The original transistors in LOTR were plenty good enough. Don't forget there is a lot of power going through the flipper circuits so lots of shit can happen before a fuse can blow.

Make sure you have the correct size fuses for the flippers (3 amp slow blow). The fuses are located near the coils.

I'm pulling them new from the little box. Ordered from pbl a while ago in a previous order. So I'm pretty darn sure. They say 3A. There is one master coil fuse on the board too, right?

This is from the Simpsons but I believe it should be the same as LOTR:

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On the subject of mods, the eye mod from Jay is a must for me.
I'll be sending you some decals very soon Jay - sorry it took so long to get them done
Took forever but they required a lot of detail and design to match in with the playfield. Can't wait to get them on and finish my machine. I'll post some pics up when the final ones come back from printers but here's some low rez pics - they look incredible printed on vinyl.

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Wow those look fantastic! You going to sell them too or just a one off? Also it looks like they might work great in Hobbit.

Thanks. Yeah probably do a run at some point but they are themed to match playfield and story of LOTR being my favourite machine. Suppose they might work in hobbit but I haven't got that machine yet to test

Yeah, those look really nice. I had planned to just get some black mirror blades for mine, but i might have to reconsider if you're going to sell those.

Have been having difficulties lighting Legolas (left ramp)

Seems as if I can rarely lite Legolas, took glass off and hit the left ramp 10+ times after hitting all the other characters, finally was able to light his insert but not sure why it's not easier like other characters?

Is there something to do to qualify this or a setting in the option menu?

Thanks

It sounds like your ramp switch is likely not sensitive enough or is failing.

Should one hit light the insert?

What switch seems like there's more than one, I don't know how to adjust.

Probably the switch next to the path of the dead on the wireform (likely switch 40/Left Ramp Made, or switch 39/Left Ramp Enter).
If you mean the white insert then yes one shot the first time.

Ok guys,
I'm prepping for my full flipper/transistor repair. I get the board off and discover this little beauty. I think I'm out. Should I buy a new board to replace this? Or should I look into repair?...

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It's ugly but most certainly repairable. It looks like the shocking solder job on the transistor legs may be very close to shorting.

Personally, I would send it to the Coin Op Cauldron for diagnostic and repair. Unless you can do it yourself or find a local resource. Your game game will be down for 8 weeks, but at least it will be fixed right. Or you can buy a new board.

That should definitely be repairable. Clean up the horrible solder job with a desoldering iron, replace the transistor with nice tight solder joints, and test continuity on all the points leading to/from the transistor legs. Sometimes these traces are on the top of the board, and sometimes on the bottom - make sure you check everything, on both sides of the board to make sure all the connections are good. There was obviously a bad trace which is why the red wire was there, so you will probably have to keep a jumper in that spot, but repairing that should not be that difficult.

I was playing today and cradling with the left flipper and got into a conversation with someone. After cradling for maybe a minute or two the flipper went dead.

Looks like fuse is blown and to the touch the coils felt extremely hot. I'm assuming that maybe the EOS switch wasn't engaging? First time I've had a blown coil on any machine so this will be a fun learning experience! I'm planning on switching the coil to a medium strength one anyways but definitely need to figure out the cause of the issue first.

This is on an LE too, which I guess has some minor differences in the coils (no diodes I think?)

Thanks for any tips.

Most likely your flipper transistor shorted and the fuse blew. It happens with the original transistors in Sterns of that era.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-lotr-le-flipper-fuse-transistor-failed

And this is why Pinside is great! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction

My Gandolf diverter opens but wont close anyone got any ideas?

With the game off see if the gate moves freely by hand. There is adjustment info in the front of the manual.

Frustrating issue I'm sure someone here has solved:

I recently removed my sword lock for a machine-assisted polish, and got it soo mirror-ed and shiny. It's awesome. But after putting it back on, along with a full shop to the machine, its having sword lock issues.

After following a big Pinside thread about this lock, I've centered the peg, adjusted pitch of the game to be less steep, and leveled, but I can't solve the issue. Here's the thing: The balls aren't flying off the sword lock. It's just that when there are two balls locked, and a third lines itself up, it lets out two, and not just the one. It was perfectly fine before I messed with it (ugh) but I can't figure out what changed.

I added the magnetic protector, and have since removed it, adjusted sword lock height a bit, but it seems like the plunger is just too slow and lets two balls through every time.

Ideas? Thanks!

Does the plunger actually move up and down twice, or does it seem like it's lowering once and two balls get past it?

The plunger moves down once and the second ball just slips by.

I think I have this licked: The plastic protector layer I added on the sword lock plastic was just thick enough to raise the sword above the lock pin and cause problems. Those few mms are a big deal apparently! Removed it and the balls lock and release perfectly. Silly you can't adjust the time on that cool like you can on, say, the WOZ ball lock.

New best DTR!

2 ball DTR, naturally.

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Very nice. My wife once did it in 36 seconds, which I have never even come close to!

Can someone give me one more check on my config before I throw the power switch? Ive double and triple checked, but I'm in my head now...

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I recently updated my LOTR with titan rings and Cointaker LEDs. I document the BOM I use for others who wish to use similar. Full details are in this thread - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/led-and-rubber-maps-for-lord-of-the-rings

Here are some photos. LMK what you think!

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Tastefully done. Are you going to use an LED OCD board ?

Yes, that is with an OCD - pretty much 'required' IMO for LOTR. It makes a huge difference

Clear rubbers throughout looks nicer than I would have expected!

Joining the club. Just picked up a nice LE. Can't wait to get some Led's and some figures added!
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Actually I think my first purchase will be the color dmd. Thing looks sweet on this one! LCD or LED?

I rebuilt the flippers on my LOTR (keeping the presumably original coils) and now they are really just stupid powerful - problematically so, even. In particular, shots up the Legolas ramp from the right flipper tend to go flying off the rails just past the spinner about 70% of the time, with tons of glass-smacking air-balls.

Is it possible I have a flipper alignment issue? I had the flippers dead-centered pointing at the holes and advancing them slightly from there seems to have reduced the problem somewhat, but that doesn't seem to look right to me (seems to play fine, though).

There are the flipper settings in the menu - presumably I could use those to de-tune a little bit, I guess... any other suggestions?

What coils are you using? They may be the upgraded ones.

Yeah, you can get color creative... but there is actually very little rubber in the game. Maybe color theme the posts.. but that would just draw attention to them IMO. There are really only four 'bands' in the game. The two sling shots, one by the shire, and one by balrog... and neither of those are very visible.

Possibly the small rubbers on the inlanes and right side above the outlane could be themed.. as the rollovers could go red or something. But I think they'd just disappear a bit. I like the clears on the rollover as they get some contrast without leaping out.

The flippers would be a creative area.. possibly even white flippers with some color.. but I stuck with my superbands and stock flipper yellow.

If your coils are originals, you probably just need to wait for the new flipper rebuilds to break in. Mine were too powerful at first as well (PBL kit), but after about 100 plays they settled in nicely.

Well, I quadruple checked everything and just went for it. Much to my surprise, everything works great!! My first board repair. I cleaned up the sketchy soldering a bit and had to make a new jumper wire, but I'm quite proud to have it working again. Thanks for all the help!

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How does everyone replace the two bulbs under either inlane guide? You know, the ones you can't access from under the playfield because the flippers are mounted there...

From the top.. just disassemble the inlane plastics and leave them in place (because of the spot lights).

I just dealt with the t-nut for one of those this week.. A PITA because not only did I have to make the flipper base loose.. I had to remove it entirely. And those staples used in the paper are ridiculously long

Broke new ground tonight. Finally got to TABA, and still didn't beat my GP score! Oh well, destroyed the ring along the way and had a lot of fun. Time to sell this bitch. Only kidding!

About a month ago my LOTR LE left flipper went dead while cradling. Researching this issue led me to find a common problem with the Q15 and Q16 flipper transistors. Instead of sending it off I've been learning how to do the repair myself - all part of the fun!

Unfortunately I've been really busy and the learning process has been a slow one. Since I don't feel confident enough to do the repair myself yet I decided to get a RottenDog to use for now and have as a backup.

The board arrived and it is a much different looking board than the one in my machine. The LOTR LE power driver board is nearly half the size of the RD board and the metal mounting plate on the back doesn't look like it would line up with the rotten dog board correctly.

Questions: Did I buy the wrong board? It literally says Lord of the Rings on the RD board itself but maybe the LE version is different?

If it's the correct board do I need to change the mounting plate somehow? I'll have to pull the old board out to be sure but it didn't look like the RD board would mount properly.

Thanks for any help or advice!

Here are some pics:

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Three new board looks like mine. The one in the first pic I don't recognized

Is yours a regular or an LE?

Starting reassembly after a topside teardown. Can anyone please share a link to shopout pics? I'd like to verify a few screw type locations before moving too far forward. Thanks.

Are the fuse numbers the same between the rottendog and the factory board? I am pretty sure the LOTR LE has a different board and fuse numbers from a standard LOTR.

Anyone with regrets going to LEDs instead of the stock incandescents? Everyone of my pins is LED'd, but my LOTR just looks so natural and at home in incandescents.

Regular. I'm not at my lotr till Monday. But I can send you pics then.

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