I've done it both ways....but damn is having and using a PUB card ever so easy and faster and less hassle...just some advice - own an RFM or SWEP1, own a PUB card....90 seconds of work and you are done...

Where can i find PUB cards?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cheap-tool-for-removing-molex-100-and-156-pins

Interested! if you can send them to france in a cheap way..

I've sent quite a few to Europe....they are always $15 USD.......whether it's 1 or 4....

Hey applejuice here's 3 modes my wife and I thought would be fun.

Countdown: instead of time based, you get "x"amount of times to press the flipper buttons to get as many points as possible. So say 10 flips on each flipper. If you use up all 10 on the right flipper it's dead and then you use the remaining flips on the left flipper until thats dead or the ball drains, whichever comes first.

Sharpshooter Martian Pindarts: use your awesome light programming skills to have a target flash. You get a bullseye if you hit it. You lose points if you hit another target first. The further away the target is from your shot that you miss, the more points you lose. So you could have awards, like the Sharpe Shooter award if you get 3 bulls eyes in a row without missing. Have the targets randomly cycle and stop to keep it challenging. A ramp, then the next one is the side middle Martian in the right bank of Martian targets, etc. You could even use the action buttons, the player "catches" the ball on their flipper and presses the action button to start and stop the cycling once they are ready. (Adds like a fun skill shot challenge stopping the light where you would ideally like it based on which flipper you have the ball stopped on!).

Martian Hangman/wheel of fortune: The game hangman/wheel of fortune, you guess a letter to the word every time you got up the ramp (it holds the ball while you make your guess). You drain the ball player 2 gets to try to solve the word (using the high score initial entry to save on the memory usage).

For hangman it would be the center ramp you aim for.

Also interested in using a pub card for the update..are any available out there? Would love to "rent" one and would be great if it was preloaded!!

I have some PUB cards left.

Thanks for the pic!

Do you know what areas these are for? I can't tell from the underside. I wonder if some of my MRSes are bad and this is why I get inconsistent results on ball detection in some lanes.

I am interested.
Are the card loaded with latest update?
Or how do i load it?

I have a PUB card with a past version of the RFM software update. Can I reprogram the PUB? If so, does anyone know where a tutorial is? I've searched Google with no luck other than a German YouTube video that I can't understand.

I would be interested, can you pm me info please

how do I get in on this? I’ll buy 6.

Got my first RFM, and have been looking up what I need to do, including looking at the game code updates ... anyone else running v0.1??? Hahaha

8EC8E9E5-82F4-451B-AE62-69C8990470BB (resized).jpeg

Yeah... umm. no. Thankfully; I was running 1.5 prior to applejuice 's awesome update. I actually need to DL and install his Halloween update.

IDK if you're still taking requests... nor how "easy" it'd be...

But how about a two person "team" contest?
Where one person operates the left … and the other operates the right. at the same time. up to 4 "teams". Keep a high score table for "Team play". That could be one fun arse party game IMHO.

I did the update yesterday. I've seen the party option but did not get how to activate them .

About party, i would be happy for a special mode called racing.
Like a timer starts and you have to shoot flashlights appearing, one after the other. It counts the number of gates that you would do in a specific time, like 60sec or 120 sec, unlimited balls. Then next player with the same sequence to shoot.
That would be great as all players would play the same time, avoiding the 'your turn last 40min, mine 40 sec' effect.

Could someone post pics of their harness and couplers for the shaker motor? I am having trouble getting mine to work and I used the recommended setup from mypinballs and even separately tried using the included Stern board (I have the Stern rev b shaker motor). I enabled the shaker in the settings and I just get no output onto the shaker. Hooking up 12v directly to the shaker from a power supply gets it to move, so I'm having trouble figuring out how to diagnose what to do. Thanks.

Check your fuse. The output of the driver board may not have a protection diode which can cause the fuse to blow immediately.

The install instructions have been updated to include the installation of the diode.

Hmm, I checked all the fuses and there were no problems with any of them either in the fuse test or by directly testing continuity across them. I also just installed a knocker and I can't get that to work either. I should only have to enable the knocker and shaker in the system adjustments and wire them up correctly, or am I missing something else? I am attaching photos of my current setup for the shaker motor harness using the stern board. Greatly appreciate any feedback.

IMG_20191210_185238 (resized).jpg

IMG_20191210_185326 (resized).jpg

Here's an updated photo that includes the knocker. I've tried just about every arrangement to get the shaker or knocker to fire, but nothing seems to work. I checked continuity on the pin2k driver board for where the orange yellow brown and blue wires connect and they all seem to be connected to the board just fine. I'm not sure what I'm missing here, it's kind of driving me crazy lol. I cannot get them to fire either while testing with the coin door closed or while playing. The only time I can get them to fire is when I directly hook up a 12-volt power supply. It seems like the software is not outputting the signal for whatever reason. Even when I hook up a DMM to the ports directly on the board I can't seem to get good voltage readings off of them. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

IMG_20191210_213434 (resized).jpg

Bad driver transistors?

Have you guys seen these?

rfm (resized).jpg

It could be a few things... It seems odd that both knocker and shaker are out... that leads me to believe its a connector problem... but everything should be checked just the same.

First re-seat the knocker/shaker harness on the power driver board.

1. Check Voltages (the game wouldn't work right if this was the case as other things would be off as well, but you should check)
- Use your DVOM and check Test Point TP5, it should be 12V. If its not... this is likely your issue for the shaker.
- Use your DVOM and check both sides of F101.. you should see 50-ish VDC if its not... this likely the issue for your knocker.

2. Cold solder joint on J101? (9 pin connector that the brown and yellow wire are connected to).
- Unplug the shaker/knocker power connector from the PCB.
- Use your DVOM and check the socket where yellow and brown connect (pins 9 and 1). It should always have 12VDC and 50-ish VDC respectively. If you get nothing here then its likely a physical problem with the connection to the PCB. You should remove your PCB and inspect the back side for cold solder joints along the connector. Re-flow if necessary.
- If the previous step checked out... plug the shaker/knocker power connector back into the PCB.
- Use your DVOM and check the yellow and brown on that harness when it is connected into the driver board. Again, it should always have 12VDC and 50-ish VDC respectively. If you get nothing here then its likely a physical problem with the connection to the PCB connector. Could possibly be the harness but I doubt it... we'll check that later.
- To be complete, check the same two pins on the adjacent connector J102? (they are the same pinout)... they should also have the same output voltages.
- If you get voltage on the adjacent connector you can try swapping them (other crap may not work on your playfield if its a problem with the connector) to get your motor and knocker to fire.

3. Cold solder joint on J111. The driver syncs the current to turn on the motor and solenoid through this connector.
- Swap J111 and J110, if the connector is bad the other things on your playfield may not work... but the motor and knocker should.
- If you can get it to work after you swap the connector, you should remove your PCB and inspect the back side for cold solder joints along the connector. Re-flow if necessary.

4. Faulty drivers (I would suspect that one could be bad... but both of them being bad seems odd to me... but who knows).
- Knocker driver Q44
- Shaker driver Q45

5. Faulty harness (unlikely)
- Remove the harness.
- Inspect all the pins and socket contacts, make sure they are not deformed.
- Use your DVOM to ring out the connections for each wire... make sure there is continuity
- There could also be an issue with the pins and sockets not making good contact to the power driver PCB. I've seen this happen on occasion with new pins and old sockets as they are out of tolerance (using less and cheaper material now). Sometimes this can be fixed (with the power off) by physically compressing the socket connector on the PCB a bit with a small screwdriver... be careful not to distort it too much.

Holy crap thank you for the very detailed response! I started with what Zitt suggested and I tested all the transistors and they all checked good with two exceptions (see picture). Do you guys happen to know the part numbers for these transistors lol?
IMG_20191211_084250 (resized).jpg

Edit: to be clear, these two transistors (the exact ones needed for the shaker and knocker) were depopulated on my board. Why? I have no idea. But "there's yer problem"

It should be written on the body of the part.

FET 20N10L (IRL540)

Neat. Would like to see a photo of them installed.

Thank you so much Ricochet! I'll get these ordered and back on soon enough.

Just tried my (U2410) it works perfect only problem i have is i cannot find where to change to 4:3?

Cool! I’m surprised these were both popped. Do you think something was shorted during all of this ?

I hope not. None of the fuses have blown and it passes the smoke test. But until I get the parts in I'll turn off the shaker and knocker and unplug them to be safe.

Jeeez, missing transistors are certainly going to cause a problem.

My guess would be these transistors were ‘borrowed’ by an operator as originally they were not used so could be used to fix another fault to keep the game earning

Probably not that uncommon

Ahh they were missing !!! I thought you took them out because you said they were bad??? Yeah missing parts will be a problem LOL!!!

Yes they were missing! When I finally figured that out I was so happy to finally track down the issue. Then I began swearing at the person who caused me this wild goose chase.

I was able to order some from Amazon so thanks again for the part numbers!

ZOMG; I was right?!
Theehehhehhehe
Glad you got a lead on the problem.

This thread has really helped me get up to speed on getting my RFM in the best possible state.
As thanks, I present my LED monitor setup.

My RFM did not come with a CRT, but it did come with this crappy little 19" flat panel Dell monitor.
It was definitely not bright enough and it did not look good at all.
I immediately replaced it with a 22" Dell (SE2216H) that was on Amazon for $90.

This monitor is nice because:
1. It spans the opening of the RFM CRT hole by some margin on the left and right sides.
2. Its brightness and contrast are pretty darn good, especially for the price.
3. It will line up the the virtual images on the field very nicely.
4. It has options to set the horizontal width and offset.

I created my own mounting system for less than $10 by using conduit clamps and old coil stops.
There is a conduit clamp at the top middle and bottom middle.
There are two coil stops at the two bottom corners.
The empty space around the monitor is covered with black poster paper and tape to hold that down.
I will say that mounting the monitor as high up in the hole as possible helps you to not have to crouch to see the image.
IMG_20191207_202832 (resized).jpg
IMG_20191215_103742 (resized).jpg

You still need the CGA/VGA converter (http://lockwhenlit.com/products.htm) to use this monitor.
Mine was already installed so I cannot say how complicated it is to put together.
However, I will say that you should make sure the dials (labelled RP1, RP2, and RP3) on it are cranked all the way up!
This will maximize the brightness of your display.
Mine originally were not, and I only figured it out since my dad had been on another RFM the day before and said mine was not so bright.
If you cannot see the purple space and colors in the bonus screen, that is a good sign that you need to modify your screen settings.
IMG_20191209_152801 (resized).jpg

I also invested in a scan-line generator (Walfront Screen Scan line Generator) to give that old-school look and feel.
It was only about $20 on Amazon, and though completely unnecessary it is cool.
IMG_20191215_103802 (resized).jpg

You can also see a giant black knob in the above picture.
This is for a LED light I installed in placed of the tube-light.
It is powered by connection to 12V in a molex connector inside the PC (I had to snip the power adapter the lights came with).
I got this since I did not want the bright lights on the back-glass to cause so much glare on the play-field and the knob lets me fine tune it.

The final product?
IMG_20191215_103629 (resized).jpg

These look awesome!
Their Facebook page shows a video of them fyi.
Just ordered them!
https://m.facebook.com/RetroRefurbsUK/videos/2460030384090903/?refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2FRetroRefurbsUK%2F&_rdr

Shameless plug to ask for donations to the software cause, if you like what i've done with RFM. 3 new releases in the last year.

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https://mypinballs.com and click on the donate button

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Thanks

Done

Done!

Done! Jim gave new life to a wonderful pin

I bet someone did what I have done in the past. If you have a transistor die on a game out in the field and don't have a spare one on you, look in the manual to see if there are any transistors on the board that aren't being used that game. Remove the unused transistor and replace your bad one.

Was wondering if any of the RFM owners have had any issues with raised inserts on their playfield, in particular the larger inserts down the center of the playfield for "Saucer" and "attack from Mars" One of mine is raised to the point that it will catch a fingernail across one edge and was looking for ideas on how to fix. I have seen the deep throat C-Clamp method and have also read that people have used a hair dryer or heat gun to heat from the back side of the insert to push back down and then glue back in place once they get it to where they want it. Just looking for ideas of what others have done that may or may not work.

What is the most recent code for the game? I’m picking up one that has 2.1 on it but I thought there was a 2.2 out but I’m not finding it anywhere. If there is a 2.2 out, what’s the differences from 2.1?

Here is the update log:
https://www.mypinballs.com/software/rfm/code_updates.jsp

Just go to my site - https://myPinballs.com

And please donate if you use the software

As I said via pm the latest version is v2.2 released on 31st October this year

As I've posted before - please support Jim's efforts - he took a pin that you could easily get <$3K and, from my perspective, altered the code such that you'll see RFM's going for $4K......the simply superior v2.2 code and added features like 'true' knocker and shaker motor are amazing.

some fresh news...

our RFM working in 2.20 (with original CPU+CRT) ... tanx again Jim
and my son just build a NUCORE reserve system in case of probs...