i thought someone was going to 3D print the Dalek topper, or at least the top dome and eye stalk. I have a bottom half that I would like to make whole. The other option is to make it into a Emperor Dalek, like in the Video. So maybe a round ball, with a blue triangle for an eye. Painted white and gold? If I got real creative, I could have a servo pop open the top half of the ball to reveal a Davros figure. Just random thoughts on a rainy Sunday nite.

The doctor is in!

New to the club.

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Junk. I’ll come by and steal parts off of it later!

Congrats. This will be one of my all time favorites games. Everyone has "that one game" that just clicks with you, and mine is Doctor Who. Cannot get enough of this machine. I hope you feel the same. Shoot those looping ramps!

It’s definitely a great game, really enjoying it so far.

First thing I will have to address is the ball hop coming down the inlanes… it’s driving me crazy. I reached out to Cliffy already for his “no hop inlane ball guides” so I’m hoping that will fix it.

Thought I would share some progress on fixing up my Dr. Who. So far I've:
- Removed all the mylar from the playfield & miniplayfield, and installed a playfield protector. This of course involved removing pretty much everything from the top of the playfield, so a good chance to clean everything up and inspect for damage.
- Replaced the damaged Dalek slingshot plastics, and added plastic protectors.
- Replaced the old Tardis with the USB tardis model found earlier in this thread (awesome suggestion!)
- Replaced the translite art with the version from BaronRouge
- Replaced all the rubbers with Titans.
- Replaced all the old incandescent bulbs with LEDs. Mostly Comet sunlights, with a smattering of colored ones where I thought they'd be nice.
- Motorized the Dalek topper with the kit from Matt's Basement Arcade.
- Added a ColorDMD. The old DMD was failing (looks like the power board actually), but I was always gonna go ColorDMD anyway.
- Repaired the missing board from the back of the cabinet to prevent airballs sailing over the back and falling down into the cabinet.
- Added Cliffy's everywhere, which was particularly nice replacing the old broken flap on the mini-playfield that was messing up play.
- Repaired a lot of messed up wiring in the mini-playfield. Seems to all be working now.

Many thanks for the suggestions and help here, particularly Tophervette for help with the mini-playfield wiring. I think I have everything working now except for one insert light I haven't figured out yet.

Still things I'm gonna be adding, like LEDOCD boards when they're available again, Pinsound, and a shaker. Then I have to decide what I want to do about the cabinet....

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Wow looks fantastic! Great job.

Where did you get those plastics that go over the ramps?

Bacondaddy impressive job bringing the old girl back to life with fixes and upgrades. I see you have several scars that most of had on our machines. The right side inner wall that gets gouged when you raise and lower Playfield. Trim the piece that sticks out causing that. Second look at the metal dowels that the PF rotates on and see if they are not loose or damaged. Easy replacement from Marcos. On the inside of the MPF surround, the wobbling of the MPF going up and down causes those. You can get new decals for those, but it will not fix the issue or getting scratched again. You could try bending it out slightly where the scratches are. The ultimate fix is getting the ULF smooth lifter kit. Long wait time unfortunately when you get on the list. The cabinet issue has several options. If the wood is sound and never got wet or dropped and is not delaminating, you can get a set of decals to replace ($250). Be prepared to spend a lot messy time prepping the cabinet (decal melting, scraping, sanding, sanding, priming, sanding, painting, re-decaling). The other option is to buy a new cabinet (very expensive option, I might point out (4x cost $1000). I have done both now. Labor wise, I appreciated the new cabinet approach.

Thoughts on the mirrored backglass? Do you get much reflection on the playfield glass? Anyone else have the mirrored backglass and thoughts in value? Thanks for the help!

I do not have a mirrored backglass, but they look great! I bought a Voodoo anti-reflection PF glass at Allentown and it is fantastic. No reflection from lights in BG. Sometimes, I walk by and wonder if I left the glass off. It is that clear.

I hate hop. My cyclone does it badly. No idea cliffy made something to stop it. I'll have to check that out!

I read that someone picked up doing a PIN2DMD colorization for Dr Who. If it succeeds we may have the option of using the PIN2DMD to upgrade Dr who

https://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/6621-doctor-who-wip/

Thanks! I got those yellow plastics from Playfield Protectors: https://www.playfield-protectors.com/
But when I search for them now I only see the clear version. You might try contacting them to see when the colored sets will be available again?

Yeah, I'll be looking at what to do with the cabinet down the line a bit. I'm uncertain -- I'm OK with woodworking so I'm tempted to try building another one myself, but I'm reluctant to bite off the whole transplant procedure. I've looked up those cabinet decals from a few sites, but is it doable to prep the existing cabinet and put those on without removing everything anyway?

I'm actually on the list for ULF's smooth lifter kit, but I'm not sure how far out I am from getting that. One thing that's obvious now that I have my machine put back together is that the mini-playfield is leaning slightly to the right, placing the lip slightly below the main playfield on that side. This is probably what broke the old metal flap on that side in the first place, and now that I've switched to the Cliffy's this is a point where the ball can get hung up. I'll fix this for sure once I get ULF's kit, but I may have to figure something out in the meantime to level it up a bit better.

$45 Euro shipping to Canada/US for $12 part. Yikes!

So I've had a slight issue that bothers me intermittently, and figured I'd ask if anyone's gotten that.

Sometimes my time expander goes up when both balls are locked, and it cant find where it needs to be. Doesnt happen often but there are moments when it needs to go up and down. Before it sees it. It is very smooth, it just doesn't see it occasionally.

Because it is infrequent, it makes it a bear to diagnose, but I DO want it to be fixed. Anyone have any ideas?

Solution found! Keep reading or go to page 113 to see the solution was a bad bi-directional power board!

Yeah i'm getting $45 for shipping to the US too... thats crazy.

Sounds like dirty optos. Maybe you can clean them without removing the entire mechanism.

I have cleaned them. Unsure what else to do. Maybe replace them??

Replace them and check the wires all the way to the opto board.

Maybe rebuild or replace the opto board.

I replaced my opto board due to flakiness. 30 yer old crap is no good to me....

So more on my time expander issue. I'm not sure it is an opto. Sometimes when the time expander goes up, the game has to think about it. When it decided to actually make it go up, it loses where it should go. If the time expander goes up right away, it's fine.

Also, while in multiball, I've noticed it goes to that phase where davros talks shit to you, and you must being his force filed down to keep going, but my game goes to that for just about a second before it thinks I'm read to bring it back up. This happens every time. Never does it go into the "bring down the force field" mode without it quickly bypassing it.

Does this make ANY sense to anyone? Is it possible some other switch is firing, thus confusing the game?

The cam optos and opto board control the MPF height and locations.

How does it do in test?

The lock optos tell it when to raise initially.

The mushroom optos tell it when to move up.

First of all, thanks so much for your continued assistance.

So in the test it is responsive as heck. Part of me is wondering, could this be a software thing? Sometimes it just seems haunted. Like every 5 starts of multiball it has to sorta think about if it should go or not. I've had it start to go.... pause super briefly, then go. And when it does this, you hear the motor go, stop, and go. I've had dw where you hesr the motor but doesnt move. That's not what's happening here. The game is second guessing if it should turn it on at all. Usually when it does that is when it doesnt initially stop at the white target force field bank. When that happens, it will catch it on the downswing, but overshoot it ever so slightly. It works, but is clunky.

But like I said, the odd thing is how the game basically refuses to go into the "davros force field" mode after you get a few jackpots under your belt. It does it for maybe a second before it rewards me the Davros wave.

Balls all registering good in the trough? Could be a long shot but it can cause crazy issues.

I like where your head is at. I wonder if the game gets a glimpse of a ball being in the trough while, in actuality, they're locked away... if that makes it go "uhhhh... wait a sec." I dont hate it. Thanks, I'll check. If anyone else has ideas I'm desperate

I had to replace a flaky trough switch on my game too. Really made it do some funny things when the old one was acting up.

That doesnt seem to be it, sadly

The game, sometimes, takes up to two seconds before it decides to make the time expander motor to turn on. I really don't know what this could be. I'm running the L2 rom. I assume that's the newest one? Kinda getting ready to give up. It works, but randomly fails now and then. Like no power is getting to the motor in game (in test it goes right away, every single time).

Don’t give up! I really doubt it is a software issue.

Could be a bad/loose crimp on a connector from the MPF causing weak signal.

Its possible that a crimped wire is just hanging by a thread or a wire on the motor.

Most are in pretty bad shape, they take a beating.

It probably time to cut them all off and re-pin them all at this point.

I changed them all on my game, both sides.

Bad ground/return wires will cause anemic power problems.

Anyone who restores one of these games finds TONS of bad wire throughout.

The wires on my MPF were crispy as hell and broke when trying to flex them.

Its also possible that the motor and gearbox is slow running due to age and dried grease.

If you havent already, I would get a new one. 30 years is a long time.

When I replaced mine, the old one ran twice as slow as the new one when testing on a 10 volt power supply.

Ive experienced bad motors that just sort of grind/make noise and go almost nowhere. I've had to replace one in the past. It seems like, one of every 5 times the multiball starts, that it "has to think about if it should turn on."

In test, the motor is badass 100% of the time. When it does start either away, multiball is perfect. I think I'm looking for something else that is telling the game "hey, balls aren't in the lock yet," or "a ball must be somewhere else, don't activate the time expander yet. I cannot think of any other solution.

I almost wish it happened more consistently, as maybe I'd be able to find it faster. Most people wouldn't even complain about it or notice (guy I bought it from probably had it happen and had no idea. Had a glaring fault to it where balls flew into the game and didnt mention that, so I bet he sure as shit didnt notice this either.)

Sounds like a weak wire or connection.

Can you explain why you think this? In test it works every. Single. Time. The hold up is only at the beginning of multiball and never ever during any other time ever. You can go up and down without a hitch. No pausing. Just random starts. Seems too coincidental.

Vibration in the game causes intermittant contact pehaps.

I have had that in my MPF. I still have a lock light that comes on and off, when MPF goes up and down. I am thinking I have a bad intermittent lamp socket.

Well, shit news:

I soldered the connections on the motor just to make sure they were secure, and now my counter clockwise doesnt work... at all.

I'm unsure what to do, now. :/

Edit: aaaaaand now it works again. Could this be a flakey bi directional motor board taking a shit on me? Isnt that what controls this? Wouldn't be something in the power driver board, would it?

Yeah, I replaced mine as well as the opto board just for reliability.

Bad CCW can be the opto board, the motor board or connector J206 at the MPU board being loose.

I tested my bad opto board that was giving me bad CCW against my new homepin board.

The new board solved it, although you can rebuild the board if its not all burned up as most of them are...

When you say bad opto board, of which board (and where) do you speak?

Either solder the base down on the socket or just replace it with a new one.

New sockets last forever. I generally just replace them all.

10 opto board a-15430
Its under the playfield near the middle. All the optos are plugged into it via the connectors.

This ones the lowest price:

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1078-pinballreplacementparts/05123-wpc-10-opto-board-a-15430-replacement

They are $99 at pinball life and marco

At the time, I bought the homepin one from marco it has worked perfectly for me.

I also replaced the bi-directional motor board, just for reliability.

It really takes a beating especially when the MPF stalls due to a stuck ball.

https://www.pinballlife.com/search.html?Search=A-15680

Or ...

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It's not original in circuit design but has reduced power dissipation (those big blue 2W resistors are gone), LED indicators and is much more easily serviced as there are discrete transistors versus a comparator.

I didnt know you were making those!

You do such beautiful work! It looks amazing!

Getting rid of the IC's is genius. Plus all the pretty lights!

I am with @pinballreno, it usually is the most obvious, loose wire/worn crimps and connectors. A little work on the connectors saves headaches down the road. Ask us how we know, lol

Again, plugging/unplugging connectors will weaken these old plugs. These wires are brittle. I know the solder points are on the motor, but the molex connectors seems suspect to me. I chased issues on my DW, and finally it was my male/female crimp connectors, so I just redid all of them.

That could be my next computer board project!

But now the motor will not and cannot go counter clockwise. I'm unsure what wire this could possibly be?

Wired backwards?

But if i wire it reverse, then would'nt clockwise then stop working instead? If it were wired backwards, why did it work this whole time? :/

I'm awaiting a new bi directional board. If that doesn't work, and it seems from everyone here that it may not.... I'll be officially stuck.

I replaced both boards as they both had problems after 30 years of service.

They take a lot of abuse.

I also replaced every single opto.

I also replaced the motor and gearbox while i can get them.

But then again i did an over the top resto.

My game is flawless after 1000's of plays, as it should be.

I hate marginal, patched together games that i intend to keep.

I enjoy them more if they are close to perfect.

Pinballgoddess loves her brand new game.

She plays it all the time.

Are these for sale?
How much?

Shotgunning boards is usually a bad idea.

Games will work for long periods of time even when connectors are suspect. They never lay the same way twice, may never heat up,get dirt in them, who knows the answer but when they fail, they fail.