F-14 Tomcat
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F14 LEDs are ghosting... all ready arrow, rescue kickback, flight insurance, Bonus X, extra ball and specials.
All TOMCAT lights, KILLs, top three (hot streak etc), ripoff, release, fly again are good.
Cointaker LEDs, and some others mixed in there.
Some have mentioned it's a lamp matrix issue, some have mentioned using non-ghosting LEDs.
Are coin taker non-ghosting LEDs the same brightness as the regular super bright?
Thoughts appreciated on how ya'll solved this problem. It's ANNOYING!
Quoted from Fifty:I only replaced the incandescent bulbs under the inserts. I bought the cheapest LEDs Art sold. They worked great and made a huge difference in the look of the game, especially under the chevrons. After a few games I started getting a bad headache and I never get headaches. Since I liked the look of the LEDs so much I ended up buying a LED OCD board from Herg. This eliminated the LED harshness and the on/off transitions became smooth, almost fluid. To me it was night and day. I'd recommend one to anyone here thinking of going the LED route under the PF.
For the GI, I've been hesitant to switch to LEDs. I'm worried about ghosting or flicker. For those of you that have switched the GI to LED have you had any issues?
Oh, and sort of on topic off topic, has anyone found a decent orange? I ended up trying orange, amber, yellow and white LEDs under my orange inserts but I didn't like the colour and switched back to incandescent.
I used coin taker cool white non-frosted for GI, no issues, and they look great.
Best orange is coin taker WARM white super brite... I tried about 100 different combos... this one looks almost identical to the incadescent.
Only problem is now I have half the inserts ghosting... looking for more options.
Anyone compared coin takers non-ghosting to the original super brites?
Quoted from zippydapinhead:Did that. Tapping into GI is what I did with Flex-LED's.
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Zippy, where did you put the Flex LEDs?? I can only see the 4 LEDs installed between TOMCAT.
Quoted from zippydapinhead:those are flex led's, hard to tell in the pic, but they are angled towards the pop bumper
Aren't they hard on the eyes? just curious. Going to put some in mine, assumed I'd use the standard coin taker frosted...
thoughts?
Quoted from sethbenjamin:It's tricky...I did mine back in November, but the single LED bulbs I used were pretty inadequate to the task. I'm gradually phasing out the G.I. bulbs in favor of LED strips on the underside of the plastics. Especially in the upper playfield, since the plastics cover areas that are open on either side, the strips can provide nice, even illumination over the playfield.
It's all really subjective. Some people are sticklers for keeping things original; myself, I'm pretty into tweaking the lighting design - it's all reversible, after all. But yeah, anything you can do while the game is on the rotisserie should probably be done then...live and learn...
Hope to see some after pics of the LED strips for GI.
This is interesting, and I may do it to eliminate the 'cold' spots.
Has anyone decoded how the fighter jackpot is calculated. Played 1000's of games on this, probably 100 fighter jackpots and most are between 700 and 800 thousand.
Just hit one that was just over 1 million. NEVER seen this.
Quoted from Gorno:Hey guys, I am looking to replace my back flasher domes, as I have an early run with the clear domes. I couldn't find the domes in the manual, so I wasn't sure which to replace them with. Will these work?
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-8149-10
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-8149-9
Just did mine.
use these: http://pbresource.com/lampcov.html
Identical size/mount etc.
Quoted from Averell:Well,
here's my F-14 - not finished yet, but soon it will be an amazing pinball again.
First I cleaned the coindoor...
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... then came the primer.
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After that I started to coat it with a special coating for speakers. Now the door has got the same surface like original.
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The restored coindoor with new galvanized parts and new Euro coincontrols.
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Screwed plastics
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Cabinet better as new with new better speaker.
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Playfield coated 21 times and of course new set of CPR-plastics with protectors.
There's no more mylar!
Left and right modified clear plastics (thanks André) with black border.
Restored flashers in the upper playfield like the early Tomcats had and LED everywhere.
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Selfmade Spinner decals with an entirely MIG (look at the details on its wings) and a high resolution explosion.
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kind regards
Averell
Averell,
Beautiful! Did you do the paint/clear coat yourself?
Recent refurb pics are making me think about doing it, but I have ZERO painting experience of this nature. Would appreciate information.
Also,
Why the red star post on the left exit lane about the kickback? Does it affect play at all? And why not add the second one right above it?
I've been thinking about doing the same with the star post.
Thoughts?
Quoted from Shiny_balls:I made a box with cheap 1/2 OSB Sheathing....I do not want to remove all parts under playfield...too much work!!!
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I uses PPG Shopline 661 for clearcoats
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I uses a laser printed water slide decals, can't feel it after clearcoats!
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Shiny Balls,
Same question I asked Averell,.. please pass info on painting and the clear coat... Your game is beautiful!
Thanks for sharing.
Quoted from jeffpm:Took the time yesterday to swap out the remaining GI with LEDs. Taking off the launch ramp wasn't so bad, thanks for the motivation guys
What's the best way to go about changing the flashers in the backboard? I tried fiddling around with it but couldn't get any of the bulbs out.
There are two wing nuts one at each end of the lights on the back side. Take that off and you're good! Or just lift the playfield out and forward. Then it's easy to reach, no disconnections necessary.
Quoted from Shiny_balls:I'm not sure what you mean..... I'm scratching my head....
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There's no Yagov Kicker in my list of adjustments....what the hell?
Shiny - what ROMs do you have?
Quoted from Shiny_balls:Mine is L-4....hmmmmm
*edit-
I found a topic....
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f-14-yagov-kicker
If I get a L-1 rom to install and sets it to slowest....probably still too fast.
Maybe do a coil custom work?
There is an off setting if you don't like the kicker.
Quoted from Averell:This paintjob is very difficult and you need a lot of experience to do it.
You have to consider, that you must get rid off the mylar and repair the broken parts on the playfield first. This playfield was painted from a company with more than 10 years of experience with this work, and of course our F-14 is quite special because of bent inserts and rubbed decals. It took four month to repair it and the paintjob was done with an incredible dedication. If you have no experience - don't do it yourself. Most of the work I did myself, but not this beautiful playfield.
The starpost is just an idea to protect the plastic and keep the ball in distance, although I use protectors for every plastic, but you can observe that most of the Tomcats are often damaged in that area.
I also set a metal protector in the upper playfield between the flashers like some early Tomcat had. This prevents breaking the big plastic if the ball gets stuck under the rubber.
But it's not finished at all.
Can you post a picture of the metal protector and where it's installed? Haven't seen one of these... and my first TOMCAT was an early issue.
On my second and making it as good as I can.
Do you have a business name or contact who did your play field? I'd like to talk to them!
Quoted from SUPERBEE:God no !!!!!!
I agree of course! High kick setting for me!
Quoted from Averell:Here's a picture, where the metal protector is installed.
Some Tomcat had it, but most of them not?
Mine only had the holes in the playfield, but not the protector itself!
Bild 2.jpg
This happens, when your engine is to fast... result is broken plastic or short circuit!
Bild 1.jpg
The address is http://www.pinball-dreams.com
Ok. I though my new machine was missing it, as the ball rail in the Yagov kicker was missing too. I already replaced it. Holes predrilled, assumed it was missing rather than never installed.
Quoted from Fifty:Averell what size protector is that? I've been trying to make one but I can't get the size down.
Pinball resource sells it for pennies. Just ordered one a month ago.
Quoted from hawkeye11:You don't still happen to have the part #? Would hate to call PBR without it.
Page 45 of the manual, #24.
12-6466-12
Quoted from Fifty:Part number or it didn't happen!
Page 45 of the manual, #24.
12-6466-12
Does anyone have experience rebuilding ejects? My far right (bottom habit trail) eject is sluggish. The coil always fires, and from what I can tell it's 100%... but the eject is 50/50, sometimes the ball just dribbles out and doesn't make the upper play field, other times the ball ejects and hits the upper play field, but never with the force it should (this is my second F14 so I have a lot to compare to).
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Weird thing happening with the left bonus loop. With the left bonus loop lit, very often the first time the ball hits the switch the bonus multiplier is not advanced, it's not until either the next time around OR, if the ball fails to make it around and falls back down the left (now the second time hitting the switch) that the multiplier is advanced.
The switch is adjusted correctly, as far as I can tell. Maybe an intermittent switch, or wire?
Thoughts?
Last thought of the night. (I've got the major problems fixed, so now my OCD is kicking in).
The spinner - this thing stops the ball more times and lets the ball flow through. Almost every time if the spinner is spinning, fast or slow, the ball with hit the front of it and lose speed OR get rejected from the right fly by. It's weird and I can't figure out why.
Not sure if the spinner is sitting too high, or not correctly. Everything looks correct, and I've compared to others' spinner pics.
Thoughts?
How long does your spinner stay lit?
I understand the white 1-6 targets light it originally... mine is staying on until it the ball drains. I don't remember this being the case before.
What about yours?
Quoted from ChrisG78:Thanks to having to update my iPhone ipad I needed to clear some data room i downloaded and deleted a ton of pics on to my PC well my computer crashed hard so lost them. I've had a few before pics saved on my iCloud but nothing close to the 30 plus some odd detailed pics of each section during disassembly. Been finding a few on this site but need but a few more detailed pics from someone who did theirs. I've started to put it back together attached is work done so far if you see a post placement error or something else please let me know.
Thanks in advanceimage.jpg (Click image to enlarge)
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Are those the stock blue arrow inserts? They are DARK! I've never seen these so dark... where/how did you get these?
Ps. You're missing a 3" wire form inside the top white rubber between the top TOMCAT targets.
Part number - 12-6466-12
Every once in a while, say 1 in 10 games, the first ball will have NO background music. Only the voice and special sounds, but not the background music.
Once the second ball starts it comes back.
Thoughts?
Help!
Most of the time a ball ejected from the right eject hits the rubber and does NOT go through the orbit, this is getting very frustrating... has anyone seen this or know how to adjust the eject properly? Left side works perfect every time, only an issue on the right.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
IMG_4818.JPGPost edited. Problem solved.
Help! Lost all my GI on the lower half of play field. Slings, drains, upper left flipper, left side 'yogav' flasher GI, and lower TOMCAT target GI, and the radar. Everything else is working.
Is the GI one circuit that goes around or multiple that maybe one entire circuit is out? Where is the GI Fuse? back box works 100%. Couldn't find fuse info in the schematics.
Thanks for any info!
Post edited. I figured it out. Hard short between the positive and negative side at a GI socket. (double E majors don't hate on me, I know it's not technically positive and negative on an AC circuit 
I'm on my second Tomcat machine and this one does some weird things... I think...
The flyby orbit at times awards a bonus multiplier with the ball going the wrong way... ie... with only the left BonusX lamp lit, going through the orbit by entering through the right entry and out the left (the opposite of the arrow) awards a bonus.
Also, I tend to get a lot of balls that go around the orbit, that do not lite the lamp, but it awards the bonus anyway. Could be a Lamp issue.
Anybody know for sure if the bonus is supposed to be awarded only in the arrow specific direction? I have to assume that is the intent.
Coil info -
My slings, VUK, pop bumper, eject holes all use a 23-800 coil. What does the last 2 numbers mean? i.e. 23-800-11.
Are all 23-800s the same strength or do the last numbers mean something? I'm working a weak pop bumper issue and I'm curious about this.
thanks!
Quoted from Snux:However that said, the pop bumper on F14 is quite well known for not being very powerful. If you put in a new coil sleeve and get the gap on the switch under the "spoon" as close as you can make it without it firing when it shouldn't, then that's likely as good as you'll get it
Pop bumper strength - so the coils on my Tomcat are 23-800, eject, slings, and pop bumper. What "full strength" coil do other system 11 games use on the pop bumper?
My getaway uses 26-1200.
Quoted from Averell:I also have modified the flipper board with a stronger capacitor to get the speed Tomcat is designed for - it works and it makes the machine much more attractive to play.
What coils are you using in the pop bumper after the modification? I too have modified these original flashers. No short circuits here, I don't care how hard you hit the targets!
Quoted from Fifty:No problem. I ran into the same issue when I upgraded to WPC style flippers on my F-14. The A-12111 is for games 1988 on... F-14 was 1987.
Why did you convert to WPC flippers? is there a noticeable difference? Thanks for any words!
Quoted from shirkle:It turns out I had the metal stopper, but I'm missing the wire ball guide on the left. I wonder if those are available anywhere.
Did you find that part? Usually PB resource has all the metal guides.
Quoted from shirkle:It turns out I had the metal stopper, but I'm missing the wire ball guide on the left. I wonder if those are available anywhere.
Did you find that part? Usually PB resource has all the metal guides.
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