I think you will find that either solution will work, but if you want the best looking results, you should go with the LED OCD board w/ normal LED's. Don't use the non-ghosting LED's with the OCD board (explained a bit more on their website I think). That's what I did with mine and couldn't be happier.

Why yes I do...
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/led-and-rubber-maps-for-lord-of-the-rings

I use OCDLED

Thanks for the input guys. Flynnibus thank you for the well taken pics. It's so hard to take good pictures of LED setups.

Man, I love this darn thing

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Ha!

That's about how many plays were on my original 2003 first run game. Game had major PF registration issues so Stern sent me a new PF. I clearcoated it, wetsanded it, polished it and reassembled. Then put 200 games on it. Life happened and I had to sell it.

Fast forward to last Saturday and I got it back. With almost 7600 plays on it and basically zero maintenance. It has hardly any wear at all. Most of it is in the Shire pit. Pretty happy with how my clearcoat job held up over the last 8 years!

Blowing J20 fuze...50 v to the magnet I think. Anyone have any thoughts on this before I tear into it?

Make sure you are using a slow-blow fuse.

http://www.sternpinball.com/upload/downloads/sb151.pdf

I actually had a 5 amp in there. Turned it on and blew F6. So replaced that and pulled the magnet. Now all fuzes are good and don't blow. Magnet looks like a short but I would expect low ohms on a coil.

@radius118... Looks like nobody has posted pics for you yet. Here are a couple. I love this upgrade, but I keep the speaker leds on red all the time rather than color changing.

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Whoa, Dad did it? Dad destroyed the ring?

Nice mods!

Sweet.. Thank you for that! I ordered a set along with the speakerlights..

Waiting for colordmd to get some units back in stock!

So I want to build my own POTD interactive mod with the army of the dead figures.

I've got the Pinbits mounting plate coming. I found a set of the AOTD figures on eBay for an exorbitant amount of money, gulped real hard and hit the BIN button.

But.. That set only comes with 3 figures. In order to tie it in to the POD lights I need one more.

Anyone have an extra AOTD figure they'd be willing to sell me?

Thanks,
Michael

I glad you bought those instead of me...Almost pulled that trigger.

You would think someone with a 3D printer could make some...hint....hint...

Dang. Sorry it took me so long. YouTube wouldn't let me upload at work. Then I'd forget. Well, for future reference, here's a video with color-changing.

I have a set of three but they all turn on together. I'm thinking about getting the mod for sale here. How much would you guys pay for one of mine?

I only have three, put color changing leds in them.

Very nice! Thanks for uploading that. Glad I ordered.

I thought about that.. But I really like the idea of making them interactive and tying them to the POTD souls lights. If I can't fine one extra figure then that's what I will probably do.

I'm certainly not going to buy another set of those figures for what they seem to go for now. :/

Well I basically just paid $20 a piece for the set of 3 I got with shipping. So hey, how about $20 shipped for one of em?

These already have the led and wiring in them (maybe yours did too) but I would probably do something close to that if there were other guys to buy the other two. Or maybe you could take all of them and handle the rest of the selloff?

That's what I am trying to avoid. I could buy another set of 3, but then I'd have 2 extra to deal with.

Right. Duh. Anyone else in for one figure?

Just joined the club!!!! Bought a mint condition one off rob from rockland pinball. Only had the game a few hours and its awesome! Next mod i was told to get is mirrors. Are they worth it and anyone have some sweet ass pictures of their machine with them on?

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Welcome!! Mirror blades on mine... as for pics, just browse the image gallery for this topic and you'll see at least a couple pics. I can't imagine not having mirrors, they are that great!!

Ok ill make mirrors next on my list. Wanted to led up my roadshow but this lotr is going to put that game on the back burner for a while

There is no pictures on the pinside gallery. I went on google and found some images. Looks sweet!

I've seen several in the past in this thread. Here are just a couple posts. Have to enlarge the images of course, but can see mirrors. There are a few others as well, but have to click on the full image gallery and go through all 5 pages. I think you were smart to go straight to the good old Google... works every time!!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-lord-of-the-rings-journey-begins-members-club/page/17#post-3239081

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-lord-of-the-rings-journey-begins-members-club/page/21#post-3364091

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-lord-of-the-rings-journey-begins-members-club?gallery#g

Thanks pinzap!!! Definately need mirrors

Ok...pretty much at my wits end. Put a new coil in the magnet and still blowing J6 when I turn on the machine. The 5A slo blow is fine and I can hear the coil/magnet fire and then bang....J6 blows. I have a 7.5 in there right now. If I disconnect the two wire connector to the magnet all good. Very simple circuit.....but it's kickin' my butt. Any help or suggestions? Can't imagine the new coil is bad.....what am I missing?

Some have discussed in the past changing out the mosfet transistor that powers/controls this circuit. Read this thread and google a little bit. I almost had to go this route, but turns out I just had to increase my fuse by 1 A, but from the sounds of it you already at the higher fuse rating, right?

http://rec.games.pinball.narkive.com/pzpD1KVt/tech-lotr-ring-magnet-fuse-q6-the-conclusion

So I dropped an 8A fast blow in F6 just for grins.....and F20 the 5A slo blo went. Is the magnet suppose to fire as soon as the machine is turned on?

If the magnet activates when the game is turned on then you likely either have a shorted transistor or magnet coil.

Also, I would not recommend putting larger fuses in unless there is a service bulletin saying to do so because you may end up damaging your board such as melting traces and blowing transistors.

Well....New coil so I guess transistor. Guess I'll have to do more research to find out where to get one of those. Any idea?

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=IRL540

Thanks....on order.

Might be joining the club tonight. Oooooooo it's exciting.

I know what people are asking for, but what does an LE (with some nice mods, shooter rod, path of dead, palantir eye, shaker) actually sell for these days?

Just want to make sure this is a fair acquisition, before I pull the trigger. A lot more than I am used to fronting for a machine.

Lend me your wise opinions.

Thanks!

Well, Pinside data says 6,470-7,530, FWIW. I have the standard with colorDMD and some minor mods and I wouldn't take less than 5k for it, not that I'd ever sell it anyway.

Yup, 5k+ for a standard with mods sounds right.

Condition is everything. I consider the Pinside prices fair for a good condition, fully working pin. Each flaw and issue subtracts from the value.

Boston Pinball does not show any recent sales of LE on Ebay.

Consider my application to be in the club! After a long hunt, I now have a super minty LOTR.

It came with a litter of cointaker super cool whites under all the inserts (even under the warm ones???) I couldn't stand it. Talk about blinded by the fellowship light! Although I do like LEDs tastefully put in most of my games, she is an elegant beauty incandescently.

So to all you LOTR brothers, I ask you this:

I want my machine to be challenging, but do want a sliver of a hope to reach Valinor.

What are the do's and don'ts when messing with all of the individual settings? Let's start at Factory for version 10.2. What do I tweak? I assume leaving extra balls "on" is legit ... but putting fixed scores to add extra balls would be uncouth. Basically, If ever I get there, I want to make sure you all respect me in the morning.

I know I will set the outlanes the hardest. I have heard maybe make TTT more difficult to start off the bat. What else? Detailed list please.

Might put those settings in tonight, and try to dial her in.

Thanks in advance, and ...
Wooooo Hooooo!

I appreciate the order and everyone for posting pictures and video of the light kit and acrylic designs.

The pics that Pinzap posted and the video that paynemic posted do a good job of showing how the different mounting order of the acrylic designs, light frames and grills can change the look of the Speaker Light Kits. If you mount the grills directly behind the acrylic design as Pinzap has done, you can see the speaker lit in the back area. If you mount the speaker grill behind the light frame as paynemic has in his video, you can't see the speaker and the grill is lit up in the back area.

Some acrylic designs look better mounted some ways over another. This varies greatly from design to design. Some of my mirrored designs that have a lot of etched detail (EX: Family Guy, South Park, Iron Man figure, AC/DC devil girls, ect..) look much, much better if the grill is mounted behind the light frames. This keep the grill from being between the designs and the light source (which makes it so you don't see the grill holes in the etched area) and it also covers up the speaker and lights the grill in the back instead.

Doug (SpeakerLightKits.com)

If the magnet locks on at powerup you have a shorted transistor for it. Do not overfuse it you will fry something. There are many threads out there on this subject. Replacing the transistor is an easy job in Whitestar and SAM games.

Well.. Just about ready to go back together.. A few more parts to clean and polish and away we go. Oh and I have to build a new Balrog harness.. Or repair it..

I bought this game NIB back in 2003. It was my first NIB game and I was really disappointed by the quality of the factory clearcoat. Super thin and not very flat. So I decided to strip it and clear it myself. Turned out absolutely beautiful. After curing for 6 months I assembled it and put about 200 plays on it. Then life happened and I had to sell it.

Long story short, I traded a POTC to the guy I sold it to and got it back. 7600 plays in 8 years. The only maintenance it got was ball replacement a few times and a couple of switches and bulbs replaced here and there. That's it. No cleaning, no waxing, etc. Truly a case study for me as far as my procedures on clearing. Too bad Cliffys for this game weren't available when I put it together. If they were the wear in the pics would be very minimal. As it is, the game had zero protection - not even any mylar pieces anywhere.

Pics are not the best quality so it's hard to see just how black and dirty the game was in the fully assembled pic.

So just out of curiosity, what's the current method to prevent wear from occuring due to the plate holding the blue pad rotating? I would love to drill another hole and put another screw in it, but I think it would interfere with the ball travel.

I've got 2 days to get it done!

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Are you saying it got 7600 plays in someones home? That would be pretty amazing....

The Balrog harness is easy enough to rebuild (I've done it before), but this is another cheap alternative.

ebay.com link: itm

Thanks for documenting this. This is the blue rubber that's right of the Pippin insert, right?
I don't think you can really prevent any rotation. When the ball hits, even when it's screwed on tight, the whole thing will move a little.
It looks like maybe the bracket holding it got loose and sagged onto the playfield, then scrapped it.

I'd do three things. 1- Tighten the bracket and periodically check it is tight. 2- Add a washer under the ball guide bracket to slightly elevate the assembly. 3- Add a small piece of Mylar under the whole thing, hidden under the rubber assembly. Maybe overkill but you shouldn't have any problem.

I believe Cliffy made a protector for someone for the wear in that area.

EDIT: Here it is:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lotr-thanks-for-the-fix-cliffy

Well 7400 plays as I sold it with just under 200 plays on it. The audits were never cleared. Heck my GC score was still on the game. I sold the game back in summer of 2008 and just got it back this month. So that's what 8 1/2 years? That's an average of 2.39 games every single day. Yeah, pretty impressive.

Again, it's also pretty impressive how little wear this playfield actually got considering the amount of plays, the lack of maintenance and the lack of protection. In those days I didn't install Cliffys on clear coated or NIB games due to the anticipated amount of plays a game usually gets in HUO situations. No more. Every NIB or cleared/restored game gets Cliffys and/or Mantis protectors. I refused to unbox my ST Prem when I got it until I had my Cliffys and pinbits plastic protectors.

Thanks for that link. Unfortunately it's too late for me to order. I will just have to build a new one or repair the one I have. Besides, I have a custom mod on Balrog that I built back when I cleared the PF that has to be incorporated into the wiring harness.

Yes.. And I agree.. The design is terrible. Add to that the fact that you really can't crank down on the little screw or you'll distort the shape of the rubber pad. This is actually a very common wear spot for LOTR. If I had my way, I would put a second nut-sert into the bracket so it can't rotate. I am out of time now so I am just going to cut down a clear washer and put it over the wear spot for now. FYI I *always* add washers under post style ball guides to prevent the guide from tightening down and "cutting" the PF.

Unfortunately I did not know about the Cliffy piece until this morning which is a bummer as I would have ordered it along with the rest of Cliffy's stuff for this game so I'd have it to install now.

A small piece of Mylar would work just as well. You could touch up the wear spot, wax, add a small piece of Mylar on top, maybe even double it, and you're good to go.

Do you have close ups of the clear coat in high wear areas? I'd be curious to see the dimpling and level of reflection.

Are you planning on polishing the clear before reassembly?

Perhaps, although I can see the edge of the bracket easily chewing through a couple pieces of mylar. I'm not going to worry about touching up that wear spot for now. If I decide in the future to sand out the wear spots and re-clear the playfield I will touch it up then.

Polishing is done. I have a couple more coats of wax to go and the PF is ready to be reassembled. I will try to get better pics but the lighting in the project room is just not very good for pictures. The rest of the playfield is perfect. Of course there are dimples but that is normal. All playfields dimple.

I put two washers on my game to be on the safe side. I tried inverting the bracket to have wider Pippin lane but eventually moved it back to be able to replace the rubber. Otherwise the screw head is on the wrong side.

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