Use bulbs without the dome or bend the socket slightly to the side so they fit.

Good evening,

The 'diverter' of the upper ramp on my TZ, which allows to block the ball or to allow its passage towards the mini playfield is having issies. It remains locked in the closed position. When the pinball tries to trigger it, a buzz is heard but nothing is triggered.

Obviously when I check the mechanism I don't see anything abnormal. The plunger slides well, I redid the welds (just in case), and when I close it works fine again ... Until the next time

Before I advance in my debug (I feel that I am going to buy probes for my oscilloscope to be installed permanently ...), someone would have an idea?

Thank you

If it is buzzing, that sounds like the coil is trying to actuate the mechanism. You say everything seems to move fine, so I would start at the coil for the actuator. Check the coil stop, coil sleeve and plunger & link.

She’s a beaut, Clark!

Really great work.

Ashram56 I had the exact same problem for a while. The issue for me was that the plunger was not far enough into the coil sleeve at the start of the stroke for the coil to "grab" the plunger magnetically and pull it down. If I moved the diverter just a bit by hand while the coil fired, it would immediately work fine and pull down the plunger.

I fixed it by adding some washers to the activating rod so that the plunger was a bit further into the coil at the relaxed neutral position. (Maybe only 2-3mm). After that mine has worked successfully for the past 3 years.

Sounds indeed very similar. I can't see any mechanical issue, sleeve is cleaned. I can push by hand easily from the top, so the plunger is not blocked.

Would be interesting to see how you added washers. Attached a picture of the end of the plunger, problem is that I don't quite get where to add washer so the plunger would be slightly more inserted, since I don't have any axis for the washer to be reliably secured (as when the plunger will move down, the washers will get loose) ?

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I can take a picture when I get home from work...but here is where I inserted the washer(s). Between the plunger and the metal bracket. It had the result of keeping the plunger a bit further down at it's relaxed state.

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That's what I assumed. Just wondering the inner diameter of the washer, has to be small to fit the small "pole" connected to the plunger

Could the "Geneva Switch" error on the gumball machine be caused by a 12V failure (no motor, so no cycling)? My TZ has been out of use for a while because the gumball failure is rendering it unplayable. I noticed a while ago that the flashers also don't work, so maybe it's a board issue? The Driver Board has been doing funny things before, I hate the BRs on the WPC driver board... I'm sorely tempted to invest in a Rottendog replacement board, but only if the problems go away with the replacement.

See this post: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tz-no-flashers-and-no-gum-ball-genva-switch-error

I'm thinking if I upgrade to Pinsound, it will replace the A/V board which I think is the source of the problem. I have ordered new capacitors and will try that tomorrow.

Note that TZ is not a WPC-95 game;l it has two separate boards. One audio, one video.

Yes, thanks!

I replaced the two caps C4 & C7 on the video board and this fixed the issue. Thanks Manny65 for the link to the Wiki.

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How to Free Habit-trail From Right Ramp?

This is a legit disentanglement puzzle.
Can't free it!
Do I squeeze the habit-trail ends to slip the anchor out?
No flexibility there!

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Is it tack welded on?

No.
I got it.
Manual says "unhook" and separate.
Whew!
Now time to polish!

for the triple stacked plastics in the left corner by the gumball, what are the product numbers for the plastic standoff posts?

Download the TZ parts list from IPDB - this will show you the specific parts and quantities used in each of the assemblies

I did but did not see the standoffs in the assembly.

Probably just reading it wrong

Here you go.

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I have a Kruzman cleared reproduction TZ PF and mini for sale. $1200 + shipping, if anybody is looking for one. I was going to do a PF swap but decided it was too much work. I have the wooden crate it was shipped in.

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Ohhhweeeehohhhweee so shiny

Hi TZ owners, I’ve got a problem where my game occasionally receives a ball in the gumball machine and doesn’t recognise its there. The game goes into ball search but doesn’t cycle the gumball machine as part of the ball search, so the ball never comes out. The only way to reset the game is to go into gumball test and cycle a ball out that way. The gumball machine has been recently cleansed and reassembled to try and address the fault. No change. The gumball machine has the divider in it. The entry Opto seems to be working normally in test. I’ve spent hours trying to sort this issue out. The fault is only occasional, one every 5-10 entry’s, but it’s a showstopper.

Should the gumball machine be cycling in ball test mode? That would solve the issue.

Has anyone has a similar issue before?

I'm very curious, from what document did you get that picture?
I've thought I looked through all the document links for TZ on ipdb.org and can't find that picture at all.

Go into Gumball Test, set it to "Continuous", and let it run. As long as it will. If there is any error then, it will stop and flag it on the display.

Just google searched for that plastic assembly part number, and this engineering drawing was in top 10 results.

I’ve done that and it just seems to cycle endlessly without fault.

Should the gumball machine normally cycle in a typical ball search?

Yes - after a high ball search count. 7? 8? .. I do not remember the exact number right now.
Also, only on later software versions. At LEAST 9.4H. Possibly H-8.

Thanks

Think Davi has helped you out, but thought I'd share how to read the Parts List - the first column indicates the assembly/sub-assembly/component level, followed by the part number, description and quantity used for that particular assembly/sub-assembly. So in the below it shows all the components used in the plastic assembly for the top left hand corner - the assembly itself is marked as Level 2, so everything below it until the next Level 2 item (not shown) is part of that assembly. The components are marked Level 3 however H-16619 (3 bank flasher cable) is actually sub-assembly, so it's components are listed as Level 4. Now you were after the part numbers of the stand-off posts but depending upon the description B/W used that may or may not be obvious, however if unsure you can copy the part number of what you think might be the right one and look it up at Marco's. Also if you are struggling to find availability of a part, searching suppliers for the assembly or sub assembly or sometimes even some of the other parts in the assembly can help find that elusive part.

Another tip if trying to find which suppliers have a part in stock, is to use https://www.pinballsearch.com which will search all the main suppliers around the world.

Hope this helps

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Does anyone know if the led on the larger board is supposed to be on or not? Mine switch 26 is failing. resetting the connections isn't fixing.

Isn't there a better fix out there? (and maybe a replacement product)

Break out the soldering iron and solder the wires directly to the pins between the 2 little boards. Your connectors have failed. No need to replace them because they will only fail again. It sounds like a hack but that component needs a rock solid connection to work correctly.

The LED should be off but turns on when it senses a steel ball. If the LED is permanently on, you most likely have a break in the inductor or it's connection. As Mad_Dog_Coin_Op indicated soldering the 2 wires from the inductor board to the larger proximity board will remove a common connectivity issue found with these original boards. Also twist these 2 wires as it helps reduce interference to the frequency that the board is checking for.

Here's a set replacement boards (with an adjustable pot for calibration) if you need https://www.tanglestech.com/Twilight-Zone--Trough-Proximity-Eddy-Sensor--Replaces-A-16534-and-A-16528-Switch-26_p_36.html

How is shipping to the us? I just ordered

Typically 2 weeks however last year was up to 2 months with Covid. I think things have returned more to normal and there's no issue if you use a freight company (eg DHL or FedEx) as they have their own planes, it's a bit more variation using post that I believe heavily leverages commercial passenger flights.

Let us know when you receive it as it'd be interesting to know

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/115597#

FYI

Thanks, I’ll keep you posted

I need the sensor too. This is eddy board only

I managed to fix mine while waiting for Tangles to arrive, first fix was to solder wires directly between the boards. That worked for a little while then the opto coupler chip gave in so changed that and been fine ever since with not one error. Have a spare one now from Tangles which looks good.

The ad does say "board set", so I think it would have the 2 boards - could always ask

Pretty sure Tangles boards are hard wired together.

I did ask. It’s just the one board

I picked up one of the two from the seller this week, this is what it had. Dave was super quick as well.

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Weird!

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Idk….maybe he thought you meant the subway board too. He did mention he no longer has the game intended for these, so probably just cleaning up his leftover inventory of ‘when I get around to it’ or ‘those are un-obtainium items, better grab one’ stuff….which I need to do lol!

For sure! Oh well I ordered one from Australia now……so I’ll be waiting a bit till it arrives

I’m sure you will be pleased, as I am, that these are being made. Thank goodness for those that reproduce…nay..make better the games we love.

I bought one a couple years ago. The one with the red board. It worked great but I put it on the TZ I sold. So now my keeper TZ board is acting up. I should have known it was going to happen eventually

I bought one of these last year when I gave up on my always acting up original. It took a day or so of adjusting the sensor to the ball in the trough but once I got it dialed in, it works great. Highly recommended.