Incandescent look great! Just make sure you keep up on them, they apparently can "get away" from an owner lol. I just pulled all these out of mine when I got it

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Speaking of lighting, you will not be sorry if you do the LED conversion on the Balrog and install an Amber bulb! Niiice

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I put in a red BA9 hoping the burned out bulb was the issue, but still not working … have more stuff to figure out! Haha.

Make sure you are using a 12 volt type.

I have been chasing the black residue which builds up on the playfield. I replaced all the black rubber pieces which dry rot and replaced them with transparent silicone. To do so, I removed most of the playfield pieces, cleaned it all, and waxed the playfield with 100% carnauba wax. I noticed the black residue decreased, but continued to show up on my playfield and silicone. I re-evaluated the playfield. The black painted sidewalls were not losing color so I do not think this is part of the issue. I deducted the only logical cause of this problem is the incandescent bulbs. The heat from the bulbs must be creating soot. I do enjoy the appearance of these bulbs. However, the soot is a huge issue since the soot on the silicone has to be cleaned off every two to three weeks. The worse area is the slingshots. I will keep my box of incandescent bulbs just in case I want to go retro. However, reluctantly I will change out my incandescents to LEDs with an LED board. Input on LED board source is appreciated. I have already replaced some of the bulbs with non-ghosting bulbs. I hope not to replace the ghosting bulbs with regular LEDs since I already spent the money.

I always assumed some of the black is from dust in the environment and the coils/arcing reacting with the dust. It is probably sort of similar to the first time you turn on your house heat in the fall and you smell some slight burning from dust getting charred.

Interesting theory. I would suspect more soot in the box since the coils are underneath the playfield. I did inspect the ball box at the bottom of the playfield. Since the balls roll through this area, they could pick up and distribute any soot which collects in the box. However, the box remains clean of soot. Perhaps the balls pick up the soot faster than it can collect in the box. I have cleaned the balls and noticed a very small amount of black soot on them. Perhaps the soot has a small amount of metal within it. Since the balls can become magnetized, they can disseminate the soot more easily if it contains metal. I don't have a way to determine the composition of the soot. So this is only hypothetical. The only way for me to solve this issue is to make some kind of change and see the results. I ask all those who have changed all the incandescent bulbs to LEDs to report on their playfield soot issue. Like I reported, removing the black rubber pieces significantly reduced the amount of soot. But although less, the soot continues.

Coil dust is just a part of pinball. The only way to eliminate it completely is to not play the pin.

Coil dust is literally microscopic pieces of metal flying off the metal plungers on the flippers, kickers, and pop bumpers. It then gets rolled all over the place by the ball eventually creating trails.

Any other dirt, dust, or environmental gunk is generally from outside the game when the glass has been removed.

When you replace these mechs after years of use they can be completely blackened with the dust. The plungers end up totally malformed and everything has to get replaced as cleaning isn't enough to bring them mechs up to a high level of function again.

Waxing can help make cleaning easier as the coil dust has a harder time sticking to the surface since there's less static. It's still there but a quick wipe of a cloth will pick most of it up and leave a slick playfield behind.

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Yep, it's just the pieces of metal, the plungers mostly, smashing around tens of thousands of times and creating microscopic metallic dust.

Wax helps make it easier to clean tho.

Interesting responses. Thanks! From your responses so far, the coils and metal micro-fragments can't be decreased as long as the machine is played. Obviously, that is not a viable option! I wonder where the metallic micro-fragments collect in the machine. With a large electromagnet in the machine, I have not noticed a collection of the black soot (metallic micro-fragments) at that location. Maybe it gets disbursed by the pinballs. My science background makes me think that gravity will cause most of the metal fragments to settle on the bottom of the box interior. I have not experienced this either. My hope is someone has knowledge of a scientific report on this topic.
Having to clean the soot from the playfield every 2 to 3 weeks seems excessive to me. The increase in soot started after I changed out the non-functioning incandescent bulbs makes me believe that they have some effect on black soot production. So I guess my question now is: How much does replacement of the incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs decrease the soot?

The heat from incandescent bulbs makes a lot of air circulation, moving the flipper dust around. It is normal to see the dust trails above every bulb in an old backbox. (You will also will see dust trails above heat sinks.)

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Also shaker motors tend to blow some air around. I swear when mine starts, I feel a little breeze on my wrist from the end of the lockdown bar on my old JP1.

Wipe your finger anywhere inside a cabinet that has seen 10,000 or 20,000 or more plays and it will be completely black.

Also LEDs do not make any difference in the amount of coil dust buildup. Although reading Neal's comment above makes sense as well.

The dust basically gets exploded out in all directions from the force of whatever is moving and smashing into things; and yes most of it goes down! However enough gets up and onto the playfield and then spread by the balls to cause us problems.

Keeping balls cleaned regularly is a pretty easy way to keep a pristine game pristine.

From my experience, none.

Wondering where you guys decided to tap into to power your POTD mod?

Does anyone make a wire harness for the POTD army figures?

My path of the dead mod is not lighting up. Any ideas on where to start the troubleshooting?

Thanks,

Mike

Following: I also have 3 AOTD figures I need to mod up.

Where are you guys finding the POTD figures?

Got some eBay a few years back.

Mine just came with Cometpinball matrix star post lights all connected together with y adapters and then powered by a matrix bayonet quick connect bulb.

Can you please post pics?

Thanks

Did you just put them into the GI? Also what color of star post lights, green?

I jumped at the chance when I saw someone had them in a huge LOTR collection of toys being sold as a set on FB marketplace. Got them to sell the POTD still in the box for $20!

Are those baby Bally flipper bats on your LOTR? You must really like a challenge! That’s quite a gap!

That's funny I didn't mean to link that picture to that quote, but the PinSide editor saves previous edits and stuff, forget it had been linked!

I was really bored with 30 minute games and thought I would give my league mates a laugh and a challenge. Thought it would just be a gimmick but have kept it for three years now! The game is set to an EM like angle to help a bit, and the tilt bob is very loose, so you can toss the cabinet a bit but still potentially tilt. You also get nine balls, one for each of the Fellowship. The code is also set to the absolute easiest settings.

A typical game if you are halfway decent will get you to the Destroy the Ring mode. No one has been able to destroy it yet but I've come within one shot multiple times now. Also the satisfaction of beating one of the multiball modes or ring scenes is immense, the first time myself or anyone destroys the ring is gonna be epic!

Lol I saw this pic at 4 am and rubbed my eyes thinking I wasn't seeing clearly, took a bigger sip of coffee and kept scrolling.

I would follow your potd wires down to wherever they connect and take a multimeter reading there. That will tell you which direction to go.

We call them "Hobbit Flippers" around here

I’ve had a few good games on LOTR and destroyed the ring 3-4 times. It’s an awesome mode! After that, you still have There and Back Again and Valinor. Lots to work toward!

Yes, plugged into gi with the Cometpinball led that has a matrix connector on it.
The kit came with Purple lights, so I kept them since I actually liked it. I had to buy more plastic spacers to raise the plastic because the matrix connectors were interfering with the ball.
It's not in the picture, but I also heated shrink wrapped the connections.

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I like the purple. I added some spooky trees to mine. I just need a fog machine for atmosphere.

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Ah, so I need to get one of those platforms to put it on, huh?

I think my magnet transistor went out. Looks like I need to replace Q6 with a stronger one IRL540N. This one is on Amazon and I can get it tomorrow - will this work? Looks like it should it’s 33A To-220. Then I should also replace the fuse F20 with a 4A SB or go to 5A (original 2003 LOTR). The diagnostics say fuse F21 but after reading here looks like F20. Can someone confirm? Thanks!

BOJACK IRF540 MOSFET Transistors IRF540N 33A 100V N-Channel Power MOSFET TO-220AB (Pack of 10 Pcs) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082J2Y167/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_F50KVXM02B876QVH82W1

I replaced the original transistor with an IRF 540N and I continue to use the 5A SB; all is good. Magnet works all the time now and no more blown fuses. It is F20

Is there an alternative to the 1 x 1 1/8" blue bumper pad? I need the bracket which Marco has but they say the pad is no longer available. They sell a 1 x 1 inch pad I could cut a hole in, will that work? Pinball Life says they have the pad but I really don't want to make two separate orders if possible. My machine came missing both the bracket and the pad. Thanks!

Check Titan Pinball.

Just finished fixing my right flipper by replacing Q16 transistor - all went well.

However, upon powering it up I'm noticing Row2 and Row10 of my controlled lights are no longer working (fellowship lights, start button etc). I have a LED OCD board and if its connected in line, all lights are on all the time (so lights physically work). If I bypass it, I can see Row2 and Row10 lights appear dead during light test diagnostics. I've reseated the connectors but no luck. Any tips or advice? I'm not sure what could have caused two rows to fail as I think they are independent transistors Q32 and Q34 and I wasn't doing anything near them. Hoping it's not more board work...

Got it sorted - had to reseat the ribbon cable between the power driver board and the processor board.

welcome to my world. Shipping to Canada is always insane whether it comes from Europe or the U.S.

In any case you can buy Pinsound products from Pinnovators and it’s shipped from the States. They are showing out-of-stock right now but you could ask when they expect more boards.

What PinSound mix do people think is the best? I remember Wool made one of the first ones but I see they've got a couple others on the PS site now.

I've got PS in other games but have been holding off on LOTR because I haven't seen the same rave reviews of the sound mixes like for example the Indiana Jones Endprodukt one gets.

Pinsound is a big bite off the apple. I got the full kit which includes shaker, headphone station, speakers, usb with preloaded sounds and board. They discount the full kit which offsets some of the shipping cost. Is it worth the cost? There are at least 5 sound packages to download. The shaker options are included. Most importantly, you can edit the sounds and shaker with a free program which is downloadable. They are only Windows programs, but working on Mac. I like the ability to adjust volumes and change the sound packages during play. I have had an issue creating an account with them. I You do not have to set up an account to order. That has limited my ability to download from their website. I was advised that setting up an account can take time. But after a couple weeks of trying I have basically given up.

It's not unheard of to have slow or poor support with these small boutique companies but that's pretty bad you can't even get an account setup. Have you tried directly e-mailing them about the issue or is that who said it takes time?? Bizarre.

Finally clicked for me on the ring time. Valinor awaits!
Loving my lineup tonight.

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I like the Sjoend mix the best.

That is also my favorite

Can I bug one of you awesome people to take a photo of your flippers from as few different angles so I can see where it is supposed to be lined up from the factory (assuming you have no changed yours).

Thanks so much!!!!

Here you go. I tried to take it so you can see both holes.

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Thanks so much!

Would you say the hole is aligned to the middle of the bats tip, or is the flipper slightly lower?

And, is this the factory setting (no changes made)?