Wow, looks absolutely amazing. So glad I made the decision and secured the last Tron re-release being brought into Australia.

I think it was the staring at the Black_Rose photos that tipped me over the edge!

Looking forward to mine hitting Australia in December.

Cheers!
Adam.

B_R,

you gotta check out a GoProHD3. BaDAzz Bro! www.gopro.com

I hope it's the camera but your GI is totally killing the effect of those sweet EL wires. Looks great when it does the countdown.

BR try cleaning the rubber on that disc it looks pretty weak in the vid. Should be throwing that ball much harder.

This is what I use on the rubber disc. Works great!

http://www.blackmagicshine.com/bleche-wite-tire-cleaner.php

Rubbing alcohol should do it, if you have 99% alcohol that is even better.

I was told rubbing alcohol would eventually dry out the rubber and ruin it. Not true?

Alchahol on rubber is not good.

I just wanted to throw a post here about some "New Mods" for Tron that I have pro-typed and possible going to make. I started this thread....

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-tron-mods-are-available-soon-taking-preorders-to-build-them-by-hemi

I would like to know if anyone wants these. Here is what I am making.

The Recognizer flasher....The TRON Insert flasher.....The Under the Cabinet Blue and Orange flashers...Video Game flasher.......

Thanks.

Wiping it with a rag won't kill the rubber. If you drown it in alcohol excessively I could see it drying out over time possibly. I usually use Bleech Wite to clean my rubbers on games as well. Wish they didn't change to the cheap version though. I still have some old school Bleche Wite but it won't last forever

Why not use a rubber cleaner specifically made for pinball?

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=catalog&mode=search&search_in=all&search_str=rubber+cleaner

There are also car products designed to clean rubber safely. I use Griots Garage.

Just dont use P. B. Blaster or WD 40 ...lol

Thanks for this post BR.

Can i ask were they the little swabs they use before you get an injection? lol i just re-read your post where you say 'before you get a shot'. Ignore my stupid question.....lol

I have a ton of those here that i bought to clean my pc components with. Be good to know i can use them for that as well.

Getting my Tron in a week or two.

Does anyone make a cool plunger for Tron? I have yet to find any and that stock one has to go. Love to see a clear globe with a pulsing disc in it.

I have great respect for anyone that has installed the pinbits pop bumper set. They look great though

What do you mean?

I mean, to me, they were tough to install

Gotcha. Did you get the partially assembled set. For anyone else, that's worth a little more. Also there is a detailed photo gallery that walks you through every step.

I did, but I was missing a spacer on Gem. It was tough for my big hands to hold them together and screw them down. I like the way they look though.

Damn! Reading this thread and watching the movie in 3D at home, makes me want one!!!

How did the Gem one go together? There are no screw holes to connect the top to the base -- I feel like I'm missin a part or two !

Worst part about that kit is the instructions...make it a bit harder/confusing than it has to be. Once I struggled through the first one, I stopped following those instructions and did it my own way. I have heard there may be a slight language barrier in regards to English with Martin over there, that might explain that.

Well after seeing Blackrose's EL wire I decided to order up a kit for myself. I went with 12 feet for both ramps and as Blackrose mentioned in his video that works fine (still had a bit left over, see picture below). I took my ramps off to drill them, used a 1/16 bit to drill pilot holes and then a 1/8 bit for the holes. In places where the ramp plastic is fairly wide I drilled two holes and used a 7/64 bit as that works perfect to slide the 4 inch tiny cable ties through (works best to come up on the side closest to the inside of the ramp, then back down and snug it up from underneath the ramp).

The EL wire looks awesome, especially after you lose your ball and the GI goes out (on mine the ramps, light cycles, recognizer, Flynn sign and Tron arcade are lit and it looks amazing). Almost look forward to losing my ball just so I can see the effects (well maybe not, but it is cool).

One thing I found with the EL wire is that little blue box put out a very high pitched whine (I know Blackrose you mentioned you couldn't hear much from your blue box, but mine was quite pitchy). It drove my 9 year old nuts. I wrapped it up in a towel but that didn't do much. I then remembered years ago when the C5 Corvette came out they used a lot of balsa wood in the interior to cut down on the road noise, so I decided to build a little balsa wood box for that blue box to go in and see if it would work (see pictures). It's amazing how the balsa wood box eliminates that high pitched whine, can't hear it anymore (the worst was during attract mode, and now you can't even hear it). So if you're having problems with that little blue box just buy a couple of 1/4 * 3 * 36 strips of balsa wood and build a little box, works perfect. On the bottom of the cabinet it's held in with a couple of velcro strips.

So project Tron is complete (for now): light cycles, Flynn sign, lit recognizer, apron cards, LEDs in the GI and inserts, El wire with custom balsa wood box, Pinbits clear protectors, drop target decal, Tron mini cabinet, playfield supports, 3D backglass, 5/1 splitter for mods, Flipper Fidelity speaker kit, white playfield rubber and the shaker motor.

el_wire_1.JPG el_wire_2.JPG playfield_2.JPG balsa_box_1.JPG balsa_box_2.JPG balsa_box_3.JPG

Awesome fix Buckles! Thats using the old noodle and the box looks fun to put together! Love it!

This is a great idea I could not stand that very high pitched whine.

You could sell those ; )

Man, I am friggin wiped out...what a week.

Monday, I built power splitter harnesses for myself and a friend, and also wired both hallmark lightcycles for both of us.

Got Tron on Tues... friends and some family came over to scope it out. Before the night was over had the arcade, Flynn's sign, all of the insert LEDs installed, some of the GI under the slings and a few flash lamps.

Wednesday other family came over in the evening, so didn't get much else done, but got Shuttle working after months of working on the playfield swap.

Thursday, I installed the cliffy switch protectors, kickout protector, and the arcade scoop protector. Very easy to install, but as others have reported, getting some hangups on the arcade scoop and the rollover switch.. no biggie on the switch, just takes a gentle nudge to get it off it, but the arcade scoop is usually an instant tilt to get it free. Dunno what I'm gonna do about that one. May take it off and cut the slot open some more. Got nothing against Cliffy on either issue.. they're very much needed.

After my party last night, Tron stands at 205 games played.

It was fun putting the box together, also enjoyed a couple of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPAs while building it and that made things that much more enjoyable!

You said it, B_R ... I was actually using your pics as a guide to build them as they were better than the ones on pinbits.

It still seems like I may have a connector piece missing. The GEM set pieces I have are like this as stacked:

3 piece topper (size 1-2-3)
CIRCLE w/sticky upward connector spacer
CIRCLE w/sticky upward connector spacer
x
Base with Holes

What should go where the "x" is? It seems there should be some sticky connector here or did I screw something else up? lol

Totally agree with you!

I don't understand this either. I *have* opened the slot more and you still get hangs? I never got a single hang on the tron I had here so that tells me Stern isn't putting the posts in exactly the same place on all games. I mean, damn. I'm seriously staying away from trying to protect Stern games with posts near the scoops >

I havent ruled out that its my fault. I did tighten down the posts a good bit so it may have bowed out the protector a little. I am leaving it on either way. I will let you know how my testing goes. Pretty sure my pf is at about 7 degrees so a little steep. Might not be getting as much side to side movement as expected. Will experiment and report back. Still plenty of options to explore!

100 games or more on it last night and I am the only one that tilted out. It cant be that bad!

I had the same thing happen around 100 games or so with the Cliffy on. All I did was take it out, got a thin dish towel and a pair of pliers and gently bent the metal back down by where the notch is (on mine it was bent up a bit at that point and it would stop the ball from rolling in). Used the dish towel to put around the metal on the Cliffy, didn't want to scratch it up with the pliers.

Reinstalled it and the protector fit nice and tight on the playfield by the notched area, have played 600 games since and haven't had any further problems, the ball just rolls nicely into the arcade scoop.

Cliffy rules!

Hmmm. I do generally bend a tad over 90 degrees to guarantee it will sit flat when installed. But you're adding a bit more overbend eh Steve? I reckon I'll do that myself then when forming them now. Maybe Tron just needs that little bit extra. Thanks for the report!

I'll give that a shot. I'd say it's pretty likely mine bowed out because I tightened it down too much anyways. Seems plausible to me. I might not get to it for a day or two...after the last week I just need to chill a bit LOL.

Just wanted to post my pics with the progress of my mods. All done on my own, and not purchased. EL wire mod, orange on right ramp, blue on left. Light cycle mod using hallmark bikes. Recognizer mod. I took apart ship, and installed 3 Orange LED inside, and one blue LED pointing down at center of disk. Custom LED kit, using colors of my choice. Combo of frosted White, frosted blue, super bright white, orange and blue. Blue under glow on machine as well. Hope you guys like it!

tron_003.jpg tron_004.jpg tron_002.jpg

Note my custom message on the second pic. One note i wanted to make is that super bright amber bulbs work awesome in the clu and light cycle inserts instead of yellow.

Mine is "Greetings, programs!"

Great minds think alike, doubt I will change this.

@cliffy, I made two changes to mine.

First, I noticed that the ball would sometimes rest between the edge of the scoop and the sharp edge of the scoop protector on the right where the lane is cut out. It's was only about 1.5 millimeters wide, but if the ball was slow enough, the groove between the two was large enough to give the ball a resting spot. By cutting out a bit of metal, I turned the sharp edge into a gentle U-shape. That took care of the groove as it now created a natural slant.

Second, after 20+ games, the protector would slightly shift or bend upwards on the right, turning the the opening of the guiding lane cutout into an obstacle. Again, I cut off a bit of metal to turn the hard angle of the cutout into a gentle, guiding curb.

Before making both these modifications, I had to open the table once a week and physically adjust the protector, but now it has been smooth going. If there's interest, I can take a some close up pictures to show what I did since it's hard to put into prose.