what stopped? powerball detection? you mean the game loses track of the powerball? if so, then everything we've said about the 2 different eddy sensors is relevant. Ramegooms post sums it up great. in my experiences, it's usually the trough sensor/PCB that's the culprit on that issue. don't think its a microswitch in the slot kicker...

I mean... every time the powerball kicks in the shooter lane... it says "powerball " and I do hear "powerball" when its in other areas but..... most times when the powerball drops in trough at skill shot.... it has a different sound than if it was a steel ball & there's a longer pause.... then it shoots out of the slot trough.

Back to your original question. No, there is no reason the power ball should kick out of the slot machine any different after plunging it, than the other balls.

If you go to switch test mode and plunge it in, does it trigger the slot machine kicker switch like a standard ball?

A couple corrections. I'm assuming you mean the "slot lockout" instead of "exit of the shooter lane", and no, the eddy board only detects balls coming into the slot kickout via way of Piano and Camera scoops.
Also, the eddy sensor in the trough *SHOULD NOT* contact any balls. It should be enough away to detect but not touch.

I'm pretty sure the only time the slot kickout delays firing the powerball is when it pauses to say "POWERBALL"
This occurs when:

1. the powerball is in the lower trough, and is the next ball served (thus being detected by eddy board #1 at the ball trough) EDIT: and is shot INTO the skillshot, not the rocket kicker

2. the powerball is served to the slot kicker via the gumball machine through the lower subway (thus being detected by eddy board #2 under the LH subway)

I'm pretty sure the eddy boards do a lot of "ball tracking" that we don't see, thus keeping track of where the Powerball is.

Also- I'm running Game ROM L-4, I believe the the 9.4H Rom has addressed some Powerball tracking issues, and may behave a bit different than what I'm describing for my game

This is correct.

Also, consider, when you plunge a ball, it does rollover all three skill shot switches.

The powerball is a lighter weight ball. If it doesn't close all three skill shot switches, you could have different sound effects.

There is no sensor (and in fact, no switch at all) in the skill shot tunnel, that leads to the slot kickout.

The game knows that if the ball exits the shooter lane, and ends up in the slot kickout (and not the rocket kicker) that the skill shot was missed.

Powerball detection for missed skill shots is done at the trough kickout, since there are only two possible results from a plunged ball : slot kickout (missed skill shot) or rocket kicker (made skill shot).

Unreal!! I got a new cable kit & did 1 cable at a time but the game won't boot up. I hear a beep but thats about it.

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Check your connections. The large cable on the CPU (left plug) looks like it's off by a row. (Not column, row. Too low.)

I am seriously not sure how to break that down any more, sorry..

I looked at a tz YouTube video & they look correct... still no luck..

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well, first things first ....

Pull ALL the ribbon cables. Also pull the transformer primary plug on the far right of the power driver PCB with the white and black wires (this is J102) to cut off coil and flashlamp power until you have the game working.

Now power it on. Verify your CPU boots (two solid lights, then one solid light + one blinking light).

Power it back off. Connect the ribbon cable between the CPU and the Power Driver boards.

Power it on. It should boot cleanly, and now you should have playfield lamps blinking.

Power it back off. Connect the large ribbon cable to the top of the CPU, and to the fliptronic board.

Power it on. It should boot cleanly.

Power it back off. Connect the large ribbon cable to the Sound board.

Power it on. It should boot cleanly. You may or may not get an error detected bong message.

Power it back off. Connect the large ribbon cable to the DMD board. Add the smaller ribbon cable between the CPU and the DMD board.

Power it on. It should boot cleanly, and you should have dots. You can now go into test mode, and check switches. etc.

Power it off. Add the long ribbon cable from the CPU alphanumeric port, to the 8-driver aux board. Be SURE the red wire is on pin 1 on both ends. Reversing this cable can be bad.

Power it on. Now when you boot, the clock should run and reset to 12:00.

Plug J102 back in, verify you do NOT have any flashlamps locked on. Check the 3 flashers by the Gumball, and the single flasher by the rocket kicker (behind the upper-right flipper).

Go into test mode, into lamp+flash test, make sure lamps and flashers are all working.

Play game. Have fun.

_litz - thank you VERY much for putting all the detailed info on here. I ended up taking out all the new cables and then put the original ones back in except for the one coming from the new color DMD. And it works great! Thanks to ChrisHibler again for helping.

It wasn't the fault of the new cables....it was the way I was trying to put them in. I'm super glad nothing was wrecked.

I think I'm gonna print this just for the sake of having it.

Sometimes you have to just step back, and trouble shoot step by step.

…and wait for people's suggestions before going and trying things yourself.

There are a LOT of folks on here with very detailed and specific knowledge and experience with TZ that should be heeded and respected accordingly. ONLY doing the things they suggest and waiting for their response with the results you got is how you go about using their tech-spertise(like that word?) from a distance.

I choose to bow to them, too, but you can do as you see fit.

Well, to give you an idea .... I worked at a Bly/Wms distributor for 7 years. Fixing pinballs and PCBs.

There pretty much isn't a way for a 90s vintage (or later sys11 models) to fail that I haven't seen.

I guess it's very similar to someone that works at the service department at a car dealership; you learn very quickly how your products break.

Excellent point, but there are a lot of creative people out there who do crazy things to their stuff. I've worked and "hobbied" in the automotive field and the acoustic guitar world for a while and my perpetual surprise with what people do with their stuff and how they use things improperly or never service things will never cease to amaze me.

Were you around when we(Pinside) discovered my TZ had an FIRQ interrupt error? That was a unique one!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tz-slow-dmd-animations-and-parts-suggestions

I fixed an Attack from Mars with that same exact problem, once.

Tracked it down to a pass-thru hole on the WPC95 AV board where FIRQ was present on the top of the board, and not on the bottom.

Sucked the solder out of the hole and stuck a wire through, soldering on both sides, and it was fixed.

FIRQ is used by the DMD controller to advance through stored pages in the DMD ram, allowing for rapid animation.

The trick is, the CPU has to backfill the pages as fast as it steps through them, to keep the animation going.

Hey, does anyone know the exact measures of the clock decal? It will be truly appreciated!

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TZ owners ? I'm looking for shooter lane mod ,row of lights, eBay has them.but in blue ? Looking for clear

I am probably over thinking this but ... what is the meaning of the phrase "look to the future"? Does this mean lock is lit?

It is a reference to the Camera shot.
The Camera tells the future in the show.

That makes sense now - thanks!!

Optos won't affect the motor operation. Game should still spin the motor, even if only briefly before giving up.

So ... first thing first, you need to verify the optos register in clock test.

Then you need to figure out why there's no power at the motor driver PCB.

I have read many posts about which color pop bumpers go where but nobody really showed/said which is the correct way. I matched with what the mini pf shows which is... top left - Red.... top right - Orange... bottom - Yellow

Is this correct?

Yes.

I want to join this club. Please PM me if you want to trade in your membership by selling me your TZ. Looking for a reasonably priced, players condition example.

We don't want to swap members, NEW owners

Good luck hunting one down

8cm! Thanks!

Just added new Apron and starlight posts on mini playfield. Cool project!

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Cool!

The clock optops are kind of a mongrel ... the switch column strobe comes from the 8-aux driver PCB.

The switch row returns go in the normal switch row inputs shared with the rest of the switch matrix.

You can test a clock board out of the game by building a simple test fixture that provides +12 to the board, and has LEDs that light up on the row returns. Any time you transition the switch column from +12 to Ground, you should see the row returns reflect the status of the optos.

Now you need to get rid of those ugly original switches on the mini playfield!

^^This^^

What are the best options? Pics?
Thanks!
Lou

I tried linking to the specific product, which has several pics, but it keeps linking the previous product page. Scroll down to the "Updated! Twilight Zone mini playfield switch kit."

http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/index.html?http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/products/

Looks cool!

It's worth it. Cleans that area up perfectly.

I feel the great lakes switch kit is one of the nicest things i have done to clean up the playfield.

I'm not saying that you need, because i don't remember your machine, but better yet is to take the bunch of mods off....

OK whatever that means, but the only mods on mine are the Ingo clock board and the switch eliminator kit.

To me it's the only "must do" mod.

I got much more than that...