Thanks

I feel for you buddy.

My divorce cost me $300k back in 1990. This was when that was a lot of money lol.

It cost me all of my retirement too.

But what can you do?

I made changes, took some risks and rebuilt yet another small fortune. (Worked my ass off 7 days a week, 12-16 hr days for 7 years. No vacation no time off. I had to make up for lost time)

I'm a bit older and wiser now.

It will all work out if you just keep pushing forward.

I know this is shots fired but... you can’t get a new game as good as Doctor Who, especially with the modern updates like ColorDMD and Pinsound... except maybe like JJP POTC. But what game these days has a mechanism as crazy as the Time Expander??

IMHO, Doctor Who is worth a high end restore.

There is really nothing like it.

I like a quest based game.
7 doctors, strategies, multiballs, shot variety, 2 ramps? It's got it all!

To top it off, there's the giant robot 3 level time expander !!!

All new parts and careful tedious adjustments of the MPF make it a wonder.

I really like the 5smd towers I put above the repair targets.

When the transmat goes off its blinding like on the AFM mothership scoop.

The game Rocks!

I am still working on Gunstar Hero's mod. It will be the 3rd I've done.

As he said they are all 1 offs. Everything gets built by hand and aren't hard to make, but I build them out of my garage when I have the time.

I've no idea what I would even charge if I did sell them.

It basically lights the Dalek scoops when the mini pf hits the 3rd level, and turns off at all the other times. It looks pretty cool, but does require drilling 2 holes to mount the lights, and some soldering. I guess I could use alligator clips, but I personally hate them except for testing.

The mod has some disconnects so if you need to remove the subway or mini pf it can be done without desoldering.

I'd love to replicate this - do you have any photos of the under side of the MPF?

Not at the moment, or at least I don't with the mod installed. But basically I had to create and L bracket that connects under the leftmost post on the mod that has enough space to hold a micro switch and still have clearance so that it doesn't catch when the mpf goes up and down. I also had to create a bracket that holds the light strip that connects to two of the subway mount brackets. Once that was done, you need a wiring harness that connects to a gi socket. Harness goes from GI socket to a connector, connector has one lead that goes to the switch, off of a switch to another connector (other lead goes straight to the connector). Both of the leads have to have enough slack to move up and down and not rip any of the wiring apart. The last connector goes to the strip light, again with enough slack to not rip anything apart. I used the 2 connectors so everything can come apart if needed, so if the subway needs to come out, or the mpf needs to come out, it's no big deal.

That's a great explanation - so the microswitch trips and turns the lights on. Very cool! After having built the recent JJP POTC mod for the treasure chest, this is a relatively similar concept, and entirely possible. Great idea

Pretty good start! My first DW was missing that decal, I would have loved to have been able to re-print it

I have been tweaking/smoothing my game.

When 2 balls are released from the MPF it seems to me they should hit right and left flippers?

Right now I have it adjusted just so that they dont go sdtm...

I have both balls going to the left flipper for now.

What have you done to tweak the ball drop from the MPF?

As the manual says:

MiniPlayfield Ball eject instructions (resized).jpg

Thanks!

I saw that in the manual.

I'm asking about ball action.

When the balls eject from the MPF, where are they supposed to end up?

The book say they should hit a flipper. I get that.

SDTM is not good.

It's not super consistant, but both balls do go the left flipper when multiball starts.

If the ball is rejected from the lock it behaves differently.

Sometimes the right lock goes STDM but not slways.

To everyone:

How does your game basically function?

This will help me dial it in maybe lol.

I actually prefer to let both balls drain which gives a tactical advantage to driving one ball at a time from the launcher to the next few targets.

It's a popular strategy.
faz

I was thinking about that!

Pinballgoddess said due to the ball save in multiball it really doesn't matter.

However it does seem to matter if the lock rejects a ball before the center target is hit.

I dont think there is a ball save in that circumstance.

Since I have the right lock going to the left flipper now.

I'm curious if I can get the left lock going over to the right.

It may be a bit ambitious or OCD. But it might enhance the game?

However, I don't want to super bend everything out of shape to accomplish this.

I spent a good amount of time getting the SOL scoop on my AFMrLE to consistantly hit the left flipper.

I have the pinsound shaker coming (when they have one).

Meanwhile I have a couple LEDOCD and GIOCD boards.

I'm putting the ledocd in tomorrow.

Do I need to put in the giocd also?

Are there any GI dimming concerns in DW?

I haven't noticed any flickering in the backbox or GI.

It looks pretty stable.

As originally designed, the balls SHOULD drop to each flipper. This is how mine is set up, and they drop properly most of the time...

Do they criss-cross the playfield or drop straight down.

Did you follow the manual and adjust the side rails?

There doesnt seem to be much adjustment other than bending.

Did you have to warp the scoops any?

They drop straight down - mine pretty much already dropped as such right away. I did adjust the 2 little hoods over the VUKs (the scoops, I guess) a tiny bit, but I ended up adjusting them the opposite way of what I expected it would require

Good to know thanks!

MPF Ball ejects resolved!

It took me awhile to see what to adjust for the desired result.

It seems that the back planes/rear areas of the vuk scoops are entirely at play.

Not the top plane, the back..

The back plane of the scoop deflects the ball pretty much wherever you want.

Problem is. It's very difficult to adjust as it's hard to bend.

Might even take 2 wrenches in opposing directions to adjust..

I used a 6" crescent wrench tightened onto the metal up near the top of the rear angled back plane.

You have to warp the back plane at least 1/8" angle towards the flipper you want.

Then you have to straighten the top plane otherwise the ball wont even fit into the hole.

Careful bending back and forth will get you exactly where you want.

I even stripped out the rear cover support post adjusting the scoop.

It pays to hold this post while bending the scoop.

Not a problem that a couple toothpick pieces and titebond didnt rapidly fix perfectly..

After a few adjustments, the locks properly send the balls crosswise to about half way up the flippers.

Further adjustments will make the ball arrive a little higher up and be absolutely perfect, with variations in power.

I'm extremely happy with the result.

Its amazing to see the balls cross over when they drop to the flippers.

All fixed! This game ROCKS!

I LOVE THIS GAME ! ! !

Just installed LEDOCD.

OMF#G GOD!!!!!

If you installed all LEDs, Just buy it.

Dont think. Buy it.

WTF $139 for a controlled lighting system on par with any modern game?

It's a must have for all older games upgraded to LED.

15min install, incredible results!

Herg is a genious.

Did you have any issues with fly balls from the top left flipper over the right side ramp? Thanks.

So far I do not.

Pitch set at 6.6 degrees right now.
Might go to 6.7. Perfectly level horizontally.

The game plays super fast and strong (clearcoat, wax, all new mechs, all new sleeves and plungers, new flippers+coils etc.)

I replaced all springs.

I built brand new slings complete.

I replaced the wireform as mine was welded crooked at some point.

I replaced the 2 upper ramps but just cleaned and polished the subway as it was in very good condition.

The new ramps are thicker than the originals.

I bought a full set of cliffys but didn't put the kevlar on the MPF kicker holes. I didnt like the way it looked.

It can always be added later.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. I am finding that his GIOCD is just as important on almost all games. It’s pricey though so I have not installed it on every game (after ColorDMD, LEDOCD, PinSound, this adds up for a $3k game). I am super curious if it belongs in DW as I’ve found it belongs in Mb, TZ, STTNG, etc

I’m sorry, the KEVLAR?! just how fast are your balls going?

I think it’s carbon fiber, and he uses it because it’s thin and rigid and won’t bend.

yep.
it looks like it offers protection. I just didnt like the look.

My GI isnt flickering that i can see.
Herg says it wont do much on a game that isnt having any problems.

I have a couple of each setups, if I see something I dont like I will certainly install the GIOCD kit.

He’s right - it won’t fix any flickering if it’s really not there.

I didn’t have one on my MB for a long time since it wasn’t really flickering. Then on a whim, I installed it just to see. Holy crap. TONS of dimming that I never noticed before. So I’m still going to give it a shot - it’s worth trying anyway.

Other than blackout during video modes, and a variety of light shows during attract mode.

I haven't seen a lot of dimming of the GI.

Lots a stuff happening on the controlled lights, but maybe not so much in the GI.

Backbox is really stable.

I'll have to watch it more.

I installed the LEDOCD preset for my game.

Is there an archive of publicly shared csv files?

Something like what pinsound is trying but failing miserably at?

I'm looking at my pinsound files.

Any interest in stereo fields for the music and main callouts?

I can edit them pretty easy and create them in my recording studio.

I can pan the mains and center the sub a little.

And maybe thicken up some of the sounds.

Something like what David did for TH

Not really - herg had something set up for a while but it didn’t get used much. Most of the time the default settings are totally fine

Actually the defaults did look great! But some stuff was not lit.

I ran the DW preset and...WooHoo! Lol

No kidding? That might be worth mentioning to herg

He does say some strings are not set up.

We put about 20 games on DW tonight.

I couldn't detect any bad behavior of the GI.

So for now GIOCD stays in the box.

Is anyone else using the giocd on a DW?

If so, what did it correct?

Thanks for the reply. Are you referring to the leveling of the game? Is that the easy solution? Jim

put it in your TAF!

All of my games still have #47 bulbs lol!

But as I get to doing total restorations I put LEDS in.

So, definitely !

Yes, the angle that the game sits at.

Most games sit at 6.5 degrees.

Making them steeper or shallower has a great affect on gameplay.

The last thing to put in my game is the pinsound shaker.

And maybe a trough light.

I hope it comes soon, paid for it while back.
Still on backorder?

I think it will really put this game totally over the top!

Even more than I already did? lol

I have a time expander / mini playfield question. I was having issues with the time expander binding when raising, so I replaced the motor and gearbox and cleaned and rebuilt it following faz's guide.

It runs fine off of a 9 volt battery, raises and lowers fine on boot up, functions correctly in game but every time I run the mini playfield test I get faults.

This is a route game that I'm trying to get ready to go back out until I get the new lifter kit (I'm still down the list a ways), any one have any idea what to check?

It would help to say what those errors are but if you’re getting the”CW CCW” errors then reverse the motor wires.

Post a video of it in operation - including the errors

Could be bad optos, but need more info on faults

Motor is probably wired backwards.

Pull the pins in the connector and reverse them, if this is the case.

All the new motor/gearbox assemblies have the red dot on the wrong side.

This also applies to the ones for IJ and ToM. I know because I recently replaced those also.

Its really weird....

Thanks, I'll be checking the motor wiring as soon as I can get back to work on the game.

Does anybody have the right plastic ramp decals and is able to scan them?