Great thread!

I'm working on a couple EMods, mostly just lighting. Nice to see I'm not the only one.

I use a dry erase marker and write it on the backglass or playfield glass. wipes right off. I suppose if you wanted to be period correct you could use a grease pencil

I just zombied the thread for an update, that's a pretty cool mod.

Lately I've just been taking pics with my phone for high scores but that doesn't help unless I'm the only one playing (I usually am).

Seems like you could take this one step further and add LCD screen in place of the reels behind the glass, but that's not really in the spirit of an EM.

00X0X_8zSbPXjcnqC_600x450.jpg
I bought this over a year ago to use as a virtual pin cabinet. It's totally gutted and was sold as a coffee table project. The playfield was in such nice shape that I've been looking for a project Aztec so I can get it running again but I've been unable to find one cheap enough to make it worthwhile.

My plan is to get a P-ROC or FAST or Arduino based controller and reprogram it to work again. I was going to put a virtual backbox on it with the art and score reels, sort of a EM/SS hybrid.

Then I thought, why not just put a small LED projector where the neck was and project it on the wall behind the pin lol.

Anyway, this is slightly off topic for this thread but I do like how some folks are modifying and modernizing EM's without getting chastised for it.

That would be cool. I have a Big Ben single player head, but the problem is what you see in that pic is all I have, it's gutted and has no bottom board.

Yup. But for whatever reason, these playfields seem to hold up. Every one I've seen has a playfield as nice as mine. I can't find one for under $400 and at that price, I'd likely buy the controller board and make my own.

I'm sure one will turn up someday, hopefully before I finish my other projects and start on that virtual pin

So I came up with an idea the other night, tell me what you think or if it's been done before.

I want to make a danger box. It will connect to the tilt bob and allow for a buzzer and timer so you can add a warning(s) to EM games before a full tilt.

Yea, First, it's modifying and EM and on top of that, it's modifying the gameplay and possibly the rules.

I would still want to make it electromechanical which I think is possible with a stepper or possibly a score reel.

If you had a solid state pin that came factory with no tilt warning and there was a ROM that added 2 dangers, would you update the ROM?

- Need a tip-toe emote

I think you might want the tilt bob to go to a relay that connects to the stepper.

I have an old rotary dial phone, I was thinking about using the ringer bell for the warning. How would you set a delay of say 2 seconds before it checks the bob switch again?

I think a resetting stepper is the way to go, like a credit or ball unit. I can probably do the delay with a capacitor and relay so it holds for a few seconds before is decrements the "Danger Unit". If I use a credit unit, I can make the warnings configurable and the timing could be adjusted with a potentiometer.

It might also be fun to have the credit (or some other light) light go on when you are at your final (or only) warning, Maybe have another bulb behind the 'TILT' in the backglass with a blinker in it.

That looks factory. nice job.

That must have been A LOT of rivets.

Wow. It's fun to think about these things, but I don't see it as practical to actually do unless you really hate tilts. It would be really easy to rig a small circuit in a project box that does all this with some alligator clips you could put on the tilt bob, but that kind of goes against the spirit of and EM mod.

Looks nice!

I had a questions. I recently picked up a Spirit of 76'. It has white posts just like nick's fireball. I was thinking about swapping them out with some clear posts I have. Any opinions on how that would look?

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2293

OK, Here's a EM Mod question, this seems like the best place for it.

I picked up an Argosy. Normally the spinner is lit by an "alternating" cam driven off the match unit. The little beak on the coil is broke so it doesn't turn the cam. Over time previous owners have messed with it so the springs and switch are a bit mangled. If I manually close the switch the spinner does light.

That aside, having the spinner randomly turn on and off is kind of crappy. What I want to do is have the spinner light come on when the player gets double bonus by completing the target back and shooting the kickout hole.

The spinner is lit by the Change Relay. The double bonus is lit by the Double Bonus Relay.

Can I just jump the Double Bonus coil to the Change coil so they both are energized by the Double Bonus Relay?

I'm still looking for advice on this if anyone has any. Thanks!

Any suggestions on how to make Special worth points instead of replay's?

I tried this. I jumped a wire from the coil on the double bonus relay to the change relay and when double bonus is lit, it lights the spinner. Pretty easy mod, I just used a jumper wire with clips. I can post pics if anyone needs them.