Has anyone here installed a GIzmo (herg's little LED GI smoother) in their Tommy? I've had OCD-controlled LEDs under my inserts for a while and recently tried switching to LEDs in my GI. The extra brightness is nice, but I'm not a fan of how harsh it makes the GI blinking. Caker137's EnerGI Maestro board is currently waitlisted, so I was wondering if the GIzmo might be a good (and cheaper) solution if I just want basic smoothing. There's a note that the fit is very tight on Tommy, so I'm curious about that as well. If anyone has any insights, thanks!

I am not sure I can picture what you did, but it does sound interesting.

If I understand what you did, you tapped into the 'ball' and it is thick enough to put threads into?

I have not studied the ball I purchased enough to know what it is made of, much less how thick it is. I was concerned that if I managed to drill into a round ball (I keep imagining the bit sliding around), that it might crack into pieces. And if I was successful, I might have to use a toggle bolt to get a secure hold of it.

That looks like a nice fix. Far more sophisticated than what I was thinking of.

I was toying with the thought of doing a cheap experiment and hooking up a low power bridge, followed by an electrolytic cap or some sort of R/C filter. I figured converting the square wave output of that relay into something more of a DC sine wave might help? Not sure how the LEDs would respond.

ColorDMD ROM update announced

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Hi there,

I've had a DE Tommy for about 10 years now, but unfortunately I've had it in storage the last five years. I've now got a bit of time and motivation to start cleaning it up and fixing problems with it.

One of the problems I've got is with the mirror motor. I am assuming it is the motor, as the mirror no longer lifts or drops. The motor just makes a whirring noise. I lifted up the playfield and checked what is happening inside the mirror cradle. I can see the motor starts to move a notch horizontally, but then stops. Maybe the gears have been stripped? I can lift the mirror up with a screw driver and force it back down, which allows me to check the sensor diagnostic passes.

Is there a way to determine if it is the motor before I go ahead and order a new one, and do we just assume it is? Is it a common problem?

Cheers,
David

Just joined the club! Need to do a shop job, and my silverball target is pretty much an airball launcher... any fixes for that? Plastic shield or something? It's also pretty warn, has anyone tried re-chroming the plastic part?

Check the target isn't bent backwards - that will increase airballs.

I replaced mine with an almost new one - it didn't last long before it was showing wear too. I wondered about a small strip of mylar on it ? Not sure if thats practical. Decided to just live with the wear now

As Ive said, check to make sure it isn't bent backwards, also check to make sure everything underneath is tight and your foam is in good shape. These should help quite a bit. Enjoy the game, it's amazing!

This is my fix for any stand up on any game. Rip off the shitty foam backing and super glue a piece of flipper rubber in place of the foam. It's amazing the result. Air balls gone. And like previous poster said, make sure target backing is straight.

This is one of the best things I've learned in pinball.

I will have to look into your suggestion.

I used to get airballs from the other targets. I purchased the DE target anti-loft fix from Pinball Life and it fixed up those. But the silverball, being hollow, that did not work. I made sure that the bracket is not bent.

It is hard to tell, but I think that the pinball hits just above the middle of the silverball target and it, being round, is what is causing the airball. At least that is my latest theory.

https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-anti-loft-switch-back-plate.html

Tommy blinder board question. I have non functional blinders. I want to make certain before I get a replacement board that it will fix things. I verified voltage and ground coking into board. Swapped servos with a model airplane one. And verified the regulated is working. Replaced the 555 timer. I get a jitter on the servo and it moves a tad when I move the adjustment pots.
Has anyone been here. Has a board fixed it or could there be something else wrong to check before I take the plunge.
Thanks.

Check R2 R5 these pots control the end points of servo travel.

Listed in Market Place the replacement servo/Arm assembly I make for Tommy.

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thanks, i am still concerned its a signal from the MPU, but i found this thread, and after bypassing U4 i too found the same results. IF it works is there any reason to replace the board? I tested with a loose servo and now i get movement, it seems to be little more than 90 degrees of rotation. original servo does work as well as a rewired future servo.

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?p=3807734

Dreams do come true, nos tommy topper

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how where when?

whats diameter of that topper?

I too hated looking at the warn silverball target so I cut a real ball in half, threaded it through the centre and and put it in place of the original, had to put a second piece of flex to account for the extra weight and not get multiple hits registering. Its a little bigger than the original but not significantly.

Silverball Target IMG_4050 (resized).JPG

Anyone had a flasher problem where only some or none of the flashers in each group work? I've got LEDs in all locations, and the fuses are OK. Is this a common DE issue? Not sure where to start looking.

Good job.

If you were to make up a bunch of those I'm pretty sure you could sell them

Yes... I'd be interested. However, maybe a steel ball exact diameter to the white plastic one, if it's noticeably larger.

prob need to spread out the wires on the bulb, most are to close from the factory. just push little wires towards outside of bulb.

That's impressive! How did you cut the pinball in half? Bandsaw and a jig to hold it?

Just picked up my first Tommy. Great game, and I've always wanted one. This one has a nice playfield, and great action, cabinet needs a bit of TLC, otherwise a really nice starting point. The game is the air ball champ of the world - one even flew through the gap in the apron during multi-ball. Didn't see it, but I heard a thunk, like a ball landing in cabinet bottom, and low and behold - one actually did. Quickly had my suspicion confirmed that a ball found its way to bottom of the cabinet after it went into ball search mode. Funny.

Question - is returning the playfield to the down position from having it propped up on the "support bracket" as difficult for all of you as it was for me? Wrestled with it until a big thump and it went back in place. Seems like it wants to be lifted from back while moving the PF back in place. I've owned dozens of pins over the last few decades, but this one kind of threw me.

Also, any "just too cool to pass on" mods or otherwise that are unique to Tommy?

Looking forward to breaking this in and then on to a Pinball Magic maybe next year.

Welcome to the club! The playfield may have some warp from being propped over the years. I usually take the time to make sure mine is lined up straight before I lay it down completely. I just put mirror blades on mine, so I am even more cautious. As for the airball issue, put fresh foam behind the silverball and ramp targets. Major improvement.

I’ve had this happen too. Mine was because the blinder mechs were missing. Do you have blinders?

On it as to the fresh foam. Thanks.
RE the blades, I ordered mirror blades yesterday. I think they'll be perfect.

I do have the blinders, which are awesome, but I think the ball flew through the left hand side, which is pretty wide open. Maybe I'll install a target and switch in there and make that the super skill shot.

Congrats on joining the Tommy club ! One of Data Easts finest.

Have you ever had a Data East / Sega / Stern machine ? - this *is* how they are. It's a horrible system - yes you can bump it over the supports but I hate crashing the playfield around like that so I push it in with my left hand, whilst lifting up the back at the bottom of the backboard with my right hand. You only need a slight lift to get it to slide far more gently over the 'bump'. Like I said ...it's a horrible design.

Absolutely upgrade the Code to Chad's 5.0 Revision - if it hasn't been done already. Huge improvements to score balance, bugs, extra lighting effects, extra dots, revamped modes, more blinder action ...it really lifts the game from very good ! to great !

http://www.pinballcode.com/tommy5

Upgrade the flat original propellers to superior 3D ones. These in the video are sold by Robert H, sometimes on Ebay, or contact him thru his website

http://www.pinwizman.com/

ColorDMD of course is always a good mod !

Tinkering wise - It is worth spending some time ensuring the spinners are spinning optimally. Especially the right hand one - it's a tight shot round there and any resistance from the spinner can stop a good orbit.

Thanks a million for the tips. The only DE I had previously owned was a Phantom of the Opera. It was a long time ago - actually the second pin I owned back in 97'. It may have been bad too, but it's been so long and I was so clueless I would not have noticed. I am glad to hear that I am not missing something.

The propellers look very cool, Thanks!

I'll check on the upgraded firmware tonight. Color DMD for sure.

Really liking this pin more than I thought. Just installed two Cliffy protectors last night - the mirror one is slated to go in tomorrow.

Thanks again...

You gotta get the color dmd, it does wonders . Because of the size of the translight, you can only go with color led. It is still very nice.

Thanks for the size/type info - I was wondering about that. In 20+ years of collecting, I've never pulled the pin on buying a color DMD [I went with a B&W one I bought at a show in TZ which was pretty cool], and I was kind of getting a bit confused as I was pawing through the DMD site - this info helps.

I have the LCD in mine - bought it before the LED became available. You have to cut a part of the plastic speaker panel to allow it to fit - on the rear so no difference when looking from the front. It also sits in front of the light panel meaning a couple of lamps have to be removed.

There used to be instructions on ColorDMD site but looks like they have now removed them.

http://shop.colordmd.com/colordmd-replacement-display-for-the-whos-tommy-pinball-wizard-pinball-machine/

If anyone did need them I am pretty sure I have a print out of them somewhere from when I fitted mine.

Same here. I think the LCD looks great on Tommy. It was a little work to get it installed, but nothing impossible that would force you to go LED.

So now that I have my new Tommy, I decided it would be smart to get in over my head and get a pinsound board and speakers. I see the sound samples on the pinsound community, but my wife wants Sir Elton singing and I do not think the samples on the community use that song. Anyone know if there is a file with Elton John's version?

I have another question: is it unusual for the screws holding the propellers to be inhumanly tight? Do people use Loctite on them? Before I start applying heat, and/or gorilla force, I thought I would look for some feedback

Unfortunately I had the same issue when I replaced mine, they were on really tight!

Pliers and brute force with a screwdriver then?

And pray the head doesn't snap off

Ugh ...

I am thinking about putting a color led display in my Tommy. Do you have to cut the speaker panel to do the color led display?

I put a color led in mine. You will love it. Fits right in, no cutting. LCD does not fit, translight is too big.

I also went with the LED to keep with the original look and feel. The LCD will go in, but yes, you do have to make modifications to the speaker panel, also make sure to put window foam or something around it to prevent the light from bleeding up. There are plenty of discussions on pinside for this.

Thanks guys

Did you get them off???

Ha, I've chickened out for the moment. But thanks for asking. I thought it a much better investment of my time to blow up an enerGI board I bought. Managed to get that smoking real good- but fortunately no damage to anything other the enerGI board. Still trying to figure out what the heck I did on that one.
I have had lot's of luck with a pinsound board, a lot of repairs, new blinder servo and arm, adding LEDs and some custom lighting, so all in all a positive experience. Going to add my mirror blades last - after I work up the nerve to try removing the propeller screws tonight. I'm going to add a bit of heat to see if someone put on Loctite - these screws are ridiculously tight. If I think I'm getting to the point of breaking off the heads, I'm just gonna offer up the new propellers to someone else.

I do remember he screws on mine being VERY tight. I had to grip the shaft with pliers. Good luck.

I had to replace one of the motors on my Tommy when I got it. At the time the screws are very tight. I wrapped a set of pliers in tape to protect the shaft. Screws came off and no harm done. I also replaced the propellers with black metal propellers and yellow painted tips.

I'm on the hunt for a nice Tommy ... if you have or know anyone who wants to sell/trade, send them my way!