Just got finished with a topside teardown, cleaned, waxed, new titans, and 2SMD comets in sunlight white. This game was a bit more difficult then what it looked to be! Gonna do LED OCD board tomorrow. This will be my first time installing one. Anything I need to know? I saw something about connecting it to a computer or something?

Thats funny. My son saw me trying to do post passes and he told me to use the orbits as well. Just not ready to take pinball advice from my kid. So I came here. Ouch

I plugged and played mine, looks great. You can tweak the settings via USB, but I didn't find the need too.

You're right. It looks really great as-is.

Most of the time the OCD boards default settings are perfect. You generally only need to fiddle with it if you have any bulbs that are ghosting or if you don't care for the bulbs default characteristics.

So after my shop job, I've been getting frequent ball traps from the Golem VUK. Specifically, the ball gets stuck between the post that's to the right of Balrog and that wireform. (The VUK kicks the ball up, but the ball sometimes will bounce off of the wireform, and into that space).

Any solutions to this? I'm pretty sure the wireform is installed correctly from when I took it apart, unless I'm missing a washer or something underneath the mounting points?

Post a picture. Recently someone else posted pictures where the post next to the VUK was on the wrong screw.

I'd have to get one later today. I installed another 1/2'" hex post to extend it up a bit more, it seems to help only marginally. It may be on the wrong screw, but I remember the washer pretty much touching Balrog when he swings to the side.

Found this post here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-lord-of-the-rings-journey-begins-members-club/page/9#post-2939475
I'll have to take a look when I get home. This is probably what's going on!

I had 2 issues pop up at the same time.

1) when you get 2 balls locked in, the machine kicks out 2 balls instead of 1, and as soon as the 1st ball drains, your ball is over.

2) my right in-lane no longer lights KEEP letters.

I went into a switch test and the in-lane doesn't work.

The last rollover switch in the trough was also not responding in switch test.

My pinball repair knowledge is limited, and this is the newest machine I have by 15 years. Are these both optos? Should I just order new ones and replace? Do I have to remove the entire trough to replace the rollover inside?

First, check for broken wires, and check to make sure the switch isn't loose where it's mounted. Check the switch to see if it's clicking when you press on it.

The trough switch is a rollover switch
https://www.pinballlife.com/data-eastsegastern-ball-detect-blade-with-roller-sub-microswitch-180-5119-02.html

The inlane switch might just be a regular Cherry Microswitch
https://www.pinballlife.com/microswitch-with-diode.html

Or this with the actuator arm
https://www.pinballlife.com/data-eastsegastern-shooter-switch.html

EDIT: Wrong switch linked. Corrected.

Who wants to guess why my flipper quit working in the middle of an awesome game??? Jokes aside, had this thing for a month, have put as many plays on it in that time as I think you physically could, and other than this solder-job coming undone haven't had a single problem (nice change from my Hobbit). Absolutely love the game and not even close to getting sick of it yet. ColorDMD looks killer set to tiles too.

IMG_20191030_195522 (resized).jpg

IMG_20191102_005114 (resized).jpg

i see in the first couple pages of this thread that there were some people that added computer fans to their flippers for cooling the coils. Is this a worthwhile mod? Any suggestions for which fans to use?

That was before the different replacement coils came out. Once you swap to the APB coils them overheating is no longer an issue.

APB??

I had the pinball life coils in but swapped the stock ones back in since it was way too strong. The stock coils seemed to be ok after a 20+ min game I played yesterday. I played for about an hour overall but didn't notice any significant flipper issues.

For the most part I’ve been ok with my stock coils and no fan. Not everyone has had the same experience... but possibly the coils just start out colder up here in Minnesota!!

It's covered quite a few times in the thread which is a very good read if you have the time to read through it from the beginning. I try and do that for all my newly purchased pins to get caught up and learn from all the trial and error before me without having to repeat it myself. Several times it has saved my pins from damage and expense.

If you search in the marketplace you'll see them. They are the "medium" LOTR strength coils.

gotcha. I've seen them, and had them in my cart, but decided to wait to see how the stock coils play. I guess it doesn't make any sense to me as I'm sure Stern used these coils in other games at the time, but you don't see anything for the other games. I didn't do any cross-referencing to check, but just seems odd that this game is the only game known for fading coils. I don't necessarily want stronger coils, just coils that play consistently.

Fans seem to be the best compromise and seem relatively cheap and easy to connect in relation to the new higher strength coils.

There are no other pins from the generation with these coils that have consistent lengthy games. They overheat because of the long nature of each play through. And that it's fun as hell and you never turn it off doesn't seem to help things either. Save yourself some time and trouble, buy the coils for $20 and cease to worry about it ever again. I messed with fans but in the end it was still some janky contraption that would move and slide out of position regularly. Plus you have to wire them up and fiddle with that. I personally think replacing a coil is very easy compared to wiring an aftermarket fan set up. The ring shot is much more reliable with the med coils which is appreciated in DTR.

The mediums are just a touch stronger than stock and nowhere near as strong as the PInballLife coils. The best part is the mediums don’t start getting weak as you do have that long game and need to Destroy the Ring.

I up-voted these 2 responses. I would say same thing. Much better IMO to replace the coils than to muck around with fans and connecting them.

Previous owner of my machine installed PBL coils:
https://www.pinballlife.com/lotr-special-flipper-coil-090-5020-2ot.html

The PBL coils do not get weak after long games. They are powerful.

The only real problem shot is the Gimli VUK from the left flipper. Clean shots can go right through to the pops or beyond. Sometimes they only go a bit above, and fall back in time to be registered as a made shot to the VUK. I counter this by trying to hit inside a post next to the VUK from left flipper, and hoping it settles in. Or, better yet, backhanding the Gimli VUK from the right flipper, which is very makeable.

It may be that we get more bad bounces off targets or posts to drain, but I cannot quantify that.

Finally, even though I have a relatively new post sleeve on the pin behind Orthanc, we sometimes get orbit shots that will bypass the pin when it's supposed to divert the ball to Orthanc. This may be a result of the PBL coils, but I don't know.

I will say, that the PBL coils are great during Destroy the Ring. Being able to easily (well, not easily, but maybe "somewhat more regularly") make the ring shot from either flipper is nice. My game is set on 2-ball DTR, and I find that even with PBL coils, it's better to use the left flipper on second ring shot. It takes a lot of power and a clean shot, making the left geometry better.

If replacing stock flipper coils, it may be best to use the medium power coils, based on feedback from others in this thread. At this point in time, I don't see the need to replace the my PBL ones. ie, they are also an acceptable replacement, even though they may not be favored at present.

-Adam

Hello. Did you find a solution to this? After years of working fine, my sword ball reale post is firing too rapidly to release balls, and then it finally slows down to.let them out. Not sure if the timing is adjustable.

I'm trying to install one of those Fire Ring LED mods, where you put an LED ring inside the plastic ring. It looks amazing, but the install instructions either suck, or I'm just terrible at this. They include a video, but it's sped up several times, and you cannot see what he is doing behind the ring to remove it. That's where I'm stuck. The written instructions simply say "remove the ring..." and then it moves on with an image of the ring removed. As if we have all removed our rings many times before. I have never removed mine, and I'm not sure which screws to loosen to free it! Plus, it's very difficult to see behind the ring without completely removing the playfield.

Has anyone installed this "simple to install" mod?

I would appreciate a simple description of how to release and remove the ring, then I feel I can probably finish the job.

Thanks very much!

Just remove the 2 huge silver screws holding the 2 gold brackets on the back, you goofball! I figured it out. Kindly disregard, it's late.

I spray painted the back side of the ring funnel black. It eliminates a-lot of the red light from the opto.

Does anyone know a way to adjust the timing of rhe sword lock release post? It has started to fire too quickly. I have cleaned it but dont think that will help. Thanks.

I haven’t had this problem yet.... But could it be a switch issue- from the ball locked switches. Totally guessing.

It is usually magnetized balls.

I recently had the very same issue and it was magnetized balls. I didn't think that could be the problem as about 20 games prior I installed new ball baron carbon steel balls that apparently got magnetized way too quickly.

good solution if you do not have the ring fire mod

Hi

I have an early POTD mod from Hemi. It is now barely visible when activated. I emailed him for assistance and he sent me instructions for the installation but it shows no circuit diagram or theory. There are no adjustment pots on the circuit board. He has no answers to my questions. He must not have made the mod since he cannot assist in any way.

Has any one had issues with the mod. Is there another way to get the led's to light up?
20191105_194633 (resized).jpg

I had similar issues and ended up taking it out and installed new leds on a rpg etched path and tapped into matrix bulbs on the potd lights , with this setup the individual figures light up to correspond to it's potd light which is cooler imho.

on my to do list is to get out the volt meter and mess around with the breadboard circuit. iirc the whole setup had a microswitch in the trough and one underneath the orthanc tower so it might be a switch or a circuit board issue

The mod does appear to work but the led's are not getting enough power. They are very dim when activated. Not really noticeable anymore. It has to be the board and poor design if it also happened to yours.

I just hardwired the LED in my figure on my DIY version to the POTD BB lighting directly behind it.

Is that a loose wire???

9e38f6758f237db887b73f3b14d36a4fa9cbc097 (resized).jpg

I tried ordering the medium coils from apb enterprises but wouldn’t take my order because it says they are on vacation till 2099!
Anyone know if all is ok at apb?
I don’t know if it’s a typo, but couldn’t even get on their website.

They have a Pinside message link as well as cell phone listed on the Pinside Biz page, try contacting them that way.

Thks, I tried the pinside biz page. Couldn’t connect to their website.
I guess I’ll try calling them.

I’ve just made the Palantir Eye of Sauron Crystal Sphere mod available for sale here on Pinside. The ad can be found here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1227-williamson-pinball-mods/02988-palantir-eye-of-sauron-crystal-sphere-mod-for-stern-lotr

They are made out of extremely durable 50mm K9 Crystal spheres. K9 is a Optical Borosilicate Crown Crystal (Optically Clear) with low inclusions and imperfections ideal for use in lenses and prisms, optics and decorative crystal lighting. It has good physical properties and can be polished similar to lead crystal, weighing approximately 15 percent less than full leaded crystal having a lead content of only 10 percent. It is also rather durable, as I advertently found out by dropping one from my 3 foot high counter onto the concrete garage floor. I was pleasantly surprised that it did not shatter, leaving just the slightest of marks on the surface. The spheres are mounted on custom stainless steel Palantir Brackets. Comet LEDs are used for the lighting source, with diode rectification to prevent ghosting, and Molex connectors to plug into the factory wiring harness. The LE Version also includes a wiring adapter as some LEs came with a different Molex connector as compared to the Standard versions.

Installation is extremely straightforward, and I will include illustrated instructions as well as attach a PDF here. The mod is also fully reversible if you ever decide to return your LOTR to factory stock condition.

I swapped balls and the post timing seems back to normal. I will turn the destroy ri g mode back to 1 ball, to avoid having the ring magnet holdi g balls for several minutes. That should reduce magnetism of balls.

How is the image added? Is it a decal or painted on back of crystal with led behind it?

I used Marco's 5 ball pack after having bad luck with ball Baron's balls magnetizing. After about 6 months they are starting to get a little sticky too. What have people been having good luck with?

Buy in bulk from Terry at PBL and change them every 6 months. Those are the only balls I ever buy and I've never once had an issue with them.

Cannot tell you how the image was added, but I can tell you this thing is AMAZING!!!

I need to replace one of my potd micro switches as the plastic tab the broke
I'm a newbie and wondering the best way to go about it?

It looks like I could buy the actual db3 micro switch, then resolder the original diode back on.

https://www.pinballlife.com/data-eastsegastern-switch-180-5057-00.html

Other option is I could buy a DB5 Microswitch (which replaces the DB3) with the diode already pre soldered. Would the db5 be okay to use?

https://www.pinballlife.com/microswitch-with-diode.html

Also what is the diode for this one? It's difficult to read. N4004

Any advise appreciated.
Cheers
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It is a backlit image that the crystal magnifies.

...and thanks @strangesubset1!!

Is there anyone who puts together path of the dead interactive lighting? I have all the guys and the plastic but I got frustrated with it and it's all been sitting in a box for over a year

Talk to Steve at MI Pinball Refinery, he did one for me, fantastic work it looks killer! He's on Pinside HemiOrange09 send him a PM Great guy!!

If you can solder it is not a difficult project ,I think I took some pictures when I did mine that might be helpful,send me a pm and I can walk you through it