Your slot scoop probably just needs to be turned a bit more counter clockwise. When you go to remove and remount the scoop, clean away the wood bits that have "extruded" themselves from the level of the playfield's underside. It's these bits that have worked themselves into the shape of the larger holes of the scoops mounts, hereby only allowing it to be mounted in one location. Remove that stuff, and the gap between the size of the screw and the size of the mounting holes becomes usable again.

The scoop's mounted direction may only change a fraction of a degree, but the trajectory's end point will shift dramatically. It did on mine. Mine usually hits the right flipper just left of center and depending on what shot I'm going for, bounces over to the other flipper with reliable repeatability.

Also, make sure all your metal is square and true and that the kicker solenoid is mounted straight as well.

These are the gumballs I bought:

http://www.tgftoys.com/Pressman-Toy-Chinese-Checkers-1902-06A.htm

I didn't buy it from this online store, mind you. I managed to find it for sale at a local teacher's supply store. Same price, though. Plastic, not 100% shiny, they look the part perfectly. I removed the black ones(since I've never seen a black gumball) and evenly distributed each color into the two sides. Four bucks and 5 minutes later, blam! Cheapest TZ mod ever!

The 9.4H rom is a Free Play Only rom and is not setup for coins. In fact, the "H" stands for Home, meaning for home use only.

The control button on the door might be due to your machine's coin door harness still plugged into the "export" plug on the coin door board. If you look at that board, there are two places to plug in the door harness. One has it's traces run through a set of dip switches, the other one doesn't. Now that yours is stateside again, it should be in the one that doesn't use the dip switches.

I'm not saying that's what might be causing these specific issues, but it's a couple things to start and check out to make sure everything's as it should be.

The guy who makes that piano mod is Pinsider "pinballsmith". There are no brackets and no soldering. Not sure if he's got any left. Here's the original thread he started for that piano:

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tz-piano-modaccessory-now-available

You can PM him from there.

The subway for the gumball VUK is supposed to be smoked and I do know some of the earlier games got smoked main subways, but normally, they are clear.

I don't know how to tell you this....but....that things doesn't have lower flipper rubbers and the pop bumper caps are in the wrong order. I'll gladly take this game off your hands to relieve you from the impending workload as the stress might be too much for you to take. It's the least I could do....

Seriously, though, beautiful game! That shooter lane looks super nice!

Hope they don't break on you after the first week like some of those other new brands of bands...

(that wasn't too offsides, was it?)

Looks like he matched the skirt color, too. Don't bother changing the cap unless you want to change the skirt as well.

Interesting that your subway ramp for the VUK isn't smoked. Most other ones I've seen are.

Oooh, early game! Cool! I can tell by the definitely original clock face decal and what looks like the green lock insert.

Super Skill Shot music.....kinda sounds like it's from Taxi.

Anybody know what it's really from? It doesn't quite fit the rest of the game's music theme.

That looks fantastic, so far!

I'm trying to see how many modes I can stack, and THEN get multiball going!

If the deal is good enough, don't even worry about a broken clock or gumball machine. The one I bought had switch issues, buttons that didn't work, the DMD animations were wonky, and all sorts of little things just needed attention. But the cosmetic condition of everything is what sold me on mine. Well, that and I paid about $1200 less than what I probably should have. I had all that little stuff fixed in a few weeks and was enjoying my TZ to its fullest all on my own work and that makes it extra fun to play!

Man, I just had mine apart the other night! You're talking about that L-bracket that you use to adjust the aim on the rocket kickout to the hitchhiker, right?

Also, be careful on the cab decals. You can get them on eBay, but you need to make sure you get the right ones. There was a batch that was printed horribly wrong that people are still selling, trying to get rid of them. They look like this:

$_57.JPG

....when it should actually look like this:

$_12.JPG

Pretty big mistake if you ask me...

Last I remember hearing, the artwork was done by a third party. A proper graphic artist, just not one directly associated with pinball. I could be wrong though.

My guess is with the kind of gradient fill that area requires, it may have been an interpretation error when translating the image from one computer to the next or one format to another during processing for printing. It's pretty common that gradients get messed up on transfers if you're not careful. I'm also thinking they either didn't run a test print, or changed printers part-way through the run and the new printer wasn't paying attention to that red gradient being different and ran the full run.

The company that sold those originally actually has a stellar reputation for their pinball decals and artwork. Truly top quality stuff. That's what was so surprising about these TZ decals being so off, and they still sold them.

As much as I love the black trim on TZ, that chrome looks mighty fine, too!

Exactly. At the cost of that mod, I could buy enough material to build it wrong TEN TIMES, get it right on the 11th, and STILL come out way ahead!

Impressive how dirty then can get, isn't it?

Was your gumball popper subway tinted? Most I've seen are...

If you're goal is to replicate the factory look with Ingo's board, get it with the warm whites and put the brightness pot at about 65-70%(YMMV). It looks absolutely perfect.

I had it like that for a while, but I swapped out the colored clock face for the white one and put the rainbow LEDs behind it for a fun little change from the norm. It's so easy to swap everything in and out, I can probably change it back to the regular stuff in about 20 minutes. And that's if I take my time doing it.

I'm so glad I bought this board. It's so easy to work with and change setting on. He really thought ahead about a bunch of stuff and made it the right way. Plus, he really takes care of you afterwards if something's wrong. I had issues with LED colors not matching and he sent me out two new sets, free of charge.

Tmezel: What if you put that door at the end of the wireform, above the shooter lane? You wouldn't block the skill shot there.

Not in the least. In the actual thread about Ingo's board with the reviews, someone actually took an IR gun and measured the temps before and after. The difference was vast.

They had a graph and everything. It was quite official.

Not on mine.

You might want to check/reseat the ribbon cables to and from the soundboard as well. Then start looking for corrosion on all of the solder joints, traces, and on the capacitors.

I do. Love it!

The clock lights only dim long term when the GI saver is active. Even then, they're great. Otherwise it acts, reacts, and appears as expected from a factory board with incandescents.

I'd wait for the original DCS sounds that Chris Granner composed for TZ to be released before you go changing that board out....

There are many situations where the lights on the clock flash and slowly fade in and out during gameplay. These LEDs that Ingo uses fade in and out beautifully. They even have a brightness control pot on the main board. Once I set that brightness to exactly what it was with the incandescents, someone would be hard pressed to be able to look at my clock and tell me I had warm white LEDs in it.

Start watching this at just after the 1 hour mark and feast your ears on the awesomeness:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/54067202

After doing some research on the Pinsound board, I don't think that'd be a problem at all. It looks like their UI let's you pick and choose what sounds go where.

In essence, you could make a fart noise for the rocket launch, put it on the SD card in .wav form, assign it to the launch feature, and it'd work in the game!

I've been doing a LOT of deep cleaning on my TZ over the course of the last few months. Most recently, I took apart the whole left/rear of the playfield(gumball machine, all the plastics in that area, and the mini playfield). It was absolutely disgusting under there. I cleaned and rebuilt everything. My problem is not taking before pictures. Not for remembering where everything goes, but for how dirty everything was. The main problem comes from not remembering how many bulbs were out/dirty before and how much of a difference to expect when I'm done.

While I admit that area of my TZ was filthy(hell, the whole thing was filthy, this was just the last major area to clean), I don't remember it being this well lit(from behind)!

If this is how it's supposed to be, I've been missing out!

Along with all the cleaning come some new dangers(speed) and new places to get the ball stuck, apparently. Don't know that I've seen this "stuck spot" yet.

IMG_7436.JPGIMG_7437.JPG

Most people set their games to 3 ball, but truly, there is no right or wrong. It's your game, do what you want with it! Besides, EVERY game plays different from the next. No two games play identically. Each has it's own feel, nuances, and strengths. If they were all identical, tournaments would go A LOT quicker!

Now onto a question about my TZ:

I have my replay/extra ball score set at 351M(of course) with a boost of 50M each time it gets reached, like normal. For some reason the last couple of weeks, that replay score has been 693M. I know there's a setting for it being a certain percentage of the high score, but I though when you set the score threshold manually, that takes precedence. I guess I'm wrong, then? What setting puts it back that way?

Remove the ramp before trying to clean anything on those flaps. It's a pretty easy task to remove, you just work in layers. Consult your manual for help, too. Don't forget about the two tiny screws at the ramp entrance, and the electrical connections!

Once the ramp is removed, tape a piece of nice stiff cardboard or something similar to the bottom side of the ramp entrance. That way, if you're applying the elbow grease a little too hard, you won't bend that flap back. There are a few types of metal polishes you can use. My favorite it Brasso. You can get it at most hardware stores. It shouldn't harm the bluing on that flap(it didn't on mine), but you still will want to try it on the underside of that flap first, just to make sure. Once you're certain the bluing will be fine try it on the topside and see what happens. Be careful not to get it on the ramp plastic. I'm not sure it'll affect it, but Brasso can be pretty caustic, it wouldn't surprise me if did chemically "burn" it.

I used Brasso on every stainless bit on my TAF and TZ with fantastic results.

Good luck!

Did you mean to say "new flipper optos"? Or does yours have actual leaf switches?

The next time they fail, go into switch edge test and see if both of the leaf switches are even registering. Also, check the wires where they plug back into the main harness(if memory serves me correctly) to check to see if one of those wires is loose at all.

Gotta start at the easy stuff, which I'm good at!

EDIT: Question resolved!

Anybody happen to have a spare "Defeat the Power" mini playfield sign?

I just put the GLM mini switch kit on my TZ and noticed that that sign has a few more scratches on it than I'd prefer for reuse. I'm not too particularly keen on paying one of the parts suppliers $7 in shipping on a $15 piece of plastic, either, when I know it can be shipped for about two bucks or less.

Let me know if anybody happens to have an extra one and what you'd want for it.

Thanks!

(Unfortunately, I already bought the Magna-Flip sign a while ago in a separate large parts order, so I don't need the set.)

Yep, and it doesn't so much "lift", so much as it slides forward. All that holds it down, really, is the screw from the wireform ramp, and the two nuts at the front, outermost, top edges on top of the lower post of the side switches. Undo those three and it'll slide forward enough to tip forward so you can remove that piece of cardboard and you'll have plenty of access to all the bulbs.

I've got the physical manuals to my games, but one thing I've done is to download them to my iPhone and iPad so I can zoom in nice and close, too. Plus, it's easier to prop up the iPad and not have to worry about the pages flipping over.

Oh, heck yes! I just installed that GLM mini switch kit last week myself. It never even crossed my mind to install it in place!

I even took it a little further and really cleaned up all that wiring that stick out everywhere, too. I shortened, rerouted, and ran in it all in some heat shrink tubing(un-shrunk, though). I'll take a few pics this weekend and post them up here for all to see. I'm really quite proud of how it all came out. Looks super slick now and is a lot easier to handle without all those wires sticking out in all crazy directions.

Ouch, I don't envy your situation, there. Have you tried putting a DMM to the opto board components to see if there's and individual part that dies that you could just replace yourself? I'm sure Mouser might have something they could ship out pretty quick.

What kind of a signal or surge knocks out an opto board? Could one of the opto circuits be grounding out somewhere? Some fault in the power regulation on the board or to the board?

Let us know what you find. I think those of us with the original opto board still in our machines would be interested in what is happening.

I had a 2803 chip that was bad and was showing an error in column 7 which has some optos in it as well, particularly switch 71 which is not used. Threw me for a loop for the longest time! Cleaned all the optos, checked all the wiring in 71's row and column, resoldered a few things, changed the 2803 chip and now all is well(knock on wood).

Crossing fingers….

Another three slotter here. Mine was exported to Belgium, but was reimported from Italy. Still has the "500"(lira) in the coin rejects. My TZ has travelled better than I have.

Mine was imported years before I bought it locally.

But yes, there are/were people in certain european countries that would go around buying up pins since there were many premium titles(to us in the states) over there that were trading at nearly half their US value. They would then fill an entire shipping container with pins and sell the whole thing to one person or group of people.

This went on for many years and it was a win/win for almost everyone. The european sellers made decent money on the sale and the US buyers got great pins at a great price. In the beginning, a lot of pins were in great shape, too. The quality and availability of great games has, of course, dwindled drastically in recent years.

Once the imported pin is set back to US voltage, other than the info on the warranty sticker, there is no real discernible difference from their untravelled brethren. They all came off the same factory line.

Once an imported pin is back on US soil in someone's collection, there won't be any real price difference upon selling, from the other same titles. Everything then defaults back to condition and market value. If something is rusty, does it matter where the rust originated? Nope.

Funny you should ask….I just posted this last week.

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

I'd say you're dead on. Looks like it needs about 15-20% more yellow. My original TZ cab's red on the side is definitely red and not pink.

You mean the flipper rubber? I like blacks! Reds are a bit hot for my tastes. Lots of hop, lots of spin. Black is a bit more controllable, for me. My TZ is fast enough as it is, too. Those that get to play it at PAGG will find out for themselves.

….with fresh BLACK rubber on the flippers!

Mine's at 7deg and you can still backhand the robot ramp from the left flipper all day long. Not that that's a good thing gameplay-wise, but that's how fast it is...

You might try getting a hold of Borygard here on Pinside. He used to bring a set or two with him to pinball shows. He might still have a set in stock that he could sell you.

I got my set off him.

Congratulations and welcome to the club! My first pin was also a TZ. Mine also had a bunch of issues and over the course of a number of months, I got them all worked out and fixed. Along the way I learned a LOT about fixing pinball machines as TZ shares a ton, mechanically and electrically, with a vast majority of modern games.

As for the tools you'll need…my main go to tool is a ratcheting screwdriver. Something like this(since I know you guys have Stanley over there):
13111954_(resized).jpeg

Don't quite know which hardware stores you've got near you, but I'm sure they'd have something quite like this there. They aren't very expensive for the sets and you actually only end up using about a third of all the bits, but it's still worth getting. I also have a few extensions to go with mine as well. Makes life extremely easy for those hard to reach areas, and it keeps your hands free and clear of all the fiddly bits underneath the playfield when you're trying to unscrew things. You might have other brands there that are better quality, too. Nobody would fault you for buying a proper, high quality one of these. You want it to last.

That'll at least get you going in the right direction. There are very few bespoke tools for pinball machines. Outside of that screwdriver set and its bits, I'd say a standard 1/4" socket set(probably safe to go with deep sockets) and a few different types of pliers, and you'll be set! As you get deeper into certain projects, you may discover a need for some kind of special tool, but these should cover the majority of the basic stuff. When the time comes to fix something, do a search on the forum first. There are plenty of us that have had the same issues before and have worked them out on the forum, along with what the solutions were.

Your game should have 5 steel balls and one ceramic. There should be three in the gumball machine(one is somewhat hidden under the other two you can see).

Typically one credit is three balls, but some people do five balls and I've even played a game that was ten! But, the standard around here is three balls per credit.

Good luck to you on your pinball journey! TZ is the monster that, if you tame it, you'll be able to tame just about any other machine out there!

This is exactly what I did and how I did it. I worked in one area at a time and/or on one item at a time: the gumball machine and its surrounding parts and plastics, the main ramp and its pieces, the metal ramp and the lock area and their assorted pieces, the apron and everything underneath it, pulling each individual light board underneath the playfield one at a time to clean and clean/replace bulbs, …..etc, etc, etc.

Limit yourself to one area or subassembly at a time and you'll be golden. Don't be afraid to ask questions here, either. I know I've asked more than my share of 'em here.

Good luck on your quest!

Today is National Twilight Zone day!

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/05/11/twilight-zone-fast-facts/

Get a few flips in on our favorite machine in tribute!

I ended up standing behind the people playing my game at different times during the tournament to hear people's reactions to the way my TZ plays. Got a lot of "too fast" comments and one guy complaining about the slot scoop. I guess he had a ball plunge directly down the middle from it. My slot scoop is fully rewelded and setup to hit the right flipper just left of dead center. That dude needs to remember that it's a pinball machine and will not do the same exact thing 100% of the time. The ball's spin might have caught just right on the mylar, who knows. I played it a few times on Sunday, too, never did it to me...

I loved seeing people playing with the powerball and shooting the left loop with it. That damn thing FLIES around that loop when you flip it from the right flipper! You'd better be ready!

I haven't fully set it back up since I got it home. I'm curious to see how many plays it got, even with it being off all day Friday.

Yikes. That thing looks like how my TZ's J121(GI) connector used to be. I guess replacement IDC connectors were hard to get for operators back in the day. My J121 also had soldered wires on it. Needless to say, the connector had a few "hot spots".

If you haven't got a pic of that connector by tonight, I'll try and remember to do it when I get home and upload it tomorrow for you.

Crap! Completely forgot all about it. Don't worry, I made myself a reminder note this time. I'll get that picture!

Ok, I tried to get just about every angle I could. Let me know if these are what you needed.

image_(resized).jpg

image_(resized).jpg

image_(resized).jpg

image_(resized).jpg

I put a little bit of solder on the pads of the switches before soldering the wires to them. It made it go a LOT faster upon assembly. Between the wires being tinned and the pads being tinned, all I had to do was add a little bit of heat and they went together super easy.

It also helps big time to have a nice pen style soldering iron.

Those are my favorite, too.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/merry-christmas-pinsiders-and-fellow-tz-ownersa-little-gift#post-532529

To get you started with your new business, I'll let you in on a little secret about most mods for TZ and TAF and many others…. they're all just repainted diecast pencil sharpeners.

Here's your start:
http://www.pencilthings.com/SearchResults.asp?searching=Y&sort=13&search=sharpeners+die+cast&show=100&page=1

You can get them even cheaper on eBay and other places, too.

…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.

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

Yep. I bought mine new in a Pressman brand chinese checkers game from a school supply store. Cost me just under $4. Didn't use the blacks or whites, if memory serves me correctly. Never liked those flavors anyway. Besides, they don't look as good amongst the blues, red, yellows, and greens.

And once you press them into the areas on either side of the main chute where the actual pinballs go, they ain't comin' out unless you remove and disassemble the whole gumball machine. I speak from firsthand experience.

That's exactly how I did it, too, but for you noobs: Whatever you do, make sure you remove the screws that hold down the "feet" of the gumball machine first! (There are four of them.)

I know. But those feet are unfortunately extremely fragile due to heat cycling and age and are notorious for not coming out with the gumball machine.

My gumball machine only had three feet total when I removed it and one of those was already broken off for me. It was screwed down to the playfield, but I think it was just there for moral support.

…which is exactly what I did on mine when I installed the GLM mini switch kit. Makes those plastics adjustable and easy to get perfectly straight and also removable should I need to do any more work on the mini playfield that I'd like to have them out of the way.

Strange indeed.

If that opto is testing fine, I'd actually start checking your other switches and optos, namely the ones that tell the computer to load the auto-fire and send a ball out. You just have to think about the game situations where the auto-fire would send a ball out, is all. Sometimes it's not the thing that messing up that has something wrong with it, but the signals that tell that thing to do what it does are what's really causing the problem.

Do you have the ball save timer option on? If so, how many balls do you have installed in your game? If you've only got the 5 steel and 1 ceramic, I'm thinking there might be a trough switch or the outhole that is activating even when there is no ball there. When the game is reloading the gumball after a LITZ wizard mode, that's exactly what it does. It sees a ball in the outhole but since the trough is full, it sends one to the auto-fire kicker.

Good luck!

Can't wait to see some install pics and the vid of your flashers, Coyote.

Thanks for doing this Coyote. It's always great to get a better understanding for what the game's designers originally wanted to do and what/why things were removed later on.

I wonder if all those extra flashers would have created a necessity for added circuitry that they just couldn't fit on the power board or if they just decided that the game benefitted more just having the flashers on the edges of the playfield and not in the dead center of it. We may never really know, but I'm all for anyone bringing a prototype or sample game back to the way it was meant to be built. I can also definitely appreciate that you didn't make any kind of permanent modifications to anything to get this done. It's the best of both worlds, preserving the game's originality while enjoying its original design.

Well done!

Only because he couldn't make it himself for less than 50 bucks.

If he knew about the DMDExtender, I'm sure he'd do that at least. Although, I'm afraid to imagine of the colors he'd choose!

Yep. With the washer that's there and how little of the rivet is actually mushroomed, it goes pretty quick.

Nah, only took me about four hours or so to do, and I consider myself just a high level tinkerer, not an electrician or master solderer at all. I took my time removing the mini playfield and cleaned the crap out it before putting it back, too. I even rewired a couple things to get them out of the way of an errant ball strike.

It may feel like it's going to be a tough job, but it really isn't in the end. Just take it slow and double check everything before continuing on to the next switch. The nice thing is, everything is soldered so it's fixable should you need to do so for any reason.

It's not an opto. It's a coil of wires. Cleaning it will only make it shiny.

Yikes, Sparky! I know the feeling well. Almost exactly one year apart I partially tore each of my calf muscles. One side was a bit worse than the other. There's nothing worse than hearing that pop. The sad part is that when it happened the first time, I went to urgent care and all they did was give me some muscle relaxer as the doctor wasn't convinced it was torn. I truly think it's because he didn't want to order an X-ray to be done and to go into full diagnosis mode. He was half-assing it and I knew it during the appointment. He just kept calling it a sprain and didn't want to do anything further. Thanks Obama! The second one wasn't nearly as bad and it healed way quicker and looks 99% the way it used to(I had that one properly checked out as I insisted on it!). But the first one, my right side, looks a bit off in comparison.

They do heal pretty well and pretty quickly. You'll be surprised down the road when you're fully healed and think about how bad they were. Thankfully, you're doing it the right way and getting surgery done to repair them properly, although it sounds as if your tears are a bit more serious than mine were. Good luck with the recovery and make sure you do all your physical therapy properly, too. I know way too many people who give up on their PT because it hurts too much or it's too hard and let me tell you, they're paying for it these days.

Well, haven't played my TZ for weeks and it didn't like that very much. It now has the dreaded double flipper button reset problem. Time to start running down the list on the PinWiki for things to check. I hope it's just the thermistor since I want to rewire my power box anyway. Since mine was an export, it doesn't have the outlet in it. I'd like to put that back in now that it's in the States again.

Well, my game is fixed. Sadly it was just the Z-connector that goes between J114 and J210. Well, either that or J114 or J210 themselves. I pulled and reseated that whole thing at the same time, then everything was kosher.

I say "sadly" because I really wanted a good reason to replace parts in, and subsequently redo, the power box, installing the service outlet at the same time. Oh well, I guess I'll just play it for now…

I thought about checking the pins for solder cracks/loose pins, but after it didn't reset on the next game, I figured it can wait until after I move into my new house. Then again, if it happens again before that time, then it's time to pull the CPU and that Z connector and put it under the microscope, so to speak. I'll probably even just eliminate that Z connector as it's just a huge mess of potential corrosion, resistance, and failing joints.

Makes sense. He's got smaller hands and better eyesight!

AGB885, you got a screaming deal! Just remember that you're supporting child labor.

Seriously though, of all the parts, replacements, and upgrades I've made to my TZ, Ingo's board is by far my favorite. It was super easy to install and adjust to my liking. Plus his customer service with it was top notch.

Cool whites are great behind the standard clock face, while the color changing are best behind the white clock face. The colors change at such a nice pace that it isn't distracting at all to gameplay and seems to fit the theme quite well, too. Either way, you're getting them both so you can just switch it out whenever. Also, if you're getting a new housing and might also need a new front lens and/or clock face, I'd suggest getting this setup:

ebay.com link: Bally Twilight Zone Pinball Machine BRAND NEW PETG 3 Piece CLOCK Plates

I can't remember who they are on Pinside, but it's a neat kit that'll further add to your clock's versatility, making it easy to change your mind as often as you want.

That might be the case, but for those that want the correct white clock face, this is the only way to get it. The white decal version that's out there now uses the wrong font for the numbers versus that of the original sample style white clock face.

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.

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

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.

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.

TZ was my first pin, too. Wouldn't have had it any other way.

If you're not going to use the white face one of those in that set, I'd be interested in it….

I like games that have a multiball with one jackpot shot for a ton of points, rather than those that have a multiball with multiple jackpot shots. Feels less fulfilling, and less rewarding to have a jackpot that's that small and easy to get. When you've got balls flying all over the place and you hear "Jackpot" repeated four or five times in two seconds, it doesn't quite mean as much.

Not saying that those games aren't fun in their own right, just not as challenging in certain respects. Requalifying a single jackpot shot can be very tough on some games and makes the higher point award more worth it, to me anyway.

Yeah, that one on eBay will be there forever at $150. Doesn't even look as clean as yours, either.

I can see $50 for a true NOS powerball, but the buyer should really be someone who's sent their TZ to HEP, or Kelly, or McCune, or someone like that. The used ones clean up fairly well and I've never really seen one with any kind of chips or scratches in it. Not saying they don't exist, I just haven't seen any that worn before.

Sounds like the right spiral opto is shorted to one of the lock optos somehow. The voltage it's sending when it gets triggered is also triggering one of the lock optos.

Go into switch edge test and break the right spiral opto beam(switch 81) with your finger and see if one of the lock optos(switches 84 and 85) triggers as well.

Could've sworn I posted this link earlier in this thread in response to someone else asking about this same thing, but I guess it may be further back than LitzDoc has seen:

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

As long as your soldering skills are halfway decent, you shouldn't really have any problems.

Awesome! Sadly, though, within a month after those ship out, we'll see them with about 5 LEDs added to them, mounted to a clear plastic piece, and selling on pinball sites for $140.

Different maker, different style Robbie.

My point was that someone will take this cheap(but cool) $10 one, when it comes out in May, and throw some LEDs in it and charge a crazy amount of money for it.

Wrong again.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tz-powerball-original

The new ones will look identical to the old ones if you gave them 20 years to age and never cleaned them. It has to do with the occlusions in the ceramic when it's compressed. The new ones are made the same way, just with a slightly different compound, which makes them a tiny bit lighter in some cases. Since the originals were most likely all made at one time, fulfilling one large order from B/W, they all probably weigh the same. The new ones will most likely vary in weight from batch to batch and from supplier to supplier.

And no, I don't want a chocolate covered pretzel...

I love that video. I've watched it many times over the years and every time it makes me curious about how the game would've played with the colored clock inserts tied to the modes of the inserts between the flippers. I've heard and read very little about that feature as it was scrapped fairly early in development.

Among the differently colored inserts on the whitewood, I noticed the 500,000 insert on the mini playfield is blue. Perhaps one of the goals of the blue colored section of the clock?

I think I may be heading down to my local print shop to have this printed. It'd be fun to put in my TZ for when I take it to another show and let people try and figure out why it's in there and when my game was made and all that other fun stuff!

TZColorClock (resized).jpg

It's ben a while since I've had to deal with trough issues, but I think the LED only comes on when a steel ball is in place. Have you tried that yet? Just put a ball as close to that sensor coil as possible in switch edge test and you'll get your answer.

Also, since I've had a couple PM's about it, I'm the one that drew that prototype clock face. I watermarked it and cranked down the resolution, too. I'm fairly confident as to its accuracy, even though I'm only working from VHS video stills and blurry photographs. But it still could be slightly off somewhere.

I did it more for novelty than anything else since the code for this setup was never really completed and only whitewoods exist(and hopefully still do somewhere) that were going to actually use this feature. If someone has a TZ whitewood and needs this decal for their clock, I'll definitely be happy to send you one for free, once I get mine made. But you have to send me a lot of pictures in trade!

The one I really want to do is like the one I saw at PAGG last year in the larger building where the guy went and painted a thin piece of wood black, drilled a bunch of tiny holes in it, then took some EL paper separated into a few pieces, and had them flicker at different intervals resulting in a twinkling starfield effect. It looked amazing. I was quite jealous.

Admittedly, it's kind of involved to make that whole getup, but the payoff is truly special.

Sadly, those don't have the flicker/twinkling effect.

This one has the effect I want:
http://www.wiedamark.com/200strandledfiberopticstarfieldkit.aspx

Black looks fantastic on TZ. But since I'm so non-committal with that kind of thing, I'm just going to get some nice semi-gloss black vehicle wrap and do it that way. That way, it's easily reversible and I won't mind as much when it starts to wear a bit. It'll be easily replaceable and cheap to do.

I truly hope you didn't find that on CL because that'd mean that I missed it!

Since I got mine off Fresno CL four years ago, I haven't seen another one since. So I know what you mean. And yes, I see that same pachinko machine all the time, too.

How far did you have to go to get it?

It's a good feeling driving home with that thing back there, isn't it?

Happens to a lot of us.....

Some people have had good results cleaning their powerball, but I've always hesitated to do so since the owner's manual says not to do so.

I can't really see how it'd hurt to clean it with something non-abrasive and non-caustic or non-alcoholic. I don't think there was a special coating on those things. I haven't cleaned mine yet, but mainly because it's not that dirty and I like the pearlescent look to it.

For those that were looking for them, I am the one that designed the cards on @seatmandan's TZ. I posted them here in this thread a looooong time ago. But, to save you having to search back through the entire thread, I'll post them again right now. One is a PDF and the other is JPG. Whichever one you decide to print, make sure you are printing at 100% size. This means that when your print dialogue box pops up after to hit the print button, or control p, make sure that the print scaling is turned off and that the printer knows to print the image at 100% size. Most PDF programs will automatically downscale to something like 93% size, which would result in undersized cards.

Enjoy!

*Edit: I don't know why the PDF preview is coming out light, but when I downloaded it and opened it, it looked fine. It might be best to download them both and print both out, then use the better version.*

TZM351-Unbordered2.jpg

Does anybody know if Ingo, german-pinball , is still on holiday? I sent him a PM over a week ago and he hasn't responded yet.

Has everyone who ordered one of his white clock boards get theirs yet? Mine hasn't shown up in the mail yet and I'm beginning to worry that it might have "sprouted legs and walked off", if you know what I mean. It's been an issue in my area recently, with packages being taken from doorsteps and front porches. I figured it was small enough that it'd fit in the mailbox and that wouldn't be an issue, but maybe not.

I'm kind of hoping that he just hasn't sent it yet...

Ok. Thanks, all. I know he's usually johnny-on-the-spot with communications, so I figured he was still on holiday.

Oh, and thanks for all the kind words about my cards! Someone brought up a good point about the manufacturing info being on the card instead of the quote. Once I get back to work on Monday, I'll see what I can come up with. No promises, though!

Bet your TZ doesn't have this....

IMG_0373 (resized).JPG

I think I'm gonna use a better, slightly denser paper stock and turn up the brightness on the LEDs(it IS an Ingo board, of course).

The real trick would be to use a remote battery holder with a small "battery tender " type circuit, like you have on classic cars that sit in the garage most of the year. A few lithium-ion rechargeable batteries in that pack and theoretically, you'd never have to worry about them again.

Better quality paper, color laser printer. Looks waaaay better in person than the last one. Pretty happy overall with how it looks. Gonna leave it on for Pin-a-Go-Go and see what people say...

IMG_0376 (resized).JPG

This is only TZ related since it happened on my TZ, but:

Does anybody use any kind of tilt mechanism dampener? I ask because mine seems to be swinging like a swing set in a windstorm most of the time. Most annoyingly, it happened two nights ago when I was on pace to break my GC score and as soon as I collected the Spiral extra ball award, it went Danger, Danger 2x, and Tilt in about the same amount of time it took to read those words. I immediately opened up the coin door and that thing is dancin' in there.

Now, I'm not a nudger, nor am I one of those players that every time they hit the flipper buttons it looks like someone's got a taser to their butts. I consider myself a very calm player. in fact, I rarely even nudge a pin when the ball is heading to the outlanes(usually because I feel like when I DO nudge it, I'm actually HELPING the ball drain).

So how do I calm this thing down? I ended up just 14mil points short of my GC score of 1.82Bil, and it really got to me that if I had collected that extra ball, I would have obliterated that GC. Man, was it fun getting there, though.

Oh, and Coyote, I think you and I have our games set up almost identical. I, too, love long game times.