I used electrical tape on mine, has been fine for years.

Does anybody know if Q37 and Q38 diodes control the left flipper hold power ?

Ok - I have looked through a bunch of places to find answers before posting…but trying to install a pc running Pinbox so I can upgrade to Mypinballs code and my original pc seems to lag at times.

So I have the pc all working and it boots into RFM automatically the game plays fine. But how do people get the new board to start from the power switch right now I have to jumper the board each time. Also my game settings are not storing in Pinbox if I shut it down.

I had help on Pinbox so I am just lost on this….

I see there is a computer shut down board on pinball life. Is that what others use?

https://www.pinballlife.com/computer-startupshutdown-controller-kit.html

Or what do you do to just turn your RFM on and off simply?

I can't remember exactly what the wording was but in the bios there is a power management setting and you want to set it to resume last state or something of that nature. Keep the pc in the on position and when you powered up the pin it will boot the pc as well.

Yep - I got the bios set and that was it. Is anyone with Pinbox using that computer shutdown board?

Just a thing or two I noticed with Pinbox and a new PC - the graphics seem more bright, I already had a LCD screen so nothing chnaged between the two just seems like a new machine made it more bright. Boots faster of course, scenes move a little faster but not to the part of any alteration to the game play. I like it....my machine now needs a shop job. It is my longest kept machine - I think honestly because it fits in the room I have with the other machines the best but with Pinbox and soon the new code from MyPinballs - I expect game play will increase. I was always hesitant to turn it on because of waiting for it to boot etc. Now that is less of an issue.

I used this stuff, cut to fit, so the ball doesn't contact the metal edges of the tray.

https://www.michaels.com/9x12-adhesive-foam-sheet-by-creatology/M10032002.html

I used some black tape and it works fine. It softens the blow and it looks well.

I'm posting this just in case anyone runs into the same issues I was having getting my game to update with MyPinballs software found here: https://mypinballs.com/software/pinball2000/software_updater.jsp

This cable worked great for me and someone else in the comments, make sure you select the version (Null modem pinout: 2-TXD, 3-RXD 5-GND, 7-CTS. 8-RT) -
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078MCCX3C

The part in the update process that tripped me up the most was making sure the cable was on the correct COM port. I didn't see this mentioned anywhere in the documentation, but it seems as though the cable you use needs to be using the port number COM1. If it was using any other port number the MyPinballs updater app would crash.

If the cable is set to some other port number, to change the port on windows. Open up the 'Device Manager', expand the 'Ports', right click the cable you plugged in and select properties, go to Port settings, then advanced. Here, select COM Port Number: 'COM1'.

As an unrelated note. I would also suggest running the app as an administrator.

IMO it's definitely worth the update. The tweaks MyPinballs has made are really delightful and add a great layer of fun to the game. Be sure to enable drunk flippers in the settings!

To update, I had in stock an old computer with port com.
Be conservative is really good, you just need space to stock.
I have formated it and just installed windows XP and the original updater soft from williams bally.
You get it easily on the web.
Then I downloaded the 2.24 from My Pinball, Thks Applejuice.
Stuck it in the right file.
I used this cable:
ebay.com link: CABLE SERIE RS232 Sub D9 femelle femelle Null Modem 1 8 m PC DEMODULATEUR
Just plugged and it worked without bug.

Thanks for the feedback, though i should stay if you use the leads we recommend then there are no com port issues. We actually use our test win10 laptop on com3, but anyway. The issues with crashes are always to do with the leads and the drivers for windows. There are many cheap and rubbish leads that should be avoided unless you want hassle. However, we are always working to improve our update app to fix potential crashes/issues from bad drivers or lead stuff though so this info/feedback is useful to get. Thanks.

Anyone have the shaker go so hard the game resets?

PXL_20220711_015736310.jpg

I used some black vinyl with the wife's Cricut Machine, had to do 1-2 revisions, and it worked...

See higher, on 107 sheet : I mounted a regulator on the shaker to dim the shaking.
Otherwise, I had some resets even before mounting the shaker.
I searched everywhere, and finally found that the Prism Board was moving in the slot on the Mother board.
I moved it to the slot just near, no moving anymore, and no more resets since done.

I’m going to guess the shaker is over taxing the power supply and causing a voltage drop which triggers the reboot.

My guess is the vibrations are causing issues with the computer. Mechanical hard drives don't do well with vibrations and I doubt the ports on the computer were designed for that either.

On mine, the Prism board was moving in the mother board port.
I think it is due to pluggings and unpluggings.
I just switched to the port next, which is the same.
Now it is working fine.
On these computers, you had no moving sensible parts, as running hard disk.
The conceptors choosed the Prism for this reason, to resist to players who shaked the Pinball hard.
So the shaker is no problem, especially f you mount the regulator, it is dimmed.

Screw your cables in to the ports properly and you shouldn't have any issues with vibrations. If you are running Nucore/Pinbox, small SSD's are so cheap now, buy one and use that instead of a mechanical drive. You will get snappier boot up too, probably.

Are RFM playfields currently produced by anyone?

*double post*

Check PPS's website; but I think not.
Check PPS's website; but I think not.

I've been looking for one for a while with no luck

I'm still waiting on Planetary to start producing the playfield glass again. They tell me it will happen, but no timeline provided. https://www.planetarypinball.com/product/pinball-2000-playfield-glass-rfm-swe1/

Hi all, proud new owner of a RFM, I love it! My game came with all LEDs for GI and inserts, I wanna go back to incandescent for at least the GI, but I've seen some of your games have a couple of red lamp covers (#03-8063-4). However, I can't seem to find anything about it listed in the manual, does anyone have a list of how many covers I'm supposed to use, and the location of all of them?

Thx in advance.

This is the location of all red bulbs. I use red glass #44's in all the areas shown

rfm red bulbs - 2 (resized).jpegrfm red bulbs - 1 (resized).jpeg

Thx a lot, gonna have to buy me some of those, looks a lot better!

On a sidenote, i noticed the clock/date gets reset to Jan 1, 2022 12:00:00 everytime i shut down the game, the score of the last played game also shows 00, highscores do get saved though. Replacing the battery on the motherboard is gonna fix that right?

Yes, it will fix it.
Be sure that the battery doesn't move in the support.
I replaced it last weeks, and I had the issue.
I had to work on the small metallic blade to tighten it.

Asked this over in the playfield restoration thread but figured I'd post it here as well.

I have an RFM playfield with a broken insert where about 1/3 of it fell out (the clear is still intact) and I'm thinking about to options to fix it.

I'm thinking the safest way would be for me to flip the playfield, insert the broken piece back into the hole and add a bit of clear epoxy to solidify it.

Option 2 would be to try to remove the insert without breaking the clear (not likely) and inserting a new insert.

Final option would be to cut it out and replace it, as well as a few others that have melting issues from old lamps, and then put an overlay on it.

If I end up going the overlay route, does anyone have any experience with Pinball Center overlays? Curious if they are any good and if I should put a playfield protector over the overlay. Any advice would be appreciated.

You won't be able to buy from pinball.center.
They will not ship to the USA

Really!?! WTF is with that? Wonder if they'll ship to an APO/FPO.

Well, I don't know about the U.S. but they do ship to Canada, I bought a few parts for my RFM last year, they have in stock the green saucers, the only source I found.....

Use a mail forwarder and ship it yourself doesn’t cost much - I have done it for years with pinball centre. It’s not hard just paying to ship it twice but they have stuff no one else has…

Try mailboxde.com

That is what I use…

Pinball Life has chrome saucers with a green lens same price as pinball centre

I just ordered from them today… for some parts that even with shipping to the USA are cheaper then local stuff.

I maybe buy from them once a year…

It’s not hard to figure out the shipping.

Can’t you buy the lens and place the decal over it?

If you bought an overlay or decal I would put a playfield protector or clear coat it to protect it.

I would try to only replace an insert lens and the decal over it - if someone makes just insert decals.

You could get a decal and Mylar too.

Many people have a small decal like on Fish Tales where the center gets worn and just replace parts of the playfield with a partial decal.

Really.
Rumor has it Mr personality tried to extort fees from the owner

I carried them before pinball life

Oh I could tell a not so good story about Pinball Center and there at best crap customer service … but what is the point in the end they have stuff no one else has and I am forced to deal with them.

I have multiple of your products for my multiple star treks I have owned and have never been disappointed… I need to install your Star Trek Kelvin mod eventually…love your stuff.

Oh the clear pop bumper bases - those too - awesome

Oh; I have little doubt.
They've treated me fairly; but I set clear expectations in my group buys:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinballcenter-parts-needed

The truth is that I posted about the Chromed Saucers here and in the AFM thread long before PBL started carrying them. It felt like someone saw an opportunity and started stocking them. So now; I'm sitting here wondering when the other shoe is going to fall regarding other products I carry and/or manufacture myself. And trust me; imitation is not a form of flattery.

So I've had the 6 ball trough kit sitting for a bit.
Got scared off by the need for soldering the optos.

How difficult for a beginner is that?

It's not as hard as repairing a trace run on a board but not as easy as soldering in a coil.

Take your time and read the directions it's not hard. The holes are already there, I just sucked the solder out of them, put the diodes in per the directions (and their shape will match the drawing on the board) bent the pins to hold them tight in place, flowed a small amount of solder with some flux to make sure it flowed into the hole in the board, clipped the excess diode wire and was done.

Just don't use a huge glob of solder and make sure it doesn't run over into other areas of the board and make sure the diode is "tight" against the board. It should look like the others but probably not as pretty.

Just buy a set if you aren't comfortable. These are what you would want here.

https://www.pinballlife.com/trough-opto-transmitter-receiver-board-set-6-ball-for-williamsbally-pinball-machines.html

Exactly, only source that has saucers just like the original ones, that's what I was looking for at the time, I did'nt want a saucer that looked like a mod.

Good to know.
Guess I can try and if I f up it's only a $20 fix!

Hey all - rebuilt my pop bumpers recently and after I was done I am getting this error but it makes no sense the drop target actuates and registers the hits.

I am running the latest my pinballs code - just wondering what it could be when the only drop target works fine.

image (resized).jpg

Just to confirm, when you said the drop target works fine. Does this mean that you did check the drop target switch, used by the game to determine whether the drop is up or down? This should be done by using a multimeter to check its continuity when closed (drop down)/open (drop up).

So I have bought a new plastic set for my RFM, some of them were broken, some of them were replaced by parts of another rfm plastic, apparently I was also missing one. Unfortunately I can't seem to find where it should go but I'm sure someone here can help me straight away. Picture of the small plastic that I don't know where to put attached.

Also, recently I've upgraded to v2. 24, and now during Martian Attack Multiball, sometimes my flipper gets attacked, but it's always only my left flipper. Is it supposed to be like that or is there something wrong with my right flipper?

applejuice : Love what you did with the game and I hope u continue doing so! Saw u asking for new ideas somewhere, I believe earlier in this thread, so here we go (I might be asking the impossible, I have no idea). One of the most satisfying shots for me in every game that has em is hitting a spinner fast and clean. You could maybe use some of the code/graphics from swep1 for this one? Dunno how it works in swep1, do u need 2 switches close to eachother to measure how fast the ball passes? Could u use the reed switches below the playfield for that?

Another Idea I'd love to see but that most likely will be impossible if u stick to the 4mb limit is a proper videomode, something along the lines of a (simple) airstrikes 2d skier plane shooter game. Would also mean some more usage of the 3rd and 4th flipper button, coz i feel like atm they aren't being used enough, basically in my own case, close to never..

Thx!

16603163745223288938203130895870 (resized).jpg

A super skill shot would be cool too, like it's big brother, AFM, has.

EDIT: Apparently, this is there, but my game doesn't send the ball all the way around if I hold the left flipper. Hmmm.

Just a key fob. Doesn't go on the game.

Super skill works fine code wise ie it open the gate from the flipper hold. If the ball doesn’t make it all the way round it’s your auto launcher mech or a worn shooter lane

Thanks for the comments. Glad you like the updates

Power drain flipper attack will choose the rhs sometimes though I tend to agree the randomness seems skewed to the left. Random number generators in software are never that equally random it seems!! I will look at this