Advise needed: A guy I know wants to trade RRWOZ for my TZ and 20 anniversary pacman Galaga. Should I do it?

I would but thats just me. I have wanted a WOZ for a long time.You have to decide what works for you.

I figured this. Over 15k TZ's made. Galaga/Pacman combo not hard to find.

RRWOZ although still being made, is a great pin as well. Something different in my line up and my wife wants it.

I just want to make sure value wise, that I'm making the right choice.

Sell Galaga then Congo or EATPM and save up cash for a used woz.

If you're actually considering it, you don't deserve to be in this club.

Congo and EatPM are way better pins than woz..., but..., this is a TZ owners thread, this discussion is pointless.

So I just picked up a beautiful restored TZ. The game and system are completely foreign to me and I'm having some trouble. Much of this stuff may well be above my skill level, but I'd like to figure it out with some help

I've got white lines on my color DMD and no background music. It was working fine and then I was playing and the game or at least the screen seemed to locked. I turned it off, then on again and now I have white lines on the DMD and no music, but I do have basic sounds. I don't recall if I lifted up the playfield before or after it happened. This is the first night in my home and it had a long trip and likely rough ride to get here. To give a bit more back ground I've had some sound cutouts at high volume, so I'm not sure if that was the first sign of something going bad or its just something that got knocked lose.The game does have a Rottendog board, LED OCD, color DMD and Flipper Fidelity speakers if that matters.

I found this lose wire in the back box. Does anyone know what it is(I'm guessing its' for the old one).

***Update, its working again, looks like maybe a lose wire or cable******

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Do not use that connector, that will damage things bc its high voltage. Make sure all the ribbon cables are seated tight.

Was just about to give up, but I rechecked the cables again and found some with a little wiggle room. Turned game on and now sound and DMD are back on. Can anyone help me with what area/board/ribbon I should be checking if it happens again. Not sure what connection would control DMD and background music.

IMG_0563 (resized).JPG

Was probably the very top ribbon cable.....glad its better now.

Thanks for the push, checked them two times previous. I need to learn the game wire diagrams and all. Will do over time, but appreciate any help in the mean time. Meltdown avoided game working, time for bed.

Thanks again

Hi All,
I thought I saw, on this thread somewhere, a post about someone who replaced the LED bulbs on the Rottendog clock board. But now I cannot find this post.
I have the RD clock board installed (its working good), but I am rebuilding the clock and would like to brighten up the light a little bit (without paying $$$ for a different clock board). Will replacing the 3mm with 5mm help? Or, is there a wide angle bulb that might work better? Does anyone else remember seeing the post I am referring to?
Thanks in advance...

***Teaser***

Stay tuned on the clock board. I have a new design I'm working on, using the "carpet lighting" effect, with 12 LEDs. The illuminated clock will look just like the backglass clock image, with even and full lighting on the entire face of the clock. The prototype looks much better than any current lighted clock face. Pics to follow.

Another idea I had was to add 2 3mm LEDs (wired in parallel) per LED location instead of the single. I would think thiswould double the amps going through the RD board from something tiny to something small. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I don't think this is the RD board but it might be the post you're remembering.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ingo-kramers-twilight-zone-tz-clock-board-rainbow-leds-blue-housing#post-2245102

Replacing 3mm by 5mm does not have a really great effect.

Since you are so desperate searching for an improvement, I can offer you, to etch you a little pcb, you glue with a hot glue gun in the center of your RD-board. Before that, you have to desolder the 4 LEDs or simply cut them out; the pre resistors will remain in the RD-board without any function. Then you can hot-glue the little pcb on the top of the RD-board and solder 2 little wires to connector J2, thats all.

The little pcb has the following advantages:

- fully rectified GI voltage
- I use 130° wide angle superfluxx LEDs
- LEDs are all socketed, so simple change between colors is easy
- absolute flicker free lightning
- you can adjust the brightness of the LEDs with a little poti

I use the same circuit and parts as on my professional board. I would like to send you blue, cool-white, warm-white and rainbow color changing LEDs.

To install the mod, should not last longer than 5 minutes, you only should have a bit of soldering skills.

And the best: All will be free for you, so I can "play" a bit and can help you here in my favorite forum; simply send me a PM with your shipping adress.

I will etch the board this weekend, make a little video and then ship to you - IF YOU WANT ...

The board looks as follows and is placed as seen in the following pic

RD MOD TOP (resized).JPG

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I'll always recommend the Ingo board. Hands-down, no questions.

Wow, sending PM now. Thank you so much.

Yes, seeing stuff like this was why I decided to order a DMD saver from him. Nice to see some people left that are truly here for helping and the hobby.

Thanks for sending the pics; dimensions of the little GI-board are OK.

The sweety should sit on the board like this; 2 solder bridges must be made on the bottom of the board.

Rottendog Umbau (resized).JPG

Ok no problem. Happy to report back with pics/videos either on this thread or privately. Thanks again!

I had some time to work a bit on an interactive light show for the gumball machine using the Pinduino:

Code is open source and available: https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches/tree/master/TZ-Gumball

First draft of code and I usually end up tweaking it over time. Any suggestions?

Already found the time this evening, to etch and build your board. It´s really a sweety and works perfect. I have no time, to make a video now, you can make it, when you got the board.

I did not cut the wires of the parts on the bottom, but bent them a bit, so that the board becomes as flat as possible. Tomorrow I will cut a piece of fish-paper, better we put it between the RD board and our board, to prevent possible short circuits.

For demonstration purpuses only I put the board on an original board and a blank pcb of my professional board.

By the way - the solder-bridges on the bottom of the RD-board (see post #2920) are not necessary, but I would do them.

But pics say more than words - sweet, isn´t it? In 5-8 days it will be in the US.

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looking forward to testing this baby out for you!!!

Sweet!

Looks really good!

I am considering doing something very similar (putting RGB lights into the gumball machine and controlling with an arduino) but i may be late to this party. did you post more details on the light/installation setup itself by chance?

I was just going to etch or mill a simple board out that fits into the lid of the gumball machine and then just mount some SMD RGB's (ws2812b's) and then run a wire underneath to the arduino.

Glad you like it and it is powered by an arduino using an adapter board (the Pinduino ). Since it is a bit off topic from TZ, I'll send you info in a PM (anyone else interested, just PM me). Details about this version of the pinduino can be found https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinduino-v03-interactive-control-of-leds

Pending a cleared cashier's check, my beloved TZ is sold. I am, as such, making a number of my special framed TZ Tom Whalen matching numbered Artist Proof Lithographs for sale. These are $100 each including the frame (trust me, you want the frame for this price, super nice) PM me for the ones you want. I'm only keeping Time Enough At Last and Eye of the Beholder, that is, unless you make me an offer on the whole set!

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Living Doll has been claimed. The Invaders and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet still available!

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On second thought, I'm gonna keep the rest of the art. Shifting two pieces to the bedroom, leaving the other two in the pin room! Living Doll was actually the only one I really wanted to sell. Just needed to figure out the layout to keep the rest!

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Looks good. You'll also have them in case another TZ makes it way into your home.

Something already discussed since the old days, but just asking again: the right orbit is almost completely covered by the yellow gumball sign. Especially the Spiral insert inside the orbit is almost not visible. And when pinballs are released by the lock, its hard to see them. Is there a simple way to move the yellow sign in order to let the right orbit more visible?

Don't be so sure it's not the Rottendog board. Just speaking from experience. Some of these boards I believe have faulty optos.

Yes: you can move the sign or use a custom bracket (I just used a large washer to hold it further back): http://www.retroblast.com/articles/modzone_4.html

signdiverter (resized).jpg

There is a company, can't remember who at the moment, that sells a mod that extends that sign out to the right more, exposing that orbit a bit better. It's basically just that same piece with a longer arm that attaches to the ramp.

Simple method, remove the screw on the left side, then rotate sign. Have had mine this way for years.

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great idea, here is a bracket I made in a couple of minutes. Really opens that lane up for a better view.

tz brkt (resized).JPG

Too easy!
Fastest, easiest, cheapest, most effective mod ever!

NEW PRODUCT. In my efforts to fully and evenly light the clock, I came up with this design which is considerably different than other clock mods available. This will be supplied as a replacement front PC board for your standard clock system, with "carpet lighting" LEDs - 12 of them - which now evenly illuminate your clock face. Because it's direct lighting, the excess light doesn't spill much out of the clock housing. See image below.
white_LED_board (resized).jpg

Here's the deal: I need four volunteers - you must be capable of taking your own clock apart and swapping in the new board. It plugs right in. I will send four beta test units to the first four who PM me with an address and in exchange, all I ask is that you install it and send me your opinions and comments. I have tried a few different designs and this one seems to be the best of the best. The finished product will be offered with a choice of colors (bright white, incandescent white, blue, green or red). It uses standard strip lighting trios so it's pretty simple. I am finding that the bright white makes the clock pop beautifully, although I have a blue unit in my machine right now, and it's growing on me.
blue_LED_board (resized).jpg

Here's the board, which will be supplied with new standoffs and an "ogeesis" ring that you will probably lose when you remove the original one from your clock.
new_board01 (resized).jpg
new_board_hardware (resized).jpg

Remember, first four volunteers and thanks for looking.

Looks great, but what about my Ingo board?

Altogether different than the Ingo board. This uses only one color of LED and a lot of them. Its lighting makes the clock face look like the one printed on the backglass where it's evenly lit.

Just another variation of clock mods...

All four are claimed, thanks for the response. Looking forward to your comments.

I was wondering how difficult the clock board is to install? I bought my Indigo board 8 months ago but have not installed it because my TZ is running perfectly. I don't want to screw anything up. However, if it is pretty easy I should try. The pics look great. Would you have any helpful tips for the install that might keep me out of trouble?
Thanks very much.

I'll be putting together a pictorial and set of instructions for clock maintenance. Stay tuned.

Looking forward to trying this kickass mod in my TZ sample

Installing Ingo's board is very easy. Just follow these instructions and you'll be done before you know it. It may seem daunting, but doing the install yourself will also familiarize you with the inner-workings of the clock and, should you need to rebuild it for any reason in the future, you'll be ready to do so without fear or hesitation.

http://www.garrett-jess.com/tz/ikclockinstall/Clock_Installation

Thanks John, looking forward to this.

The Ingo board is built more to address the proper functioning of the the clock rather than to address the lighting. That said, it does use the best LEDs on the market and they fill up the clock extremely well, too. The Superflux's he uses have a lens on them that spreads the light out fairly well considering the proximity of the board to the back of the face. Plus, there's a dial on it that you can use to turn the intensity down on the LEDs so they're not so "hot".

Different boards for different purposes. I just think it's great to have so many options for one small part of a single pinball machine in a niche hobby. We're definitely spoiled.

Awesome info, I didn't realize my Ingo board had a dial pot to adjust the brightness. Very cool

Depends on what version you have, but I think he started installing those on v1.8. My v1.9 board has it. As you look at the face of it, it should be that little blue square on the bottom center-right area.