Halfway into the upgrade.....so far, so good...lol

Finished the 2.0 upgrade, just waiting on 1 board to be replaced before I fire it up. Yes, I know the idea was for everything to work independent, but I don't want to tempt fate so I will wait.

Like others I probably have 10 to 12 hours in the conversion, and although I don't think I could cut that to 6 hours, I could probably shave off a couple now that I know what I am doing. Seems like the instructions are a bit better than others have noted here, so maybe JJ folks took note. I can also tell you I had no problem with cables reaching anywhere, but as someone suggested earlier, I placed all of the boards exactly as laid out in the provided diagrams. I had one board (the big one that looks like a fish) that had a bad capacitor on it that I noticed right away. the capacitor had been bent over during shipment, and a leg was broken off. JJ has a new one on the way with no issue...crap happens. Several of the circuit boards were also missing the standoffs, so I had to shorten some of the original standoffs to fit. It was an easy fix, but it did take time. I am fairly technical, and this was a little challenging, but not a technical type of challenge...it was more of a 'not wanting to tear in and cut cables on a 9K game' type of challenge, and a 'this is going to take forever' type of challenge. But I pushed through with what I hope will be a successful ending.

Probably my biggest complaint is the mounting of the GI lights. I contacted JJ and made a suggestion for a fix, so we will see if they think it is worth the effort. Basically, those little boards are held to the playfield with one screw and you tighten the led against the bottom of the acrylic rod to hold everything in place. If you are too loose, the board will vibrate and eventually swivel out of the way and the light rod will fall out of the playfield......too tight and the solder connections on the led or the board itself will break. I am going to order some extras to have on hand just in case they break over time. The fix is simply to widen the board a bit for 2 small screws to hold it to the playfield like the insert light boards. This way the board will never swing and you don't have to tighten it so tight against the acrylic rod. Gravity will hold the rod against the led and you never have to worry about breaking anything. So something like 14 more screws and plastic spacers, and a small change to the board design would go a long way in my book. Hopefully the replacement board will be here tonight and I can fire her back up. Thanks everyone for all of the tips and suggestions. I would say the most important tip was to make sure you lay out everything EXACTLY like it is on the diagram....it will save you a lot of headaches. if you are NOT a mechanical person, I would advise you not to tackle the change alone, and to find someone that is to help you.

You can always do like I did and cut down a couple of the old bbn ones.

I understand the thought, but just be advised, there is risk with the direction you are taking. My 2.0 set had a bad board from the beginning (broken cap leg) and you may play heck getting that board replaced 2 years from now when you finally decide to install the kit. save yourself the issues and hassle and just replace it. Once you do, sell the old boards and recover a few bucks and take the wife out for a nice dinner.......

It is definitely less bright, but not by much.