Yeah, I’d never move it out without moving the pin out. Maybe some guys think they’ll
Never get rid of a pin, but if you do, the buyers gonna want that fish tales with a topper for sure!

Definitely hang on to it- might be harder to sell without.

+1 on above two comments. No way I would of bought my FT without a topper. I would wager money lost on selling without topper than with would be larger than what you would get for the topper.

Mike completely understand the value of a pin with and without the topper.

He did a fun podcast for years of his travels buying and repairing pins.

You can checkout his story on pinball profile -
https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-149-obsessive-collecting-with-mike-dymus/

He may understand the value with or without, but what's the advantage?

The game without a topper will be worthless to the majority of potential pinside buyers. The pool of buyers overall will be substantially reduced making it more difficult to sell unless it's severely discounted.

Seems like an unnecessarily bad move compared to just storing it until it's time to sell.

Fish Tales with no Topper is like a slice of Pumpkin Pie without the Whipped Cream.

I mean...

you could eat it.

But why would you?

Totally your choice but ......

Unless you are desperate for cash ....hang on to it. Seriously. Really devalues the game not having it. Or maybe you think you will never sell the game but we have all thought that about games.

bad analogy - I always eat my pumpkin pie without whipped cream. In fact, my avatar is of the pie I like.

Regarding the small ribbon cable that connects the two boards.

I’ve seen it installed with the red stripe up and the red stripe down. Does it matter?

Thanks

F2B110D3-14D8-43FF-85D9-D8709DB3F2F5 (resized).jpeg

Weirdo.

Each board has a "1" stenciled next to the connector. Red stripe goes there. That side.

Gray side can go to "1" on both sides too. Main thing is that the ends go to the same spot facing the same way on both boards. If not BOOM !

LTG : )

Can someone get me a good picture of a fish tales with LED warm and cool white bulbs for GI? I’ve got someone I’m trying to help decide what they want and they are new to pinball.

Here is cool white on the lower portion of the play field.

WIN_20201214_13_25_04_Pro (resized).jpg

Cool White is the way to go.

There's a suffusion of yellow (heh) when you use the warmer shades.

I did cool white. Much better than when I had warms in
But I also changed my pop bodies to clear, mayyy more great light in the upper playfield because of that. I used those great top and bottom lit pop LED boards that fit inside also, love them

Warm white

IMG20201216080416 (resized).jpg

Oh god, I totally forgot about being quoted on this, been long gone since the fish tales went however here's a photo of what it looked like, complete topper was built from scratch inc circuit board

IMG_20160711_214644356 (resized).jpg

IMG_20160712_174638426 (resized).jpg

IMG_20160712_180342141 (resized).jpg

So I sent my boards out for the repair of J120 & J121 as well as installation of NVRAM.
I did new connectors for J120 & J121

Hooked everything back up
Playfield and backbox were lit for about 5 seconds before the whole machine turned off.

I get no power now and nothing on the MPU LED’s. The outlet that the machine is plugged into is good.

Check the main fuse in the power box inside the cabinet. Front right corner.

Miss any connectors ? Any connectors in the wrong spot or facing the wrong way ? Ribbon cables in the right spots red stripe pin one each end and not off by a row ?

LTG : )

I took a look at the main fuse in the power box inside the cabinet. It was fried, so I replaced it with a spare that I had. Machine powered on for about 20 seconds (no display on dmd) and it powered off again. Fuse I replaced is fried again

If repair job was good. Something ain't hooked up right.

LTG : )

Making progress...

It looks like a previous owner never put the security pin in the J101 connector. I indeed had it on backwards. So I put it in the correct way, replaced the main power fuse and now the machine stays on.

However, nothing shows on the dmd display ( ribbon cable and connectors are installed correctly). I hear a light crackling sound coming from the speakers and I keep hearing the “bong” startup sound about every 15 seconds. It will not let me start a game

Pull and check all your fuses.

Hopefully J101 mishap didn't hurt the board. Check with your board repair guy.

LTG : )

I thought I hit “Send post” on my previous update, but obviously did not. I want to thank everyone for their help.

The 2 ribbon cables on the top of the MPU board were off by a pin. I reseated them and the DMD now appears.

The light board with the 4 fish had some lights out. Taking the connector off, the pins were very loose. I resoldered the pins and it’s now working properly.

Tried starting a game, but the start button didn’t work. Running a test, both the start button and cast switches don’t work. Going into test menu shows a slew of ground short messages likely related to the MPU. I’ll have to send that back to get fixed.

The only other issue I’m seeing at this point is the lower half of the GI lights are out as well as the 3 bumper posts lights. I thought the replacement of J120 & J121 would have fixed the playfield lights as they were not working prior to the purchase. I didn’t see any loose wires breaking the chain under the playfield.

Did you replace the connectors too ? Pins on the board are only half the battle.

Glad you are gaining ground on this.

LTG : )

Yes I should have stated that both connectors for J120 & J121 were also replaced using trifurcon pins. I’m thinking maybe I didn’t crimp one of those pins correctly?

I originally thought the playfield lights issue was due to J120 & J121 on the power driver board being fried to a crisp. I was counting on that resolving the problem, but alas.

Easy to check. First I'd check wire colors with Pinwiki - https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#General_Illumination_Problems

Then with a meter set to AC see where you have power going out and where you don't. I'd also check the AC to the driver board for your GI - no power in means no power out.

LTG : )

The string of lights that are out are colored yellow

On J121, tested
Pin 3 - Yellow
Pin 9 - White/Yellow

Multimeter shows 6 volts so it appears to be an issue “off board". I was hoping it would be a simple issue like a fuse.

The link shows “off board” issues as either “All lamps blown” (not likely) or “Open in GI wiring” (basically a break in the chain)

It states “Use your DMM to check continuity between the lamp socket and the appropriate wire/pin at J120/J121”

So basically multimeter connected on one end to J121 pin 3 (yellow) and the other to each of the yellow cable on each lamp socket?

I'd turn game off and check continuity of each wire from connector to sockets. Try and locate the break.

LTG : )

I finally upgrades my FT to LEDs after owning it for about a year (it was my first pin) and it's made a huge difference! I didn't realize how many lights in the backbox were burned out. I got the kit from comet pinball but I wasn't sure how to set up the LED strip on the bottom of the backbox. Does anyone have a picture of what that should look like (the instructions from Comet weren't the clearest)?

Thanks!

FishTalesBackBoxLED (resized).jpg

I use Blue Tape to decide where I want it located, first. This allows you the ability to change ocations a number fo times before committing to peeling that adhszive backing and fixing it (semi) permanently. I would think the best spot on the FT Translite would likely be bottom, centered on the splash / wave...but experiment with placement and see how it looks.

As far as hookup goes, replace the closest bulb with the Quick Connect w/ Bulb or without and connect it up.

I put strips in the BBQ and under the Caudron on my EaTPM and they look great.

Pro tip... Ledocd makes the inserts looks so much nicer and less harsh as they transition.

LED OCD looks really nice - I may need to wait a bit before I get it. After buying two invisglass and the LED kit (and I may need to get a new speaker set soon as FT is sounds a bit creaky at times... particularly if I hit fast cast), my accessory budget is pretty spent

What's the difference with between the w/ or wo/ bulb options? I was a bit confused my those and the, seemingly, extra alligator clips

These are being remade now!

Game is off and multimeter set to continuity
I put one probe on one leg and one probe on the other of a bayonet bottom that’s not lighting in the GI string. I get nothing. Should I get some sort of reading?

Yes. Continuity. Sounds like a break from connector to lamp socket.

LTG : )

I took another pass at this as maybe I thought I wasn’t connecting to the probes well enough

I’m getting readings of 1618 for continuity on both the lower left and lower right GI lamps that will not light.

So this means that the sockets are getting power?

Turn the game on and check.

LTG : )

The MPU board has been removed and shipped to be repaired again.

I powered the machine and no lights anywhere, but I’d expect that.

I wouldn’t have expected the lights to work anyways as I did nothing but test continuity and check to see if any wires had fallen off and broken the chain

Has anyone put selective colored LEDs in their original translite and had amazing results that make that thing pop in the right places? I’d love to see some show and tell - but make sure to posts pics without the translite so we can see bulb color placement too and can copy cat the hood ones!!

Also, I’m looking at building a topper or two from scratch as it seems like most parts are available aside from a select few and it looks like you could be all in for about $300 and some time. I’d love to see pics of the wiring harness - every connection - to reproduce as that seems like a part I can’t buy readily.

Thanks all!

I have. I think it looks great. Will take some photos next time I get the chance.

I recently changed my translight out to the backglass from CPR - looks amazing! I took this picture of the led placement when I used the translight. I had to go to all frosted white on the backglass as this configuration was not good and the blues were in particular too strong, but looked really good on the standard translight. 1 of the reds is a flex led targeting the red boat motor.

Fish Tales Back Box LEDs (resized).jpg

I had read reviews that the best way to go in the backbox was all frosted white and that’s what I did. I was never a fan of modding machines (whether adding lights or playfield toys) from the way they came from the factory.

Those guys built the machine and would know best. Who am I to say I could do something better?

That's the beauty of ownership. We can all do what we want
Plus, when many of these games were made, led bulbs didn't exist.... Maybe they woulda!

LED's, 3d printing, etc. We have the power now!!

LED Pics :
Repop Translite. The Engine is a bit too red on this one, so I did not highlight it.

DSCN3717 (resized).JPGDSCN3719 (resized).JPG