the driver for that string. Where you could run into trouble is if the total of all strings pulls more than the bridge can handle. It's difficult to set a fixed limit since the main cause of failure would be overheating, and that depends on ambient temperature, airflow, etc.

I feel pretty comfortable with 8A in any environment. 10A, I have tested over short periods in my AC'd basement, but I didn't not expect many people to pushing it that high for a long period of time.

Ok, I did a much more thorough check and also made sure I had my numbering right.

The fuse that is blowing isn't fuse F2, it's F3. I realize now F2 is at the top and F6 is on the bottom, with F1 beneath that.

F2: .65 amps
F3: 3.8amps on startup, 3.65 nominal
F4: .5 amps
F5: .65 amps
F6: .6 amps

What do you think?

It's probably OK. I would like to know how hot the bridge and driver transistors are getting, if I was doing it. Worst case, if you blow a transistor, we can fix it.

I'll do my best to measure that for you. Understand that I'd use LEDs in the helmet but the ghosting problems are pretty ugly. Also the flicker is right in your face, and pretty seizure inducing. I wish there were some other way!

Also, do you have a part number on that 10A fuse? I want to make sure I order a few just in case.

Here's information on all the fuses for our products:
http://ledocd.com/fuselist.html

Reasonable work-around, probably eliminates most fading effects.

Success. I've replaced F3 with a 4A SB fuse. So far, so good. I'll measure heat as you suggest. Here is a video of your products at work:

Finally installed an LEDOCD into my WH2O. I can't get the software to run on my Windows 10 laptop. It fails to load the FTDI drivers. I Google'd around how to install them but it's a bit over my head.

Has anyone used the LEDOCD software on a Windows10 machine?

Sorry to hear that, I don't have 10.

Yes, I have myself, as well as others. Have you connected the board to the PC and powered it? The drivers don't like to install correctly if the PC hasn't seen the FTDI part before.

Yes. I have the USB connected to the board and to the PC. Then I power up the pinball machine. I can see the TX RX leds on the board flashing but it doesn't see the drivers.

Try a different USB port. Do not use a USB3.0 port, as that has issues sometimes.

There are only two on my laptop. I tried them both. Same issue for both. FYI... This is the same laptop I used with the Sys11 LEDOCD board, but it has since been upgraded to Windows 10.

Try running the driver installer as Administrator? Right-click on the installer, then select "Run as Administrator".

When I right-click on the LEDOCD application and run as administrator I get the same error;

"Attemping to load FTD2XX.DLL from:
C:\Users\me\Desktop\LedOcd"

then...

"Failed to load FTD2XX.DLL. Are the FTDI drivers installed?"

Run the driver installer, not the LED OCD app, as Administrator.

There isn't a driver installer included in the software download. Within the zip file are the following;

data
settings
FTD2XX_NET.dll
LedOcd

If I right-click on the .dll there is no Run... option.

I should also mention I'm under the Device Manager and looking through the USB controllers but I don't see it listed. It's not listed under the Ports section either.

The driver is a separate installer linked from the website.

http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/CDM/CDM%20v2.12.00%20WHQL%20Certified.exe

I get a warning when I try to execute this, "Attempted execution of locally-detected malware". I'm on my work laptop and I'm sure it's just being overly cautious. I wish I had the option of running this on my MacBook, or my Android tablet.

I can try my wife's work laptop next.

[EDIT] Nope. Neither computer likes the .exe because of the dp-chooser.exe

What do I do now?

[EDIT2] Got it! I read through your troubleshooting guide. Your guide suggested a shorter USB cable. I had been using a shorter 3' one from my PS3 but it still wasn't working. I just happen to have another USB cable that's less than a foot long. I use it for an external HDD. I connected this one up and finally the drivers installed automatically!

Thank you for your help on this everyone, especially Herg!

I'm glad you got it.

I'm not sure why the PS3 cable didn't work. 3 ft is not too long, by any means. I was talking about something like 15 ft. The ones I ship with kit are 6 ft, and I've never had a problem with those.

Yeah, I don't know why it didn't work either. After the driver installed I switched back to the 3 ft cable and everything was fine. I'm glad because I thought I was going to have to hold the laptop in mid-air as I made changes.

FYI... I noticed a few errors in the White Water flat file. I'll send you an updated one.

Just got the LEDOCD installed in my World Poker Tour and am having a strange issue. Installed Comet LEDs throughout the machine. It works great except for some ghosting issues. Strangely, these appear to be lamps all in column 1 and row 1 in the matrix. I went into the software and set up a profile of all zeros and set this profile for lamps in the first row. I expected that the lamps would never light, but they come on to about 10% brightness. Any ideas?

Since you have the software working, I would suggest trying manual mode. When you first click it, all the lamps should go off. If not, the problem is on the output side (board transistors, lamp wiring, bad bulb, etc.).

If they do go off, try turning on lamps one at a time. If that works, the problem is probably on the input side. I have seen very few issues on the inputs, though.

Did you change the bulbs at the same time you added the OCD? Have you tried connecting the game's cables back to the driver board, bypassing the OCD to see if the problem still exists?

After a bit more thought, it seems less likely to be a board issue, and more likely to be wiring or bulb related. Since it is all of row 1 and all of column 1, it is not confined to a single row or column. That makes it very unlikely to be a transistor at fault. I would look closely at the lamp at the intersection of those two.

Bingo! That lamp is the start button. When I remove the LED everything functions correctly. It definitely looks like some suspect wiring on that lamp, but I reversed the leads as well as resoldered and no change. I also tried a regular 555 temporarily with no difference. Not sure what the reason is, but that's definitely the cause. Thanks for the quick reply!

Is the diode there and installed the right direction?

I love this product! I don't know why I waited so long to install it. Order incoming for the WPC89 GI board!