Ok, thanks for letting me know. I just taped it closed, seems an easy remedy.

Yep. I’ve owned 2, and they both had the switch removed and the wires soldered together. And i have almost had my fingers chopped off by the mini playfield TWICE so I actually think it’s a good thing to have

I agree.
The switch has to be installed and working.

The MPF is way strong and powerful. It will ultimately hurt someone.

It needs the safety switch.

I simply decorated mine by blacking it out and putting a black sleeve on the wire.

Its barely noticable now.

Did you go with black mirror or chrome blades?

I’m curious about this too. I bought some black blades intending to put them on my POTC, but it turned out to already have them, so I am going to install to DW

I went with chrome. I took advantage of the BF 25% off sale and also got a set for my Shadow. I don’t have LEDs in the game yet so it doesn’t show the full effect. Still like it better than the damaged black sides.

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Will have to figure out how to attach it with the mirrorblades installed. Not sure if they will get easily damaged if I try to screw in the switch? If others have done it without any problems, please let me know. Thanks.

Or maybe power down the machine when working on it?

Anyone recommend any alternative translites? I have the one below because it does gripe me that some of the images are of nu-who(2006+) rather than classic who?

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ebay.com link: Doctor Who Pinball Alternate Translite 3 VERSIONS TO CHOOSE FROM

the first one in this listing is the one I have. Matches up pretty well with the light show (probably not perfect) but it looks REALLY nice

Too bad they charge so much. I had a custom one made recently for $29 US. This one is really nice.

The thing I don't like about the alternative translites is they don't make sense with the flasher configuration.

I don’t know, given that originals cost what, $200 USD, and I -hate- the original, I didn’t mind this.

I really wish someone would make a new version of the original Bally head one.

That particular EBay translite matches best than any of the alternative ones I’ve seen. The lamps light under the Daleks, Davros, flash under the Tardis, the DW logo, the Dalek lasers. It’s pretty well done

Put in new LM339 chips on Opto Board, now mini play field is always in raised position. When in test mode, it will raise then error and it stops. So bizarre
Prior to rework, MPF was level, went up and down, no errors. Here is video

Do the optos under the big cam on the mpf work properly?

Sounds like cam opto problem.

If there is a light leak you might need washers under them or broken wire or trace on opto board???

If you found a bad lm339, what was the cause of its failure?

Short?
Always on?
Power surge?

Just thinkin' ...

I can't say what caused the failure, just tested the chips and 2 of the 3 were bad. Replaced chips, diodes and caps on the board. Strange now that MPF can't find it's home position now. I will be doing a deeper dive tomorrow, maybe replace some optos just for good measure.

The cam opto controls the home position.

I had the exact situation when i found that the opto could not be interrupted.

If the opto cant recieve, the same thing will occur.

See if it works by blocking it with a piece of paper.

See if the transmitter light shows on a cell camera etc.

Shouldn't be too bad to track down, hopefully.

Yep, Faz just posted a helpful tip, so changing the opto on the cam. Did not realize DMD shows the straight line beam if cam opto is at home, mine is not showing that. Good catch by Faz

Follow up: replaced.cam opto, no change. All voltages are correct. Upon further look at opto oard under microscope, I see corrosion, so this board requires trace repair, so I will just buy a new board. No time to fix this board.

Thats pretty much what i did.

30 year old boards for the optos and motor controller?

Its the most important part of the game.

Lol.

So far the homepin 10 opto board is solid with about 600 plays on it. There are no negative reviews about it, so im assuming it just works.

I like the power LED and socketed chips as well as beefier components. It should hold up well enough.

Pindorabox also has them.
Possibly better quality, but a little longer to ship.

I also recommend replacing the motor controller while you at it.

Freshening up those boards pays big time down the road if you're a player like me.

Stability is what i look for.

I want the game ready to play at all times.

Yes, I had so many open connections when I was troubleshooting, it just angered me so I said WTH am I doing, spend the money on new boards.

My motor boards is rock solid, but I want the new one developed by @darkmatter who helped with the new lifter kit.

This game is so fun when everything works, so I will just plug along on my T2 restoration

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That PF looks great!
Are going to clear coat it?

I would...its worth the $200 investment.

No, it is not my game and the owner did not want to against my strong advice to clear it. So, I will just put it back together well cleaned and waxed.

Holy hell.

I know, right.

The grain showing in the pic scares me.

But wtf? People do crazy things..

I know, it is only a little more money to preserve a really nice playfield that had ugly yellow mylar that I carefully removed.

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I mean, I completely agree. It's protect it ow, or end up requiring the purchase of a repro (if they're even available) in the future..!

800 new posts since i last checked and still no new vendor for new playfields? god damn

Yep, gotta love the BBC

Anyone know when the "game_over_match_music" music track plays on Doctor Who? I noticed the tracks I added on Pinsound for this music folder never play. Thanks.

It -should- play when you drain your last ball and the Tardis console is going up and down changing the numbers for your match. Some of the folders may be mis-marked, I don’t think PinSound has ever updated the directory structure in this game, so it may not be right

Of course after installing the mirrorblades and lifting the playfield multiple times, I now am getting the following errors:

- Check Switch 61 Left Jet
- Examine Left Jet Bumber Sw

Game appears to play ok with no obvious issues. Any ideas on what specifically to check? Thanks for the help!

Ok, thanks. I don't think my Tardis goes up and down? Maybe it is turned off with the options somehow? Not sure if that would impact the Pinsound music if the option is turned off. Just noticed these tracks are never played. Thanks for the reply.

Is the match feature turned off in the settings?

Often this is the case when a game is set to free play.

Not the Tardis on the playfield - It's on the DMD

see here:

Ok, thanks. Must be an issue with Pinsound and not ever playing this folder. Thanks for clarifying.

Dr Who was my first repair of the year. My son and his friends were playing last night but the switch in the trough was messed up. Somehow it was bent up higher than it should have. Tried to bend it back down but the wire snapped. Luckily I had one spare and swapped it out right after midnight. Running well again.

For the new year I need to pull out the mini playfield to clean it, check all the optos, and install the light baffle on them that I printed off thingiverse.

In my experience so far,

The light baffle is less important than the rigidity of the opto carrier.

Further more, having the opto boards flat on the carrier, without washers or spacers, yields the best results.

The light baffles actually end up being supports that keep the carrier from crushing and distorting when assembled onto the MPF.

In my case there was more reflection off of the paper light shroud than sideways bleed.

Semi-flat black paper solved this.

Made some progress on our Doctor Who yesterday. I ended up putting a rottendog MPU in. I will send the original (and the second "untested" one I bought) for repair. Each had a bit of corrosion. Once I put in the rottendog board, it fired up, credits were correct, no switch errors, but then the coils all went weak, flippers dead. Started chasing fuses all over the place. I had a ribbon cable not seated properly. Now all is well as far as functionality. Game flips, MPF does its thing during the game, but I have a couple of errors related to it in the test report. I will dig more into it over the next few weeks and then get it cleaned up with new led bulbs, rubbers, etc. I also put in another DMD as the original had a couple of columns and rows out.

This one is working perfectly with the original light-show > https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/doctor-who-owners-clubtime-lords-welcome?tu=baronrouge#op

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Installed new Opto interface board - No change

Next step - check all grounds.

ordering new Pindora 5 led opto carrier boards. Can't get alignment consistent.

Any DW owners have a Jackbot? Feel like the games are similar?

Did you check the 12 pin opto connector for loose or corroded wires/contacts?

The pindora boards were easier to align for me.

Much, much better than the gulf stream boards.

2 very minor tweaks and they were perfect.

I aligned them as straight as i could before installing them in the swinks carrier.

There is the tiniest bit of adjustment from the screw holes. I pushed the transmitter board left and the receiver to the right before tightening the mounting screws.

I used the interrupters as a guide to get the leds as centered as possible.

Gulf stream boards are garbage in my opinion.

I could never get them consistant.

Great plaines modular might also be good, but i didnt get any of those yet.

The leds seem brighter.

So bright that i had to use black paper for the shroud.

Reflection was a small issue.

I have a Pinbot and locking the two balls is similar. Still totally different games.

I have the great lake modular opto interface board and it has built in diagnostics that point you in the errors direction, in my case Ground issue, which was U20 on the MPU. All connectors were re pinned.

Can someone lend me a hand? I'm not getting any GI on the lower half of the backbox. Are there 2 or 3 GI strings up there? and does anyone know which Triacs run them? At a loss right now

Read this link, then read the Pinwiki info on GI lamps

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/doctor-who-general-illumination-memo#post-1281347

Exactly what I needed! Thank you!

Opto carrier report :

28 days in, 400 plays.

Its perfect.
Zero defects, zero mushroom target errors. Zero phantom switch closures.

The pindorabox opto boards and the Swinks carrier were the definitive fix for me.

My game is ROCK SOLID !

Still plays like a dream.

Thanks Jady!