SHADOW SOUND AND DMD PROBLEM (SOLVED)

Hi all. I recently bought a restored TS and was having a great time until I hit a few hurdles. I treated myself to the Aurich alternate translite and after installing it I have about 12 evenly spaced vertical lines running across the DMD. Also, only some sound effects and music are working. During the install I took the DMD panel out and cleaned it up before putting on the new Aurich artwork and then putting it all back in the machine to start playing.

The above may be irrelevant because as I was playing the first game my GF turned off the room lights. The pinball machine is powered by a power point that also has the light switch in it. I think this it when things went downhill. Could there have been a power surge or similar that cooked a few things? I'm not sure where to start really. Other than to re-seat the things I disconnected when I remove the DMD panel. Got opto faults too, but that may unrelated. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Solution: I sent the boards off to a local guy Ken Shipley (Skybeau on Aussie Arcade forums) who kindly checked them over for me on Christmas Day. They were fine. So I then double checked all of the ribbon cables - first visually and then for continuity with a multimeter. Took ages and was very fiddly considering I had to jury rig my multimeter with thin wire on each end of the probes so they would fit into the ribbon pin slots. There it was - the signal wasn't getting through one of the outside wires (#1?) between two of the connectors on the 34 pin ribbon. I prised the connector open and found that the wire had snapped. A bit of back-yard basic electronics and after separating the wire from the ribbon, I joined the cut wire with the wire from a garbage bag tie and covered the join with some heat shrink. I then crimped it back into the connector, put all the boards back in the machine, connected it all up and voila! Everything worked. No more sound problems or "jail bars" on the DMD. Thanks all for your suggestions - which were all on the money as the ribbons being the cause.

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Thanks RonB and Aurich for getting back to me so soon. At the pub having a few beers and playing pins. I'll be sure to double check the ribbon connection. I removed the DMD panel because the surround plastic was stuck fast to the panel MDF (wood) and had to get physical to remove the old one. Is there a particular ribbon I need to check for the sound?

Very happy with new translite too Aurich. Thanks. Good job on getting to batch #3.

Anyone know what sort of gun the shooter on the game is based on? Is it a real replica of what the Shadow uses? I want to look at the handles of the real thing for ideas.

Do you have the diverter springs attached? My TS didn't have them and was a bit sluggish too, then one day I was looking at the diverter mechanism and saw there are two opposing hooks where each end of a spring was meant to be attached. Bought some from PSPA and all sorted now.

Not sure if it is identical, but I was having this problem too, and found a thread on here that mentioned how crucial the playfield slope is on The Shadow. It's something to do with the timing from when the ball is released by the magnet, until the opto detects the ball rolling back and the magnet grabs it and throws it into the sanctum. Have you moved the pin recently? Maybe raise the back legs a cm and see what happens.

Posted this a while back on the Aurich Alternate Translite thread and will repost here as it may help someone out. I took a number of photos of my back box and blended the images so the light colour configuration and bulb positioning can been seen relative to the artwork. I've got a mix of LED, flex LED and incandescent bulbs, and the bulb behind the street lamp is one of the ones that flashes on and off automatically. It's a nice touch that gives the appearance of a faulty street light. Note that you don't have to have a bulb in every socket. Enjoy...

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You're too kind. Yeah probably a bit overkill with that green. I'll give your suggestion a go. I love how his eyes are a bit green.

Okay Aurich, was just staring at your translite and have an idea. Pinblades/sideboard decals are growing in popularity and add a great deal of aesthetic value to a game. The Shadow doesn't yet have anything like this available as far as I know. My idea is that you design some sideboard decals based on the city skyline of your translite. No Shadow, just an extended city scape. An old plane maybe, some smoke stacks/factories/a harbour perhaps. I'd love it.

My other idea is to see if it can be printed on chrome vinyl and as such you would leave certain elements (ink) out of the design so that an old school mirrored back glass effect was present. At the very least, if chrome vinyl isn't printable I'd love to see if something like this could be produced on that Iron Man VE cabinet "foil". Just thinkin' out loud.

Cha-Ching? All your previous buyers would not be able to resist having the matching set. I'd say this would be easier to manage the postage also, as it would just slip into a poster tube. $59.95 - I'm in.

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If anyone is interested, I've asked Joe at Laseriffic whether he could design a topper based on the roof light of the 1936 Cord Westchester Sunshine Radio taxi in the movie and above the flippers on the playfield. He's got a lot on but said he will have a think about how he can do it. I'll update this thread as I get feedback from Joe.

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UPDATE: Joe at Laseriffic has completed the design for my topper idea and it's now available for general sale. They're $165 plus shipping. It will arrive soon and I'll post pics when I've set it up.

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Okay it arrived today - it looks great and was easy to install. A big thanks to Joe for taking on a customers idea and making it happen. TS Sunshine Radio Taxi Topper 998.jpgTS Sunshine Radio Taxi Topper 997-629.jpgTS Sunshine Radio Taxi Topper 996-995.jpgTS Sunshine Radio Taxi Topper 995-898.jpgTS Sunshine Radio Taxi Topper 994-965.jpgTS Sunshine Radio Taxi Topper 993-309.jpg

I've had this happen before. The ball lock sequence can be very particular about the angle of the table. There's a post somewhere on Pinside about it - perhaps in this topic. It was something along the lines of the initial ball rollback after the sanctum magnet grabs it is timed to be detected by the opto and then the magnet activates and throws the ball into the lock. If the table angle isn't right the ball doesn't arrive at the opto when it is expected to and the magnet never comes back on. So do all you tests at the proper playfield angle. Weird I know.

Not too sure sorry. You could try using the Ask Lloyd feature on Pinside. He might have some ideas or just give it a few days and someone else might respond here.

Can you provide a link or keyword suggestion Art? Can't find it on eBay.

Thanks Art, have made contact.

Looks good. I made my own but these look better. Where'd you get them from?

I will have to take some pics, but basically I got an image off the internet that had all the target decals on it, then I colour laser printer that onto clear labels that you get from the stationary shop. Then I cut those out and stick them on aluminum tape which you can get from electronics shops. Then I put Mylar over the top. You just need a good steel ruler and Stanley knife to speed things up.

Dupe post.

Doh!

Double doh!

I recently added spots and all LEDs. Comet Opmax in the slings, outlane guides, spots and lots of various LEDs from comet and others I already had. Spots make a big difference. Ice blue on the left highlights the Playfield blue while yellow on the right brings out the gold in the wire forms. I'm going to place a purple comet strip under the flat metal bit where the ball does a 180 in the launch wireform, as well as light up the battlefield. I'm concerned that the ball will strobe in the battlefield if I use an LED strip. image.jpegimage.jpeg

I've finally got around to implementing my take on lighting up the battlefield. Was going to use Comet strips but opted for this. Power is from my dkpinball powertap, which I am also using to power several other lights. I still have some reflection off the battlefield mini playfield but generally happy. The lights are Comet Opmax. If I could only buy one type of pin bulb, it would be these. Makes machines look beautiful.

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As in the regular spotlight cone things? Have some. Will give it a go. The last pic looks worse than reality. I have fluff in my lense

Hey guys I've had a bit of strange behavior lately - the left flipper button has fired the gun (launched a ball) as well as pushed the battlefield entrance drop target up. It's infrequent but I want to fix it. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Sent you a PM.

For those interested in lighting the battlefield I used Comet Opmax in light sockets screwed into the back of the battlefield. The screws are already there - I just had to do a bit of bending and adjustment. I'm powering them off a DK Pinball Powertap, but you can easily use alligator clips instead. I do get some reflection off the mini playfield but it's not a bother. My OCD compelled me to fit two lights, but one (on the right to minimise reflection) will work fine.

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I guess it's possible but hard to say without seeing your setup. Any bare wires touching metal is a problem.

Totally. I use these on mine. I think the side touching is inevitable.

I had issues with mine and it turned out to be a faulty Q5 transistor on the Fliptronics board. I had that, it's pre-driver transistor and diode replaced and all is well.