tonight I wired a blue led strip above the back panel and tied it into the flasher it makes the Lightning effect way better

Looks great, is that the new replacement playfield you got?

Nope never got a new PF, just waiting on the diffusers like everyone else......

There is a lip above the back panel it has a gap in the middle I just hot glued it on both ends and it holds really well I'll try to post a pic when I get home tonight

Looks great Drew

wow, looks great!! I may have to do that myself!

So I know diffuser kits are going to be shipped soon but I have not heard anything in regards to the software coding to dim the led brightness, is this not happening now?

Anyone?

Looks great! Like that effect alot!

Did you have to use resistors or just tied direct to flashers?

Have you installed your new speaker panel yet?
I just got an new original one for mine and some better speakers.
I'm not going to install until tomorrow but had a quick look and wondering how you remove those metal retainers on the speaker covers? They have to be removed as the new panel doesn't come with covers but it looks like the retainers will be a PIA to get off and will probably be wrecked in the process. What will I replace them with if this is the case?
Anything else I should be looking out for doing this job?
I am already going to follow the advice in the other upgrade speakers thread.

Pinball Life sells those retainers.

I haven't gotten around to installing my speaker panel.

You have to break off the nobs the retainers are attached to. Use a pair of pliers or tweezers. My panel came with a set of retainers. The old mmr panel is basically garbage. I tried many ways to get them off. After I broke the first one, the rest went in 5 minutes.

I used a jeweler's screw driver and worked up one of the tabs on the retainer. You can then use a pair of pliers to work the retainer up. It take a little time but will go quicker the more you do.

I didn't want to fool with replacing the whole panel so my buddy and I made a decal for the blank spot on the MMR panel. It came out great

image_(resized).jpeg

Hey there Pinsiders- so my start button was out - and I opened the coin door- (power on) and jiggled the wires on it the light went on - and then whole machine went off. I literally get nothing when turning the power on/off now. I can't imagine that did any damage....hmm....

I visually looked at all obvious fuses -but don't see anything out of ordinary.

Before I put in a ticket- any suggestions ? Loydd any ideas here ? Literally dead.

It worked perfectly up until just now. It's MMR 157. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the replies, I will look for the push-nut retainers locally, I checked at Pinballlife 10 of them will cost me $1 then add $46.50 for postage to Australia and then the currency conversion and I am up to about AUD$65 I just checked again hoping my panel came with new retainers that I had not noticed but it didn't.

WTF is up with postage from US to AU these days? I bought stickers recently and the postage was $30 they would fit in a standard envelope

Anyway not looking forward to this job, I will start with the jewelers screwdriver and hopefully not need to resort to the smash them off method. But if I do smash them off I will now feel better that I'm not the first, I do agree that the old panel will be useless now but I can't bring myself to just bin it especially before my new one is successfully installed.

Did you finally get yours? Is it OK?

Test fuses out of circuit with a meter. I would look at the power supply fuses first.

Marc

Thanks gonna give that a shot.

So under the "make this more complicated than necessary dept"- I checked the fuses and they are all fine. I thought I'll check the electrical cord connection in the back- and DOH- it was loose. I plugged it back in - and it popped on.

Loose cord. All is fine- phew!"

Thanks.

Always start simple. Glad you have your game again!

lol- I'm guessing most of us start complicated- Thanks again...

I do it all the time. Every once and a while I surprise myself and check the fuses first before taking everything apart

Last night I made my own color changing merlin mod for MMR I used a $9 Merlin figure from eBay, a crystal ball from LOTR, and a disassembled 555 color change led it looks awesome. Here is a video of it and some of the other mods I have on my MMR

Wow looks OK .......so that is the same playfield that you said multiple times that you would not accept anything but a total replacement for ???

It's such an INCREDIBLE turn around that you are now so happy that they will send you some diffusers instead and that we should all also be happy with that.

Yep....I seem to be not letting that slide...something doesn't stack up and I'm a man who must see balance.

You seriously need to let it go, your obsession with my PF is boarder line unhealthy.... Yes it is the same PF that came in my machine, yes I am waiting on the diffusers to see if they help and if not then I resume the dialogue with CGC on the subject. No, I have not received any "freebie" from any company wether it be CGC PPS or Stern. What I have got a lot of is enjoyment out of my machine. I feel sorry for you that you can't focus on how lucky you are to be able to afford a great game for your home and would rather act like a whiney brat using your "assumptions" and I stress the word "assumptions" as grounds to come on here and act like a child crying "he got somthing I didn't" when in reality you know absolutely nothing more than what you have convinced your self is the truth. If you are so unhappy with your MMR or with CGC than just sell your MMR, be done with it at least then you will just STFU about it. Or here's a thought go play the game and be thankful that you are fortunate enough to even own a pinball machine. But sadly I have a feeling that you will just continue acting like a tool and crying about your assumptions VS reality......

Hey drewblood, on your flipper bat swords did you use a diifernt adhesive to stick them on or just installed it using what came on it? Just was wondering as I've heard some others have used a different 3m double sided tape to make sure they don't fall off.

Originally I used the adhesive that came on them but after I'd say about 20 games one came flying off so I went to the auto parts shop and bought that 3M automotive mounting tape that was mentioned in one of the threads. so far it is working great and it is flexible enough to absorb impact (which super glue won't do lol) I would recommend just using the mounting tape from the get go

Would you be willing to make that Merlin Mod for me? I am so bad at this kind of thing....Of course I will pay your fair asking price LOL.

They had 3 MMR at TPF, none of which had the color display. I missed the CGC seminar, was anything mentioned there?

I could if you want to source the parts. It's really not bad the worst part is widening the hole in the LOTR ball to fit the slow fade led I used. Shoot me a PM and we can figure it out

I created the same mod for my MMR. You can purchase acrylic spheres from US Plastic corp. They are located in Lima Ohio but also have a wesite. I used a 3/4 inch sphere and it worked great.

Hmmm....did you note that in my post I was not in any way rude to you?

This will be my last word on the matter and I will move on but first in reply to the above I must stress that it was you who started a whole thread full of many complaints about the insert issue and MANY times you stressed that you would not be happy with anything but a playfield replacement.

I feel that you personally greatly inflamed the issue and stirred many people up to complain about it and submit tickets, including myself.
I am not letting the issue impact on my enjoyment of my machine and never stated that I was, I do very much enjoy my game and am very grateful. But I do feel that we should be compensated and I don't really think the diffusers will be sufficient. I think it will still be not as good as the darker print, perhaps giving the color upgrade for free to those affected would be a good move or something more than just a partial fix. It is not just me thinking that you got something that I didn't that annoys me (I did think that as did others, I accept now that you state you didn't) it's also the fact that you changed what compensation or correction you would find acceptable so dramatically and seem to feel that others should now also fall into line and be accepting of the diffusers if they improve the issue. I feel that you in a way made yourself the spokesperson for this issue and I suppose I now feel disappointed that you don't seem to want to fight for what I would consider a fairer compensation than just getting diffusers.

The problem is is that you and the others that assumed I got something because of changing my demeanor, Never fully understanding why I changed my demeanor about the situation. I had a good conversation with Doug at the time and I felt like he was taking the necessary steps to address the issue how he saw fit for his company. at no point did I ever think that the diffusers would be the be-all end-all fix. Look at Keith's posting from today on the PPS forum, which mirrors how I felt after speaking with CGC. I did however think it would help progress the situation forward constructively. I wanted to let Doug have the opportunity to do what he felt best for his company and make the announcement about the diffusers when he was ready to do so, that was not my job. If I feel the diffusers don't work then I just rehash the line of communication with CGC. Sure I would love to see the color upgrade given free to LE customers not only because of the insert debacle and the sling chop issue for some but also for the 2+ year wait and the fact of it being included originally then removed and improved. Ultimately it's up to them to do whatever it is they are going to do. It's not up to me. I will say insert issue aside this machine is great, I have been having a blast playing it

If this is how you feel then you need to write it on your CGC ticket or in an email or call to Doug rather than on an online forum directed to me....

EDIT #2: CGC got my speaker to me, I put it in and BAM, game is sounding perfect! I am very pleased now, it's almost like getting the game all over again

EDIT: I had grown tired of waiting and had spare time (probably should have done this sooner, but I wanted to meddle around in my brand new game as little as possible), so I swapped the speakers around to confirm/dis-confirm it being a defective/damaged speaker, the distortion moved with the suspected speaker, therefore I have confirmed my problem to be with the replaced speaker itself and not the software. I have contacted CGC and expect another replacement to be shipped.

I love my MMR (#279), it plays exactly like a new MM in just about every way, while I have no personal experience with new originals, I have many friends who are and played them when the game was first released, they claim that it's exact in "feel" and every visual aspect, I am very satisfied with it as far as gameplay goes, with that said, I do have a major Issue...

My game has some bad distortion in the audio, which sounds pretty bad and does hinder the experience pretty significantly for me and everyone else whom has played it, it was this way right out of the box, I was told by CGC Pinball Technician Ron Lukwinski that there would be a controller board with a software update to fix this, I opened my support ticket on December 20th shortly after I received the game and was told on the 29th that said updated board would be sent to me, have been waiting ever since with no other word. I am a very patient man, but considering the time I have been waiting and the fact that this was a brand new $8000 machine, my patience is dwindling. Needless to say, I am not a happy individual in regards to this.

Overall I love my game, but the audio problem must be remedied, I find it and the situation I am in to be unacceptable for reasons stated.

I replaced my speaker panel today, took quite awhile, I found when I removed the display that the clear perspex cover was held on by another 12 bastard push nuts making 28 of them in total. As the plastic mounts are quite weak I found it impossible to remove the push nuts without breaking them as Vyzer2 did I just attacked them after breaking the first one but it was still a slow process.

While I was at it I installed my upgraded speakers as per the other thread.

Both the panel with logo and the speakers are nice upgrades, but to be honest I would suggest that Drewblood's sticker is a much easier and cheaper solution than replacing the panel. I would have gone for a sticker instead myself if I had not got the panel for free

At one point I wrote Rick and asked if pps would be making a Williams sticker and he said no. He said I'd have to buy the whole speaker panel. I'm not gonna buy a whole panel, but would have bought the sticker in a heartbeat. Oh well pps's loss......

You know, I'm surprised there hasn't been a Chinese rip off of the Williams Logo done in a chrome adhesive piece. I've pretty much seen everything else reproduced, how come this hasn't hit ebay yet?

QSS

Before my friend made the decal I have on my machine, my plan was to take a hi-res picture/scan of the bottom of the front of my MMR cab then resize the image, bring it to a local sign shop(where he had the current decal printed) and have one made up. Here's a pic of what I'm talking about

image_(resized).jpg

Great thread. My goal is to join this club. I think the most impressive thing about this pin is how few are back up for sale. Despite some early issues it seems most are keeping them long term. Ill be looking in the MD/PA/VA area down the road

Thanks for posting this. Looks good, I will do exactly that. That blank space sure is begging for something. And why they didnt put the LE plaque with your numbered pin in that space is beyond me.

I'll be joining the MMR club very soon. I just plopped down a 1K deposit on a standard edition (from Game Room Guys) with shaker motor installed. I was way too late to jump on the LE train, so I'll just settle for the standard since it doesn't seem like I'll be missing out on anything.

I'm still learning pinball tech, so I'm not really very skilled at mods, fixes, and adjustments - I usually rely on other people for help. Since this will be my first new game, I'm hoping to just be able to enjoy it for awhile and not worry about much. But I did have a few initial questions that I wanted to ask.

1 - Mirror blades. Are they a good fit for MMR or are they too tight of a fit? I have some mirror blades on my Star Wars Data East. While they look good, I basically can't lift the playfield up without a very high risk of them getting scraped up. Is it easier with MMR or are most people just leaving them alone?

2 - Cliffy protectors. I know MM has a pretty big set of cliffy's available. I've always been one who likes to take precautions against future wear. Are they really needed or does the clearcoated playfield provide enough protection that I won't need to worry?

I probably won't have mine until summer, but definitely looking forward to it!

My friend has an MMR and put Mirror Blades in. It looks amazing. Def makes it look even better.

I'm also getting a MM standard but my dealer said that Stern won't install the shakers. Is this something that the Gameroom Guys are going to do for you? Not a big a deal since the shaker motor is easy to install. Just wondering.

Yes. While I'm sure the install is easy if you know what you're doing, I'm not at that stage yet. They offer standard versions with the shaker motor installed (by them) for an extra couple hundred, which is why I did it. Or else I probably would have just purchased from PPS directly.

As for the blades - yes, they always look awesome regardless. I'd be more curious if he has any trouble lifting the playfield with them on. Some games seem to have no trouble while others are insanely tight. No one wants to burn a 100 dollar investment when you need a playfield lift.

I installed a set of gold mirror blades from PDI and they look fantastic. Since there can be variation between games, it is best if you measure the total available side gap. I believe I measured 3-4mm. No issue with lifting the playfield with them installed, just go slow.