Hello all, ok, I waited long enough and now they're all gone.

Anyone out there have a spare 3D lenticular Revenge From Mars translight I could buy from you? They were produced by Planetary Pinball.

Thanks in advance.

Tom

Was all excited to finally start working on updating RFM and now the game is out of order... sounds like the crt monitor keeps trying to fire up. I get static on the screen, no image, game plays blind, so gonna see if it plays with a vga cable. Odd, everything seemed fine last time I played, monitor was nice bright and crisp. Hopefully a quick fix.

Look abroad, try German and French online stores, maybe they have one in stock. I got mine from . Looks really really nice.

If the monitor is truly powering on and you have neck glow, that sounds like a data issue.

Where did you find yours Bob?

https://www.ecflipp.fr/en/

They were actually produced by Pinball-Dreams and mayuh in the following thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/3d-translites-to-come-mm-available-end-of-jan/page/7#post-2968606

That said; Rick apparently became impossible to work with and they must have shutdown work on them.

You might try contact them direct from their website:
https://www.pinball-dreams.com/flipper-pinball-flipperautomaten-modding-shop/3d-translites/3d-translite-rfm-detail.html

I wanted to notify ya'll of immediate availability of Chrome RFM (AFM?) Saucers here in North America. I have limited quantities available for immediate shipment; it's unclear at this time if there is enough interested to continue to stock them.
Chrome RFM saucers

These are not metal parts; but are plastics saucers chromed in whatever method is used to create "chromed plastic".
They are available as just the saucer or with a new twist flasher dome. I'm guessing most would just want to use the existing dome they have; but if you want new; that is an option as well.
These are imports from Pinball.Center.

http://pinball-mods.com/oscom/small-saucer-p-78.html from 23.24

Hier everybody,
I join thé club today, as I ve just bought a RFM in rather good condition ( although very dirty...)

It vas the nucore system with a PC Dell Optiplex and a LCD flat screen.

I thought the only connection between the cabinet and the backbox is the DB25 (driverboard to computer), but I've found out other connectors ( see pic)
What are they for ?
Thx

IMG_20210623_143611 (resized).jpg

Those look like the AC connectors for the monitor and PC powersupply.
IF correct; they should run into the "backbox" and connect up to the AC power harness in the "backbox".

Hmmm......there are 3 white connectors in the cabinet.
You say one for the PC, one for the LCD screen , and the third one...??

Aren't the power supplies provided by the metal box on the right side of the cabinet ??

Those should be AC supply lines (hot/neutral/ground)

I got 3 of these from Zitt a couple of weeks ago, they look real nice. (Thanks zitt!) He was great to buy from. FYI, if you were to try to buy them from Pinball Center you'd need someone to import it to you as they don't ship to the US, so it's really great that Zitt has these!

FIXED: Of course I went sniffing around all solonoids and luckily I found a bulb socked no longer attached to the playfield way over by the right side Martian. That was hitting the log and blowing the fuse. Love it when it’s easy!

Hey all, I’m blowing the F101 fuse, happens right in start up. trying to figure out what solenoid(s) to look at. The fuse indicates one solenoid while the “light” indicates another.
DA337AD6-8345-4A5A-A87A-2E46471415A4 (resized).jpeg

On an original P2K you have:
- AC Power to the PC.
- AC Power to the monitor.
- Audio connection to cabinet speaker.
- DB25 to driver board.
- DB9 to front of cab inside coin door.

Those are the connections between the cab and backbox.

Got mine all straightened out today. Only minor issue I'm seeing is during gameplay, the insert leds flicker. During attract mode, they look great. Using comet single smd retros. Do I need non ghosting for the inserts? Anyone have experience?

Solenoid Table for F101 - J102 (or J101)

J102-1 (resized).png

When I had my RFM, I used non ghosting in my inserts and didn't have any issues.

Hi All.

I just installed an lcd and I seem to he getting a double image. I went to the convergence grid and see the attached. I'm not sure if that's normal or not. If not how do I correct? Thanks

20210711_105053 (resized).jpg

Do you have authentic p2k glass and is it installed correctly(correct side up)? Seems like the reflection you would get from both sides of regular glass or a p2k glass installed incorrectly. If authentic p2k glass there is a sticker at the bottom that indicates “this side up”.

BTW there will always be a little bit of a double reflection. The brighter the image the more noticeable it will be. The playfield being unlit in this case would make it appear worse.

Woo hoo. I am on a roll lately. I switched jobs a couple months ago and got some time back for myself. I've been making awesome progress on my mods and pin maintenance!

Revenge from Mars is shaping up well. I pulled out the opto boards and soldered in the new LEDs and now I have a perhaps silly question as I finally get to the steps that require me to update or fabricate the wiring.

For the 6 ball multi-ball and wiring the cables into the connector. What is the "proper" tool for the job? I read that some just use a flat head screw driver. But I actually plan to make a lot more custom cables and don't mind dropping coin on the right tool (or set of tools) for the job. I bought a punch down tool at home depot which was what I thought I needed but it does not seem to be the right one.

8B951095-6EF5-489B-BFF9-55646D6160D3 (resized).jpeg

Answering my own question after some advice I got on Facebook and stuff I found myself.

Looks like I need an IDC punch tool. There are two common sizes and Pinball Life carries both:

https://www.pinballlife.com/100-254mm-idc-wire-insertion-tool.html

https://www.pinballlife.com/156-396mm-idc-wire-insertion-tool.html

Though others are saying those tools are crap and overpriced and that these ones from Great Plains Electronics are better quality for the same price.

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=63813-3503

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=63813-3504

Also helpful for testing the optos are working should be this IR detector card:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HS1GHPK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_V9DVGXJPGT1W59KJ3S0Z

The plastic IDCs are good for maybe one connector. I think that's what PBL sells.
You need a metal one.

this is the one that i got from pinball life.........works great .........https://www.pinballlife.com/pancon-156-idc-termination-tool.html

Posted the tool to use ages ago here

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/rfm-hillary-come-here-you-gotta-see-this/page/82#post-5817607

Proper molex tool for the small connectors used on loads of williams games . Never use a screwdriver …!

Yup. That’s the one I ordered. I grabbed both sizes.

Should be able to finish this job up next week. Ha.

Before that, I needed low profile screw drivers to remove the opto boards without removing the flippers.

I’m building up quite the collection of tools.

I don’t recall seeing a list of required or recommended tools on the kit page. Might be helpful.

Once I am done with this first RFM I am going to make a video of the whole process start-finish on my second RFM.

Love your mods. I am learning a lot!

Well, my punch tools arrived so I finished the opto wiring and put everything back together.

I enabled 6 ball trough in the menu and tested it out by setting the clock to trigger midnight madness. 6 ball Multiball worked!

I do have some odd things I’ve been noticing (before the mod) that I’m hoping folks here can help me get sorted.

Unrelated to the multiball mod here are the issues I have:

1) My right flipper will twitch sometimes without me touching the flipper button. Is that normal? Is it some feedback feature I am activating from time to time?

2) During Martian attack my right Martian will jump up and down a few times then stop. I am going to check the cabling and solenoid and try swapping it with another one. Anything else I should check?

3) When finishing a mode my center ramp doesn’t drop back down. I don’t remember. Is it supposed to? Right now, it’s not dropping down until the first shot I make over it after the previous mode finished. Is that normal?

4) I get the error “Check Switch 78 left loop high”. But the switch works if I activate it with the glass off. :-/

5) Sometimes when I shut off my game then try to turn it back on within 5 minutes only the monitor will come on “playfield remains totally off”. I have two RFMs and both do this.

No. Mine doesn't do it.

Check for switches activating during switch test while banging on the PF.
I'm guessing you have a sensitive switch in that assembly.

About 90% you have the dreaded green goo infecting that switch.
I don't know what it is... assuming it's flux...
but you need to replace that switch.

The Martian that stops moving isn’t “collected”. He still needs to have one of the targets hit to collect him. He just gets stuck.

Regarding the left ramp switch… Doh. I hate replacing that switch (already did it on my other RFM). Have to pull the playfield out to get to it and cover the playfield to desolder and resolder the new one. Maybe I can put a towel down and tooth brush it with some Deoxit if it’s corrosion/conductive goo related.

Are you sure this isn't the powerdrain option that gets activated during Martian multiball?

Mine does that too, only I'm not sure if this happends after every mode. It is a bit frustrating when I get the bowling mode and I have to hit the center targets but the ball goes up over the ramp the first time. Seems a bit useless..

The ramp should go down when the mode ends.

Oops... I always have so far (not that many times, but still). Seems to work well, though it's a bit of a hassle and I have to be carefull. Is using a screwdriver worse for connection, or are there other reasons not to use them (apart from it being a pain in the ... probably, compared to using a proper tool).

Mine has been doing this since updating the the 2.3 mypinballs code, too. I was thinking maybe it is physical, but it didn't happen on the factory software. Haven't opened the game up to look, yet. Interesting to hear that someone else is experiencing this.

Mine has the stuck up ramp problem, too. I've taken the assembly out and cleaned it, but it still did it. I've been living with it, but I've seen suggestions that maybe the coil stop has become magnetized. I haven't actually pursued this theory yet, but maybe it'll help one of you out.

Jeff

I was having the ramp problem too. The coil centering bracket had an indent from the armature assembly hitting it so many times. I replaced the centering bracket as well as the sleeve and also used a stiffer ramp I believe I got from marco. All together, I don't have a stuck ramp anymore, but I did have to rivet a new ramp.

Thanks for the suggestions. I kinda figured it would be physical. Just a coincidence that it happened after the software upgrade.

Does anyone have a lenticular RFM translite they would like to sell?

I think I just added a spring (like on the slingshots) over the plunger to increase the moving down force

Nothing to do with software changes. It’s aging physical parts on a 20 plus year old game as many people have mentioned here

The screwdriver does not have specially spaced slits in it. So with a plain screwdriver it’s possible to mangle or space out the metal tabs in the connector that are meant to pierce the cable shielding and make contact. Making the whole connector useless. If you are using a small enough screw driver you may be able to avoid that problem but those small screwdrivers are usually sharp enough to damage the cable while pushing it down.

While I think they were overpriced, I’m glad I got the tool. Also glad I went with the metal ones.

One of the times it was power drain. I don’t know if it was the case every time. I actually looked to see if a cable or something was touching the switch.

Does power drain (only) twitch the right flipper?

Also, thanks all for the ramp suggestions.
I actually have to replace the ramp on one of these RFMs (on is missing a chunk).

But I don’t know how to remove the rivets and install new ones yet.

I did this tonight on top of cleaning the moving parts and installing a new sleeve. Plays great, now.

No, it twitches both left and right but not at the same time, it's either the left or right flipper. I don't know how random the software decides when it's the right or left flipper and if it sometimes chooses the right flipper a few times before it chooses the left flipper again or visa versa. I guess that the only way to check if your twitchproblem is really the powerdrain, is trying to find out if the twitching happens outside of the Martian multiball mode.

Power drain is a feature of Martian multiball only, if you don’t kill the main large Martian fast enough plus you will get a message on screen explaining your impending doom! You can turn it off in the settings aswell, so maybe do that if you want to rule out new software features

Tried using a spring to get the ramp back down but that didn't work as it should, the ramp did go down easily now, but the coil couldn't get the ramp at the right slope, so balls would hit the metal bracket and bounce back 9 out 10 times... experimented a few hours and even after I shortened the spring to just two bindings.. the ramp didn't get to the right slope... So I gave up, just cleaned everything, reinstalled the parts.. and behold! The problem is gone

You are just asking for trouble. Bad connections, broken wires, broken connectors, screwdriver in finger.....

Right tool for the job always...

Lol
So true

Can someone link me to a troubleshooting guide for rfm. Set it up after 2 years in storage, flipped the on switch and nothing. If it were a normal game I'm sure I could find it. But with this game I'm not sure where to start after the power cord.

Checkout this: https://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pinball_2000_Repair
Or look at www.pinball2000.de
I have more diva at hand but Cannot upload it now. However the same document is also posted in pinside a long time ago

Most likely you have to start with the computer behind the translite
Slide out the computer case open the top cover and Flip the power button. Check of the fans start spinning

Does it still contain the original hardware?

Still all original hardware. All I've added is the power booster for the monitor years ago.
No fans are currently spinning. It's DOA right now.