ok so I went to the switch test and it says switch 32 is indeed the correct switch for the left right enter as my machine is a prototype - switch 67 says "not used" in the test. When I put my hand in between the optos for switch 32 nothing happend. I put my finger on the right side opto and moved it around a little and got a bit of a reading, I turned off the game and cleaned them a bit more, did the test again and nothing this time, even when I moved the right opto a bit. I did notice a little bit of frayed wire on the left opto - so that could be the problem, but I'm pretty confident that switch 32 is the problem. What is the best way to access the wires and the optos for this? They are in a pretty tricky spot, on the bottom of the playfeild the trough assembly and Deadworld motor are really in a the way and looks like the Deadworld and left ramp would have to be taken off to access the optos from the top. I assume there is no other way around this, but any help would be much appricated. Also thanks to all that have helped me so far!

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On my machine where the entrance opto's are mounted further up the ramp they are attached to a metal bracket which is riveted to the ramp. It looks like the opto's on yours are attached the same way so yep you will need to take the plastic rings off the deadworld (easy, quick job) and then remove the ramp to access the opto's. It's a bit hard to see in the pic but i would think the opto's are screwed onto the bracket the same way (screws go from underneath, through the bracket and into the plastic of the opto support) You might not need to take the ramp right off the machine mind you, may be able to lift it up enough to unscrew the 4 screws holding the opto's onto the bracket. Once unscrewed they should be wired into a plug that you can detach from underneath the playfield and then pull the small harness out for inspection. It could be possible one of the opto's is bad also but they aren't difficult or expensive to replace.

I added some comet non ghosting leds to the crime scene areas on my dredd and a handful of them are flickering when they arent supposed to be. Anyone else have this issue and come across a cheap fix?

KenM I had the same problem when I installed leds , took me a while to figure out what was going on , I read somewhere cant remember where , but I removed j136 connector and all my random lights go away,

Just picked up a Judge Dredd (finally!!) the other day. Been on the hunt for one for years and finally scored a good local deal on one. Was one of my favorite comics growing up.

Going through it and getting it up to speed. Having a few little issues along the way and have figured out most. Of course, I fix one and it creates another. The one that is baffling me right now is all 4 flippers were working great with great strength when I first got it and kept their strength during multiple games. I had a few issues I dealt with such as a blown fuse in 116, some broken soldering joints, some bad connections on the CPU and Power board. I have reseated all of the cables and plugs and got the game back up and running. Now for some reason, I have lost most of the power in my lower left flipper and my upper right flipper is pretty much useless (delayed and almost no power). The lower right is still strong, as is my upper left. When I first turn on the game and start a game, the flippers appear to be fine, but within the first minute of use, the power severely diminishes in those 2, making the game pretty much not playable. When I do the flipper test, they appear to have full power and respond well. It is only during gameplay that this is happening. I am going to try cleaning the flipper opto's today and see if that makes a difference, but I am scratching my head at this one. Has anyone had any symptoms like this before on their JD that can shed some light one what might be going on?

Thanks!!

I dont have anything on J136. That would have been too easy.

Brand New drop down target board and still getting the rapid fire. So over working on this game. I don't know what else to check or change and now my through optos 1 2 3 are showing errors

I'm looking to pick up a Dredd in the next few months and wanted to hear some opinions about the dead world mod. From what I've read the DWM only works with early code. So do you rather have the DWM feature working as intended or have the latest and greatest code? Are they improvements in later code enough to forego using the mod? Thoughts?

if the optos test successfully, it might just be because you haven't played super game in a while.

Hey guys, could someone please take a reasonably close up photo of each of their flipper coil assemblies (including EOS switches) and let me know which ones are which, i need to check on the wiring of my machine coils and switches. Thanks in advance

Well that depends on how you use your machine. Dead world locking looks neat but there are some serious bugs with it. I don't recall it in detail, but iirc if a ball rolls into the planet lock without lock being active (eg in a 2 player game where 1 has a locked ball and the other has a ball starving halfway on the ramp), the machine drops both balls into play and just goes crazy from there on, totally messing the rest of the game up. If you only play alone, this is okay, but if you have the game in a public location or play tournaments this is a no-go.
You can how ever leave the neat locking ring in an use the latest software without problems. Only the last ball goes into the ring, but it does get lifted out by the crane.

Ok, i know my coils are wired correctly. I'm just not positive about the EOS switches. Can someone please confirm that the lower left flipper has the orange wire on the short blade and black on the longer blade? all the other EOS flipper switches are wired the other way. orange on long blade, black on short. I'm only asking this cause my machines been out of action for a couple of months due to swapping playfield, etc to another cab and i don't remember changing the wires to the EOS switches.

The flippers get weak as the flipper coils get hot. Likely you need to clean the flipper button optos with a glass cleaner and QTIPS or a folded wet paper towel if you can wedge the paoer towel in the U shaped optos. If that does not help, then I suggest new u shaped optos.

If you bought the Great Plains Modular target board, then you need to add thicker washers behind the E clips to push the shorter U shaped optos closer to the drop targets.

I'll give this a try.

The through opto we took care of. When we got up close and personal with it there were 3 resistors​ with the legs broken off the body. Replaced them. Still nothing. Ran to the closest RadioShack​ and by some miracle they had packs of ir transmitters and receiver. 80% off.
Works great now.
Drop targets are still suspect

Thanks again for your help on this. Turns out it was the optos, took the whole ramp off and replaced them, now working again.

For those of you who are nerds of the pin and the character this is pretty exciting:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-39873020

Can't wait to see Dredd come to life on the small screen (he seems to have been everywhere else)

I hope Karl Urban and the girl who played Agent Anderson from Dredd 2012 are both involved! Awesome movie!

Watched Dredd again the other day, that is seriously an awesome movie. Don't know if it jives for fans of the comics, but I love the gritty, "realistic" way in which it was done. The generally tactical gun-handling really pushes it over the top too.

Hope the series follows in the same style, but I'm guessing the comics are more over the top? Guessing they can't get Urban, but here's hoping for that too.

just ordered the bracket from Marco to mount my eagle topper. What is involved with installing this - do you need a power drill? Does it come with instructions? Just trying to prepare myself. Thanks!

Ends up it was a bad BR on my Fliptronics board. Thanks for the reply though!

The holes should be there already from the factory, you may need bolts and some screws, grab that stuff from the hardware store when you have all your parts

PCB side or drop targets side?

PCB side so it pushes the board toward the drop targets.

Congrats. Where is this connector you mentioned? It will be helpful for others in the future.

This is great news. I'd like to see quirky black humour about future tech etc as in the comic. So much potential- the comic strip is 40 years old now!

More generally, it's long overdue for 2000AD characters to be properly 'filmised'. Strontium Dog, ABC Warriors etc etc. They should frankly be a British Marvel (much smaller obviously!), but never succeeded yet.

I only read a few issues of 2000AD but I guess I do not recall much (if any) humor. Could just be the cultural differences between UK and US. Care to share some quick examples of the humor you are referencing? I thought the latest movie, Dredd, did a pretty good job of properly characterizing based on the old comic?

Don't forget Rogue Trooper. He was always one of my favourites

Hi Dredd heads. So.. I'm having a recurrent problem with the multi-ball lock. I do not have the deadworld mod.

As shown in the attached picture when starting multi and the ball drops into a planet ring hole after the third and only physical lock the planet will only turn about three inches, stopping when the nearest (empty) hole reaches the crane instead of turning past that empty hole to the next hole that has the ball in it. The ring will stay in this position until you drain out the remaining three ball multi and the game ball searches and eventually turns the ring.

I was able to fix this once by taking apart and putting back together the rings, but no luck this go round. It started happening this time after replacing a lamp socket on the JUDGE lights pcb board. (I assume it was just some mechanical alignment getting off again while lifting up the playfield).

Anyone know what could be causing this?

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Are all your Optos firmly in place and working correctly in the switch test? Sounds to me like the one on the left (the crane drop) might be loose and registering a drop where there is none..

Good thinking, but the globe exit opto is working fine.

Check all the switches on the switch test. Optos should all be closed and the rest open.

All switches look good except switch 32 which has always shown in the wrong state. I have a feeling this is a leftover error from a switch that was never put in the game though as the manual switch diagram shows switch 32 existing in a place where there is no switch and labels it 'not used' in two other areas. I assume switch 67 is the 'real' 'LEFT RMP ENTER' switch further up the ramp.

I messed with it a bit and now the rings aren't turning consistently so now they might've gotten mis-aligned with the planet. I'll just try and rebuild the whole thing and hopefully that solves all the problems.

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I've got my Dredd up and running again and it took some time to get the crane dialed back in (a few less hairs on the head). I've got an issue with the game confusing the amount of balls left in play (can have 2 left, lose 1 and the BIP ends) I'm currently using the dead world mod and i know for sure that all the opto's are working correctly, including all the trough opto's. The machine has no worries when playing super game, starts with the usual 2 balls, knock the targets down and goes to 6 ball and then can lose 5 and it keeps going on the last ball until drained. The issue seems to be after getting multi ball in normal game, crane is dropping all 3 balls through the exit opto no worries but get down to the last 2 balls it does what i just described (lose 1 of the 2, END). Any ideas?? I know that exit opto works in test, perhaps the ball isn't registering through the opto properly? no idea why that would be the case, perhaps the dead world mod Rom playing up??

sounds more like a trough opto issue to me..

That was my initial thought too but all the trough opto's work in test mode, and i cleaned them before testing, a false reading in switch test?

I just got my bracket in the mail for my eagle topper. I just realized that since I have an early sample game my Dredd doesn't have the same square cut out things where the talons would sit on like the normal production games have. Do the regular production games have holes drilled in on the top of the back box already for the topper? Also if I mount the topper with the talons sticking out would it be ok to have the play field lean up against the talons sticking out or would that damage it?

Follow up on the multi ball fubar. I got curious and swapped back to the original Rom and there is no issues with this installed, machine will go into 4 ball multi ball and when you get down to the last ball, continues as it should until drained. I then swapped back to the dead world Rom and it plays up as described in my previous post. In fact, after ending the BIP early, when the next BIP (ball in play) is ready to start the trough shooter spits out 2 balls and then shoots at least another 2. This is symptomatic of a trough opto error as Cynric suggested BUT i have tested the trough opto's with the Dead World Rom and the original Rom installed by dropping the balls back into the empty trough 1 by 1 and then blocked the shooter opto to test that also. All trough opto's are working in test mode and all other opto's as well. The only thing i have changed is to swap Rom's....here's my question, is the dead world Rom dodgy? is it for some weird reason causing the trough opto to play up? The machine works fine without the dead world mod but i really do like the mod and being able to physically lock all 3 balls. this is doing my head in. Is it possible for a Rom to just go bad? ( I stress also that it is seated properly)

Yeah the holes for the bracket are pre drilled and on regular production machines the eagles talons stick out from the edge somewhat anyway. If you mount your eagle with no cutout you will just have to be careful when lifting up the play field to the vertical position, use a folded cloth, etc in front of the talons.

Should not.. The machine checks the Rom against its programmed checksum, so an error that would pass that is extremely unlikely. I've experienced the L1 to be buggy as well, but only in very specific situations (ball unexpectedly rolling into the deadworld in multiplayer games). The only other causes I can think of for that behavior are a loose/dirty/unreliable trough plug and an extra ball in the machine, but both would not change with the rom..

Oh one more thing: The shooter lane switch is working ok? L7 changelog says "Improved the ball shooter logic -- left and right.", maybe this was a known issue?

To resolve the problem:
Remove the glass from the playfield.
Start a new game.
Fire the two balls into play
Take them both out of play
Drop the J-U-D-G-E drop targets so that the left ramp is activated for ball lock.
Send a ball up the ramp.
If the ball travels past the locking gate and comes back into play (JD thinks there is already a ball in the locking ring so put one in there!)
Send the second ball up the left ramp and it should divert into the locking ring and the display should show Ball 2 Locked.
A new ball will present, so send it into play.
Catch it and send it up the ramp to make 3 locked balls, thus triggering multiball.
And then I think you're done.

I'm not sure if there is a problem with the coding on the Deadworld mod chip or whether it is related to an intermittent opto problem. (Possibly both) I have noticed that this problem occurs when I have one or two balls already sitting in the Deadworld ring and 2 ball multiball is activated. If a ball is sent up the ramp and "sneeks down" the divert onto the ring, JD thinks it has to remove it from the ring to get two balls back in play. But JD removes all the balls from the ring, instead of just one. This puts JD's head in a spin. His logic says he has a ball or two trapped in the ring but physically he has none.

Make sure three 3 optos are cleaned (Up left ramp, Deadworld lock divert, crane drop)
Make sure you only have six playable balls.
Hope this helps.
Filthy

Yeah checked the shooter lane switch with either Rom installed and works in test mode on both. You're right though, if the trough plug/s were an issue then changing Rom wouldn't make a difference, they still would play up. Just ran a full switch/opto test again, first with the normal Rom installed and then with the Dead World Rom installed, results were the same with both Roms.....yet the problem still exists with the Deadworld Rom in multi ball
Super game is still ok but after multi ball is started in regular game the problem arises. In regular game it starts with just the one ball (as per normal), knock the targets down in sequence to start the ball lock mode (as per normal), roll 3 balls into the ring and the machine shoots the 4th ball whilst the crane starts to unload the ring (as per normal) (NOTE* i have checked the crane ball drop manually in switch test just to check that the ball is actually triggering the opto and yup, works), when all 4 balls are in play and you lose 3 it ends BIP (NOT normal). When you start the next BIP the machine throws out several balls into the shooter lane just like it would with a trough opto error
At this stage i can't think of anything else to do but perhaps get some after market trough boards and see if that changes anything, if the Rom can't go bad there's no point in buying another Dead World Mod ( for another L1AT Rom). I've had this machine for a few years now, even bought another project machine, restored and fixed that one up and sold it. This is the weirdest, seemingly unexplainable issue i have encountered so far

2 Balls??

My apologies.......I misread your post. Thought you had 2 balls presented to your shooter lane at once. My bad!

No worries it is doing that but only on the next ball in play after the multi ball has been activated. Whole issue is just bloody Weird

GREAT post, FilthyRich - thank you!

I discovered an interesting bug the other day that allows you to stack modes with multiball. If you collect the first sniper tower hurry up and start multiball while the second hurry up is still running, it will not stop the mode like usual. Instead, the mode will continue to run during multiball. Moreover, the next mode start light will relight during multiball, allowing you to start another mode! Normally, modes are completely shut off during multiball. You can get as many as two modes going at the same time. Unfortunately, things don't behave exactly like you'd expect. For example, I tried stacking blackout with multiball to hit double jackpots, but for some reason you cannot light the jackpot during this stack. Stacking bad impersonator with multiball is a mess, because both modes want the center drop target in different states, so the center drop target goes up and down repeatedly. I was also able to stack blackout with ultimate challenge (very hard to pull off), but the ultimate challenge jackpots aren't doubled.

Has anyone else found this bug? Is there a way to exploit it for big points?