I wouldn’t get the home rom. Real men earn Lost in the Zone.

I solder molex connectors on so they operate without issue and you can take off the mod as suggested.

the home rom also includes some bugfixes... you don't *have* to activate the auto-LITZ! Plus it won't score points for you if you cheat

Scroll through the image gallery of this tread for mod ideas. I would start and the last page and work forward for a while and see what catches your eye.

Plus for me the home rom solved ghosting issues I was having with LEDs without having to spend a bunch on LEDOCD (I don’t care personally about ramp up/down).

What are the bugs? I've never had the home rom and also never noticed bugs.. Maybe jackpot cheat for powerball mania?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-owners-club/page/89#post-3830339

Edit: I don’t think that lists the bugs fixed but it is a great summary of a lot of nice additions in 9.4H

Bugs fixed in 9.4H were widely publicized, since they were mostly internal things. (Ball count memory addresses, Issues with powerball and some animations, pre-release of balls during LITZ animation, etc..) Most of 9.4H is new features, animations, light-shows, etc.

Strongly recommend it, honestly. (And no, not just because I beta-tested it..)

After owning for nearly 3 months, made it to Lost in the Zone for the first time and finally cracked the 1B point threshold! Woohoo!

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Manual is a photocopy. You can see the outline of the circular punch-hole marks near the binding.

Congrats! Welcome!

9.4H is a must. The Great Lakes mini playfield switches, if you can find them, are a must.

Hey guys, I've got an issue where balls can get stuck on the pdi robot mod between the robot itself and the flipping mech.

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Apart from removing the mod does anyone have any nice idea on stopping the ball from getting stuck? It can happen on both sides.

Basically the ball, when hit hard up the leading ramp slams into the flipping mech. It then sometimes goes back the direction it came before rolling to the mech again. Sometimes the mech will then flip the ball inti these locations.

I had that problem after getting the robot mod. It was always the powerball and would get stuck by the right foot. Took a metal bracket I had, fastened a star post to one end, and glued other end under robot metal base. Doesn't look to out of place.

changing the slope of the ramp can help minimize how much time the ball hangs out there vs being in the divertor.. might help minimize.

Hello all - new member here. I just pick up my Twilight Zone Friday. Somebody has butchered it a little and I'm in the process of sorting it out. I have a backboard question. Please see photo. The middle piece was my backboard and the top peice was shoved in front of it to block the view of the wires. The bottom peice is my homemade replacement. Has anybody seen a short backboard like this before? Also, what are the metal brackets for. I can't figure out when they would come into play but I saw them on other TZs so I installed them on my replacement. Thanks in advance.

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The metal brackets are so you can lift the playfield off the rails, rest them on those so that no mechs or wiring on the underside of the playfield get pinched.

Real quick question. My game has a red shooter spring which I am certain is not correct as it is way to strong. Is the game supposed to have a silver spring?

It should be the brown lowest strength one: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/10-148-6

Thanks I appreciate it. I have red, green, and silver springs on hand. The silver was the weakest of the ones I have. I’ll order the brown one. I just knew that red one that it came with had to be wrong

Still sorting out my “new to me” TZ. Got a question about how the mini playfield is attached. Looking at the sticker on the bottom of the cabinet it says to loosen nut A and B and removed screw C. My A connection doesn’t have a bracket attached to it. Only the B side does. I think I’m missing the A side bracket. Does anyone have a photo of it or a source to purchase it?

Forgot the diagram.

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The bracket is a single piece so yours is likely just not mounted correctly to start with or possibly its broken. I think Marco has the bracket listed although not sure if it’s actually available (in stock).

I will go through my teardown pics tonight. I have one somewhere.
Bother side front starposts should have a bracket attachment, yes.

I thought it should. Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Looking from the back of the playfield. (Front of playfield towards top of image.)

Oh Yeah - That's it. Any idea where a can score one? Haven't seen it at the "usual" places.

It seems like the mini playfield bracket I’m missing is a bit of a problem child to source. Please see above photo. Can someone maybe sketch it out with measurements so I can make one? Thanks in advance.

Yeah, sorry I can't help - not sure where to get them from. You can try a couple of the user parts brokers here on pinside. I know one (at least) has (or had, maybe?) TZ parts.

Can anyone tell me what the "Insert Main" is in GI? In various GI tests there are:

Mini P.F. + Insert
Clock & Insert
Insert Main

I have no idea where on the playfield "Insert" is, and the manual doesn't even cover GI bulb locations.

Insert = Backbox

Three strings up there. 'Insert Main' is the main, all-encompassing string.

Ok I'm an idiot. I was hunting all around the playfield wondering why "insert main" didn't illuminate anything.

Also, is it normal for GI not to dim at all in test mode (with Adjustment 25 "Allow GI dimming" set to YES, I know that affects test mode too) when using LEDs? I'm using Comet LEDs, possibly non-ghosting in all of the GI. It turns off and on no problem, but dim levels do nothing. Running 9.4H.

My friend's Funhouse strobes something fierce with LED GI when you go down to low dim levels, so at least I know something is happening with it.

I'm not an expert with LEDs. I just know what I like.
However, non-ghosting may try and cancel out the dimming, removing the flickering effects.
Yes, in test mode, with the option 'allow dim GI' set to no, the Test will still dim them.

If you're not getting any dimming - try putting an incandescent in a socket - then your Zero Cross on the power driver board isn't functioning properly.

Damn, that doesn't sound like an easy fix.

Just popped an incandescent into the right slingshot and that too did not dim at all on any level.

Any idea what my next test should be? All the GI works, none of it appears to dim.

GI LED flicker when dimming in my B/W pins, so I turn the dimming off. (LED are low power already)

Dimming does nothing in my TZ or my STTNG. not really useful, so I've never cared.

Dimming is used in TZ. During a lot of light shows. Whether you fix the issue or not is up to you

I am on my phone, but you should find some hits if you srch Google for WPC Zero-Cross circuit.

My lightshows look better than a 70s discotheque...

There is a GI OCD board that Herg makes, and Tz may be one of the most important machines to add one to. Note that this is specifically for GI, not just insert lamps (which is what LEDOCD is for). It is really rewarding to add GIocd to Tz, dimming works beautifully, and the light shows are more impressive. Do not use non-ghosting LEDs as they will not function correctly.

Putting my game room back together after GSPF I tripped over this thing which I had forgotten about so I took a closer look. It has 100v/90v on one side and 100v on the other. Making it a isolation transformer. Combine that with a single small label on a ground wire with a Kanji character on it and my game is definitely a re-import from Japan, kinda cool knowing that little bit of it’s history.

Now I’ll have to try and figure out something interesting to do with this thing.

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Yes and thats why we have the gi led ocd boards from herg

Cant do dimming with the leds without it. Turn off dimming or add the gi board

I think there's some confusion here..

My Gi doesn't dim with even an incandescent bulb inserted in one of the GI sockets. It stays at maximum brightness on all settings (but does turn off correctly)

Seems that I need to fix that before I look at installing a GI OCD board.

Yes, I have both in my game. OCD & GI OCD. but the latter won't do any good of the triacs aren't drinking at all..

Yup, this is a zero-cross issue.
i'm on my phone*do I cant get too detailed, but the GI transistors only turn on when the AC wave crosses 0v to prevent high current draws. There is circuitry on the PDB that detects when the AC crosses the 0v level. Sends this info to the MPU, which then figures if it needs to start fixing on a specific GI string.

With out that signal, the software won't ever try to do any dimming.

Don’t forget TAF - seance & the build up to Multiball demand GI control.

Things are looking up. Thanks to Coyote for providing me the picture of my missing mini playfield bracket. Because of the picture I new what it looked like and since I have the game a was able to figure out the height it needed to be. I first made a paper template and then cut a new one out of sheet metal. The end result turned out fairly good.

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Nice work!

While I remember, don't forget to oil and lube your clocks gents...

Before:

After:

The first video was taken after I rebuilt the clock, and put a tiny amount of Superlube - per guides - on the gear matings (no oil on the shafts). It wasn't enough. Whilst the clock wasn't obnoxiously loud, it made an sporadic noise that you can hear in the video which to me sounded worse to me than a constant grinding.

The second video was after I completely disassembled the clock again, put a small amount of sewing machine oil on all of the fixed shafts, and used a small brush to apply lube to all of the teeth on all gears. The difference was very noticeable.

EDIT: The most obvious difference is around 1:03 in the first video, and 0:16 in the second one - as camera is in the same place.

I’m fairly new to the TZ club. Where can I get the 9.4H rom?

From someone that can burn EPROMs.
If you ask nicely, there's a few people here that will burn a set for you (*ahem*), or there's a couple vendors online that will sell you a chip.

Hello,
I'm new to repairs and would appreciate if anyone could point me in the right direction.
My left lower flipper suddenly went weak and slow. Pushing in the left button part way it had a slow and weak response.
The upper right flipper is inconsistent and some games will lag when trying to make camera shot (with left upper flipper held open) but other games works fine - right upper flipper only fails in that situation and non consistently.
The right upper I can deal with as a peculiarity of my machine but left lower I've got to fix.
Any tips on if I start troubleshooting coil problem or do I rebuild flipper?
I purchased flipper rebuild kit and have some online tutorials to review but not sure if that's where I should start.
Thanks for any advice