it doesnt appear to bind, there i just allot of play with the inner bracket on the rollers. I sat and watched it with the wall mount power, and it moves pretty freely.. Thats why I wondered if I reversed one set of rollers to the shorter end it wouldnt have the rocking..
But I have to pull it for the error so will keep looking

Too much side to side play?

I dont have much at all.

Could be rollers are wrong or worn out?

My rollers are a close fit. But i replaced them. The originals were sloppy.

Also it sits a little tilted At the first level. Maybe way too much slop in the frame.

The left musroom targets are really low.

When I had the rollers all the other direction, there was almost no leaning or rocking..but it would always end up binding... badly and lockup..
Now it has no binding but the leaning tower of pisa effect.

Sounds like indeed the rollers are wrong.

If it binds a lot the outer frame might be too narrow at the end.

The center brace controls this as well as some squaring adjustment.

I had a twisted parallelogram problem for awhile.

The whole thing is a really close fit.

When you get it mostly square, tiny adjustments are the difference between binding and smoothness.

Do you have a spare CPU board to swap out?

Is the whole column out?

If its only the mushroom targets, and you have a new 10 opto board, it can only be:

IDC connector wired wrong.

Bad/broken wire in tbe main harness or the opto carrier harness.

Bad connector/pins on either side of the opto carrier harness or the main harness.

Bad/cracked pins on the Cpu board.

Connector plugged in wrong or wrong socket on the CPU board.

Maybe swap the CPU board again as a test? This would also replace the asic and verify cpu board pins temporarily.

The only common wires are power and ground if its completely dead.

Power is easy to check.

Did you try jumpering the ground directly?

I post this to maybe help another. I had been gettin an Error in the mini pf test during the raising and lowering.
I switched out the cap on the motor board and now the error is gone. Still
Need to fix the leaning but no error is
An improvement.

I swapped out my motor controller board for the same issue. I forgot about this.

Good to know it was just a cap.

Anyone know where I can get a new speaker/DMD display cover? Pinball Center has one here: https://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts-by-game/doctor-who/4192/display-cover-for-doctor-who?c=2810 but they don't ship to the U.S.

Anyone know what test menu turns on the dalek topper lights?

They are a part of the GI lighting and go on immediately upon power on.

See my posts about my tribulations getting it to work.

Only took 4 days lol.

I'm probably not the only one with mini playfield issues (didn't read all 75 pages of this thread). But was hoping someone could tell me what I would need to do to fix the mini playfield so it stops giving all these errors upon start up of the machine and during test mode of the mini playfield. Here is a video:

The startup machine test is near the end of the video...

Note: I just bought this machine, it's very dirty, and i'm in the process of cleaning everything.

P.S. Where can I find new stickers for this thing!? A lot of them are pealing off and would like to replace them with new ones.

So, first you want to start your own thread. This thread is way overstuffed.

Reset all those errors so you know exactly what you're dealing with. While in test mode hit the "credit" button (not launch) and the counters should go to zero.
It does not look like the motor wiring errors are still happening, and I'm guessing it's got all the balls in the game.
Run a full set of tests. Everything. Switch tests with a ball, not your finger. Make sure you know everything NOT working. It will influence the fix approach.

Fix the optos behind the mushroom targets. Those are definitely having issues. Do you have a copy of my whitepaper on removing the MPF?

faz

Ok, I'll move it over to a new thread. Yes, I do have your whitepaper (Fazio 1.2 document on pinball supernova). Read it start to finish last night. By fixing the opto's you mean just clean them with a Q-Tip and 91% alcohol on both IR receiver and transmitter? Or buy new IR / Receiver boards (if I can even find them). FYI, I had balls removed from moving which is why that error was showing. I was wondering how to reset the error counters, thanks for that info.

Feel free to respond over here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/doctor-who-mini-playfield-testing-issue#post-5515300

Looks like your new thread is doing well. I mean FIX the optos any way possible. Check the emitters to make sure they work, check the receivers, check the opto carrier, reflow solder, replace boards, repair connector. There's a lot to try. But under all circumstances get the optos under the opto board inspected, and resolved first.

I'll go over to your other thread to see the goodies they got for you
faz

I decided to bite the bullet and remove the old, dirty and bubbly mylar from my Doctor Who. It took a lot of time and effort since the mylar was covering the ENTIRE playfield but I'm so glad I did it. The playfield underneath is immaculate!

Before:

IMG_0784 (resized).jpeg

IMG_0785 (resized).jpeg

After:

IMG_0812 (resized).jpeg

IMG_0807 (resized).jpeg

IMG_0811 (resized).jpeg

IMG_0814 (resized).jpeg

That looks great!

Doctor who has factory clearcoat.

You should be fine with a couple coats of pure canauba was like blitz 1000 grand or p21s silver.

Jakers Where did you purchase those plastic post protectors I see on your time expander? I don't see anything protecting your daleks by the slingshots. I think those ones are also commonly broken (mine were when I got the machine). My mylar is starting to look a bit like that. I'm hoping to tear it down and clean it and hope it comes back to life.

Found a major part for my. Major project.

20200314_143053 (resized).jpg

Wow, that looks worse than mine was!

I didnt think it was possible lol.

I ended up salvaging the outer silver frame, inner force field guides, locks brackets and scoops and mushroom targets.

All else was ruined.
Fun project.

Those are just clear plastic washers. I cut a little bit off one side to allow them to fit the time expander cover. I had to replace my sling plastics as well. They also have plastic washers on them but they're hard to see in that picture.

Oh, and for the dimple theorists out there....fresh dimples on a virgin 1992 Diamond Plate playfield.

504CBCEF-9885-47FE-92AA-45C9B6F6CB82 (resized).jpeg

Jakers I posted a new post regarding the cliffy install. While I wait for the cliffy's to arrive (which is why I haven't torn down the playfield yet) I was wondering if you could tell me what modifications you had to do to make sure that the time expander didn't get stuck on the playfield when it was going down.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cliffy-installs-on-a-doctor-who-time-expander

In the above post it really doesn't look like there is much clearance to install cliffys on both the mini playfield and the playfield itself (which is what I want to do).

Thoughts?

Now to clean her up
20200316_190207 (resized).jpg20200316_190213 (resized).jpg

20200316_190929 (resized).jpg

Poor thing lol !

I just made sure to push the mini playfield back as far as possible before tightening down the mounting screws. Make sure you remove the dalek reset wheel/bracket from under the playfield before you loosen the mini playfield.

Elongating the holes is the simplest solution, it works very well!

But if you have a repro MPF it needs a little more attention.

When rebuilding mine, I just sanded off 1/16"-3/32" off the front edge of the repro MPF I bought.

The repros are not quite right anyway, a bit of rework was in order.

A couple other guys just sanded it in place after covering everything up with a plastic paint drop cloth, to keep the dust out.

Hi friends. New member of the club as of last Sunday, had a chance to dig into my new machine last night...and I have a few questions I posted in this separate thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dr-who-new-owner-a-few-qs-upper-flipper-reimport-time-expander#post-5534845

Would be grateful for any input, thanks!

What is the part # for the playfield brackets on Dr Who? I also have the issue with it being to low on the right hand side and was going to buy a new left hand side bracket to prep and swap out on the fly while someone holds the playfield up so I could also move it about 5/16 backwards to hopefully fix that problem.

New brackets doesnt fix this. I bought them and it didnt fix it.

go back and read my posts on this.

In all actuality, the brackets are installed off center on the playfield (see my posts on this).

With re-positioning the left bracket (by elongating the mounting holes in the bracket)and adding a 3/16" shim under the right side bracket, the playfield is straight and doesn't rub.

everything evened out.

Right, but I want to buy a new left bracket and elongate the holes on the new left bracket so I can quickly swap it out. But I can't figure out where you get the left bracket or what the part # is.

measure from the edge of the playfield to the edge of each bracket.

then you will know how much to adjust the bracket.

On mine the left had to be moved more to the rear.

With the playfield lifted and leaned on the back box, measure the distance from the playfield backboard to the bottom of the cabinet.

Find a cardboard box to put in the gap to support the playfield. it should fit tight. priority mail boxes are awesome for this.

Now you can remove the bracket and make adjustments.

use the same system to add a shim the the right side.

Wanted to cross post my fix since it was not one that I had seen before. Looked over a dozen or so threads on "motor not working properly" or time expander not working Dr. Who, Doctor Who, ect.

After checkingk every single thing listed in every thread and swapping out driver boards as a test... my specific problem turned out to be on the motor control board. Pictured here, one of the "chokes" broke free from the board, floating.

It was the ground side. I diagnosed it by running a jumper wire from the side of the metal rail to the GND point and bam, motor started working properly. Literally took me hours to track down. I bent it out to clearly show the break, it was MUCH more hidden and still touching before I found the issue.
A4198786-C7FB-42D9-9BAD-A49DD30A8044 (resized).jpeg

Looking for some info if anyone has had this same issue. I get optos registering when they shouldn't. In switch test if I slam both flippers repeatedly I get intermittent triggering of all 10 optos at the same time. Just a flicker. If I slam/hit/nudge/shake the game it doesn't do it. Only with both flippers.

Certainly seems like a power issue since they all trigger exactly together.

What I've done:

- Line voltage is good (through a voltage regulator to make sure). Game never resets anyway.

- Checked power(12v) continuity from PDB to 10-opto board and it's good. Voltage at opto board is same as TP1 on PDB.

- The unregulated 12v was a bit low(around 11v) so I replaced BR5 and C30 and now it's up around 14.3v and doesn't dip.

- I've installed a separate power supply for the accessories (lit buttons, ColorDMD, extra LEDs) just to make sure I wasn't straining the 12v.

- In the special system test/check it tells me all these switches(optos) are bouncy.

Other than re-pinning all the opto board connectors does anyone have any suggestion? I don't have housings or pins. Game plays anyway just annoying that I can hear it register switches when they aren't getting hit. Especially annoying to see the DMD animation for the ramp entry all the time.

Cheers

Awesome find! Thanks

could be a driver board issue.

I sent mine in to Chris Hibler to have it repaired and tested.
It looks better than new! And was very affordable.

I also replaced the 10 opto board and refreshed the connectors after ohming them all out all the way to the cpu board.

Anyone know good substitutes for the following part #'s

02-4679 - Bumper Post #10
02-4424-1 - Spring Post, 6-32 x 8-32
02-4425-1 Post, 8-32 / #8/32

My machine seems to have swapped out quite a few of these posts for a different kind that use pan screws instead of stop nuts. A few of the restoration pictures i've seen for instance show the front of the mini-playfield appears to have two stop nuts on the posts at the front of the mini-playfield. Mine has a pan screw with a different post type on the left, and a stop nut on a separate post type (I think it's the 02-4679) on the right hand side.

Doesn't seem like you can get these types of posts anymore...

For that matter, does someone know if it is documented somewhere on all the post types and where they were placed on the playfield? I scanned the Dr Who manual and didn't see anything.