Hello everyone. Complete noob here. I picked up my first ever machine 4/6/2019 at the Ohio Pinball Show http://www.ohiopinballshow.com/ and its the Stern Monopoly machine. I'm very happy b/c I really like this particular machine due to its price, easy maintenance and parts. I've always been a player but this is my first foray into ownership. I'm sure its not going to be my only machine.

I've cleaned it up with some of the products recommended by the previous owner and people at the show and now its time to start with the fix/upgrade phase. I'm currently looking to upgrade the lights to LED and I have a rubber kit on the way for some immediate fixes. I'm not sure I'll go as far as Apollon did but that's amazing looking. I'll be fixing a few things before its 100% but its totally playable now and its awesome. I see there's a ton of homework i have to do before I get too deep in upgrades so I'm going to do just that.

So my question might be answered elsewhere and I just can't find it yet. Is there any one stop shop list of parts - including upgrade options (lights and actuators etc)?

Anyway, thanks for having all this great info for me right off the bat to go on.

p.s. I'm thinking of just buying a few boxes of LED's to use b/c I'm sure I'll use them.

There is complete kits at bulb sites already (Comet) but, if you only want to upgrade the GI (general illumination) to one color ie: warm or natural white and do your inserts with regular white or "color match" the buld to the insert you can basically count them all up and figure it out (there is lots!!

There is a great site called Titan for your rubbers and posts. Many pins already have had people color match or have ready made up kits there also.
Good luck, ask questions, people help and are fantastic here.

As many have said, don't pour water on that pin, it might start multiplying quickly!!!

Also, if it hasn't been done to your pin yet...read back into this thread about the ramp upgrade and protection kit it needs.

edit* - https://www.titanpinball.com/kits/index.php/browse/byGame/3180 titan ring kits pre made

This is getting me close but that comet site only has a "Stern LED OCD" board in the monopoly search results. the board seems cool but its not a full light kit. I'm seeing light kits around the interwebs but I don't know which sites to trust. I'm having and putting a lot of faith into pinside here because of the wealth of knowledge and recent heavy activity and great stuff that's already here. I want to keep it as close to original lighting as possible. This pin is already very well designed and built and I'm not looking to make it too different. Add on's and upgrades will be necessary and I really like all the attention to detail with the "extras" people put into it. I'll be hitting the garage sales and swap meets for old monopoly stuff to use for flare.

Too late, I have one mystery pin coming to me for free repair/learn labor. I'm an IT guy by trade and the repairs and work that I'm seeing are very much in my wheelhouse already. I just need good mentors and resources. I'm already building that too.
I drank the Kool Aid when I bought this pin and I don't see that its effects are going away any time soon.

this one is high on my list too I haven't found it yet but I am going through the old posts when I can.

All the ramp flap info is on page 9 of this thread, including links and templates.
I bought an 8 pack of the 1/32 or 1/16 or so off amazon for like 18$.
I printed the templates on my printer and traced it to the sheet and cut with decent scissors, drilled the holes and it worked perfectly!!

Comet is a fantastic bulb site with great service. Also Cointaker for bulbs and many products. Pinball Life for parts and Marco for parts, all very reputable.

I tossed in 2smd’s in my GI. Will brighten the pin up a lot!

I also found the dmd and backglass to have tons of glare on my glass. I spent the whopping $8 I think and bought a “bent plastic” for it, helped out
Gameplay

If you don’t want to “change” anything. Check out some videos and/or the TNT amusements YouTube page he did a video on Monopoly. Get an idea on what lights looks good and the ones that don’t.
IMO, brighter GI bulbs and some insert matching makes the pin really pop and makes the game look great. I’m not a fan of GI coloring and rainbow puke playfield, I like them bright and playable

I always use 2smd sunlight bulbs from comet for all GI and behind translites. For inserts though I always color match the bulbs so I get the true color that was intended. Lighted star posts are also really cool and a cheap way to make your game pop.

okay, I've RTFM and found the light matrix with sizes (page 18-24) and the actual bulb types and counts (page 62-64) and such but I'm not seeing how it indicates color or intensity yet completely. I'll have to just map all of them and document as I go so i can homebrew my own light kit.
The TNT amusements video was just what I needed as motivation for the light types. I'm not following you on the glare fix and I'd like to do that myself b/c its a little annoying. I'll re-asses once I've got the lights in.
I'm also planning to get some monopoly parts to mount throughout the machine (game pieces etc). Any thoughts on mounting that stuff on the acrylic would be welcome.

Again, thanks for all the info.... I'm slightly obsessed now.

Bent plastic

https://www.pinballlife.com/bent-plastic-store.html

I know, but for this pin in particular, the glare is out of hand for some reason. Doesn’t bother me for gameplay, but looking at them otherwise isn’t the best

Traded my Monopoly off today, so out of the club. Thanks for all the good info, and keep on rollin’ those dice and raking in the points.

Thanks @northerndude for the info, I'm totally into fixing the glare b/c its annyone to me as well.
My first fix is in (replacing the batteries in the backbox) and I've already screwed something up in the process. The lights are out other than the GI and I'm thumbing through the manual and forums to fix it. Still amazed at the support and knowledge already available.

My kids and I are creating our own LED upgrade list to do the upgrade ourselves without a kit (or b/c we are OCD). I'll be sure to post it here once I'm done. We will be ordering from Comet since they seem to be the best lighting (nerd friendly) site out there.

Hey everyone,

Having an odd issue with my monopoly game. My bank door opts are a little flaky, so I disabled it. Whenever I land on the pink properties st-charles Virginia Ave and States Ave, the mode is the rotating numbers. Well on the first number, if I shoot it up the center ramp (eg the bank) the game resets as soon as it hits the first ramp switch, and the ball drains to the jail. I am guessing that maybe the ball drains to the jail because the game resets and the magnet gets disabled, but I dont understand why the game resets. I have found that if I shoot the side shot to stop the first number, I dont have this issue. But every time without fail, the game resets if I shoot the ramp for the first number.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can check? Is this maybe a known bug with bank door disabled? I'll have to enable it and see. The game wasnt doing this before I disabled the bank door. Only 1.5 of my opto sensors work. I say 1.5 because one works and the other is flaky/ the light isn't quite strong enough and detects phantom hits.

Interestingly enough, the last time this happened, it didnt restart but the dmd went blank and the music kept going. It also smoked the controlled lamps fuse (f22 I think). I've read that likely suspect is bridge rectifier brdg20. I tried to take a video but then I realized too late that I wasnt taking a video. ‍♀️

Thanks for any help!

Hey everyone. I am looking for a little advice here. I have had my Monopoly for a few months and have been slowly bringing it back from the dead. It was routed a fair amount and needed a lot of love. I have done a complete topside tear down and rebuild of the playfield and am fixing/replacing things as I go. Now its time to tackle the cabinet. For sure, I am going to get the armor repainted. My question is about the decals.

Is it worth the effort to re-decal the cab? I’ve never done it and don’t know the exact process, but assume it’s not too bad. Just not sure if it’s worth it...or if it’s worth getting the ColorDMD for this title.

Thanks!

If you get the artwork for cabinet, its not that hard to do. I did my very first cabinet decal last fall to my Fish Tales and it was easier than you would think. There is TONS of videos and tutorials for it out there. I had very high anxiety going in and it wasn't as big of a deal I was making it.

Hello fellow Monopoly owners. I just joined the club and enjoying it a lot!

Could I please ask how your BANK optical board sits under the playfield? Mine has very long screws and 3/4 inch spacers. So it's not flush with the bottom of the playfield. I'm having trouble lining up the optical receivers and transmitters... and wondering how this board should sit under the playfield.

Pics would be wonderful but not necessary

Thanks in advance!

Can someone please take a better picture or describe how the playfield post is held in place by this piece of hardware that seems to sit flush with the playfield.
This picture is not of my game....mine has a long screw and nut coming through the bottom making the positioning of the opto board impossible.

Thank you in advance!
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Got the answers to my above 2 questions from someone local.
Pics attached in case it can help anyone in the future
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Hello everyone, I have joined the Monopoly Club, picked up my second pin this week and love it. it’s in great condition overall and plays just right. I will have to add the led’s also fix the speaker mod. So far so good on everything else. Any advice on what a new club member so do will be awesome.

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Read back through, you will get a lot of good tips for ramp covers, tips and tricks. Good luck

Thank you Lamprey

I printed some out last night and they look awesome

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Quick question

Does the water works flipper rotate clockwise or counter clockwise?

Counter

Thank you

I was watching a few videos on YouTube and for some reason it was going clockwise! I thought it look different

I believe there was a software rev where it went in both directions.

Yes, that is correct. On the Monopoly that I previously owned, the flipper went in both directions. It would spin one way for a period of time, and then change direction. If you look under the playfield, you will notice that the wheel that the flipper is connected to has 3 plastics attached to it, with a small protrusion on one edge. As the wheel is spinning, that bump would make contact with a switch, which I guess that after a series of switch throws were noted, the wheel would change direction. I heard that a later code update had the wheel only going in the counterclockwise direction, because sometimes the ball would get caught between the flipper and the post when spinning clockwise. I had that happen every so often, but when the flipper changed direction, it would be freed.

Speaker Hum Gone

Sounds great now

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I tried the speaker hum fix from sterns website in the bulletin. Didn't do shit for me. Still hums like a bastard

Led upgrade done, looks amazing. What a difference the leds have done. Love it

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Saw this today. It has the same sound bites from the pin. Looks like it came out around the same time

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I saw one of these on E-Bay or someplace like that. Looks neat.

While the LED's are great, yours is a bit too "rainbow pukey" in the GI for my taste, BUT, that's why we have to each their own. I color match my inserts, but usually keep my GI white and bright.

My speaker light kit came in the other day. Tossed them in my game this evening. I like it.

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Looks good and breaks up all that plain black nicely. Are these the ones from Pinball Life?

http://www.speakerlightkits.com/

Bought a few now, really like the ease of install and they work!

Yes I have to tweet it a little, I am
New to all this, if you can send me a pic of your play field,

I can't yet! LOL. The guy I bought it from had it full of greens and blues and I haven't taken it apart yet to get them all out. He had the entire back row upper full of blues, (it was kind of the smurf pin) I took half them out (easy to get to) and put in white frosted so far. I just need to take them time to get to them all yet.

Sorry I called it rainbow pukey, I only called it that because there is a huge thread called " the rainbow puke club" with pins full of colored led's in G.I of pins

Finally finished rehabbing this copy. Lots of work, but I learned a lot along the way.

- Playfield mostly stripped and cleaned
- all 6 pops rebuilt
- numerous switch adjusted
- cabinet sanded and new decals
- paint touch up
- speaker hum fix
- reflow of various connector headers
- lithium battery board installed
- revamped LEDs
- new DMD
- ramp cover
- powder coated armor
- cleaning, cleaning, cleaning

4 months, but finally ready for some play.

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Your games looks great. Love the red paint

I was lucky enough to join this club a few days ago, with a single owner HUO machine with an extremely low amount of plays on it. My whole family is loving it. I look forward to reading through this thread and learning more about it.

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Also, is this a common place to get a ball stuck on this pin? I’ve had it happen a few times already, and am just curious if others have experienced this as well

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I told ya about the ramp protectors!!

Oh yeah, you definitely need the ramp mods here; otherwise, the ball will just keep flying off. A design flaw, to be sure.

You can make your own using Lexan. Here is the link for the patterns:
http://pinballzone.com/tech/monopolyflap.php

(PS: WARNING!! DON'T click the link for the supposed "ready made" ones, marked "King of Payne". It takes you somewhere you might not wish to be. Consider yourself warned!!)

Game of my life tonight.

Prob still a small fry compared to you pro players

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I love Monopoly, and have been enjoying it for years. These pics are really dope!

The game looks very sharp and I love the new cabinet decals are they from the guy who sells on ebay?

Been quiet in here lately.
I had no instruction cards on my game and I didn't find a lot of options in the pin community... so I just made one of my own for the left side space.
I'm the farthest thing from graphic designer, but there is a lot of clipart available for Monopoly so it was easy to put together.
Anyways, posting it here in case anyone is looking for something to fill that space like I was.
Happy holidays!

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Can someone please take a pic of the wiring under the service switches? Mine is rigged up in some kind of hack and I have to push both the red and green at same time to make it work and I would like to correct this. Here is a pic of what mine currently looks like.

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Looks like I need to get out the meter. Thx @Lamprey

I made this cool 3D Bank mod for Monopoly when I had the Pin, I no longer have it but I wanted to share my 3D bank Mod with you, I can print them for you guys for a Fee if needed, I am going to redesign it and will include the letters Bank and a Clock in the top peak. I will upload the new 3D design

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