I have three questions regarding the rules in PinBot...

1) How, exactly, do you enable the elusive "million activated"? When I'm having a really good game after several balls it seems to happen almost randomly. Is there a logic to how to activate it?

2) When I make it to the sun, light SPECIAL and fail to get it before the ball drains, almost always I don't get the option to hit it again. Once the ball drains SPECIAL is no longer lit since it wont carry over to the next ball.... usually. I noticed once in a while it will stay it throughout the next ball for another chance to hit it. Why is this????? I noticed sometimes the SPECIAL is flashing, other times its solid.

3) This is probably a dumb question but how do you build the solar value? I know the under-ramp target feeds the points into the solar value (ready-ing it for collection via jackpot) but what exactly builds up the queue of points pending to be inserted in the solar value upon hitting the under-ramp solar value target?

For anyone interested I made a few mods to my PinBot, one of them adding another ramp/habitrail to the upper playfield. Some may think what I did to my machine is blasphemous, however it is all reversible and has switches to disable the mods. The idea for my first mod was to make the game easier for kids and friends who are novice pinballers. My PinBot didn't get too much play compared to my other machines because of how easy balls drain down the dreaded side drains.

If you're bored take a look at my thread in the mods section of the forum at:

newer mods:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinbot-mod-part-2

and the orignal mods:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinbot-mods

Video clips of the mods are included in the threads.

Yes. I have it in my pinbot and it looks awesome. The stock code doesn't work well because literally every event on the table triggers the same chase pattern and it literally just goes on constantly during game play and doesn't seem interactive at all. I tweaked the code a lot so that less playfield events trigger lighting functions and also trigger different ones. I also tweaked the stock functions a bit to make them slower and less 'in your face'. It makes a HUGE difference. I'd be happy to share it with you.

If you watch the serial monitor on the arduino during gameplay you notice that it's not consistent. The pinduino works perfect and by no means is the original code flawed. I think the issueis noise on the input pins that the pinduino Inputs read as false HIGH's. I went through one by one and weeded out the playfield events that give consistent values in the serial monitor (there are I think four). If only these functions in the code are used to trigger lighting events then it works almost flawlessly.

Aside from that, I imagine tournament roms don't carry over unearned jackpot (solar value) to the next game for opponents to collect? I'm curious what other differences there are (if any) with tournament roms?

Just curious what type of wax do you use?

Thanks for the advice, gonna try the paste. Haven't waxed my pins in a looooong time.

Keep me posted about the topper if you successfully fabricate a reproduction. I'm looking for one.

Looking for a visor/helmet for my machine. If anyone has one from a parted out machine let me know, I might be interested.

Thanks!

Looking for a visor/helmet for my machine. If anyone has one from a parted out machine let me know, I might be interested. I've never seen reproductions of the actual visor that lifts.

Also looking for the little clear plastic with the rocket ship decal that goes over the bottom of the vortex ramp.

Thanks!

Thanks for the link!

I recently purchased a new Visor for my PinBot. Plastic part only. The old visor plastic is attached to the metal hinge piece via rivets. I don't have the equipment for placing these types of rivets and was instead going to simply use small nuts/washer/bolts with blue loctite. Does anyone happen to know what size holes these are? I need to purchase a drill bit set for drilling out the old rivets on the original metal hinge piece and purchase the hardware listed above.

Any advice on this? Suggestions on type (cobalt/titanium) of drill bit for drilling out the metal rivets and attaching new visor? Any way to remove old rivets without drilling? Any unforeseen problems I will run into?

Thanks!

Thank you!

Thanks for the heads up. I ended up drilling the rivets out of the old visor that was cracked in pieces and beyond repair. I used a thin carbide drill bit and got the rivets out in a about 2 minutes. After about 2mm of the bottom of the rivet was drilled out the "rolled" portion popped right off. Much easier than I expected and no damage to the original plastic (even though its trash anyways haha).

I notice when my visor opens about 1/2 of the way, it seems to stick and then 'pop' up suddenly the rest of the way, almost like there is some resistance somewhere. When the visor closes it is very smooth and not jumpy at all. Is this a common issue? any easy fixes?

Same here! Let me know as well if you make a topper or know of any repos for sale.

During attract mode on my pinbot only the right eye visor lamp flashes. The left one does not. During gameplay they both work fine. Is this how the attract mode is supposed to be or is there something wrong with my machine? Is there a bulb back there that I am missing that only goes on during attract mode and not during gameplay for the left eye?

20210529_233254 (resized).jpg

I will check. Are these two flashers used during gameplay or only in attract mode when the visor opens? The flashers behind the saucers, not underneath. It's funny I never really paid attention to it during a game.

I'm having a minor but irritating problem with my PinBot. There are 4 flasher bulbs under the visor (two behind the visor and two under the kickout holes). During game play all 4 flashers operate normally and flash as they should when the visor is open. During attract mode however, when the visor opens only the two RIGHT side flashers flash. The two left side remain dark.

Can anyone please confirm if this is normal or if there is something wrong with my pin. Just watch the attract mode cycle and see if the left side visor flashers operate during attract mode.

If they do (which I assume they should), does anyone here know why the flashers would operate correctly during game play but fail during attract mode? I've referenced the manual but can't find anything pertaining to this.

Thanks!

Thank you! That is exactly what I wanted to know. On my machine during that exact same attract mode sequence the two LEFT bulbs under the visor do not light at all (and don't do the left-right-left-right etc. strobing), but during game play they work just fine. I have no idea why.

This is more of a system 11 question in general, but in my fully functioning pinbot, very rarely I have an issue where, after a session of several long games where the machine has been played hard and on for well over an hour, the drop target reset solenoid suddenly loses almost all of its power and can't push the targets up all the way, and the machine keeps pulsing the solenoid every 2 seconds trying to reset the bank without success. I've actually had this happen on my Taxi as well with the Lola target bank. Doesn't happen often, maybe once every 75-100 games on both machines. Any ideas?

Have the topper domes ever been reproduced or any for sale? Been looking for a long time with no luck.

Thanks!

Question,

On the warming resistor board for the topper flasher bulbs there are 2 sets of ceramic resistors, short and long. What are the ohms on each? My pin bot is missing topper and the resistors have been cut from the board. I'm in the process of getting a new topper dome and getting the lighting for it to work properly. Only took 11 years better late than never.

Thanks!

Regarding the warming resistors, the incandescent flashers should technically still work without them but will just flash much more dim since the filaments are cold, correct?

I have all but one of the 5 ohm resistors on hand but have an excess of the 330 ohm. Would putting a 330 in place of one of the 5 ohms have any serious consequences or simply not heat one of the bulbs all the way?

On that note, if I just use LED can I just omit the resistors altogether? I should be able to use LED for topper and keep incandescent flashers on PF, right?

If using leds,

To be clear, you mean in place of the four 5-ohm dropping resistors I would need to parallel four 330's for 82.5 ohms each, requiring sixteen 330-ohm resistors (and leaving the warming resistors off entirely) ?

Or do you mean simply substitute the 330's in place of the 5-ohm and leave the warming resistors off entirely?

Sorry for the confusion.

Understood, thank you for clarifying!

Anyone know if a wiring diagram is available that shows the wire colors and setup for the topper? I found a few photos but the resolution isn't the best. Looks like a few wires are daisychained but can't see for sure. The output Molex connector on my machine is present but the harness and bulb sockets are gone, have to make myself.

Perfect. Thank you!

Not that important but I'm guessing that on the topper resistor board, of the "ground", "driver", and "lamp" labeled wires printed on the board, the "driver" is the supply to the warming resistors and "lamp" controls the on/off?

Thanks for the clarification.

New topper wiring and sockets installation with LED's worked perfectly. Thank you for the help, very appreciated!

I had the same problem on my Pinbot for years and just accepted it. Turns out after I sprayed some contact cleaner on the sound board volume pot and moved it around a bit the hum literally vanished and my machine is dead silent now.

Are you using PEMBOT rom?

To answer a few of your questions:

You don't need to make any modifications to use LED's instead of traditional incandescent bulbs (except cutting warming transistors for flasher bulbs).

I kept my playfield flashers incandescent only because I didn't have any LED flashers that would fit through the playfield holes up behind the visor, although I'm sure they make them. LED flashers definitely 'pop' since they are brighter and turn on instantly but there is something to be said for the incandescent in my opinion. I do like how they fade in and out just slow enough for the eye to catch. Just a matter of opinion. I rebuilt my topper circuit and converted to LED flashers and removed the warming resistors. I used super brite pink flashers under the topper and man does it light the room up when the topper goes off.

In regards to the ROM, I have the PEMBOT rom installed and its just... amazing. Deeper rule set, 'engery drain' penalties, multiple scoring modes, jackpot caps and resets, and most of all a ball saver. I know some people don't like mods and I totally respect that but I personally love the PEMBOT code.

Regarding additional lighting I installed Pinduino in mine and I love it but the code needed some tweaking in my opinion. The lighting is interactive and the code is ingenious, however there are so many triggers that the additional Pinduino lighting just fires off constantly to the point of being annoying. I modified the code in mine to dial it back. For example, I changed the code a bit so the RGB lighting sequences only trigger when a ramp shot is made, the pop bumpers are triggered, the eject hole is obtained or the drop target bank is completed. And when it does trigger the light show only lasts for a few seconds or a half-second depending. Also changed the code so during attract mode it only triggers randomly every 3-5 minutes and for only around 20 seconds at a time. Again, just personal preference here. But I do highly recommend the mod. The Pindiuno board allows for a second RGB strip as well. I used the second one running along the topper for additional interactive lighting. The code is very easy to modify to interact with a second RGB strip.

I had the same issue with the drop target bank solenoid intermittently not having enough kick to push the targets back up. The issue for me was faulty connections on the wire harness. Reflowed solder, tightened contacts and used contact cleaner and haven't had he problem since. But the problem could be a failing solenoid or driver transistor as well.

Lastly, I built a custom made ramp that connects the upper playfield to the left flipper return lane, added a rollover switch to the habitrail lane that triggers the ADV PLANET target, and added an additional arduino that closes the side drains for 30 seconds when the ramp is completed (and advances planet after 3+ ramps are made within 30 seconds) while displaying a countdown time on an illuminated LCD. All of these homebrew mods can be disabled with a switch under the cab. Here are links to the mods if you're interested (these are old):

Original mod:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinbot-mods

Second mod:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinbot-mod-part-2

Needless to say the game has a lot of room for mods if that's what you're in to. The drain blocking mod definetely makes the game too easy for experienced players hence I added a disable switch. PinBot is a drain monster and this mod makes the game much more entertaining (and less frustrating) for friends and family.

Hope this helps!

Ask Idealjoker about obtaining the rom patch as he wrote it. Stephan at hobbyroms.com has burned several pinball roms for me over the years and all worked perfectly. provide him a rom file via email and he'd burn and mail me the chips.

You're welcome!

I made one like that for my machine but i used copper romex wire inside a blue nylon housing for the rails.

The homebrew one I made years ago has a ball catcher to prevent that.

When I came up with the idea for mine (see photo) it had nothing to do with ball draining. I liked the idea of the upper playfield being able to deliver the ball to either flipper lane and thought a cross-playfield habitrail would look cool. Just personal preference that I'm sure many others will despise.

10211d70a5a87ff6d1b6fa536cdb8cd65bf08e33 (resized).jpg

Well getting the ball stuck in the visor as it's closing is a first for me.

20230613_175543 (resized).jpg

I'll try to get some pics and a video this weekend. It's an 8 segment rgb led strip that uses an Arduino to control the lighting sequence. Normally it's just the pinbot colors as seen in the photo but occasionally in attract mode the lights will periodically flicker and when the ramp is completed it does a knight rider 'scanning' animation.

If you reach the sun and light special it flashes and if you don't attain it on that ball then the chance doesn't normally carry over to the next ball. However, once in a while the special lamp lights solid at the end of the ball if it's not attained and the chance to achieve the special remains available the rest of the game. Why is this? How do you enable the special to carry over to next ball if not attained?

I will experiment and report back.

You're post intrigued me and I ended up ordering one. What a difference. What seemed like strobing lamp seizures now appears how the programmers intended it to with the excellent dimming and 'twinkling' effects that nearly every pf lamp uses in attract mode. Well worth it. This is the first I've actually seen a true pinbot attract mode since every machine I've ever seen has been led. Only observation is the pf lamps overall seem just a tiny bit dimmer (with default settings) compared to unmodded but that could be my imagination.

Good idea. I'm contemplating one for my space shuttle as well.

Thanks for confirming it works in SS. I'll be doing the ocd upgrade soon.