A lot of the w ramps have bubbling. I dont know why.

Mine had it same as yours but to a lesser degree.

I got my 3 ramp set from marco.

But it had all the ramp decals.

Other decals i had to re-create.

What you see are tool marks from the plug assist. The ramp will not form correctly in that area unless an assist is lowered from the top to push the plastic into place. You can actually see it on the original; ramp if you look closely. It is more visible on my ramp because it is thicker. The only way I could do better is to use the original thickness of plastic and then you get the same shitty ramp you're replacing. This is visible on many ramps not just DW. All I can do at this point is offer you a refund if you are still not happy. Give me your address and I'll send you the missing decals.

Just ran across this catching up on the thread. Mine did the same thing. If you haven't solved the problem you might try this. I stuck a half round piece of 1/4" rubber weather stripping on the pop-bumper side of the gate into the pop bumpers. This has kept the gate from opening as far and makes it close faster so the ball does not rocket back before the gate swings closed. Still some balls come back but it's infrequent.

DWgate (resized).jpg

Interesting. Do you have any photos?

I took a picture and attached it to my original post. It's been so long since I did this I had forgot where I had put the weather strip. It's on the gate not the bracket. There is tab on that bracket. I may have bent that down some if it wasn't already to try and control the gate before finally adding the piece of weather strip.

I for one, am absolutely not complaining at all. The ramps are thick and durable, Im very pleased.

Yes my original ramp was also bubbly/rough looking right there.

The new ramps are SWEET! and play incredibly well.

I wax my ramps to keep the wear marks down to a minimum.

Quickly looks at my new thicker ramps installed and see the same bubbling. Then looks at old original ramps that are cracked the V where a screw attaches. Don't see the bubbling. I am very pleased with my new ramps! You only see that area if you are right over top and looking for it. I did have to dremel trim the right side, so it would not scratch my new pinblades, when raising playfield.

The alternative is to keep the thin broken, yellowed, scratched plastic ramps....or enjoy a thicker more durable product.

PM sent lrosent345

I think its widely accepted that there is bubbling on all of the ramps. I'm ok with that.

The problem is I have seen another set of Dr. Who ramps from Larry and they aren't nearly as bad as mine. So although I'm OK with some bubbling and tool marks etc my set is especially bad and would like the W ramp replaced with a new sample.

Happy to return the original to Larry on receipt of the new one.

Any quick tips on properly aligning the time expander? Mine is shifted a bit left of center and doesn’t raise as smoothly some others I’ve seen.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Rip it apart, lube it and rebuild it.

Checked the two kickouts by placing a ball in each and they seem to be working as they should in test mode.

Can anyone tell me if there is a fuse in the circuit for the motor?

There is no separate fuse for the motor but the wires and connector are often worn and broken.

And the motors can fail

Its best to remove the unit and check it out on the workbench.

Rebuilding the time expander is a job in itself.

Someone replaced my motor in the past and had added fuse next to it. But you would see that easily. Oddly enough, it did not blow the fuse when one of my kickouts loosened up and dropped down jamming my MPF. There were no lock washers on it like there should have been. The FAZ guide is great reference for fixing the MPF. I might suggest also looking at the 10 Opto board in the middle of the underside of the playfield.

I rebuilt the time expander a few months ago and everything was working fine until a few days ago. The motor is ok as I could run that with a battery. I'll start going through the wiring.

Thanks for the help so far

I always just pull it out for maintenance.

Its so much easier to work on out of the game.

Plus i can look at the wires and connectors easily and trace them to the circuit boards.

Like most owners who have had the game for awhile, pulling out the tome expander is a 10 min job.

Ive pulled it out at least 50 times lol.

Finally i built a brand new one ($500 worth of parts) during restoration, replaced all the connectors and wires with new silicone wire, added cliffys and LEDs.

Its rock solid!

The 10 opto board was replaced with a homepin one and it works really well.

Checked a couple of things today,

I have 17.6V at J1-5 and 15.7V at J2-4 of the bi directional motor drive board. The 15.7V is also present at the Red wire on the motor. I checked continuity of the Red & Black wires from the motor drive board to the motor and that was fine. Voltages were tested in attract Mode.

Not sure what the next step would be, Any suggestions?

could be a bad motor board, I had to replace mine.

voltages were good, it just didnt work.

Fortunately the motor boards and opto boards are readily available and not too expensive.

Do you have good connections from the motor board to the driver board?

You might just have bad or loose connections at the driver board or CPU board and not getting a signal.

It pays to check all of these connectors on these old games.

Mine were so brittle I ended up replacing all of them with trifurcons.

But my game was a total wreck...

This really feels like a cold solder joint or a broken wire. Rather than exchanging a ton of messages on Pinside (hours/days apart), I'm game to do a Zoom call to talk through your issues. Might get us quicker to the solution. You're in southern Australia ... right? we can make that work with timezones

PM if you want to connect.
faz

Take him up for the help. He is the prominent expert on everything Dr. Who related, especially with the Time Expander. His guides have helped many including me.

Bow down to lord Faz

PM Sent, Will talk soon

Faz is a great help. I hope it is only a simple fix like a connector needs new pins or a cold solder joint.

Trying to open Fez's guide ( https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxwaW5iYWxsZmF6fGd4OjVlYmVlYzE5OTA0MWNlZmQ) but keep getting a "no preview available" message when I click on the link. What am I doing wrong? or not doing int he first place?

I have it on my google drive, get it here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c9PTBREtYJBZbeZjwBs9dxWB7YmhRYe4/view?usp=sharing

Also, Rich Fazio is a GOD!

Without this document I would have been completely lost on my MPF restoration.

Awesome! Thanks!

I just went to the page: https://sites.google.com/site/pinballfaz/

Scrolled to the bottom and opened the link. Google may have changed the token under the covers.
I opened the link (which was different than what you pasted) just fine.

faz

Maybe it's a Firefox/Google docs thing. I click on the link and it sends me to my Google account and then I log in and it says Google Drive access denied and provides a link to request access. It's not a big thing because I was able to use one of the above links to get the PDF and save it.

The Google Drive links are cross platform.

I use it a lot to get suff onto my little chrome laptop.

I was able to get it through the link above. Now if only there were a link that would do the actual work!

Jason and I got together yesterday (Awesome conversation btw).

Nothing too simple here. We did a lot of good diagnosti-cating (new word) and it really points to a bi-directional board that's been way abused by a prior owner. Power into the board is solid. Power out is intermittent and really does not make sense. The "intermittent" part suggests there's a cold solder joint in the circuit. One of the pads is completely gone and there's so many bad solder joints on this tiny board that it will be very frustrating to get this going again without replacing all the components as I honestly don't trust any of them. There's some serious scorching on the back too which suggests someone soldered with a blow torch or the board had a major short at one point that took out a component (L1/L2). Another weirdness is power exiting the board at +/- 1v when on. A new board should get the DR time traveling again.

Really enjoyed meeting and good luck getting that replacement board.
faz

Awesome news!!! Hate to hear that a blow torch was used, lol but glad we may have his game up and running.

I am also grateful to the FAZ guide as it has helped me multiple times in my short history with this pinball. I am getting an OPTO error 71 now, meaning the right most mushroom does not register a hit. I know that means using the FAZ guide to remove the MPF again. I am glad I have it printed out as a reference, and not have to disturb wife on the computer.

If there was ever an update to the guide (like v3). I would like to see several additions from various past posts.

1. Link Opto #'s 71, 72, 73, 74 and 75 to Opto #'s on the board in the Matrix and the Motor OPTO #. The boards have a different numbering system. 1-5.
2. A verbal description and picture of how to take a photo of a working OPTO.
3. A full size, printable paper copy of the fish paper that surrounds the OPTO boards.
4. A section on MODs perhaps. Like the Swinks OPTO carrier with picture. The MPF Cliffies protectors placement, with pictures.

I was just thinking a one stop shop for the collected knowledge of the most amazing Mini-Playfield. Although I think Bride of Pinbot rotating head is awesome too.

MPF After4 (resized).JPG

Opto Carrier5 (resized).JPG

What opto boards do you have?

Maybe mis-aligned? Light leakage?

I have posted my results with all of the available boards since i bought them all, sorting out my mushroom target inconsistencies.

In fact k's arcade sent me a second set for free, since i was having do much trouble (they are good about stuff like this) and they also were marginal.

I ended up with the swinks opto carrier in black.

Pindorabox.com opto boards

And a black paper shroud for the backside, any heavy paper will do but must be black in the inside.

For the opto length problem i simply put 3 layers of electrical tape on the one side.

Fish paper is also really nice for this (and looks professional) if you have it.

It only has to be on the one side.

I chased my mushroom errors across the carrier for 3 months.

Its rock solid now.

You might visit my posts on this.

For me the key element was the swinks carrier and pindorabox boards.

They are brighter and more finely tuned.

The rigid carrier stops the optos from getting mis-aligned.

The alignment of the optos is critical.

On the factory carrier (even the one marco sells):

Once you have it perfect, the factory one warps/bends and messes it all up again.

If its all you have, maybe check into the wood block fix for it.

This sorts works, i tried it, but the swinks carrier is really the way to go.

I suspected this.

I had a similar issue, everything looked good, it just didn't work.

I highly recommend replacing the 10 opto board and the motor board.

They really take a beating on this game.

Getting new ones solves problems for years and rules them out if other issues arise.

Also after seeing the amount of slop in my gearbox, in convinced that most games that had been routed should have them replaced for long term durability.

Fair point. It's been over 10 years since I created the document. I did start harvesting other conversations I've had with people via Pinside, RPG or just PM... it's on the list. This is a good "kick in the pants" post to maybe get that going again. Work has gotten out of control over these last 10 years and I need to be slowing that down.

As for your issue,
Just for good measure, run a full switch test on the whole game (optos and leaf switches to rule out a matrix issue). <-- always a good first step.

Next thing possible to check is to make sure the light carrier is completely dark. Did you add some super bright LEDs into the game recently?? Any light getting into the carrier (From the lock lights especially) can cause the switch not to register since the light from the lock light floods the receiver with light. But to do this you need to pull the carrier out. So, you might as well do the next test BEFORE shielding the opto carrier.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-doctor-who-please-help-survey#post-33326

I'd recommend getting the opto carrier our of the MPF... then plug it back into the game. Use the digital camera trick to take a photo of the IR with the game on. They should glow purple 100% of the time. Opto emitters are on all the time; when the beam is broken, the opto receiver notices and tells the CPU board. IF all 5 optos are lit, you know for sure that half of your system is working. If that one is out, then you probably have a broken wire, cold solder joint (lots of vibration on this game), loose connector or possibly a failed opto emitter.

If the emitters are all on (and give a good shake around/wiggle to make sure it's not happenstance with broken wire/cold solder joint). then test the opto receiver. Unplug the carrier from the game and put your DMM on "Ohms". Cover the receiver so light does not get in... measure Ohms rating. Then shine a mag light or other bright light into the receiver. You should see a dramatic change in reading. Again, check for cold solder joint, broken wire and the connector. as well.

faz

P4020041 (resized).JPG

I am so thankful for your time helping with this issue. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you and chat over zoom. I have ordered the new board and it should be here in a couple of days. I will post a couple of photos when I get some time in the next couple of days so everyone else can see what we discovered.

Jason

1. I ran the full switch test and paid particular attention to those switches in the same row. For example all the other OPTOs in the vertical column of the matrix, then all the parts in the row of the matrix. The only one out was SW71 right most OPTO. Confirmed it by playing a game and touching the mushrooms with a pencil eraser when the MPF was in the second level configuration. Again, only right most mushroom did not work.

2. Have not added any lights.

3. The Opto Carrier is the better Swinks one. The boards are original Bally/Williams.

4. The Swinks Opto Carrier and boards are wrapped in black construction paper and black electrician tape.

5. The credit dot problem sometimes goes away in the middle of the game if the MPF is raised. But comes back later.

I will try the camera trick next once I get the MPF out. As a precaution, I have ordered a set of OPTO boards from Marcos. Do not who made them, yet, if they are even marked.

I am guessing a cold solder joint on the right most Opto or reciever or loose wire, due to the intermittent nature.

I have a spare wired up set of Opto boards from the extra MPF I bought before owning the game. I will try the camera trick with that board as well. Good to have spares.

Opto Carrier10 (resized).JPG

Opto Carrier7 (resized).JPG

Opto Carrier9 (resized).JPG

I think thats the cheaper support insert for the factory opto carrier.

Its not the full opto carrier, but a stiffening fix that may or may not work.

Ive never used it, it looks like you have warpage on the end holes, but you never know.

The other opto carrier would eliminate the edge warping:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/ZR5YNZB6U/doctor-who-mushroom-target-channel?optionId=127128604&li=marketplace

Its the one I got.

I think marco has the gulf pinball opto boards.

I couldnt get them to work consistantly and they change/fail/act weird after awhile. This is with the full swinks carrier.

Pindorabox.com boards for me now.

You might have better results.

My MPF on Doctor Who #1 was having all kind of weird issues - odds on if nothing else makes sense its that board.

I had the same problem with mine before I rebuilt the Time Expander. When in Mini Playfield tests My Non Working one was showing as always on which hints to the LED Opto Emitter not working. The camera trick was the easiest way to see what was happening, My LED was actually chipped causing it to not work. I fitted new boards and all was good.

I will post some pics of the rebuild soon.

Hoping this is all it is, New board is on its way. Should be here in a couple of days.

Just picked up this title. Mostly working, but in need of love.

Missing the Dalek topper - any leads on one appreciated. Would love to eventually motorize, but need to locate first!

Tough to get.

Toppers weren't 'standard' from new so there's not too many out there.

Someone did have a website up that showed how they made a pretty convincing copy of the original but I can't find it just now.

I think this is what some people used:

http://www.reviewgraveyard.com/2008_reviews/toys/08-05-30_dalek-voice.htm

What does this mean? Every doctor who pinball machine originally came with a topper.

But yeah, they are difficult to find if they’re missing.

That would be an interesting read.

I would think this is something that could be 3D printed? Perhaps not. Never messed w one so not sure of the capabilities.....

I think he meant the "motorized" version of the topper that was only on the very early games.

there's 100 variations of an outer Dalek frame on Thingiverse which could be adapted. Motorizing it and attaching to the game - that's a bit more tricky!