Just off to try this now, Cheers......if it doesn't work for me i'm killing the machine........after the exorcism

I really hope it does work, as it will solve a lot of problems and might open the door for someone making an improved mount piece for those optos! Let us know how it goes.

MATE, if you were over here you'd get a big sloppy kiss it's fixed....Fixed......FIXED!!! Absolutely farkin awesome, i didn't even think about moving the opto closer in, can't explain why it works in test normally and game stuffs up but it has done the trick. I used a stack of 10 washers like you did but i will change over to some metal or plastic rod. I did have to bend the outside guide towards the ring just a tad so the bottom opto would fit in the gap properly (looks like you did too). I am SOOOOO stoked right now, Cheers mate, MUCH appreciated!!!

YES! Awesome! I'm glad to hear it wasn't just a one off fix for mine!

Most definitely works It makes sense that having the opto closer ensures that the ball passes through the sensor more efficiently. I was watching the crane drop process after i changed the opto gap over and the ball is virtually already through the opto before the magnet releases the ball. The technical side of it is still a bit mystifying to me. I was always of the understanding that if the opto beam is broken the switch triggers and simple as that...on/off. that's it. So when previously in test the opto was registering and also when manually putting the ball through (as if the crane was), for some reason it was still not doing it properly, at least not registering to the software/game code. Ahhhh not gonna argue, that's for sure, saved me a shitload of dollars for an exorcism, betcha they ain't cheap, LOL, all that mumbo jumbo and waving of chicken feet, etc

New to the club this week. Wow, what an awesome game that plays like nothing else.

-I have attract sounds enabled but noticed no music and / or sounds by hitting any of the side cabinet buttons. Does this game have attract sounds? If so, any idea what could be wrong?
-I also have "slow" restart enabled. When I try to restart, nothing happens and I have to play the full 3 balls out. Does this game not have this feature enabled?
Appreciate any responses....thanks.

No attract music (at all) or even button sounds. I use the Deadworld mod ROM tho, so maybe that makes a difference?

No restart on Dredd. You start a game, you play a game. It's assumed that was a Deadworld lock thing.

What is the length of the 10 washers stacked together? I'm thinking I'll get some nylon spacers at the hardware store of the same length.

It sits right at about 3/8" or 1cm. That is about the upper limit of what you could fit in there without too much drastic bending of the metal mount. I think as far as functionality, you could probably cut it down a little bit. The point is to make it so the ball is fully breaking the contact of the opto with its associated sensor, so it can vary depending on how tight your crane is set up. Another thing, it's really important you don't have chromium balls in this machine; they get magnetized very fast and the crane will not properly drop them, which will have a pretty big effect on whether or not your crane is successfully unloading the balls as well as those balls being successfully detected as they drop off.

Some great info here! As a new JD owner I have already learned a lot and fixed a few things (cleaned optos, removed plug from J136, troubleshooting F114 and F115 fuses, added cDMD, added LEDOCD, etc.). So happy to have this and you all as a resource - thanks!

Thanks for this suggestion. It may very well be the fix for my deadworld mod as well

Excellent! Let us know if it doesn't work.

Well, seems Dredd has decided to give me a greater issue to deal with, so this one will be on hold.

Game started giving me the "Dredded" double-flip reset issue (something I was able to simply fix on my BK with new caps), but then while repeating the reset on purpose, the game stopped (didn't fully reset--read ball one on the DMD and essentially paused, no longer responding to flips) and deadworld kept spinning, then I noticed the right lower flipper was locked on...I shut off the game and turn it back on and then have no more lower left flipper function--thus, the double-flip no longer leads to a reset. Everything else working fine (including the right flipper that locked on).

Switches all test good in relation to the flipper, and all fuses "look" good at first glance. Not sure if this could be caused by bad diodes or not. If there's any chance this could be an issue on the power driver board, I do have a spare I could swap in to help diagnose. Otherwise, I presume I'd be looking at the fliptronics board. Well, pinball ownership as usual it seems

I play Dreed everyday lately. I have had it for years. Can anyone make the captive ball shot and get the third ball to hit switch 68? I think this is the hardest shot in the game to make.

It definitely is a hard shot to make. If find it easier when you use the momentum of the inlane. Much harder shot when you try after holding the ball with the flipper.

That 2X bonus is really nice when you have a lot of modes completed during that ball.

Very dangerous shot though. I have lost countless balls trying to get that double bonus.

I have days where I can drill the reactor (and mystery) shot every time, and days where an attempt is DEATH.

Have you tried cleaning and waxing the captive ball area, and making sure the switches are moving cleanly? New balls is probably a good idea too.

No I haven't cleaned that area for a while. I will check that. What tilt do you have your playfield set to? 6 or 6.5?

Id have to check but probably like 7 or 8... my games are pretty jacked.

Got an issue with my JD.
Seems my solenoids #9 -#16 are not working - verified in Solenoid Test menu. I swapped fuses F104 with F105. I've buzzed out the wire that goes from J107-2 connector back to the trough eject coil (which is part of that group and easiest to access Purple-Orange Wire). Also buzzed out the other wire from the same coil (Brown-Green) back to J127.

Any other thoughts what to check, what it might be?

I had a similar issue on my TOTAN, and what it ended up being was a power cable from the driver board to the cpu board not properly seating. I would check that first before anything else. Basically the CPU board was getting incomplete power, so some stuff worked but a specific chain of solenoids did not. Easiest fix that I checked last, and as such I spent a ton of time troubleshooting pretty much everything when it could have been solved by simply re-seating plugs lol.

This is a newb question, but how do you all keep your balls from rolling out when you lift your playfield? Right now I stuff a rag in the shooting lane to block it.

Along these same lines, what is the easiest way to remove pinballs for maintenance?

I saw an updated trough that addresses these issues - anyone think it is worth the $125? Thanks.

Manually pop all of them out before fully raising the pf. Easiest way to get them out is to prop pull your pf up (but don't raise it), so that the shooter lane will roll downward, and manually trigger the trough eject with your finger and grab them as they roll out.

Current update:

I pulled the lower left coil and everything seemed to check out good. I replaced the diodes anyway.

While fuse F904 looked good, I discovered it only got +50 on one side, and pulling the fuse confirmed it was bad.

I replaced that fuse and the game is back to resetting on a double flip, which shouldn't be too hard to figure out (I was mostly confused with the left flipper going dead when reproducing the reset). Not quite sure why that fuse went (no burn at all where it broke).

EDIT: Still a mystery on the fuse, but for now my reset issue seems to be fixed by merely re-seating all the driver board connections. Almost disappointing when a fix is that easy I'll have to make a trip to the hardware store next to try out the deadworld fix

Seems you have a different issue (do you have the plastic trough liner installed that comes with the mod?--I've read that could cause your issue). With the Deadworld mod, if the opto doesn't see all the balls being dropped off the crane, then multiball will end early, then dump extra balls into the shooter lane on the next ball. Seems the washer suggestion (perhaps in addition to bending the inlet bracket) should increase the chance that the balls are properly seen by the opto.

I ran I to a similar issue last night. In the middle of the game my Sniper tower coil wouldnt kick the ball out. when that happened, the drop target, Knocker, and shooter lane coils stopped working at the same time. I noticed a fuse had blown a 3A SB (fuse105). Turned off game and replaced the fuse with same rating and as soon as I started the game the fuse blew again.

I think they are coils #1-8 on J107 connector

That leads me to think I may have blown a transistor or more? Been at work so haven't been able to investigate further but am I on to something regarding possible transistors being blown? Fuse blowing on start up tends to be a bad sign that you may have shorted components on the board. Hoping not. Any other possibilities?

First check to see if you have a coil locking on when the game is powered up. That will narrow down which transistor is likely the issue. Here's info on which transistors are for which coils.

http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/Tech_Charts/Bally_Judge_Dredd_Tech_Chart.pdf

There didn't appear to be any coil lock up when I checked yesterday. I will check again to see after work.

I'll post it soon, but for now if anyone is interested, I've made a thread for an interactive Sniper Tower mod (short clip and other details in the thread): https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/interactive-judge-dredd-sniper-tower-mod-development-thread

EDIT: It is now available here: https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1104-medisinyl-mods/01354-interactive-judge-dredd-sniper-tower-mod-led (as always, any interest is appreciated).

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I spent about an hour today machining up some stainless steel spacers to replace the stack of washers. I used 8mm diameter stainless steel rod, 10mm in length each and a center hole of 3.5mm, with a tad of imagination it almost looks factory
BIG thanks again to you aeonblack, saved me a lot of headache, hair pulling, dollars and i'm enjoying playing JD again, not bloody frustrated and grumpy cause i couldn't get it to do what it should. I'm pretty sure this info will help out many others in the future and this is the main reason why i enjoy the club threads so much. Cheers Mate, much appreciated!!

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Looks great! Looks like I'm gonna have to pick up some stainless tubing to replace my washers now hah.

Did you guys try adjusting the crane so that it would move more to the left and drop the ball where it is intended to be dropped?

We had tried pretty much everything.

Yep, mine was adjusted to the point where it almost hit the cabinet (still at that setting now), wasn't until moving the opto's further in towards the ring that it did the trick

I'm new to the forum but used to be into pinball a lot, 15-20 yrs ago. I found some circuit boards from what I think was my old Dredd. I'm sure they had issues is why they were replaced but they are intact and I just don't know if they are of any use today or if they are easily found in good condition. One is 5769-13659-00 and the other is 5768-13660-00. Thought I'd ask before I threw them away.

Got my sniper mod today. Super fast shipping. Will install it tomorrow and post. Thanks Medisinyl.

Sure those are from a JD machine? i cant find any reference for those numbers on the net and not found on Marco's site in search. Pretty much all 90's Williams/Bally circuit boards are prefixed with an A, for example A-15472-1 (Fliptronic II board), A-14039 (Dot Matrix Controller Assembly) ,etc

Trying to figure out what's going on with my Judge Dredd. Playing the game and when I got the sniper tower it wouldnt kick the ball out. seems I shorted fuse F105 which was for coils 1-8.

changed fuse and when turned on the machine fuse blew right away.

checked the drive transistors on the board for all the coils and they all seemed ok when checked with a DMM.

replaced fuse and pulled J130 connector for the coils and fuse still blew. Reconnected J130 and pulled J127 and fuse still blew.

Pulled J107 and turned machine on and fuse did not blow.

I am confused and don't know what to check next. Transistors seemed ok. J107 seems to point to right and left VUK.

I tested drive and pre drive transistors and they all seem ok.

I'm still fairly new to this so trying to figure out next step.

Did notice resistor R260 didn't test the same both ways. Is that wrong? shouldn't it test the same no matter which way it's tested with DMM.

could that be it?

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5 mins to install. Great interactive mod!

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Hopefully it goes as smooth for everyone else

For those that wanted to see other colors in action, I just uploaded blue and yellow:

Mancave, here is the 1 reference I found to JD.
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-17982 (5768-13660-00)
Although I did not find a reference to the other board, it's number code is only a couple digits off and it was stored together in my parts leading me to believe they came from the same machine. Of the games referenced on Marco as compatible I've only owned a JD and remember replacing boards in that pin.

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New JD owner.... Just getting my bearings right now. One thing I noticed is that left orbit shot send to drain if I let it go all around. I've only played this on Pinball arcade and in that the ball goes into launcher. Just making sure draining is what should happen. Seems almost every time.....

I know pin arcade is always accurate but damn that seem like a brutal thing.

Trough optos. No big deal, not unique, but cool!

Well I'm not looking to sell them and I don't need them, but I would hate to throw them away if someone can use them. I think I will post in the Bargains/giveaways thread and see if there is any interest before I toss.

Hello fellow JD owners. I have had my JD for only a few months and eagerly set to updating the big lug. However, now I am blowing fuse F116 (as detailed in post "https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/help-colordmd-out-and-firing-solenoids").

In an effort to get things proper fixed, questions to you all:
- Does anyone else have LEDOCD board, GIOCD board, Pinnovator sub out board, and a ColorDMD in their JD without issue?
- Has anyone had to add a separate 12V power supply to support mods in their JD?
- What are indicators it is time to replace the original WPC power board? (with a Rottendog?) Or should I replace the opto boards first? (My JD came with some Rottendog boards already)
- Where can I learn how to safely\properly test voltage across TP1?

Thanks for your time and consideration. As a newbie I don't know what I don't know.

That does sound like a lot of drain on the 12volts... I just have a color dmd and never had an issue.

I had issues with a Rottendog driver board in another project JD, didn't have any of those additions you mention but did have some extra LED's and it blew that fuse, my own machine with an original driver board that has a colour DMD and the same amount of extra led's had no issues like that at all. Any of the test points on the driver board you hold your red probe to the test point and black to any point on the ground braid will be ok. You can run an arcade machine style power supply off the transformer to run mods off but if you want a certain LED to come on/go off at specific points of the game it won't work like that, for example, i have 3 nuke towers on my machine hooked up to the meltdown insert so the towers only flash whilst that insert is active.

Where do I find the test point for TP1? Are these test points specified in the manual?

Also, IF voltage is an issue (and so far I am the only one it has been an issue for apparently) for new ColorDMD displays, Randy from ColorDMD says: "you will need a 12V supply capable of at least 1A. Displays with Rev 1.2 and 1.3x ColorDMD controller boards required both 12V and 5V. In August and October of 2016 we switched over to the new Chroma controller boards which require only 12V. The new boards are mounted vertically instead of horizontally and show “Chroma A1” or “Chroma A2” under the logo."

Again, I nor Randy is saying you will need an external power supply if you get a ColorDMD. However, it appears in some cases, under certain loads due to things like mods, you may need a separate 12v power supply to support those mods.

Anyway, I am now trying to figure out which 12v power supply to buy and how to wire it in safely and properly.

Thanks everyone

Where did you get these mods from?

Thanks again!