As we all know, Iron Man did not receive the Pro/Premium/LE treatment, but what might have been? I am going to create my version of an Iron Man premium, and just for fun record the steps here. I will drive the add-ons with Total Lightshow, and am going for the following list of extras..

Tri-colour controlled GI, similar to a bunch of other Premiums,
Controlled ramp optic fibres as in Tron,
Two banks of drop targets, in the position of the current seven stand ups,
Metal Apron,
Real knocker.

I hope to get finished within the next week or so. So, here is day one..

I am going to start with the GI. First thing I need to do is decide where to put 18 new red/blue bulbs..

These switch access holes are a good candidate.

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A bayonet socket fits. Wedge sockets do not. I will be using bayonet sockets throughout as wedge sockets don’t even fit in the normal GI bulb holes.

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Opto access holes seem to always have the opto itself in the way, and are unusable for a new socket as the bulb hits the switch pcb and won’t go far enough through..

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There aren’t many of those small switch cable access holes, so I will also use the big version..
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And also drop out some factory white. Iron Man is a very well lit game, and a few whites converted to red and blue will not hamper visibility.

This position, in the target cut out, is also viable and I have used it before successfully. This time round though it is out as I am putting drop targets it.
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When choosing where to put the coloured bulbs, I just try to spread them around, and try to get even coverage. The slings will lose both whites, as the inlanes are right there.

Once I have the sockets resting in place I measure the wire, then take them all out and solder. In my final kits I use friction terminals to attach the cables, but in the dev stage I solder.

Red string..
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Blue string..
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I use an independent power source to check the wiring. Nothing is hooked up to the machine’s power yet.

All the sockets are now simply screwed in place. I drill pilot holes for new places, with a 3/32 or 2.5mm drill, and just screw into the existing holes for sockets that are replacing factory sockets.

I leave bulbs in the dropped-out sockets so I can find them easily, and also as a kind of cap so that no stray object can go in there and short things out.
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Dropped sockets can just get zip tied to the cable harness somewhere..
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Wiring just runs along like normal GI..
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All looking pretty neat..
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Red only, checking for coverage, balance, brightness etc..
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Blue..
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Red and blue..
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Red, blue, white..
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I will be controlling the white bulbs with the GI Interceptor, so I don’t need a dedicated white string like in AC/DC or Metallica. So that’s the GI done.

Next, to the ramps. There’s no point in trying to do a probably-permanent mod to the the ramps with them left on. Removing ramps is usually pretty easy, so just bite the bullet and get them out of there. IM ramps are really easy. (ST, now that’s a different story!)

First, lift the playfield and disconnect all the switch and flasher wires. All the connectors look like this..
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Back up top, first thing that needs to come out is the plastic on the back board. Undo all the top and middle screws but you can’t access the two lower ones yet.

Just take them straight out..
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You can’t get this sucker yet..
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Or this one..
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Now go around and take out all the screws holding the ramps down. Take out the screws that hold the ramp flaps in position. Each ramp will now lift easily enough to get your hand underneath and access the last two screws holding the back board plastic..
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Now just pull the plastic forward and lift it out.
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The ramps wil now lift straight out.

Now to fit the optic fibres to the ramps. I will use my own stainless steel clips of course, instead of zip ties. Take the red flashers out as a couple of clips need to go in the cutouts and hook over the edge of the ramp.

The clips all get fed on to the fibre first. The fibre then gets laid neatly around the ramp, and starting at the sharp turn at the inlane end of the ramp, the clips are simply pressed in place moving back up the ramp doing both sides.

Slide ‘em on..
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Clip in place, ensuring the fibre hugs the ramp contours..
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Done. Top and bottom view.
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The loose ends of the fibre on the left ramp slide very handily through to the other side of the playfield through an opto switch wire hole, and a drone stand up hole..
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The right ramp is a little less accommodating in terms of getting the fibre through the playfield. Best thing is to drill! I’ll get to that on Wednesday.

With the ramps off, it’s a good time to get into the drop target installation. I will be able to get good access top and bottom and get plastics out of the way.

I’ll start with the left 4-bank, as I’ve done the right bank on another machine before. This is my first look at the left bank.

Here’s the area opened up. You can see a couple of new GI bulbs in there. There will need to be a rubber installed behind the targets, and it looks like there is a convenient post already there for one end. Positioning of the other end is not yet clear.
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Underneath I just need to get everything out of the way. GI, insert lamps, stand up targets, and a couple of cable harness mounts. Just clear the area. No point in leaving anything in the way.
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I have to sit the target bank in place and make sure everything fits.

Well, the targets fit through the cutout. That’s a relief!
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With the cable harness pushed to the inside it’s a little difficult to get a good view of what’s going on.
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I’ll try the other way. That’s better. You’ll notice here that the inserts don’t line up with the assembly frame, by virtue of their diagonal layout of course. Don’t worry about that. Light still gets through and is dispersed by the diffusing inserts just fine.
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The main priority here is free movement of the targets through the cutout. Without that, you may as well stop right here.

I have an unwelcome tenant in the area. This post nut looks a little too close for comfort. The edge of the assembly sits right on it.
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Plenty of clearance for the target in the cutout on the bottom.
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The top target is binding on the playfield though.
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Something will have to give. I had this issue with a post on ST, and just took the nut off and never looked back. I would like to do better than that though. The other options are to see if I can get a different profile nut with a smaller footprint, or file a notch in the target assembly frame. I’ll decide later.

Actually, I’ve decided. I’ll just file a couple of mm off the corner of the frame. There will be no loss of structural integrity, and it will be quite tidy.

True. I am going to put that in my upcoming "Pimping out my IM Premium" thread.

Begin the daily grind..
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That's that taken care of in about ten minutes.
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Perfect. Now the drops fit through the playfield cutout with plenty of clearance.
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Mark the holes and drill with a 3mm bit. Only three of the four mounting holes line up with a place to drill the playfield. I have the same thing on another machine. Three is fine. Reuse the bigger screws that were holding the standups in place.
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Check that the reset plate moves all the targets freely and that they lock in the up position.

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Have a look around to the top of the playfield and flick each target to make sure it drops correctly. Adjust the height so they are flush with the playfield when down.
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Now there is just a big mess of wires. I need to clean this up.
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First, let's get the standups out of there. Now that I know the drops fit, we're past the point of no return. Just touch the solder joints with a soldering iron and they come off in three seconds.
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You will end up with four pairs of switch wires. Leave them loose for the moment.
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A few more factory zip ties are going to have to go so I can reroute. I'm going to split the main harness and run some of it left, and some right, around the drop bank.
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Some left, some right..
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Note the repositioned cable support. It's the one I snipped out from above the target bank.
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Insert lamps are replaced, just loosely for now as the bulbs hit the target assembly frame. There will have to be some tweaking later..
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Screw the GI sockets back in place and zip tie the harness for neatness.
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Now to hook the drop target switches into the switch matrix where the old standups were.
Take the four pairs of wires..
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And get ready to attach them to this header on the target assembly. Note the labelling of the pins. There are four switch returns, one strobe/drive and a 5V power/gnd pair.
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Here's a handy helper for the job..
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Note the labels on the terminal block. This connector can take up to five switches. We are only using four, and will use SR2-5, leaving SR1 empty.
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The four white wires are your switch returns and are just screwed into the terminal block in the same order they are hanging. And you only need one of the green ones. They are all the same wire. Choose any of the four to go into the DRV terminal.
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And tidy away the other three..
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Clip the connector onto the target assembly header.
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Boom.
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Sparky approves..

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Here is a walk around view of the finished install.

Here's something I learnt before, but then stoopidly forgot to do with the 4-bank..put the decals on before you install the assembly
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3-bank installed similarly to the 4-bank. It's much easier.
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Some wide shots of how it's ended up. There you go..what the underside of an IM Premium would look like. Pretty tidy.
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And up top..
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Now for the rubbers behind the targets.

The right side has some posts already waiting conveniently. How nice.
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Only half as lucky on the left. I'm going to have to drill!
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Somewhere around here I think.
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I can't do it..
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Sure I can.
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Fit rubbers
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Total Lightshow has access to all switches and all insert lamps, and from the behaviour thereof I deduce game state. I actually have all this already coded. Here is my previous drop target demo..

The target assemblies are now wired into the switch matrix, but they need to be powered. 5V for the target PCB and 50v for the coil.

Say hello to my little friend, the coil driver..
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This plugs into a Stern 50V step up board, one for each target bank coil.
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And will all get connected back into the machine with this harness. Again, one for each coil.
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Mount the Stern 50V boards first..
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Then I plug the coil drivers into the Stern boards..
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The coil driver needs a 50V line, a 20V line, and a trigger signal.

The 50V will come from a tap in the back box. The 20V will come from a flasher line. The trigger signal will come from the Matrix Interceptor board that drives Total Lightshow.

The harness plugs into the coil driver, then feeds the coil connector..
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I have built a piggyback connection to go into the nearest flasher plug. This 20V supply is needed by the Stern board just to tell it that it's ok to operate. The orange wire could have been a bunch shorter, but I have them all pre cut and ready to use on any machine and you can't always be guaranteed of a flasher plug nearby. When the ramps are refitted the flasher will plug into the waiting piggyback connector.
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Both banks almost fully wired..
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The 5V for the target assembly PCB is easy. It's just a 5V/GND pair that will be powered from outlets on the TLS board. One like this for each side..
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Click..
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Click..
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And here's what has to get run back to the back box when I do that hook up tomorrow. 2 x 50V, 2 x 5V, the red and blue GI strings..
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And I forgot to do the trigger signal cables. I will do them tomorrow when I do the back box wiring.