So, any ideas on what would cause this?

I think he's saying it was happening before, but you couldn't see it. As mot suggests, you need to test the power levels at various points to troubleshoot where your voltage problem is. This is fairly common as the driver board gets old and the caps/etc. need replacing.

Anyone have any tips if I want to move my Tiger Saw mod to be powered by an external 5v instead of drawing it off the board? It would be nice if there was some kind of clean package for an external 5v for mods vs. hacking one together.

[Edit]

I found this, anyone used this?

http://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Strip-Switching-Supply-Converter/dp/B008DFCOW6/ref=pd_sim_sbs_23_1

Also, does anyone know what current these Tiger Saw motors are rated for?

Voltage at both the outlet and surge protector is 119.3V
Voltage at a GI socket (picked a random one in the backbox) was 6.63V (so about 5.24% high)
Nothing burnt on J120, J121 (or any of the connectors for that matter).

The LED on the board that controls my left drain magnet is stuck on. No matter how I adjust it, the LED remains lit. Does any company sell those replacement boards?

Is this it? Is there a difference between the right and left one?
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-18543.1-2

Yes. Email/call pinbits. They make the best board available.

Pinbits is what you want. That is NOT the correct board. That is the one for the trunk, but it's different than the outlanes.

Will do. Thanks. Figures. I just rec'd an order from them the other day.

2015-11-28_16.52.34_(resized).jpg

Merry Christmas to the TOM club!

For Christmas, my buddy who is housesitting set a ridiculous high score for me to beat on my ToM. I have a long_ way to go.

Score?

I have a lot of work ahead of me.

IMG_9962_(resized).jpg

Holy crap

... I was proud with my 1.4 bil score. He must of heard that 50 million noise like crazy. Anyone got tips to get the Grand Finale without cheating?

Impressive. I topped out at about half of that. Grand Finale is only worth, what, a billion+ points? So to get 6 billion you'd pretty much have to go around the horn twice...

Yeah, I'm calling it as either he was really, REALLY lucky, or cheated himself. The absolute best that I've seen on our ToM since we bought it in 1999 was about 4.5 billion, if my memory is correct), but that is with 5 regular balls plus 4 buy-ins. Anything higher was during "testing" with the glass off.

That dude can compete at PAPA!

Nope, he doesn't cheat. He's a league competitor in San Francisco. The other score on my pin (that he just pushed down) is from Neil Shatz.

He regularly gets in the 5-7 billion range, gets to Grand Finale without a hitch. Brian is placing high in California (I'm not sure he feels he can compete PAPA, but he's on the way there).

Oh, and I should add, just 3 balls (plus extra balls, of course).

[EDIT:] Brian tells me my machine *IS* easier, because Replay is set to give Extra Ball. That's how I got the game, but what did I know.

For whatever it's worth, I didn't cheat but this particular machine awards a few more extra balls than factory default. I've attached another score I got later on that day. So in this game I got 6 extra balls. 2 were non-standard EBs. The machine is set to a standard 3 ball game.

• 1 EB was on replay which is set to around 500-600M.
• 1 was an outlane special which is also set to award an extra ball. Special is lit when you get to grand finale and I had another special lit from the basement. I only collected one in this game because I drained down the center for the other one and it doesn't stay ball to ball.
• As for other extra balls I got 2 off the clock. There is a bug in the game where if you get to midnight via the basement award it lights extra ball. Then you get to 6pm to light EB again.
• 1 EB off of digital pinball.
• 1 EB when getting to vanish 3 times.

Each ball my strategy was to maximize my bonus multiplier to 8x. So I theater'ed out most of the game, and collected it when the trunk was open. My theater awards were around 80M toward the end of the game. One thing I did notice is that when you collect a theater award it spots you a hit to the trunk so I was also starting modes (eventually) off of that theater collect. I got through grand finale once and was just about there a 2nd time around when my game ended. My bonus was around 800M on my 2nd to last ball. The bonus on the last ball was over 1B. There's another bug in that the display gets all weird for a bonus over 1B. But anyway, no cheating, I just got 2 more extra balls than factory default.

ToM_high_score_(resized).jpg

Well, let me apologize formally then. Never meant any hurt feelings, or apparent need for people to defend themselves. My mistake. I can own that...

My TOM.
http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album604

Working on some repairs and upgrades.

IMG_20150617_210513188_(resized).jpg

IMG_20150613_163307122_(resized).jpg

Anyone know where I can get a new speaker panel?

That is really similar to what I've done recently. LEDs, ColorDMD, trunk chain/lock, motorized saw, marquee... You've added speaker lights though. I just (finally) got up to ROM 1.3, upgraded my speakers, added a volume control to the backbox speakers, and for Christmas I got a 100Hz crossover for the upgraded woofer that is in the main body of the machine, an "auto-eddy board" for the trunk from PinBits, and some custom "blades" for the inside sides of the cabinet. Hopefully I will get most of that installed this week while I am on vacation from work.

I would really appreciate if somebody could post a list/scheme/overview for suitable leds (type and color) for all the TOM lamps (playfield, flashers, backbox,...).

My left outlane magnet fires fine but many times doesn't catch the ball. Sometimes when it does, the ball wobbles a lot and winds up draining anyway. Is there a way to adjust it somehow?
I put in the pinbits eddy board and a new magnet.

I don't have an answer for you, but wanted to at least let you know that you did the things that I would have started with. My understanding from a previous issue myself was that the magnet power is on or off, but it sounds like maybe the magnet isn't staying on long enough to stop the wobble before releasing.

One other thing to check is to make sure that the playfield is level from side to side (not the front to back angle) to make sure that there isn't some slight slope preventing it from releasing the ball correctly. My only other thought is to make sure that the magnet is lined up under the playfield in the right spot. I don't know if there is an adjustment or not for the magnet location (I am not at home and can't check), but I've heard stories of previous owners doing odd modifications (and not for the better) that really mess things up. Again, just stabbing in the dark here while waiting for someone else to chime in.

The magnet and eddy isn't fast enough to stop really fast moving pinballs, so some degree of that is normal. As for the pinball wiggle, yeah, that happens to me as well. You have to carefully nudge to make sure you don't drain. Not sure if what you are seeing is more severe than normal, so a video would be great if you can catch it.

This is a common problem that I had, too. I never got it sorted out when I had my TOM, but I understand the problem better now than I did then.

The Problem
There is something inherently different about the left outlane magnet than the right outlane magnet. If you refer to the Solenoid/Flasher table on page 2-44 of the manual, you can see that the normal solenoid drivers 01-16 are all full, so the game adds solenoids 33, 34, and 35 which are intended for a game with upper flippers and are actually powered and driven by the Fliptronics board.

Something I'd like to know
The right and left outlane magnets both get 50 VDC nominal power, but provided from different places. I would like to know the actual voltages provided to these coils, as I suspect that the left outlane voltage is lower than the right.
The right outlane magnet gets 50 V the "normal" way, from J107-2.
The left outlane magnet gets 50 V abnormally, from J907-8,9. This is intended to power flipper coils.
I would like to know the real voltages measured (relative to ground) at each of the two magnets.

My idea for a solution
Note that this may be flawed. Someone smarter than me might recognize an inherent problem with this solution.
My idea is to disconnect the power at the left magnet (50V from the Fliptronic board), and instead connect normal coil power (50V from the power driver board). You could pickup the 50V from another coil, for example the right magnet. [If the left magnet power has two wires, be sure to keep them connected to avoid cutting off power downstream!]

My left outlane magnet has the same issue. It's common, and as mot says, seems to be related to the power coming from two different sources. I just got used to mine being that way. Extra challenge.

Send me your e-mail-adress ...

I have a layout too that I could pass along. PM me your email address and then you can compare and contrast the layout I have with what german-pinball sends you.

It's funny reading this because my right outlane magnet seems to exhibit this behavior. I don't think my left outlane has ever failed to catch the ball properly.

In case anyone missed this in another thread, Mirco stated ToM playfields would be ready for this year's TPF if all goes well.

This would be SUPER exciting news. Of course, it will cost one heck of a pretty penny I am sure, but still super exciting, but just...

dyltmn.jpg_(resized).jpg

Truth be told, I'm second guessing myself on which one didn't work. One was perfect, one always wobbled and never really stopped the ball. I just don't remember which was which.

Just installed LED OCD on the ToM. I didn't think it would matter that much, but the difference is insane. I'm trying to get closer to the intent of the designers, I think this gets me there. The LEDs I'm using are almost all CoinTaker Supers, FWIW, and the LEDs light up at about 4% and continue until 95%.

I was actually surprised at how much I am actually *not* annoyed by the LED effects in my TOM. My full kit came from Pinball Bulbs. Not saying that I wouldn't see a benefit from the LED OCD or even the GI OCD, but at $150 a pop, I am not sure that it is worth it for me. At least not at this point. It isn't as bad as I thought. Time will tell and maybe it will become annoying later on, but for now it looks like it just makes things fade in/out better/smoother. I was worried that I would need it to combat other visual issues that I have with some pinball machines with LEDs in them. Again for me I thought that I would need to it prevent the game from being unplayable with LEDs, but I am not experiencing the negative issues, so the OCD boards will be more of an "icing on the cake" upgrade some day than a "fixing a playability problem" fix for me.

Great to hear that you are liking it.

What does the OCD do? I LED my TOM with standard bulbs. Looks fine to me.?

When you replace your incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs, there are certain things that don't work quite right, namely dimming. In the case of the ToM, there are certain special effects the designers created, primarily on the general illumination string, where the table dims/brightens during certain play modes. With LEDs, I would just get flicker, not dimming, or no effect at all. Once I installed the GI OCD, it corrected that problem.

The issue is similar for the insert lights, in that the game fades those lights in and out. I agree with nickbuol, really the machine looks fine without the LED OCD...However, I recently replaced my power driver board with a Rottendog, and since then, I was getting ghosting on the inserts (LEDs lighting up dimly when they are not supposed to, when a nearby LED was on). To fix it, I bought the LED OCD. Not only did it fix the ghosting, but suddenly I saw what my lights would looks like when properly fading and dimming, and it's really beautiful. I wouldn't have known because, as others have said, it looks quite good on ToM without it.

JSA can you advise as to what fading you see or even throw up a video showing this? On the fence about buying this and would like to see.

I believe that there is a setting to prevent GI dimming, but maybe that is just for the "attract mode." I know that I turned off some setting just before putting the LEDs in per recommendation of Pinball Bulbs (I believe)....

Maybe that is also why I am not noticing it.

Before the LED upgrade, I was told that I probably wouldn't need an LED OCD with ToM, but maybe a GI OCD instead. Figured I would put the LEDs in first and let it ride for a while to see if it was bothering me or anyone else.

I still have plenty of work and a bit more money to drop into my ToM before I would even look at it for me. Getting the new trunk opto board/Leon's board combo to prevent the trunk from shutting down mid-game due to double hits... Have to put in my inside side art. Need to take apart the trunk, clean and re-grease the gears. And I am still working on the graphics to get some good decals printed to fix my raised/chipped "A" in MAGIC.... Then there is the talk of reproduction ToM playfields possibly being available at the Texas Pinball Festival in March. Not that I have the extra cash AT ALL right now, this could be a once in a lifetime chance to get a "perfect" playfield. Of course, since I live in Iowa, travel would need to be arranged to make that happen, plus I can't imagine the amount of time it would take to do a playfield swap. Sooooo many wires, bolts, pieces, etc. I guess with a 2nd playfield at least I could set them side-by-side to do it (probably have to build 2 rotisseries)

That would do it for me for 2016. 2017 would be removing the external decals, patch the wood, and put new decals on, and then finish "golding" out the machine. Then it will be "perfect." A true collector grade machine (maybe with a few other touches like repainting the inside, etc. If the GI LEDs start bugging me by then, I will get a GI OCD.

anyone looking to "get out" of the club??? or should i phrase this - anyone parting with a TOM? i am on the prowl for one.. prefer to drive 1-2-3hrs to test, meet/greet , play, decide, pay and haul away. But wont rule out a NAVL purchase.

looking for a 100% working one... cosmetic issues could be okay with that... but dont want projects or errors. Not looking for a HUO - HEP sort of game either. LED's a plus, mods okay...

let me know , or point me in the direction !

LOOKING TO "JOIN THE CLUB!"

thanks in advance
kenny

I tried to create a before/after video, using the "passthrough" option on LED OCD (in theory, turns off the LED OCD and simulates not having one installed). Unfortunately two problems; One, I'm not sure passthrough is working correctly, and two, none of the intense flicker and ghosting show up with the LED OCD installed. You can look and tell me if you can see it:

I've been told to really see the difference and fading with video, you need to shoot in slow motion. I don't have the patience to make that video.

Check out this thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gi-ocd-installation-into-my-tom-mini-review

I find that pretty much captures what I saw with the GI OCD, and the LED OCD is no different.

Hey all, different topic: Today, I installed "Leon's Fix," the board built by german-pinball. Just a refresher, there is a bug on Theatre of Magic where under certain conditions, if you hit the trunk at the wrong time, it causes the trunk to lock up until the game is power cycled (or you run a trunk test).

It was called Leon's Fix because Leon Borre (RIP) proposed that this software bug could be fixed with hardware, and suggested how it might be done. Years after his death, the community here started a thread on the topic:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tom-trunk-error-leons-fix-anyone-done-this

After a ton of contributions and german-pinball (Ingo)'s excellent work, he shipped a hareware fix that installs beneath the trunk. The fix comes on it's own, or also combined with a high quality opto board for the trunk. I received mine today and installed it. The error is gone, and everything works perfectly! Here are photos.

IMG_0649_(resized).jpg
IMG_0651_(resized).jpg

Pretty freaking amazing.

That is correct, it is recommended you turn off the dimming features with LEDs without GI OCD. It's a shame, it's really dramatic.

That may have been me. If you're not having ghosting issues (mine only occurred after getting the Rottendog board) I'd say it's totally fine without it.

I don't have the courage to do a full teardown yet. It's a month of work for someone like me (at least) and the game works fine. One day...

I've been on the "paid" list for a few days now. Not sure when mine will ship. Did he send you a shipping notification or did it just show up one day? Can't wait to get it installed because we had a good 4 person game going this past weekend and the trunk took a double hit and stopped at about a 45 degree angle about 1/2 way through our "match." The game does a good job of not becoming totally crippled without a moving trunk, but still was much less enjoyable. Power cycle and it is fixed, but still. Ruined the games we had going.

Is there a way to increase the Theatre jackpot? Seems like mine is always ~50mill.
I'm trying to beat my cousins score he put on my machine. What are some big point scoring strategies?
Hit wiz mode this morning and immediately drained. Wawaa. Even still, I only had 1.6 bill points. That's over a billion short of where I need to be.

Only thing that increases the Theatre Jackpot that I know of is hitting the ball into the pop bumpers - but it doesn't increase it much, maybe a couple million if you hit it in there a bunch.

Theatre seems to have pretty balanced scoring - no real scoring loopholes. Do well in all modes, hit as many jackpots as possible in multiball and keep the multiballs coming, max out shots on midnight madness, and of course, hit all the shots in wizard mode, which adds up.