I’m on the fence. Love the game but the thought of drilling new holes and cutting wires scares the crap out of me.

Has anyone done the 2.0 boards for the early Woz machines? I ask this because the very early woz’s do not have molex connectors for the castle playfield. When I had to fix my castle doors years ago, I could not follow the instructions because they did not account for no molex connectors. Wires had to be cut, but I managed to not cut them and still fix the problem. But with the 2.0 bds, I’m not sure he instructions deal with this. I haven’t purchased the kit yet because of this impending problem. Any info would be helpful.

I ordered one. Website says they make them up as they are ordered and they ship in 2 weeks. Doesn't matter really, I probably won't tackle this in the next 2 months anyway.

Yes. My kit shipped within one day after ordering.

I’ll report back when I’m done and hopefully haven’t broken anything, but if I can do it, anyone can. I have no where near the repair skills as others on pinside, but so far, the project seems doable. I’m taking frequent breaks and spreading this out over several days. So far, I have removed all old wiring, replaced the large boards and replaced most of the GI boards. I’m probably at 4+ hours so far. I’m keeping track of my time and will share the record of how much each section took me.

When you are doing this and come back to it hours later or even days later, will you know what to do next? I’m a bit concerned that if I do this over a period of time, might forget what the heck I’m doing. If I take a mech apart and come back to it after some time, I find myself scratching my head saying oh shit, what am I doing.

Exactly what I’m worried about.

With other machines, yeah, that’s an issue. But here, there are detailed, step by step instructions so I don’t think it will be a problem. So far it hasn’t been. And, I find frequent breaks keeps me calm and focused. I would actually worry a little about trying to do this all at once.

I should also note that I’m checking off the steps one at a time after completing each section so I know exactly where I am and what to do next.

Also, once you remove all the old wires, it frees up space under the playfield so you have more room to work and things don’t seem so overwhelming as when you first lift it up.

I’m going to add to the already very helpful tips others have contributed in this thread when I’m done. Just a few additional things that have helped me so far.

I’ll probably spread this out over another couple of weekends.

Nokoro, do you have an early build woz?
I’m wondering how to tackle the lights under the castle playfield since from what I have read, the instructions are for later built games.
Maybe Mr Lloyd will have an answer.

No. I have molex connectors on mine. But almost all of the old wiring for the lights is cut and discarded so I’m not sure it is an issue. Call JJP and ask to speak to Butch. He is primarily responsible for the kit, and I spoke to him before starting. He is super nice and encouraging. He really believes in this kit. He also told me that they don’t make the chips for the old light boards anymore so it is just a matter of time before they have to stop servicing them. That said, he did also say that they bought the chips in bulk so that time is probably pretty far away.

You'll know as long as you stop after completing a step and mark the next step to do. The steps are very clearly delineated.

The one here is Aug 2013. One of the earliest. No problems with the castle playfield.

Thanks

HI All

Since there seems to be growing interest in this conversion, I thought that I would post a couple of tips. Did my 7.5v a few months ago. I am pretty meticulous so this may be too much for some. Mine worked perfect at the first start up.

I made labels for all the new board locations to stick on the underside of the PF. Used these labels by Avery, from Staples for a couple of $$, downloaded the Avery template, printed and cut them up with an exacto. They stick great.

I also made a drilling jig for placement of the small boards, thin sheet of plastic, drilled large hole for the light plyon to fit through and a hole for the bit/screw location. Just pull off the old board, pull out the pylon, put on the jig, put the pylon to hold it, mark where to drill, remove the jig..so on. Much quicker and more accurate. There a large number of those little boards and placement is critical for good lighting.

Finally, I found it handy in a few places to use a pinvise as it was too tight for the drill driver.

Good luck, it is worth the effort.

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I sure do appreciate this thread as I’m about to order the 2.0 kit. I think I have one of the earliest games 5/1/2013. I had been reading these posts and thinking ‘what’s the big deal” since I only had one single led board go bad. Turn my game on and half the lights were now out! Traced it to the winged monkey board. I sent an email to service and Butch returned my questions about 2.0. I also called parts about a new winged monkey board since the non buffered 5 volt one is not on their website and the parts department never returned my call. I’m guessing it’s not available so I really don’t have a choice. I don’t want to keep messing with bad boards and if I ever sell don’t want to stick some unsuspecting buyer. Guess I better order the kit.

You can use one or two 7.5v Gi boards if you have to in a 5v game but single 5v Gi boards are certainly available. Pm me if you want but they’re on the web store too

I have a couple spare single boards but that won’t help in this case. Can a 7.5 volt board that has 5 leds on it (winged monkey) be used in a 5 volt game or just a single led 7.5 in a 5v system?

Yes it can be

You can’t go the other way - put a 5v in a 7.5 game it’ll burn up - but yes

Do you get a weekly check from JJP for suggesting everyone send them money now because, because?? That's such garbage.

On the 6 ft mini-usb question: the question gets answered later in the JJB instructions. You start by plugging the standard USB end into one of the available USB ports on the outside of the CPU chassis. The mini end then goes back to the underside of the table through the large black bundle. It will get plugged into one of the new boards as instructed.

I have a very early build ECLE (#51) and had no issues with the castle playfield.

Trust me. If I can do this project, anyone can do it. One last piece of advice, go to the manual page that shows the lighting configuration. The picture shows how the lighting boards should be placed so that the wires reach. Drill your holes so the lighting boards line up as shown. I had to re-drill about 5 of mine by not doing this because the new lighting wires would not reach the boards as I had placed them.

You know JJP isn’t making money off of this, right? They are selling at cost.

Yeah and I also know I've had mine for 5 years, plugged into a surge protection and line cleaner and had zero issues with light boards. Guess I shouldn't turn it on tomorrow though, its only a matter of time.

Ok, fair enough. Everyone is different. I have one to a few boards go out every winter when the air gets dry and staticky. There is a known defect with the older boards. Does that mean you will have issues? No. But, the current system is far more reliable.

Right but Vireland would have everyone buy replacement boards, just because.

Pfft, I wish. Where do I sign up for that garbage?

No, I recommend all ECLE owners buy a 2.0 kit while it's relatively cheap and available, NOT 1.0 replacement boards. 1.0 system boards are a dead end and an endless point of failure.

Mock it all you want, it has nothing to do with your line cleaner or surge protection. It's a flawed design, and it will fail for you, too. The one we had was trouble free, until it wasn't. It's the story of all the ones that have failed already.

I have an original standard, 5v boards have mostly been change to ones with a buffer chips by the first owner and i have a box of new 5v boards with buffer chips that came with it. Ive had the game about three years and havent had an issue yet. But i got spares baby!

Playing my WOZRR the other night and two more of the small GI boards have lost a color or two, sigh. Luckily these are the only ones that have given me trouble over the years but it is getting worse and if I have to keep buying boards that's going to add up so I think I'm going to take the plunge and order conversion kit. Thanks for all the feedback and information from those of you that have shared it!

It will be the end to your current and future light problems. Best thing I've done on a modern pinball machine.

Keep your known good boards separate as you take them out in the conversion and you can sell them as a set for a few hundred bucks to offset the cost of the kit.

Questions for you folks on the power supply:

1. For the connector that has two white wires and two black wires, the white wires connect to two terminals and the black wires connect to two terminals. Are the white wires interchangeable, or does the exact terminal that each connects to matter? Same question for the black.

2. For the connector that has the green wire, does that green wire connect to the ground terminal along with the short wire that bridges the ground to V- ? It is hard to tell from the picture.

Thanks!

There's a picture of the exact wiring on the first page of the thread on post #4. As long as your white and black stay in the respective marked blocks for +V and -V and you don't mix them so you have one white or black on each block, it's fine.

Doh!

Thank you!

Has there been an explanation as to what is wrong with the light boards? I have an early machine (NIB) with 7.5v unbuffered (I think they are unbuffered, I know they are 7.5v) boards. I purchased a full board set (not sure JJP was going to survive) including all the light boards and several GI lights after I purchased the machine several years ago. I have never had a problem with any boards. I proactively changed the power supply and the LCD driver boards, but never had any board or PSU fail. Is there something I am missing?

Thx

It's the way the lights are being driven is apparently an inherently flawed design. I don't know the details except that everything that was done to try to bandaid the problem with buffer boards and voltage changes could not solve it. They had to scrap it and move to a completely different system.

Thanks Vireland, I think my machine was made on Oct 2013 and we received it in December that year. I have replacements for everything, so I am not overly worried, but it seems odd so many have had problems when others have not. I would have thought there would be rampant failures with a design problem. Perhaps I need to play more

I just ordered the 2.0 kit today, so I will be joining the 2.0 club soon. I want to thank in advance everyone who has posted so much helpful info in this thread. Drilling into my game is going to be, well, terrifying.

My game has had lots of light board problems all along. I currently have all buffered, 7.5v boards. Not sure why some games have more issues than others, maybe it's the weather in different locations, as it seems to be static related. I do suspect (can't prove) that most games with the non-2.0 system will have issues eventually.

I do think it is weather related at least to some extent. I live in New England. I have zero problems in the spring and summer. However, every year when the air starts getting dry, around November, I start to have problems. I think if you live in a more humid climate then you have less issues.

I don't doubt that is true, mine is on carpet in my basement and getting a static shock when walking up to it is not unusual at all. Since I've only had problems (so far) with the single GI boards and I have had some limited success reflowing solder on the boards (they eventually fail again) I had planned to just try to live with it. However when one really goes bad and sends the rest of them down the chain bonkers it's a real problem so I decided to bite the bullet and do the upgrade.

The way it goes in most cases is once you start having failures, they cascade and keep cascading. I completely replaced all boards once and had started again before I just did the 2.0 and ended the hassle once and for all. So yours will probably be fine until the day it isn't, and that day will come judging by they way it seems to go with these.

Friends, I need your help. I'm completely stuck on step 21. The text reads:

"Disconnect an existing 4-pin (BLK & RED wires), Molex 5VDC power connection in the back of the lower cabinet (near the ATX power supply on older WOZ games; near the back panel of the PCB chassis on newer games). Locate the short, three-connector (4 pins each), 5V Y adapter cable (BLK & RED wires) and plug the two connectors with both BLK & RED wires running to them into the two existing DC power connectors you just separated. Plug the end of the cable that has a single RED wire running to it into the 4-pin connector at the end of new RGB power harness, as shown below (right next to the 9-pin connector you plugged into the power supply above)."

Here is a picture of the black and red connectors I have found. I've labeled them A-E. Can someone explain by referring to my letters which things get disconnected and where they go. I find this paragraph very confusing. I also can't tell which references are to the new wires that I have connected to the power supply and which are the existing wires that I am disconnecting. Help! And, thanks!

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Never mind. I figured it out. I was missing the separate Y connector. Here is a picture. This is getting confusing.

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Hang in there Mark!

Thanks! I was worried about those steps the most because they were hard to visualize, but I finally figured it out. Taking a break for the day. Tomorrow, the dreaded castle mini-playfield and perhaps, if I have the energy, the munchkin playfield. Next weekend, hook everything up and hope for the best.

By the way, to help future 2.0 converters with this step, make sure before you start that you find the separate Y connector with the red and black wires in your kit. That is what is being referred to. Once you find that, I disconnected "C" in my picture above and plugged the male end of the Y connector into the female part of disconnected C, and the female end of Y into the male end of disconnected C. You will then have one connector left on the Y connector which just has one red wire. That goes into the 4-pin connector at the end of new RGB power harness right next to the 9-pin connector that was plugged into the power supply.

I'm not sure if my explanation is any better than the one in the instructions, but hey, at least I put a label on my picture.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I got it.

Just bought the 2.0 boards just in case. So far I haven’t had any failures.

I'm about 85-90% of the way done with mine, have been really taking my time and doing additional maintenance / cleaning / waxing while I'm at it. One question for those that have done it - where did you mount the new power supply? The instructions say on the bottom of the cab but there is no place where it will fit on my RR version. So far the only place I've found it will fit and still connect to the power input harness is on the right hand side between the wall and the transformer but I'm hesitant to install it there for heat / ventilation purposes.

Look at post no. 61. I followed that lead and mounted to the left side.

I hope to finish on Saturday. I only have the munchkin playfield and the data wiring left to go. Keeping my fingers crossed.