I picked up a Scared Stiff recently and have joined the club! My 3 year old grandson Jack was very happy and is telling everyone that “Baba bought me a pinball machine!” That is true enough, I guess.

The cabinet and playing field were in fantastic shape, and the game itself played very well. I thought the flippers were a bit weak, a light or two was out, and the flipper rubber showed wear. The electronic test report showed EOS Right Error. Also, the sensitivity on the crate hit shot seemed off, it would not register some direct hits.

Being an Electrical Engineer by trade who loves to tinker, I planned for several upgrades, LED Lights, adding a ColorDMD, and a flipper rebuild kit among several other squeaks. Boogie Man Mod using 3D printed parts will follow.

I thought that you guys might appreciate some of the things that I learned along the way.

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LED Lights
The first thing I did was to count up all of the lights in the manual and order replacements in advance of the machine arriving. It turns out that, if you do this, you will not have near enough lights to do the job, especially on the #44 Bayonet Base bulbs!

Bally Part Number Standard Light Number Manual Qty Actual Qty Needed Price Est
24-6549 Bulb #44 2W @ 6.3V 20 60 $0.39
Bayonet Base
24-8768 Bulb #555 2W @ 6.3V 42 44 $0.39
Wedge Base
24-8802 Flasher #906 12V 12 6 $1.50
Wedge Base
24-8704 Flasher #89 12V 6 6 $4.95
Bayonet Base

I saw an earlier comment that the SS manual shows a +20VDC power supply and that the 12VDC flashers would burn up, but, they work just fine.
I found that the LED’s are much brighter and make the colors much more vivid than the incandescent bulbs, which give everything a more yellow cast.
One note, I think that the #89 light for the center “all tales complete” looks better left incandescent as it is a big circle and the LED #89 was too directional to light the entire circle.

Here is a before and after look with the ambient lights off.

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Color DMD
The Color DMD makes a huge difference IMHO, although it is a bit pricey. There are multiple installations based upon the pin you have, and I recommend picking the right one before you start (unlike knucklehead me who was reading the wrong one on my phone without my reading glasses), but overall things went smoothly. I did have a bit of a struggle with the FW upgrade, I had to reformat my memory stick as a FAT32 device to make it work.

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Flipper Rebuild

I mentioned earlier that the test mode of the machine was reporting an EOS Right Error, and I had been given several suggestions as to why this was happening. It turns out that one of the wires to the EOS switch was simply broken. One interesting thing about Scared Stiff is that the EOS Switches are normally open, not normally closed like most older machines.

After rebuilding the flippers and changing the flipper rubber, the flipper power is awesome. The Bony Beast and Web Ramps can be hit much more reliably.

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Crate Sensitivity
I noticed that several direct crate hits were not registering. Upon looking at the sensor, there is a magnetic strip in front of the crate that is connected to a circuit board called a “Generic Eddy Sensor A-18543.1-2” in the manual. Using a jeweler’s screwdriver, I turned variable potentiometer R2 1/8 to ¼ turn to the right and achieved the desired performance.

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Boogie Men Mod
I also found a Pinsider that had a 3D model of the Boogie Man Mod part that he was willing to send me via email. I am working on 3D Printing some parts with various materials and will post a report on the results soon. I will likely have some extra parts to share with you guys as well.

Thanks @whthrs166, this is my first pin and I am having a blast! I'll have the Dancing Boogiemen 3D printed parts done later this week, and I have been eyeing (pun intended) the skull pile LED's. Do you have any more details for the Prosound mod you mentioned? Did you possibly mean PinSound(I just found that website)?

Rdoyle1978 , that eye mod is so awesome! I found a french website that sells them, is that where you got it?

A pinsider mailed me a 3D model for the Boogie Man Mod, very DIY, but I thought you guys might enjoy some photos. I have extra parts, PM me and I'd be happy to send them along. Warning: You'll need a good drill (a press is best) to attach the part to the kicker arm.

A link to the final product in action:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ouzTqqW2cBqMWRJx6

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It looks like the flipper itself cracked, wow. You could try some Gorilla cyanoacrilate or epoxy, but I'll bet it needs to be completely replaced. Is the bone just glued on top of a standard flipper?

Here is the write up from the manual for the error as well as the location of the sensor, which appears to be the second of 5 opto ball detectors in the main ball return mechanism.

Here is my take sight unseen from your description: You should be able to look at this detector directly and look for a broken connection, and if the wires are good, replace the sensor directly. Since the other four right next to it are not reporting the problem, the controller that they all connect to is likely ok.

Also, given that the other sensors are working, it makes sense that the pin will function normally as it can still count all four balls.

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That is my take, since 33 and 34 are still working, the game can still count 4 balls at the beginning, so everything works fine. The Opto Emitter and Receiver LED's are $0.75 each on PinballLife.com, but you would need to be able to solder to make this fix. No real need to fix unless the error code annoys you (which to me personally, it definitely would, to my son, it would not; but of course he would just call me to come over and fix it for him lol).

Since you had partial operation since it failed completely, it is probably not a fuse, but visually inspecting a fuse is sketchy and is better done with a multimeter set to measure Ohms which you can get for $9 on Amazon. It should measure 0 for a good fuse.

That said, the ColorDMD is a huge upgrade IMHO, it makes the entire game look a lot better. I highly recommend it!

Here is a link to the part on PinballLife. $0.75, but you have to do some light soldering. https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-led-transmitter-emitter-for-opto-assemblies.html

I think I like that better without the big red tongue pointer!

You might try putting a flame flicker LED bulb behind the candle and a color changing LED bulb behind the TV while you are in there. It is a nice effect (and not my original idea).

I do remember that when I installed my ColorDMD, that it connected to a completely different part of the machine, and in fact, you don't use the original cable anymore. This "might" get around your current issue. https://www.colordmd.com/installation/ColorDMD%20LED%20Installation%20Instructions%20WPC%20WPC95%20Rev1.PDF

That is one fine looking machine for sure!

1) Strange, but I had a problem with that exact fuse blowing. This is the power to the string of lights with the white-orange wiring, light around the bottom of the table, the bottom bumpers and the rail that feeds the outlanes to the flippers. This drove me crazy and I tracked it down to a short in one of the bulb sockets, the ones used in production are not very good quality. Finding the right socket is a PITA. With the fuse out and power off, I used a multimeter in continuity mode (it beeps when a short is detected) and took all the lights out. I then wiggled them one one at a time adding a burnt out bulb until I heard the beep. New sockets are < $2 at pinball life, but you will need to solder to remove the old one and put the new one in.

2) The only reason that I can think that this would happen is that the table "thinks" that you have lost one of the balls, likely due to a faulty sensor, does this only happen for Terror from the Crate? What about Stiff in the Coffin? Has the table ever acted like you lost a ball in normal play when you had not?

That cab looks fantastic and pretty much fully tricked out with great mods and color DMD, well done! Did do the Boogie Man Mod? I have the 3D Printer part model if you would like it. Excellent video. Welcome to the club!

PM me your email address and I will send it right out!