test with your hand first... also make sure you aren't over tightening the screws as that will cause the switch to bind.

test with finger... then adjust the rotation of the switch when mounted to ensure the armature moves enough to make the switch click. bend forks if needed to get more travel.

Much appreciated, I will check all that. Thank you.....a few hours later...I pulled out the switch, resoldered one of the joints as it looked less than optimal by me and screwed the switch back in snug but not too tight. Tested the switch manually and played a couple games, good to go, thanks again.

Make sure to not over-tighten the little bolts that hold the switch on the bracket. If they are over-tightened then the internal mechanical parts cannot move properly because the plastic casing of the switch compresses a little and restricts the movement.

Anyone know a US distributor that has the gold balls?

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https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/i-want-gold-balls

Do some cooking !

2 came out okay but a little spotty. 2 some of it wiped off. Gonna try again tomorrow with more pennies

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worth any penny

Thank you so much! I had the screws too tight. This issue has caused me 6 months of intermittent craziness.

So I replaced this switch with the Star Trek one. It passed the switch test, by now the gimli coil sets of a malfunction. It pumps up several times.

What did it do? Reverse wires? Only reconnected wires to the switch. Didn’t pay attention to that, by figured If passed the switch test it was fine.
Help.

Did you test switch with coin door open? That kills power to coils. Sounds like wires are reversed or diode on backwards.

Okay I’ll unsolder and switch wires. There was no diode in there before....

Just had the wires the wrong way. Needed to adjust the switch a bit so it would trigger better, but I believe I have it back to normal.....thanks to you all.

Now I have to figure out if I can replace inserts with LED without getting any ghosting...looking like no after I replaced 3 green ones (2 outer lanes) and the green lock light.

Lotr is bad with ghosting. Get an led ocd board and it will solve that problem.

LED OCD and GIZmo are a MUST if LED'ing a LOTR!!!! It will look fantastic when done!!

I just ordered the OCD LED board..but what is gizmo?

Basically it's LED OCD for non-color changing GI on SAM/Whitestar systems: http://ledocd.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=19

Is it okay with just the Ocd board?

I never tried GI LEDs without GIzmo, however just read the Club LED OCD thread for more detailed opinions on it. From what I remember is that it offers a subtle improvement, but some have gone without on some pins based upon how it

Yes, gi is fine as it is, at least for me. It’s the inserts that have issues.

Is there anyone using a sdb004 from rottendog in their lord
My driver is not so pretty, and i'm considering the swap.

For the fun, i found my lord recently, don't know its history but surely a working machine for location.
I was testing coils, and found that diverter near orthanc was not moving.
In fact, the machine was never updated, following service bulletins, and the specific sb147 was never done.
That means that no one before did Destroy the ring on this machine, as the gandalf loop could not be made, going to orthanc was the sole shot..

So luckily me, i will be the first one to destroy this ring

I was thinking of selling my LOTR that I bought new in ‘03, but the last 1000 or so posts have insipired me to keep it. I’m the guy who poked out his ring insert by cleaning it. I’m going to swap in this playfield as soon as I find the time:

https://swampfire.smugmug.com/ForSale/LOTR-Playfield/n-g7twNk/i-nxdp5N5/A

The color is slightly off, but the registration is great on this one.

Glad to hear it! Playing your LOTR was what inspired me to get mine.

The colors look good to me. If your missing any disassembly photos or need anything checked here, don't hesitate to ask.

I've got the Rottendog board and it works well. I had a lamp matrix short-issue and the sdb004 reproduced the behavior exactly.
The only issue I noticed is the spacing between connectors were 'off' by a few millimeters so mods dependent on perfect connector spacing (like the pinduino) won't fit.

Good to know, thanks

Yes . Gizmo is really for games with fading GI light effects. Not needed on LOTR

Agreed. And LED OCD is a must and really makes the game look much better! I'm a big fan. Just installed it recently on my LOTR.

I always thought the GI faded on this game. When I bought my 2nd LOTR it had a full LED conversion with no LED OCD board. The GI in-line near the shooter lane looked so horrible because it was supposed to fade in and out but really just flickered with LED's. I removed all the LED's in favor of incandescent bulbs and I truly love that look on LOTR. The warm glow of old-school bulbs is certainly my favorite for this particular game. I'm now on my 3rd, and it's all incadescent except for the backboard lighting and color-changers in "mode start" and behind the Palantir.

I agree. I led all my games, usually in a CT kit so it’s a nice clean look. Except lotr. Looks soooo damn good in incandescents.

IMO it looks just as good, if not better since it's a bit brighter, in LED Warm Whites with LED OCD for the inserts & GIzmo for the GI.....I really need to take some video of it in Attract mode. May do that tonight.....

Yeah, if I did the comet warm reto led I would HAVE to have the ocd board..the fading effects are fantastic in the game.

Hi everyone. I just managed to get a set of the LOTR figurines that were not installed on the LE version. Are there any guides available on how AND where to fit them? The user manual is not very clear. Thanks.

Does anyone have before and after video of the LED OCD?

I don't have a video but I'll add another vote to assure you the improvement is very significant. For LOTR in particular, with the sort of lighting effects it employs, it's a big deal. It improves the 'feel' of the game. Adding pinsound was the next best upgrade for this game IMHO.

I converted my GI to warm white frosted to get a bit more light, but all of my inserts are still incandescent.

Do the lights near the shooter lane flicker instead of fading?

I’ll check when I’m back from TPF, but if they did I probably used incs there. I have a very low tolerance for LED flicker.

Alright, here is a fresh video shot at 1080p60. Dark room, only lighting is from the pin. Stern playfield Invisiglass in place.

Details: Herg's LED OCD and GIzmo
Cointaker LEDs in Warm White and Color Matching Inserts except ORC lanes (Orange) and MB FotK (Green), TT(Red), RotK (Blue)

GIzmo is still hard to capture, but it helps when the GI gets dimmed as it allows a gradual increase/decrease that you can't get with only LEDs

The 8 lamps along the shooter lane work with the insert lamps and not the GI, so the LED OCD would smooth them.

...and you can see in my video in the post above how well LED OCD does that!

This is what I was wondering - good to know, and thank you!

Every time I think I'm gonna sell her I can't, she's too damn pretty.

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So what angle does everyone keep the dangle of the playfield? I'm at 6.5 degrees but I've heard anywhere from 6 to 7. Also, that Pinbits plastic piece for the sword area COMPLETELY fixed the magnetization issue I was having. Just a general note!

How does it look like, can you do a pic ? Thks

Will CT's non-ghosting premium LEDs fix the ghosting issues?

Yes. Mine had comet LED's and the ghosting drove me nuts. I went to non-ghosting CT premiums and they were perfect. No ghosting at all.

talking_goat I generally shoot for 15 degrees on the siderails on all my Sterns. I’m not sure what that translates to for the playfield, but I don’t like taking the glass off to level games.

After owning it for nearly four months I finally did it.D02F6B2B-40E8-458E-9A52-AD6EB01DE70E (resized).jpeg

And it was quite the marathon game...
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First time to destroy the ring and under a minute not bad at all, my first dtr was over 2 minutes and filled with panic.

I know everyone was hoping for some news about a vault edition of LOTR at TPF and I have great news! The cost of pins is clearly getting higher and we have finally managed to find a way to cut back costs and make the game easier for new time players/buyers.
The new LOTR vault edition will feature a custom coca-cola sponsored shire skin with a built in ramp to cover that pesky left lane. By removing the vuk in the shire we are able to cut down the costs of mechanical parts and can get rid of that plastic tree wall that breaks on every machine.
Finally you can play pinball the way it was meant to be played.
Brought to you by Coca-Cola and Stern Pinball

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