Twice a day?

its a take off on the old addage that a broken clock is right twice a day...however in this case the clock would be running, so no it wouldn't be....

Ah yes… only if turned on at exactly the correct time.

Ok thanks guys! Gonna switch MPU’s with Johnny Mnemonic. As that one has Batteries.

The RTC is in the ASIC. The ASIC is always powered by VBATT.

There is a jumper on the CPU board that allows U8 (RAM) to be powered by either VBATT or VCC. Factory setting is W7=VBATT. If you remove W7 and install W6=VCC then U8 is powered only when the main power is applied. This reduces the draw on VBATT when the power is off but allows for the RTC to continue to operate extending the life of the RTC on batteries.

You can have the best of both worlds - i.e. RTC still running off batteries when power is off and NVRAM holding settings but not drawing any power unless on mains. It is still recommended to mount the batteries remotely.

Johnny Mnemonic is WPC-S so the CPU board is incompatible with Twilight Zone.

Ok…sooo this is board I have with NVRAM installed….just add the Battery pack and keep the NVRAM. Set W7 off , W6 on, and all is good? I guess these are the small toggles switches on the MPU.

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That board uses the traditional 0 Ohm jumper offset slightly (overlapped) with a common pin. You will need to either cut the currently installed 0 Ohm jumper and install a new one in the desired position or remove the currently installed 0 Ohm jumper and install it in the desired position. Board designers who have put at least some thought into their boards use shunt jumpers that are much easier to switch configuration. You can argue that these kinds of configuration changes are rarely (if ever) made so a shunt jumper is overkill. Fair point. There's no right or wrong here. Simply preference. My preference is a shunt jumper. It's what I use on my board.

Schematic (for reference) is shown here.

wpc_cpu_voltage_supply_select.jpg

• Blue is fixed (VBATT to ASIC).
• Red is factory installed W7 (VBATT to U8).
• Green is switch to W6 (VCC to U8).

You can leave W7 installed but this means that there can be a power draw on the battery while the IC is in standby. Consult the datasheet for the installed FRAM IC on your board to be sure if there is a power draw in standby. To eliminate this possibility switch the jumper from W7 to W6.

New plastics. Titan rings. Just think how spiffy your game would look with this :

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-03-883X-13&Store_Code=PP

LTG : )

Has anybody ever tried to polish their original clock housing so it was more shiny and clear rather than the factory slightly opaque? I know the blue and red versions can come in crystal clear versions, but I haven't seen the non-colored in a crystal clear version, at least in recent memory. Any info would be great.

My Bad bro…this is the actual board that I have from Ksarcade.. https://www.pinsound.org/products/rocket-cpu-wpc/

Aaaactually, not true.

With NVRAM, the RTC WOULD keep time while the game is on. So, it would advance while the game is on - which means your likelyhood of it being correct would be statistically be a lot LESS than 'once a day'.

I can't see an image with decent resolution that I can read the silkscreen or see the board to make assumptions. It should be safe to switch W7 to W6 but this board looks to be different (in layout at least) from the OEM board.

You should probably reach out to the board manufacturer (or vendor / distributor) and ask them to see what they think. I can help with OEM boards and the boards I make but it always make sense to contact the manufacturer of the board before you change something (particularly on a new board) in case you void your warranty.

Ok, sir. This will be the last post on this issue from me. Apologies for disturbing the peace.

Found a Backbox! Old Addams Family BB missing everything.

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I am looking for an original translite. Is anyone (who maybe has replace his translite) who be ok to the the original to me ? Tks

This one is a properly Williams licensed translate from planetary Pinball. The license holder.

Sorry I’m not sure I follow you: do you mean your translite is for sale but it’s a repro?
It’s like old car, i’m looking for an original only.
Thanks for it anyway.
If anyone got one and ok to sell it, please PM me. Tks !

I thought I'd just drop this here.

SOLD!

Parts - For Sale

NOS Gumball Machine for Twilight Zone Archived

NOS (New Old Stock) - “Acquired this with a TZ trade. The gentleman said he had this in his possession for a long time and was never used. Comes with colored gumballs. It has been tested and verified wo...”

2022-07-24

Highgate, VT

Scoot

400 (OBO)

Archived after: 11 days

Viewed: 186 times

Status: Sold (amount private)

Got positive feedback

So, I can’t find those switch covers anywhere the ones on the top mini Playfeild…

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/20-9672

Do you have the clips that hold them ? I ask because sample games didn't have them. If you have the clips you are good to go.

LTG : )

Thanks but those are to small…may cut the larger ones. Not perfect but it will work. Wire Harness next.

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Yes, it includes the clips.

Of course, you could always get the "low profile" switch kit from PinballLife, and eliminate the need for the switch covers entirely:

https://www.pinballlife.com/twilight-zone-the-power-mini-playfield-switch-replacement-kit.html

I recently did this, and it looks great!

Wow, that’s nice. I’ll make due for now. As I’m spending big $$$ on piecing together the entire head and trying to save the Cab and PF…

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Jeeesus, that hurts to look at. The poor machine..

Was that in a flood or a fire? Yikes!

Way better than what I have!

Was it difficult to install? I was hoping to read how to do it before I break the machine. But it looks like a great idea!

I would say that if you have moderate pinball repair skills, you should be OK. You will need to remove the mini play field, which can be something of an issue if you've never done it before, and you need to know how to solder. Unfortunately, the kit doesn't come with instructions, but again, if you have previous experience, you should be able to figure it out.

If you decide to get it and run into any problems, I can help talk you through it.

At some point, I either posted how I installed my kit years ago, or actually just posted the official GLM instructions that came with my kit, or both. It's been so long I can't remember. But the information is here on Pinside somewhere for sure.

Edit: Turns out they were actually both in the same thread. Have fun!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tz-tech-glm-mini-switch-kit-installwrite-upimpressions

Stored standing with the glass off for 15 years. Machine shop. Everything was greasy, I think it helped Preserve everything. Here’s the Mini cleaned up.

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Ok, let’s see your best flipper toppers for TZ. Not a fan if it looks to 3D printed…

My buddy and I are in the process of launching our new mod business and have decided the next product we’re going to launch will be a topper for Twilight Zone! This forum has been a huge help and source of inspiration for me personally and would love to include some current owners thoughts in the design process. If anyone here is interested in assisting with the conception of what is sure to be an epic build please shoot me a message! If others just want to share their thoughts on what they’ve always wanted to see on top of your games post it here and we’ll be sure to take it into consideration. There’s no bad ideas, only what can be done within the legal IP constraints. Thanks!!

Took a while for the Aliexpress slow boat to make it to this side of the big pond, but my plasma disks are finally here. Here is the flat blue disk installed in the back of my TZ.

Unit is sound activated, which works very nicely in game play.

Next step for me is to get a 3.3V DC Buck converter so I can wire it directly into the game (currently powered by 2 AAA batteries)

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I spent a good part of the day working on my TZ and decided to take a break and play it on my Xbox. Oh look, this also has a credit dot.

I can't win.

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LMAO - that's funny! So can you go into the service menu and see what the fault is??

Seriously, I'm curious what the 'software' is reporting.

Probably the darn clock...

Does the (physical) clock not work in the video game? I mean, if not, yeah, that's it then.

During the video game I shot the ball into the gumball machine and a ball didn't kick out until it did a ball search. I am assuming the credit dot was from that. What makes it weird is earlier that day I lifted the playfield of my TZ while the game was on to check a connection to the multiplier inserts and the vuk in the back to the gumball started firing. It resulted in a credit dot to check a switch in the gumball machine.

I wish I could have gone into service mode in the video game but unfortunately it did not have that feature available to me.

A friend showed up today for my TZ topper! She keeps saying "I'm Talky Tina, and I love pinball very much!"

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Nice and creepy!

As long as she is ONLY saying that, I think you'll be OK...

Anyone with a scan of the shooter gauge Art?
Or even the whole apron Art.

If anyone is interested in a new sound board, I'll be posting this one for sale soon. Came out of my TZ (obviously!) and works perfectly. Extremely clean! Shoot me a note if you're interested and we'll see if we can make a deal!

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My Twilight zone has recently developed a phantom lock. I will be playing a ball or sometimes waiting to shoot a ball with the ball in the shooter lane and it will say that a ball was just locked.

I checked the Cherry switch for the lock out hole and it seemed fine. I also removed all four opto sensors and cleaned them with a q-tip and rubbing alcohol. I thought I had the problem fixed until a few games afterward it started doing it again.

Has anyone experienced this or know what I can do to try and diagnose the cause?

Have you worked on the game recently, like replaced a switch or soldered a switch wire back on ? If not I'd try going into Tests - Switches - Matrxed, band on playfield. See if any switch reports on the DMD that needs adjusting.

LTG : )

Replaced my 1993 clock with a new modern LED one but the minute hand seems to trigger the 15 minute opto all over the place when doing the clock test. Sometimes after it passes 30, sometimes after 45. Not super experienced with the clock so not sure what the root of this problem is.

What brand board did you put in? I'm guessing it's not Ingo's board since they're so hard to get recently.

How does the hour hand register? When you run the test are both the hours and minutes registering?

If it's a single opto, or multiple optos that are bad, the manual has two pages devoted to deciphering the clock test to be able to tell which opto might be bad. Pages 1-18 and 1-19. If you don't have a manual you can download it from TZ's IPDB.org page:

https://www.ipdb.org/files/2684/Bally_1993_Twilight_Zone_Operations_Manual_OCR_searchable.pdf

I'd suggest running the clock test in forward slow mode and watch the far right column in the switch matrix during the test. The top four squares are the minutes and the bottom four are the hours. I'm curious if there are optos that are registering as both minutes and hours somehow. You'll know by watching the switch matrix and the checkboxes during the test. Obviously the hours don't register in the same way as the minutes do, so if the minutes checkboxes are staying lit and the hours aren't, there's something else going on.

If the test reveals the minutes acting as how the hours should and vice versa, then you might have the two connectors going to the clock reversed. I'd say to try to switch them back first, but without knowing for sure what might happen, I'd advise against that. Typically you can tell which connector goes where by how the wires have settled into their "home positions".

With all that testing you should have a better idea of what the clock test is actually telling you about your clock. More information is better for the TZ guru's like Coyote to know what's actually happening with your clock. I've had mine for 10 years now and know a lot about it as I have rebuilt almost every mech and piece on it, but I'd swear Coyote has a whole section of his brain devoted to TZ. Worse comes to worse, you can always put the old clock boards back in as a way of making sure that the problem is isolated to the new board and that nothing else happened somewhere else.