FYI - there is a shaker motor mod thread that may have some answers.

Pinball Life.

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Installed and looks good. Easy install remove the plastic clip in the lights then reuse the screws

I ordered one. This looks stellar!

Are these vacuum formed or some kind or resin print? The quality on this and the volcano mod look really good.

Resin print. I wish I could vacuum form.

Do you have pictures of unpainted to compare?

Screenshot_20211129-224744.png

I will post the photo tomorrow thank you for the heads up I don't have any unpainted photos up. It's basicly the same thing texture wise but all green translucent color

Pinshakers offers a specific shaker you can buy for Stern SAM and Whitestar that comes complete with everything you need (so you don’t have to convert anything) and allows you to assign specific triggers, like the Balrog or POTD or whatever switches you like. I bought one a few weeks ago but haven’t gotten to that yet. I will install mine soon and share my results. Others I’m sure have this shaker too.

786B56D6-D57E-4D53-8AA0-384D996306F0 (resized).jpeg

Yes. I got a Stern recommended shaker from them for my LOTR. Works perfectly.

The Pinshakers is also a good alternative. I have one in my Funhouse. Also works great!

Anytime you ever ask yourself that about a pinball machine, 99.9% of the time the answer is "to eliminate a ball trap".

I was actually asking myself the very same question!

Good morning

I find that my backboard decal is kind of wrinkled, but could not find a replacement, would anyone have any pointer?

Thanks

HELP - NEED A LARGE CABLE WIRING HARNESS FOR LOTR TOPS TOURNAMENT KIT - Greetings from Wexford, PA… I love my LOTR, and it still is the best of my six pins built in the last six years. I have a semi compete Stern ToPS Tournament Kit; however, I am missing the “Large Cable Wiring Harness” which is the serial interface to the I/O Board. It is the cable on left side of picture. Might you have one or know where I might find one? Thank you in advance. Please PM me. Also, I have parts… full armor, including legs and lock down, used plastic set, coils etc.

DA96A217-45A3-44F9-A362-AE71C2BE2B94 (resized).png

I thought the LE had a shaker from the factory. If yours is missing you should be able to put a Stern shaker in and change the menu settings to enable it. I would call Pinball Life and ask which one they would recommend for the LE. I have the standard version of LOTR. I changed the 3 chips and added the shaker. I think I put in PBL-100-0019-00.

Hey y'all, I'm having a balrog issue. I haven't looked into it yet, but figured I'd throw it out there to see if others have experience it. Occasionally the balrog doesn't want to go back to it's resting spot. It seems to be binding - I can hear the motor function, but it kinda stutters and doesn't move. Eventually it slides back into place. My immediate thought was that it was binding on the playfield, I've seen the horror show marks across the playfield where it drags across and scrapes up the PF. I don't see any damage and it doesn't look like it's dragging there.

Any thoughts?

If someone with a pinsound in a LOTR and also the pinsound shaker can help me out I would appreciate it. Currently I am running pinsound in my machine with a shaker but I am not noticing any serious shaker action? Doesn't really seem to matter the sound file it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Not sure how to test it to see if it is even working. Can someone with a pinsound shaker in their LOTR comment on what difference they notice in their game? I have pibsound in an Indiana Jones machine and it totally changes the entire machine. Just not seeing this sort of activity in the Lord of the Rings shaker with pinsound. Anyone able to help?

Maybe yours has the same problem as mine... which for me is still unknown. I installed the traditional shaker with the new chips and everything but its shake is virtually unnoticeable. I had to put it into test and put my hand on the shaker housing itself just to validate it was even working. I was thinking of trying the Pinsound shaker as an alternative but haven't pulled the trigger as of yet.

Check the clutch on the shaft. Tighten the screws if loose. The link I'm including says for POTC. It's the same on LOTR.

https://www.pinballlife.com/potc-coupling-clutch-assembly.html?Category_Code=

Hi everyone

In the process of swapping my LOTR playfield, I replaced all bulbs with led. Of course, I added a ledocd for good measure, however... There's something very very odd (something which I had not seen in my CFTBL using WPC ledocd)

Basically :
- I have a lot of ghosting if the row (or column, can't remember) is activated. For example if I turn on the Legolas arrow, all inserts below (dwarf, elf, man) turn on dimly. Yes I used cheap non ghosting leds, that was actually the point
- in manual control I have a stable brightness level, however in game mode there is a lot of flickering, especially when the insert reach full brightness
- all backboard insert remain lit dimly (so ghosting), even though they should be completely off (even in manual mode). Looks like there is a residual voltage (this applies to all potd lights, and all mission lights)
- The sword lane inserts are also almost fully lit, even in off mode, although that could be a design choice. When testing them in test mode, they do lit slightly more when selected

Has anyone encountered these issues?

Sidenote... Fitting a pinsound and a ledocd in the backbox is quite an endeavor...

Email the ocdled board guys they are very awesome to work with.
I had an issue with it falling and something blew. They helped me isolate what to replace and after resolding the new transistor it worked good as new. Same issue with one light it would light the column.

Here are a couple more photos of the Lit Kit Flippers installed

Stern---LOTR---full-1 (resized).jpg

Stern---LOTR-1-full-2 (resized).jpg

It's always a bumpy ride in Pinball renovation land...

I partially reassembled my LOTR, plugged in all inserts sockets, when testing with the original incandescent inserts, it was working fine, each insert was turning on individually nicely.

Replaced the incandescent bulbs with LED (yes I was planning to add an ledocd), and now several inserts turn on when they should not. And I can't find a coherent pattern (meaning there is a pattern, but it's not coherent with shorted diodes, shorted columns or rows, etc)

I made two scope shoot:
- For an insert that is driven on, I see a 10ms period pulse at 12V
- For the inserts that should not turn on, I see a 10ms period pulse at 6V

An incandescent light will not turn on at 6V, a LED will turn on (I swapped just to confirm)

Here is a link to a video I made, when cycling insert in test mode:

Using incandescent, I'm pretty sure this would work fine, since at 6V pulse they will not turn on

You're answering your own question...

When I got mine it was similar but only about 2/3 of bulbs were LED. The LEDs looked like shit. Converted it back to incandescent and it's beautiful now. LOTR is my only non-LED machine and that's fine. I know a lot of folks accept ghosting (or don't even realize it's not normal). I do not. Not even slight ghosting.

I feel like some ppl try to stick a round peg in a square hole. Not all games work perfect with LEDs. I demand perfection!

"oh the ghosting is only noticeable if you really look for it" is a lame excuse. I see it all the time and it bugs me.

BTW if I remember correctly, the 6v pulsing is to keep the filament warm so the bulbs turn on immediately when triggered.

Good luck finding a solution.

If anyone is going to claim that their LOTR is perfect with LEDs you need to prove it with video.

LOTR w/ Warm White LEDs and LED OCD board look incredible - just like incandescents but brighter and no more burnt out bulbs. I would agree with you if it were not for OCD. Non-ghosting LEDs alone look terrible.

As noted, I was planning to add a ledocd, as I'm very familiar with how led work and their downside. For that matter, I have ledocd/afterglow in all my machines (can't live without it).

Issue is very specific to my LOTR here, where even when adding a ledocd I get some inserts that turn on when they should not. So it's likely a playfield wiring issue, but I can't understand the pattern

Also, the 6V pulse train is not on all insert, it varies depending on which insert is being controlled. If it was to keep the filament warm, one would think that ALL insert would receive such a pulse train, no ?

I get what you are saying but according to your original post:

Game works fine when setup as designed (incandescents).

Game does not work when you apply your modifications (LEDs and LEDOCD).

If the PF was wired incorrectly or had shorted diodes it would not work correctly with incandescent.

Perhaps there's some LEDOCD programming that has to happen to make it good? I also have LEDOCDs in my WPCs and would never consider having LEDs without it.

I was going to buy the LED-OCD for Whitestar but the website didn't inspire me a lot of confidence. Seems like "it may or may not work".

That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out, ie whether this 6V pulse is a Whitestar design choice (and if so whether ledocd can compensate for that)

Based on TinyBlackDog it would seem it works with ledocd, so there's probably something fishy in my machine

LEDOCD certainly does work with Whitestar, as I've had no issues on LOTR (mine is a standard - not LE). I installed mine over 2 years ago but don't remember there being anything tricky about getting it working. I installed one more recently on a Shadow and that one was similarly plug and play.

I just had a feedback from a friend who also has a LOTR and an oscilloscope, he took a measurement: no 6V pulse when the led is supposed to be off.

So back to my machine, which obviously has a problem... Sigh...

Ashram56 have you tried any non-ghosting LEDs? LEDOCD is supposed to work better with cheap LEDs but since you are clearly having a problem, I wonder if combining the two might help.

When was your LOTR made? What ROM revision are you running?

Weird problem for sure!

Which software revision?

I wonder if the newer revision (10.0) that's meant for the LE but works on the standard is different with LEDs. If you have a shaker then you definitely have the LE code (10.0)

Yes I did, even non ghosting LED do turn on.

As for ROM revision, it's LE code (I have the shaker installed - so 10.02 if I recall), but it's an original HW run.

Given the symptoms (this 6V pulse train is definitely not normal), I'm pretty sure it's a playfield wiring issue (I can reproduce the issue with ledocd by manually controlling ledocd output, so it's not the power board)

Exactly what I am interested in finding out... I need to decide what to do with my game. I can leave it with the current v9 ROM, update to 10.0, or do the full update to LE/shaker with 10.02. If an update would cause LED problems, I want to know since an LED/LEDOCD update is also on my wish list.

If anyone on the thread has 10.0 or the full 10.02 LE chip update, plus LEDOCD, and zero problems ... hearing that would be reassuring!

Ashram56 -- very interesting, thanks. I'm stumped!

zero issues with 10.02 chip, shaker , and led ocd with full leds, works great!

I have the 10.0 chip and led ocd works great as well. Before and after video of led ocd board installation if anyone is interested in making the switch. Think I may have posted the video here before.

Unfortunately LED's just have no subtlety even with the LCD board. The scale up and down in brightness and the half illumination levels is a pretty cool mood generating aspect of this game. I like the POP of LED flashers and have them in the game but this will literally be the only game that I have ever owned that will not have LED's in it for GI or inserts.

Maybe one day they'll advance the technology far enough for my taste but I don't really keep the game on long enough to ever be a concern with incandescent bulbs in there anyway.

For those who are unsure about the LEDs and type of LED and the LEDOCD, if you think about how they activate it becomes intuitive on what would work and what wouldn’t.

As we know, LEDs take a lot less energy to activate. That means that the trigger from the pinball machine will light up LEDs when they are not supposed to be lit. For instance, on a rising or fading voltage signal, the LED will light up, whereas incandescent would still be below the threshold of lighting. Hence the rapid and less fluid Lighting you see you when you switch to LEDs.

Non-ghosting LEDs try to compensate for this by only activating at higher voltage signals. So when the light next to it is lit, it will try to be below the threshold of lighting. Helps with ghosting but doesn’t help a whole lot with the rapid and sporadic flow because the pinball machine is still sending higher voltages to activate LEDs than they need, as it thinks they are still incandescents.

The LEDOCD board basically rewrites the signal so that it is now scaled down for LEDs. Fixes the problem of rapid activation, fixes the flow, and pretty much fixes ghosting. Although I haven’t tried it on this machine, I had one on my STTNG and it worked great. I had both The regular and the G.I. boards. Based on the video above, it seems it should work great on this machine as well.

So to summarize, getting non-ghosting LEDs really won’t fix anything except for some of the ghosting. If you want it to look right, you need the OCD board. Don’t pair non-ghosting LEDs with the OCD board because you’re throwing off the response to the corrected signal and it won’t activate correctly. The OCD board is only intended to be used with standard LEDs.

If you have standard LEDs, and the board, and you’re still having issues, that suggests a different problem elsewhere in the machine.

Shout out to Herg for a killer product! Waiting on my Lord of the rings to arrive and it will be the first modification that I do

Where can I find a POTD mod kit? Can anyone point me in the direction of this and any other mods you like for the game? Links are appreciated. Thank you.

Bunch of links throughout this whole thread and some of their own topics. It's worth it to look around and check out all the things you can. As far as I know, because I've been looking for a few years, no one sells an assembled potd. You have to look around for the plastic and dig a little more for the figures....then figure out how you want to do the lighting.

Kim still makes them. Just asked her a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.kimballspinballs.com/lord_of_the_rings/

Sorry, “him” not her.

Anbody know what part number to order from marco to replace the discontinued 180-5010-01 Legolas ramp switch? Went out last night and did the switch test but it only works about randomly.

I need help with TTT multiball.

My 'The Two Towers' multiball doesn't lock the balls when I shoot up the sword ramp.

Every time it hits the 'Rail Ramp Exit' #22 switch, the 'Sword Lock Release' #21 coil fires, dropping the ball back into the inlane.

I can only lock the balls on the sword ramp if they bypass the 'rail ramp exit' switch by going through the Gimli vuk, or through the Ring to the back winding wire ramp.

Changing the 'TTT Lock Difficulty' only changes "how hard it is to light locks". So that setting doesn't matter.

Switches work in test mode, but the logic isn't working.

Have you validated that the ramp entrance switch and the pre-lock switch are all working 100% along with the lock rollover switches?

I've had the game for over a year, it worked properly before.
Yes, I light locks with the keep letters, lock is lit. The switch at the bottom of the sword ramp registers, then the ball triggers the rail ramp exit, which always drops the plastic ball stop before the ball gets to the 3 ball lock switches.
Not sure what you mean by 'pre-lock' switch.

I've been dealing with this issue for weeks, so right now I just bent the ramp rail switch out of the way so it never gets triggered, and now the ball locks work like they are supposed to. Go figure.

There is a leaf switch right at the entrance to the ramp. Then there is a side angled leaf switch right where the hilt of the plastic sword is which is before the lock switches. Then finally there are the three ball lock rollover switches.

All 5 of those are functional?