Very interested in this board fix. Let us know updates when you have them - would love to have one of these myself.

Nice designs change - that would look very clean over the opto board. I would estimate the length of the wires as about 7 inches/18 cm each. I will send you a PM.

Maybe someone can be more exact than me, but here goes. Distance between the two mounting screws, from center to center is 60 mm. 4.9 mm looks about right for the holes. Diameter of the nuts is 10 mm.

While we wait for Ingo's proto I made a quick video of the error as it appears in my game during Spirit Cards. Not sure if this error appears during other illusions, but I've never seen it on video before, so here you go. Action is at 1:25 if you don't want to listen to me babble and sorry for the crap quality video, ack.

I'm just talking out my ass. Not sure if it's considered an error or just too much rigidity in the programming? Either way, man, is it annoying. The better you are at the game, the more automatically you lob the ball right back at the trunk, and the more likely you'll be getting the trunk disabled. Can't tell you how many great games this has ruined for me.

I suppose it's best to check everything before worrying about this, but I've been through new opto, new interruptor, and new gearbox/motor and still have this problem. So, this should be the fix we've all dreamed of...

It is kind of a good thing - a way to shortcut having to hit the ball into the trunk to start the illusion. With the new board, that option will be gone the way I understand it. But ah well, everyone complains that Theatre is too easy anyway...

Once you get the proto made, Ingo, probably should start a new thread and reserve a couple spaces on it. The title on this one might be a little confusing and no doubt more people would be interested if they knew they could be signing up to buy a board.

Update: There has been a delay in this project due to the mail service in Frankfurt losing and then damaging the box that the proto boards were in. After many phone calls, Ingo was finally able to recover the box. The good news is that he was able to repair some minimal damage to the boards and will be getting them back into the mail soon (where they will hopefully fare better than the first trip).

So, hang tight, guys. I'm as excited as you are to see this project kick off, and I know Ingo is doing his best to make it all succeed! If all goes well there should be a report on how the boards function in a machine in 2 weeks!

The boards all arrived safely at last!

Both Leon boards work great! As far as I can tell, they work identically. If there's any difference during play it would probably take an engineer and some instruments to figure it out (not me, in other words). There's not a lot to look at when you're playing as it's a case of the boards eliminating behavior rather than doing something you can see. The biggest change in play is that, since the trunk no longer registers hits while in motion, you will need to hit the ball into the trunk to start each illusion - no more hitting the trunk while it's moving for instant mode start. Not a bad thing, particularly if ToM is a keeper for you and you're skilled at the game. You can also see in the video how the trunk immediately starts detecting hits again once it comes to stop - very cool.

Ingo also included a test LED string for me to try out with the connector he's added to the boards for extra LEDs. It does work (see video) but it's going to be up to you all to figure out what you want to attach and where in Theatre you could add LEDs. It's kind of tight around the trunk - not a lot of good areas for lights and I don't think putting anything inside the trunk would really be that great, but I'm sure there's a solution there somewhere.

So, major props to Ingo for getting these built. I think you all are going to be really happy with these - proto boards look awesome and no doubt production boards will be even nicer. They attach very easy to the trunk opto board and installation takes all of 2 minutes.

Will get to Ingo's trunk opto board very soon - it looks great as well. In the meantime, here are some pics and a video I put together.

leon1.jpg
leon1-2.jpg
leon2.jpg
leon2-2.jpg

Ingo is working on a replacement trunk opto board at the same time as the Leon boards for those that need a replacement board. He assures me that this new opto board is of the highest quality and corrects original B/W design flaws. I tried out the new opto board today. Aside of from some physical sizing issues that Ingo is correcting, the board performed error free. I played some games with the new opto board and the leon v.2 installed and no problems with either. Here is a picture of the new opto board installed, as well as a video. The videos shot of gameplay have both new boards installed. Great work again, Ingo!

optos4.jpg

No, this is another ball of wax altogether, and the Leon board will not stop the ball from getting stuck to the side of the trunk or reverse it if it does. Your best bet if that happens is always to turn off the game as fast as possible. It's annoying though. What I ended up doing was cutting a short length of plastic tubing (like you get at Home Depot or where ever), making a small hole in it and jamming it down onto the post near the trunk. Since I've done that I haven't had a single ball get stuck there. I think it's still possible if you hit the ball just right, but it vastly reduces the possibility. Hope that helps.

Edit: Though after thinking about this, I think the Leon board might actually reduce stuck balls in that the trunk never reverses when hit, so it's cutting down on some trunk movement that could trap the ball when the ball is right there beside it.

pic

trunk.jpg

Thanks, but we all know who the really brilliant one is - I can barely push buttons on my camera let alone understand how to build something like this. I'm just lucky enough to get to try these out. I had a nice, long game on ToM last night, to wizard mode and beyond with no worry whatsoever about the trunk shutting down halfway through. Really makes all the difference and makes a great game that much greater.

Maybe, but I've never seen trunk movement free the ball when it gets truly stuck. Ball search does spin the trunk and the only result is grinding badness, not a released ball. Maybe would work if it spun a certain way (whatever the opposite of ball search is)?

There's only one way to find out. Someone needs to jam a ball in there and run the trunk test. Not it!

Tried this configuration today and can say that it won't work. Or to be more precise, it COULD work, but would require lengthening or modifying the original eddy connector wiring along with longer wiring for the two new connectors. Ingo is looking for a plug-and-play solution, and having to untangle and maybe lengthen existing wiring isn't easy. As I told Ingo, detaching and attaching nuts to the opto board in a ToM is the easiest part of this whole procedure, and most of the work lies in unwiring the trunk, etc. so there's little benefit in flipping the board.

leonbottom1.jpg

Woohoo, Ingo! Dream becoming a reality.

EvanDickson, any chance you could edit the title of the thread to indicate that pricing info, etc. has been added?

Lots of work but looks great. You might need to expand your workforce.

factory-workers.jpg

Your wife has no doubt earned her gold star in heaven, Ingo.

To install the new opto board or the combo board, you need to take the plastic trunk off from the top of playfield and undo the 4 wires inside the trunk (not a clean way to do this unless you're super handy with molex extracters - it's easiest just to cut them and put them back together with electrical tape since you'll be cursing yourself the next time you're in there if you put them back together in a more secure fashion). Pull the wiring through the trunk shaft from the bottom. Remove the interrupter disc. (Note the orientation of the interrupter before you take it off, by the way. Make a mark on it to help you remember how it goes back on.) And finally, you'll be able to remove the old opto board with the 4 screws, after disconnecting it, of course.

Installing the leon board is much simpler - just the two nuts on the top of the opto and plug it in.

True all that. I just stuck with the cut wiring in the trunk because that's how mine was when I got it. But yeah, you could separate the wiring anywhere along its length or pop off the connectors. Still waiting for someone to come up with a great mod for this. I know that people have made replacement wiring kits with connectors but don't think it eliminates taking off and putting back on connectors which is a drag when you just did it 20 times in a row like I did over the last couple months.